West Berkshire Bus Service Survey 2024
Tell us your experiences.
Consultation status Results expectedActivity closed. Results published.
Background
The government launched their bus strategy "Bus Back Better" in March 2021 which set out their vision for delivering better bus services in England. To be eligible for funding linked to this national strategy, we submitted our 
Bus Services Improvement Plan 2021 [3MB] to the Department for Transport (DfT) in October 2021 (which was developed following public engagement in summer 2021) and established an Enhanced Partnership with local bus operators in April 2022.
A BSIP sets out a local authority's intentions for:
- working closely with local bus operators and communities
- bus priority infrastructure and other infrastructure
- bus fares
- bus service support
- marketing
- zero emission buses
The DfT assessed the strengths and ambitions of our 2021 BSIP and awarded us funding of £2.6m to use by March 2025. The Year 1 funding was released in December 2022.
We reviewed, updated and submitted our BSIP to the DfT in October 2022, following engagement in summer 2022. The Year 2 funding was released in the summer of 2023.
In the autumn of 2023 we also updated our BSIP to show the results from the 2023 Bus Users Survey, though this was not a requirement by the DfT. To receive the year 3 BSIP funding we were required to provide an updated BSIP.
You can find our BSIP and progress reports on our dedicated webpage.
Why we want your views
To be able to produce a relevant BSIP, it's important that we and the bus operators understand the needs of our passengers and potential passengers. To be able to do this, each year we ask about your satisfaction with local public bus services and if you have any suggestions for improvements, so that we can measure trends over time and assess any areas of concern.
In addition to the usual questions, we'd like to know what you think about the improvements we've made over the past year and on our plans for the future. These are:
Various changes to our bus network, enhanced existing services and introduced new ones, and improved ticketing:
- £2 National Single Fare Cap Scheme, which is due to end in December 2024
- 1e is a new late evening bus service operating between Newbury and Thatcham on Friday and Saturday evenings (Operated by Newbury & District)
- Lime 2/2a is a 2 hourly Sunday extension to Mortimer. An enhancement on existing service. Operated by Reading Buses (Introduced in September 2023)
- 32 (formerly, The LINK) - enhancements to timetable between Newbury and Basingstoke. Introduced a Sunday service, late evening journeys and some extra peak time journeys (Operated by Stagecoach in Hampshire. Introduced in May 2024)
- X34 is a new hourly bus service between Newbury, Harwell Campus and Didcot. Operating on Monday to Saturdays (Operated by Thames Travel)
- West Berkshire Community Connect is an on-demand bus service connecting the Northwest Downlands with Newbury including Town Centre, Station and Community Hospital (Operated by West Berkshire Council)
- Community Connect A is a new morning/afternoon service linking Brightwalton to Newbury, Newbury College, Park House School and St Bartholomew's School (Operated by West Berkshire Council)
Introducing a new service in the next few months:
- Plans are being finalised to introduce a new on-demand bus service incorporating the area currently served by 41/44 (and other surrounding villages North and South of A4 between Thatcham and Theale) bus service. It would become part of the West Berkshire Community Connect service operating separately to the Northwest Downlands zone. It is planned to be introduced in September 2024
We'd also like to know your views on passenger waiting facilities and whether scheduled coaches should once again serve West Berkshire. We'll pass on your thoughts about scheduled coach services to coach operators such as National Express.
If you haven't used the bus service recently, your views are just as important, and we'd like to hear from you too.
How to take part
If you'd like to let us know your views and any suggestions for improvements, you can complete our survey by midnight on Sunday, 29 September 2024. It should take about ten minutes to complete.
If you have any questions about the survey, please email transport@westberks.gov.uk
What happens next
Your feedback will help us focus our resources, inform future schemes, and be used to update the BSIP in autumn 2024. A summary of the results will be published on this page and within the 2024 BSIP.
What you told us
Similarly to last year the main two reasons people have said they don't use buses is due to "buses not being at suitable times" and that "car is more convenient", however, "buses not being at suitable times" has decreased by 4.2%, whereas "car is more convenient" has increased by 2%, becoming 47.8% and 45.4% respectively.
Satisfaction has stayed generally the same compared to the previous year, with the areas with the lowest satisfaction being "Frequency of Service", followed by "Passenger Waiting Environment" and "Information about Bus Service".
This year we asked if you had made use of any of the free bus travel days within the past year. Compared to last year, when we asked if you had used any of the free bus travel days ran since 2021, roughly the same number of respondents had made use of these free bus travel days in both surveys, however, a higher percentage of this year's respondents had used the bus more often because of these free travel days (67.2% compared to 40.02%), showing these latest free travel days are having a greater affect than previous years.
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