Total Transport

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Total Transport: working together for our communities.

Speech by Alan Jones, MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) at yesterday's "Total Transport North" conference at the NRM^» (National Railway Museum, at York and Shildon - about) in York
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/total-transport-working-together-for-our-communities

I hope this conference will help everyone understand the concept of Total Transport, the importance central government attaches to its success, and how we can all work together to deliver the best possible transport for our communities.

The benefits of buses are clear.

They link people with healthcare, jobs, education and training.

They reduce the number of cars on our roads.

And they^re an affordable way to travel.

For many, the bus is a lifeline.

Over half of those who rely on buses outside London have no access to a car.

But despite the crucial role they play, since my appointment as transport minister I^ve been struck by the varying quality of bus services up and down the country.

Most people in London and other large cities are generally satisfied with the quality of their bus service.

According to the recent transport focus survey, customer satisfaction has improved in most areas.

But elsewhere, particularly in rural districts, the picture can be very different.

Here, inadequate transport provision is a very real concern.

And it^s a real concern because transport affects the prosperity and quality of life of many living in the countryside.

But I also know that local authorities have found it tough to provide bus services that people need, but which require subsidy because they are not commercially viable.

[snip]

The government^s decision to devolve the Bus Service Operators Grant for tendered services to local authorities was to give those authorities more say over how that funding should be used to support bus services in their area.

This has worked well.

But we are doing more.

As part of the government^s devolution plans, individual areas will be able to negotiate deals with government to provide them with greater influence over their local areas, including bus services.

We have signed groundbreaking deals with Greater Manchester, Cornwall, and now Sheffield, providing them with powers to franchise their bus services.

But franchising is not the only thing on the table.

We also have real ambitions to improve public transport in areas that do not wish to pursue re-regulation of the bus network.

That is why we are developing a package of new measures to encourage local authorities and bus operators to work in closer partnership.

Partnerships will help deliver improvements such as multi-operator ticketing and changes to the bus network that would otherwise only be possible under a franchised model.

So we will legislate to ensure these ambitions become a reality, through a Buses Bill that will be introduced later in the first session of Parliament.

This will provide powers for local transport authorities to franchise their local bus services, subject to agreement from government, and give all transport authorities access to new partnership powers.

There's more - talking about how multiple transports on the same corridor (hospital, work, general) can be integrated.   Much of this is in line with what we've been suggesting for Wiltshire / the RUH Hopper, etc ...

He concludes

But more importantly, take full advantage of this opportunity.

To plan together.

Work together.

And make a difference together.

Because that^s what Total Transport is all about.

YES PLEASE ... I commend this approach to our friends in health service provision, schools, and the public transport (i.e. bus) and sustainable transport (rail, food foot, cycle) at Wiltshire Council ... and elsewhere.


Edit to correct typo in last line - "Sustainable Transport" looks after travel on foot not food. Food is a different division of the council who have their fingers in all sorts of pies including food safety ...

[grahame]

I have been set an element of a challenge to explain "Total Transport" ... a learned correspondent writes "Hmmm.  I confess I did not understand what 'Total Transport' is, from this speech!" ... so I've had a go, taking the general down to a specific corridor.

"Total Transport" is about providing transport from "A" to "B" and back again from "B" to "A" when people want it, at a sensible cost, easy to find out about (times and fares) and not duplicating facilities or leaving holes.  And in the context of this discussion, "A" and "B" may be a home, a place of work, a shopping centre, a hospital, a cinema, a school, a college, a supermarket or a beach.

Total Transport

The idea - instead of a whole lot of separate independent pieces of transport along a corridor, why not combine them and get them to work together?   Much better take and consider the whole (as is done in London) rather than individual services / segments of services (as is done elsewhere in England.

An example - the current system

Let's take an example I know. We've got school transport, work transport, hospital transport and a couple of bus operators too - for daytime pensioner and work trips, and for leisure and shift work in the evening.  With the bus operators running in commercial competition during the day, and the under council subsidy in the evening.  The hospital and each bus operator have separate fare schemes and tickets that can't be interchanged except for a special arrangement on 2 daily buses. The hospital transport needs to be pre-booked.   General passengers are allowed on some school transport but not other.  And if you hit a gap in the buses, you can go indirect by train, but that's a different ticket.  And as you stand at "A" needing to get to "B", you need a batchelor's degree to work out your mode of transport, and a doctorate to know whether to buy single, return, or a day zone ticket.  And if you're a pensioner wanting to start to travel before 09:30, remember to buy a ticket for just part of the journey and get off and back on again just after 09:30 so the council picks up the bill for the rest of your journey.

You may think I'm stretching the truth with that description, but - alas - it's what we have from Bath to Melksham and some onward journeys to Devizes.  During the day, there are two buses an hour (please dont read that as half-hourly) from Melksham to the centre of Bath - and a third to the hospital. There's a train that calls at Melksham about once an hour, and with alternate changes at Trowbridge and Chippenham that makes for a fourth service.  There are a couple of extra morning buses to Bath schools and back, but the daytime service is pretty late in starting (both operators) and early finishing (one operator) so woe betide you if you need to start work early, finish late, or get to the hospital on a Saturday or Sunday (it's a five day service only) or at short notice (you need to book by 10 a.m. the previous day). The hospital bus costs the taxpayer 150,000 pounds a year for 15,000 journeys, and the evening and Sunday buses cost around 54,000 for a further 15,000 journeys. I don't know about the school bus finances, but the rest are "commercial" except that's not really the case as the bus companines count the concession card customers and the council pays for them too. Oh - and I forgot a further single extra bus that uses the corridor - comes from outside, runs once a day via Melksham to Bath and the hospital, and costs a further 54,000 pounds for 9804 journeys - 9029 of which are concessionary, so the bus company gets more money for them too. All in all a rather confusing and disjoint system.

This example - how it could be done with total transport.

The headlines ...

Two buses an hour (one in the evenings and on Sundays) from the hospital in Bath via Bath Bus Station to Melksham, with one continuing on to Devizes and Easterton, leaving at 30 minute intervals. 

Service run under franchise agreement(s) by commercial operators, with income to the local transport authority but with an incentive in the agreement to encourage quality and traffic.

Routes to vary to serve intermediate communities once and hour (every 2 hours on Sunday), balanced to give half-hourly at key market towns.

Buses to connect with town services, with through and shared ticketing and combined timetables.

The detail ...

Yes, I could go on and add the detail - this is something that we've looked at, but perhaps that's to be filled in at county / local level rather than in a general paper without maps

The effect on passengers ...

Some changes will be seen and a few places where vehicle changes will now be needed.  In general, the service will run not only for the current hours but extended into the "shoulder" periods - giving extra opportunities not currently available.  Ticketing and infomation much easier, connections will actually work.  Some over-provided villages may see a drop in service - e.g. two buses an hour (but NOT half hourly) to an hourly bus.

The effect on finances ...

Immediate saving of the majority of the subsidy described at the top of this article.  Additional savings by routing one bus an hour via Corsham / increasing Melksham - Corsham from every 2 hours to every hour and saving a heavily subsidised vehicle on that run.

More useful total journey solutions and easier pricing will encourage additional passengers.  Did you know that with just 3 extra fare payig passengers per journey, the need for any subsidy can be removed from most routes and many will make a profit?

Better services may encourage more passengers on concessionary passes to travel, and that will have a negative effect on finances - requiring the transport authority to fund those journeys.

The effect on bus operators ...

Much more the "London Model" so contracted per route / route group as a franchise / management operation.  Still commercial, but with the ability to plan for longer term and lease vehicles rather than purchase and run old ones into the ground.  Bus operators may object due to the loss of "Cash Cow" routes.

[Lee]

The Quality Contract Scheme (QCS) for Wiltshire that grahame describes is something I've been leading on and developing behind the scenes for some time now, with a good deal of support from grahame and a number of others, including TransWilts CIC^▸ (Community Interest Company ) Chair Paul Johnson.

Couple of points:

- The idea is that Wiltshire Council would specify the procurement of a number of vehicles and drivers per contract, rather than specify the specific detail of routes, timetables etc within a specific contract. The QCS proposal allows for the creation of Local Transport Groups formed of representatives from the local area who would put forward proposals for how the vehicles could be utilised in terms of routes/timetables etc. The Chairs of each Local Transport Group would each have a seat on a QCS Bus Committee, along with representatives from Wiltshire Council, transport companies, TransWilts CIC/CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) etc and other relevant bodies, and it would be this body that would decide the overall network, routes and timetables, with genuine flexibility to adapt them as and when required, rather than being locked in for a specific period.

- A side effect of the above approach is that, because the revenue from bus services would go to Wiltshire Council rather than the bus operators, the current tortuous process where WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority)) pay the operators a percentage of what a concessionary bus passengers fare would have been will be eliminated, and instead WC will effectively be offering concessionary bus passengers a free seat on the relevant bus service. Therefore, as long as QCS meets its overriding aim of profitable bus services paying for loss-making, but socially necessary, bus services (and grahame has touched on how total journey solutions and easier pricing can help towards achieving this), then there is no real reason why this should have the negative effect on finances that grahame suggests.

- I personally would be wary of leaving it to Wiltshire Council to fill in and develop the detail, as my experience so far is that the relevant officers are still wedded to "the old ways" (think Melksham Rail Link Bus Debacle) and need to be persuaded beyond all doubt of the benefits of QCS.

Therefore, I think a public campaign to persuade everyone of the benefits is in order, and I note that figures such as the MP^▸ (Member of Parliament) for Chippenham, Michelle Donelan have already started down that road.

For my own part, although I have stepped down as TransWilts CIC Director for Buses, I have offered to continue to work on and develop the QCS campaign and proposal.

I have yet to hear back on that, but I hope that offer is accepted, as otherwise we may risk treading on eachothers toes if we advocate seperately.