Written evidence from Milton Keynes Bus
Users Group (BUS 42)
In reviewing the impact of the reduction in the funding
for Bus Services, it is hoped that the Select Committee would
consider broader issues when looking at the proposals.
For the majority of bus users, particularly outside
of the major cities, most people have only one choice for their
local transport needs. Those with cars have two choices. Therefore
any effect on local transport will be harder on those who cannot
afford the alternative transport.
As bus companies are driven by a profit motive, this
biases the better services to more populated cities, and means
that smaller towns, cities and rural areas are at a disadvantage.
This creates the problem of social exclusion, as lack of bus services
has a detrimental effect on personal interaction with local communities.
This then impinges on the health economy, as depression and lack
of mobility can cause other medical problems.
The bus companies have over the past few years been
able to dictate their own rules, and are very adept in providing
data to justify their actions. This has occurred for a number
of reasons:
— (a) The
Current Transport Act has lead to "Operational" based
bus services rather than "passenger focused services".
— (b) Most
problems with public transport tend to be local issues and /or
transport contractor specific. This leads to a non consistent
picture of the actual local transport problems across the country.
— (c) Continuous
changing of routes, timetables and removal of services from many
areas that the bus companies operate leaves whole areas of population
without reliable, punctual or consistent services. In the case
of Milton Keynes, the main bus contractor, Arriva, without consultation
with the public has changed routes and/or times four times in
the last nine months. This situation has gone on for some time
and resulted in a massive level of complaints and public meetings
to try and get some semblance of a better service. The list of
problems include missing buses, reliability, driver attitudes,
and lack of services for whole districts within the city. The
current 56 days statuary notice required before changes are made
is too short for both the public and local authorities to discuss
issues. The problems in Milton Keynes have been debated in Parliament,
but despite every effort by the public and local council to get
a better service, there has been more need of subsidised routes
to provide even a basic service. Reduction of the Bus Operators
grant or Local Authority grant support will have a considerable
effect on the local economy. Already the MK Chamber of Commerce
has reported that their members have had to restrict employment
opportunities to those who depend on public transport to get to
work. So reduction in the grants will have the effect of increasing
benefit costs if taken across the country.
— (d) As
there are no operating contracts between Councils and Bus operators,
they cannot be held to account by the local council. This lack
of measurables means that the local council does not have any
monitoring powers. So the passenger struggles on trying to get
action. The Milton Keynes local contractor has been inundated
with passenger complaints, as has MK Council.
— (e) Local
councils are held to account by the local public, and have to
produce Transport Strategy documents to meet government requirements,
but have no real control of the most important element - the provision
of local transport.
The Implementation of the free off peak travel for
elderly and the disabled passengers has had a very positive effect
on those able to take advantage. Many elderly and disabled people
have found that their wellbeing has improved considerably. However
the flaw in the system has been the processing of the funds from
central government through local authorities to the bus companies.
Firstly because the money allocated was not ring fenced and has
been processed through Environmental Services. Secondly because
of the way the money is requested by the local transport contractors
is not fully verified by regular audits. Certainly in the Milton
Keynes area we have witnessed over a period of time seemingly
improper charging of pensioner journeys. But the success of the
free travel concession can be measured in the way it has helped
many older and disabled people to be more mobile and not feel
isolated.
The data used to determine what bus services are
profitable is in question, because of the shifting sands of what
services are available. Locally we have seen the effect of missed
buses, unreliability of vehicles and timing issues on the figures
being used as justification that a particular route is not profitable,
and lacks clientele. It is very easy to manipulate the data to
advantage if you are the bus company. The local councils have
no power to challenge that data. The result is loss of routes
without any ability of those affected passengers to challenge
the changes.
The attitude of bus drivers is very variable around
the country, and in Milton Keynes, there is a lot of frustration
with their employers, and this often results in abusive shouting
at passengers, or passengers being treated to buses careering
round corners and throwing passengers off their seats. We have
an example a few days ago, where a passenger asked to alight at
a bus stop to be told it wasn't a designated bus stop. The passenger
pointed out that there was a bus stop, shelter and timetable being
displayed, and if that wasn't a designated stop, what was? The
driver wouldn't answer the question, and the passenger had to
walk back a considerable distance with heavy bags. This type of
story is repeated over and over again, but because drivers do
not have to display their driver number anymore, it is hard to
prove incidents and also for any response to be taken by the bus
contractor. Although the ticket issued should have the driver
number on it, in reality if it often intelligible. We also have
many reports of buses starting off before frail passengers have
sat down, resulting in heavy falls. This seems to be a national
issue, as we have heard of other areas suffering similar incidents.
In summary, there would be no need to reduce the
operators grant or local authority grant if better value for money
was achieved. There is certainly a need to get more people into
buses, thus reducing the carbon footprint, and providing less
traffic problems in the city centres.
The local public transport problems in Milton Keynes
have resulted in the setting up of an independent Milton Keynes
Bus Users group (MKBUG). The aim of the group is to improve the
services being offered by the local transport contractors. It
is entirely self financing, and is in the process of setting up
a monitoring group to provide accurate data on the services being
provided. In due course this will be shared with the Council and
Bus operator, and will be used to hopefully improve the bus services
offered.
However, since establishing the group, we have managed
to monitor the fleet, and some of the buses being used are over
30 years old. This impinges on reliability, and has implications
on safety. Data is already coming in from bus users, and we will
be submitting accurate data on time keeping to the Traffic commissioners
for appropriate action in due course. What is already apparent
is bad man management by the main contractor, which has resulted
in a blame culture. In may ways passengers seem to be getting
in the way of the working day of the contractor.
Community Transport in Milton Keynes, would not be
able to provide an alternative bus scheme for the elderly or disabled,
as it is heavily oversubscribed at the present time.
So the prospects of local transport travel for many
older and disabled passengers is now in jeopardy, and we would
ask that consideration is given to the poorer members of society,
so they can remain mobile in the future.
We would respectfully suggest an enquiry into the
way bus contractors operate would be an important way forward.
This would ensure best value for money and we would hope a national
standard for bus services could be set up, which would be the
minimum to be expected by passengers from the bus contractors
and local councils.
January 2011
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