News

Bus operators in Tyne and Wear have called on the region’s transport authority to work in partnership with them to build on the North-east’s highest levels of bus satisfaction in the UK.

At a special meeting of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority (ITA), representatives from the bus operators’ association in the North-east (NEBOA) promised councillors a package of bus service improvements through a partnership proposal called ‘Better by Far’.

Along with improvements to fares and ticketing, bus companies have vowed to invest £32million, in just one year, in vehicles, depots and staff training if the ITA enters a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with operators.

Tyne and Wear already has one of the best bus networks in the country, with independent research by watchdog Passenger Focus showing 91% of passengers are satisfied or very satisfied with their buses.

Now bus operators are promising passengers a range of further benefits, including:

• Cheaper fares, including a new ticket delivering huge savings for 16 to 18-year-olds
• A simple ticketing system, giving value for money and customer choice.
• New bus-to-bus tickets to meet the needs of people who use more than one operator
• A customer charter and ‘no change pledge’ on services in first 12 months
• Guaranteed savings of £250,000 for local councils in the first year alone
• A better voice for local councillors and businesses in improving services

In contrast, transport executive Nexus has proposed a Quality Contract Scheme (QCS), which would take at least two years to implement, involve set-up costs alone of £2.5 million and pass financial risks to local taxpayers.

Kevin Carr, chair of NEBOA, the bus operators’ association, said that a partnership would produce immediate benefits from April 2013 and save passengers and taxpayers money.

He said: “A partnership approach is the only sensible and constructive way to deliver improvements for Tyne and Wear bus passengers. Bus operators are willing to invest and make changes for the good of passengers – it is time for others to stop talking down the region’s bus services and its hard-working bus staff, and recognise that they are delivering among the best customer service in the UK, ahead of levels achieved in London. We should be working together constructively to build on that proud record.

“We are offering savings for councils rather than passing financial risk to local authorities and local people. Under our proposed agreement, local councillors and businesses will also have a better voice in helping to deliver improvements in the region’s bus network. We have even promised passengers whose bus has a problem that they can transfer free to the next following bus regardless of operator.

“Instead of waiting years on just a promise, a partnership agreement can give our communities guaranteed benefits in a matter of months.”

The new ticketing system would include:

• Bus-to-bus multi operator tickets to suit those people who use the services of more than one company but don’t need to use Metro.
• Single-operator tickets to allow companies to offer best-value fares for more local journeys
• Continuation of the Network One multi-operator tickets for people using buses, Metro, local trains and the Shields ferry.

NEBOA’s partnership proposal and new initiatives will build on the strong bus services already in place in the region, including:

• Frequent services in the busiest parts of Tyne and Wear towns and cities from early morning until almost midnight
• Good connections to important destinations, including town and city centres, Metrocentre and the NewcastleGateshead Quayside
• Services connecting almost every part of Tyne and Wear to local shopping, hospitals and medical centres, and recreation facilities.
• Good services to industrial estates and business parks including Doxford International, Team Valley, Cobalt, Quorum, Great Park and Newcastle Business Park.
• Special services to St James’ Park and the Stadium of Light for home matches and concerts.

Last month NEBOA wrote to Nexus expressing concerns over the transport executive’s almost exclusive focus on pursuing a QCS at the expense of genuine joint working to develop an alternative Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA).  In the letter, bus operators complained that Nexus and its officials have given “little assistance” in developing a partnership proposal, despite significant work by the operators.

In September, the Government’s independent cross-party Transport Select Committee report on Competition in the local bus market endorsed partnership working as the most realistic means of delivering service improvements at current public spending levels in most areas.

The Customer Charter included in NEBOA’s partnership proposal has been endorsed by passenger group Bus Users UK.

The region’s bus operators are promising cheaper fares for young people, a new range of bus-to-bus tickets and savings for local councils of a quarter of a million pounds in the first year alone of a bus partnership agreement.

In the partnership document, called ‘Better by Far’, the companies are presenting Nexus with a proposal that they are adamant will produce immediate benefits for bus users in Tyne and Wear.

The partnership offering includes a ‘no-change amnesty’ under which bus operators are committed to no changes to services in the first twelve months of the partnership.

Kevin Carr, chair of NEBOA, the bus operators’ association, said: “Our partnership offering contains clear benefits for existing passengers and a range of new fares that should help us grow patronage on the region’s buses.

“A new ticket range will also mean huge savings for 16 to 18 year-olds.

“Partnership means cheaper fares for thousands of people next spring, when Nexus have already admitted that fares will rise if a quality contract is introduced.”

Click here to read a summary of the proposals.

It’s time to put the rhetoric and the politics to one side and to assess calmly the offerings on the table, weigh up the risks and make the right decision.

While a quality contract scheme is one option for Tyne and Wear’s buses, I believe that a binding voluntary partnership agreement provides all the benefits without the risks.

But first, let’s dismiss the myths. Bus companies don’t receive subsidies – we get paid for providing services. Successive governments have agreed that elderly and disabled people should have free bus travel, funded by the government. Bus companies provide this at a discount, at about half price – a great deal for the taxpayer.

Next, the government rebates about 64% of the fuel tax bus companies pay, not just in Tyne and Wear, but across the country. This national policy helps keep fares low.

Finally, Nexus buys bus services that few people use but that are thought socially necessary.

The current financial exposure of Tyne and Wear’s council tax payers is only £10 million for those socially necessary services.

Unless policies change, the costs of concessionary travel and socially necessary services won’t disappear under a quality contract.

There is no evidence anywhere in Europe to suggest that placing buses under central control reduces costs and increases ridership. If anything, the reverse is true. From 1969 to 1986, nationalisation and local authority ownership of most of the UK bus industry saw a period of dramatic entrenchment and decline. Demands for support from local authorities far outstripped available funding.

Today we’re fortunate to have a stable network of bus services, largely provided commercially – 93 per cent of the cost of running the county’s buses is met from fares and reasonable reimbursement for concessionary travel.

But that doesn’t mean we’re complacent – quite the opposite.

Go North East is the region’s largest bus operator. In the last six years, the number of journeys made on our buses has risen by three and a half million a year, to reach almost 72 million. In the face of the recession and when fuel price rises have continually driven up fares for our loyal customers, we’ve achieved this by making bus travel attractive. Clear branding make routes easy to identify; simple fares and ticketing mean that there’s a ticket to suit every pocket for almost every conceivable journey; investment in new vehicles means that we have some of the most comfortable buses ever offered to the travelling public; and we’ve embraced Facebook, Twitter, mobile phone technology and the internet to provide accurate and meaningful passenger information.

There’s more to do. Bus operators are working closely with Nexus to improve the partnership offer. New bus-to-bus tickets will make journeys involving two bus operators cheaper; improved fares for older teenagers will provide new opportunities for travel to colleges, universities and employment; and a commitment to providing services when people want to travel at affordable fares means that council tax payers won’t have to pick up the bill and local jobs on the buses will be secured.

All this can be provided through a binding voluntary partnership agreement, brokered by Nexus, just as is being done in South Yorkshire. Conversely, quality contract schemes move the financial risk of bus operation into the public sector. A seven-year contract scheme would make local councils vulnerable to underwriting buses to the tune of £1 billion – the largest financial commitment ever placed upon the ITA.

Buses are vital to the economy of our region, carrying more people to work, to shop and to leisure activities than any other form of public transport. Let’s build on that in an atmosphere of trust through a meaningful and binding partnership agreement.

Kevin Carr, managing director, Go North East

There’s a lot of talk ‘integrated’ and ‘simplified’ ticketing, both of which sound admirable. The truth is, we’ve already got both!

‘Integrated’ ticketing means you can hop on any bus or the Metro anywhere in Tyne and Wear and buy one ticket that will take you from where you are to where you want to go. Regardless of bus company, it can include using Metro or even the Shields Ferry. We’ve had this since well before Metro was introduced. Today, it’s called Network One and Transfares. Both are quite simple.

Need to use more than one bus operator, or a combination of bus, Metro, train and ferry in Tyne and Wear? Network One provides weekly, four weekly and annual tickets that enable you to do just that. Making a one-off journey using one bus and Metro? Buy a Transfare. Simple, easy to use and they’ve been around for decades.

But what if you want to make just local journeys, or commute regularly using just one bus operator? In that case, you’re probably better off with either a Route Saver (regular use on one route or a group of routes) or a Buzz Fare (a day ticket valid in a ‘colour’ zone or group of zones, also available as weekly, four weekly and annual tickets).

‘Simplicity’ sounds good, but in reality it means lack of choice. How would you feel if you went into your local supermarket and found that your favourite tins of beans, breakfast cereals and shower gels had been ‘simplified’ and replaced with the supermarkets own brand ‘white label’ versions? Even if they were cheaper? Customer choice replaced with everyone having to buy the same things. You wouldn’t stand for it, would you?

To be honest, ‘simplicity’ means taking away choice because Nanny Knows Best.

But our customers know a bargain when they see one. That’s why tens of thousands of people use our Route Saver tickets; why hundreds of regular customers have swapped to the ‘Key Lifestyle’, allowing them to get the best value ticket for a simple monthly direct debit payment; and why thousands of people who use more than one operator choose to use Network One tickets.

All our drivers have been carefully trained to make sure that they always offer you the cheapest ticket for your journey. They can sell you everything from an Explorer Ticket that gives a days’ unlimited travel anywhere in an area bounded by Berwick upon Tweed, Carlisle and Scarborough, to a single ticket for a few stops for less than the price of a half of lager. There’s bound to be an individual ticket that’s just right for your journey.

And why? because the customer knows best – not Nanny!

There’s lots of statistics out there that try to inform decision makers about what’s going on in the bus industry. As you can imagine, it’s relatively easy to ‘pick and choose’ which you want to use to tell a particular story.

Although we’ve just passed the end of the public sector financial year, it’ll be another six months or so before new Department for Transport annual figures are released. So I’m going to quote you some figures for the year ending March 2011, which were published in the autumn last year.

Among the Department’s ‘key findings’ last year are these gems:

• There were 4.6 billion bus passenger journeys in England in 2010/11. This is a 0.1 per cent increase from the 2009/10 level.
• Bus fares in England were at the same level in real terms in March 2011 as in March 2010.
• Net public funding support for local bus services in England decreased by 7.3 per cent in real terms between 2009/10 and 2010/11.

These figures mask regional differences. For example, the number of bus journeys made in Tyne and Wear fell dramatically in the year.

But here’s the rub.

Ridership on Go North East buses is increasing! As things stand right now, over the last three years we’ve seen the number of journeys taken on our buses increase from 70 million to almost 73 million. That’s about a million a year on average!

We must be doing something right!

A specially-liveried double deck bus has taken to the streets of the county to promote Go North East’s ‘Say Yes Now’ campaign.

Nexus and the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority want to control where and when the buses run through contracts, but Go North East thinks this would be a bad idea for the county.

Martin Harris, Go North East’s commercial director, said: “Contracts like the scheme that Nexus is proposing might work in London, but at huge cost. London’s buses are heavily subsidised by council tax payers and London’s motorists through the Congestion Charge. Councillors up here have ruled out congestion charging for our towns and cities, so council tax payers will have to be prepared to dig deep in their pockets if this scheme goes ahead.”

Go North East is offering a counter proposal that instead uses Quality Partnerships to manage local bus services.

Mr. Harris said: “Quality Partnerships put the needs of bus users and local communities first, without burdening local councils with the financial risk of a bus network that costs about £140 million to run.

“We recognise that things have to change – nothing stays the same. That’s why we’ve published a ‘Charter for Positive Change’ that outlines just some of the benefits that can flow from a partnership approach.”

The contracts being advocated by Nexus could see popular cheap local tickets being scrapped in favour of more expensive county-wide schemes and buses being taken off where they run near the heavily subsidised Metro system.

Mr. Harris said: “Nine out of ten buses in Tyne and Wear run without any subsidy at all. 92% of our customers have said for two years running that they’re satisfied or very satisfied with their buses – that’s the highest satisfaction rate in the country.

“Placing control of the buses into the public sector, at a time when public finances are already under severe pressure, simply doesn’t make sense.”

The ‘Say Yes Now’ campaign bus will be seen on busy routes across the North East.