PASSENGER TRANSPORT N e w s l e t t e r Welcome CONTENTS: to your new Passenger Transport enewsletter. This newsletter is quite packed and includes a summary of the workshops we held in Summer October 2017. We would like to thank you for the feedback you have provided. The information contained within this newsletter will be a useful reference and you can copy and paste any of the information to your own newsletter/web sites. 1 1. Integrated Passenger Transport Unit (IPTU) 2. Transport Representative Meetings 3. Mobile Technology 4 Local Bus Services in Essex 5. You said Integrated Passenger Transport Unit (IPTU) Organisational changes have taken place across all of Essex County Council and from 1 April 2018 Passenger Transport will be part of an Integrated Passenger Transport Unit (IPTU). The team will incorporate service delivery teams, Strategy, Publicity & Information, Travel Training, Park & Ride and Community Link and will be headed up by Helen Morris. Contact details remain the same at this stage and are as follows: Publicity and Information enquiries: public.transport@essex.gov.uk Passenger Transport Enquiries: passenger.transport@essex.gov.uk ECC Passenger Transport Bus Information: www.essexhighways.org/transport-androads/getting-around/bus/supported-busservices.aspx Reporting damaged Infrastructure: infrastructureteam@essexhighways.org Customer Feedback: http://www.essexhighways.org/transport-androads/getting-around/bus/feedback.aspx (note need to contact Operator in first instance giving specific traveline information). Traveline: www.traveline.info/se
2 Transport Representative Meetings We aim to hold two transport representative meetings a year across each District in Essex. Unfortunately, the numbers attending the meetings have declined over the years, and we have tried many ways to encourage attendance by introducing evening meetings, holding work shop sessions, inviting other Essex County Council officers and bus operators to the meetings. We want to continue the meetings, but if numbers continue to decline, we may no longer be able to provide resources across the County at this level. This could result in relying entirely on electronic communications as standard. We still believe they are beneficial and we would encourage you to ensure a representative attends to secure future meetings. They work two ways, they are beneficial to ECC because it is a way to communicate messages to people across Essex, with your help, and they are beneficial to yourselves as you can have face to face meetings with ECC officers and bus operators. We would also like to encourage good news stories and could include good news stories within this newsletter. You may recall at the last round of meetings we held a workshop session, in which we explained that funding for local bus services is not guaranteed. We asked: 1. What help do you and your community need to help support your local community and make buses more sustainable? 2. What other forms of transport are you aware of and how can these be better used? 3. What suggestions do you have to help promote bus services? We have now collated the responses and can share these with you please see the tables which can be found at the end of this newsletter. A couple of comments were made about concessionary fares. 1. Extend the concessionary fare from 9am to 8am. 2. Extend the criteria for concessionary fares. There are statutory scheme times for the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) set out in the Concessionary Bus Travel Act 2007 and the Transport Act 2000.
Transport Representative Meetings continued These are 9.30am to 11pm Monday to Friday and all day weekends and bank holidays. This is the level of service that is allowed for by central government funding. Essex County Council has used its discretion to extend the travel times on Monday to Friday from 9am to 12am to further enable pass holders to travel. This reflects the outcome of a major consultation exercise held in 2011 when the government transferred responsibility for the ENCTS from district to county level. Essex County Council has previously investigated the extension of the bus pass for example providing all day travel free of charge would cost in excess of 6m a year, on top of the current 18.1m annual cost. It has no plans to extend the scheme. Should, the Government feel that it is appropriate to extend the current scheme beyond the statutory requirements, it could so, by enacting secondary legislation to this end and fully fund the additional costs. 3Mobile Technology Details of the validity of the Concessionary Bus pass in Essex can be found at the website address: www.essexhighways.org/transport-and-roads/ Getting-Around/Bus/Fares-and-bus-passes/ Concessionary-fares.aspx In response to extending the criteria for bus passes, Essex County Council does have discretionary powers to extend the ENCTS scheme; it would almost certainly have to apply them equally to both men and women to avoid discrimination issues. However, the County Council would need to pay the cost of any enhanced ENCTS scheme from other funding. Given the tight financial constraints which apply to local government funding due to changes in the central government s grant regime this would mean cutting funding elsewhere, for example by reducing funding for education, social care or supporting bus services that would not be run commercially. There are no plans to implement a discretionary extension to the Essex ENCTS at this time. Travelling by bus can be made easy with a number of mobile applications to support you on you journey: you can download a timetable, see your bus location, as well as purchase e-tickets. Here are some of the most useful, split by operator: Arriva Arriva m-ticket: www.arrivabus.co.uk/bus-tickets/m-ticket (for buying tickets). The Arriva Bus app: www.arrivabus.co.uk/travel-help-andaccessibility/arriva-bus-app (for real time information on Arriva buses). First First mticket App: www.firstgroup.com/buy-ticket/ (for buying tickets). First Travel app: www.firstgroup.com/about-us/new-travel-app (for real time information on First buses). Hedingham & Chambers East Anglian Buses App: www.hedingham.co.uk/app (Mobile ticketing and travel information app for Konectbus, Hedingham and Chambers).
4 Local Bus Services in Essex The County Council provides 15% of local bus services and these are usually at weekends, evenings, on schooldays only, or in rural areas. ECC only provides services which would not be commercially viable. The County Council has no control over commercial bus operations. The majority of bus services in Essex are provided for by the commercial bus operator, (around 85%) who operate their services as their commercial interest dictates. Under the 1985 Transport Act, the role of the County Council is to consider providing bus services where they are not provided commercially. However, when a commercial bus operator de-registers a service or part of a service or makes some changes to a route, the County Council will consider whether it should provide financial support towards the service. This is becoming more and more difficult because the local bus budget is already fully committed to supporting existing services. A number of questions related to bus services themselves, and some of these have been forwarded to the bus operator. Table 1 lists the main questions we had. You said 5Table 1 Your suggestions about buses in general You said Increase the frequency of buses in highly populated areas Remove double decker buses and use smaller vehicles, such as minibus The majority of buses in highly populated areas are operated on a commercial basis. We have passed these comments onto the bus operators. However, they too have financial pressures, and as much as they would like to increase the frequency they would need to employ more drivers, and purchase more buses. The operators sometimes need to put on double decker buses due to the sheer volume of passengers in the peak (particularly at school times), it is more economical to provide a double decker bus in the peak and keep the same vehicle running during the daytime. However, some operators have taken to putting on smaller vehicles, but this may mean some passengers having to stand. This is another source of complaint the council gets. However, providing the bus meets the requirements, passengers are allowed to stand on single or double decker buses but this depends on the vehicle size. This information is shown on all vehicles.
You said Shorten bus route/direct routes to town Wifi on buses Operator engagement with local people More buses in the evenings More buses on Sundays and earlier start times Further services like the park and ride Improve reliability Have routes/ networks and timetable appropriate for needs - Planning Promote good news stories ie punctuality on route Shortening bus routes may mean that the whole service does not carry enough passengers to maintain the service. Direct routes into town means villages on the outskirts of towns could be without a service. Some operators do this already, and the County Council usually provides services in the surrounding villages off the main bus route. In some areas of Essex, we have introduced DaRT (Demand Responsive Transport) to compensate for the loss of direct bus services This is something the operators are introducing usually on high frequency routes, or on services to Railway Stations/airports Why not invite your local bus operator to a meeting in your area, and promote this within your village. Unfortunately, due to reducing budgets, the County Council is not able to introduce more evening bus services, however, the commercial operator may consider this. In order for them to consider it, they would need to feel that it would be in their commercial interest to do so. The County Council will continue to liaise with bus operators to see if they would be willing to provide more evening services. Unfortunately, due to reducing budgets, the County Council is not able to introduce more Sunday services. The County Council will continue to liaise with bus operators to see if they are willing to introduce Sunday services. Park and Ride services aim to reduce congestion in the Town Centres. By using specific park and ride buses, you can help with this by using the park and ride at Sandon/Chelmer Valley and the Colchester Park and Ride service. The Sandon/Chelmer Valley Park and ride also enables passengers to access Broomfield Hospital, by way of a shuttle bus which provides frequency journeys to/from the hospital and is provided by Community Link. The Council relies on feedback from operators for where pinch points exist and can sometimes introduce measures (redesigning junctions, priorities, bus lanes etc. to improve this). We have carried out a series of network reviews intended to ensure council contracted bus services focus the ever decreasing available funding where it is most needed. To help ensure that happens, a consultation process takes place before each review. We do promote stories through Transport and Travel update, if you have other suggestions, please send these through to Passenger.Transport@essex.gov.uk
You said Ticket interavailability Update on Smart Cards Improve complaints process case numbers for example The commercial bus operator quite rightly would expect the fare that they take on their commercial service to stay within their own company or at the very least to be no worse off. However, ECC does allow inter availability on its own contracted services. Some commercial bus operators are introducing e- tickets, where you can purchase your tickets in advance of your travel. Please visit your local bus operator to see what they offer. Essex County Council has not introduced smart cards on its own services at this time. Complaints sent to ECC are automatically given a reference number sent via the website: https://www.essex.gov.uk/customer-services/pages/ Complaints,-compliments-and-comments.aspx you may receive an acknowledgement in the first instance. Enquiries sent to passenger.transport@essex.gov.uk will receive an acknowledgement to advise the enquiry is being looked into. This is a constantly manned mailbox in business hours and it the quickest way to receive a response from the Passenger Transport team. On operational issues, the bus operator should be the first point of contact and they will each have differing complaints procedures. Answers to many questions can be found on our website: http://www.essexhighways.org/transport-and-roads/getting-around/ Bus.aspx Linkage with train timetables Whilst we agree linkage with train times would be very good, sometimes it is not practical to do so, as some routes have other key connections such as schools, or may have other rail station within its route and indeed connect with other bus services.
Table 2 Publicity and information You said Remove old timetables from bus stops Officers are proactively carrying out site visits, and over the last three months site visits have been carried out in Waltham Abbey, Epping, Ongar and Brentwood. A number of issues were found and are currently being rectified. However, we have around 2,600 number of stops with frames across Essex, and if you find one that is out of date please contact the team via public.transport@essex.gov.uk. For the removal of bus stops please email infrastructureteam@essexhighways.org Requests for new infrastructure need to be sent to the Local Highways Panels, by completing the request form. You can find out more about LHP (Local Highways Panels) by visiting the website: http://www. essexhighways.org/transport-and-roads/highway-schemes-and- Developments/Local-Highway-Panels.aspx Improved publicity on timetable changes/provide information of changes to timetables in the local press Improved publicity regarding new routes Provide more detailed information at bus stops Promote good news stories be promoted and emphasised in the BPN More advertising from ECC/Town and Parish Councils Continue with timetable leaflets Local press is expensive and will only reach a certain market. We have Bus Passenger News available on the ECC website. If you wish to subscribe to the Transport and Travel update, which includes bus passenger news, visit our website (www.essex.gov.uk), where you will be asked to submit your email address. Select Transport & Travel Update when selecting newsletters. New routes (whether it is a commercial service or operated with financial support are recorded in Bus Passenger News via Transport and Travel updates). With your help, these new routes can be promoted within your community via local newsletters, web pages, or posters in and around your community. Often timetable frames are only large enough for bus departure & route information, so we prioritise these details over other info. We recommend consulting Operators websites or ticketing apps (see Mobile Technology section above) for more information about your bus journey. We promote good news stories in Transport and Travel Update, and will endeavour to encourage this across the County. You can access the Transport and Travel Update via the link www.essex.gov.uk/keepmeposted This is a good channel to promote local bus services. Bus Passenger News is countywide when the local user is only concerned by a particular area this is where the Town and Parish Councils can help promote bus services whether they be commercial or provided by ECC ECC has adopted a Digital by Default stance towards print. Timetables are available to be downloaded and printed via www.essexbus.info and traveline services.
You said Better promotion of DaRT services and local bus services Transport & Travel Update to provide various links to websites on a monthly basis Give more information regarding bank holiday services in BPN Better notification of cancelled routes The following methods have been used to promote local bus services, including DaRT: Leaflets /posters Press releases Face to face via transport meetings and bi monthly working group meetings Social media facebook, Transport and Travel, Twitter Targeted groups such as hospitals, GPS, schools, luncheon groups, care homes, Options for Independent Living (OIL), Older Peoples planning group Locally through parish councils, bus user groups and parish fares The Transport and Travel already provide links to various websites, if you have any you wish to promote please contact us via passenger.transport@essex.gov.uk You can access the transport and travel via the link www.essex.gov.uk/keepmeposted Most Bank Holidays services operate primarily as a Sunday Service. Over the Christmas period this is more complicated. We therefore, recommend customers to contact the operator direct. We would encourage people to sign up to Bus Passenger News which gives monthly update to all changes to local bus services. Just to remind you, ECC review all registrations received and take into consideration withdrawn bus routes. The transport officers provide detailed information for impact assessments, however, the internal governance process in this takes time to complete and information can only be shared once it has been signed off.
Table 3 Transport Representative Meetings Feedback - Issues Parish Councils can take ownership of You said Information and timetable at notice boards More publicity at local levels Use it or lose it campaigns. PT to relay specific information to reps, however it applies to all services. Transport reps to promote this generally More information on bus shelters If you have a notice board you would like information for, please contact the IPTU team and explain what you need and they will assist with providing this This is something that the Parish/Town Councils can assist with. It would be helpful if Parish/Town Councils could promote local bus services in their newsletters or web sites. Bus shelters in Essex are owned by a number of sources. There are a few exceptions but generally: Shelters with adverts are owned by Clear Channel (Adshell) and J C Decaux Shelters with the Seax logo belong to Essex County Council. Older brick or wooden shelters belong to the local Parish/Town Council Newer wooden or Littlethorpe shelters are owned by either Essex or Parish councils Any new shelters installed will be supplied with a plaque to show ownership. If you are unclear on who owns a shelter please email the infrastructure team at the infrastructureteam@essexhighways.org More information for the elderly/ more village notice boards/ bus champions in villages This is something that Parish Councils can get involved in.
Table 4 General comments You said Support smaller operators When Essex is seeking tenders, this process reaches all operators including smaller operators and taxi operators. Additionally, ECC provides grant funding to all Community Transports. Give longer term contracts More engagement with bus operators We would like to give longer term contracts, however, with the current budget constraints the Council is facing, we need to have shorter term contracts All bus operators are invited to the transport meetings. We meet the operators annually at the bus operator day, and meet them regularly with our contract management team We hope you have found this newsletter helpful. If your Parish no longer wishes to receive this e-newsletter please advise via email: passenger.transport@essex.gov.uk Any suggestions for content of future newsletters are very welcome and we are happy to share your good news stories please use the above e-mail address to contact us.