Bus Network Design and Route Planning

17 - 19. November 2026

Manchester, United Kingdom

Organisers

@TFGM

Europe Global Bus Data Infrastructure Passenger Experience Urban Planning Training

An attractive and integrated public transport network is essential for delivering high-quality mobility services and promoting sustainable transport. Well-designed public transport systems help cities remain accessible, livable, and competitive.

Bus network redesign plays a key role in achieving these objectives, particularly as cities expand, congestion increases, travel patterns evolve, or new high-capacity rail and bus corridors are introduced. These changes reshape travel demand and require cities, transport authorities, and operators to continuously adapt their networks.

At the same time, growing urban populations create higher demand for public transport without always being matched by increased funding. Optimising bus networks can improve operational efficiency, enhance service quality, better align services with demand, and encourage higher ridership while making the best use of available resources.

Bus network redesign may also be driven by the introduction of bus priority measures, changes in road space allocation, competitive tendering, or the adoption of new technologies. Regardless of the trigger, the objective remains the same: to provide a reliable, accessible, and modern bus system that meets the city’s mobility needs.

This training explores how to redesign bus networks to:

Increase ridership through more attractive services
Improve operational performance and efficiency
Better match transport supply with demand
Serve new urban developments and emerging travel patterns
Adapt networks to long-term changes in the transport system
Integrate new technologies such as electric buses and on-demand mobility
Better respond to the diverse needs of passengers through product differentiation

What You Will Learn

Broaden your knowledge and widen your perspective on bus network design by learning and sharing experience with professional leaders  
Get hands on experience working bus network planning as a tool  
Learn from practice on how to optimise your bus network  
Understand the impact of new technology and software to get more value out of bus network design 
Allow exchange of knowledge by tapping on UITP’s international expertise. 
Present and discuss the best practices adapted in the region and internationally.

Who is it for?

Staff from bus transport operators or authorities responsible for the route design, planning and scheduling
Staff from the industry worldwide involved in the market uptake in this area: ITS companies, software developers and more  
Staff from public transport planning departments such as strategy planners, land use planners, urban designers  
Professionals from bus planning operations, engineering, finance departments 
Professionals interested in obtaining a wider and international perspective on this topic and eager to learn more from best practice worldwide

Programme

Welcome, introduction to the programme and training participants

09:00 – 09:30

Session 1

Over the last decade, a growing number of cities decided to redesign or optimise their public transport networks. What are the reasons that such reorganisation was deemed to be necessary? Key issues to be discussed are:

Why has the redesign of bus networks become a trend worldwide?
How can we evaluate an existing network?
Is it possible to identify what makes a good (or poor) network?
What do passengers want? What do the transport authority and politicians want?
What do we want to achieve with network reorganisation of optimisation?

Break

10:30 – 11:00

Session 2

This session will look at various international examples (USA, Europe, Australia) of recent projects of bus network redesign. What can we recognise as common international best practice? And what are the key takeaways we can learn from these examples?

What were the reasons that a redesign of the bus network deemed to be necessary?
What were the objectives and goals set?
How was public consultation organised?
What were the guiding principles applied?
What was the impact of the new network on ridership?

Lunch

12:00 – 13:15

In this hands-on exercise, we will break into small groups to design bus networks for a fictional town. The resulting networks will be put on the wall for comparison and discussion by the group.

Session 3

End of Day 1

17:00 – 17:00

Session 4

This session will look at the different parametres and the process to follow when redesigning a bus network. There are different ways to cater with mobility needs of cities and their physical structure to match capacity and demand. Furthermore, travel demand is not constant. How to monitor changing routes? How to adjust the network with changing travel behaviours? The key questions to ask are:

What are the main design principles?
How do we take different user groups into account?
Do we focus on frequency or coverage?
How do we introduce a hierarchy of route layers in the bus system?
How to manage hassle free transfers and integration?
What does it imply for infrastructure and the built environment?
How to integrate a bus network with other mobility modes?

Break

10:00 – 10:30

Introduction of Bus networks at 3 levels (regional, suburban and urban) with facts and figures of all and a brief history why it becomes to the present organisation. Urban bus network will be described in a more detailed way.

Lunch

12:30 – 13:30

In this second planning game, we will tackle a larger fictional city with more complex land uses and geography, called Eastport. As in the previous day’s exercise, we will tack the finished networks to the wall, observe differences and similarities between them, and have a group discussion.

Case Study: DRT implementation in Bus Network

15:30 – 17:00

End of day 2

17:00 – 17:00

Session 5

With finite resources the operationalisation of a route plan becomes an integral and iterative part of the route planning process. This session aims at discussing the design of the Service Level in terms of intervals and timetables as well as the interaction with operations planning.

Session 6

This session will look at the data resources we need as input for the bus network design and how we can use these data for analysis of demand and supply. Furthermore, we discuss what support software for bus network design is nowadays available on the market.

What data resources we have?
What do we analysis to provide input for network design and route planning?
What kind of support software we have for network design?

Break

10:30 – 11:00

Case Study: Redesigning the bus network – towards a better sustainability

11:00 – 12:00

Workshop & discussion: Bus Network Design and Route Planning

12:00 – 13:00

Conclusion and certificates

13:00 – 14:00

Technical Visit – Transport for Greater Manchester

14:00 – 16:30

End of the programme

14:00 – 16:30

*UITP reserves the right to make amendments to the programme or any related activity at its discretion

A Top Level Methodology

Get inspired by our trainers, understand the main aspects of bus network design and route planning, and learn from successful best practice
Participate to interactive plenary sessions with introduction by course leaders, presentation by trainers and open discussion with participants
Challenge your practical knowledge on the effectiveness and quality of bus planning and scheduling
Address topics and issues from an international perspective, enriched by different cultural approaches and points of views
Participate in practical exercises ‚in the field’ allowing you to apply the principles and methods learnt during the training course
Benefit from a unique exchange of knowledge and experience between professionals

UITP Training Programmes and all related processes are certified for ISO 21001: 2018 – the standard for Educational organisations – Management systems for educational organisations.

Trainers

All UITP trainers are top level transport and mobility professionals with extensive experience in public transport and operations from different regions of the world. In addition, UITP invites guest speakers to illustrate specific solutions, practices and case studies.

Guido BRUGGEMAN

Bus Network Design Specialist, The Netherlands/Sri Lanka

	Until 6 October Register Now	From 7 October Register Now	Groups 4 or more persons Contact Us
UITP Member	€1,375	€1,850	€1,290
Non Members	€1,775	€2,450	€1,690
UITP Member ‚developing nations‘	€975	€1,375	€950
Non Member ‚developing nations‘	€1,225	€1,700	€1,150

Contact Us

Have a question? Contact our team if you need any additional information on this event.

Sunita KELECOM

Officer – Events Management Unit

Events & Academy Services

UITP Team

Email Sunita

Organisers

Register Now

Secure your place and take part in this training.

What You Will Learn

Who is it for?

Programme

Welcome, introduction to the programme and training participants

Introduction to Bus Network Design and Route Planning

Break

International examples of redesign of bus networks – Groningen

Lunch

Workshop

Principles for Bus Network Design and Route Planning (Part 1)

End of Day 1

Principles for Bus Network Design and Route Planning (Part 2)

Break

Case Study: Background-How people move by bus

Lunch

Workshop: Network planning game

Case Study: DRT implementation in Bus Network

End of day 2

Defining the Service Level for bus routes

Data collection, data analysis and support software

Break

Case Study: Redesigning the bus network – towards a better sustainability

Workshop & discussion: Bus Network Design and Route Planning

Conclusion and certificates

Technical Visit – Transport for Greater Manchester

End of the programme

A Top Level Methodology

Trainers

Guido BRUGGEMAN

Pricing

Contact Us

Sunita KELECOM

Organisers

Register Now