Council wants new deals on subsidised ferries and trains (Evening Post 11/8/10)

[whole diary]

[TheLastMinute]

From This Is Bristol...

Council wants new deals on subsidised ferries and trains

FERRY and rail services will be affected by one of the biggest shake-ups of taxpayer-funded public transport Bristol has seen. Bristol City Council is putting all of its subsidised transport services out to tender from next month, inviting companies to bid for the right to run them. The Evening Post revealed how this would affect local bus services last week, but it will also affect a number of ferry and rail services that serve the city.

The council part-funds the Bristol Ferry Boat Company weekday commuter service between Cascade Steps and Hotwells Road; the cross-harbour ferry between the ss Great Britain and Porto Quay; and the Severn Beach rail line between Severn Beach and Temple Meads. The council, along with the ss Great Britain Trust, financially supports the cross-harbour ferry service, which costs 60p one-way.

At the moment the city council pays ^425,000 towards running rail journeys, and ^88,540 on the ferry services. The authority is hoping to cut the amount of money it spends supporting the services, as well as the ^4.7 million it pays towards bus services in the city. Both ferry contracts will be put out to tender in September, while the council hopes to negotiate a better deal with First Great Western, the company that runs services on the Severn Beach Line.

[Snip quote from boat company owner]

Executive member for transport Gary Hopkins has stressed the re-tendering process is not about cuts.

[Snip another quote]

Mr Hopkins said: "With the Severn Beach line the contract is with First Great Western so it has to be them. There are rules about competition and subsidy, but if the fares collected go up, to maintain the same level of service they should need less subsidy. But we will maintain at least the same level of service, including Sundays, and potentially look to improve it again."

Neither First Great Western nor the Bristol Ferry Boat Company were available for comment.

Cheers,
TLM

[JayMac]

I've suggested elsewhere that the SVB Line could probably go back to an hourly service in the off peak. Loadings during the day are not particularly heavy. No doubt there are many that would decry such a retrograde step, but it would serve to reduce the subsidy. I suspect, however, that the easier option will be to increase the, admittedly, very cheap fares.

Returning to an hourly off peak service may even free up a unit for use elsewhere.

[JayMac]

However.....

From the Bristol Evening Post (13/08/2010):

100,000 extra journeys made on commuter line

Passenger numbers on the Severn Beach railway line jumped by almost 17 per cent last year.

The number of journeys made on the service between Bristol Temple Meads and Severn Beach grew from 575,673 in 2008/9 to 673,000 in 2009/10.

The Association of Train Operating Companies says the Severn Beach line achieved the fourth largest increase in passenger numbers among the country's branch lines last year, behind lines in Cornwall and Derbyshire.

Julian Crow, west of England manager for First Great Western, which runs services on the line, said: "We're pleased to see the number of passengers choosing to travel with us is growing significantly year on year. We do everything we can to make journeys as comfortable and relaxing as possible, and our performance and customer satisfaction is at an all time high. I hope this trend continues and we continue to welcome even more people on to our trains over the coming year."

The number of passenger journeys on the Severn Beach line has risen by 60 per cent since 2007/8, when 420,000 journeys were made on the service.

Dave Redgewell, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said that although the increase in passengers was "fantastic", there needed to be continued investment in the service.

He said: "This increase has happened as a result of funding from Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council. If that funding is no longer forthcoming, these figures won't continue to rise."

He said passengers had drawn up a wish list for the service which included introducing CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) cameras at stations, disabled access at Stapleton Road and Lawrence Hill stations, a platform at the Portway park-and-ride site and ticket machines at Redland, Clifton Down and Montpelier stations.

Mr Redgewell said there needed to be extra security on evening services and more emphasis on collecting fares, with up to 25 per cent of them going uncollected last year.

He said: "The figures are fantastic and it shows how partnerships can work between local authorities and First Group. We need to make sure this partnership continues and need to make sure funding is forthcoming in the future. If we keep improving, we can get people out of their cars and on to public transport."

[grahame]

Couple of comments to add to the mix (not sure which way they'll take the discussion) ...

1. Under "Cap and collar", I understand that 80% of extra farebox income goes to the government at present; from comments I've heard, it's sounded rather as if that's expected to be the case for quite a while (although it could just be a bargaining tactic by parties looking for increased income from subsidy).   So if you put a fare of 3.50 up to 4.50, the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) will only get an extra 20p; the other 80p does not go to the local council to reduce the subsidy - it goes to Whitehall.   There is some discussion as to whether this 80% applies to extra services beyond the franchise base, what's regarded as extra service, and how you tell which tickets were sold for which service.

2. I would be very interested indeed to be fully informed about Mr Redgwell's afflilliations.  I admire the guy, respect his huge knowledge and energy and appreciate his strong employment of those aspects towards bettering the public transport in the South West and Bristol area, but at times I feel that there's a drift (or indeed a heavy push) in what he says towards interests which are not purely personal.  I would like to see something like this from David, and indeed it might help many of us work closer alongside him.

3. A service that runs at different times each hour is always going to be harder to market / fill, I fear. Much easier to advertise "twenty five past the hour" than "twenty five past the even hour, five and forty five past the odd hour", so the 40 minute frequency is something of a tricky one on that front - but forced by section lengths, etc.    I'm not sure what the solution is, but I would be reluctant to suggest / agree a cutback here even if it resulted in the release of a unit for a proper TransWilts service.  "Where there's a will, there's a way" - offer FGW^▸ (First Great Western) a subsidy of a million pounds a year to run a 153 on the TransWilts and they would find one somewhere, and not by removing another lucrative locally subsidised service either!

[JaminBob]

Think this is a largely beurocratic exercise to deal with rather confusing EU^» (European Union - about) legislation regarding 'state aid'. Of course tendering supported evening Sunday bus services is pretty silly, there is only one operator who can really do this, plus a second operator undermines the usefulness of bus passes, returns, etc. The same goes for the ferry, and the railways.

The supported bus services (5XX) could be provided by a number of different operators, but realistically these are very niche and not very useful to most people.

As a Bristol resident I would of personally preferred to see a more fundamental analysis of service demand, including re-routing of supported services (seriously who uses the 511?), and looking at commercial routes. If there was more appetite, a bus quality contract and some decent fare integration.

So i'm not getting too excitied...

Interesting to see how famous Mr Redgwell is around these parts!

[NSCoaches]

Bus Contracts and Integrated ticketing are all well and good in an ideal world... unfortunately, the more you let distant civil servants have a say the more messy it gets and the worse the actual service delivered is. Let the authorities organise the infrastructure and the operators run the buses. Is it any wonder the 5xx bus services are generally poorly used? Commercial bus services run by commercial organisations are best placed to respond to customer demand. If they don't they are vulnerable to attack.

I know everyone criticises First in the city and screams out for competition. Just open your eyes... Wessex Connect (plus their U-Links), ABus, Citistar, Faresaver - all running either large tendered networks or commercial operations in the heart of the city. It is happening, albeit slowly, and things are improving. I suspect the only subsidy going to First is for evenings and weekends...

There is room for rationalisation in North Somerset though, where First's Bristol-Clevedon service is tendered by North Somerset Council on journeys towards Bristol in the evening (they are commercial outbound), and the first three Bristol-bound journeys on a Sunday morning. That really is crazy and prevents anyone else from tendering a reasonable bid.

On the subject of fare integration - can I spend Tesco vouchers in Sainsburys?

[JayMac]

On the subject of fare integration - can I spend Tesco vouchers in Sainsburys?

Not sure about Sainsbury's, but I do know Tesco and ASDA will accept other supermarkets' offer vouchers.

[eightf48544]

NScoaches sums up the mess we've got our public transport in, and the purely artificial construct of commercial and non commercial services.

The fact that there is no fare integration between bus and rail in most cities other than London is basically to the detrement of the passenger.

How do you know which is the cheaper bus to take for a particular journey or will rail be cheaper?

Basically all local public transport should be based on the London model with fare zones and tickets valid on all modes. Although I realise that there are separate rail, tube and bus fares which just allow travel on that mode. However, just think what a nightmare most  journeys would be in London which involve a change of mode  without Travelcards and Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) which can be used on Local TOCS, Overground, LUL^▸ (London Underground Ltd), DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway), Tramlink from West Drayton to Upminister and Epping to Epsom Downs.

You even get a discount with a Travelcard on the boat to Greenwich.

I've posted a bit in the lighter side outlining recent journys I've done with a travel card with a small quiz.