Will election prove pivotal for bus services?

The winners of Norfolk's forthcoming election will play a "pivotal" role in the future of public transport, the boss of a bus firm has said.

Charles Sanders, of Holt-based Sanders Coaches, said support from the county council had led to significant improvements in services.

That includes the half-hourly North Walsham to Norwich service – initially started with funding from the council – which Sanders said was now running as a commercially sustainable route.

The election on 7 May is being contested by the five main parties: the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Labour, the Greens and Reform UK.

With total funding of £65m from both the previous Conservative national government and the current Labour administration, the Tory-run county council has been implementing its "bus service improvement plan".

Since it began in 2022 – and almost certainly helped by the England-wide cap on fares – overall passenger numbers have risen by 26%.

The money has gone towards extra services on existing routes, dozens of new electric vehicles, additional bus lanes and local fare caps.

Sanders said the funding allowed his company to increase the frequency of its North Walsham to Norwich service from being hourly, with more buses also running earlier in the morning and later at night.

He said after being subsidised for three years, the additional services were now viable by themselves and "the passenger numbers have more or less doubled in the last four years".

"It's been a brilliant success story," he added.

However, he said many other rural routes would not work without subsidy, and support from the local authority was "pivotal".

"I'm hoping that that's going to remain the same going forward, even though we've got all this local government reorganisation and elections coming up."

Based in Great Yarmouth, Steve Hewitt from the East Norfolk Transport Users Association said "bus travel has improved quite dramatically".

His group has sent its own manifesto to all the parties standing in the area, asking them to pledge their support for better services as "we want them to all realise that public transport is something that a lot of people use".

He singled out a local fare cap introduced in the "Yarmouth Zone", from Caister-on-Sea to Gorleston-on-Sea, as something he felt should continue.

"When you can go from one end to the other for a £1.50 single, that really is good," he explained.

"These are difficult times for everybody. Whether you're working, not working; whether you're a pensioner or whether you're just a single person on your own, you do need help."

Not every route has benefitted from subsidies in the improvement plan, though.

In Hemsby, just seven miles north of Great Yarmouth, Konectbus has been running direct services to Norwich on weekdays.

But two weeks ago those services were stopped – a bitter blow to residents, according to Nicky Rivett, a hairdresser in the village.

"We've had quite a lot of people come in saying it's like something personal they're losing," she said.

"They say 'I'm losing my bus - it's my bus to go to the theatre in the afternoon or to Norwich City on a Saturday afternoon.' They're concerned the rural villages are getting forgotten about."

The service now only runs on a Saturday, leaving Hemsby at 10:25 and returning at 15:45, which Rivett said was not good enough.

"That's not a day out; that's a pint and a packet of crisps," she said.

Konectbus' managing director Peter Nathaniel said the weekday service had been running as a trial, but not enough passengers had used it to cover its operating costs.

"As a result, we've re-deployed resources to our new route 10, which runs fast every hour from Stalham to Norwich, and is proving very popular," he said.

The Conservatives point to their bus service improvement plan, which they say has led to investment in new bus routes and electric buses. They say they "will be upgrading depots servicing Norwich and Great Yarmouth".

Labour says it wants to develop a plan for the incoming Norfolk and Suffolk mayor to attract more investment into public transport and also seek to take public ownership of bus travel in Norwich.

The Liberal Democrats are proposing half-price fares for 18 to 25-year-olds, more early morning and later evening buses, and electric buses in King's Lynn.

The Greens say they would introduce free bus passes for under-25s and seek sustained long-term funding from the government for public transport.

Reform UK is making no promises on bus travel in its local manifesto.

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