National Concessionary Fares Scheme
Recently GOEM has been involved in work on the National Concessionary Fares scheme which will see all over 60s and the disabled be elligible for free off-peak national bus travel from April 2008. LAs will have discretion to extend the scheme in their area. Further information can be obtained from the DfT website by using the link at the bottom of the page.
Rural Bus Subsidy Grant (RBSG)
This is a grant distributed to local authorities based on the size of its rural population. The grant is for new or enhanced local bus services. The local authority (LA) decides which services and communities to support. Following the publication of the 10 Year Transport Plan, it was announced that RBSG would be extended to provide services in and around market towns.
In the latest announcement in January 2006, the regions authorities got £6.25 million:
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Lincolnshire - £1.95million
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Derbyshire and Northamptonshire - £1million
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Leicestershire - £900,000
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Nottinghamshire - £860,000
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Rutland - £179,000
Kickstart 2005
The Kickstart schemes were piloted in the 2003 Bus Challenge competitions. 18 schemes were awarded almost £8 million. The introduction of Kickstart is a new element which aims to pump-prime services which local authorities and operators have identified as having sufficient potential for patronage growth to become viable within a three-year period. The successful schemes were selected from a total of 117 projects submitted by 60 local transport authorities in England.
Five bids were successful in the East Midlands getting a total of £2,304,481 in funding. Details of these schemes are as follows:
Derbyshire - £154,045
Scheme enhances bus route 39 from Grangewood Estate through Chesterfield town centre to Loundsley Green housing estate. With new buses with increased frequency.
Leicestershire - £701,571
East Midlands Airport Bus Strategy – Skylink/Shuttle package will deliver an integrated solution to surface access problems to Nottingham East Midlands Airport.
Leicester - £316,865
Leicester General Hospital bus link provides a direct bus link specifically between St Margaret’s Bus Station and the railway station to/from the General Hospital.
Lincolnshire - £419,000
Regeneration Gainsborough aims to increase bus use in Gainsborough by delivering InterTown, the County Council’s highly successful market town initiative.
Lincolnshire - £713,000
Connecting Gainsborough aims to connect Gainsborough with Lincoln and Scunthorpe to deliver InterConnect, the County Council’s highly successful rural bus initiative.
Further details of the announcements for the Grant and Challenges can be found in the relevant press releases on the Government News Network website.
