Our visits showed that generally, new housing developments in major cities were well served by bus which was good to see. Outside our larger urban areas, where we in England are increasingly building new homes, things were rather different. 

Urban extensions and other greenfield ‘cowpat’ developments were served by buses but you often had to plan your day around when the bus went and came back. This is because buses were few and far between, especially after 5.30pm. Often the bus route was circuitous and served many other places on the way. So, even if the bus service was every half hour, it took a long time to get to the town centre or station. We saw that bus stop facilities were minimal and depressing. 

Some places were better served than others. Housing developments close to Cambridge were often well served by buses to multiple destinations. Cranbrook has a good service to Exeter. New Lubbersthorpe, outside Leicester, had a 20 minute bus service to the station and a 30 minute service on a Sunday, with a journey time of roughly 40 minutes. With these frequencies living there without a car is possible.

Out of town destinations hard to serve by bus

On our visits we saw a proliferation of fringe-of-town retail and eateries, built around  new road systems to open up land for housing, or bigger junctions to take the additional traffic. The scale and layout of such areas are not bus-friendly. These places are not arranged along a new logical bus route. They are designed for arrival by car.

“One bus per hour Mon – Sat daytime only. From Corby town centre but not rail station. Takes 30 mins to cover two miles as serves other areas of Corby on the way. Only serves the entrance to Priors Hall Park, does not penetrate very far into the development.” — Report back from a volunteer

Bus-train interchanges are important because you can then travel on the rail network and finish your journey by bus. We found a good example of a bus-train interchange at Didcot Parkway station: get off the train and catch a bus straight to the new Great Western Park new development. If stations are to become the focus of travel from fast expanding towns, consideration of bus interchanges is essential.