York and North Yorkshire bus system branded ‘broken’ as £3.5m reform plan advances

Labour York and North Yorkshire Mayor David Skaith on a bus. York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority. (Image: YNYCA.)

BUS transport in North Yorkshire is “broken”, the county’s mayor has said, ahead of a proposed £3.5 million investment in developing a full bus franchising assessment.

David Skaith, the elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, has said that the county’s bus system is “broken and it’s not working well enough”.

“The structure that we have just isn’t delivering properly at all, and I am determined to make a difference, which is why we are developing what would look like a bus franchising model for York and North Yorkshire,” he said at a meeting in Whitby on Wednesday, September 30.

At the meeting, coastal councillors quizzed the mayor about the progress of plans to improve public transport in the region and in coastal and rural areas in particular.

Cllr Phil Trumper said: “If you live in Whitby and you haven’t got a car, it’s quite difficult to commute anywhere or to find employment.

“The bus isn’t sustainable because it takes nearly three hours to get from Whitby to York on a bus.”

Mr Skaith acknowledged that inadequate bus services and poor connectivity were issues “for all people right across the region, particularly on our coastal areas”.

“We’ve made good progress so far, so what we’re looking to do is bring back buses under the Combined Authority from April next year. That will create a single regional bus service plan which will cover the whole of York and North Yorkshire and, more importantly, journeys in and out of North Yorkshire as well.”

Scarborough and Whitby Area Committee, 30.09.26. Courtesy Anttoni Numminen/LDRS

Later this week, a budget of up to £3.5 million could be allocated from the Combined Authority’s (CA) revenue fund to allow for development of a bus franchising assessment for York and North Yorkshire.

The CA is also being asked to issue a statutory notice signalling its intention to begin a formal assessment of bus franchising across York and North Yorkshire.

If approved, the process is expected to take at least 18 months, with a decision on whether to proceed with franchising not anticipated until 2028.

Bus franchising gives an authority full control over routes, fares and service standards, enabling services to be determined by what communities need, not just commercial viability.

Supporters of franchising argue it could lead to more reliable services, coordinated timetables and simpler fares across multiple operators.

However, the report also warns that some operators could reconsider investment decisions while franchising is being explored and notes that the long-term cost of operating a franchised network is not yet known.

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The pilot study is “specific to investigating the delivery of bus services in a rural setting” and most of the pilot areas are located in North Yorkshire.

However, many of the services have origins and destinations in York, so “learnings from the pilot will be able to be applied across the whole geography of YNYCA,” according to a report prepared for an executive meeting on Friday, October 2.

Last year, the Combined Authority was awarded £564,000 to deliver one of the country’s first pilot programmes exploring how bus franchising could help rural and coastal communities.

Consultation undertaken as part of the pilot identified widespread concerns about infrequent services, limited evening and weekend buses, reliability issues, and difficulties accessing healthcare and other essential services.

The next stages of the Rural Bus Franchising Pilot study will be to assess whether bus reform models might be effective in delivering improved bus services in rural areas and to achieve the outcomes and objectives for bus services in the region, the report states.