Cambridgeshire County Council has reaffirmed its commitment to improving public transport accessibility and affordability by endorsing the Tiger bus fare scheme and the recent decision to franchise bus routes.
This followed a motion proposed by Cllr Elisa Meschini, Deputy Leader of the Council, and seconded by Cllr Maria King in which they called on the Chief Executive to write to the Mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority to endorse the Tiger and other bus fare initiatives and back the move towards a franchised bus network, providing a more reliable and integrated service for residents.
Councillor Meschini told the council “in January this year, one of the larger operators withdrew all of its winning bids to run the final seven precept-funded bus services, leaving residents in Peterborough, Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon, Wisbech and surrounding villages without the bus service they had been promised, highlighting the need for bus reform to ensure that students and young people are not left without essential transport links.”
“Franchising bus services is an excellent thing to do, but it’s a great challenge in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, however, the argument for this being a very good idea for Cambridgeshire remains the same.
“We have a modern and growing county. The transport network model that we have is not fit for purpose. We want to expand the Cambridgeshire bus network, with more routes, more destinations; we also want the local authority to be accountable for bus services.”
The motion will see the Executive Director for Children, Education and Families present a report to the Children and Young People Committee, detailing the uptake of Tiger passes within Cambridgeshire's geography. This report will assess the scheme’s impact on the council’s Home to School transport budget and explore opportunities to improve accessibility and affordability for students.
The Executive Director for Place and Sustainability will also provide a report to the Highways and Transport Committee outlining the impact of the bus franchising decision on the County Council. This report will identify next steps on how the council can contribute to the ongoing bus reform process, support, and advise the Combined Authority Transport team, and encourage the uptake of new services while considering the specific needs of young people and students in education transport planning.
Yesterday’s (Tuesday, 18 March), Full Council meeting was live streamed on our YouTube channel and the papers are available on our website.
