Improving bus services requires more than a fare cap or a change of ownership – it’s all also about shelters, timetables and ticketing
The Azores were beautiful – but the bus service was confusing
There is no doubt that the almost universal £2 bus fare has been a great success in England and helped the industry push passenger numbers up towards, and in some cases beyond, pre-Covid levels.
The results of the National Travel Attitudes Survey, reported by Passenger Transport in June, demonstrated that the £2 fare had led to additional bus journeys being taken at the expense of the car, and that two-thirds of respondents said it has saved them money.
One of the real plus points has been the simplicity of the scheme, and the comfort passengers have in knowing in advance what the fare will be. Going forward, those advantages must not be lost.
The scheme was originally due to run for just three months, but following effective lobbying from Campaign for Better Transport (I modestly include myself in that), extension upon extension was agreed. The latest projected end date is fast approaching – November 30 – with no clear indication as to what will happen beyond that. Simon Lightwood, the buses minister, says there will be no cliff edge, which I take to mean that the scheme will not abruptly end there. I imagine we will have to wait for the Budget for the government’s intentions to become clear.
We have had enough warnings that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is going to deliver a hard Budget, but it would be a mistake for her to jeopardise the hard-won gains the £2 fare has brought, especially when the cost to the public purse has been minuscule compared with other areas of expenditure. What would be particularly intolerable is if bus fares went up while fuel duty was frozen again. That would be tantamount to a “war on the bus passenger”. Claire Miles, the new CEO of Stagecoach, is right to argue for a further extension to the £2 fare.
The Confederation of Passenger Transport, which was originally sceptical about the usefulness of a £2 fare, commissioned a report from KPMG on its future. That report concluded there were three scenarios: cliff-edge abolition, a tapering off, and continuation as we are. Well, blow me down. I could have told them that in two minutes. If I was still a CPT member, I would be asking how much the organisation paid KPMG for that astonishing insight.
Of course the future prospects for bus travel do not all hinge on what happens to the £2 fare. But nor do they hinge on ownership and control issues, which seems to be the belief of the new Labour government. This is not to say that the adoption of franchising cannot make a difference. Andy Burnham’s Bee Network has got off to a pretty good start, with a 5% growth in passenger numbers over the last six months, improved punctuality, and £3m more in revenue than was budgeted for.
What would be particularly intolerable is if bus fares went up while fuel duty was frozen again
I note, incidentally, that the mayor has floated the idea of a tourist tax as a means of helping to fund an even better bus service in the Manchester area. This is an interesting idea that is certainly worth evaluating.
Yet there is no guarantee that passenger numbers will automatically rise if full democratic control is reasserted. It will depend on the design of any scheme and the competence of those running it. Not every area has an impressive mayor like Andy Burnham, nor access to the funds or officer expertise he was able to muster.
There is also a danger in a franchised model that income could be adversely affected, even if passenger numbers rise, if the scheme put in place is not planned properly. I am a regular bus user in London and in my experience around a third of bus drivers not only fail to check passengers have paid but do not even look at passengers boarding. I suggest this is because, while the private companies run the buses and employ the drivers, the farebox goes to Transport for London. In other words, there is no real incentive upon the drivers or the companies who employ them to ensure passengers pay for their journey. TfL, however, seem unphased about this. I reckon they are losing a lot to fare evasion.
Decisions on fares and regulatory control will take us some way, but their effect will be stunted where traffic congestion exists. Congestion, as the industry knows only too well, lengthens journey times and so requires more buses to operate a route, and makes punctuality harder to achieve. Congestion emerged as the number one challenge facing the bus industry in the survey published by Passenger Transport in July.
Governments of all colours and flavours since 1997 (except the last iteration under Rishi Sunak) have been supportive of the bus, but that is only half the story. The enthusiasm to do anything that might antagonise the car driver has been more muted. Yet we need both carrot and stick if the potential of the bus is to be truly realised.
So we need more bus-friendly measures on our roads such as favourable traffic light phasing and more bus lanes – well done Steve Rotherham for committing to reinstating those in Liverpool removed by his predecessor. We also need higher car park charges in our cities – yes we do – and where that has occurred such as in Brighton, not only has bus travel boomed but so actually has the local economy.
And forgive me if I labour the point (pun not intended), we need to end the nonsense of a 13-year freeze on fuel duty, a policy that has only served to encourage modal shift away from bus and train and towards congestion-creating car travel.
Beyond all that, those responsible for bus services sometimes need to make sure the bread and butter elements of their business are properly handled. It is the fate of a former buses minister, at least in my case, that even on holiday, I cannot help but observe how bus services are being delivered.
In Aberdeen, where I was for two weeks in August, the bus services around the city are provided mostly by First but also by Stagecoach. First offer useful daily and weekly tickets but, as I subsequently found out, they are not accepted on Stagecoach buses. It must be in the interests of the two companies to sort this out. Fortunately for me, my Stagecoach driver, either through uncertainty or generosity, let me on without my having to buy another ticket.
The timetable provided in the principal bus shelter I used had incorrect information, suggesting a half hour service which turned out to be hourly outside term time. When I mentioned this to my bus driver, he told me that the timetables were a matter for the council. Joined up action, please.
The bus shelters themselves, excepting the ones in the main street, were all in a pretty terrible state. They all bore the logo of Grampian Regional Transport, which was abolished in 1996. Interestingly, a recent study in Italy revealed that people waiting at stops with shelters, benches and real-time information perceived that their actual 10-minute wait had taken 11 minutes, whereas those who waited at stops with no amenities perceived their 10-minute wait to have taken 21 minutes.
There is no guarantee that passenger numbers will automatically rise if full democratic control is reasserted
In Aberdeen, I encountered three major sets of council roadworks affecting bus services, none of which bore any evidence of anyone doing anything during my two week stay. Most of the bus stops affected had no information about the diversionary routes. Even the city’s tourist information centre had no details of where buses were stopping and only a very badly designed map of services as they normally operated.
Some of the routes had generous planned journey times, and on one trip into the centre, my bus waited for extended periods at three stops and even once, incredibly, at a green light, waiting for it to turn red.
I do not wish to be too critical. Overall the service was good, the buses clean and frequent, and the drivers friendly and helpful, but both the operators and the council could and should do better round the edges.
From Aberdeen to the beautiful Azores where we spent a lovely few days. Lots of old narrow streets made it surprising that the local bus service used quite large coaches for all routes. There was a distinct lack of bus stops, even at the terminus where the coaches waited, and I was not clear if what was on offer was hail and ride, or whether there were stopping points only the locals knew about. And almost none of the stops that did exist had timetables. One that did advertised a bus that we waited for and which didn’t turn up, something of a problem for an advertised 90-minute frequency.
I cite these observations to make the point that it is not simply a matter of getting the big picture issues right. Matters like shelters, timetables and ticketing are important too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Norman Baker served as transport minister from May 2010 until October 2013. He was Lib Dem MP for Lewes between 1997 and 2015.
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