Supplementary memorandum from Transport
for London (TPT 29a)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Our response to the request for additional
information that was made by the Committee during our oral evidence
session regarding the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme,
the Freedom Pass and Revenue Protection Officers is set out below.
We have also included information about London Underground's Ticketing
Strategy which was raised later during that session.
2. THE IMPACT
OF THE
ENGLISH NATIONAL
CONCESSIONARY TRAVEL
SCHEME ON
DEMAND FOR
LONDON BUS
SERVICES
2.1 Reliable information on current London
bus usage by non-London concession holders is difficult to obtain.
We have agreed an estimate with the Boroughs on which to base
provisional payments in 2008-09 until actual data comes through
from the on-bus surveys. The Boroughs will pay us £25 million
on the basis there are currently 25 million paid for journeys,
which will rise to about 40 million as a result of free travel
(ie generation of about 15 million journeys, or about 0.75% increase
in total bus traffic of 2200 million). The payment will be retrospectively
adjusted once actual usage figures come through. A further factor
here is that the government formula for distributing the additional
grant for the out-of-area travel (£212 million for England)
looks likely to give the Boroughs £60 million+, compared
with our £25 million cost estimate. This occurs mainly because
the London scheme has always included out-of-Borough travel—so
the Boroughs would argue is simply putting right many years of
injustice, not handing them a windfall.
3. LONDON BOROUGHS
AND PAYMENT
FOR THE
FREEDOM PASS
3.1 London Councils is responsible for managing
the Freedom Pass and would be able to provide further information
about how the scheme is funded.
4. REVENUE PROTECTION
OFFICERS
4.1 In 2006-07 there were 21 recorded major
staff assaults on revenue protection officers on the bus network,
ie those assaults leading to over 3 days sick leave and 115 minor
assaults. Up to the end of period 9 this year (8 December 2007),
there have been 17 major assaults and 72 minor assaults. This
is in the context of additional revenue staff operating on the
network and, currently, there is no year-on-year increase in assaults
per hours of ticket checking on buses.
5. LONDON UNDERGROUND'S
TICKETING STRATEGY
5.1 Oyster currently represents nearly 70%
of all London Underground (LU) ticket sales. Its success has provided
an opportunity for LU to look at the best ways of deploying its
staff to the benefit of all passengers, especially in the context
of the huge rise in numbers currently being experienced. By moving
some staff from positions in ticket offices to more customer-facing
positions, LU believes that its service will be improved.
5.2 As a consequence of the growth in the
use of Oyster, there has been a dramatic decline in ticket office
transactions at many of LU's smaller ticket offices. At stations
where there has been the biggest decline in ticket office sales,
LU will move staff from ticket offices to more visible positions
across the network, where they are needed most. On average at
the stations where changes are proposed, ticket office sales have
dropped by 42% over the past two years—in some cases this
figure is as high as 80%. Most of the ticket offices that will
close are currently open for only a few hours each day and sell
fewer than 100 tickets daily.
5.3 Additional Oyster-enabled machines (more
than 300) will be installed across the LU network which equates
to at least one at every station. LU is also planning comprehensive
customer information and education programme at each of the relevant
stations to ensure any questions are resolved before any changes
are made. A new marketing campaign around automatic top-up for
Oyster was launched in December.
5.4 These changes do not mean that LU is
reducing staff at stations and it remains committed to staffing
all of its stations at all times. At some of the busiest stations,
such as Victoria and King's Cross, where people are less likely
to have Oyster and may be less familiar with the network, LU proposes
to increase the number of ticket office staff.
5.5 LU has decided to put back the implementation
date for the ticket office changes to autumn 2008. It will review
the results of the consultation and allow time for the full benefits
of new ticket machines and the Ticket Stop network, which is to
be expanded in 2008 to 4,000 outlets, to be realised.
December 2007
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