The relaunch of the www.buspartnership.com website last week reflects the growing amount of qualifying agreements enabled by the Local Transport Act 2008 (Act), according to pteg.
The site is now backed by ATCO, alongside original sponsors, pteg and CPT, and contains updated documentation on “new or ground breaking” voluntary partnerships and Statutory Quality Partnerships (SQP) from Gateshead to Nottingham, and from Barnsley to St Albans.
The site was set up in November 2009 to help operators and local transport authorities make the best use of the opportunities opened up the Act on voluntary and SQPs.
The site contains the framework principles that both CPT and pteg have signed up to on what a voluntary partnership can contain – from both a legal and a policy perspective. There is also documentation on voluntary and statutory partnerships – either signed, sealed and delivered – or on their way. They can be used as template for partnership deals elsewhere so that there is no need for authorities and operators to start from scratch every time.
CPT president Steve Whiteway said: “We believe the website can continue to play a useful role as a toolbox for getting more schemes up and running more rapidly. After all, why start from a blank piece of paper when you can cut and paste from buspartnership.com from schemes that are already proven successes?”
Bruce Thompson, chair of ATCO chair, said: “Recent years have seen many examples of effective partnerships, both formal and informal, working effectively as a result of local authorities and operators focussing on joint aims to improve services to the benefit of the travelling public. This website offers a valuable knowledge-base for all to use.”
pteg’s David Brown added: “It’s pleasing to see the way the content of the site expands with the growth of partnerships.”
