Whats wrong with the buses?

You could be forgiven for being cynical about bus services locally. No evening services, Sunday services, no buses to North Crawley or Wootton, fewer to Milton Keynes. Copied in below are notes from the CBC transport workshops last month. Its that cute SWOT acronym 'strengths, weaknesses, opportunities threats' looking at journeys to work and school, access to services, access to leisure.  Here in Cranfield I would include not being told about critical changes (52 service last August and 45 to MK recently). 

Passenger Transport

Strategy Workshops - Notes

from External Workshop 1

Date: Thursday 14^th June 2012

Location: Priory House, Monks Walk, Chicksands

NOTE: THESE ARE COPIES OF THE NOTES TAKEN BY FACILITATORS AT THE ABOVE WORKSHOP, AS PROVIDED BY THE FACILITATORS

Workshop 1 – Journeys to Work and School

Workshop Session 1 – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Strengths

• Commercial buses run a good service where they do operate
• Train service to London
• Council does support bus services generally
• Car parking is generally adequate at railway stations
• A bus is a social service

Weaknesses

• Authority split (unitaries) = spilt of responsibilities
• Rural areas are often cut-off – people must use the car
• No natural centre to Central Bedfordshire
• There are many cross-boundary services – e.g. Bedford / Central Beds
• Where are people going to work? Its varied
• Financial constraints on service provision, particularly from local authorities
• School buses are not free for all to use (possible opportunity here?)
• Desire to get to a hub, so feeder services need to be good. Will need a lot of buses
• Poor integration of services – need to connect with other buses/trains
• Children often go to school and are picked up by parents
• Buses are seen as being for ‘losers’

Opportunities

• Train companies are keen to get involved
• Could develop community buses much more
• Smart and multi-operator tickets
• Open up school buses to much wider use

Threats

• Changes in Bus Service Operator Grant (BSOG) payments
• Further financial constraints
• Focus on busway threatening rural bus services?
• School buses only operating in the school terms

Workshop Session 2 – Vision and Objectives

• Money should be allocated to those who have not got a car
• Moral duty to run a bus service
• Car ownership has stopped increasing
• Fully integrated transport network, with publicity and ticketing
• School buses are meandering

Workshop 2 – Access to Services

Workshop Session 1 – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Main service centres are the hospitals  - 34 hospitals in total are accessed by residents of Bedfordshire – from CB are mainly Stoke Mandeville / MK / Lister / Bedford / L and D/ Addenbrookes / Queen Elizabeth.

Big effort to get to hospitals – can take up to 2 hours from some villages to La and D. Other services are dentists / opticians – Shefford HC now includes dentist – but is 1200 yards from the bus stop at the Steamer PH (Note that this is further than all other estimates I have seen – do not think it is that much but it is substantial).

No joined up thinking – not just transport – open pharmacy and close surgeries as a result.

Not worried whether it is a conventional bus system or not – but we must not be hidebound by the past – should be looking at much more flexible services – not just a bus going from A to B and tough luck if you not on route.

Want a timetable that is easy to remember so that do not have to look it up – and want buses that are reliable and arrive in time and follow the route they are supposed to (this last point was repeated ad nauseam by one member but I think he just could not read the timetable!!)

CB has different facilities either side of the M1 – east of the M1 are no FE, retail centres / centres of administration. Are already shared services (CBC / BBC and CBC / LBC)  so why not share bus service organisation as transport does not in theory recognise boundaries.

Why should we not have an umbrella PT authority?

Should not be splitting the strategy by purpose as a bus trip to a node may serve many purposes – we need to focus on these nodes.

Why are there no buses to Houghton Regis – all stop at Toddington (DO THEY?)

DART buses were taken off as not popular so why will any other flwxible service be any more successful?

Should encourage internet booking for dial up and conventional services.

Why does 200 not serve Chicksands?

Why can S106 not be used for new bus services?

Future – local shop becoming a proper village shop again as people unable / unwilling to use buses to travel – so less need to travel to retail.

STRENGTHS

Provide a service to those who do not have an alternative – young, old, poor.

Where there is community bus service it is really good

WEAKNESSES

No joined up thinking

Slow / infrequent / not fulfil services supposed to do – see earlier comment / information difficult to read / timetable not easy to remember

OPPORTUNITIES

Access key nodes

Bookable services

Use buses that currently not used at certain times of day – scholl buses / day centre transport

To get people out of cars

THREATS

Care schemes may stop because of lack of volunteers

Slow broadband / lack of mobile phone signals in rural areas make Internet access difficult

Workshop Session 2 – Vision and Objectives

To get 20% of all trips to / from services on PT by 2026

To get all services integrated better – especially with rail - Every bus that passes within a certain distance of a railway station should serve that station

Set a target for transfer from car to bus

Make fuller use of available drivers / vehicles to deliver a full day’s services

Make bus attractive to those who currently do not use it

More services to serve major destination nodes

How to force some bus services to serve particular nodes  - explained the fact that buses are de-regulated and this could not be done unless on a contract to the Council.

There was a lack of knowledge about the operation of bus services and the fact that we could not intervene in Commercial Services.

Workshop 3 – Access to Leisure

Workshop Session 1 – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

Strengths

• Bus shelters are good where provided, but needs good efficiency of services

Weaknesses

• Buses are infrequent, especially in places such as Northill
• Timings, frequency, and cost are the major issues facing public transport
• Need to cater for the needs of young people and how they travel
• Population of Central Bedfordshire is sparse – leads to empty buses, with not enough people using these buses
• Buses do not co-ordinate with train times, especially a lack of evening buses coming back from London
• Public transport needs to be better timed with the peak hours
• Complete lack of East-West travel, particularly to Milton Keynes
• Kids are not in the mindset to use public transport – where is the future demand?
• Can’t use bus tickets on different operators – a massive issue. People don’t care who provides the service, so long as its provided!
• Needs to focus on being a public service – competition is not always good
• Good bus information is essential, both roadside and online
• Need to specify standards for levels of services provided
• Car parking at railway stations is taken up mostly by commuters

Opportunities

• Links to Bedford could be improved, e.g. the Bunyan Centre
• Taxi buses provide an opportunity in the more rural areas of the authority – smaller vehicles = smaller operating costs
• The rail market is a big opportunity for local buses
• Could offer discounts to young people for travel – perhaps some sort of token system?
• Integrated ticketing a major opportunity
• Rising fuel prices is putting people off using their cars
• Significant opportunities to effectively market public transport
• Selling point of new houses is transport connections – so make public transport a part of this

Threats

• Kids are not in the mindset to use public transport – where is the future demand?
• Growth needs to be well catered for, or more car dependency will result

Workshop Session 2 – Vision and Objectives

• Integration of modes of transport in terms of services
• Reliability should be a key objective
• Information improvements needs to be done over the long term – particularly technological
• Should also look at reducing the need to travel at all – planning a major part of this. Big impacts in terms of leisure travel, as it becomes more important
• Car ownership may reduce over the long term
• Focus on the key flows – evenings, weekends, leisure travel may change from how we see it now
• Transport needs to come first, not housing
• Tackle negative perception of users of public transport