Better Transport

Community improvements hardly ever happen when people work alone. When we work in groups we collect the necessary energy, enthusiasm, good ideas, contacts and skills that are needed to bring about real change in our neighbourhoods.

Get other passengers involved

The people who will want to support you most are the people who use, or would use, the bus you’re fighting for. It’s important to get as many of these people behind you as possible. Some of them will want to support you in a small way, by signing petitions or answering survey questions. Others might want to be more involved – helping you to run the campaign, writing letters to newspapers and councillors and lobbying the transport authority at meetings. All these people can help you in different ways, so work with what you’ve got.

Something to keep in mind is that with bus campaigning, everything can happen very fast. For example, if you’re fighting a bus cut by a bus company, the company only needs to provide 56 days’ notice before cancelling a service. You will need to act quickly to get contact details and as much support as you can from other people on your bus route, because once the service is cancelled it will be harder to find these people.

Get local people involved
People living in your area may also be very supportive. Even if they do not use the bus themselves, their friends and family might use it. They may want to help you because they can see that the bus is important for the area: providing a service people need; reducing the number of cars; giving people an environmentally friendly way of travelling; and reducing the need for parking spaces.

Contact other public transport groups, parish, town and district and transport authority councillors, your MP and public transport user forums to see if you can work together and public transport users forums.

"If you work with all transport users from cyclists and pedestrians to car users and public transport users you will achieve greater results. Look for allies who want to achieve the same outcome as you." - Ray Wilkes, bus campaigner 

Case study

Parish councils often make great allies. They are often consulted on local transport issues and councillors often feel passionate about the need for better transport.  Take Janet King of the Lickey and Blackwell Parish Council for example. She recently responded to Bromsgrove District Council’s Community Transport Review Questionnaire. She said:

"There is a real lack of public transport in the evenings. There are no evening buses and no Sunday service. We have no rail station - a parish plan led request for the reopening of Blackwell station having just been rejected before a feasibility study by Network Rail although it was supported and indeed requested by the Rail Officer of WCC Passenger Transport team. The local Ring and Ride service is not seen as relevant to young people's needs.

"I feel strongly about the lack of public transport in rural areas. When the Youth Service lost its minibus it created problems for youth leaders. We now rely heavily on parents offering lifts to and from our venues whilst there are mini buses standing unused at both Hunters Hill Technology College and The Stables Outdoor Activities Centre in the holidays"