YNYCA considers rural bus franchising
The Combined Authority has secured £564,000 to develop one of the first pilot programmes in England examining how bus franchising could be introduced in rural and coastal communities.
Bus franchising would give the authority full control over network planning, including routes, timetables, fares, and service standards.
Under such a model, network design, operational structures, and service specifications would be rebuilt around community need, rather than driven solely by commercial performance.
Potential outcomes include coordinated routes, integrated timetables, and unified fare structures across multiple operators.
While franchising schemes to date have focused on major urban areas such as West Yorkshire, this pilot will assess feasibility in regions facing different infrastructure challenges, such as long travel distances, infrequent services and limited connectivity.
Some villages in York and North Yorkshire, for example, currently receive only one scheduled bus service per week.
The funding will support technical studies and community engagement across five predominantly rural areas, examining local demand, transport gaps and the operational and financial requirements of delivering a franchised network:
- York–Selby corridor (including sections of South Yorkshire)
- Scarborough’s coastal communities
- North York Moors National Park
- Yorkshire Dales National Park
- Richmondshire and Northallerton, with links to Darlington and the Tees Valley
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The Combined Authority will assess how a franchised system could improve access to essential services for young people, older residents and those with mobility needs, as well as support environmental goals by encouraging modal shift to public transport.
Findings will inform whether a restructured, centrally managed bus network could deliver more reliable, better-connected and more efficient services across the region.
David Skaith, Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, said: “We know bus services just aren’t working for our rural and coastal communities.
“This pilot puts York and North Yorkshire at the forefront of national work to fix that, not just in our region but across the country.
“In areas like ours, buses often run less frequently and over longer distances, and many depend on public funding to keep going.
“There’s very little evidence about how franchising could support rural communities, and these studies will help fill that gap.
“Our findings will feed directly into future Government policy on rural transport, while also giving us a much clearer picture of what could work locally, what it might cost and how it could benefit our communities before we make any decisions about the future of bus services here.”
