Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Regulatory guidance (for local transport authorities in England)

Creating and managing a bus network accessibility plan

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/dft-2026-bus-nap-guidance/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Department for Transport
  • GOV.UK

Government (UK Department for Transport)

Summary

Guidance for local transport authorities in England on the bus network accessibility plans required by the Bus Services Act 2025, with example commitments that include Auracast on buses.

Key findings

  • States that every local transport authority in England must publish an initial bus network accessibility plan by 1 April 2027 and review it at least every three years.
  • Lists, among non-exhaustive example commitments that authorities may choose, having Auracast installed on all vehicles on the network by a set date.
  • Notes that hearing aids are increasingly fitted with Auracast and that it "could provide a more reliable and personalisable experience for passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing than induction loops do".

Limits

Example commitments, which the guidance calls not prescriptive. It gives no evidence for the comparison with induction loops and does not say whether existing loops on buses should be kept. England and buses only.

Read the original

www.gov.uk/government/publications/creating-and-managing-a-bus-network-accessibility-plan-bus-nap/creating-and-managing-a-bus-network-accessibility-plan

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Cited in

Cite this source

Department for Transport. Creating and managing a bus network accessibility plan. GOV.UK. 28 August 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creating-and-managing-a-bus-network-accessibility-plan-bus-nap/creating-and-managing-a-bus-network-accessibility-plan (accessed 9 October 2026).

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