Mayor asks people to help shape future bus services

Mayor of the West Midlands, Richard Parker is inviting people to help shape the future of the region’s bus network as he forges ahead with plans to bring buses back under public control.

Under the banner of Your Bus: Your Say, people will be asked to join the conversation through online surveys, focus groups, social media, and during the Ask the Mayor events, sharing what matters most to them as the region’s bus network undergoes its biggest transformation in 40 years. 

Under franchising, the Mayor and West Midlands Combined Authority will control bus routes, timetables and fares, with operators contracted to run services. 

The bidding process for contracts covering Coventry, North Birmingham and Walsall is already under way. These will be awarded early next year and the services will launch in October 2027. The roll out across the rest of the West Midlands will complete in 2029. 

Meanwhile the region’s biggest private bus operator, National Express West Midlands, is being acquired by the WMCA to protect services and jobs during the transition to franchising. 

The Mayor said: “We all want our buses to be reliable, safe, easy to use, affordable and welcoming to all. This region-wide conversation is about us understanding what that means to the people who use our buses now and those we want to use them in future.  

“We’ll look at every part of the journey, from planning a route and buying a ticket, to waiting at the stop and the ride itself, to find out what matters most to people and how we can make services better. 

“This feedback will help us design and build a bus network we can all be proud of.” 

Residents can find out more, have their say and sign up for future opportunities to get involved at the Your Bus, Your Say website.  

Since the Covid pandemic, bus services in the West Midlands have become increasingly reliant on public subsidy. This includes the government’s single-fare cap – which is due to be reduced from £3 to £2 in January 2027 – and more than £50m a year of WMCA funding, without which operators have warned half of all existing services would be at risk. 

That’s why the Mayor has made taking control of services his flagship transport policy and last month invited companies to bid for the first wave of franchises. 

The franchises will roll out in three rounds, starting in October 2027 (for Coventry, North Birmingham and Walsall), in 2028 (for Dudley, Sandwell and Wolverhampton) and in 2029 (for Solihull and South Birmingham).