Last year, Vaishnavi Vajja, your VP Wellbeing & Diversity was working on 'cheaper and more frequent local transport' as part Priority 8.
Last year, Vaishnavi Vajja, your VP Wellbeing & Diversity was working on 'cheaper and more frequent local transport' as part Priority 8. This priority involved countless conversations, internal and external stakeholders, and a fair amount of trial and error. Unlike some projects, this wasn't about implementing immediate change, it was about lobbying, advocating and pushing for improvements that students deserve.
Vaishnavi launched a survey-style petition, which received over 630 responses. We analysed the findings and shared them with key stakeholders across the University, the Estates Department, and even the Chairman of Surrey County Council. The data was also shared with a member of the Surrey Youth Cabinet, who presented these concerns through relevant channels and at the Enhanced Partnership meeting.
We wanted to update you on the outcome of the Enhanced Partnership meeting and how your feedback has helped influence decisions making student life better for Commuters and Students using local public transport.
A quick explanation of the meeting:
Surrey County Council has an Enhanced Partnership Agreement between the Council itself and the Bus Companies. As part of this agreement, an Enhanced Partnership meeting takes place which has high level representatives from multiple of the Buss Companies and high-level officials from Surrey County Council, such as the Cabinet member for Highways, Transport and Economic Growth (Matt Furness). A member of the Surrey Youth Cabinet and Representatives were asked to share young people's views and concerns about buses and hopefully get some feedback about what they are currently working on. This is where your feedback helped strengthen their arguments, providing additional context about the concerns that the Surrey Youth Cabinet Member and Representatives could use to lobby for changes to local bus services.
More information about the Enhanced Partnership agreement can be found here: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/buses-and-other-transport/improvement-plan
Below are some of the main outcomes:
Google and Apple Maps:
Google and Apple maps have introduced an update that gives up to date live bus timings when a route is selected. This is a new update that recently came out of trial stage. It may have some inaccuracies but, from my personal experience, tends to be accurate around Royal Holloway and will update the arrival time if the bus is predicted to be late.
Enhanced Partnership Refresh:
As part of the updating the Enhanced Partnership, the Bus Services Act 2025 called for a couple of main changes that would improve bus services. The two main changes are a codesigned Network Accessibility Plan and designated Socially Necessary Local Services.
The Network Accessibility Plan is in the initial stages of creation and sets will set out service improvements to improve accessibility, for example access to bus stops, bus design and accessibility of information. To create this, they are going to consult different stakeholder groups to unsure it is as helpful and accurate as possible.
Socially Necessary Services are also to be designated by Surrey and this means that a route cannot be changed or discontinued without a going through a formal process which enables redesign. This will protect the routes that people most rely on. However, as stated at the meeting, Surrey currently takes that stance that they 'don't run unnecessary bus services' so this should hopefully mean that the majority of services are protected.
Link Card:
The Link Card is a programme run by Surrey County Council that applies to anyone age 20 and under and living in Surrey. It gives card holders access to 50% discounted bus tickets. More information on this can be found here: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/buses-and-other-transport/tickets-and-discounts/apply-for-a-surrey-link-bus-card
There are other projects in process for multi operator ticketing, tap on and off ticketing and daily/weekly capped fares. However, this may come into effect in the far future as the process to put this into place is lengthy.
Staines Bus Station Redesign:
They are also looking at redesigning certain bus stations in Surrey, including Staines, to improve accessibility and connectivity. The redesign of Staines is part of a wider redesign of Staines Town Centre that is currently being planned.
Finally, at the request of the participants at the Enhanced Partnership meeting, the report that was produced from the Transport survey RHSU completed was forwarded on, so they can review the contents, input feedback and recommendations. Hopefully this means that they are going to use it to sway their future decisions and make changes in align with student feedback, recommendations and concerns.