Bus Information Strategies

What is a Bus Information Strategy?

A Bus Information Strategy will be published alongside a Local Transport Plan or may be incorporated within it. The Local Transport Planning Network is a good source of guidance on how the policies and targets should fit together.

The Transport Act 2000 requires operators to make arrangements to meet an authority's specified information requirements - and only in default of them so doing is an authority able to get involved, incur debts and then recover them from an operator.

This text would need to be included in each authority's Information Strategy for the Transport Act 2000 to be used to provide the underpinning of financial arrangements for Traveline:

Cost-sharing model for Traveline

All bus operators providing services in [admin area] are expected to participate fully in Traveline - the national, impartial, multi-modal, multi-operator telephone enquiry service for public transport information. This national telephone enquiry service is organised on a collaborative basis within the [region] region, in a partnership involving all [number] relevant local transport authorities.

The information used to provide the service is taken from each authority's electronic database of public transport service and timetable information. Delivery of that information by phone (and by minicom or typetalk, and on the internet) is organised within the [region] region by [name of PTI company] formed specifically for the purpose. The costs of information delivery are allocated by [name of PTI company] to those operators whose services feature in the information provided to enquirers, and invoices are sent by [name of PTI company] to recover these costs from the operators involved.

The Council has made arrangements with [name of PTI company] to ensure that all bus operators providing services within [admin area] participate in the Traveline service. The Council expects each operator to meet the costs attributed by [name of PTI company] to enquiries about its services. However, where an operator is unwilling to pay the amount invoiced by [name of PTI company], for enquiries which involve its services, the Council will pay [name of PTI company] for the sums outstanding. It will then reclaim such sums, plus an administration charge, from the defaulting operator, using the provisions of the Transport Act 2000.

Although Traveline in 2001 only provides information about timetables, it is expected to extend its service in due course to provide details of fares and other relevant public transport information, in accordance with nationally adopted standards. In the meantime, all Operators should provide [name of PTI company] with a contact number for customer needs that are not covered by Traveline including, for the time being, fares information.

Whilst the Council believes that it is in the best interests of all operators and the travelling public for all information to be delivered through the Traveline service, operators may choose to continue to offer their own telephone enquiry service at the same time. Operators who do so, however, will still be required to participate in Traveline and to meet their allocated share of the costs of Traveline based on the enquiries about their services which Traveline handles.

These authorities have published Bus Information Strategies on the web:

(A lot of the references are now out of date. If you know of a strategy on the web which is not listed here please )