The marathon: comms strategy

Here is a working communications strategy for Westbrae Buses, designed to be run by a team of two over eight months. It is deliberately practical: fewer, bigger actions, clear owners, and pre-written materials to reduce daily load.

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Westbrae Buses: Network Change Communications Strategy

Period: Eight months to launch (Month 0 = now; Month 8 = changes take effect, “Spring”)
Owner: Managing Director (accountable), Communications Lead (day-to-day), Comms Officer (delivery)
Budget: Modest. Priority spend: one part-time local press/community liaison freelancer for Months 5–8; printing for affected-route mailings; accessibility formats; small paid social boost in the final six weeks.

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1. The situation in one paragraph

We are making the biggest network change in twenty years. Most passengers (70%) will be better off, but four routes are being withdrawn, serving vocal communities. Partial, leaked information has already triggered two councillor-led petitions and damaged driver morale. The local press default is a “war on rural passengers” frame. We have two comms staff, limited money, and eight months. We cannot win a argument about whether change is happening. We can win the argument about how fairly and openly it is handled, and we must give our own people the truth before anyone else gets it.

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2. Objectives

Primary

1. Ensure every affected passenger knows exactly what is changing, when, and what their alternatives are, at least six weeks before launch.
2. Protect trust and licence to operate: no ambush, no misinformation vacuum, no staff learning from the press.

Secondary
3. Convert the conversation from “war on rural passengers” to “honest reallocation of a limited network, with support for those who lose out.”
4. Maintain driver morale and enable them to be credible frontline ambassadors.
5. Build a reusable contact list and channel base for future changes.

Explicitly not an objective: persuading the four withdrawn-route communities to support withdrawal. That is not achievable and chasing it wastes the budget. The goal there is fair process and visible support, not agreement.

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3. Audiences (in priority order)

Priority	Audience	What they need	Who owns relationship
1	Drivers and depot staff	Truth first, talking points, certainty about jobs	MD + Comms Lead
2	Passengers on the four withdrawn routes	Personal notice, alternatives, support	Comms Officer
3	Passengers on the twelve revised routes	Route-specific “what changes for you”	Comms Officer
4	Local councillors (all, not just the two)	Early briefing, constituent answers	MD
5	Local press and radio	Facts, access, a human story that isn’t only anger	Comms Lead
6	New express-route catchments	Awareness and trial	Comms Officer
7	Schools, employers, health/social care, community transport	Coordination on alternatives	Comms Lead
8	Regional transport body / funders	Assurance of process	MD

Two councillors have already started petitions. Treat them as a known, permanent channel, not a fire to put out. Brief them early and repeatedly, even when they will still oppose.

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4. Key messages

Core narrative: The network has to change to stay viable. Most passengers gain. Where routes are withdrawn, we are being open about it, we are explaining why, and we are putting real support in place. No one should find out from a leak or a headline.

Message discipline — use these, in this order:

1. Honesty: “We are telling you everything now, including the difficult parts.”
2. Scale and benefit: “This is the biggest change in twenty years. Around seven in ten current passengers will be better off — better frequency, better connections, capped fares.”
3. Fares: “Contactless capped fares mean you will never pay more than the cap, however many journeys you make.”
4. Withdrawals — name them, don’t hide them: “Four routes are being withdrawn because usage is very low and the subsidy per passenger is unsustainable. Here is exactly what replaces them.”
5. Support: “No withdrawn route is being left without an alternative. We have worked with community transport, and we will publish the alternatives for each community.”
6. Process: “We are consulting, listening, and where we can improve the plan we will.”

Forbidden phrases: “minority of passengers”, “tough choices”, “we appreciate your patience”, “some disruption is inevitable.” These are heard as contempt.

Message for staff only: “You will know before the public. If you don’t know something, say so and take a name — don’t guess.”

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5. Channel choices — and the discipline around them

The team of two cannot run ten channels well. Choose five.

1. Direct mail to affected addresses (primary, non-negotiable).
Every household on the four withdrawn and twelve revised routes gets a printed, route-specific leaflet. This is the single highest-trust channel for rural and older passengers. Cost is real but this is where the budget goes. Postcode-level targeting via the electoral roll or a mailing house. Include a QR code and a freephone number.

2. Website “network change” hub (single source of truth).
One URL, printed on everything. Route-by-route pages, an interactive map, a fare calculator, a full FAQ, and a “last updated” date on every page. If a fact changes, it changes here first.

3. Face-to-face engagement (highest value per pound).
Twelve to fifteen drop-in sessions: one in each withdrawn-route community, one in each town centre, plus two depot staff sessions. Two people, a table, printed maps, and a laptop. Book village halls early. Advertise via parish councils and noticeboards.

4. Local press and radio (managed, not feared).
Proactive: offer the MD for a briefing with the editor of each title before launch. Reactive: same-day response to any story. Do not wait to be asked. The “war on rural” headline will come; the goal is that the article also contains our alternatives and the 70% figure because we gave them.

5. Staff channels (internal first).
Depot briefings, a printed staff Q&A, a WhatsApp/Teams group, and a laminated “what to say” card for every driver. Drivers must hear news before passengers, every time. This is the rule that repairs morale.

Optional, low-cost only: paid social boost (final six weeks, targeted at affected postcodes); parish council and community newsletter submissions; posters on buses and at stops.

Do not attempt: a glossy consultation app, a big TV ad, a rebrand, a celebrity endorsement, a separate app.

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6. Phasing — the eight months

Phase 1: Stabilise and brief internally (Months 1–2)

• Day 1–3: MD briefs all staff at every depot, in person. Acknowledge the leak directly: “You should have heard this from us. Here is the full picture now.”
• Publish the full plan internally before anything external.
• Appoint a single named contact for councillors and press.
• Build the route-by-route fact base: for each of the 18 routes, the change, the reason, the alternative, the affected passenger numbers.
• Start the website hub (even if password-protected or “coming soon”).
• No proactive external comms yet. Resist the urge to respond to the petitions with a statement. Prepare instead.

Phase 2: Go public with the whole plan (Months 3–4)

• Publish everything at once: all 18 routes, all four withdrawals, the fares change, the two new express routes. Partial release caused the current problem. Do not repeat it.
• Press briefing and embargoed packs to local titles, with the MD available.
• Direct mail to affected households — first wave.
• Open the first drop-in sessions.
• Brief all councillors in writing, including the two petitioners, with an offer of a face-to-face.
• Brief schools, major employers, health and social care, and community transport.

Phase 3: Consult, listen, adjust (Months 4–6)

• Continue drop-ins, including evenings and weekends.
• Publish a “you said, we did” log — even small changes build credibility. If a withdrawal cannot be reversed, say so plainly and say why.
• If any change can be made in response to feedback (a timing, a stop, a connection), make it visibly and announce it. This is the cheapest trust purchase available.
• Second direct mail wave with any changes.
• Fare campaign begins: “capped contactless fares” explained simply, with a calculator.

Phase 4: Countdown and launch (Months 6–8)

• Four weeks out: “changes take effect on [date]” campaign across all channels.
• Two weeks out: final reminder mailing to affected routes; posters on buses and at stops.
• Launch week: staff on the ground at key stops; MD visible; daily social and website updates; press invited to ride the new express routes.
• Week after launch: rapid feedback capture, fix obvious problems fast, publish a “first week” update.

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7. Risk handling

Risk 1: The leak continues / new partial information emerges.
Response: publish the full plan earlier if necessary. Never respond to a leak with a partial statement. Have a standing line: “The full plan is at [URL]. We are not going to brief this in fragments.”

Risk 2: “War on rural passengers” headline.
Response: pre-brief editors with the 70% figure, the alternatives, and a named rural passenger who benefits. Offer a rural route that gains frequency as the counter-story. Do not complain about the coverage; out-fact it.

Risk 3: Councillor petitions escalate.
Response: treat the councillors as a channel to their constituents, not as opponents to defeat. Offer a joint drop-in. If they will not engage, publish exactly what we offered and when. Keep the tone factual.

Risk 4: Driver morale and misinformation at the wheel.
Response: the “you heard it first” rule; a laminated Q&A card; a named internal contact; a weekly internal note for the first three months. If a driver is asked something they don’t know, the script is: “I don’t know, but here’s the number and the website — they’ll tell you.”

Risk 5: The four withdrawn routes have genuinely poor alternatives.
Response: this is an operational risk, not a comms one, but comms must not paper over it. Escalate to the MD now. If the alternative is a community transport minibus twice a week, say that plainly and put the operator’s number on the leaflet. Overpromising here will destroy trust for years.

Risk 6: Low attendance at drop-ins.
Response: go where people already are — market days, supermarkets, GP surgeries, church halls, school gates. A table at a Saturday market reaches more people than a Tuesday evening village hall.

Risk 7: Budget runs out before the final mailing.
Response: protect the final mailing and the launch-week staffing above all else. Cut paid social and printing of generic leaflets first.

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8. What “good” looks like — measurement

Measure a small number of things honestly.

Reach

• % of affected households mailed (target: 100% of the four withdrawn routes, 95% of revised routes)
• Drop-in attendance and unique visitors to the network change hub
• Press coverage: % of articles containing the 70% figure and the alternatives (target: 60%+)

Understanding

• Short pulse survey at drop-ins and online: “Do you know what is changing for your route?” (target: 80% of affected passengers say yes by Month 7)
• Website FAQ page views and freephone call volume — spikes are fine, silence is not

Trust and sentiment

• Driver morale pulse (two questions, anonymous, at Months 1 and 6)
• Councillor and parish council feedback log
• Sentiment of press coverage, tracked simply as positive/neutral/negative

Operational (the real test)

• Complaints and enquiries in the two weeks after launch vs. a comparable previous change
• No-show / confusion incidents at stops in launch week
• New express route trial usage in first month

One honest caveat to give the MD: if the four withdrawn routes genuinely lack alternatives, no communications strategy will make that fair. Comms can deliver honesty and support, but it cannot manufacture a bus that isn’t there. The strategy should be judged on whether people felt informed and treated fairly — not on whether they were happy.

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9. The first ten working days (so the team can start tomorrow)

1. MD briefs all depot staff in person; acknowledge the leak.
2. Confirm the single named press/councillor contact.
3. Build the 18-route fact table (change, reason, alternative, affected numbers).
4. Register the network change URL and put up a holding page with the launch date.
5. Book village halls and market pitches for Months 3–6.
6. Request quotes for the two mailings.
7. Draft the staff Q&A card and the standard press line.
8. Write to all councillors offering a briefing, including the two petitioners.
9. Identify one rural passenger who benefits from the changes, and one who loses out but has an alternative — both willing to speak.
10. Diarise the Phase 2 publication date and work back from it.

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Bottom line for the MD: the leak and the petitions are symptoms of a vacuum. Fill the vacuum with the whole truth, brief your drivers first, mail the affected households directly, and put real alternatives on paper. You will not be loved on the four withdrawn routes. You can be believed everywhere else — and that is what protects the network for the next twenty years.

WESTBRAE BUSES: NETWORK TRANSFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY

Operational Period: 8 Months Pre-Launch to Launch+1 Month

Resourcing: 2 FTE Comms Team | Modest Operational Budget

1. Core Objectives

1. Rebuild Internal Trust (Months 1–2): Achieve 100% driver coverage via face-to-face briefings, restoring internal sentiment and turning frontline staff into brand advocates before public launch.

2. Shift Political & Media Narrative (Months 2–4): Pivot local press coverage from a “war on rural passengers” to a “£Xm modernization of regional transit,” securing neutral or positive quotes from at least one key local politician.

3. Drive Public Awareness & Readiness (Months 5–8): Ensure 80%+ of regular passengers are aware of route changes and contactless capped fares prior to Day 1.

4. Protect Passenger Retention: Retain existing patronage while achieving a target 15% growth on new express corridors within six months of launch.

2. Stakeholder Matrix & Prioritisation
Given the two-person capacity, engagement is strictly prioritized by operational risk and influence.

Stakeholder Group	Primary Risk / Opportunity	Core Objective	Key Channels
Frontline Drivers & Depot Staff	High risk: Low morale, leak-driven distrust, operational disruption.	Inform first, validate frustration, equip to answer passenger queries.	Face-to-face depot briefings, driver app, pay-slip inserts, depot posters.
Local Councillors (esp. Petition Organisers)	High risk: Political grandstanding, press amplification of route closures.	Neutralise hostility; reframe as evidence-based network rebalancing.	embargoed 1-on-1 briefings, data packs, mitigation workshops.
Affected Rural Communities (4 Withdrawn Routes)	High risk: High vocal opposition, local press sympathy.	Direct, honest communication; highlight feeder services or DRT alternatives.	Bus stop notices, targeted community drop-ins, parish council newsletters.
Core Commuters & 70% “Gainers”	High opportunity: Express travel, lower capped fares, speed benefits.	Mobilise support, drive contactless adoption, build brand loyalty.	On-bus digital screens, targeted social media, local press release.
Local Media	High risk: Sensationalist headlines (“War on Rural Passengers”).	Proactive backgrounding; focus on total network investment & 70% savings.	Exclusive background briefings, press packs, site visits to new express stops.

3. Key Messaging Framework
Master Narrative
”Westbrae Buses is delivering the biggest upgrade to regional transport in 20 years. We are investing in faster express links, simpler capped contactless fares, and revised schedules so 70% of our passengers get a faster, cheaper journey. To fund these improvements and protect our long-term network, we have had to make hard choices on four unsustainable routes, working with local partners to ensure alternative connections where possible.”

Tailored Segment Messaging

• For Drivers:

  • “We hear you, and we apologise that you learned about early proposals through a leak. You are the face of Westbrae Buses, and we are committing to updating you first on every stage of this rollout.”

• For Affected Rural Communities:

  • “We understand the frustration caused by route changes. These four services carried an average of fewer than [X] passengers per trip, making them financially unviable. We are working directly with local councils to signpost alternative community transport and demand-responsive transit options.”

• For Express Commuters & General Public:

  • “Faster routes, cheaper travel. Tap on, tap off, and never pay more than the daily cap. Two new express corridors will cut journey times into regional hubs by up to 20 minutes.”

• For Local Politicians & Press:

  • “Independent data shows 7 per cent of local passengers will see direct improvements or lower fares under this rebalancing. We are open to constructive dialogue on how to mitigate impacts on low-density corridors.”

4. Channel Strategy & Resource Allocation
With a two-person team, do not attempt high-maintenance channels (e.g., daily live Q&As, unmoderated open forums, or extensive print advertising).

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                  |   RESOURCE DISTRIBUTION (2 FTE)   |
                  +-----------------------------------+  
                                    |
  +---------------------+-----------+-----------+---------------------+  
  |                     |                       |                     |

Internal & Ops Political & PR Digital & Social On-Ground/Collateral
(35%) (25%) (20%) (20%)
• Depot Briefings • 1-on-1 Briefings • Website Landing • Bus Stop Notices
• Driver Q&A Packs • Media Releases Page • Network Maps
• Pay-slip Inserts • Press Backgrounders • Targeted Ads • Seat Drop Leaflets

• Digital Hub (Single Source of Truth): Create a dedicated landing page (westbraebuses.co.uk/future) featuring a Route Checker Tool (enter origin/destination to see new route/fare), downloadable maps, and an interactive FAQ.

• In-Person Engagement: Limit public sessions to 4 focused, drop-in information surgeries (one in each affected rural hub) jointly run with operations staff.

• Printed Assets: Hyper-local bus stop posters, print-on-demand driver toolkits, and simple seat-drop flyers across the existing fleet.

5. Phased Implementation Roadmap
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MONTH 1: INTERNAL REPAIR & POLITICAL RESET | | • Execute Driver Apology & Briefing Roadshow across depots. | | • Hold confidential, embargoed 1-on-1 briefings with the 2 petitioning councillors. | | • Launch internal ‘Driver First’ feedback channel. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MONTHS 2–3: MITIGATION & CONTROLLED ANNOUNCEMENT | | • Issue formal public press release focused on 70% fare/speed gains & contactless rollout. | | • Publish dedicated website & Route Checker tool. | | • Host 4 targeted community drop-in surgeries in affected rural zones. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MONTHS 4–5: PASSENGER EDUCATION & FARE PROMOTION | | • Launch “Tap & Go” educational campaign (video demos on social, bus back posters). | | • Distribute revised network maps to libraries, council offices, and community hubs. | | • Issue driver “Customer FAQ Cards” for daily route queries. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MONTHS 6–7: COUNTDOWN & FINAL PREPARATION | | • Install timetable notices at all affected stops. | | • Run digital targeted social campaigns highlighting new Express routes. | | • Conduct depot refresher sessions with drivers on route changes & fare capping rules. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MONTH 8: LAUNCH & HYPER-CARE | | • Day 1-5: Comms team present at major interchanges and depots. | | • Daily media monitoring and rapid response on social media channels. | | • Post-launch review at Day 30. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6. Risk Management & Crisis Protocols
Risk 1: Local Press “War on Rural Passengers” Campaign

• Mitigation: Offer the local paper an exclusive interview with the MD before the general press release, providing access to independent passenger volume data showing the unviability of the 4 routes alongside the £X savings for the remaining 70% of passengers.

• Protocol: If negative headlines run, respond with a standardized, empathetic statement emphasizing hard facts: “Continuing to run empty buses on four routes threatened the survival of the entire regional network. Rebalancing allows us to protect transport for 70%+ of local residents.”

Risk 2: Councillor Petitions Gaining Momentum

• Mitigation: Invite affected councillors to a closed-door “Network Options Working Group.” Present the financial reality and offer concrete micro-mitigations (e.g., tweaking a revised route to cover a medical centre, or co-funding a demand-responsive minibus pilot with the local authority).

• Protocol: Reframe councillors publicly as “working with us to address local impacts” rather than opponents.

Risk 3: Frontline Driver Pushback / Misinformation to Passengers

• Mitigation: Provide drivers with a simple, laminated pocket card listing key changes, rationale, and a QR code directing passengers to the digital Route Checker. Provide a £50 voucher incentive for the depot with the highest customer service ratings during Month 8.

• Protocol: Establish an operational escalation channel so drivers can report customer friction points directly to the comms team for immediate messaging adjustments.
  7. Success Measurement Dashboard

Metric Category	Target KPI	Method / Tool
Internal Morale	>75% of drivers report feeling “well informed” ahead of launch.	Short paper survey distributed at depot sign-in (Month 6).
Media Sentiment	Neutral or positive coverage in ≥60% of local press mentions.	Monthly press clippings log and sentiment tagging.
Passenger Awareness	>80% awareness of contactless capping & route changes.	On-bus digital surveys / short pop-up web survey.
Digital Adoption	>15,000 unique uses of the online Route Checker Tool.	Web analytics tracking (westbraebuses.co.uk/future).
Operational Ease	<5% fare-query delays during Week 1 of launch.	Driver feedback logs & dispatch reports.

Below is a practical communications strategy designed for a two-person team with limited budget and eight months to prepare. It assumes the network changes are already decided in principle and that the communications challenge is to maintain trust, minimise misinformation, support staff, and maximise passenger understanding and adoption.

Westbrae Buses

Network Change Communications Strategy

Eight Months to Launch

1. Situation Summary

Westbrae Buses is introducing its largest network redesign in twenty years:

• 12 routes revised
• 4 low-usage routes withdrawn
• 2 new express routes introduced
• Full transition to capped contactless fares
• Independent analysis shows 70% of existing passengers will be better off
  However:
• Information has leaked before formal announcement
• Petitions are already active in some affected communities
• Driver morale has been damaged by learning details externally
• Local media is likely to frame changes as service cuts rather than network improvements
  The communications task is therefore not simply to announce changes. It is to maintain trust through a potentially controversial transition.

2. Communications Objectives

Strategic Objectives

1. Protect organisational credibility throughout the process.
2. Ensure drivers and frontline staff become informed advocates rather than critics.
3. Help passengers understand exactly what the changes mean for them.
4. Reduce misinformation and speculation.
5. Shift media coverage from “cuts” to “network modernisation”.
6. Maximise uptake of contactless capped fares.
7. Manage opposition respectfully while demonstrating that decisions are evidence-based.

Behavioural Objectives

By launch:

• 90%+ of drivers report feeling adequately informed.
• Majority of passengers understand how to find their new journey.
• Contactless usage exceeds previous ticketing adoption forecasts.
• Local media coverage is balanced rather than overwhelmingly negative.
• Complaints peak early and decline before implementation.

3. Audience Priorities

Tier 1: Internal Staff

Drivers

Most important audience.
Passengers trust drivers more than press releases.
Current challenge:

• Feel blindsided by leak.
• Likely to become source of rumours.
  Needed outcome:
• Drivers informed first.
• Drivers confident answering basic questions.

Depot and Customer Service Teams

Need:

• Detailed FAQs.
• Escalation procedures.
• Consistent messaging.

Tier 2: Existing Passengers

Beneficiaries (70%)

Potentially supportive but often silent.
Communications goal:

• Turn silent beneficiaries into visible supporters.
• Highlight faster journeys, better connections and fare savings.

Passengers Directly Affected by Withdrawals

Not expected to support changes.
Communications goal:

• Demonstrate respect.
• Explain rationale honestly.
• Offer alternatives wherever possible.

Tier 3: Stakeholders

Councillors

Some will oppose changes regardless.
Goal:

• Avoid surprises.
• Ensure they hear directly from Westbrae before press reports.

Community Groups

Especially in affected villages and towns.
Goal:

• Give opportunities to ask questions.
• Show evidence rather than corporate slogans.

Regional Media

Goal:

• Move narrative from “service cuts” to:
  • reliability
  • investment
  • simplified fares
  • new express links

4. Core Messages

Overall Narrative

Do not communicate thirty separate changes.
Communicate one story:
“Westbrae is redesigning the network so it works better for today’s travel patterns, provides better value for most passengers and protects the long-term sustainability of local bus services.”

Supporting Message 1

Most customers benefit

“Independent analysis shows around 70% of current passengers will be as well off or better off under the new network.”

Supporting Message 2

Investment is accompanying change

“This is not simply a reduction exercise. We are introducing new express services, simpler fares and better connections.”

Supporting Message 3

Difficult decisions were necessary

“Some routes carry very low passenger numbers and can no longer be sustained in their current form.”
Avoid:

• “Hard choices.”
• “Optimisation.”
• Corporate jargon.
  Be specific and human.

Supporting Message 4

No surprises

“We will provide journey information, community events and individual support well before launch.”

5. Channel Strategy

Given limited resources, focus on channels that directly reach passengers.

Internal

Driver Roadshows

Managing Director and Operations Manager visit every depot.
Purpose:

• Acknowledge frustration over leak.
• Explain rationale.
• Take questions.
  Frequency:
• Initial briefings.
• Follow-up sessions at T-3 months.

Weekly Staff Bulletin

Simple format:

• What has happened
• What customers are asking
• This week’s key messages
  Two pages maximum.

Passenger Communications

Dedicated Change Website

Single source of truth.
Must include:

• Interactive route finder
• Maps
• FAQs
• Fare calculator
• Timeline
• Myth-vs-fact section
  All communications point here.

On-Bus Advertising

Most cost-effective channel.
Use:
“New Network Coming Next Spring”
Then progressively introduce specifics.

Direct Passenger Information

Affected route users should receive:

• Printed leaflets
• Clear maps
• Alternative journey guidance
  Avoid forcing elderly passengers online.

Social Media

Purpose is clarification, not argument.
Content types:

• Route explainers
• Fare examples
• Video walkthroughs
• Questions and answers
  Never engage in lengthy comment wars.

Community Engagement

Local Drop-In Sessions

Particularly in areas losing routes.
Format:

• Small venues
• Maps displayed
• Staff available
  Goal:
• Listen visibly
• Explain consistently

Councillor Briefings

Private briefing before public launch.
Not to seek permission.
To prevent surprise.

Media

Media Pack

Provide:

• Maps
• Passenger benefit data
• Independent analysis summary
• Quotes
• Case studies
  Make positive angles easy to write.

6. Phasing Plan

Phase 1

Recovery and Preparation

T-8 to T-6 Months

Objectives:

• Repair internal confidence.
• Stop speculation dominating.
  Actions:
• Driver briefings.
• Stakeholder mapping.
• Develop FAQs.
• Build website.
• Create response protocols.
  Success measure:
• Rumours decline.
• Staff understand core rationale.

Phase 2

Public Announcement

T-6 Months

Objectives:

• Take ownership of narrative.
  Actions:
• Full announcement.
• Website launches.
• Community letters issued.
• Media interviews.
  Headline:
  “Westbrae announces biggest improvement programme in twenty years.”
  Not:
  “Major route changes announced.”

Phase 3

Consultation and Explanation

T-6 to T-3 Months

Objectives:

• Increase understanding.
• Demonstrate listening.
  Actions:
• Public meetings.
• Online Q&A content.
• Route-by-route information.
• Stakeholder engagement.
  Key principle:
  Don’t debate whether concerns are valid.
  Show people have been heard.

Phase 4

Practical Information

T-3 to T-1 Month

Objectives:

• Shift from policy discussion to individual journeys.
  Actions:
• Journey planners.
• Timetable distribution.
• Driver refresher briefings.
• Passenger mailings.
  Main question becomes:
  “What does this mean for my journey?”

Phase 5

Launch

Launch Month

Objectives:

• Minimise confusion.
  Actions:
• Extra customer support.
• Social media monitoring.
• Senior managers visible on network.
• Rapid myth correction.

Phase 6

Stabilisation

First 8 Weeks

Objectives:

• Demonstrate benefits.
  Actions:
• Publish usage figures.
• Share customer stories.
• Highlight fare savings.
• Show performance improvements.

7. Issues and Risk Management

Risk: “War on Rural Passengers” Headlines

Mitigation:

• Acknowledge withdrawn routes openly.
• Lead with overall benefit.
• Provide alternatives.
• Use independent evidence.
  Never claim nobody loses out.

Risk: Councillor Campaigns

Mitigation:

• Brief early.
• Provide detailed route information.
• Correct inaccuracies quickly.
  Remain factual and respectful.

Risk: Staff Opposition

Mitigation:

• Internal-first principle.
• Managers visible.
• Regular updates.
  The best external communications campaign will fail if drivers feel ignored.

Risk: Misinformation Online

Mitigation:

• Dedicated myth-busting section.
• Standard response templates.
• Rapid correction within hours, not days.

Risk: Contactless Fare Confusion

Mitigation:

• Heavy use of examples.
• Short videos.
• On-bus signage.
• “You’ll never pay more than the daily cap” messaging.

8. Measurement Framework

Internal Measures

• Staff briefing attendance
• Driver confidence surveys
• Staff engagement scores
• Number of internal questions received

Communications Measures

• Website visits
• Route lookup usage
• Video views
• Social media sentiment
• FAQ traffic

Media Measures

Track:

• Positive coverage
• Neutral coverage
• Negative coverage
  Success is not eliminating criticism.
  Success is achieving a balanced narrative.

Passenger Measures

• Contactless adoption
• Customer complaints volume
• Call centre enquiries
• Passenger satisfaction
• Usage on new express routes

Critical Success Principle

The biggest mistake would be treating this as a publicity exercise. This is a change-management exercise. The deciding factor will not be the quality of press releases; it will be whether drivers, affected communities and regular passengers feel informed, respected and given enough time to adapt.
For a team of two, the priority order should be:

1. Staff communications
2. Dedicated information website
3. Community engagement on affected routes
4. Passenger journey information
5. Media relations
   If those five elements are executed consistently, Westbrae can move the debate from “service cuts” to “network modernisation with some difficult trade-offs”, which is the most realistic and achievable communications outcome.

Westbrae Buses — Spring Network Change

Communications Strategy: Eight Months to Launch (+ Six Weeks Stabilisation)

Working document for the comms team. v1.0. T = months until launch day.

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The strategy in one paragraph: The leak means the clock has already started, so we tell the whole truth early — to our drivers before anyone else, then to councils and communities, then to the public — and we make sure nobody ever learns about their own route from a newspaper or a Facebook group. We give the local press a better story than the petitions can offer: real people saving real money, two new express routes, and an operator willing to sit in a village hall and take the anger. We will take our worst fortnight of coverage now, on complete information, rather than in spring on partial information.

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1. Situation: four facts that shape everything

1. Partial information is already public and being organised against. Eight months of silence or drip-feeding hands the narrative to others. Full disclosure, early, is now the only defensive play that is also an honest one.
2. Our most credible spokespeople are currently our most disaffected. Drivers heard from a leak. Every bus is a rolling public meeting: if drivers are sour, hundreds of passenger conversations a day go against us. Internal comms is not a subsection of this strategy — it is the foundation.
3. The winners are diffuse; the losers are concentrated. The 70% figure is true and useful, and almost meaningless to a village whose bus is going. Anger organises; satisfaction doesn’t. Plan for concentrated opposition however well we communicate.
4. Two people cannot do everything. Every audience and activity below is tiered, and the bottom tier is a deliberate don’t.

2. Objectives (by launch date)

1. Every passenger on a withdrawn route knows the change, the date and their alternative before it happens — measured, not assumed.
2. Drivers are the best-informed audience at every stage: staff hear every announcement 48 hours before the public, without exception.
3. The public conversation covers the whole package (caps, expresses, revisions), not just withdrawals; negative-led coverage is trending down by T-3.
4. Every council and both petitioning councillors in affected areas have been offered a full briefing — with the offer on record before we announced.
5. 80%+ of surveyed passengers can say how the capped fare affects them.
6. No surprises: every significant fact is published by us before it can be leaked.

3. What comms needs from the business

These are dependencies, not requests. The strategy cannot run without them:

#	Decision needed	Deadline
1	Jobs answer for drivers on withdrawn routes (redeployment, roles, timeline). Do not hold the first depot briefing without it — it will backfire.	Week 1
2	Mitigation package per withdrawn route — even modest: shuttle link to interchange, demand-responsive service, community transport support, concessionary ticketing on alternatives. If there is genuinely nothing, say so now: the strategy survives, the story gets much harder.	Week 2
3	Approval to publish the independent fare analysis (summary + methodology). A secret report saying “most people better off” is a worse headline than an open one.	Week 2
4	Cash policy at and after launch. If cash is accepted during transition, we shout it — it defuses the digital-exclusion attack. If not, we need a hardship plan and it becomes a priority message.	T-6
5	Launch date and registration/variations timeline confirmed.	T-7
6	A named route planner as comms liaison (~2 hrs/week, plus attendance at drop-ins).	Week 1
7	Ten real before/after fare examples for common journeys.	T-5

4. Audiences, tiered

Tier	Audience	What they need	Lead channels
1	Drivers & depot staff	Job security, facts, scripts, to be heard	Depot briefings, fact cards, fortnightly bulletin, named “driver champions”
1	Passengers on the 4 withdrawn routes (and materially changed routes)	Their specific change, the date, their alternative, a human to ask	Household letters, route cards, drop-ins, dedicated phone line + hub page
2	All current passengers	What changes for me; how capping works; the cash answer	On-bus posters/leaflets, hub, social, press
2	Councillors, council officers, MPs, parish/town councils in affected areas	The full picture before the public; honest answers; a route to raise cases	Embargoed briefings, 1:1s, written updates
3	Local media	Stories with humans and numbers; access to the MD; fast answers	Monthly story drops, exclusives at key moments
3	Community Facebook groups	Correct facts, visibly	Monitor; one factual reply + link; log themes (these groups are also our early-warning radar)
4	Non-users / express-route prospects	Awareness that the express exists	Press coverage and geo-targeted paid only — no active programme

5. Key messages

Core narrative: One network, honest choices: simpler capped fares that most passengers will pay less under, faster express links, and straight answers about the routes too few people use.

Four pillars (each with proof points to be filled from ops data):

1. Simpler and cheaper for most. Tap and go with automatic daily/weekly caps; you’ll never pay more than the cap. Independent analysis published in full: seven in ten passengers pay less. Real examples: [journey A: £X → £Y].
2. Faster where travel is growing. Two new express routes — [town] to [town] in [X] minutes — and twelve routes revised to serve the hospital, colleges and employment sites people actually travel to.
3. Straight answers for affected communities. We will tell you plainly what’s changing, why, and what your alternatives are — in person, in your town, before it happens.
4. Built to last. [X]% of the network is unchanged or improved. The four withdrawn routes carried [X] passengers last year; keeping them as they were puts the routes most people rely on at risk.

Tone rules: Plain English — ban “network optimisation” and never call a withdrawal an “enhancement.” Say the hard thing first: the first sentence we give the press will be the headline, so make it the honest one. Never dismiss a petition or petitioner. One voice: MD on controversy, comms lead on process, drivers never volunteered as spokespeople on withdrawals.

Lines to take (the four questions we will face constantly):

• “70% better off — so the rest of us lose?” → “Seven in ten passengers pay less under the caps. For those facing bigger changes, the honest position is: route [X] can’t be sustained as it is — and here is exactly what we’re doing instead.”
• “War on rural passengers” → “We’re adding two express routes and revising twelve to run where people actually travel. We’re not walking away from those communities — [mitigation] — but we won’t pretend the old network was working.”
• “Why should we trust contactless?” → Cap explanation + cash answer + hands-on help at travel clinics.
• “Why did drivers hear from a leak?” → “That shouldn’t have happened, and it’s on us. From now on, staff hear everything first.”

6. Phasing

Phase 1 — Stabilise and seize the narrative (Weeks 1–4, T-8 to T-7)

• Days 1–3: holding statement with a date certain for the full announcement (“Full details on [date]”), so we stop the vacuum without drip-feeding. Factbook v1 (single source of truth, numbered, versioned).
• Week 1–2: depot briefings at every depot — jobs answer in hand, Q&A, driver fact cards, feedback channel, and a pledge: you will never learn about your job from the press again.
• Week 2: embargoed briefings for council officers, all councillors (not just the two critics), parish clerks, MPs, colleges, major employers. Written 1:1 offers to the two petitioning councillors — the offer itself goes on record.
• Week 3: full public announcement. MD on the record; before/after network map; per-route one-pagers; published analysis summary; mitigation detail; timeline for full timetables. Hub page live. On-bus posters the next morning. Letters to every household on withdrawn routes. Analyst available for interview.
• Brief the board now: this fortnight will be our worst coverage. We chose it deliberately. Early pain on full facts beats spring pain on half-facts.

Phase 2 — Show up (T-7 to T-4)

• Drop-in sessions in every affected town (minimum 8), plus the roadshow bus parked in market squares on market days — free venue, visible, photogenic, on-brand. Route planner present at every session.
• Consult honestly with clear boundaries: network shape and withdrawals are decided; timings, stop siting, connections and mitigation design are genuinely open. Publish a “you said, we did” summary at the end — fake consultation is worse than none.
• Fortnightly driver bulletin; monthly positive press drop (driver profiles, fare-cap savings stories with real consented families, first look at the express routes).

Phase 3 — The new offer (T-4 to T-2)

• Fare cap campaign built on real examples (“the most you’ll ever pay is £X”). Contactless education plus travel clinics — in libraries and on the roadshow bus — for anyone anxious about cards, phones or cash.
• Timetable publication (~T-6 weeks, aligned to registration deadlines): second major press moment, and a positive one — new maps, faster journeys, named planners (“meet the person who designed your route”).

Phase 4 — Countdown (final 6 weeks)

• On-bus saturation and SMS/email alerts: “Your route, your date.” Geo-targeted paid social to affected postcode districts only.
• MD does a local radio phone-in — accept it, front it, do it honestly.
• Launch-week plan: help points at key interchanges (requires ops staffing — dependency), daily 8am standup, rapid-response cell, driver launch pack with de-escalation guidance (“hand them the card, contact the office, we’ve got your back”).

Phase 5 — Live and fix (launch + 6 weeks)

• Daily issues log in week one; fix-forward notes published (“changed today: …”). Six-week review. Post-implementation report to every council — demonstrating we did what we said is the best long-term political protection this company can buy. Transition to business-as-usual comms.

7. Channels — and what we won’t do

The bus itself is our biggest medium: captive, relevant, cheap. Priority order: on-bus print → hub page (one URL, everything routes there) → household letters → drop-ins/roadshow → press → Facebook groups → radio → small geo-targeted paid.

Press rhythm: one exclusive at the announcement (to the largest outlet — exclusives buy goodwill), then a monthly drop, then the timetable moment. Never an unattributable briefing — “sources said” stories feed the conflict narrative.

We will not: run a brand campaign; chase national media; open new social platforms; argue in comment threads (one factual reply, then link and log); attend every council meeting (brief them all in writing; attend in person only in the three most affected areas); or promise mitigation that doesn’t exist.

8. Risk and issues handling

Risk	Response
Further leaks	Compress the timeline (announcement week 3); numbered factbook; tiny distribution list
Driver morale spiral / attrition	Internal-first rule for all eight months; job clarity; visible MD at depots; driver champions
High-profile hardship case (hospital, school, care)	Empathy-first protocol: no templates, no glibness, MD signs every individual response, ops fixes fast
”Secret report” / 70% weaponised as “30% lose”	Publish the analysis; per-route impact sheets so people check their own situation, not an average
Council motions / political escalation	Brief the whole council membership, not just critics; officers aligned before members
Contactless failure or cash passengers stranded at launch	Transition comms, clinics, interchange help points, pre-approved technical holding statement
Timetable slippage looks like chaos	Buffer built in; if it slips, say so early — slippage announced is survivable, slippage discovered is not
Team overload / illness	This document’s tiers are the triage; materials bank pre-approved in advance

Protocol: Severity 1 (routine) — comms lead handles. Severity 2 (media/political) — MD informed same day, joint line. Severity 3 (crisis) — MD leads, board informed. First-hour rule on social issues. Write six holding statements now, while calm.

9. Running it

• Comms Lead: strategy, press, MD and political engagement, internal briefings, risk.
• Comms Officer: hub and digital, community groups, events logistics, print, measurement, the issues log.
• Rhythm: Monday 30-minute plan with the ops liaison; Friday one-page dashboard; monthly MD review; fortnightly driver bulletin.
• Budget split: print & on-bus 35% · events & venues 20% · household letters 10% · geo-targeted paid 15% · survey/tools 5% · contingency 15%.

10. Measurement

Baseline (weeks 2–4): on-bus pulse survey (~300 responses, six questions), driver pulse, six-month press audit.

Metric	Target
Withdrawn-route passengers aware of change + alternative	70% at T-2; 85% by launch week
Passengers who can state their fare impact	80% by launch
Negative-led local coverage	Peaks at announcement, below 25% of stories by T-2, majority neutral/positive by launch
Drivers feel informed / confident answering passengers	80% / 70% (pulses at T-6 and T-1)
Councils & both petitioning councillors offered briefings	100% (the offer is the KPI, not their acceptance)
Post-launch: contactless share, express ridership vs forecast, complaint volume declining by week 4	Reviewed at six weeks against objectives

First fortnight — checklist

• Days 1–3: holding statement approved and issued; factbook v1; jobs answer chased; 1:1 letters to both councillors.
• Days 4–7: all depot briefings complete; embargoed stakeholder pack issued; announcement date locked.
• Days 8–10: public announcement (press + hub + posters + household letters); MD broadcast round; analyst interviews.
• Days 11–14: first drop-in booked and advertised; baseline survey fielded; dashboard v1 to the MD.

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A closing note to the MD: comms can win the argument about facts; only the network can win the argument about consequences. The single biggest determinant of how the spring goes is whether the mitigation package for those four routes is real. Everything in this document is built to make an honest story land well — it cannot invent one.

Here is a practical, eight-month communications strategy designed for a two-person team to manage the upcoming network changes at Westbrae Buses. It focuses on neutralising early opposition, rebuilding driver morale, and clearly explaining the benefits of the new capped contactless system to the majority of your passengers.
Communications Strategy: Westbrae Network Redesign
OBJECTIVES

• Rebuild Internal Trust: Ensure 100% of drivers and frontline staff are fully briefed and feel heard before any further public announcements.
• Reframe the Narrative: Shift the local press focus from “rural cuts” to “modernisation and passenger savings.”
• Educate on Value: Achieve a 75% understanding among regular passengers of how capped contactless fares will save them money.
• Mitigate Vocal Opposition: Provide clear, factual counter-narratives to local councillors regarding the four withdrawn routes, focusing on alternative solutions.
  AUDIENCES & KEY MESSAGES

AUDIENCE	KEY MESSAGE
Drivers & Staff	You are the face of this change. We are giving you the tools and information first so you can confidently answer passenger questions.
The 70% (Better Off)	Your daily commute is getting faster, easier, and cheaper with new express routes and capped fares.
Affected Communities	We understand the impact of withdrawing these four routes. We are working on community-led alternatives and demand-responsive solutions.
Local Councillors	We are modernising a network that hasn’t changed in twenty years to ensure long-term sustainability for the whole region.

CHANNEL CHOICES

• Internal: Weekly driver briefings, a dedicated Q&A inbox, and “lunch and learn” sessions with the Managing Director.
• External (Digital): A dedicated landing page on the website with a “Fare Calculator” to show passengers exactly how they will be better off.
• External (Print): Simple, bold on-bus posters and take-away leaflets focusing on the new express routes and contactless benefits.
• Community: Town hall meetings in the four affected communities, specifically inviting the petitioning councillors to discuss alternatives.
  PHASING (EIGHT MONTHS TO LAUNCH)
• Months 1–2: Internal Focus & Stabilisation
  • Brief all drivers and staff immediately. Apologise for the leak and share the full, unvarnished plan.
  • Launch an internal FAQ document.
  • Meet privately with the two petitioning councillors to share the full data behind the route withdrawals.
• Months 3–5: The “Better Off” Campaign
  • Launch the public website with the Fare Calculator.
  • Begin local press briefings, leading with the “70% better off” statistic and the new express routes.
  • Host town hall meetings in the affected communities.
• Months 6–7: Education & Countdown
  • Heavy on-bus advertising for capped contactless fares.
  • “How-to” videos on social media showing how the new fare system works.
  • Final press push highlighting the launch date.
• Month 8: Launch & Support
  • “Street teams” at major hubs to help passengers with the new contactless system.
  • Daily monitoring of social media and press to quickly correct misinformation.
    RISK HANDLING
• Risk: Local press runs “War on Rural Passengers” headline.
  • Mitigation: Proactively pitch a feature on the new express routes and the sustainability of the network. Provide case studies of passengers who will save money.
• Risk: Drivers remain demoralised and unhelpful to passengers.
  • Mitigation: Incentivise them. Create a “Change Champion” program with rewards for drivers who actively help passengers adapt to the new system.
• Risk: Councillors continue to agitate.
  • Mitigation: Invite them to co-design the demand-responsive alternatives for their areas. Give them a win to take back to their constituents.
    MEASUREMENT OF SUCCESS
• Internal: 85% of staff report feeling “informed” or “very informed” in a pre-launch survey.
• External: Positive or neutral sentiment in 60% of local press coverage.
• Adoption: 50% of passengers using capped contactless within the first month of launch.
• Engagement: High usage of the online Fare Calculator (target: 5,000 unique uses).

Westbrae Buses — Network Change Communications Strategy

Period: October → May (launch) | Team: 2 comms staff + MD sponsorship | Status: Working document v1

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1. Situation in one paragraph

We’re announcing the biggest network change in 20 years from a position of weakness: the story is already half-told by a leak, drivers heard it third-hand, two councillors are running petitions, and the press has a ready-made “war on rural passengers” frame. The honest truth is that the package is good for most passengers — 70% better off, capped contactless fares, new express routes — but four communities will lose their bus. No amount of spin fixes that. Our strategy is therefore not to “sell” the changes but to reclaim the narrative through radical transparency, fix the internal breach of trust first, and give losing communities something real rather than spin.

2. Strategic principles

1. Inside before outside. No further public announcement until staff are briefed face-to-face. Every external message fails if a driver contradicts it at the bus stop.
2. Tell the whole story once, in public, in writing. Publish the full analysis — including the 30% worse off and the four withdrawn routes — before anyone else leaks it. The leak wounded us because it was partial; the antidote is completeness.
3. Never argue with grief; mitigate it. For the four withdrawn routes, lead with what we’re doing about it, not why they’re losing the service.

3. Objectives

By launch day:

1. Awareness: ≥85% of current passengers know changes are coming and where to check their route (measured via on-board and online survey waves).
2. Understanding: ≥60% of passengers correctly identify whether they are better/worse off (survey).
3. Trust: Staff confidence score (“I understand the changes and can answer passenger questions”) ≥70% by month 6, from a baseline taken in month 1.
4. Containment: Majority of local media coverage from month 3 onward is neutral or positive in tone; zero further leaks.
5. Adoption: ≥50% of fares paid contactless within 3 months of launch; cash-paying passengers given a clear, well-used alternative.
6. Political: No formal council motion opposing the package passes; at least one petitioning councillor moves to neutral (“we got a fair hearing”) by month 5.

4. Audiences (priority order)

Audience	What they care about	Primary channels
Drivers & frontline staff	Job security, timetable changes, being embarrassed in front of passengers	Depot briefings, manager cascade, printed FAQs
Passengers on the 4 withdrawn routes	”How do I get to work/shops/the GP?”	Door-to-door leaflet, village meetings, parish councils
The 70% better off	Little — they don’t know it yet	On-bus, social, local radio
Councillors & MPs	Postboxes full of complaints; looking effective	Direct briefings, written offers, one-to-ones
Local press & radio	A clean, verifiable story; access	Press pack, briefings, named spokesperson
Older / cash-paying / non-smartphone passengers	Contactless anxiety, digital exclusion	Print, libraries, community groups, drivers
Community & accessibility groups	Vulnerable users falling through gaps	Direct outreach, forums

5. Key messages

Master narrative (all audiences):

“We’re rebuilding the network around how people actually travel today. It’s the biggest improvement in 20 years: seven in ten current passengers get a faster, cheaper, or more frequent service, and fares are capped so no one pays more than £X a day with contactless. Four routes with very low usage are being withdrawn — we know that’s a real loss for those communities, and we’re working with them directly on alternatives.”

Tailored variants:

• Drivers: “You heard about this wrong, and that’s on us. Here’s the full picture, here’s what it means for your rota, and here’s what to say when passengers ask.” (Job security question must be answered explicitly and honestly in the first briefing — whatever the truth is.)
• Withdrawn-route communities: “Your route carried an average of X passengers a day and costs £Y per passenger journey. We can’t pretend that’s sustainable — but here’s what we’re putting in its place / exploring with you.” Lead with alternatives, not the deficit.
• Contactless anxious: “Nothing changes about how you board. Cash still works [if true — see risk 4]. Contactless just means you’ll never pay more than the daily cap, automatically.”
• Press/councillors: “Everything is published. Here’s the data, here’s the analysis, here’s the person to call.”

Message discipline: the 70% figure must always be sourced (“independent analysis by [consultant]”) and never used to dismiss the 30%. Banned phrases: “only four routes,” “the majority benefit,” “improvements across the board.”

6. Channels (chosen for a 2-person team — depth over breadth)

• Depot briefings (15 min, every depot, run by depot managers with a script we write). Highest-leverage channel we own.
• A single “Big Change” webpage as the source of truth: route-by-route “what changes for me” lookup, full analysis PDF, FAQ, timeline. Every other channel points here.
• Printed leaflets/posters on buses, at stops, libraries, GP surgeries, post offices — essential for the cash-and-no-smartphone audience.
• Two local radio interviews (MD, not comms staff) at announcement and launch — radio over-indexes in rural areas and is harder to frame negatively than print.
• Proactive press pack + named spokesperson (the MD). One comms person owns all media contact; the other owns the webpage and social.
• Facebook only for social (rural demographics), plus parish council newsletters and community noticeboards for the four affected communities — free, trusted, local.
• What we are NOT doing: no advertising campaign, no Twitter/X presence, no app, no roadshow bus. Can’t staff them.

7. Phasing

Phase 0 — Stop the bleeding (Weeks 1–2, October)

• Baseline staff and passenger surveys (short, cheap — clipboard + online).
• Brief MD and depot managers; agree the honest answer on jobs/rotas.
• Quiet one-to-ones with the two petitioning councillors: acknowledge the leak, offer a full private briefing before anything public. Don’t ask them to drop petitions — offer them the information first.
• Build the webpage, press pack, FAQ, and driver script in the background.

Phase 1 — Staff first (Weeks 3–4)

• Depot briefings at every location, MD attends at least one session per depot. Driver FAQ cards printed. Feedback logged; questions answered in writing within 5 working days.

Phase 2 — Full public announcement (Week 5, early November)

• Publish everything: full network map, route-by-route impacts, the independent analysis (warts and all), and the mitigation offers.
• Press pack out under embargo; MD radio interview same day.
• Brief all councillors/MPs 24 hours ahead, in writing.

Phase 3 — Community engagement (November–January)

• One public meeting per withdrawn-route community, held in the village, evening, MD or ops director present. Format: 10 min honest presentation, 40 min listening, 10 min on alternatives.
• Explore mitigations in public: demand-responsive transport pilot, community transport partnership, revised school/shopper services, minibus contracts. Even one saved or replaced service changes the whole story.
• Monthly “you said / we did” updates on the webpage.

Phase 4 — Build the positive (February–March)

• Shift messaging to the gains: new express route previews, fare-cap explainers (“a week of commuting for £X”), worked examples.
• Driver ambassadors: volunteers filmed/quoted on why the changes help passengers.
• Countdown begins on-bus: “Your route changes in 8 weeks — check yours.”

Phase 5 — Launch (April–May)

• 6-week countdown with route-specific alerts.
• Contactless transition push: demonstrations at bus stations, driver prompting, helpline number on every poster.
• Launch week: MD visible at key interchanges; press invited to ride the new express routes with real passengers.

8. Risk handling

Risk	Likelihood	Response
Petition story escalates to regional/national media	Medium	Don’t fight the petition; invite the councillors into the mitigation process publicly. If they refuse, that becomes visible. Hold a standing “response statement” ready.
Another leak	Medium	Phase 2 publishes everything, so there is nothing left to leak. Internally: brief managers on why, not just what; leaks come from excluded people.
Driver hostility / industrial friction	Medium-High	Union engagement from Phase 0, not Phase 3. Rotas and job questions answered in writing. Never let drivers learn timetable specifics from a passenger.
”Contactless = war on the elderly” storyline	High	Decide early and state plainly whether cash is retained. If yes, lead with it. If no, prepare a serious answer (onboard top-up cards, shop-based top-ups) before announcement — this is the story most likely to beat the route withdrawals in the press.
Meeting turns hostile / viral clip	Medium	MD chairs, stays calm, never says “only X passengers.” No filming restrictions (looks guilty). Publish our own full recording afterwards.
Analysis is challenged (“70% is rigged”)	Medium	Publish the methodology and the consultant’s name at announcement. Pre-brief one trusted local journalist on the numbers.
Mitigation for withdrawn routes fails to materialise	Medium	Never promise what isn’t funded. Commit to “exploring with you,” report honestly. An honest “we tried, here’s what we found” beats a broken promise.
Comms team overwhelmed	Certain at peaks	Pre-write everything in Phases 0–2 (statements, FAQs, social posts). MD does the broadcast media. Deprioritise social replies — point to webpage.

9. Measurement

• Monthly pulse (months 1–7): 100-passenger on-board/online survey — awareness, understanding, sentiment. ~2 hrs/month to run.
• Staff: confidence survey at months 1, 4, 7; question volume from driver FAQs as a proxy for confusion.
• Media: tone log of every article/broadcast (one comms person, 30 min/week) — target neutral-or-better majority from month 3.
• Digital: webpage visits, route-lookup usage, FAQ search terms (free analytics).
• Political: petition signature trajectory; councillor statements logged.
• Launch: contactless adoption %, complaint volumes vs. baseline, helpline call themes.
• Review: 30-minute team stand-up every Monday against this document; formal review at end of each phase — adjust channels and messages based on the pulse data, not on whoever shouted loudest that week.

10. What success looks like on launch day

The change happens, it isn’t a surprise to anyone, drivers are answering questions correctly rather than complaining with passengers, at least one withdrawn-route community has a real alternative in place or in trial, the petitioning councillors are on record saying the process was fair even if they disagree with the outcome, and the launch-day headline is about the new express routes and fare caps — not the withdrawals.

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First actions this week: agree the honest internal answer on jobs/rotas, book depot briefing dates, and request the baseline surveys. Everything else sequences from those three.

Westbrae Buses: Network Change Communications Strategy

Summary

We stop defending a leak and start leading a change: drivers first, the full plan published within three weeks, and the four withdrawn-route communities handled face to face rather than broadcast at.
The story is currently being told by other people, using partial information. That is the real problem, and it is fixable. Seven in ten passengers will be better off, but nobody is hearing that, because the only version in circulation is the one about loss. The strategy has five working principles:

1. Staff before public, every time. Drivers heard about the leak before we told them. From now on every milestone reaches depots at least 48 hours before it reaches anyone outside the company. Drivers are our largest and most trusted channel; they cannot be our weakest.
2. Publish everything, early. Partial information fuels petitions. We release the full plan, route by route, with the independent analysis, by week three. Nothing a councillor can “reveal” should be news.
3. Personal, not promotional. Passengers do not care about “the network”. They care about the 07:40 from their village. Every channel answers one question: what changes for my journey?
4. Go to the four communities; do not broadcast at them. Withdrawn routes get the MD in the room, named alternatives for every regular journey, and a real feedback window with the power to change details before the timetable is registered.
5. Don’t lead with the 70 per cent. It is our best proof point for press and councillors, and our worst opening line for someone whose bus is being taken away. It supports the story; it is not the story.
   Core proposition: Simpler fares, faster links and a network built around how people travel now, with a plan for every passenger, including those whose route is changing most.
   This document is written for a team of two. Section 8 says who does what each week; section 9 has the lines to use when things go wrong.

Situation

We start behind: a hostile frame is already set, internal trust is damaged, and we have eight months, two people and a modest budget to reverse both.
What we have going for us

• A plan that most passengers will benefit from, backed by independent analysis we can publish.
• Capped contactless fares: a concrete, easy-to-grasp gain that lands in every pocket.
• Two new express routes: a positive, visual story the press can photograph.
• Eight months: enough time to do this properly if we move in the first three weeks.
  What is against us
• The leak. Partial information is worse than none: it lets opponents fill the gaps. Two councillors now own the narrative and have petitions as a campaigning tool.
• The four withdrawn routes. Small numbers of passengers, but high visibility, strong local identity and a ready-made press frame: “war on rural passengers”.
• Driver morale. Drivers heard the news second-hand. They are asked questions by passengers every day and currently have no answers, or worse, the councillors’ answers.
• Capacity. Two people cannot run a mass-engagement programme alone. We will have to borrow people and time from operations and customer services.
  Strategic choices that follow

We will	We will not
Publish the full plan and analysis ourselves, early	Wait for launch, or drip-feed “good news” first
Treat drivers as the primary channel and brief them first	Rely on a notice on the depot board
Separate the withdrawn-route conversation from the wider network story	Bury withdrawals inside a positive launch release
Engage the two councillors directly and early, in person	Fight them in the press or on social media
Admit what is worse for some people	Claim everyone wins
Offer a real feedback window on details	Pretend the core decisions are open if they are not

The last row matters most. If the withdrawals are final, we say so plainly and consult on mitigation, not the decision. A fake consultation is the fastest way to turn a local grievance into a lasting one.

Objectives

Five objectives, each tied to a number we can actually collect with our own resources; targets are proposals to agree with the MD once baselines are in.

#	Objective	Target by launch (unless stated)
1	Rebuild driver confidence so drivers can explain the changes and feel informed	80% of drivers say they can explain the changes on their routes (pulse survey, month 6); zero milestones reach drivers after the public
2	Make every passenger aware of what changes for them	75% of regular passengers correctly name the change to their own route (onboard survey, weeks before launch)
3	Give every withdrawn-route passenger a workable alternative	100% of affected communities offered a face-to-face session; every identified regular journey matched to a named alternative or documented as unresolved
4	Shift the public narrative from “cuts” to “a better network, with care for those losing out”	Our case included in at least 80% of local press items; no story published without our response; neutral-or-better tone in at least 60% of coverage by month 6
5	Land the change smoothly	Contactless share of fares up by an agreed margin within 8 weeks; launch-month complaints no more than 50% above baseline and falling by week 4

Two things we are deliberately not setting as objectives: stopping the petitions (we cannot, and trying will look defensive) and winning over the two councillors (desirable, but outside our control). We aim instead to make the petitions less necessary: if people have the full facts and a way to be heard, fewer will sign, and signatures will carry less weight with the press.

Audiences

Three tiers, prioritised by how much the change hurts them and how much they can shape the story; tier 1 gets personal contact, tier 3 gets well-made mass communication.

Tier	Audience	What they need	What we want them to do	Owner
1	Drivers and depot staff (incl. union reps)	The full picture first, answers to passenger questions, an apology for the leak, a say in operational detail	Explain changes confidently; feed back problems; stop hearing news from the press	Comms Lead + MD + depot managers
1	Passengers on the four withdrawn routes	Honesty, a named alternative for their actual journeys, a human to talk to	Attend a session; tell us about journeys we have missed; try the alternative	Comms Lead + MD
1	The two petitioning councillors	To be taken seriously and not surprised again	Receive the full facts; work on mitigation with us, even while campaigning	MD (with Comms Lead)
1	Council transport officers and the regional transport partnership	Data, timelines, early sight of every change	Help with mitigation (tendered or demand-responsive services); act as calm voices	MD
2	Passengers on the twelve revised routes	Clear before/after for their stop and time	Check their journey; know launch date	Comms Officer
2	Other councillors, community councils, MSPs/MPs	A briefing pack and a named contact	Answer constituent queries accurately; not be caught out	Comms Lead
2	Local press and radio	Facts, access to the MD, real people, pictures	Report our case alongside criticism	Comms Lead
2	Journey-critical partners: schools, GP surgeries, hospital, colleges, care homes, older people’s groups	What changes for their users and when	Pass information on to people we cannot reach	Comms Officer
2	Customer services team	Scripts, FAQs, escalation route	Give consistent answers; log themes	Comms Officer
3	Passengers who gain (most of the 70%)	Simple news: cheaper, capped, faster	Switch to contactless; spread the word	Comms Officer
3	Potential new passengers on the express corridors	A reason to try the bus	Try an express journey in launch month	Comms Officer

Groups needing specific care within the tiers: concessionary pass holders (the fare cap means little to them, so do not lead with it), people without bank cards or smartphones (explain what happens to cash and tickets), and people with disabilities whose stop or route changes. Each needs its own FAQ entry and a route into customer services that does not depend on the website.

Core narrative and key messages

One story told the same way by the MD, drivers, customer services and the website: why we are changing, what gets better, who loses out and what we are doing about it.
The narrative (for internal use, about 100 words)
Our network was designed twenty years ago, and the way people travel has changed. We have spent [period] looking at how people actually use our buses, and independent analysis shows the new network will leave seven in ten passengers better off. Fares will be simpler and capped, so nobody pays more than [£X] a day. Two new express routes will cut journey times between [towns]. Twelve routes will run in patterns that match demand. Four routes carry so few passengers that we cannot keep running them as they are. That is a hard decision for those communities, and we are working with each of them on what replaces it.
Message pillars

Pillar	Message	Proof points
Simpler, fairer fares	Tap on, and you will never pay more than [£X] a day or [£Y] a week	Worked examples by town; typical saving per week
Faster links	New express services connect [town] and [town] in [n] minutes	Before/after journey times
A network that fits	Twelve routes redesigned around when and where people travel	Usage data; stop-level before/after
Honest about loss	Four routes are being withdrawn; here is what each community will have instead	Named alternatives; mitigation partners; session dates
Open and listening	Everything is published; tell us what we have missed before [date]	Feedback channels; “you said, we did” updates

Messages for the withdrawn-route communities
These need particular care. Language to use and avoid:

Say	Avoid	Why
”Route [n] carried an average of [x] passengers a journey"	"Low-usage route”	Real numbers are more persuasive and less dismissive
”We know this makes some journeys harder"	"Nobody will be worse off”	It is untrue, and one counter-example destroys trust
”Here is how you can still get to [hospital, town, school]"	"Alternative provision is available”	Specific beats abstract
”The decision is made; the details are not"	"We are consulting” (if we are not)	Protects credibility
”We should have told you ourselves, and we are sorry you heard it this way”	Silence about the leak	Acknowledging the leak removes a grievance

Messages for drivers

• “You should have heard this from us first. You didn’t, and that was our failure.”
• “From now on you will hear every change before the public does.”
• “You know these routes better than anyone. Tell us what we have got wrong before timetables are fixed.”
• Practical: what changes for rosters, duties and depots, and when. If there are job or shift implications, they must be stated plainly here, early. I do not know if there are, and this is a question for the MD.
  The 70 per cent statistic
  Use it with press, councillors and in the published analysis. Always pair it with the honest counterpart: “and for the rest, here is what we are doing.” Do not put it on posters in the four affected communities. We also need to know who the other 30 per cent are: if most are simply neutral rather than worse off, say so, as it changes the story considerably.

Channels

The bus itself is our biggest channel: drivers, stops and the inside of every vehicle reach more passengers each week than any paid media we could afford.

Channel	Role	Audience	Effort	Notes
Driver briefings (depot sessions, pocket Q&A card, WhatsApp or app broadcast)	Primary internal channel; drivers become messengers	Drivers, then passengers	Medium	Short sessions at shift changes, not one big meeting. Card updated at each phase
Onboard and at-stop print	Route-specific before/after; launch date; where to get help	All passengers	High (logistics)	Stop panels in March to April; onboard posters rotate monthly. Large type
Door-to-door leaflets	Town-by-town “what changes here”	Tier 1 and 2 passengers, non-digital households	Medium, biggest cost	One version per town or corridor, not one generic leaflet. Timed for Nov and April
Website: journey checker and full plan	Single source of truth; analysis published in full	Everyone, press, councillors	Medium	A simple route or stop lookup beats a PDF. Could be a searchable table if budget is tight
Community drop-ins	Face-to-face listening in the four withdrawn-route communities and major towns	Tier 1 communities	High (people time)	Village halls, a bus parked in the square on market day. MD attends the four withdrawn-route sessions
Councillor and stakeholder briefings	No surprises; accurate information for people who get asked	Councillors, MSPs/MPs, officers, community councils	Low to medium	Briefing pack updated each phase; 48-hour embargoed sight of announcements
Local press and radio	Proactive announcements, MD interviews, real passenger stories	Wider public	Medium	Regular relationship with the two or three key editors, not just releases
Facebook, especially local community groups	Where rural conversation happens; correcting misinformation calmly	Tier 2 and 3	Medium, ongoing	Post in groups where admins allow; answer questions factually; never argue
Partner networks (GP surgeries, libraries, schools, pharmacies, older people’s groups)	Reach people who do not read our channels	Vulnerable and non-digital passengers	Low per partner	Provide posters and a short email they can forward
Customer services (phone, email)	Answers for people who need a person	Everyone, especially older passengers	Medium	Scripts and FAQs updated every phase; log themes weekly
Email, SMS, app (if we hold customer data)	Direct notice to known users of affected routes	Registered customers	Low	Check what data and consents we hold
Targeted paid social	Promote express routes and fare cap at launch	Tier 3, potential passengers	Low	Small spend, launch month only

What we will not do

• A glossy launch event before the withdrawals are settled. It would become the photograph for the “war on rural passengers” story.
• Argue with the councillors or petition organisers online. We correct facts once, politely, and link to the full plan.
• Radio or print advertising campaigns. The budget is better spent on leaflets and stop panels.
• A single generic leaflet. It is cheaper, and it fails the “what changes for me” test.

Phasing

The first three weeks decide the whole campaign: if drivers are briefed and the full plan is public by the end of October, we are explaining rather than defending for the next seven months.
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The registration deadline is the hinge: feedback that arrives after it cannot change the timetable, so the listening window must close early enough for planners to act on it.

Phase	Key actions	Done when
1 Reset (October, weeks 1 to 3)	Week 1: MD and Comms Lead visit every depot at shift changes, apologise for the leak, share the full plan and a driver Q&A card, invite driver champions. MD phones both petitioning councillors and council transport officers and offers an in-person briefing. Week 2: briefing pack to all councillors, MSPs/MPs and community councils, 48 hours before publication. Week 3: publish the full plan, route-by-route tables, the independent analysis and an FAQ; brief local editors; MD interview. Capture all baselines.	Every depot briefed before publication; plan live; baselines recorded
2 Explain (late October to December)	MD-led sessions in each of the four withdrawn-route communities, logging every hard case. Open drop-ins in the main towns, including a bus parked on market day. First town-specific leaflet drop with the feedback deadline. Journey checker live. Partner packs to GP surgeries, schools, libraries and older people’s groups. Customer services scripts. December driver pulse and onboard awareness survey.	Four sessions held; leaflets delivered; every hard case logged with an owner
3 Listen and adjust (January to mid March)	Feedback window closes at the end of January (confirm against the registration date). Planning reviews every submission. Mitigation for withdrawn routes agreed in writing with the council. “You said, we did” published in February, covering changes made and not made, with reasons. Return visits to the four communities to present mitigation. Routes registered. March driver pulse.	Changes published; routes registered; mitigation confirmed
4 Prepare (mid March to mid May)	Final timetables printed. Stop panels installed a week ahead with “from [date]” banners. Onboard posters. Second leaflet drop with final times. Contactless explainer covering the cap, cash and what to do without a card. Driver training days. Customer services rehearsal. Launch volunteers recruited. April awareness survey. Press ride on an express route in early May. Go or no-go meeting two weeks out.	Ticketing tested, panels in, drivers trained, lines agreed
5 Launch (late May, two weeks)	Staff in tabards at 10 to 15 key stops for the first week. Daily 09:00 stand-up with operations and customer services. Monitoring twice a day; fast-fix route for errors. MD rides the network, including the replacement services. Launch story led by passengers who gain, with an honest line on the withdrawals. Paid social for the express routes and fare cap.	Complaints peak then fall; no press query unanswered
6 Settle (June to July)	Eight-week review with ticketing and complaints data. Report back publicly and to each of the four communities. Thank drivers publicly, by name where they agree. Log adjustments for the next registration window. Lessons-learned session.	Review published; next adjustments scheduled

Running it with a team of two
Two people can run this only if they split the work cleanly, borrow people from elsewhere in the business, and protect a fixed weekly rhythm.
Division of roles

Comms Lead	Comms Officer
Strategy, MD liaison and sign-off	Content production: leaflets, posters, web, social
Councillors, officers, MSPs/MPs	Journey checker and website updates
Press relationships and interviews	Social media monitoring and replies
Withdrawn-route communities (with the MD)	Partner networks and customer services FAQs
Driver engagement (with depot managers)	Print and distribution logistics
Issues and crisis handling	Measurement: surveys, logs, monthly dashboard

People to borrow (agree these with the MD in week one)

• Driver champions: one or two per depot, volunteered not appointed, given an hour a month and first sight of materials. They answer peer questions and tell us what drivers are really saying.
• Depot managers: run the shift-change briefings from a pack we supply.
• Customer services lead: weekly 15-minute call on complaint themes.
• Planning or scheduling lead: the source of every route fact. Nothing goes out without their check.
• Office staff volunteers: a pool of 10 to 15 people for launch fortnight to stand at key stops in branded tabards.
  Weekly rhythm

When	What	Who
Monday, 30 min	Plan the week; review last week’s log	Both
Tuesday	Press and stakeholder calls	Comms Lead
Wednesday, 30 min	MD check-in: decisions, sign-offs, risks	Comms Lead + MD
Thursday	Content published; social replies batch	Comms Officer
Friday, 15 min	Customer services and driver champion themes	Comms Officer
Daily, 15 min	Social and press monitoring, morning and afternoon	Comms Officer (Lead covers)

Sign-off: agree now that the Comms Lead can approve routine content and reactive press lines alone, with only major announcements going to the MD. Slow sign-off is the most common reason small teams lose press cycles.
Budget priorities (proportions, since I do not know the figure)

Item	Share
Route-specific leaflets, printing and door-to-door distribution	35%
Stop panels and onboard print	25%
Journey checker and web updates	15%
Community sessions (halls, refreshments, accessibility)	10%
Launch paid social and express route promotion	10%
Contingency for reactive print or corrections	5%

If the budget cannot stretch to door-to-door drops everywhere, prioritise the four withdrawn-route areas and towns on the most-changed routes, and rely on stop panels elsewhere.

Risk handling

The most likely damaging story is not about the network at all: it is one named, sympathetic person who can no longer get to hospital, so we find those people before the press does.
Risk register

Risk	Likelihood	Impact	Early warning	Response
Human-interest story from a withdrawn route (older passenger, hospital or school journey)	High	High	Comments at drop-ins; Facebook posts; councillor mentions a named case	Log every hard case at sessions. Contact them personally before they are quoted. Offer MD phone call; show the specific alternative. Respond to press with the case-specific fix, never a generic line
Further leaks of timetable or internal detail	Medium	Medium	Journalist asks about unpublished detail	Publishing everything early removes most leak value. Keep drafts to a small list. If it happens, publish the full version same day
Petitions presented with a media event	High	Medium	Councillor announces hand-in date	Offer to receive it in person; MD attends, listens, answers briefly, invites organisers to the next session. Never decline to accept
Driver discontent becomes public or turns into industrial relations issue	Medium	High	Champion feedback; union rep contact; social posts by staff	MD depot visits in week one; early answers on rosters. Loop in HR and union reps before any roster changes are announced
Factual error in our own materials	Medium	Medium	Customer services or driver flags	Planning sign-off on all route facts. Correct publicly and quickly; thank whoever spotted it
Contactless or ticketing failure at launch	Medium	High	Testing results in April	Agree a fallback now (e.g. accept payment later, fares waived for the day). Prepared line and driver instruction ready before launch
Stop panels and timetables wrong or late on day one	Medium	High	Print and installation tracker	Install one week ahead with “from [date]” banners; spot-check sample stops; staff on key stops
Political escalation (MSP/MP, regional council motion)	Medium	Medium	Parliamentary questions; council agenda	MD offers briefing in advance; send full data; keep officers warm
Social media pile-on	Medium	Low to medium	Spike in mentions	One factual reply with a link; move individuals to direct message or phone; do not delete critical comments

Holding lines (adapt, do not read verbatim)

• On the withdrawals: “Route [n] carried an average of [x] people a journey. We could not keep running it as it was, and we know that is hard for the people who rely on it. We are working with each community on what replaces it, and we want to hear about any journey we have not yet solved.”
• On the leak: “People should have heard this from us, in full, and we are sorry they didn’t. Everything is now published at [web address].”
• On “war on rural passengers”: “Most of our passengers live in small towns and villages, and most of them will pay less and travel faster. For the four communities losing a route, we are putting in [alternatives] and meeting every one of them.”
• On a named hard case: “We have spoken to [name] and here is how we are helping with that journey.” Only with their consent.
  Escalation: Comms Officer spots, Comms Lead decides the response within two hours in working time, MD is told immediately if a story involves a named passenger, a staff member, safety or a politician. Agree now who covers evenings and weekends in the launch fortnight.

Measurement

We measure with tools we already have or can run cheaply, report monthly on one page to the MD, and treat leading indicators as a steering wheel rather than a scorecard.

Objective	Measure	Source	Frequency	Target
1 Drivers	”I can explain the changes on my routes” and “I feel informed”	Five-question pulse survey (paper at depots and online)	Months 1, 3, 6	80% agree by month 6
1 Drivers	Milestones reaching depots before the public	Comms log	Each milestone	100%
2 Awareness	Passengers who can name their route’s change	Onboard intercept survey, 200 to 300 passengers across routes, run by volunteers	Months 3 and 7	75% by month 7
2 Awareness	Journey checker visits; leaflet reach	Web analytics; distribution counts	Monthly	Trend only
3 Withdrawn routes	Communities met; journeys matched to alternatives	Session log; hard-case tracker	Monthly	4 of 4 met; every logged case resolved or explained
4 Narrative	Share of coverage including our case; tone	Manual coverage log (one spreadsheet row per story)	Weekly log, monthly summary	80% include our case; 60% neutral or better by month 6
4 Narrative	Petition signature growth after the full plan is published	Petition pages	Weekly	Slowing growth after week 3
5 Launch	Contactless share of transactions	Ticketing data	Weekly from launch	Agreed uplift within 8 weeks
5 Launch	Complaints and enquiries by theme	Customer services log	Daily in launch fortnight, then weekly	Peak no more than 50% above baseline, falling by week 4
5 Launch	Patronage on express routes and revised routes	Ticketing data	Weekly from launch	Tracked against planning forecast

Baselines to capture in October: current complaint volume, contactless share, coverage tone over the last three months, and a quick driver pulse. Without these, none of the targets above means much.
The monthly dashboard is one page: five objectives, a traffic light each, three things that went well, three concerns, and decisions needed from the MD. Anything longer will not be read, and a team of two cannot afford to write it.

Assumptions and questions for the MD

This plan rests on assumptions I could not check; the answers to the questions below could change the phasing and several key messages.
Assumptions

• Launch is late May 2027, eight months from now.
• New registrations must be lodged with the Traffic Commissioner well ahead of launch (typically 70 days, plus earlier notice to the local transport authority). I have assumed a mid-March deadline; please confirm the exact date with the planning team, as it fixes the end of the feedback window.
• The four withdrawals are decided; timings, stops and connections on revised routes can still change.
• The fare cap applies across the network, and cash will still be accepted.
  Questions
• What is the confirmed launch date and registration deadline?
• What mitigation is realistically available for the four withdrawn routes: council-tendered replacement, demand-responsive transport, community transport partners, rerouted nearby services?
• Is anything about the withdrawals open? If a council were to fund a reduced service, would we run it?
• Who are the other 30 per cent: worse off, or simply no different?
• Are there roster, shift or job implications for drivers? Is there a recognised union, and have reps been briefed?
• What was leaked, how, and could it happen again? (Not to find someone to blame, but to know what else is out there.)
• What customer data and contact consents do we hold (app, smartcard, email)?
• Who is the spokesperson: the MD for everything, or an operations director for detail?
• What is the budget figure, and can we borrow staff time as set out in section 8?
• What are the fare cap levels and when will they be final?

Westbrae Buses: network change communications strategy

Working plan | Eight months to launch | Owners: Managing Director (MD), Communications Lead (CL), Communications Officer (CO)

The job

Help people understand exactly how their journeys and fares will change, give affected communities a real chance to influence decisions that remain open, and equip drivers to answer questions confidently. Communications cannot make the withdrawal of four routes painless. Westbrae must show what it has done to reduce the harm and be candid where no workable alternative exists.
First decision for the MD: approve a one-page statement of what is final, what is proposed, and what evidence or funding could change a proposal. Do this before calling any engagement a consultation. Give the two-person comms team named contacts in network planning, operations, fares and customer service who can answer questions and correct errors.

Objectives and tests

Objective	Test of success
Restore trust after the leak	Publish the full, verified picture promptly; correct known errors in the leaked account; keep a dated public record of changes to the plan.
Reach people most affected	By one month before launch, at least 80% of people sampled in the four withdrawal areas know the change date and can identify their available travel option, or know whom to call if none exists.
Prepare staff	Brief every driver and customer-facing colleague before the full public announcement. In a short anonymous check, at least 90% say they know where to find the latest route and fare answers by one month before launch.
Make the new network usable	Every affected route has an accurate old-to-new journey guide, timetable and stop notice at least six weeks before launch; test common journeys with passengers before publication.
Handle concerns visibly	Acknowledge enquiries within two working days; answer straightforward questions within five. Publish a “you said, we did, we could not” account after engagement closes.
Reduce launch confusion	Track wrong-stop, wrong-time and fare-cap complaints by route each day during launch week; correct recurring problems the same day.

The targets are management goals, not claims about likely public opinion. Establish a baseline during the first month and adjust any target that cannot be measured credibly.

Audiences and channels

Audience and need	Primary contact
Passengers on withdrawn routes: whether they can still reach work, health care, shops and connections	Direct conversations at stops and community venues; notices on buses and at stops; a simple journey-by-journey leaflet; staffed phone line. Use local partners to reach people who are not online.
Passengers on revised routes: their new stop, time and connection	Route-specific web pages and printed timetables; on-bus cards; stop notices; journey planner and third-party data updates.
Fare-paying passengers: what the cap means for their travel	A plain-English fare guide with worked examples, exclusions, payment instructions and what to do if a charge looks wrong. Test it with people who have never used contactless.
Drivers and customer-facing staff: reliable answers and a route for raising problems	Depot briefings on paid time, a two-page change sheet, a searchable answer sheet and a daily correction channel near launch. Depot managers own attendance.
Councillors, local authorities and community leaders: full evidence and a route to challenge it	A common briefing pack and scheduled meetings, including with petition organisers. Record requests and responses. Do not ask them to defend Westbrae’s decision.
Schools, employers, health providers and accessibility groups: effects on essential journeys	Targeted calls using mapped journey impacts; invite practical alternatives and test proposed connections with them.
Local media: clear facts and accountable spokespeople	The same public evidence pack, route maps and named spokesperson. Offer a visit to an affected community with the MD. Answer the strongest criticism directly.

The website is the single current source. Each printed item carries a version date, phone number and short web address. The phone line and printed guides remain essential for rural passengers. Provide large-print and other accessible formats on request; check language needs with local partners rather than assuming them.

Message framework

1. What is changing: “Next spring, twelve routes will change, four are proposed for withdrawal, two express routes will begin, and capped contactless fares will be introduced.” Use proposed only where a decision is genuinely open.
2. Why: Show the demand, cost, reliability and journey evidence for each route. Publish enough of the independent analysis for others to understand its method and limits.
3. Who benefits and who loses: “Independent analysis estimates that 70% of current passengers will be better off under the package.” Before using this line, verify its denominator, whether “better off” means fare, time or access, and the result for each affected community. Follow it immediately with the impact on those who lose a service.
4. What Westbrae is doing about harm: Give a specific answer for each withdrawn route: viable connections, timetable adjustments, community transport discussions or funding options. Label unconfirmed options as such.
5. What people can influence: State the questions open for comment, the deadline, who decides, and when Westbrae will publish reasons for its decisions.
6. What to do next: Point each person to their route guide, fare example or a human adviser.
   Tone rule: Lead with the journey a person may lose before talking about aggregate benefits. Never describe a withdrawn route as “low usage” without acknowledging the people who depend on it. Do not promise a replacement until an operator, funding and start date are confirmed.

Eight-month timetable

When	Action and output	Owner
Now: first 72 hours	MD meets drivers and depot managers, acknowledges they heard the leak first and explains the decision status. Issue a short public statement confirming the scale of change, the date for a full pack and how urgent journey concerns can be raised. Contact both petitioning councillors and all other relevant representatives with the same verified facts. Set up one question log.	MD; CL
Months 8–7	Audit the 70% claim and route-level impact, including essential journeys and accessibility. Create an old-to-new route matrix and mark every fact as final, proposed or unverified. Publish the full proposal and four withdrawal-area fact sheets together. Start baseline staff and passenger checks.	Planning and fares leads; CL
Months 7–6	Hold a time-limited listening period, with sessions in all four withdrawal areas at usable times and an option to respond by phone, post or online. Ask about specific trips and workable alternatives. Log each substantive issue, owner and response date.	CL; CO; planning lead
Month 5	MD and planning lead decide and document changes. Publish a response report: what changed, what did not, why, and any still-unresolved access gap. Brief staff first, then councillors, partners, passengers and media within the same day.	MD; planning lead; CL
Months 4–3	Build route-by-route journey guides and fare examples. Test at least five common journeys on each changed route, including a connection and a concessionary or non-contactless case where relevant. Correct maps, stop lists, payment wording and journey-planner data.	CO; operations and fares leads
Month 2	Publish final timetables and route guides; begin sustained stop, bus, community and local-media notices. Target the four withdrawal areas with direct distribution and staffed sessions. Run a driver briefing at each depot.	CO; depot managers
Month 1	Repeat awareness and staff checks; fill gaps. Test the contactless cap with real-world scenarios, the customer help process and every public journey-planning channel. Run a launch-day rehearsal for a missed connection, inaccurate data and payment failure.	CL; operations and fares leads
Launch week	Staff a daily issues meeting and update one public “latest changes” page. Put extra help at affected interchanges and stops. Correct significant errors across web, stops, staff guidance and data feeds together.	Operations lead; CL
First four weeks after launch	Publish weekly fixes and a four-week review covering actual journey and fare problems, especially in withdrawal areas. Commit to any timetable corrections with dates and owners.	MD; planning lead; CL

The team should not run sixteen separate campaigns. Use one master route-and-fare fact sheet, from which the website, driver sheet, press answers, leaflets and stop notices are produced. CL owns the facts, stakeholder contact and approvals; CO owns publication, distribution and the enquiry log. Network planning supplies route answers, operations supplies staff time and stop access, fares supplies tested payment rules, and customer service handles individual cases. The MD approves decisions and is the public face of difficult trade-offs.

Risks and response rules

Trigger	Response	Lead
Another leak or false route claim spreads	Check the claim with planning within two hours. Publish a dated correction in the common question log and give the same correction to drivers, councillors and media. Do not speculate about a source.	CL
Petition or hostile headline	Acknowledge the underlying journey concern; offer the route evidence and a meeting; name the practical options being tested. The MD answers questions about withdrawals. Track factual errors for correction, not criticism for rebuttal.	MD; CL
Evidence shows someone may lose access to an essential trip	Escalate to planning and the relevant authority within one working day. Record the journey, possible mitigation, decision owner and deadline. Communicate the outcome directly to those affected where possible.	Planning lead
Drivers report wrong information or cannot answer questions	Correct the master sheet first, then all channels. Give depot managers a same-day update and a short script for unresolved cases.	CO; operations lead
Contactless cap fails or charges appear wrong	Stop promotional claims about savings affected by the fault. Publish the affected payment types, interim advice, refund route and update time. The fares lead owns the fix; comms owns clarity.	Fares lead; CL
Timetable, stop notice or journey-planner data disagree	Treat as a passenger-impact incident. Operations confirms the operating plan; CO corrects owned channels; the data owner updates external feeds and checks that changes appear.	Operations lead
Engagement cannot change a proposal	Say so before inviting views. Offer a route for evidence about harm and mitigation, and publish the decision rationale.	MD

A useful opening response to the leak is: “Some details of our planned network changes have circulated before we could brief our drivers and communities. We are sorry. The information is incomplete. We will publish the full route-by-route proposals, their reasons and the ways to respond by [date]. We know the proposed withdrawals raise serious concerns, and we want to hear about the journeys people rely on.”

Measurement and weekly control

CO maintains a simple dashboard, reviewed for 30 minutes each week by CL, planning, operations and customer service:

• Reach: leaflet delivery and stop-notice checks by route; visits to route pages; calls from affected areas. Reach figures show contact, not understanding.
• Understanding: short, consistent questions at stops and by phone: “Does your usual journey change?”, “When?”, “What will you do instead?” Record the sample size and locations.
• Staff readiness: briefing attendance, anonymous two-question confidence pulse, unresolved driver questions.
• Response quality: enquiries by topic and route, answer time, corrections made, and hardship cases still open.
• Operational reality: missed-connection and wrong-information complaints per 10,000 journeys, cap disputes, refunds, and any documented loss of access to essential trips. Compare with a pre-launch baseline where possible.
• Decision accountability: number of material suggestions received, adopted, rejected with reasons, or awaiting a named decision.
  Escalation rule: any issue affecting an essential journey, safety, accessibility or repeated incorrect fares goes to its operational owner the same day. A rising complaint count may mean Westbrae has finally reached people who were previously unheard; investigate the cause before treating it as a communications failure.

Immediate sign-offs needed

Within one week, the MD should confirm the launch date, jurisdiction and registration timetable; the true status of each route decision; the independent analysis and permission to publish its method; named operational owners; a modest print, outreach and contingency budget; and protected depot briefing time. If these are not available, publish a clear interim timetable for providing them. Avoid announcing precise alternatives or savings that the business has not verified.
External practice check: Transport Focus advises early engagement, targeted publicity for affected passengers and visible consideration of responses in bus service reviews. For an operator in England or Wales, network changes also require a separate registration and local-authority process; in England, timetable and fare data must be kept current for journey-planning services. These operational requirements should be checked against Westbrae’s actual jurisdiction and arrangements. Transport Focus · Traffic Commissioners’ guide · Bus Open Data Service guidance