After the big five allocations to combined authorities, the next positions on the BSIP league table mainly go to shire counties, where rural and inter-urban routes are much more numerous. DAVID JENKINS examines more successful BSIP bids
Norfolk
Top of the rural pile is Norfolk, one of the largest beneficiaries of Rural Bus Grant when that was introduced in the late 1990s. More recently it has won Transforming Cities Funds for use in Norwich, which is also the location of a successful ZEBRA bid, with First planning 15 new single-deckers for use on city routes. It has also won money from the Rural Mobility Fund for a demand responsive trial in the Swaffham area, which began earlier this spring.
The BSIP bid of £63.685m has been rewarded with a provisional allocation of £49.6m. Most of the spending is aimed at infrastructure, with around a quarter intended for revenue measures. There is little intended to enhance service frequencies, despite aspirations for minimum levels, though a lump sum of £21m (over five years rather than the three of the actual bid) is intended to ‘deliver consistent bus network standards’ through trials on five routes, each operated by a maximum of fi…
