Have your say on how the West Midlands Bus network is operated, until 30 March

The Plan is for a franchised bus network to replace the current private operator led system.

From 6 January to 30 March, you can have your say on how the West Midlands bus network is operated.

Under franchising, Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), which is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), will set the fares, timetables and routes of bus services and award contracts to private bus operators to run them.

Take part in the consultation on https://www.tfwm.org.uk/consultations/bus-reform/ All supporting documents are there should you wish to read them and the short questionnaire isconsiderably easier to complete.

Rob Johnston, from the Trade Union Congress said:

“We warmly welcome this. We’ve been saying for a number of years we need to move to franchise and this nettle needed to be grasped.

Franchising gives an opportunity to bring this region together to get investment and control to ensure people from working class backgrounds can get to work and school and finally compete.

I think it’s quite clear that we haven’t punched our weight and we keep talking about Manchester being a step ahead of us and it’s about time we moved at pace and were ambitious.”