Written evidence submitted by Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS) (BHC0073)

The following comments relate to the geographical sphere of interest of the Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS) which encompasses Bedford Borough Council, and the eastern part of Central Bedfordshire Council area. We confer with both local authorities together with operators Stagecoach (East), Grant Palmer and UNO managements at quarterly liaison meetings to discuss bus related issues, and we are affiliated to Bus Users UK.

• One of the biggest obstacles to the funding of bus services at a local level is the shortfall in Central Government funding to local authorities which has been declining year on year. This means that local authorities are having to find savings or economies in their budgets in order to fund council services such as refuse collecting, social services etc. As a consequence of this public transport spending comes bottom of the pile for funding. As a consequence of this bus subsidies have been cut especially with cross border services with neighbouring

authorities, for example the withdrawal of evening or Sunday services.

• Bus service reliability is becoming more and more problematic due to the ever growing issue of congestion. This impacts not only on the punctuality of a bus service, but also results in extended journey times. However, bus operators have not amended their timetables to reflect these extended journey times as they seem to be in denial. For example, if there is a delay on an outbound journey, say Bedford to Hitchin on routes 71 or 72 operated by Stagecoach, then this can only result in delays to the return working from Hitchin to Bedford. Timetables and Real Time Information screens do not reflect the reality of these operations.

Another factor that determines the level of congestion in towns and cities is the number of cars that each household owns. This can be anywhere up to four or more and whenever you see vehicles go past you they are mostly occupied by one person, the driver. Motorists think nothing of jumping in their cars to get from A to B, but by so doing so they are contributing to congestion. Is it not time for this government to start educating them about this?

The layout of roads in towns and cities can also be a factor that can contribute to the punctuality of bus services, considering that as a nation we are in love with the motor car.

• Bus priority measures in both local authority areas are limited to putting in the odd bus lane here and there, with little impetus to increase priority measures for buses due to funding cuts. Difficulties have been encountered in bus provision for new residential developments where some residents have effectively blocked bus routes through inconsiderate parking of cars causing services to be withdrawn. An example of this is Fairfield Park in Stotfold.

Bus priority measures are also non existent in large scale house building schemes that are submitted to local authorities. With plans for thousands of new homes in the Oxford to Cambridge Arc, and with our geographical area being in the centre of this Arc, local authorities have to ensure that not only the road layout is in place, but also for bus routes to be included in any major developments. Section 106 money must be in place prior to any major planning application being approved. This also acts as a Unique Selling Point to developers and estate agents when selling these homes to know that there is a high quality bus route for these new homeowners to use.

• The Department for Transports (DfT) policies on buses need to be made more robust in order for bus usage to be made more attractive for people to use. There needs to be more emphasis on how travelling by bus can get people out of their cars and on to buses. An example of this might be to give local authorities the powers to implement congestion charging in towns and cities at certain times when congestion is at its worst at strategic locations with a town or city, for example, during the peak hours of the morning or afternoon and any money raised could be ploughed back into providing good, or better bus services and information systems. Its policies also need to be easy to find on its website, summaries of each document so that people can download.

Currently, bus services outside London are deregulated with the financial interests of commercial operators taking precedence over the needs of communities and individuals, especially if commercial operators have shareholders to service in order to make a profit and boost their revenues as they tend to cherry pick the best routes.

• Bus services in rural and urban communities are particularly poor given the frequency of the bus service during the course of the week, with little or no service on Sundays. Timetables have been pared to the bone because of budget cuts with parish and town councils not willing to help fund improvements to services through their village or town. Rural communities also have to deal with poor reliability from bus operators should a vehicle break down or fail to appear as scheduled. For example, if you live in a village with an hourly service and the bus doesn’t show up, you have to wait up to another hour for the next bus. This doesn’t help if you have an appointment at the doctors or the hospital in a neighbouring town, or are using the bus for shopping, leisure or to access educational facilities as bus users feel abandoned as most rural bus stops don’t have Real Time Information (RTI) screens fitted due to the costs being prohibitive. Bus operators and local authorities seem ignorant of this issue. Too much reliance is being placed on Community Transport groups by local authorities to “plug the gaps” in the rural network as these groups have limited vehicles and manpower to be really effective.

Communities do not have to be “ isolated” to experience difficulties. East Central Bedfordshire has no further education provision, no secondary health care provision, no core centre for services (e.g. cinema) and retail, and limited connectivity with the inter-city rail network. As a result residents face higher costs and extended journey times. The draft Central Bedfordshire Local Transport Plan 3, published in January 2011 noted that “residents average (travel time) of 46 minutes by public transport to hospital compared to 30 minutes nationally”.

• There has been no serious attempt to integrate bus routes and times with rail services. Within Central Bedfordshire bus services are occasionally unavailable for passengers using trains to and from London at a time that they wish to travel, or after the evening peak restrictions have been lifted. Within Bedford Borough, whilst it is possible to still catch a bus in the evenings, the frequency of them means that large gaps appear in the timetables as bus services wind down for the day. Bus services on Sundays and Bank Holidays have largely disappeared, or do not serve the railway station at the same time that rail services have seen enhancements in the network. People who work on Sundays and Bank Holidays can face difficulties in getting to or from work if they don’t own a car and taxis can be expensive. This is exacerbated by the fact that some of the larger bus operators actually run rail franchises and their bus operations don’t talk to their rail operations and vice versa when planning bus/rail integration schemes!!

Whilst BABUS welcomes the proposed bus/rail interchange proposals for Flitwick station we are disappointed that there are no such proposals for the railway station in Bedford, or for Sandy, Biggleswade and Arlesey stations. More needs to be done to achieve this goal from all participants in order to achieve better results.

• More needs to be done in order to have integrated bus ticketing on all bus operators services. Currently, the only operators to do so in our area are Stagecoach and Grant Palmer with their Cygnet which allows people to buy one for five pounds and is valid for one days travel on both operators services. We are not aware if Centrebus and UNO have any plans to join this scheme within our geographical area.

• Printed timetable availability in towns, villages, bus stations, railway stations and at other strategic locations is as important a marketing tool as well as downloading them off bus operators websites. Not everybody has access to a computer, tablet or smartphone, or knows how to operate one of these devices, unfortunately, bus companies don’t seem to understand this fact. Some bus companies are bad at marketing their services this way.

• Are Railway Station Travel Plans fit for purpose when it comes to promoting bus usage and bus/rail integration? My own view of the Bedford Station Travel Plan group is no, it isn’t as it’s little more than “a talking shop” with very little done to address these issues when most people drive to the railway station. Not enough emphasis is laid on Station Travel Plans to promote the usage of bus services that serve railway stations to car drivers. We are not aware of any Station Travel Plan groups that cover Sandy, Biggleswade and Arlesley railway stations. Indeed, the company behind Govia Thameslink paid consultants to produce their own Station Travel Plan for Bedford which was then rejected as not good enough, although they had the discourtesy of not asking bus users for their thoughts so that they could be included in the final draft.

• At all bus stops there should be up to date timetable displays for all bus operators, as well as Real Time Information (RTI) screens, especially in rural or urban areas. Whilst the installation of RTI screens at bus stops can help identify if a service is running on time, or late with the aid of electronic apps on your smartphone or tablet, there are those passengers who don’t possess either of these devices and have to rely on the information as displayed on the RTI screen to ascertain if that particular service is running on time, or is late. We also believe that bus companies should be doing more to help fund the provision of RTI screens, especially on routes that go through rural areas.

• Whilst bus companies have good management in place who understand the local needs of the communities that they serve, there are those who don’t quite understand this principle. This leads to them making poor operating decisions that impact on the bus user. An example of this is if a major bus company continually changes its management at a local level you end up losing continuity with bus users over local issues that affect bus users on a day to day basis.

• Councils up and down the country have to “practice what they preach” when it comes to promoting bus services. This has to start “on their doorstep”, i.e. how council employees get to work every day, as most of them will drive to work instead of using some form of public transport, including the bus. Why build your main council offices in the middle of no where so that the only way to get to work is by car, motorbike or bicycle? Why can’t they have a regular bus service so that members of the public can access the council offices to attend meetings, which start in the evening? This also applies to councillors who attend meetings at their council offices as they invariably drive, whilst claiming an allowance for their car journey as they don’t often even use the bus. Do Members of Parliament use buses on a regular basis in their constituency or in the capital?

• Why are Bus Quality Contracts not available for scrutiny by bus users, even in summarised format? Whilst we agree about the commercial confidentiality of any information contained therein, bus users can suggest additional data which can be included to strengthen the wording in the contract.

           Conclusions

• It has not come as a surprise that the bus market in England outside London has declined considerably over the last 25 years. With the increase in car ownership, traffic congestion and financial cutbacks by local authorities as a consequence of receiving less money by Central Government, it is no wonder that bus services are suffering. Local authorities are having to prioritise where they spend their money and bus service provision comes “at the bottom of the pile” for funding. Instead of this government wasting money it should instead invest money in providing the people of this country with a bus market that allows residents in villages, towns and urban areas the right to access the services that they require and is “fit for purpose”.

• The government also has to find ways of helping to reduce car usage by giving local authorities the powers to do make this a reality. Failure to do so will result in congestion getting even worse. Its mantra at the moment is to build more bypasses, but this doesn’t solve the problem of congestion as it will just moves on to another part of the town, city or village that the bypass goes around, especially with the number of new cars bought each year coming onto our roads.

• Local authorities and bus companies have to be more creative in how they provide not only bus services, the infrastructure to go with it but also the marketing of these services, with the emphasis on routes that run through rural or urban areas. What all sides have to understand is that the bus market is in a battle with the motorist. Unfortunately, it is losing that battle on a daily basis as bus routes have not evolved over time to reflect changes in the local economy and patterns of population growth.

September 2018