Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Accepted
Reform the Bus Service Operators Grant to incentivise ridership growth in under-served areas.
Recommendation
The Department should, as soon as practicable, reform the Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG). The overarching goal of reform should be to incentivise growth in ridership, particularly across under-served areas, for example instead of mileage the grant could be based on passenger journeys. (Recommendation, Paragraph 40)
Government Response Summary
The government states it has already taken steps to reform BSOG, including incentives for zero-emission buses and devolving parts of the budget to LTAs. It agrees on growing ridership but expresses caution about passenger-based metrics.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) is working to keep fares lower and service levels higher than they would otherwise be, but the Government has already taken steps to reform BSOG and will continue to do so as part of our wider work to reform bus funding. For instance, we: • have introduced an incentive for zero emission buses that allows operators to claim BSOG by providing an alternative distance-based measure to ensure BSOG remains effective; • have begun consolidating the share of BSOG that went to local authorities into the LA Bus Grant; and • set out that we will devolve a share of the national BSOG budget to LTAs that are pursuing franchising, and are working to give LTAs the power to design and pay grants to bus operators more generally. The Department agrees that growing ridership is an important overall objective and will consider carefully how BSOG could best contribute to this, as well as other objectives. However, we want to avoid situations where reform helps those who are already doing well over those who are not, for example by moving to passenger-based metrics which could incentivise services that already enjoy high farebox revenue, while reducing funding for areas with lower passenger use.