About our BSIP funding and schemes
Amount of funding received from UK Government for BSIP
The Department for Transport (DfT) has provided a two-year national grant support for North Somerset. The aim is to encourage greater public transport use and address local issues. Our plan is to make our bus services commercially self-sustaining by 2025-26 and in the future.
In 2022, we received over £105 million from DfT. This is the second largest grant awarded nationally to improve bus services by 2025. The grant has been split into two sections:
- £48m is for bus infrastructure improvements in North Somerset
- £57.5m passenger journeys across North Somerset and the West of England Combined Authority (QECA) region
Why we plan to make buses commercially viable
Bus services have to become commercially viable in order to keep running once the BSIP funding finishes. For example, it currently costs the council (through the BSIP grant) over £600,000 a year to support the X6, X7 and X5 bus routes. The BSIP grant ends in March 2026. If the service does not make a commercial profit after this time, some routes might be reduced in frequency or cut completely.
We're unable to spend the funding on fixing potholes and other road maintenance
The temporary BSIP funding from the Government has restrictions on how it can be spent. This means that we cannot use it for any core local authority projects or activities, such as road maintenance. Any funding that has not been spent on BSIP has to be returned to the Department for Transport (DfT).
Highways maintenance is carried out by our highways and parking operations team which is a core local authority service. If you notice a pothole or other issue with road maintenance, you can report it to us using our online form.
Improving bus infrastructure is just as important as creating more bus services
Reliability of bus services is the most important thing for our communities. Not only do we need more buses but we also need to tackle the reason why buses aren't as reliable. Saving minutes at congested areas where buses are currently delayed will make buses more frequent and cost-effective.
Our population in North Somerset is anticipated to grow by 7.9% between 2020 and 2031 (compared to 3.2% nationally). More of us need to use efficient low-carbon alternative to the car to avoid our roads becoming more congested and our air more polluted.
Why we are prioritising buses when most people drive
Lots of people rely on public transport and it’s really important we improve our services to maintain that choice.
Reducing our carbon footprint
In North Somerset 42% of transport emissions come from road-based transport and we need to tackle that. Bus service infrastructure improvements will help to accelerate the decarbonisation of transport.
Making bus a more affordable and attractive option to car
BSIP schemes are in locations where people also drive. We plan to strengthen our bus services to make them more frequent, faster, greener, accessible and reliable. These improvements will help encourage the shift from car to bus.
Improving bus services that have been affected by Covid-19
Bus services were seriously affected by Covid-19. We are working hard alongside FirstBus to improve these services to local towns.
We are working to reduce carbon emissions
The bus service infrastructure improvements will help to accelerate the decarbonisation of transport. This is a key priority for the council as part of its commitment to tackle the climate emergency.
While improvement works are taking place, there may be a slight increase in our carbon footprint. We require our contractors to set out the steps and processes they will use to mitigate and minimise their carbon footprint.
The long-term benefits of these changes outweigh any carbon footprint that might be connected with the proposed improvement works.
How we have chosen the BSIP scheme locations
The locations for proposed and in-progress BSIP schemes are all areas which affect bus journey times. Most of these are on our three key bus corridors; the A38, A370 and A369.
Future impact if we do not deliver the BSIP
We will lose the improved bus services we have now as we will be unable to fund these after the BSIP grant ends. If we don't create sustainable commercial services, the council will have to make hard choices about which services it can support.
Any unspent BSIP funding will have to be returned to central government. This is why we have to deliver as we don’t want to miss this unique opportunity for a more open, fairer, greener North Somerset.
What to do if you have a specific concern or query
Please start by checking our pages to see if information is already available to you.
Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP)
This is the quickest first step.
If you do not find the information you’re looking for, you can email bsip.engagement@n-somerset.gov.uk. We will do our best to get back to you within 10 working days.