Will buses need drivers going forward? Stagecoach is due to complete the first ever driverless bus journey over the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland. The service will run from Ferry Toll to Edinburgh Park and is reported to be running on a trial basis until 2025. The vehicle itself will be manned with two members of staff – one being a qualified driver if a person needs to take control of the bus, and another “captain” whose role will be to sell tickets and provide customer service onboard,

The service itself is a joint project, named CAVForth, between Fusion Processing Ltd, Stagecoach, Alexander Dennis, Transport Scotland, Edinburgh Napier University, and Bristol Robotics Lab, and is part funded by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Five vehicles (Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV) have been allocated to the service, covering a 14-mile route, and travelling up to 50mph.

The prospect of autonomous buses throws up several questions around the regulation of public service vehicles. Local bus services outside of London are, generally speaking, required to be registered with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner under the Transport Act 1985, with a specific sub-team within the DVSA (Bus Operator Account Management) having the objective of reviewing service complaints and punctuality.

The Senior Traffic Commissioner has published a statutory document, “Local bus services in England (outside London) and Wales” which summarises the requirements of running a local bus service as prescribed in legislation, including the particulars of a service to be registered.

The Annex to that document describes a good bus operation from the perspective of the Traffic Commissioner. The key components identified are:

1. Clear and proper registration of services.
2. Monitoring of those services.
3. Evidence of operating systems which are sufficiently resourced.

Where a private bus operator can show these components in their operation this goes a long way to satisfy a Traffic Commissioner that services and the operation as a whole are being run in accordance with the relevant regulations. Punctuality is also key when it comes to a registered bus service, and a late service, or repeated instances of early running, will be identified by the DVSA as requiring investigation.

Given the standards expected of registered local bus services, the Stagecoach trial of the autonomous bus will be interesting, in that we will see how operators meet the standards and show the components expected of a good operation without there being a continuous driver in place for the duration of the journey.