Intalink Enhanced Partnership

On the 1st April 2020 Hertfordshire County Council formally entered into a statutory agreement with local bus operating companies to adopt the “Intalink Enhanced Partnership”, this being an enhanced partnership under the terms of the Bus Services Act 2017. The Intalink Enhanced Partnership Plans and Scheme now place obligations both on the County Council and on operators in order to deliver the Partnership’s objectives.

More specifically, if any bus service operating within Hertfordshire or cross-boundary into Hertfordshire qualifies as a “Qualifying Service” as defined in the Enhanced Partnership Plan (as below), then the operator of that service must meet the requirements laid down within the Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme.

A Qualifying Bus Service is defined as a registered local bus service with one or more stopping place(s) within the geographical area of the Enhanced Partnership, (ie the county of Hertfordshire) with the exception of:

  • Any schools or works registered local bus service not eligible for Bus Service Operators Grant
  • Any cross-boundary registered local bus service with less than 10% of its registered mileage within the Enhanced Partnership area
  • Any services operated under section 22 of the 1985 Act
  • Any registered local bus service which is an excursion or tour
  • Any other registered local bus service that the Operators (through the Intalink Board voting mechanism described in Section 7.1 of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme) and County Council decide should be excluded from all or specific requirements of the Enhanced Partnership Scheme.

A Qualifying Bus Service must comply with the requirements of the Intalink Enhanced Partnership Scheme, with particular regard to the Scheme extracts shown below:

Real-time information

Operators will arrange delivery of Automatic Vehicle Location system data and real time predictions to the County Council or its data broker using generally accepted and appropriate data standards and formats, either current or as these develop. Operators will make provision with appropriate security protections in their back office housing to allow the County Council to gain free access to this data with no additional or ongoing cost to the County Council. (Section 8.1)

Branding

All vehicles operating Qualifying Bus Services will carry internal and external branding to promote the Intalink Enhanced Partnership. This will be subject to development of detailed design guidelines and changes adopted by Enhanced Partnership Scheme Variation. (Section 8.11)

  • Where cross-boundary services run into adjacent bus partnership or franchising areas, appropriate arrangements will be agreed with the Bus Operator and neighbouring local authority. Other than the use of short-term loan vehicles, vehicles used on Qualifying Bus Services will clearly identify the fleet name of the Operator of the bus.
     
  • Bus Operators will ensure vinyls are displayed appropriately at all times. In general to account for vehicles on short-term loan or other exceptional reasons, each Operator will meet a minimum level of 95% compliance.
     
  • Bus Operators will include the Intalink logo and acknowledge the Intalink Enhanced Partnership in all timetables and other paper and electronic publicity they produce which relate to any Qualifying Bus Service, as well as on their websites.

Participation in ticketing schemes

Bus Operators in the former Intalink Quality Partnership have generally been willing to participate in multi-operator ticketing schemes seen as offering the travelling public opportunities to make journeys which involve several Operators, enabling users to travel more conveniently than having to purchase separate tickets for each journey. A range of such tickets has already been established through Intalink. In these cases, pricing of each ticket type has been arrived at by agreement within the partnership, including the affected Operators, generally set a level which reflects its increased customer utility compared with broadly equivalent single-operator tickets. Undercutting the single-operator ticket is generally undesirable as the impact on the Operator’s revenue can adversely affect the commercial viability of its service. (Section 8.12)

  • Operators already involved in such schemes will be expected to continue their involvement on the current basis under the Transport Act 2000, wherein competition concerns are mitigated by the involvement of the County Council as scheme promoter.
     
  • Extensions to multi-operator ticketing and other types of ticketing innovation, including alternative reimbursement arrangements, will be considered by the Intalink Forum and Intalink Board through the mechanism in section 7.1, and the terms and conditions of any such scheme will be negotiated between the County Council, those Operators and other partners affected.
     
  • For monitoring purposes, Bus Operators will submit to the County Council monthly sales returns for all ticketing schemes in which they participate, separated by type and period.

Please find below the full Plan and Scheme documents.

If you would like further information please contact [email protected]

Intalink Bus Strategy - February 2020

Intalink Enhanced Partnership Plan and Scheme - February 2020