Bus company Go-Ahead Group’s chief executive David Brown told the UK Bus Summit last week that buses can contribute to solving societal challenges including congestion and air quality, public health, social inclusion and supporting urban centres.

“But many of the people tasked with working out how to tackle these issues have never considered how buses can help,” he said.

“We need to reach out beyond the usual suspects and have new conversations, and it is those conversations that can form the basis of a national bus strategy that delivers for our society and for the economy.

“Let’s talk to those planning how to regenerate our high streets, those tasked with encouraging more physical exercise and those designing smart cities to ensure that the role of the bus is at the heart of all this work,” he said.

Latest Government statistics show that bus passenger journeys in England (outside London) fell by 3.2% in 2017/18 compared with the previous 12 months, continuing a decade of decline.

Greener Journeys chief executive Claire Haigh said: “The freeze in fuel duty since 2011 has caused there to be 4% more traffic and up to 200 million fewer bus journeys."

She too called for Government to “grasp the nettle” and deliver a long term bus investment strategy, which she said will be needed to reverse the decline in patronage. “Buses are central to addressing some of our most urgent challenges and must be at the heart of plans to tackle pollution and congestion.”

The proposed strategy should, she added, include protection for bus revenue funding, a focus on improving connectivity within regions and increased investment in local bus infrastructure, and plans to encourage modal switch from car to sustainable transport including demand management schemes such as road pricing.

Also at the event, it was announced by Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani that 263 new ultra low emission buses and supporting infrastructure will be introduced across England and Wales, following a £48M allocation of Government funding.

Nineteen successful bidders have received a share of the money, with Manchester coming out as the big winner. Here, four different bids were successful, totalling £15M.

The Minister also announced a new partnership with Greener Journeys to help promote the role of buses in tackling loneliness and social isolation.

(Photograph: Urban Transport Group)