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    16

    Mar 2021

    Last Updated: 16/03/2021
    Politics
    Politics

    Harrogate buses are the best, says Transport Secretary Grant Shapps

    by John Plummer

    | 16 Mar, 2021
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    Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Shapps said London, Brighton and Harrogate had proved 'buses can be the transport of choice'.

    portrait-grant-shapps

    Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has held up Harrogate's bus service as an example of what other places should aspire to.

    The government published a national bus strategy yesterday.

    Ministers say the strategy 'will deliver better bus services for passengers across England, through ambitious and far-reaching reform of how services are planned and delivered'.

    Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Shapps said successive governments had failed to invest sufficiently in buses, which carry twice as many passengers as trains. He added:

    "Buses can and should also be the transport of choice, in my view.
    "London, Brighton and Harrogate have already proved this, with frequent modern services and dedicated lanes attracting millions of journeys a year from the private car.
    "We want to do that everywhere throughout the country, yet in most regions outside London services have been in decline for decades."


    The strategy praises the 36 bus that links Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds, which is run by the Harrogate Bus Company.



    According to the document, it "offers a sophisticated and comfortable service which has transformed the passenger experience and encouraged people to make the switch to bus".


    The strategy also says bus operators and councils will have to negotiate agreements on how buses are run, which will require local authorities to take greater responsibility for bus services.



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    The agreements must be reached by June 30 if buses are to receive further emergency funding from the covid bus services support grant.

    Mr Shapps added:

    "I can confidently predict that they will all be on board. Local authorities, in collaboration with operators, will then produce bus service improvement plans by the end of October this year.
    "Future government financial support will depend on local authorities and operators coming together under an enhanced partnership or franchising agreement.
    "For our part, we will work with councils to introduce bus priority schemes this year, and we will roll out marketing to attract millions of new passengers to the network—people who have never used buses before."


    Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon said:

    "This strategy should have been used to revolutionise the bus industry, but I am afraid it lacks ambition and does not even touch the sides of the cuts and rocketing prices that passengers have witnessed over the past decade."