Melksham Bus User Group (MBUG)

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://mbug.uk

Bus services for Melksham - the future

Supported bus services around Wiltshire are all being re-contracted soon, with Melksham, Devizes, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, Westbury and Warminster areas first. (May be others early too - list is from verbal discussion)

Melksham's services are due for specification over then next few weeks, contract award targetted for the end of August, with new contacts running from late January 2018.

[grahame]

Web site at http://mbug.uk updated; community proposal detail at http://www.mbug.org.uk/bus_option_c.pdf

(for those of you who wondered what Lee, especially, and I have been up to!)

[grahame]

An update on Melksham bus plans - see http://www.mbug.org.uk/m10.pdf and http://www.mbug.org.uk/bus_option_c.pdf

 In summary, we are suggesting for new contracts from January 2018 ...
- the diversion of route 15 to serve Melksham station and Bowerhill Industry
- Even departures on routes 14 and 272 from the town centre, with one route 14 bus per hour doing a shorter run
- The extra part of route 14 around north Melksham to be renumbered to 17 to reduce confusion ("WHICH 14 is this??”)
- the extension of the driver’s lunch breaks from the shortest legally permitted by around an hour

We estimate the additional cost (paid lunch hours for drivers) at around £8k per annum
We estimate extra farebox income from rail passenger connecting journeys alone at over  £16k per annum
Additional traffic to and from businesses and to and from the Rugby and Football grounds will also generate additional income
Our railway estimated numbers are very low (conservative) indeed
Additional traffic is at different times of day to the current times that the buses are busy
Train timetables are not expected to change significantly in next 18 months.
An additional carriage on the train is planned (and will be needed for peak traffic generated)

In order to seed fund the changes, grants are available under DCDRF and TransWilts can match fund.
This spend would need to be primarily on promotion and setting up systems (EPS noted, for example)
Also (2 year) temporary improvement / bus parking / loos at Station.
This additional funding is integrated (road and rail) transport linked. No linking, no extra funding

We note that current service is supported at £138k per annum. A new contract could be more expensive due to inflation
Current subsidy per passenger journey is around £1.60 (against a maximum target of £3.50) and before inflation should reduce
Wiltshire Council are looking for a 10% reduction in support payments for buses across the county this year.
Proposal timetabling and driver break requirements, for buses to be based anywhere within 45 minutes of Melksham

Our Sunday proposals (not part of the town bus) were not taken forward by Wiltshire Council.
Saturday proposal is part of the town bus schedule, and is for a single vehicle running a combined route 14 and 15 hourly
Our proposals do not address evening games at the sports fields - that’s ideal business for the Melksham Community bus

[grahame]

The proposals should be going out as one of the options to tender over the next few days - single page intro highlights for those being asked to bid at http://www.mbug.org.uk/highlights.pdf

Same number of vehicles / crews - slightly longer (paid) lunch break for drivers, so slight increase in running costs. 15k extra funding identified for first year, which would more than cover that even if there wasn't a single new passenger.  However, evidence suggests that there will be a rather good number of new passengers - see data in links from http://mbug.uk . 

Further passenger surveys asking people specifically about journeys to / from Melksham station planned next month - TransWilts working with Wiltshire Council and Atkins, as part of the station master plan and line capacity projects.

[Chris from Nailsea]

With thanks to grahame for updating us on progress here, I have taken the opportunity to expand the topic heading and add 'MBUG^» (Melksham Bus User Group - about)' to the Coffee Shop forum's list of abbreviations.