National bus strategy

Bus Back Better is the Government's national bus strategy for England.

Key parts of the strategy are:

Greater local leadership
Joint working between local transport authorities (LTAs) and bus operators

Bus service improvement plan

As part of our commitment to improving bus services in Norfolk, we have developed a bus service improvement plan. We want to:

Rebuild and improve passenger confidence in bus services
Have a green and sustainable transport offer
Have a public transport network that customers choose first for most journeys over other modes of transport
Offer simple and affordable fares and ticketing

In July 2024 we updated our Bus Service Improvement Plan which outlines our objectives and how we are meeting them and future plans to achieve them:

Download the bus service improvement plan (PDF) [8MB]

Each year we will do an annual report to let you know how we are doing and what we have done to improve services that year. Read the current annual report:

Download the bus service improvement plan annual report (PDF) [1MB]

Periodically we will produce a progress report to let you know how we are doing against our improvement targets. Read the current progress report:

Bus Service Improvement Plan progress report April 2024 (PDF) [247KB]

Funding for our plan

The Government has committed £3 billion of funding to support the national bus strategy.

In March 2022, the Department for Transport notified the County Council of an indicative offer of £49.6 million funding for Norfolk. This money will help to put our plan into action.

Consultation

We are now working with bus operators to determine what the money will be spent on. A vital part of this is understanding:

What is important to Norfolk residents
What will help to attract more people to choose public transport for their journeys more often

In 2022, we ran a consultation to get your views on our bus service improvement plan. The consultation closed on Tuesday 5 July.

Our Enhanced Partnership

In response to the national bus strategy, we have formed the Norfolk Enhanced Partnership to enable us to deliver the Bus Service Improvement Plan. This is a partnership between:

Norfolk County Council, as the Local Transport Authority (LTA)
Local bus operators

Now that we have received a £49.6m funding allocation from central government to deliver Norfolk's Bus Service Improvement Plan, we have adopted a new Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme. They outline the commitments that the County Council and Norfolk's bus operators have made to improve public transport in the county.

Download the March 2024 Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme (PDF) [699KB]

Bus passenger charter

We have worked with Suffolk County Council and local bus operators to create a bus passenger charter for Norfolk and Suffolk.

It establishes a consistent standard of service you, the passenger, can reasonably expect when you travel by bus - regardless of bus company or county.

Read the bus passenger charter for Norfolk and Suffolk