Dorset takes an enterprising route to revitalise passenger transport

Dorset County Council has just retendered all of its passenger transport contracts using an innovative procurement model, with the aim of raising the quality of services and putting them on a secure, long-term footing.

Andrew Forster

17 June 2011

The Weymouth park-and-ride service will be launched within the next few weeks. Dorset County Council owns the vehicles and will run the service initially before transferring it to a partner operator

Angus Campbell, Dorset County Council leade

David Dawkins, Dorset’s passenger transport manager

First Group failed to win any of Dorset’s contracts. Its Weymouth operations could now face competition from Yellow Buses, which has won tendered work in the area for the first time

Bournemouth-based Yellow Buses has won its first contracts with Dorset and is expected to use them to expand its commercial operating territory

Damory staff celebrate their success with Alex Carter (left), managing director of Go-Ahead operations in Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Isle of Wight, and Damory operations manager Ian Gray (right)

First has responded to its failure in the tender process by registering the flagship 31 route between Weymouth and Axminster in Devon as a commercial service, thereby saving money for Dorset County Council

Cuts to council budgets, reductions in concessionary fares reimbursement and lower Bus Service Operators Grant payments: it’s a toxic mix that is putting pressure on passenger transport services across England – particularly in parts of the shires where commercial operations are often marginal or non-existent.

But in one rural part of the country the council is looking forward to delivering higher quality passenger transport to its citizens and at lower cost to the taxpayer. Dorset...