Transport Act 1985

119 Bus substitution services and bus service conditions

(1) This section applies where the Secretary of State imposes a condition requiring the Railways Board to secure the provision of an alternative service for the carriage of passengers by road—

(a) under section 54(5) of the 1968 Act, in giving his consent to the discontinuance by the Board of all railway passenger services from any station or on any line (referred to below in this section as a closure); or

(b) under section 122 of this Act, in revoking any previous condition to that effect (whether imposed as mentioned in paragraph (a) above or imposed under section 122);

and any such service required by a condition so imposed is referred to below in this Act as a bus substitution service.

(2) In any such case the Board shall secure the provision of the bus substitution service in exercise of their powers under section 4A of the 1962 Act (provision of road passenger transport services where a railway service has been interrupted or discontinued); and subsection (2) of that section (which makes provision with respect to the route and stopping places of any service provided on discontinuance of a railway service) shall be subject to the condition requiring the bus substitution service and to any other condition imposed by the Secretary of State in connection with the closure or (as the case may be) under section 122 of this Act with respect to the operation of that service.

(3) The Passenger Transport Executive for any passenger transport area may enter into agreements with the Railways Board under which the Executive make payments to the Board in respect of the cost incurred by the Board in securing the provision of any bus substitution service between places in the Executive's area or between such places and places outside that area but within the permitted distance for the purposes of section 10(1)(ii) of the 1968 Act as it applies to that Executive (that is to say, twenty-five miles from the nearest point on the boundary of that area).

(4) The Secretary of State may not vary or revoke any condition imposed by him as mentioned in subsection (1)(a) or (b) above with respect to the provision or operation of a bus substitution service (referred to below in this Act as a bus service condition) except as provided below in this section.

(5) A bus service condition requiring the Board to secure the provision of a bus substitution service may not be—

(a) revoked; or

(b) varied so as to permit the Board to withdraw the service from any locality or point for the time being specified in the condition as a locality or point the service is required to serve;

except in accordance with the procedure provided by sections 120 to 122 of this Act (which corresponds, with certain modifications, to the procedure applicable under section 56 of the 1962 Act in relation to a closure); but, subject to that, a bus service condition may at any time be varied or revoked by the Secretary of State.