Campaign to upgrade Shropshire bus services to launch this weekend

The Shropshire Bus Upgrade project aims to put pressure on local and national government to fund high-quality rural bus services.

Led by professor John Whitelegg, who believes the county should have a service as good as those in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany, the initiative will be launched at Theatre Severn on Saturday.

It comes after a report from the Foundation for Integrated Transport who said rural bus services in England are not fit for purpose.

“This report is asking for changes in the way that all politicians and decision-takers think about buses," he said.

"We can do so much better than the current disorganised and uncoordinated arrangement. Establishing a co-ordinated model of integrated rural transport is the first step.

"After that we need to address funding but changing the way we do things is more important than more funding. Rural residents in Shropshire, and in every other English shire, deserve a much better bus service than the one currently on offer and the time is now right to embark on the upgrade."

Benefits

The project aims to ensure all councillors, MPs and transport decision makers are aware of the the benefits of a high quality bus service.

It will also identify improvement that can be made to meet the needs of all users, and work in connection with other organisations nationally to argue that central government should fund a service at a level that can be found elsewhere in Europe.

All Shropshire councillors, town and parish councils, MPs, bus operators, bus users groups and environmental groups in Shropshire have been invited to the event.