UK Bus Summit 2026
We’ll be in Liverpool on 10 September for the UK Bus Summit, to find out how the Liverpool City Region has adapted its data flows to meet the demands of a franchised bus network.
Rob West will be representing Elydium at the UK Bus Summit at the Spine in Liverpool on Thursday 10 September 2026.
The timing is hard to beat. On Sunday 6 September, the first franchised bus services in the Liverpool City Region for forty years began running in St Helens, with the Wirral to follow later this year and the rest of the city region in 2027. The summit is being held just four days later, with reflections on that launch on the programme. Case studies do not come fresher than that!
What we will be listening for
- How the authoritative version of the network and timetable moves from operator to authority in practice, and what has to change in the systems either side of that handover.
- How a region copes mid-transition, running franchised and commercial services alongside each other with data arriving from both.
- Whether data integration is being procured deliberately, alongside the vehicles, depots, ticketing and branding – or quietly assumed.
- How the authority intends to manage timetable version control in order to report against their SLAs.
- Where the Bus Services Act 2025 and the coming changes to service registration leave everyone’s data obligations.
We have worked alongside operators to solve similar problems in a deregulated market, and more recently alongside TfGM as Manchester made the transition to a franchised model in recent years. We are keen to understand the lessons that have been learned from Manchester’s experience and how they are being applied in the Liverpool City Region.
If you are there too, do come and say hello – or email hello@elydium.co.uk if you would like to arrange a more formal discussion. If we don’t see you in Liverpool, we’ll be on stand 154 at Euro Bus Expo at the NEC in November.
