APPENDIX 39
Memorandum submitted by Andrew Davies,
AM, the Welsh Assembly Government's Minister for Enterprise, Innovation
and Networks
CONTEXT
From December 2004 the Welsh Assembly Government
will invest £8 billion over 15 years in road, rail, bus and
air schemes to improve connectivity within Wales and internationally.
We will shortly consult on our Wales Transport Strategy, "Connecting
Wales". This is an essential element of our corporate agenda.
It will assist with the planning and delivery of a wide range
of policies aimed at improving the quality of life of people in
Wales.
The Transport (Wales) Act 2006 received Royal
Assent on 16 February 2006. It provides the Assembly Government
with additional transport powers to develop and implement, in
partnership with local authorities and other bodies, a safe, integrated,
sustainable, efficient and economic transport system serving Wales.
The Act requires us to prepare and publish a Wales Transport Strategy
setting out how we propose delivering our transport duty. The
strategy focuses on the role that transport can play in delivering
our wider policy objectives in areas such as spatial planning,
economic development, education, health, social services, the
environment and tourism.
Has deregulation worked? Are services better,
more frequent, meeting passengers' needs? Are bus services sufficiently
co-ordinated with other forms of public transport? Are buses clean,
safe and efficient? If not, can deregulation be made to work,
and if so how?
Deregulation of bus services gave private companies
the opportunity to test new ways to meet our travel needs. As
elsewhere in Great Britain some have risen to this challenge,
for example by investing in new, more accessible and environmentally
cleaner vehicles. Companies are improving the training of staff
in customer care. Although more remains to be done, buses in Wales
are generally newer and more accessible than previously, and in
many areas of Wales offer a realistic alternative to travel by
car for more journeys.
We have many specific examples of good practice
and innovation. Cardiff Bus has gained IiP accreditation and has
introduced new, articulated buses. A partnership of the Assembly
Government, Stagecoach Bus and Caerphilly Council has facilitated
a Kickstart scheme in south Wales that has achieved a more than
20% increase in patronage after a year.
On the Gower peninsula in south-west Wales,
Swansea Council and Pullman Coaches have developed a thoughtful
and well-marketed network of tendered services. It has been tendered
as a complete network with connecting services linking remote
communities. The buses have a unique livery and there is full
inter-availability between tickets on this tendered network and
on nearby commercial services.
In north-west Wales, the Snowdonia Green Key
project provides several gateway villages and towns in the area
of the National Park with high, shoulder and low season arrangements
for parking accompanied by curtailed roadside parking in a core
area. The gateways provide long-term parking facilities with regular
free bus services between the gateways and the core area, paid
for from parking charges.
In rural Ceredigion we have funded an innovative
"free bus week" allowing people who might not otherwise
have used the bus to experience how it can meet their travel needs.
Ceredigion Council will be evaluating the impact
the initiative has had.
In north-east Wales, we are funding innovative
Demand Responsive Transport schemes in Flintshire and Wrexham
linking residential areas with industrial and commercial centres
of employment.
In Pembrokeshire, the Coastal Bus network is
addressing congestion and air quality through the provision of
a network of environmentally friendly coastal bus services powered
by a mix of biodiesel, LPG and petrol/electric engines.
We attach the highest importance to reducing
public transport's impact on the environment, and another example
of best practice is the testing of electric hybrid buses by First
Cymru in Swansea.
We continue to fund the development and implementation
of the TrawsCambria network of longer-distance bus services throughout
Wales. The network is designed to complement the railways and
is a mixture of improved existing and new services.
We have many examples of good practice and innovation,
albeit these have often required pump priming by public money.
Deregulation has not achieved the intended increase
in the number of companies running bus services and the forecast
increased competition. The larger groups have consolidated their
position through acquisition with the result that local authorities
inviting tenders for subsidised services have sometimes received
only one submission. This undermines efforts to achieve best value
for public money. The perception remains that some companies are
reluctant to innovate, and that delivering a satisfactory return
on their investment is the overriding objective rather than growing
the market. There are exceptions, but if achieving a satisfactory
financial return means cutting back on or even withdrawing some
services, then that appears acceptable to some companies.
The local authority views is that despite often
quoted examples of growth, outside London the overall picture
is one of continued passenger decline, wasteful competition on
the road and service withdrawals resulting from operators' consolidation
of their more profitable core routes. Local authorities fill the
resulting gaps through subsidy. Services, frequencies and fares
remain liable to change at short notice, harming passengers' confidence.
The benefits of competing services are often negated by the refusal
of one operator to accept another's return ticket. There are few
examples of true integration of bus and train ticketing with tickets
bought on buses and few convenient interchanges. Generally, co-ordination
is poor between different local bus services, and between train
and bus services where buses are provided commercially.
Local authorities and Regional Transport Consortia
have a crucial role to play. Cross-boundary impacts must be taken
into account when local authorities consider their bus subsidy
plans. In some circumstances they may have to make difficult decisions
about where finite resources can be used to best effect.
Our funding of local authorities through the
local government revenue settlement includes an element for bus
subsidy. In addition, we allocated to the 22 local authorities
in 2006-07 £9.4 million under the Local Transport Services
Grant (LTSG) scheme to help them boost the number and range of
subsidised buses, and to support alternatives in the form of community
transport.
Despite real growth in LTSG over the years (it
began as £2.5 million in 1998-99), local authorities are
increasingly required to make difficult decisions when contracts
are renewed or terminated. The Assembly Government is developing
a toolkit to enable local authorities to assess the value for
money that they achieve from their funding of bus subsidies.
The number of bus kilometres operated in Wales
has declined from 126 million in 2001-02 to a provisional 116
million in 2004-05. The number of bus passenger journeys undertaken
on buses in Wales increased from 104 million in 2001-02 to a provisional
113 million in 2004-05. This growth in journeys is attributable
to a large extent to the Assembly Government's scheme introduced
in April 2002 guaranteeing free travel by elderly and disabled
people on local bus services. All major and many secondary bus
operators have responded positively, bringing forward investment
in newer, cleaner and more accessible buses. Some services that
would have been lost have been retained and others extended. The
overwhelming majority of operators are keen to engage in constructive
partnerships with us to the benefit of passengers.
The Assembly Government funds the activities
of Bus Users UK in Wales. It employs one full-time and two part-time
officers as well as a team of local area representatives. Since
its establishment the organisation has held more than 60 surgeries
throughout Wales to enable bus passengers to meet and discuss
their concerns with local operators and local authorities. Recurring
themes include inadequate information about service changes, unreliable
services, poor driver attitudes, infrequent or a lack of services,
vehicle condition, infrastructure and ticketing. Most operators
are considered to be reasonably good in investigating complaints
and responding to them.
A report by the Welsh Consumer Council in 2005
suggested that around 24% of people in Wales over 16 years of
age use buses at least once a week. A further 25% use buses occasionally.
The remaining 51% apparently never use buses. Based on a population
of approximately three million, this implies that more than 700,000
people use buses at least once a week and that a further 750,000
use them occasionally. This demonstrates the significance of travel
by bus for a great many people in Wales.
Is statutory regulation compromising the provision
of high quality bus services?
The existing opportunities provided to local
authorities and the bus industry to grow the bus market are probably
sufficient. We would like to see local authorities in Wales develop
and implement Quality Bus Partnerships in collaboration with the
industry and for the Quality Contract approach to be tested. The
Assembly Government welcomes the additional legislative powers
it secured recently through the Transport (Wales) Act 2006. We
will be considering with our partners in local government, the
industry and Bus Users UK opportunities for making best use of
these additional powers for the benefit of bus passengers in Wales.
Are priority measures having a beneficial effect?
What is best practice?
Traffic management measures including altering
junction layouts, weight restrictions and banning turning movements
have a key role to play in maximising the capacity and reliability
of existing infrastructure. Rising traffic levels have led to
increased congestion and more unreliable journey times. Significant
problems exist at certain times of the day, especially in the
main urban centres such as Cardiff and Newport. We will seek more
efficient and reliable use of the available infrastructure. In
some cases, it is expected that new infrastructure will be required.
The Assembly Government is providing substantial
funding in support of First Bus's introduction of its ftr concept
in Swansea, in partnership with Swansea Council.
Local authorities will be pivotal in identifying
where those circumstances exist, and in demonstrating a convincing
case. Transport provision must be considered at the earliest stages
of planning developments. The Wales Spatial Plan sets out a strategic
framework to guide future development and policy interventions.
Road pricing will have a part to play in our future transport
policies, especially in helping to address the serious and growing
congestion that exists in south-east and north-east Wales.
Authorities also need to reflect the key importance
of accessibility in its widest sense when considering proposals
for new developments or the redevelopment of areas within their
boundaries. Often, those cases would benefit from being considered
at a regional level. Examples include the redevelopment of town-centre
bus stations resulting from very welcome new investment. Maintaining
or even increasing the space available for buses and to act as
local interchanges is an important part of such considerations.
There are several excellent examples in Wales where local authorities
have renewed their principal bus stations and made them fresh,
attractive, easy to use, open and safe environments, most particularly
Wrexham and Bridgend.
Is financing and funding for local community services
sufficient and targeted in the right way?
Local authorities are often best placed to assess
the transport requirements of their residents. While local authorities
are able to make best judgements about local transport needs based
on local circumstances and priorities, they must not overlook
the potential for service reductions or enhancements to have impacts
outside the boundaries of individual local authorities. Increasingly,
we expect to see travel planning to be considered at a regional
level through Wales's Regional Transport Consortia. This will
promote greater efficiency in the use of resources and encourages
best practice in transport planning and delivery.
Bus companies have long-established links with
local authorities, and authorities have great expertise and experience
from their dealings with private transport companies.
The Transport (Wales) Act 2006 provides the
Assembly Government with the power to establish a Public Transport
Users' Committee for Wales. The Committee will be pivotal in identifying
gaps in services and where improvements are needed. For example,
establishing more seamless public transport interchanges, more
ticket inter-availability, more detailed and more accessible public
transport information, implementing new technology that is user-friendly,
and improving reliability.
There continues to be a perception amongst some
that travelling by bus is likely to expose passengers to antisocial
behaviour or—in the worst cases—assault. While no
journey by public or private transport can be guaranteed to be
without incident, the reality is that the risk of experiencing
such incidents is very low. As elsewhere in Great Britain, there
are examples of bus services having to be withdrawn because, for
example, a driver has been assaulted or a vehicle has been damaged
by a thrown missile. Such regrettable outcomes often affect the
most needy and vulnerable members of society. However, there can
be no justification for placing drivers and passengers at risk
of injury, and we completely support bus operators forced into
making those decisions.
It is essential that everyone interested in
promoting accessibility throughout our society helps to tackle
such antisocial behaviour. Bus Users UK in Wales has facilitated
the introduction of the "Bobbies on Buses" scheme under
which uniformed police officers and police community support officers
travel free on almost all buses in Wales.
We are working with others to develop a new
system of reporting incidents in Wales, enabling the police to
target resources on particular locations or services, at specific
times of day.
Concessionary fares—what are the problems
with the current approach? Does the (UK) Government's proposal
to introduce free local bus travel across the UK for disabled
people and the over 60s from 2008 stand up to scrutiny? Should
there be a nationwide version of London's Freedom Pass giving
free or discounted travel on all forms of public transport?
The Assembly Government's scheme guaranteeing
free travel for elderly and disabled people on local bus services
was introduced in April 2002 and is hugely popular. Local authorities
have issued more than 530,000 free bus passes and the scheme has
undoubtedly helped to turn around a long-term decline in bus passenger
journeys in Wales.
Smartcards on buses have been operating in many
parts of Wales for several years, but there is no uniform ITSO-compliant
scheme. The Assembly Government is funding local authorities and
consortia to achieve a fully ITSO-compliant scheme within the
next three years.
In addition to free travel for elderly and disabled
people on local bus services, the Assembly Government is funding
pilot schemes in two areas testing the practicality and affordability
of a half-fare scheme for 16 to 18 year olds. We are also funding
15 demonstration projects throughout Wales testing a range of
mechanisms for providing limited free travel by severely disabled
people on community transport. This is aimed in particular at
helping people who are unable to use even the most modern low-floor
accessible buses.
Why are there no Quality Contracts?
Quality Contracts have yet to be tested in Wales.
The Assembly Government continues to encourage local authorities
to explore the scope for implementing Quality Contracts. Local
authorities and others will be watching with interest the proposed
implementation of Quality Contracts in England.
Local authorities and operators in Wales appear
to prefer to achieve their objectives for improved bus services
through partnerships. This reflects the strong partnership approach
that exists in the vast majority of Wales resulting from local
regional arms of larger groups, and long-established small local
bus companies. It is also the case that there are quite significant
legal and administrative hurdles that would have to be overcome
to achieve a Quality Contract. Local authorities appear reluctant
to take on this perceived burden when a less onerous but still
potentially beneficial option exists.
Are the powers of the Traffic Commissioners relevant?
Are they adequately deploying the powers and resources that they
currently have? Do they have enough support from (Central) Government
and local authorities?
The Assembly Government has regular but relatively
infrequent contact with the Traffic Commissioner for Wales and
his staff. This reflects the fact that the Commissioner is not
responsible to us for his duties undertaken in Wales. We do fund
the posts of two full-time Bus Compliance Officers in Wales employed
by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. Local authorities
and Bus Users UK in Wales are encouraged to work closely with
those Officers.
The Assembly Government fully supports the Commissioner
in his role monitoring bus operators and their services. Where
required, the Commissioner should continue to fine the very small
proportion of operators that fail to match the typically extremely
high standards that most operators now display. There have been
some calls from some quarters for Wales to have its own Traffic
Commissioner and the Assembly Government has considered these.
Is London a sound model for the rest of the UK?
There are some valuable lessons to be learned
from experience in London, though London rarely reflects the circumstances
and problems faced by the rest of the UK. For example, implementation
of initiatives to tackle congestion and restrain car use. Making
through ticketing and inter-available ticketing part of an easier
and more convenient public transport experience are pivotal.
The wider use of Smartcards will help to make
bus travel more attractive. The adoption of Smartcards that allow
pre-paid seamless travel on all public transport modes and access
to retail and even car parking facilities is another essential
development.
What is the future for the bus? Should metropolitan
areas outside London be able to develop their own form of regulated
competition? Would this boost passenger numbers? If not, what
would? Does the bus have a future? In addressing rural railways,
the Secretary of State (for Transport) has said that we "cannot
be in the business of carting fresh air around the country"—is
the same true for buses?
Buses have a very significant role to play in
future transport provision in Wales. The partnerships that the
Assembly Government and local authorities have established with
the industry through the Confederation of Passenger Transport
in Wales and with individual operators demonstrate that shared
objectives can be established and success achieved.
Quality Contracts remain an option for local
authorities to test a franchise approach to the provision of local
bus services. It seems clear that passengers would welcome a clearer
fare structure and more inter-availability of tickets. The Tocyn
Taith scheme offers zonal tickets that are available on all trains
and most buses in north Wales, and even permits travel to and
from limited destinations in England. PlusBus operates across
Wales.
It is not economically, socially or environmentally
sustainable for buses to run if there is no demand. Buses will
continue to meet a huge social and economic need in Wales, especially
in rural areas, and those services will continue to require greater
subsidy per passenger journey or kilometre than in more densely
populated communities.
The public and private sectors have a responsibility
to ensure that the most appropriate and cost-effective systems
are used to meet that need. More direct or express services—such
as the TrawsCambria—along core routes are an option in many
instances provided there are frequent connecting feeder services.
Those feeder services can often be provided by smaller conventional
buses or by a range of community transport services. Community
transport and taxis are often under-utilised elements of an integrated
public transport system.
May 2006
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