Provision of Public Transport Planning Network

The commercial and tendered bus network is currently only carrying 70% of pre-covid passenger numbers. Government support and SCC payment of 100% of pre-pandemic concessionary reimbursement is due to end in October 2022. The Department for Transport have mandated as grant condition for Bus Recovery Grant (paid to commercial bus operators) and Local Transport Fund (paid to the authority) that a full bus network review must be carried out led by the Transport Authority. This is a significant challenge and requires robust analysis tools to effectively address the task. Our present day manual processes cannot support a Countywide network review. The need to reach agreement on the post October network also means time is at a premium and so tendering for an analysis tool would compromise deadlines. In addition, the market place for such specialist tools is extremely limited. SCC already has a platform with VIA , this is an implementational addition.