Robert Jack

The UK Bus Summit returned bigger than ever on September 10th, welcoming 310 people and 16 exhibitors to The Spine in Liverpool's Knowledge Quarter. Taking place across the 12th and 13th floors of this striking modern venue, the event offered panoramic views across Liverpool City Region - an appropriate setting for a day devoted to the role of buses in connecting people, places and opportunity. The mood was markedly upbeat.

Rail Minister Lord Hendy has expressed pride in the progress that has been made to bring track and train together ahead of the creation of Great British Railway (GBR). Speaking at last week's UK Rail Summit, which was hosted by KPMG in London, Hendy said a lot of progress had now been made on creating integrated railways with fully accountable management teams. "Whatever anybody says, you can't accuse this government of not getting on with it," he told delegates.

Last week's UK Bus Summit, organised by Transport Times in partnership with Passenger Transport, was the seventh edition of this must-attend event - but it has been five and a half years since the last one. So much has changed since then in the UK bus sector. We've had a pandemic, a National Bus Strategy for England, post-Covid recovery in passenger numbers, three changes in the occupancy of 10 Downing Street and a change of government.