Transport for Cornwall brand and trademark being used by Citybus with no valid licence from Cornwall Council
11 September 2026

Transport for London (TfL) is a transport system that combines bus, underground, overground rail, trams, river transport and even a cable car into one integrated system. It provides a centralised, cohesive fare and charging structure. It provides comprehensive real time information on all of the services. It has benefited from billions of pounds of public money to help build, maintain and run the infrastructure but most users will agree that it has been a great success and it is the envy of other local transport authorities across the U.K.

Some years ago, transport officers in Cornwall Council had an ambition to try to create a mini TfL in Cornwall with the brand of Transport for Cornwall (TfC) and it was registered as a trademark by the Council. Initially, the plan concentrated on trying to integrate the bus services, although a token effort was made to include the rail operators with occasional mention of rail facilities on the first version of the Transport for Cornwall website.

However, Cornwall Council chose not to control the use of the trademark and brand themselves to ensure that all public transport providers, and particularly all bus companies, were given fair and equitable treatment in the use of the brand. Instead, the Council opted to give away the right to use the brand Transport for Cornwall to Plymouth Citybus the subsidiary of the Go Ahead group and operator of Go Cornwall buses. What are presented as the Transport for Cornwall website and Transport for Cornwall app are, in fact, a Go Cornwall Bus website and app with the brand name Transport for Cornwall. The Transport for Cornwall partnership has become somewhat depleted after First Bus were forced out of Cornwall by Go Cornwall Bus’s aggressive move to run competing services on First’s main commercial routes. However, the partnership is supposed still to include Stagecoach who operate services in north east and south east Cornwall. The TfC website does not provide current timetable information about Stagecoach services - it includes them in the twice yearly timetable book but this is hardly available anywhere and is out of date within weeks of being printed; the updated Stagecoach timetables from 30 August are nowhere to be found on the TfC website. The TfC smartphone app which is supposed to show bus departures at all bus stops shows only Go Cornwall Bus times and does not show Stagecoach times or National Express coach times, even though other apps and websites are available that show all operators, see new bus tracking website.

In the last couple of days, emails have been sent out from the Transport for Cornwall website to passengers saying, “We want to hear from you” and asking them to complete an online survey. The email has as its header the logo for Transport for Cornwall and lower in the email it says “Part of Go Ahead” as though Transport for Cornwall is part of them! Furthermore, if you click on the link to the survey, you find that it is an unashamedly Go Ahead survey where you first have to say which buses you use such as Brighton and Hove, East Yorkshire etc. Go Cornwall Bus is on the list but no other Cornwall bus operator is there. See screenshots below.

I asked Dan Rogerson, the portfolio holder for Transport at Cornwall Council, a public question at a recent Cabinet meeting as follows:
"Why did Cornwall Council award a contract to Citybus to maintain the Transport for Cornwall website when, on the company’s own admission, it does not have the in-house IT skills even to ensure that timetables on the website are correct and up to date?”
The reply that I received was as follows:
"In the Portfolio Holder for Transport’s absence, the Deputy Leader provided the following response.
There is no contract awarded by Cornwall Council to Citybus/Go Cornwall Bus (GCB) to maintain the Transport for Cornwall (TfC) website. The website is funded by GCB and maintained by GCB. The website uses the Transport for Cornwall branding under licence and this is clearly stated on the site itself.
The website is designed not to publish timetable information until a service is live. This has always been the case and is an established feature of the system, rather than an indication of any inability to update information. We are not aware of any admission from GCB that it lacks the in-house capability to maintain the website. It is also worth noting that the TfC app is widely regarded as industry-leading, with a user rating of 4.7 out of 5 from almost 1,000 reviews. This reflects the reliability and quality of the digital information provided to our passengers.”
The confidence expressed in the supposed quality of the website is frankly complacent when I have pointed out to the portfolio holder numerous deficiencies in the website over the past couple of years.

After receiving that answer, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for a copy of the licence between Cornwall Council and Plymouth Citybus that allowed them to use the Transport for Cornwall brand. The first answer that I received (which was later than the supposed 20 working days deadline) provided a copy of the supposed agreement but it was not dated and it was not signed by either party. However, one of the clauses in it said, "This Agreement shall commence on the Effective Date and shall continue, unless terminated earlier in accordance with this clause 16, until 31 March 2025 when it shall expire automatically without notice.”
I followed up with a request for a review of the answer because I was uncertain whether or not this really was the right document (unsigned and expired) and asked if there was a signed copy and/or if there was a copy of any agreement extending it beyond the termination date of March 2025.
I received a reply that told me that there were no other documents relating to this issue - what I had received already was all that there was. See FOI review response.

What this means is that even if the Council and Plymouth Citybus considered that the unsigned document represented a valid licence agreement between them for use of the Transport for Cornwall brand, the clause about its termination meant that it is no longer valid and that, therefore, there is currently no valid licence agreement between the two parties.

In other words, either the statement from the Cabinet meeting that "the website uses the Transport for Cornwall branding under licence” is false; or the response to my FOI request saying that there are no other relevant documents is false. They cannot both be true.

I have asked Dan Rogerson, the portfolio holder for Transport, and Adam Paynter, the deputy leader who read out the reply on behalf of Dan, if they will apologise for the false statement made at the Cabinet meeting and have asked what action they will take against Citybus for continuing to use the TfC brand when they do not have a licence to do so.