Buses are our most used form of public transport. They carry millions of us to work and school; to shops and leisure facilities; to doctors’ surgeries and hospitals; and to friends and family.
Buses are key to tackling loneliness and social exclusion and help ensure thriving communities. They are crucial to reducing congestion on our roads, and zero emission buses help tackle air pollution and climate change.
If we all took the bus instead of the car just twice a month, by 2050 this would create a reduction of 15.8 million tons of CO2 – the same as the total emissions of the North East in 2019.
But despite their social, economic, and environmental importance, buses are facing a difficult time:
In 2021 after many years of campaigning by us and others, the Government launched a national bus strategy called Bus Back Better. This aims to address the long-term decline in bus services and create a bus network fit for the future. A hugely ambitious strategy, it contained many of the policies we have campaigned for over the years but crucially lacks the funding needed to deliver on its ambitions.
“We are pleased that the Government not only accepted our calls for a National Bus Strategy, but that the Strategy aims to deliver many of our key asks. This is an important step for local buses and, if combined with measures to reduce car use, will help to truly make public transport the first choice for journeys.”
Paul Tuohy, Campaign for Better Transport
We want to see a regular, reliable, affordable, zero-emission bus network in every village, town and city. To achieve this, we need to:
"Getting the bus is what gives me my independence. The drivers don't rush me, and they don't put me under any pressure. The bus is good for disabled people."
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Buses are in peril. More than a quarter of English bus services have been lost in a decade, and 16 per cent were cut in the first year of the pandemic alone.