Written evidence from Okehampton Town Council (TIC 097)
Present: Okehampton Town Councillors: C Marsh, A Leech (These also West Devon Borough Councillors), M Davies (Mayor), T Cummings, P Vachon, J Goffey and Dr. M Ireland (Chair)
A Aiano (Dartmoor Rescue) Mrs P Sawyer (Community Transport Group) T Baxter (Dartmoor Railway Volunteers) Mrs Parker ( local Bus Transport campaigner)
Comments as per bullet points.
Statistics are collected by DCC (Devon County Council) as to Community Transport usage. These are used in the County Transport plan. Local councils lobby County with specific issues. Local travel companies survey users as to local destination and ultimate destination. The statistics from the local council adhoc survey with the private volunteer railway company operating the Dartmoor line (Okehampton to Exeter –Sundays only) were sent to DCC as DCC has plans to extend the railway network with new branch lines. The Tarka (Barnstaple) and Avocet (Exmouth) have proved extremely popular not only with tourists but also with locals for work and shopping trips. We are working towards this daily service operating from Okehampton.
Who pays the cost of these surveys? Community transport was asked to complete a survey of shop/spend statistics but no idea who collated the responses or what they were used for.
Census information is used to predict transport needs such as Bus Pass numbers and school transport but not to estimate public transport requirements.
NB. Statistics are collected from passengers..however...the isolated rural population with no access to transport are not included in these surveys!
2. To what extent are the needs of different groups of passengers (eg people with disabilities, older people, young people) taken into account in determining the provision of public transport to isolated communities?
Community Transport reports that people with medical appointments can be sent around the county and beyond..to hospitals from Okehampton to Torbay, Exeter, Barnstaple or Frenchay in Bristol.Taxis would be prohibitively expensive and so Community Transport cars are used for these trips. This means that social users ie. elderly ladies going to the hairdressers or people attending RVS Lunch Clubs cannot be assisted adequately and consequently there is a rise in social exclusion for the rural elderly.
Inadequate public transport for young people going to College and back can deter them from attending. We have heard of young people being left stranded and having to ask for lifts.
Private transport companies have to be financially viable, rail franchisees have shareholders who expect dividends, so it is very much a case of Commerce first and Community last! Very rural hamlets not on main roads become increasingly inaccessible to any but car owners. This is partially why 2nd home owners have added to the depopulation of villages and make public transport even more unviable.
The working day is not 9-5 for all workers, many factories etc, work 24 hour shifts. Anyone commuting to Exeter needs personal transport. Even car sharing has problems in the case of illness/shift patterns but are still better than waiting 2 hours for a bus! Workers have their benefit taken away if they refuse a placement yet Plymouth is not directly accessible by public transport from Okehampton.
In some countries, school buses are also available for community usage. The Highlands and Islands has a Post Bus service combining postal delivery with passenger transport, seats booked by telephone and return time by negotiation. In this country legislation mitigates against flexibility of transport. There is no integration of services. In cities one can buy a ticket for a metro-bus combination. But in rural areas we cannot even go into the city by one bus service and home by the competitor. Competing companies should be integrating services not making life even more difficult for the rural traveller. Especially when services can be hours apart. The fragmentation of services is not conducive to either work or social journeys. The students from rural areas travelling into Exeter by bus, cannot travel directly into Plymouth and get home again. There is a new late night bus to and from Exeter which comes out via the villages but returns to Exeter via the A30 and bypasses the villages...so for example, they can get into Okehampton for the cinema, but cannot get home again! The social circle is wide in rural areas because of the population paucity, kids make friends at school and college but cannot visit each other unless parents provide transport. Social isolation is a deprivation not only for the elderly.
3. What are the main challenges associated with providing better and more consistent bus and rail services to isolated communities? How can these challenges be overcome?
The main challenges are due to market forces and the problems of funding Community Interest companies. Again..we need joined up services..in Spain you can order a computerized ticket for cross transport travel. Perhaps the cities (Transport for London, Newcastle and Merseyside Metro) should subsidise rural services? The over 60’s in London get not only free bus passes (as do schoolchildren) but also free Tube fare. Our rural elderly get a free bus pass but some cannot access a bus to use it on.. and children over 16 now have to pay a fee for school transport for sixth form/college. This has a seriously detrimental effect on poor rural families. Rural transport is paid for by local taxes so with a small population the costs are exponentially higher.
Second home buyers give the impression rural areas are wealthy but the per capita income of people living and working in rural areas is considerably lower. The high cost of fuel increases the living costs of the rural poor. The 5p reduction in fuel costs was only for the far north and island communities. Perhaps the 1 ½ m cost of this should be used to increase rural county transport systems throughout the country.
We should aim to reduce road congestion by implementing Transport Hubs....Okehampton, Tavistock, Barnstaple, Bude. The new rail link from Bude to Barnstaple has proved there is a need for this service and it is increasingly used both by tourists and locals. Buses could pick up from villages to take people to the nearest Hub station. The Sunday Dartmoor Rover ticket proved this system worked but it needs to be a daily service. The service was subsidized by DCC and has now been cut as part of the general funding cuts suffered by local authorities. This works well in the cities and needs to be replicated in the country, integrated (or nationalised) transport systems are the answer.
4. How effectively do Community Transport services address the needs of passengers in isolated communities? How could Community Transport be improved?
With reference to Community Transport, DCC set the routes. With the changes in benefits, fewer people qualify and young families are reluctant to use it as it is seen as a service for the elderly and not ‘cool’. Community cars are used mainly for access to health care. We do have to be careful, this service relies on volunteer drivers and we cannot expect volunteers to fulfil all the population needs. Community cars cannot be used to collect people from hamlets to nearest bus stop as there is no guarantee the bus will run. People would be left stranded (and in fact, are,) when buses break down or are caught up in traffic jams (accidents closing the A30 etc. are common in summer). Buses should have radio contact so replacement buses can be sent out in these events. In cities, the bus stops have a message system (e.g. – next bus in 5 minutes) whereas in the country you can stand for over an hour with no knowledge of where and when the bus is finally arriving. This is extremely stressful if one has a train or plane to catch.
5. To what extent should passengers in isolated communities be expected to rely on taxis and other demand-responsive transport services?
The rural poor cannot afford taxis unless they are able to coordinate a group to travel! Edge of town people use taxis for big shopping expeditions, say, once a week. The Town bus which runs out to the peripheral estates ceases running shortly after 5pm so no use to people who work. It has been said that the driver will not wait at stops but if there is no-one there, he continues on his way so the timetable cannot be trusted, which is difficult for as the passengers don’t know if he has passed by or not! Horrendous, if you live in a village and cannot get home - Especially if you live alone and have no family to taxi you or you are a young teenager at risk of passing ‘helpful strangers’. The safety aspect of old and young having to walk miles down dark lanes. The DCC Fair Car Scheme subsidizing taxis worked well in really rural areas but again, the funding was axed.
6. What are the main challenges associated with funding transport services in isolated communities? How can these services be made more affordable?
The main challenges are funding and understanding the realities of rural life. New services take time to build support as people realise they are available and can be trusted to run. Maybe rural transport should be run purely as a community service and not for profit. Maybe a franchisee should be set a service-providing contract with public funding to cover costs with a built in ‘cushion’ for repairs/replacement. Like trains, maybe bus companies should face penalty clauses for poor service?
Fuel tax reduced for public transport ..the Bus Service Operator Grant has been cut. Insurance costs are too high and maybe should be looked at nationally. There is no holistic system..and maybe there should be?
Finally...scrap the HS2 and put that money into Rural Transport Hubs and enable integrated Transport Systems.
September 2013