Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, has launched a public debate about the region’s bus network.
Speaking about the announcement, he said: “Buses are the backbone of our transport system, with more than 400,000 journeys in our city region every day. Action to drive up quality has already been taken by Merseytravel and the Combined Authority with our major bus operators.
“While I can confidently say that we have one of the best bus networks outside London, I’m not willing to accept being second best. Despite the improvements we have driven through locally, there are clearly ways in which we can continue to improve, including smarter, simpler and more affordable ticketing and quicker and more reliable services.
“I am launching the big bus debate so that people can tell us what they want to see and together we can build the modern, affordable and reliable public transport system that our city region deserves.
“There are a number of different options for change and I will examine each of these carefully, in the light of what people tell us through this debate, to determine which one will deliver the greatest improvement for fare paying passengers.”
The first phase of the consultation is an online survey aimed at finding out what perceptions both bus users and non-users have about the bus system. It is available at www.bigbusdebate.info.
In the New Year, the next phase of the debate will see face-to-face on-street interviews, conducted across all six of the Combined Authority’s constituent local authorities, to be followed up by ‘qualitative research’ in the form of focus groups.
The research aims to inform potential changes to be made to the bus system, which will be submitted to government in early 2020.
