The UK Department for Transport published new guidance titled "Guidance: Creating and maintaining a bus passenger charter" on 4 November 2026.
The document explains how local transport authorities can develop a bus passenger charter in collaboration with bus operators and passengers.
The guidance is aimed at local transport authorities and focuses equally on setting up a passenger charter and ensuring it is kept up to date.
It places collaboration with bus operators and passengers at the centre of the process, emphasising a joint approach to drafting and reviewing the charter.
The Department for Transport framed the material as practical advice for authorities looking to formalise arrangements between the public and service providers.
The guidance is published on the Department for Transport website and is presented as a tool for local authorities to adapt to their own circumstances.
Scope and purpose
The guidance identifies the passenger charter as a document to be created and maintained by local transport authorities in partnership with operators and users. It outlines the dual task of producing an initial charter and carrying out ongoing maintenance to keep it relevant.
Collaboration and stakeholders
Local transport authorities, bus operators and passengers are named as the principal participants in the process. The guidance makes collaboration between those groups the primary mechanism for designing the charter and for its subsequent review.
Maintaining a charter
Maintenance is treated as an explicit part of the guidance: the Department for Transport sets out that a charter requires continued attention once it has been published. That maintenance role is presented as equally important to the initial creation of the document.
The Department’s text is intended as a template of sorts for local decision making rather than as a statutory instrument or directive. It is offered as practical advice that authorities may adapt according to local circumstances and priorities.
Where authorities choose to adopt a charter, the guidance provides a framework for involving operators and passengers in both drafting and later updates. The Department for Transport presents the approach as a collaborative model, with the local authority acting as the convening body that brings parties together.
The publication is the Department’s latest publicly available material on the subject and was released on 4 November 2026. The guidance is accessible through the Department for Transport’s online guidance pages.
The short form of the document’s title as used in the Department’s listing is Guidance: Creating and maintaining a bus passenger charter. The entry is dated 4 November 2026 and is described by the Department as advice for local transport authorities seeking to develop or refresh a charter in cooperation with operators and passengers.