But surely we don't want to make the system too easy to use. That might encourage more passengers, leading to demands for more trains, more routes, better stations, higher frequencies - and who'd pay for that?
Very interestingly, today I listened to a breakdown of the expenditure of Wiltshire Council on various bus support elements, starting with 8.3 million on school transport, 4.2 million on each of special needs transport, concessionary fares and route support, 2.2 million on (?) other special transport [sorry - my notes are hard to follow] and some other smaller sums making up a total of 24.5 million on buses. And I asked the question "to put that into context, how much money is taken the farebox". No answer at the meeting (and I appreciate that it may be "commercial in confidence") but does anyone know?
Whilst
WC▸ don^t answer that question directly, to be fair to them they do put enough information into the public domain for us to be able to work it out. This is published as part of the consultations that they undertake when proposing changes to the bus services which they support.
I am actually conducting research into this myself at present, and below is a historical selection of such information that I have gathered:
CORSHAM TOWN BUS SERVICE
The service was expanded three years ago to run more frequently and to serve Basil Hill, funded by the developers of the Basil Hill MoD site in order to meet planning obligations that required a bus service to be provided to improve non-car access to the site. It was hoped that by the end of the period of developer funding, passenger use would have grown to the point that the expanded service could continue with only a limited ongoing requirement for council subsidy. Unfortunately this has not been the case.
The service in its current form costs around ^200,000 per annum to operate. Of this, around a quarter is recovered from passenger fares, ^80,000 from the developers and the remaining ^80,000 from Council funding. The Basil Hill developer funding ends this year, and the cost to the Council will therefore rise to ^160,000 per annum. As Council funding has also come under increased pressure, this is not affordable. The current operator has also given notice that he wishes to terminate his contract to run the service, and this is expected to lead to a further increase in the cost if the existing timetable is to be retained.
The service currently carries around 80,000 passenger journeys a year. However, when spread over the number of bus journeys operated this equates to on average only 7 passengers per trip. It is clear that the number of passengers does not justify the current level of service, which requires two buses and three drivers to operate.
ZIG ZAG
Funding - The whole service is funded by Wiltshire Council, at a cost of ^108,000 per annum.
Usage - Around 28,500 passenger journeys a year are made on the service, equivalent to approximately 95 single journeys per day.
The Zig Zag service as a whole carries around 95 single passenger journeys per day, which is equivalent to an average of only 8 or 9 passengers boarding during the whole length of each individual bus journey.
The largest group of users are residents of Holt and Broughton Gifford travelling to/from Trowbridge and Melksham town centres. There is also a small amount of use of the service to travel from Holt to Bradford on Avon, although this has reduced in recent years. In all, these villages account for nearly a half of all passenger journeys.
Use of the service north of Melksham has also reduced in recent years, largely due to changes to the Bath-Melksham service which now also calls at Whitley. Surveys have indicated that few people now use the service to travel from Shaw, Whitley, Atworth and Gastard to/from Corsham (on average less than one passenger per journey), although there is also some use of the service to travel from Melksham to/from Corsham, and from Corsham, Whitley and Atworth through to Trowbridge and return. There are also still a few passengers using Zig Zag to travel between Atworth, Whitley and Melksham despite the availability of other services.
Use of the service to travel to/from Chippenham is also disappointingly low and is variable, with users appearing to travel irregularly or at best once a week.
In all, nearly two thirds of passenger journeys are made entirely within the Trowbridge ^Bradford ^ Melksham section of the route, and around a quarter entirely within the Melksham^ Corsham ^ Chippenham section of the route. The remainder (around a sixth) travel between the south and north sections of the route.
The cost of providing the Zig Zag service is high because it requires the equivalent of two buses and drivers per day to operate it. With reducing numbers of passengers using the service, the cost to the Council of funding it exceeds the Council^s maximum subsidy guideline of ^3.50 per passenger trip set out in the ^Guidelines for funding of supported services^
SERVICE 20/22
Funding - The whole service is funded by Wiltshire Council (with a small contribution from West Berkshire Council) at a cost of ^188,000 per annum. This figure excludes the cost of providing transport for students who are entitled to free or assisted transport.
Usage - 49878 passenger journeys per annum (equivalent to approximately 178 per weekday + 75 per day on Saturdays). These figures do not include students who are entitled to free or assisted transport.
Although some journeys on these services are reasonably well used (particularly on Wednesdays when it is market day in Marlborough), many journeys carry less than 8 passengers with some journeys carrying just one or two people. On Saturdays, even fewer people use the service with loadings less than half of those experienced on weekdays.
The most heavily used journeys are those transporting children to/from St.Johns school at Marlborough with buses regularly carrying more than 30 pupils, half of whom are travelling to/from Hungerford.
At other times most of the passengers are travelling either between between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn (approximately 57%) although surveys suggest that disappointingly very few are using the service to connect with trains at Bedwyn station.
The cost of the service is high because it requires the use of two buses and three drivers per day. Although previously the overall cost to the Council was originally less than the maximum subsidy guideline of ^3.50 per passenger trip set out in the ^Guidelines for funding of supported services^, a reduction in the number of children needing to use this service to travel to/from John O^Gaunt school means that this is no longer the case. Some economies in providing the service could be made by reducing the number of journeys operated.
The level of service provided is generous when compared to the overall use made of it and no longer justifies the use of two vehicles to operate it. The rail link service in particular is poorly used compared to the cost of providing the current number of connecting services.
It should be bourne in mind that in each of the above cases, the relevant consultation put forward proposals aimed at reducing the amount of financial support required. Where these have since been implemented, the relevant figures quoted will have altered accordingly.
