If Bus Reform Is Serious About Safety, Transparency Must Follow

For several years I have been raising questions about how bus safety is governed, reported and learned from in the United Kingdom.

Bus services carry millions of passengers every day. They are the backbone of public transport across towns, cities and rural communities. Governments are now pursuing major reforms to grow bus use — through franchising, integrated transport networks, fare policies and investment in cleaner vehicles.

But as these reforms gather pace, an important question remains largely absent from the national conversation:

How transparent is the system for learning from bus safety incidents in the bus industry?

Other transport modes operate under clear safety governance frameworks designed to ensure incidents are investigated independently and lessons are shared across the sector.

For example, rail incidents are independently investigated by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, while safety oversight is provided by the Office of Rail and Road.

These institutions exist to ensure that safety learning is systematic, transparent and shared across the entire network.

The bus sector operates under a far more fragmented structure.

Safety information can be dispersed across operators, police collision reporting and national statistics published by the Department for Transport. While operators, regulators and authorities undertake important safety work, there is currently no consistent national framework dedicated to transparency, reporting and sector-wide learning.

Bus Reform and the Governance Question

Across England, bus governance is changing rapidly. Franchising powers are expanding, combined authorities are taking greater responsibility for planning networks, and public transport is increasingly being positioned as central to economic growth, social mobility and decarbonisation.

When public authorities take responsibility for designing and managing bus networks, it is reasonable to expect that robust systems for reporting and learning from safety incidents are also in place.

If buses are to play a larger role in the future of mobility, then the governance of bus safety must evolve alongside those ambitions.

For that reason, I believe the sector should begin discussing a Bus Safety Transparency Charter built around five practical principles.

1. National Safety Data Standards

Bus operators and transport authorities should report a consistent national set of safety indicators.

These should include:

• collisions (injury and non-injury)
• passenger falls and onboard injuries
• assaults on drivers and passengers
• near-miss incidents
• safety-critical vehicle defects

Standardised reporting would allow meaningful national analysis of safety trends and risks across the sector.

At present, safety information is often fragmented across operators and authorities, making it difficult to identify national patterns or systemic risks.

2. Public Safety Transparency

Authorities responsible for bus networks should publish regular safety dashboards showing trends in safety performance.

In London, Transport for London already publishes detailed bus safety information as part of its Vision Zero programme.

Extending similar transparency across the country would strengthen accountability, support evidence-based policy making and increase public confidence in the safety of bus services.

3. Protected Safety Reporting for Bus Workers

Frontline bus workers should be able to report safety concerns without fear of retaliation.

Drivers are often the first to identify emerging safety risks — whether those risks relate to infrastructure, vehicle issues, operational pressures or passenger behaviour.

Confidential reporting systems used elsewhere in the transport sector, such as the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System, demonstrate the value of capturing safety intelligence directly from those closest to day-to-day operations.

The bus sector should ensure similar protections exist for its workforce.

4. Independent Accident Investigation and Learning

Serious bus incidents should be subject to independent safety investigation focused on learning and prevention.

Rail transport benefits from independent investigation through the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, whose role is to identify causes and publish recommendations designed to improve safety across the network.

While the structure of the bus industry differs, there is currently no equivalent national mechanism dedicated to investigating serious bus incidents and sharing lessons across the sector.

Government should therefore examine options for extending independent investigation capability to serious bus incidents, or establishing a dedicated mechanism that ensures safety lessons are identified and shared nationally.

The purpose of such investigations should always be learning and prevention, not blame or liability.

5. Driver Welfare as a Safety Control

Bus safety cannot be separated from the working conditions of drivers.

Issues such as fatigue, access to rest facilities, cab temperatures, scheduling pressures and operational communication practices all influence the safe operation of vehicles carrying passengers.

Recognising driver welfare as a safety issue strengthens both workforce wellbeing and passenger safety.

A Question for the Next Phase of Bus Reform

As bus franchising expands and public authorities take greater responsibility for planning and managing networks, the governance structures surrounding safety will inevitably come under greater scrutiny.

Combined authorities, transport bodies and the Department for Transport will increasingly be expected to demonstrate not only how bus services are funded and operated, but also how safety information is collected, published and used to drive continuous improvement.

Strengthening transparency and learning mechanisms now would help ensure that the next phase of bus reform is supported by governance systems that are as modern and accountable as the services they are intended to deliver.

As these governance changes unfold, Parliament may also wish to consider whether the current framework for bus safety reporting and investigation remains adequate for a sector that carries millions of passengers every day.

A Reasonable Question

Which leads to a simple question that policymakers, regulators and authorities should be prepared to answer:

If independent investigation and transparent safety reporting are considered essential for rail transport, why should bus services — which carry millions of passengers every day — operate without an equivalent national safety learning framework?

The Bus Safety Transparency Charter is intended as a starting point for that conversation — one that will become increasingly important as bus reform reshapes how services are planned, managed and overseen across the country.