Transcript UK BUS Training & Development Strategy

Gloucestershire First
Local Enterprise Partnership
Logistics Group Meeting
Thursday 6 December 2012
OUR NEXT DESTINATION
• In 2004, our founder and current Group Chief
Executive, Brian Souter, suggested that there
was at best 18 months of innovation left within
the UK bus industry without serious infrastructure
help from local authorities
• Those 8 years have elapsed and little has
happened
• Our operation has to all intents and purposes
now reached a plateau
• We can only go up another gear with the help of
external partners such as GCC / SBC
WHY?
Consider some of the external challenges we currently face:
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Spiralling Fuel & Insurance Costs
Road Works & Diversions
Indiscriminate Parking
Staff Recruitment
Barrage of Unwelcome EU Legislation
Lack of joined-up thinking in Land Use Planning
Engineering
Poor Passenger Behaviour
Inadequate Concessionary Fares reimbursement
Yet another review of Bus Service Operator’s
Grant (BSOG) or Bus Passengers Tax
FUEL & INSURANCE
• Our fuel costs have risen by
73% since May 2003
– The actual price we pay has
almost doubled once the
BSOG effect is removed
• Our insurance costs have risen
by 59% since May 2003
ROAD WORKS &
DIVERSIONS
• Seriously undermines punctuality
• Traffic gridlock from M5 closure
• 4 sets of road works along London Rd,
Hucclecote Rd, at the junction
between Seymour Rd and Bristol Rd,
and near the Cross Hands Brockworth
in Nov 2004 brought traffic chaos to
Gloucester
– Avoidable if discussions had taken place
and careful consideration given to the
timing
• Failure to negotiate Punctuality
Partnerships with LA's
CAR PARK CHARGES
• Maintain realistic parking
charges, at the very
least in line with inflation
• Good public transport
will never flourish where
cheap parking is
available
• Unhelpful Portas Report
• Problems with LA's in
Gloucester and Swindon
INDISCRIMINATE PARKING
• Fully support
decriminalisation
• Withdrew from
Tredworth High St,
Gloucester, in 2005 due
to a failure to enforce
double yellow lines
• Prevents access to bus
stops
EU LEGISLATION
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Training Directive
Drivers Hours & Working Time Directive
Vehicle Specifications
Lower emission requirements causing
increasing fuel consumption
Also National Employment legislation…
Digital Tachographs
Bus services over 50 kilometres
Passenger Charter threat
LAND USE PLANNING
• Poorly negotiated Section 106
Grants – Tewkesbury, Cooper’s
Edge and Kingsway
• Threat to Section 106 grants
• The new Swindon Bus Station
• Peripheral office development is
unhelpful
CONCESSIONARY FARES
• Inadequate and
worsening
reimbursement from
all schemes (except
Scotland and
Wales)
• Full buses not
covering even their
marginal cost of
operation
BSOG (BUS SERVICE
OPERATORS’ GRANT / FUEL
DUTY REBATE)
• Buses and coaches pay the normal taxes on
fuel
• Buses received an 82% rebate (less in
Wales)
• Tax per bus passenger 8.7 pence per
journey
• 20% reduction in April 2012
• New DFT consultation
• Currently no tax for rail passengers
• Has led to severe reduction in rural and
marginal services in some areas of the UK
BUT THE BIGGEST
PROBLEM OF ALL?
CONGESTION
IMPACT OF CONGESTION
• Consider Service 94
• A recent analysis of stage-tostage timings shows delay
points between Lansdown
Castle and Estcourt Road in
either direction
• Journey times constant
between 0900 and 1400 but:
– Increase by up to 30% between
1500 and 1800
– Increase by over 50% between
0700 and 0900
• Had to put 4 extra buses into
Service 10 to maintain the
timetable
AVERAGE WEEKDAY
RUNNING TIMES
COST OF CONGESTION
• Timetables are constantly rewritten to
combat congestion
• Service 94 timetables changed 3 times
in 2005 for this reason alone and
worsening
• In 2005, we also assigned 2 additional
vehicles to Service 10 to combat
congestion, costing us £250,000 per
annum for no additional revenue
• Forest of Dean average running times
increase by 20% during the peaks
HOW CAN LA's HELP
DECONGEST OUR ROADS?
• Reorganise road space
– Introduce further dedicated bus lanes
– Selective vehicle detection at junctions
and traffic lights
– Cost? Primarily white paint!
• Control indiscriminate parking
• Speedier introduction of more park
and ride sites
• CBC’s civic pride initiative has
underlined the importance of bus
penetration in Central areas
• Need for partnerships to be dynamic
with an immediacy of response on
both sides
WHAT CAN WE OFFER
IN RETURN?
• If main roads used by
buses are decongested, we
can:
– Run more frequent services
more reliably
– Peg fares for longer periods,
all other things being equal
– Commit to greater levels of
investment, as quicker buses
will attract more passengers
and ultimately earn more
– Innovate
– Restrain or reduce ongoing
subsidy requirements
“For every Local Authority that invests in bus
priority measures to improve the operating
environment, I will match that investment with
new buses.”
Brian Souter, Chief Executive
AND IF WE DON’T
DECONGEST?
• Our punctuality and reliability will fall
• Journey times will lengthen in the peaks and the
number of departure options will decrease
• Modal shift towards rather than away from cars
• Bus operators will have to focus solely upon routes
where commercial success is guaranteed, and
deregister marginal routes
• Bus fares will rise and service frequencies will reduce
• Councils would probably have to raise council tax to
underwrite the increased number of non-commercial,
socially-necessary services if they wish them to
continue (they will not be allowed to)
PIPS
• The progress of our Punctuality
Improvement Partnership has been
anything but punctual:
– Initial Stagecoach/GCC discussions Feb
05
– Template document issued to GCC March
05
– …but still no evidence of a signed
agreement!
– Swindon meetings held over 9 months ago
and still waiting
WHAT’S HAPPENING ON
THE BUSES IN THE UK
AS A WHOLE?
HOW BUSES WORK IN
THE UK
• Great Britain outside London:
commercial networks (about 90% of
buses); local authorities subsidise 10%
of mileage where there is a social need
not met by the commercial network
• London: 100% competitive tendering; all
decisions on fares and frequencies
taken by TfL
• Northern Ireland: 100% owned and
operated by the state
QUALITY CONTRACTS
• Local authority takes over responsibility for
designing and paying for the network
• Operators bid for contracts – local authority
pays for what it specifies
• No link to key issue of highway management
• Risks for existing networks, investment plans
and employees (and terms and conditions)
• Completely incompatible with the enterprise
economy
• Certain death for SMEs
QUALITY PARTNERSHIPS
• Formal or informal agreement between
operators and local authorities on how to
improve bus service quality
• Quality Partnership Schemes allow local
authorities to decide on standards for buses
using new infrastructure (e.g. bus lanes) and
can exclude buses that do not meet
standards
• Quality Partnerships concentrate on issues
important for passengers
• Need politically tough decisions about
highway management
WHAT WORKS…
• Passenger growth when there is:
– Strong local relationship between
operators and local authorities
– Willing operator who delivers consistent
high quality and reliability
– Willing local authority which delivers probus policies such as priorities for bus
users, car parking management
– Buoyant local economy, including
population stability/growth
THE SOLUTION FOR
STAGECOACH WEST?
• What we desire are effective partnerships to
keep our buses on the move
• These must be dynamic in nature, and
promote an immediacy of response on both
sides
– There is an immediate perishability to our
product
– Cannot instantaneously turn off supply
– Costs are incurred regardless
CENTRAL GOVERNMENT
• Competition Commission Investigation
- Major operator Ticketing Schemes
- Bus Station Charges
• Threat to BSOG (already reduced by 20%) and new
unnecessary complicated way of paying it
• Planning System dismantled without a meaningful
replacement
• Localism and the potential failure to ringfence
funding
• LEP’s
- Adjudication of “Major Scheme Bids”
• No votes in buses despite the fact that 67% of public
transport journeys are made on them
CONCLUSION
• We are a non-political organisation with a
passion for what we do and a determination
to offer people a real alternative to the car
• We want to provide a bus network which is:
– Frequent
– Reliable
– Cost-effective
– Utilises the highest standard of vehicles
CONCLUSION
• We have made significant advances over the
past 10 years but are still far from perfect
• We can only go to the next level with the
support and co-operation of LA’s
• We face many external challenges, with traffic
congestion in particular a real threat to our
industry
• Working in partnership, we can:
– Decongest the roads
– Reap the benefits of PIPs and other occasional Government
grants
– Provide a public transport system we can all be proud of
ONE FINAL THOUGHT
• Confederation of Passenger
Transport research shows that many
of the most successful commercial
centres benefit from a good public
transport system
• This is because bus users travel
more often and hence ultimately
spend more than the one visit a week
car user
LTB MAJOR SCHEME BID 2015
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SCHEMES
PRIORITISATION
• 1) A40 Corridor: Cheltenham through to Arle
Court
• 2) Tewkesbury Road Corridor in Cheltenham
• 3) Abbeymead – Metz Way, Gloucester
• 4) Walls Roundabout
• 5) Cole Avenue Junction
Other Future Schemes
• 6) West of Severn Park and Ride
• 7) Brockworth public transport hub