Funding of £9.3m to improve county's bus services

The money would help enhance popular routes and protect rural services, the government said

Worcestershire is to receive £9.3m in government funding to improve its buses.

The funding is part of a wider initiative to ensure better bus services across England, with £88m due to go to the West Midlands region.

The government said the money represented a record level of investment for most areas and would help enhance popular routes and protect rural services.

Marc Bayliss, Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said the funding was “very much welcome”.

“As I have previously said, improving bus services is absolutely one of my top priorities and this additional money will enable the council to make a real difference to public transport services throughout the county,” Bayliss said.

“It will mean we are able to invest properly in our bus improvement plan. This plan includes a wide range of improvements from working with local operators to improve journey times, frequency and reliability to improving infrastructure such as bus shelters and bus stops.

“We will also look to use this funding to help expand the very successful Worcestershire on Demand service, which currently operates in Malvern and North East Worcestershire, to even more areas.

'Bus revolution'

The West Worcestershire MP, Harriett Baldwin, said she hoped the cash would help improve buses between Malvern and Worcester, in particular the reinstatement of the X43 service.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “The value of regular and reliable bus services cannot be understated.

“For far too long, the West Midlands has been suffering from unreliable services with buses hugely delayed, or not even turning up at all.

“This funding kickstarts the bus revolution to bring an end to the postcode lottery of bus services, drive economic growth and make sure people have proper access to jobs and opportunities.”