OPINION: Capped fares and higher standards needed on Norfolk's buses

Last Sunday my husband and I spent a fabulous day ambling around Cley nature reserve. On our return journey, the Coastliner bus arrived in Sheringham 10 minutes after the train for Norwich had departed, leaving us to hang about for 50 minutes.

When they work well, taking the bus in Norfolk can be a pleasure, although timetables and fares often make it more difficult than it needs to be.

In Norwich where bus services have greatly improved, only 10% of journeys pre-Covid were by bus, compared to 60% by car. In King’s Lynn and West Norfolk and Great Yarmouth, bus travel made up just 3% and 6% of journeys.

Last year, the Government published the first national bus strategy entitled ‘Bus Back Better’ with the aims of cutting carbon emissions and ‘levelling up’ communities. If delivered in Norfolk, the strategy could make a big difference.

Changes will involve Norfolk County Council and bus operators agreeing a Bus Service Improvement plan for simpler fares, more frequent services and higher standards. With the chance to bid for £50 million, the council has been asking people about changes they want.

Green Party councillors responded saying that besides better connections, cheaper fares, multi-operator tickets and new evening and weekend services, direct routes to major facilities like hospitals are needed. Transforming the bus fleet to electric to cut harmful air pollution and carbon emissions must also be an essential part of the offer.

Meanwhile, bus travel is about to get a kick start from government plans to cap single bus fares at £2 over the autumn and winter. This is welcome, but Greens want to go further with a permanent fares cap and buses run as a public service and not for private profit.

Cllr Denise Carlo (Image: Archant)

Growing bus use beyond the unambitious annual 1% target set by the Norfolk Local Transport Plan will only happen if councils adopt measures that reduce car dependency at the same time. For example, it is essential that planners and politicians design new communities around bus, pedestrian and cycling networks and require developers to support bus services initially so that incomers don’t automatically take the car.

We also want to see Norfolk County Council adopt workplace parking charges covering Greater Norwich, as floated in its Transport for Norwich strategy. Money raised would be used to support green transport, as Nottingham has successfully shown.

Currently, Norfolk County Council sends out mixed messages, with its leaders calling Norfolk a ‘car county’ and lobbying for innumerable road building schemes.

Without a big shift from private car use, Norfolk will carry on failing to meet its road transport carbon emissions reduction target to the point of no return. Even a half mile drive to the shops or school in a car that runs on diesel or petrol, puts greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that stay there for decades or centuries, warming the earth. With 25% of car journeys under a mile, 50% under two miles and 71% under five miles, there is plenty of scope for taking the bus, walking or cycling.

Even if the Department for Transport backs Norfolk County Council’s bus plan, the £50 million offer on the table is not guaranteed. The Treasury has already halved bus funding from£3 billion to £1.4 billion and so it is essential that Norfolk’s MPs lobby the new Chancellor to ensure bus promises are kept.

For too long, buses have been regarded as plugging the gaps for people without a car. Norfolk’s Bus Improvement Service Plan must act as a springboard to improving the convenience of bus travel for everyone and to making Norfolk a ‘bus county’.