Slough could see more bus lanes

Local authorities across England will be offered grants from a scheme called ‘Bus Back Better’ which aims to improve services, make them cheaper and greener, and create new routes as part of ‘levelling up’ the country.

This is to also get more people back on the buses following the dip in numbers caused by the pandemic.

Senior councillors agreed at a cabinet meeting on Monday, October 18, to pursue a share of the £3b funding by forming ‘enhanced partnerships’ with private sector operators in order for the council and bus providers to jointly deliver improved services.

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This includes improving journey times and reliability as well as increasing passenger satisfaction and numbers, which took a hit following the pandemic.

With the cabinet’s support, the council will confirm to the Department for Transport that it will form this ‘enhanced partnership’ model and submit a bus service improvement plan by the end of October.

A final plan will be submitted by March 2022. It is unknown how much the council gets but it estimates it could cost about £54m to implement all of its measures.

Some of these ideas in the bus service improvement plan include placing bus lanes in various locations such as Farnham Road and Windsor Road, reducing fares, and upgrading bus stops.

Cllr Rob Anderson (left) on a electric bus, which trialled on the A4 bus lanes

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Rob Anderson (Lab: Britwell & Northborough), lead member for transport, said: “This is crucial to our growth agenda, we know we can’t carry on having people driving around the town all the time in the same way they have done in the past if we are going to grow as a town, which we want to.

“We know we’re not going to hit our climate change or our clean air targets if we carry on as we are, so this is a vital first step in getting towards that.”

The council undertook an online consultation where nearly 390 bus and non-bus users replied. Nearly 60 per cent of non-bus users, which was 200, said they do not use the service because it was “too expensive”.

According to the improvement plan, fares in Slough are about 50 per cent more compared with Reading and High Wycombe’s services.

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Cllr Anderson “hopes” their plans will give them the opportunity to work more closely with the private operators to find out why Slough’s fares are so much higher.

Since the implementation of the A4 bus lanes last year, the council has been getting flak from motorists of the change and demanded to scrap the lanes.

Council leader James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) said they were getting an “incredible amount of pressure” from operators about problems of getting to places on time throughout the town.

He said: “If we’re to be serious about getting people to move more quickly on public transport and give them incentives to use it, measures like those lanes is how we show demonstrably that there’s a quick way to do this that is sustainable.”