Passenger Transport: March 11, 2022

FO EV RT ER NI Y GH T

ISSUE 260 11 MARCH 2022

NEWS, VIEWS AND ANALYSIS FOR A SECTOR ON THE MOVE

Rival Stagecoach offer gives certainty to staff

Group’s directors support cash offer from German asset manager DWS, scuppering National Express merger that would have seen redundancies Stagecoach looks set to retain its independence after receiving a rival £595m cash bid from German asset manager DWS, trumping a takeover offer from its UK rival National Express.

The bus, coach and tram operator said the deal would provide “greater certainty over the future, with overall headcount in frontline operational roles expected to remain the same”.

Stagecoach’s existing headquarters in Perth, London and Stockport, and related roles, will be retained. Chief executive Martin Griffiths, finance director Ross Paterson and UK managing director Carla Stockton-Jones

would remain with the business.

Commenting on the offer, Griffiths said: “We believe it will open a new and exciting chapter for Stagecoach, backed by a team who share our vision for a more sustainable future.”

The proposed merger with National Express, which had been recommended by Stagecoach’s management, would have seen Griffiths and Paterson depart,

“We believe it will open a new and exciting chapter” Martin Griffiths

along with further headcount reductions to unlock synergies.

Stagecoach said DWS, which also has a stake in Yorkshire Water, was a “patient long term infrastructure investor”.

Hamish Mackenzie, head of infrastructure at DWS said: “Stagecoach is a fantastic business with an exciting future as a central player in a revitalised UK bus and coach market ... We are focused on supporting Stagecoach and its management team to deliver their strategy for the benefit of passengers, local communities and employees, as well as helping achieve ambitious plans for reaching Net Zero.”

NEWS

Liverpool City Region backs bus franchising

05

‘We have the power to roll back the 1980s’

INNOVATION & TECH

Cardiff plans SMART corridors

11

Council will use tech to favour buses

COMMENT

My 10-point plan to boost morale

16

Alex Warner urges management to act

COMMENT

‘Long wait for Crossrail will be worth it’

20

Christian Wolmar on delayed project

CAREERS

Determined to ‘break the bias’ EYES ON EUSTON HS2 Ltd has published updated concept designs for the exterior and interior of its high speed railway terminus station at London Euston. It features a bold geometric roof design to allow natural light to flood in.

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International Women’s Day marked

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CONTENTS

PASSENGER TRANSPORT PO Box 5496, Westbury BA13 9BX 020 3950 8000 editorial@passengertransport.co.uk

Stagecoach offer is show of faith in our sector Since last October it seemed that Stagecoach would not be around for its 42nd birthday, with its directors backing a merger with National Express Group, its larger UK rival. That bid now appears to have been scuppered, with Stagecoach directors Robert Jack instead backing an offer from German asset Managing Editor manager DWS. Stagecoach will not disappear.

This deal will no doubt be welcomed by those at Stagecoach who feared their role might overlap with someone at National Express.

But it should also be welcomed by the sector more widely, because it’s a statement of faith in our long term prospects.

The sector is seeking to rebuild its passenger base in the wake of Covid, with many believing that a large proportion of its customers may never return because they’ve changed the way they live. It’s also battling with labour shortages and, more recently, a huge spike in fuel prices. But DWS, which already owns Belgian bus operator Hansea, “has a strong conviction about the UK bus market opportunity on the back of the introduction of Enhanced Partnerships and potential Franchising arrangements”. Public transport is critical to achieving government objectives around economic recovery, levelling up, decarbonisation and improved health. DWS has recognised that and is willing to invest £594.9m in the purchase of Stagecoach, and much more over the coming years, in anticipation of a return in the long term. That’s something for us all to be positive about.

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IN THIS ISSUE 12

NORMAN BAKER’S TRANSPORT POSTCARD

14

WE MUST MAKE THE CASE FOR A BETTER LIFE

18

FOUR WAYS TO ACCELERATE DIVERSITY

22

ARE WE SEEING A NEW ERA FOR BUS SERVICES?

Norman Baker experienced some different transport during a visit to Bangladesh. He writes: “It is impressive to see the scale of the new clean transport interventions, and particularly the speed at which they are being delivered.”

ORGANISATION

PAGE

Abellio London 4, 9 Arriva London 9 Alexander Dennis 8 c2c 27 CitySwift 4 CPT 4, 6 Crossrail 20-21 DWS 1 Ember 8 Eurostar 6 FirstGroup 8 Go-Ahead Group 7, 26 Govia Thameslink Railway 18-19 GWR 7, 26 Heathrow Express 27 HS2 Ltd 1 Liverpool City Region CA 5 LNER 26 McGill’s 8 National Express Group 1, 3 Network Rail 26 Newport Transport 6 Office of Rail & Road 7 Oxford Bus Company 6 Portland 6 RegioJet 6 RSSB 27 Scottish Government 8 South Yorkshire CA 5 Southeastern 7 Stagecoach 1, 3, 8, 9, 18-19, 26 Transport for London 9, 20-21 Transport for the North 7 Transport for Wales 9, 11 Welsh Government 8, 11, 22-23 West Coast Motors 8 West Midlands Trains 27 Young Bus Managers Network 9

Decarbonisation of transport will require a shift away from our car-based culture. Claire Haigh writes: “This will be a battle for hearts and minds ... We must make the case for a better life, with cleaner air, more equitable access and convenient transport.”

Currently just 20% of the transport and logistics workforce in the UK is female; that’s less than half the 47% average across the entire UK workforce. Krishna Desai of Cubic offers some thoughts on how this inbalance can be addressed.

As the country begins to emerge from Covid-19, it’s becoming increasingly clear that bus services need to adapt to survive. Nick Richardson considers the way that bus services might reinvent themselves to service new lifestyles and patterns of demand.

REGULARS NEWS INNOVATION & TECH COMMENT ENERGY MARKET REPORT GRUMBLES CAREERS DIVERSIONS

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Six-month reprieve for England’s bus funding Intense lobbying effort sees £150m extra for Covid recovery FUNDING

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced a further six months of funding support for buses in England beyond the planned end of the existing Bus Recovery Grant scheme on April 6.

The government has allocated an additional £150m, which will be shared by bus and light rail operators. It says that the extended scheme represents the final tranche of pandemic-related support to operators and will run for six months until October 2022.

While further details are awaited about the logistics of the scheme, it is understood the existing terms and conditions of the BRG scheme will be rolled

SCHEDULER IS BEST IN BUSINESS Abellio London schedules manager wins top award AWARDS

A London bus scheduler who worked tirelessly to ensure key workers could get to work and children could travel to school safely during the pandemic has been named as the winner of the Joe Wood Scheduler of the Year Award.

Mariusz Przybylski, schedules manager for Abellio London. was announced as the winner of the award at a special ceremony in Galway, Ireland.

The award was established by technology firm CitySwift and Passenger Transport in 2020 to recognise ‘unsung heroes’ and raise 04 | 11 March 2022 PT260p04-05.indd 4

“Many of us are struggling. The devil will be in the detail”

of enhanced partnerships, with local authorities working closely with bus companies to draw on their operating knowledge and marketing skills.

“The funding I’ve announced today will ensure millions of us can continue to use vital public transport services and brings the total we’ve provided to the sector to keep services running throughout the pandemic to over £2bn,” said Shapps.

“Not only that - as we look ahead and continue our work to overhaul services and build back better from the pandemic, this funding will also help authorities and operators work together to provide even better services for people right across the country.”

Vere highlighted that millions of people rely on buses and trams to get to work, school and shops. She

awareness of the role of the bus scheduler and its importance to public transport in the UK. Przybylski scooped the top award in recognition of his work on bus scheduling changes needed during the pandemic, to ensure that Abellio’s services and drivers were able to operate efficiently and effectively.

When the pandemic hit the UK in early 2020, Przybylski and his team were faced with the huge task of implementing new schedules for 2,500 drivers in two weeks. In total over 200 schedule changes were made in 18 months - which the bus operator says was only possible through Przybylski’s skill and professionalism as an experienced scheduler.

Key to Przybylski’s success

was maximising his team’s use of available data to inform decisionmaking, along with continuous analysis of schedules to produce the most effective results. Far from being desk-bound, as a fully-qualified bus driver he also got behind the wheel to validate his assumptions and increase his knowledge of Abellio London’s routes.

“It’s a huge honour to win this accolade,” said Przybylski, who has worked for Abellio London for the last 16 years. “I want to dedicate this success to my Abellio London team, who showed colossal flexibility and resilience. They worked very hard during the pandemic to help keep our buses and customers moving.

“I’m hoping this award will help ensure the important role that schedulers play in the bus industry

over. However, those close to the negotiations suggest there will be some significant strings attached.

Passenger Transport understands that while the Treasury was initially reluctant to offer further financial support to the sector, there had been a consistent and forceful lobbying effort in recent weeks mounted by both senior Department for Transport civil servants and buses minister Baroness Vere.

The DfT says the scheme will support operators and authorities as they adapt to changing travel patterns. It adds the funding will also help the continued delivery

said this is why there had been “billions of pounds of support for the sector throughout the pandemic”.

“This latest funding builds on that support and will help keep services running as we emerge from Covid-19 and ensure networks meet passenger demand,” she added.

The move has been warmly received by the industry.

“This welcome funding will help operators have the certainty they need to run an extensive network of services over the coming months as we all adjust to life after the pandemic,” said Graham Vidler, chief executive of the Confederation of Passenger Transport.

But some concerns remain.

The managing director of one operator told Passenger Transport that they were awaiting confirmation of the terms and conditions of the new scheme.

“Many of us are really struggling,” they said. “The devil will be in the detail.”

is recognised.”

Alastair Willis, Abellio London’s head of commercial, paid tribute to Przybylski. “His dedication and willingness to adapt means he demonstrates the best that schedulers can be,” he said.

To view a special webcast of the award ceremony from Galway, visit bit.ly/schedulerof21.

Mariusz Przybylski, scheduler of the year

www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:54

“We have the power to roll back the 1980s and reverse four decades of disastrous deregulation”

Liverpool City Region to franchise its buses Combined authority unanimously approves plans for control REGULATION

Members of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority have voted unanimously to press ahead with plans to franchise the region’s buses.

The move follows an earlier decision in February 2020 which endorsed a bus franchising model as the emerging leading option for bus reform (PT227).

Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram welcomed the decision.

“Thanks to devolution we have the power to roll back the 1980s and reverse four decades of disastrous deregulation,” he said.

“We’re taking back control of our bus network and running it in

SOUTH YORKS TO PROBE FRANCHISES Jarvis blasts ‘shortcomings’ of ‘free-for-all’ deregulation REGULATION

Members of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority have given the green light to assess options for bus franchising.

The move follows a recent war of words between mayor Dan Jarvis and local bus operators over their response to the uncertainty surrounding emergency Covid funding support for local bus services (PT259).

Jarvis said the decision to press ahead with the assessment was a “big day for our region”.

He continued: “The shortcomings of the current free-for-all bus system www.passengertransport.co.uk

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the interests of local people - not private shareholders.

John Fogarty, the combined authority’s executive director of corporate services, and Liam Robinson, the combined authority’s portfolio holder for transport and air quality, told members that franchising provides “the greatest degree of public sector influence over the

Rotheram: ‘We’re taking back control’

have become painfully clear to everyone in South Yorkshire, and we need to establish whether greater public control would deliver the transformation we are working to achieve. This assessment will let us test that case and create the foundation to move to franchising.

“There are no silver bullets most of all, there will still be an urgent need for more investment whatever we do. But I promised to make strengthening our buses a top priority - and by putting all the options on the table, that is exactly what we are doing.”

Jarvis said in the short term the local bus network faced “serious and urgent challenges” as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

“While we’ve fought to protect our services, we’ve not lost sight of wider

bus offer and would allow the combined authority to specify the network, set the fares and control the fare policy”.

“Under the current operational model, the public sector locally provides around £65m per year to support bus operations, much of which is funded by the combined authority through the transport levy,” they said. “Further support is provided by government through Bus Service Operators Grant payments.

“In return for such a high level of support and subsidy, the combined authority currently has very little meaningful influence over factors such as network coverage and pricing strategies.”

They argued that franchising would provide a level of public sector influence and accountability that is

ambitions for them,” he said. “We’ve put in millions to improve services, create fare concessions, and give buses greater priority on our roads.

“Now we need the government to belatedly fulfil their own promise of transformative investment, so we can bring passengers back, build a bus network our people can be proud of - and help create a stronger,

Jarvis: ‘There are no silver bullets’

commensurate with the level of public sector funding that the region’s bus services receive.

While they admit an alternative enhanced partnership with bus operators was an attractive option, it was reliant on increasing levels of public sector funding.

“Despite its many attractive features, it does not advance sufficient elements of control, direction and accountability that the combined authority seeks in order to deliver its Vision for Bus,” they concluded.

However, Fogarty and Robinson admit that a shift to franchising would incur some significant costs, including £20m in transitional costs. There are also significant costs associated with the acquisition of assets, principally vehicles and depot facilities.

Despite the risks, the combined authority now intends to press ahead with an independent assessment of its plans. Following that stage, a statutory consultation on the plans would be launched.

greener, fairer South Yorkshire for all.”

Chris Read, leader of Rotherham Council and co-chair of the combined authority’s transport and environment board, added: “We’re determined to do all that we can to improve our bus services and I’m glad that we’ve now got to a position where we can formally begin the legal exploration of franchising. For too long when people have complained about bus services there has been almost nothing councils could do.”

The assessment of bus franchising follows plans to develop an enhanced partnership in response to England’s National Bus Strategy. It includes proposals for free travel for under 18s, capped fares, bus priority measures, better journey planning information and the introduction of zero emission vehicles.

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Soaring fuel prices add to ‘the perfect storm’ Wholesale diesel prices 44% higher than start of year FUEL PRICES

Passenger transport operators were this week grappling with the impact that soaring fuel prices will have on their businesses.

Already struggling with the challenge of building back passenger volumes after successive Covid lockdowns and labour shortages, fuel prices have now leapt upwards following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Bottom line is that we are in for a very difficult few weeks ahead,” James Spencer, managing director of Portland Fuel, told Passenger Transport. “There was already significant underlying upward pressure on prices as we discussed in our January market report

SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE Rail and coach operators offer free travel to refugees CRISIS RESPONSE

Passenger transport operators have provided support to Ukrainians following the invasion of their country. Numerous air, rail and coach operators are offering free travel to the two million refugees who have already fled their home country.

Cross-channel Eurostar is offering free travel to London to any Ukrainian national travelling to the UK with a valid visa.

Go-Ahead’s Oxford Bus Company is meanwhile offering Ukrainian refugees arriving in the UK free travel on its Airline service, which connects Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, 06 | 11 March 2022 PT260p06-07.indd 6

James Spencer, Portland

This increase of 46.39p per litre will have a major impact on transport operators. A bus company using 100,000 litres per month (such as Warrington’s Own Buses or Ipswich Buses) will see over £46,000 added to their monthly fuel bill.

Some transport operators will have hedged their prices, shielding them from the recent increases for the timebeing. But the impact of a sustained increase in fuel prices will eventually be felt.

Transport analyst Chris Cheek expects the price rise to be a big issue for bus operators, “another ingredient to the perfect storm that fate has brewed up for the bus industry”.

“In 2019, fuel costs were 13% of the total, but this will clearly rise,” he told Passenger Transport. “Back in 2014, when oil prices were high

Oxford and High Wycombe.

“In line with many major travel operators across Europe we are offering all Ukrainian nationals free travel on our airline service to help them reach safety at this difficult time,” said Oxford Bus Company managing director Phil Southall.

“If any Ukrainian national needs to use our airline service all they need

to do is simply show their passport to the driver to board.”

Privately-owned passenger rail operator RegioJet has partnered with Ukrainian Railways and others to provide a daily humanitarian night train land bridge between Prague and Kiev. The first service took place during the night of March 1.

This special train carries up to 600

(PT257). Since the Ukrainian invasion, prices have just gone stratospheric. I’ve genuinely never seen anything like it in my 29 years in the industry. Basically every day is a new record in terms of price rises.”

On January 1 wholesale diesel was priced at 43.35p per litre, rising to 101.30p per litre after adding 57.95p per litre of duty.

When the markets closed on March 8, this had reached 91.74p per litre, 149.69p per litre after duty - a 44% increase.

“I’ve genuinely never seen anything like it in my 29 years in the industry”

A show of solidarity

after the Crimean invasion, fuel accounted for 17% of total costs, so it will go back up there or higher.

Broadly, I reckon that each 5p on a litre increases total operating costs for a diesel fleet by 1.3%.”

On a more positive note, Cheek added: “On consumer behaviour, there was certainly a view around 2013-2015 that high petrol prices worked to the industry’s advantage. Some modelling work has suggested that a 1% change in fuel prices to the consumer would lead to a 0.33% change in non-concessionary passenger demand for buses.”

The Confederation of Passenger Transport said coach operators would be especially hard hit by the increases, and called on governments to take action to support the industry.

It warned: “With school contracts in particular being run to tight margins, operators face the difficult decision of potentially having to hand back school contracts as they are no longer viable to run.”

pallets of food to Kiev and offers 400 beds for women and child evacuees from Ukraine in RegioJet’s night train rolling stock. At the border, it exchanges the humanitarian goods and passengers with a UZ train.

As a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine, council-owned bus operator Newport Transport, supported by its supplier Pennine Signs, branded one of its double decker buses to the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Many of the company’s employees originate from Eastern Europe.

“Newport Transport are proud to launch their support and solidarity for the people of Ukraine,” said Newport Transport boss Scott Pearson. “This bus will hopefully act as a reminder not only to do what we all can to help, but also the importance of democracy and peace.” www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:57

“I want to provide my staff with the certainty they are looking for”

TfN reveals DfT has cut its budget by40% Staff cuts on the agenda as DfT slashes TfN’s funding by £3.5m FUNDING

Transport for the North is planning to make sweeping changes to its operations after the Department for Transport rejected a request for £10m in core funding per year for the next three years.

The north of England subnational transport body has been allocated £6.5m in funding for the forthcoming financial year on a single year basis. This is in line with the funding received for 2021-22, but it represents a 40% cut to core funding on 2020-21.

TfN notes that the 2021-22 cut was mitigated, with the assistance of the DfT, by £1.5m of recharges into the Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) programme and by the release of £2.5m from its own financial reserves.

With TfN now downgraded to an advisory co-sponsorship role

SOUTHEASTERN WOES CONTINUE Group sets aside £30m for Southeastern fines FINANCIALS

Go-Ahead Group has revealed it has set aside £30m to cover fines it anticipates it will have to pay after the government stripped the Londonbased group of the Southeastern rail contract.

The decision to end the contract last October was as a result of unreturned subsidy to cover track access fees for the High Speed 1 rail route between London and Kent. There were also issues with www.passengertransport.co.uk

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on NPR, TfN’s board heard late last month that further funding cuts could no longer be absorbed like they had in 2021-22.

“Neither... is now possible given the change in working arrangements post-IRP,” said TfN. “As a consequence, the full impact of the FY2021-22 funding cuts will now flow through into the organisation.

“The reduction in expenditure that is required is significant.”

TfN chief executive Martin Tugwell said the impact of the cuts was now being felt and that staff morale was low as a result of the inevitable staffing cuts that would follow the uncertainty surrounding future funding.

“It’s important we move forward quickly,” he said. “I want to provide my staff with the certainty they are looking for.

“We will be a smaller organisation moving forward... we have been ‘managing’ our vacancies since late last summer

to ensure we’re not taking on obligations or commitments.”

However, he added it was inevitable that TfN would have to begin seeking voluntary redundancies at some point.

“I will look to minimise them,” he added. “Our asset is the people and the skills that they bring, but I need to be really clear that there will be some implications in terms of redundancies.”

Tugwell said he intended to write to transport secretary Grant Shapps to express his disappointment at the decision to reduce funding. “But we do need to move on and get the budget set,” he added.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, described the 40% cut in budget as “massive” for any organisation.

He said it would significantly impact on TfN’s ability to plan and develop its ambitions and he raised concerns about the organisation’s future funding.

calculating profit share payments.

The group revealed its full-year results after significant delays to allow an audit to be completed which resulted in trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange being halted in early January.

The results disclosed that an independent review had found that £51.3m (including the previously identified £25m) is owed to the DfT in relation to the rail contract.

Go-Ahead says £49.2m of this has now been repaid.

It added that this liability could rise to an estimated £21.3m, but that this is subject to continuing commercial negotiations with the DfT.

Go-Ahead also says it “is recognising a provision of £30m for a potential financial penalty from the DfT”.

Go-Ahead said it accepted that serious errors were made in relation to the Southeastern franchise with respect to engagement with the DfT over several years and it has apologised. The group’s board has also implemented enhanced corporate governance arrangements, particularly relating to the way in which complex rail operations are overseen.

Overall, the group reported an adjusted operating profit of £115.5m (2020: £76.4m restated) and an overall pre-tax loss of £6.9m, a

IN BRIEF GWR AXES BRIGHTON Great Western Railway has announced it will axe its two daily services to Brighton from the May timetable change. Passengers will in future have to change trains at Portsmouth. The train operator says it has made the decision to scrap services as a result of the impact the pandemic has had on travel patterns. The demise of the service marks the end of all long distance inter-regional train services serving Brighton.

RAIL PERFORMANCE SLIDES New train service performance statistics from the Office of Rail and Road have revealed that 87.1% of trains were early or less than 5 or 10 minutes late than the scheduled arrival time at their final destination between October and December 2021. This figure was 4.7% worse than a year earlier. A total of 67.6% of trains were on time (early or less than one minute after the scheduled arrival time), down 7.1% on a year earlier and 3.7% of services cancelled, up 1.4% on a year earlier.

significantly better performance than the £39.5m lost in its 2020 financial year.

Despite continuing issues at its rail businesses in Germany and Norway, Go-Ahead reported there had been a strong financial performance at its bus and Govia Thameslink Railway operations.

Chief executive Christian Schreyer said he was “looking firmly to the future with optimism”.

“The group’s operating performance is strong and we are seeing a reassuring recovery in passenger volumes across bus and rail following the impacts of Covid-19,” he said.

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NEWS ROUND-UP

Checks and balances for zero emission funding Welsh minister says he is keen for a system to ensure that taxpayer funding for zero emission buses does not ‘leak out of Wales’. Rhodri Clark reports ZERO EMISSION

The Welsh Government has outlined its pathway to a zero emission bus fleet, following legislation to prevent private operators “pocketing” profits from publicly funded investment.

But operators say Wales cannot afford to wait until after the legislation has been passed.

Wales is lagging behind the other UK nations. The government refused for over a decade to establish a grant scheme to help operators bridge the gap between the cost of diesel and electric or hydrogen buses. The Scottish Government, for example, has supported the acquisition of 548 zero emission buses.

The Welsh Government is buying 14 electric buses for three rural TrawsCymru routes, but the electric bus fleets of Cardiff Bus and Newport Transport were primarily funded by the UK Government and Zenobe.

Deputy climate change minister Lee Waters told the Senedd last week: “I want to do two things to make systemic change, rather than simply making announcements that please the industry. The first is to design a bus system that is coherent and where investment from Wales doesn’t leak out.

“Now at the moment, we have a fragmented commercial privatised system, where private bus companies are expecting the taxpayer to fund their capital, and then they’d pocket the profit and then don’t give us services that are 08 | 11 March 2022 PT260p08-09.indd 8

coherent and give people a chance to shift transport modes. That needs fixing, and that’s what’s going to be addressed in the forthcoming bus White Paper.

“Secondly, I want a domestic industry to produce electric buses, and I think there is an economic opportunity for Wales. Rather than investing significant sums hundreds of millions of pounds - to buy Chinese buses, there’s a chance to develop a Welsh and British bus industry.”

The government’s concern about bus companies profiting as a result of government investment is at odds with its grant aid for many private sector projects, such as establishing the Welsh factory of train manufacturer CAF. The

government has also provided significant amounts of funding to Welsh bus companies to sustain operations since the pandemic began. Most bus companies are also owned by Welsh families.

A government spokeswoman said £7m would be available in the next financial year for development work on future investment in zero-emission buses. This would be followed by £60m in 2023/24 for acquisition of vehicles, a sum which is expected to be available each year thereafter.

Some of the vehicle procurement or funding allocations could take place in 2022/23.

The government has now changed its target of eliminating all diesel buses from Wales by

£62m for electric buses in Scotland Winners of first round of ScotZEB announced FUNDING

The Scottish Government has awarded over £62m through the first phase of the Zero Emission Bus (ScotZEB) challenge fund.

It will support replacement of 276 diesel buses with new battery-electric models and the required charging infrastructure.

Alexander Dennis will assemble 137 of the buses at Falkirk.

The biggest beneficiaries will be Stagecoach companies

ADL supplies 137 of the buses

with 109 buses. FirstGroup’s operations in Aberdeen and Glasgow will receive 74; McGill’s 41; start-up coach operator Ember 26; and West Coast Motors 10. A variety of smaller independents make up the remainder of the awards.

2028. The new target is 2035.

CPT Cymru director Josh Miles commented: “Welsh Government has set ambitious targets for bus fleet decarbonisation with 50% of the existing fleet to be zeroemission by 2028. This means around 200 new zero-emission buses on Welsh roads every year.

“With such ambitious targets, we cannot wait for bus legislation to arrive before taking action to start the transition towards a zero emission fleet. Governments in Scotland and England are already committing resources to the transition with thousands of buses on their way.

“Bus operators large and small are ready to play their part in this transition but this can only be achieved by Welsh Government working closely with them to unlock the investment from both operators and government that Wales needs.”

The government’s first target is to introduce “zero tailpipe emission” buses to all TrawsCymru services by 2026, although this is an inefficient use of vehicles because current battery range is inadequate to cover the full duty cycle.

Additional TrawsCymru buses will be required to take over during the day, whereas electric buses on urban routes can complete a day’s work on one charge.

Removing diesel buses from TrawsCymru will also do little to tackle air pollution in urban areas.

In Port Talbot, which has some of the worst air quality in the UK, some town routes are operated by 17-year-old buses, which pre-date even the Euro 4 standards.

The government aims to replace the “most polluting 50% of service buses” by 2028, with the rest to follow by 2035. It will, however, investigate opportunities to reduce the emissions of lesspolluting service buses and schools buses before 2035. www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:21

Another short term funding deal for TfL £200m grant will see organisation through until late June REGULATION

Ministers have agreed to another temporary funding deal for Transport for London that will see an additional £200m released to secure operations until June 24.

It is the fourth funding agreement for TfL since the start of the pandemic and brings the total amount of government support to almost £5bn.

Although he welcomed the deal which was announced on February 25, London mayor Sadiq Khan said: “The government has just provided a short-term funding

ARRIVA REMAINS AT TOP OF TABLE South London operation dominates TfL league PERFORMANCE

Arriva’s bus operation in South London topped Transport for London’s bus operator league table in the third quarter of 2021/22, according to the latest performance statistics.

With an Excess Wating Time variance of 0.43 minutes ahead of its minimum standard, it took the top spot ahead of newcomer London Transit, the joint venture of RATP Dev and Australia’s Kelsian Group based out of Westbourne Park Garage.

It produced a third quarter EWT variance of 0.32 minutes.

It wasn’t all good news for RATP Dev; its London Sovereign and London United operations lagged at the bottom of the table, just ahead of independent Sullivan Buses. www.passengertransport.co.uk

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deal that will only enable TfL to continue running transport services for a few more months.”

Although the mayor acknowledged the fine print of the agreement makes reference to future capital investment, he said it was essential that this becomes a “concrete commitment” from the government.

Khan continued: “The only way we will be able to avoid significant and damaging cuts to tube and bus services is if the government steps up and provides the longer term capital funding TfL urgently needs.”

The new agreement comprises a grant worth £200m but, recognising the relaxation of

CARDIFF DATE FOR YOUNG MANAGERS Stagecoach bus boss named as keynote speaker NETWORKS

Covid-19 restrictions, it includes a mechanism whereby TfL will receive additional funding if patronage lags behind forecasts.

Conversely, TfL will also have to pay back an excess if patronage is stronger than expected.

TfL has also commited to deliver a plan by the end of this month to identify up to £400m of additional revenue or cost savings in 2022-23, in addition to delivering the previously agreed operating cost savings for the 2021-22 financial year.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the government had repeatedly shown its commitment to London but added the support “must be fair to all taxpayers”.

LONDON BUSES OPERATOR LEAGUE TABLE - EXCESS WAITING TIME Source: TfL (16 weeks to January 7, 2022) EWT MINIMUM STANDARD POSITION/OPERATOR (MINS) 1.

Arriva London South 1.09 2.

London Transit 1.21 3.

London General (Go-Ahead) 1.12 4.

London Central (Go-Ahead) 1.20 5.

Abellio London 1.15 6.

Docklands Buses (Go-Ahead) 1.08 7.

Blue Triangle (Go-Ahead) 1.03 8.

Arriva London North 1.12 9.

Metroline 1.14 10. Metroline West 1.10 Network Result 1.12 11. Selkent (Stagecoach) 1.14 12. Abellio London West 1.06 13. East London (Stagecoach) 1.11 14. Metrobus (Go-Ahead) 1.02 15. HCT Group 1.06 16. Tower Transit 1.16 17. London Sovereign (RATP Dev) 1.01 18. London United (RATP Dev) 1.13 19. Sullivan Buses 1.00

ACTUAL EWT (MINS) 0.66 0.89 0.82 0.90 0.88 0.83 0.83 0.95 0.96 0.94 0.98 1.03 0.97 1.00 0.94 0.99 1.16 1.18 1.53 1.54

Q3 EWT VARIANCE (MINS) 0.43 0.32 0.31 0.30 0.27 0.25 0.21 0.18 0.17 0.16 0.14 0.12 0.10 0.10 0.08 0.07 0.00 -0.17 -0.41 -0.54

The next Young Bus Managers conference will be held in Cardiff on April 6-7. The keynote speaker will be Carla Stockton-Jones, managing director of Stagecoach UK Bus. She will tell delegates what she thinks about the bus industry today and its prospects. Alongside a technical visit hosted by Cardiff Bus, the after dinner speaker will be James Price, chief executive of Transport for Wales,and there will also be a ‘Dragons’ Den’style group work session. For more details visit the website at www.youngbusmanagers.org.uk.

TFL RESUMES BUS CONTRACT AWARDS Flurry of announcements follows funding deal CONTRACTS

Confirmation of Transport for London’s funding arrangements has seen the organisation resume announcing new bus contract awards.

The latest see Abellio keep Route 159 (Streatham - Oxford Circus); Go-Ahead London Route 155/N155 (Tooting - Elephant & Castle); Metroline Route 92 (Brent Park - Ealing Hospital), Route 186 (Northwick Park - Brent Cross) and Route 190 (Richmond - West Brompton); Tower Transit Route 339 (Leytonstone - Shadwell); and Uno Route 383 (Barnet - Finchley Memorial Hospital). Metroline also wins Route 142 (Watford - Brent Cross) from London Sovereign; and Arriva London snares Route 248 (Cranham - Romford) from Stagecoach London.

All of these contracts are on the basis of existing vehicles with the exception of Routes 142 and 339 where confirmation is awaited.

11 March 2022 | 09

09/03/2022 17:21

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09/03/2022 17:22

INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY Stagecoach’s X4 route is set to benefit from the pilot SMART corridor

Cardiff proposes SMART corridors

Cardiff Council has announced ambitious plans to use new technologies to give specific modes of sustainable transport priority over motorists PRIORITY

Cardiff Council has drafted a plan to use transport data and technology to encourage more people to travel by bus and other alternatives to the private car.

SMART corridors are one of the four main elements of the proposed “intelligent transport network”. They would involve a remodelling of arterial roads into the city to give specific modes of transport priority over motorists, with technology measuring queuing and journey times to improve network efficiency for sustainable modes of transport.

Large numbers of commuters, shoppers and leisure travellers travel into Cardiff from neighbouring counties, and Cardiff Council recognises that www.passengertransport.co.uk

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improvements are needed to encourage more of them - as well as the city’s own residents - to switch from cars to buses.

The first SMART corridor will be on the A470, which brings traffic into Cardiff from Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and other Valleys towns, as well as from some of the city’s northern suburbs. The A470 will be a pilot scheme before the approach is rolled out to other areas.

“Residents and commuters will be better informed, so they can make informed decisions”

Another element of the draft plan envisages the council, Welsh Government and Transport for Wales working together to deliver integrated ticketing for all forms of public transport.

“This is seen as a critical step to move people towards more sustainable forms of transport and away from relying on the private car,” said the council.

Demand management systems will also be explored, to enable people to order a bus for short urban trips. “The route the bus takes is based on the demand for the service. This demand is determined through data provided to the bus operators through the requests that are made from the public.”

Cardiff also aims to create a

transport user app which cross checks geographical and live information data from the highway network so that the public can compare estimated journey times by car, train, bus or bike.

A new control room is also proposed, where the emergency services, bus and train companies, enforcement officers and other partners would be able to react and deal with road incidents and congestion more efficiently.

Caro Wild, the council’s cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said the opening next year of the central bus station would be a trigger point to implement new services and technology. “So it is important that we do this work now,” he said. “Through the development of the transport user app, integrated ticketing and SMART technology, residents and commuters will be better informed, so they can make informed decisions on the best way to travel on any given day at any given time.”

The city already has some of the technology in place but not operating in an integrated way.

Some of the systems are becoming obsolete.

Wild said that the council wanted to see 76% of all journeys made by sustainable forms of transport by 2030, which required a doubling of the number of people travelling by bike or by bus. “To achieve this, we need better infrastructure which is managed by an integrated, intelligent transport system. It would act as the nerve centre ensuring bus corridors, cycleways and improved pedestrian crossings and pavements are recognised as a key part of the network, and helping to make travel on Cardiff’s roads as efficient as possible.”

11 March 2022 | 11

09/03/2022 17:22

COMMENT

NORMAN BAKER

A postcard from Bangladesh

I’ve had the chance to experience some different forms of transport during my visit to this country, where change is happening fast Dear Friends, Greetings from Bangladesh. This is my first overseas trip since Covid struck, and a chance to experience some different transport.

This was also my first flight for well over two years and - I accept this is subjective - I had forgotten what a drag it is to fly. Queues at all points - to check in, to go through security, to get on the plane, to use the onboard toilets, and the same at the other end, plus customs.

They say the British like queuing. I have yet to meet any who do.

All the hassle at either end of a plane journey helps to explain how, when Paul Tuohy, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, and I recently raced either from the centre of London to the centre of Glasgow, Paul on the plane beat me by less than five minutes. Paul had queues, delays, shuttle buses. I had a very relaxing train journey on Avanti West Coast.

Airlines like to invoke some sort of frisson of excitement about flying, as if this were still 1958 when flying was an exotic novelty for most people. That frisson has long gone, I reflected as I ruefully crammed myself into a too-small seat with inadequate legroom between two other people. And of course while you can wander about a train or a boat, or stop your car to stretch your legs, in a plane you are akin to being under house arrest.

Chittagong Airport where we landed was chaotic, with a mass of people trying to get through customs. Luckily for me, the authorities had sent a senior naval officer to 12 | 11 March 2022 PT260p12-13.indd 12

get me through and out, though it still took an hour. I think it would have taken about five hours otherwise.

I wanted to see the country, and minimise my carbon footprint, so, to the bewilderment - even concern - of my hosts, I insisted that the next leg of my trip, to Sylhet, should be by train rather than the plane they thought I would take.

Sylhet is a metropolitan city in north-east Bangladesh with a population of more than half a million. It is one of Bangladesh’s most important spiritual and cultural centres. It is also the centre of tea production as I saw when I visited a tea garden.

The train, somewhat grandly labelled as

inter-city, was well-worn but clean. Its layout comprised compartments plus corridor.

It was very busy but far less crowded than Indian trains. The locals with whom I shared a compartment were friendly and insisted on sharing some of their food with me. This is not an experience I have ever had on a plane.

Interestingly, the cost of the ticket was less than half that of the equivalent air journey, in stark contrast to the UK where it is generally cheaper to fly than to take the train. Indeed, when Paul and I compared our race from London to Glasgow, the train won hands down on comfort and environmental footprint, tied on time, and lost only on price. It is probably not intentional, but the Bangladeshis have actually priced train and plane more appropriately in carbon terms than the UK. OK, this is a nerdy observation from a former transport minister, but I was impressed by the quality of the track, finished throughout with concrete sleepers and new ballast. Even more strikingly, right along the route north from Chittagong, a new track was being laid in parallel, and new stations being built. A major expansion of rail is underway.

The new track actually comprises three rails for much of its length. This is not, as I first thought, related to an intended third rail power source. Rather, it reflects the fact that in the south of the country, the gauge is wider than in the north, so three rails will allow through running. I assume the basic tracks were laid by the British in the days of empire so I am surprised this situation was allowed

Ferries are common

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“It is impressive to see the scale of the new clean transport interventions” to persist. After all here in the UK, Brunel’s seven-foot broad gauge lines had been ripped up by 1892 to ensure compatibility with the rest of the network.

My train took nine hours to reach Sylhet (arriving on time), which I calculated to be an average speed of just over 20mph, desperately slow even allowing for extended stops at intermediate stations. Yet there was no way the condition of the track would require this slow running. The locals told me that trains kept their speed down in recognition of the fact that large numbers of people walk up and down, and criss-cross the track over its length.

A third rail would definitely not be a good idea.

Much of the land will soon be under water as the monsoon comes, so ferries are common.

These are rudimentary flat boats, quite narrow, with no railings, nothing to hold on to, and where everybody has to stand up.

It is road transport, however, that of course predominates. Bangladesh is a fast growing country, not simply in population terms but also economically. There are signs of investment everywhere, with modern buildings and smart restaurants popping up.

Many of the main roads seem to have been upgraded and are of a surprisingly good quality.

Many of the lesser rural roads, though, are so broken up and potholed as to be almost impassible at more than 5mph.

The way in which drivers use the roads is something else, and nowhere more so than in the capital Dhaka, my next stop. Some roads may have white lines to designate lanes, or zebra crossings, but these appear to be decoration rather than anything else. Certainly they do not affect driving styles.

Vehicles are driven very close to other vehicles; pushing in front, levering open any tiny space is a behaviour that applies from small auto rickshaws through to heavy lorries.

The astonishing thing for me is that there appear to be no collisions, not even small scrapes. The vehicles are like an ant hill, all tight together, all going in different directions, but never colliding.

The sound of the horn is ubiquitous, and it is used mostly to try to force the vehicle in front to get out of the way. Quite often, for example when traffic is stationary which it frequently is, horns blast out pointlessly from all directions.

The private cars on the road are invariably modern and often large 4x4s. Cars make www.passengertransport.co.uk

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The buses and coaches look aged, and often give the appearance of having just come from a war

“The good news is that the authorities have recognised the problems of congestion and pollution and identified the correct way forward: clean public transport” up 28% of traffic on Dhaka’s road, with motorbikes adding a further 42%. Car ownership has mushroomed in recent years, but even now only about 1 in 15 households has access to one. Clearly, increased prosperity makes it likely this figure will rise.

By contrast, the buses and coaches look aged, and often give the appearance of having just come from a war zone, so battered and filthy are they.

There is a real problem with emissions from buses, coaches and lorries, all of which chuck out filthy black smoke. I was told that they can run on a mixture of petrol, diesel and oil, which, to my mind, makes it surprising they run at all. The air in Dhaka is the worst I have encountered since I was in Beijing. Dhaka is in fact the most densely populated city in the world - there’s a good pub quiz question - with about 43,500 people per square kilometre.

At least the small auto-rickshaws are cleaner, being powered by CNG. And of course the large number of bicycle rickshaws emit no pollution at all.

The good news is that the authorities have recognised the problems of congestion and pollution and identified the correct way forward: clean public transport.

Five new mass transit rail lines are being constructed in Dhaka. Together they will total over 80 miles of new track, of which 52% will be elevated above the road and the rest

underground. There will be 104 new stations, 51 elevated and 53 underground. The first line is due to open in 2024, and will connect the airport with the main transportation hub at Kamalapur. At the same time, a new line will connect the city centre to a new large-scale development project, Purbachal New Town.

All five lines are on course to be completed by 2030, as will the two elevated bus rapid transit lines which I observed were already under construction.

The municipal authorities are also planning the speedy replacement of local buses in Dhaka with new all-electric ones. Sadly, it seems these are coming from China. Are our UK manufacturers pushing hard enough for business in countries like Bangladesh?

It is impressive to see the scale of the new clean transport interventions, and particularly the speed at which they are being delivered.

Regrettably, the speed of new large scale public transport interventions here in the UK bears more comparison to my train from Chittagong.

Best wishes, Norman.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Norman Baker served as transport minister from May 2010 until October 2013. He was Lib Dem MP for Lewes between 1997 and 2015.

11 March 2022 | 13

09/03/2022 16:51

COMMENT

CLAIRE HAIGH

We must make the case for a better life

The decarbonisation of transport will require a decisive shift away from our car-based culture. It will be a battle for hearts and minds

We are not currently on track

GHG emissions have bounced back and are set to rise strongly this year.

The challenge for the world is to get on a sustainable consumption path fast. A key principle must be equitable access to sustainable development with wealthier countries decarbonising more quickly. A step change is needed in climate finance. We also need a strong, predictable and rising carbon price. The failure to price carbon properly runs through every sector of the world economy and continues to support unsustainable levels of consumption.

Domestically, the pledge to reduce GHG emissions by 78% by 2035 puts the UK at the forefront of international ambition. However, government has faced criticism for failing to develop plans to match targets. Transport is the biggest polluting sector of the UK economy, and a technology-led approach has delivered little progress since 1990. The key conclusion of our Manifesto for Decarbonising Transport was that urgent attention must now be given to traffic reduction.

There is an emerging consensus that achieving our 2030 net zero target for transport

COP26 kept the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius alive and has generated momentum for change, but there remains a stark gap. Countries must come to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh with more ambitious NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions). Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must halve by 2030 to stay within 1.5C. After the plunge caused by lockdowns

“The challenge for the world is to get on a sustainable consumption path fast”

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has been described as ‘an atlas of human suffering’. Climate impacts are worse than predicted. Extreme weather events are accelerating. No region is safe.

Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future.

The report’s publication last week would have been top of the international news agenda, had the unfolding tragedy in Ukraine not dominated media attention. However, the stranglehold that dependency on Russian gas exerts over NATO member states only serves to underline the imperative that we reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

We need a massive shift to clean technologies, but we must also reduce energy demand. The International Energy Agency (IEA) describes demand reduction as “the first fuel”. Energy demand reduction supports the key goals of energy policy: security, affordability and sustainability. However, policy is heavily skewed to technological solutions.

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will require a reduction in car kms of around a quarter. Green Alliance concludes that the government’s anticipated roll-out of EVs will be insufficient to keep us on the ‘balanced pathway’ to its net zero target, and that a reduction in car kms of 20-27% by 2030 will be needed. The major of London has pledged 27% reduction in car kms by 2030. The Scottish Government has pledged a 20% reduction.

The devolved administrations are demonstrating leadership on the issue of demand reduction, but the Transport Decarbonisation Plan (TDP) continues an approach that has meant people have driven more and in larger vehicles as engines have become more efficient. Whilst the TDP recognises the need for modal switch, the delivery of behaviour change has been delegated to local authorities. A toolkit has been promised but much greater resource and political leadership will be needed.

The timeframe has significantly narrowed our options. 60% of fuel supply and half of surface transport decarbonisation required by 2050 needs to have happened in this decade if we are to remain on track for the net zero target. The only solutions open to us over this timescale have to include reducing the need for travel.

We need a whole systems transition The decarbonisation of transport requires changes in the wider economy. We need a whole-systems approach that reflects the shift to digital connectivity, and the integration of transport with land-use planning, energy and green finance. The challenge in delivering this is how to overcome the silos of government nationally and locally. The £27.4bn road investment programme undermines the goal of achieving net zero. There was little reference to net zero in Levelling Up the United Kingdom.

Technical solutions will be insufficient to get us to net zero. Vehicle efficiency gains have been eroded by the trend to larger vehicles and rising demand for car and van travel. We must reduce energy demand and avoid rebound effects. Moreover, in lowering the cost of motoring, electrification will increase car use and congestion and make mode shift harder to deliver. If we electrify the fleet without sorting out how to transition away from fuel duty, road traffic could increase by an additional 30%.

The pricing of different transport modes should properly reflect external costs. The www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 16:52

“The pricing of different transport modes should properly reflect external costs” benefits to the public of any future change in how we pay for road use should be framed in terms of reducing carbon and congestion, cleaner air and more equitable access. Road pricing has received support from the Transport Select Committee. The final report following its inquiry into Zero Emission Vehicles and Road Pricing highlights that if it fails to act the Treasury will be left with a £35bn black hole as receipts from fuel duty and VED disappear.

The transition to net zero must be rooted in fairness, not only because the poorest in our society are least responsible for the climate crisis and invariably the worst affected, but unless action is rooted in social and economic justice it won’t succeed politically.

Environmental taxes must ensure a fair distribution of cost and incentives, with mitigation measures where necessary to protect poorer households. Perceived tensions between achieving net zero and the levelling up agenda must not be used as an excuse for any backsliding on decarbonisation.

Greater devolution would accelerate the delivery of UK wide net zero targets, as evidenced by the net zero strategies of the devolved administrations. Coordination of different aspects of policy is easier at a regional or local level. Levelling Up the United Kingdom promises a “devolution revolution” but inviting local authorities to bid for different pots of money militates against the joined up strategic thinking and planning needed. We need to reform funding and governance so that local leaders can plan for housing, jobs and transport on an integrated long-term basis with net zero embedded at the heart of decision making.

Building a new framework Since the 1950s a car-based consumer culture has ensured that our transport system has been built on the assumption that the private car is the predominant mode of transport.

This assumption continues to be reflected in transport budgets and planning decisions.

Funding for road building vastly exceeds funding for sustainable transport. Transport for New Homes regularly puts a spotlight on new housing developments that lock in car dependency.

The decarbonisation of transport will require a decisive shift away from our car-based culture. Unfortunately, current indicators point in precisely the opposite direction www.passengertransport.co.uk

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The mayor of London has pledged a 27% reduction in car kms by 2030

by way of a car-led recovery from Covid.

Congestion exceeds pre-pandemic levels in many areas as people continue to avoid public transport. Public transport is struggling to sustain even 60-80% of 2019 patronage levels, and without additional government Covid support grants it was estimated that 30% of bus services would have been lost.

We must ensure that we learn the right lessons from the pandemic. One legacy must be an increased focus on risk and resilience in appraisal and investment decisions. We won’t succeed if we persist with the illusion that we can green business as usual. It is time to question some fundamental assumptions about our continuing fixation on GDP growth. Prioritising growth according to its contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals would be a good place to start.

A cleaner, fairer, safer future At a time of rising geopolitical uncertainty, volatility in energy markets, insecurity of supplies and escalating fuel and gas prices, it becomes more critical than ever to design policies in a way that avoids unintended consequences and ensures a fair and just transition to net zero. We can no longer take for granted the strong cross-party consensus in the UK which had seemed unshakeable until the recent emergence of the Net Zero

Scrutiny Group.

This will be a battle for hearts and minds.

What does life beyond fossil fuels look like?

We must make the case for a better life, with cleaner air, more equitable access and convenient transport. No one wants their children’s lungs to be damaged by air pollution, for the continuing corrosive impact of car dependency on society, and for hours of our lives and productivity to be lost in congestion.

How can we begin to re-imagine our daily lives?

Energy security is an increasingly critical issue. The IEA has been urging people to turn down their thermostats. However, there is also a growing body of opinion, including from the respected Blair Institute, that there may need to be some short-term trade-offs in terms of decarbonisation, as we shore up our energy security at home and reduce our (especially EU) reliance on imports of Russian gas.

We must avoid false choices. We must protect our energy security whilst accelerating the transition to net zero and ensuring that low-income groups are not penalised.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire Haigh is founder and CEO of Greener Transport Solutions, a not for profit organisation dedicated to the decarbonisation of transport

11 March 2022 | 15

09/03/2022 16:52

COMMENT

ALEX WARNER

My 10-point plan for boosting morale

In my last column I explained how morale among public transport employees has hit rock bottom. Here’s what we need to do to fix it Yikes! My last article about the rock bottom morale in transport put the cat among the pigeons as my absolutely bulging postbag at Passenger Transport Towers will testify. There were no dissenters in the ranks and instead an acknowledgment that the industry has lost the plot when it comes to motivating those on the frontline and junior managers.

Several of my pen-pals implored me to suggest ways to improve the situation, so forgive me please for my 10-point plan to try and lift morale out of the relegation zone.

1. Visit frontline colleagues!

It’s incredible that I even have to state the obvious, but the penny hasn’t dropped with many leaders. Unless you have the social skills of a newt, it’s generally a truism that the more time you spend with people, the more chances you have of building a relationship! However, we still have senior leaders’ working days dictated by whatever conference call or meeting (for meeting’s sake) that appears on their Outlook calendar. The owning groups don’t help with their pointless daily conference calls to go through a series of metrics that seldom change from one day to the next. These calls are generally made by some divisional bod who is only able to justify their role by looking at a tracker and enslaving each subsidiary team, asking them so-called ‘spikey chair’ questions while studying their spreadsheets of red, amber and green. None of these metrics, let alone the summation of them are ever testament 16 | 11 March 2022 PT260p16-17.indd 16

as to the quality of customer service that is actually being delivered for customers and their satisfaction with their experience. Clear your diary, obliterate meetings and get out in the depot, during the morning run-out or evening run-in, or on stations, buses and trains. Actually talk to colleagues.

2. Engage in chit chat I kid you not, sometimes I watch senior leaders in action and their lack of interpersonal skills makes me wince. They just clam up and are incapable of making conversation with employees. Whether managing bus depots, railway stations, offices or mail centres and delivery offices in a previous life for Royal Mail, I would always research in advance about the local area in advance of going there - anything from the fortune of the football team, to the nightlife, the nearby attractions, newsworthy stuff - so that I could make chitchat with folk and try and build a rapport.

So too, I can’t believe how many managers are also incapable of conversation and instead fill awkward silences by talking management jargon or about the work stuff they are interested in or putting on some kind of stilted voice with scripted content, generally about some boring corporate nonsense. It’s so selfobsessed and unnatural - start by asking stuff like ‘what are your plans for the weekend?’ or ‘do you live close to here?’ or ‘how’s the family?’.

Everyone likes talking about themselves, so it’s a great way of unlocking conversations.

3. Don’t be secretive I’ve always got on really well with the trade unions - in fact, in nearly 30 years, I don’t think I’ve had a single dispute on my watch.

Part of the reason is because I’ve always valued the commercial nous of the unions and frontline employees. At Royal Mail, instead of management conferences, I organised ‘team conferences’ involving all my managers and the local, full-time trade union representatives.

At every session, the fabulous deputy general secretary for CWU, Terry Pullinger, and I, would do speeches about our commercial and strategic goals, and we’d then spend the day sharing sensitive information and developing plans together. There were no dress rehearsal management conferences beforehand, we realised we were all one team.

If anything, I found trade unions were more commercially motivated and astute than many senior managers in the business and were very much an ally to kickstart some of my peers and superiors into action. Too often, leaders across transport instinctively think that frontline employees and their trade union representativesare not interested or motivated by the commercial imperative or even intelligent enough to understand it, let alone develop ideas to support it. It’s so disingenuous.

4. Cut out social media nonsense The claptrap on social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter is so inane it is ridiculous. If senior leaders invested as much time posting on their excellent company frontline employee engagement apps as they do trying to impress their peers or get a new job on LinkedIn or Twitter then transport would be a far, far better place. Most of the time they just exploit employees as the ‘extras’ in their own ‘look at me’ life story. They don’t really give two hoots about Frontline Frank, he’s just there for a photoshoot of you in the depot acting as some amazing leader.

Furthermore, some senior leaders have absolutely zero self-awareness. They show pictures of themselves on buses and trains as though they’ve set foot into the unknown on some big adventure - don’t you realise IT’S YOUR JOB! Then, there are the absent leaders, constantly picturing themselves or their teams on glamorous long distance trips.

Talk about a bypass in self-awareness! www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 16:52

“Clear your diary, obliterate meetings and get out in the depot” 5. Develop your duty managers Have you ever shadowed a duty manager for a shift? It’s certainly entertaining. These poor souls spend around eight hours in complete reactive mode, firefighting, answering the phone in a panic, persuading drivers to do extra shifts and generally keeping the show on the road. Most would claim this is of course what they are employed to do, but they seldom, if ever, create the headspace to approach their tasks in a more methodical way and to look at what they are there to achieve in terms of driving customer satisfaction.

All of them will unilaterally agree that they aren’t really managers - they don’t set or monitor objectives, they seldom get feedback on decisions they’ve made or have the ability to review what they could have done differently and they don’t have simple tools such as customer service standards or clear guidelines to genuinely be managers.

Their senior managers don’t invest time in their development and they aren’t even briefed on what the company’s Customer Services Strategy is and their crucial role in making it happen (if such a strategy exists). As a matter of urgency, every duty manager should have a formal development plan and benefit from ‘managing customer service’ training so that they can create and understand how best to use a governance model to drive customer satisfaction and have the tools and techniques to inspire frontline employees and enthuse them during their repetitive roles.

6. Understand their allegiances It never ceases to amaze me how senior leaders convince themselves that frontline employees buy-into the ethos of their ‘owning group’.

I’ve seen countless managers talk utter twaddle in depots and on trains and stations to employees about the latest results affecting the parent company and the future strategy as though they really care. Then there are those culture change programmes called the ‘[Insert parent company here] Way’ or some other brainwashing nonsense.

It makes me snigger when these leaders say, “the staff are devastated we’ve lost the franchise”. They couldn’t give two hoots. In the rail industry, employees see themselves as working for the train company or the railway itself and in bus, it’s generally for the local depot within the subsidiary or the community, www.passengertransport.co.uk

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rather than some big conglomerate. The independent bus companies are probably those that manage to raise greatest affinity from their people. When GB Railways is born, there’s a real opportunity to re-connect and inspire all railway employees around a common cause, rather than delusional cobblers trying to get them to care about some remote overseas owning group

7. Bequeath bonuses!

I’ve always found it bonkers that bonuses, with a few exceptions, tend to be excluded from the roles of frontline employees - as though they don’t deserve them, or it would be too complicated for them to be constructed, or they wouldn’t understand how to achieve them in the first place. If managers have a bonus objective to increase customer satisfaction and sales, then why can’t those who are closest to the action, and most capable of making the difference, be incentivised? It would also for many, help create more variety and momentum to sometimes repetitive roles and I’m sure it would unlock lots of innovative approaches for them to spend more time talking to customers and non-users and dream up ways to better respond to their needs. If senior management put this in the ‘too difficult’ tray then, at the very least, develop some kind of means to recognise high performance and correlate it with opportunities for career progression!

8. Spruce up the workplace Creating a clean, bright, well maintained, welcoming working environment helps to enthuse employees. What proportion of us turn our nose up at eating in the staff canteen because the food is inedible? Many of these places probably have a lower ‘Scores on the Doors’ hygiene rating than their company’s customer satisfaction survey result. Although money is tight, it’s a false economy to scrimping on the basics of a decent depot environment for frontline employees. You’d never expect the managing director to have an office as decrepit as the staff messroom or booking on point, and it’s a bit odd sending bus drivers out of the most antiquated, rancid depot onto a lavish, luxurious expensive bus. The disparity between conditions for customers and employees tells a tale of a company that doesn’t realise there is a correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction.

9. Diversity breaks barriers There’s a problem in that many companies think diversity and inclusion is a game - the chance to put a few buzzwords in board reports and the ‘social value’ section in tender bids, rather than the opportunity to genuinely get closer to and resonate with frontline employees. Walk round a bus or rail depot and in many cases you can see the void in terms of rapport and interaction between employees and managers. Part of the problem is because many managers don’t actually reflect the demographic make-up of the communities they serve and therefore, in some cases, have little empathy with their employees. There are exceptions, but dealing with the diversity challenge is a priority for a whole host of reasons, but particularly in terms of driving improvements in morale.

10. Say ‘well done’ the right way A few weeks ago, I spent a day with a station manager at a train company and she spent time in ticket offices feeding back to frontline employees’ specific mystery shopping reports that my team and I had done on them. To see the look of joy and pride on the faces of those receiving accolades was a wonderful sight.

From CEO to platform cleaner, it really doesn’t matter, we all like to be recognised when we’ve done a good job. However, it’s got to be done in the right way. Too often managers again turn it into themselves with their ‘So proud of my team for their amazing achievement’ when really what they’re trying to say is ‘what a great manager I’ve been’.

When giving feedback it’s got to be sincere and authentic and not a load of cheesy, patronising ‘haven’t you done well?’ platitudes addressed to frontline employees as though they are children. These are the same leaders that refer to them as ‘my people’, ‘the troops’ or ‘staff’. They’re none of these - in fact, the best way to describe them is as ‘colleagues’, which thankfully, in a rare act of progress, many companies are increasingly doing.

Small progress, but progress, nonetheless.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Alex Warner has over 28 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector

11 March 2022 | 17

09/03/2022 16:52

COMMENT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Four ways to accelerate diversity Just 20% of the UK’s transport and logistics workforce is female.

Here’s a plan for making the sector more appealing to women Currently, the UK transport system isn’t fully equal in its ability to meet the needs of every potential user. While Krishna Desai women represent the largest Cubic share of public transport users around the world, accounting for nearly half of rail journeys and over a third more bus journeys than men in the UK, they face multiple barriers that limit their mobility.

From harassment and safety concerns to costly journeys and scheduling issues - there are a number of overlooked problems that could lead female users to swap to alternate modes of transport that better fulfil their needs. This can have a direct impact on transit agencies’ revenues, and add congestion onto the roads, reinforcing that it’s in everyone’s best interest that women claim a seat at the table and have a say in transport legislation, design and development.

The challenge and the opportunity Currently, however, just 20% of the transport and logistics workforce in the UK is female; that’s less than half the current 47% average across the entire UK workforce.

In fact, the issue is so significant that the Department for Transport has recently launched a 12-week consultation to understand the future skills that will be needed to boost diversity, plug the skills gap and promote careers across the industry.

The transport sector has long-standing challenges around increasing diversity and improving inclusion and social mobility.

Last year, an All-Party Parliamentary Group survey found that over two-thirds (69%) of professional women working in the transport industry said its macho culture meant it had an image problem.

Assessing specific industries, a recent DfT study highlights some sobering statistics.

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In aviation, women account for just 6% of commercial pilots. In rail, only 16% of the workforce is female and less than one-in-four women would consider a career in rail. Meanwhile, in England, just 7% of bus drivers are women.

As the sector looks to launch new apprenticeship schemes and attract mature people and career changers into transport roles, increasing the representation of women will be key to tackling the looming workforce and skills shortages. But if efforts to address diversity are to succeed, transport organisations will need to tackle some of the root obstacles that continue to get in the way of attracting and retaining female workers.

1. Create an inclusive environment On-site facilities designed for men, complaints about intolerant or inappropriate behaviours, it’s little wonder that young girls and women often feel actively discouraged from entering such a traditionally male sector.

Encountering a workforce where 80% of the workforce is male is intimidating enough for aspiring young women. But a recent European Training Foundation report documents how women in the transport sector frequently encounter real discrimination at work and are plagued by the sexist behaviours of their male co-workers.

Organisations need to get serious about creating safe working environments for women. Alongside dealing seriously with complaints about inappropriate personal conduct and unsavoury comments, organisations need to implement robust HR policies and procedures that are trusted by female workers and enable them to confidentially report cases of harassment.

Improving the workplace culture so that there is respect and dignity for all workers will be critical if organisations are serious about wanting to attract and retain women workers.

2. Address workplace inequalities Inflexible working arrangements, the persistent gender pay gap, and a lack of equal access to the same training and career options continue to hamper the aspirations of female workers.

Challenging workplace inequalities begins with the basics. Whether that’s addressing stereotypes around what kinds of people become drivers and engineers with recruitment ads that feature women, or providing training and recruitment opportunities that tackle the disparity between male and female employees. That includes promoting on-the-job training designed to attract women who are considering a career change in a bid to extend the candidate pool.

Open and honest discussions are the key to creating inclusive environments that help women pursue careers for the long term. For example, without flexible working options, and appropriate facilities, working mothers will be more likely to consider quitting their role entirely.

Formalising discussions about career management that are focused on how decisions like pregnancy, maternity leave and postmaternity lifestyle changes will affect careers won’t just benefit women. Men too need to know how they can sustain their job roles while balancing the demands of work and family.

Initiatives such as returner programs, aimed at mothers wishing to re-start their career, can also be a valuable tool for tackling under-representation of minority groups.

Last year, Cubic signed up for the STEM Returners programme, as a way to hire more mature women who wish to return to work after a career break - supporting them in their return back to work, while minimising the gender imbalance within the industry.

3. Give women a voice Organisations that are keen to demonstrate their diversity and inclusion credentials need to put their money where their mouth is. Advancing women into management and leadership roles is a clear indicator that opportunities exist for those with the right talent and that gender is no barrier to progression.

When we hire women in positions of power they are likely to influence better internal policies and culture to retain and attract more women. For example, in 2020 Stagecoach www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:53

“Many organisations in the transport sector are already reaping the benefits” appointed Carla Stockton-Jones as managing director, making her the first woman to lead a private sector multi-modal public transit organisation in the country. Since then, the company has raised female representation at its operations board to 42% as it continues to provide a platform for women to lead in the industry.

Senior women will also be able to provide insights and perspectives into critical decisions relating to training and recruitment and will be able to highlight the cultural problems that are acting as a barrier to diversity and equality strategies. They will also act as role models for aspiring women within the organisation who will be able to see the realities of what can happen when ambition and talent is recognised and supported.

Female engineers, drivers and management leaders will also play a positive ambassadorial role as gender champions in recruitment drives and partnerships targeted at schools, colleges and universities.

Spotlighting women that are successful and undertaking a diversity of roles in the business is a way to showcase to aspiring women that there are significant opportunities to be had by starting or continuing a career with an organisation. It will also help dispel perceptions that transport is a ‘men only’ club that doesn’t value female employees as much as male workers.

4. Increase representation at events All too often, industry events are stacked with executives who are often male. By populating conference panels with talented women who hold subject expert roles at various levels including software engineers, modellers and operational roles like drivers or air traffic controllers - the industry will benefit from their shared experiences.

Closing the gap between male and female speakers not only demonstrates the industry’s commitment to gender diversity, but will be critical for attracting Generation Z talent that is passionate about only working for organisations that are determined to eliminate any negative or discriminatory practices. As more talented women get media attention, awareness of their achievements will increase.

Resulting in more girls and young women looking to emulate their success.

Some organisations, such as MaaS Global, www.passengertransport.co.uk

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Govia Thameslink Railway reports it has experienced an influx of female apprentices

already have policies in place which state that if a spokesperson is asked to be on a panel which is entirely made up of one gender, then they can instead recommend someone of the opposite sex from within the organisation, whilst UITP India offers a sponsorship discount incentive for female speakers.

Evaluating the gains Many organisations in the transport sector are already reaping the benefits that come when they invest time, effort and creative thinking into accelerating their diversity efforts.

Govia Thameslink Railway - which operates Great Northern, Southern and Thameslink reports it has experienced an influx of female apprentices. In 2021, 34% of its recruits were women - and overall 40% of all those recruited were aged 31-40 years of age.

Meanwhile, supply and logistics firm Wincanton is reaping the rewards of a commitment at board level to improve the diversity of its workforce. In addition to taking steps to reduce the gender pay gap, the firm has increased the proportion of females in its executive management team and boosted representation on the wider senior management group to 32% - up from 20%.

The firm is also undertaking pioneering new approaches to recruitment, including an

innovative scheme to fast track ‘drivers of the future’, designed to open up new opportunities for staff at its warehouses, and is set to result in 255 new drivers by March 2022. According to Wincanton, the number of female applicants for its internal fast-track programme is well above the industry average.

By avoiding gender stereotyped training and development, introducing mentoring programmes and re-evaluating recruitment and progression, organisations operating in the transportation sector will be able to develop inclusive working conditions where diverse talent can thrive. This will prove critical for attracting and retaining more women in the transport workforce that will be essential for closing the workforce skills gap. It will also lay the foundations for shaping the future of this progressive industry sector as it prepares to push ahead with new technologies and green solutions that will sustain the next era of mobility that will be critical to the continued success of the UK’s economy and the well-being of its citizens.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Krishna Desai is Senior Global Marketing Manager at Cubic Transportation Systems

11 March 2022 | 19

09/03/2022 17:53

COMMENT CROSSRAIL

CHRISTIAN WOLMAR

It’s been a long wait, but it’ll be worth it

The £19bn Crossrail project became a terrible saga of delays and cost overruns, but this will soon be forgotten once it has opened

Crossrail was, in the words of its former chairman Tony Meggs, “the best project in Europe, indeed the world, until it wasn’t”. And that transformation happened at a difficult meeting in August 29, 2018, when the sheepish Crossrail executives had to explain to the mayor, Sadiq Khan, that they were about to break the oft-repeated promise that the scheme was ‘on time and on budget’. Remarkably, they were throwing in the towel less than four months before the December 9 date when the scheme was supposed to be ready for the Queen to cut the ribbon in front of the inaugural train.

That a £19bn railway might be late and somewhat over budget was hardly surprising.

It is a very complex scheme involving nine new massive stations under London and nearly 50 kms of tunnels and, crucially, in relation to the difficulties, it is also Britain’s first fully digital railway, with everything being computer controlled.

What was more surprising - actually effectively inexplicable - is that a mere few weeks before everything was supposed to be ready, the top executives, led by the then chairman Terry Morgan, still thought that the December 9 deadline, first set in 2011, was achievable.

I had spent much of 2018 in Crossrail’s offices in Canary Wharf researching the first edition of my book and there was a constant series of reassurances from the executive team that the railway would open in December.

Even when I visited the Paddington new 20 | 11 March 2022 PT260p20-21.indd 20

Crossrail Station in June 2018 and found a scene of chaos with 500 orange suited workers still on site and no sign of anything resembling a completed station, Morgan assured me that there was still an 80 per cent chance of meeting the deadline. Yet, it has taken more than three years for the line to be in a state to be opened.

So how could these people, who all seemed competent, committed and, crucially, honest, have so deluded themselves? I have interviewed all the key players for the new edition of the book, and it is possible to discern how there was a collective belief in the impossible that was perpetuated by the failure of anyone to suggest that the emperor was, actually, naked.

There was in fact, as far back as 2017, zero chance of meeting that deadline. In November

that year there had been an explosion in a transformer at Pudding Mill Lane and as a result testing of the trains was greatly delayed.

It was probably the last chance for the project team to admit defeat and accept that the December date could not be met. The desire to keep on going regardless was probably the result of concerns that abandoning the date at this stage would lead to a lengthier delay but this was, of course, mistaken. Admitting that the project was running late at this stage would, according to Mark Wild, who took over as CEO at the end of 2018, have meant ultimately an earlier opening date. It would have been possible to restructure the work and separate out the various components rather than, as happened, trying to do things like testing the trains and fitting out the stations at the same time.

In fact Wild is convinced that even before the explosion, when he joined the board of Crossrail in September 2016, the project was too far behind to be able to catch up: “The opening date wasn’t achievable as in 2017 pressure increased with mitigations, interventions and then the Pudding Mill Lane explosion.” In the autumn of 2021, I spoke to Terry Morgan, who was chairman from 2009 until 2018, about the problems with the project at this time and he accepted it had been a mistake not to call a halt: “If I look back, the time when we should have waved a white flag was when we had the [Pudding Mill Lane] explosion. Instead, it turned out to be a heroic exercise to try to mitigate it. It’s what we did all the time. It’s going to be late, mitigate.” It was as useless as trying to stick

Crossrail is Britain’s first digital railway, and this has posed challenges

www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:22

“This is an incredible project that Londoners will appreciate for decades” fingers in a crumbling dam.

That date of December 9, 2018, had been fixed back in 2010 when work started and it remained the key focus for all the work, distorting the reality of what was happening on the ground. This is what set the malign pattern of refusing to acknowledge that the deadline could not be met. Yet, in the summer of 2018, the project team was still confident of completing in time. They put out press releases stating that the project was 93 per cent complete but this was a fundamental mistake.

When three years later, I went back to many of the people I had first spoken to in 2017/8 and interviewed the new team led by Mark Wild, it was very clear that there had been an air of unreality overhanging the project for some time.

Apart from the Pudding Mill Lane incident, there were other factors that made the deadline simply impossible to meet, such as the lateness of the trains which have to be adapted to three different signalling systems and the sheer task of what is called ‘systems integration’ the technical term for the major task of turning the raw tunnels into a working railway.

Tony Meggs who took over from Morgan as chairman, explained to me: ‘It meant 93 per cent of the money had been spent, not 93 per cent of the work completed.’ Wild suggests that actually they were basing their decisions on the wrong factors: “The truth of the programme was not in the metrics. The level of ‘completeness’ was over-represented because we were using a measure that was mathematically accurate, which was the wrong thing.” He explained that they were counting things that the contractors claimed to have done, rather than what was actually completed.

But it was the failure to recognise this reality that is so surprising. Despite talking to all the leading players, there is still an aspect that is difficult to understand - the confident certainty of many of the players in 2018 that they were nearing completion. Wild thinks that there is a strong element of the emperor’s new clothes and that “99 people out of 100 at Crossrail knew that the timetable could not be met but did not want to be the first to put their hand up”.

The hubris was such that key people, notably the CEO Andrew Wolstenholme, were allowed to leave the project in the early part of 2018 and remarkably Morgan was appointed as www.passengertransport.co.uk

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A sleek, rapid railway protected by platform doors

chairman of HS2, a post he had to leave hastily once the Crossrail deadline unravelled.

This meant that when the new team took over at the end of 2018, the project was in a state of chaos and any hope of opening in the following year was a pipedream. According to Wild, when he took over, the top team held an assessment over that Christmas period and found that the situation they had inherited “was chaotic since the heads of the organisation had left and we did not have any structure really; the delivery organisation was new, the project control was new and the project had become chaotic in terms of data and knowledge. There was not enough information about what had been done and there was a lack of data because lots of the project control organisation had been let go”.

Therefore, the first year was “a period of discovery” and under pressure from the two project sponsors, Transport for London and the Department for Transport, Wild - wrongly as he admits - announced that Crossrail would open between October 2020 and March 2021.

Yet again, the amount of work remaining to be done had been underestimated and interestingly Wild does not blame the pandemic that broke out in March 2020.

Rather, he recognises that the problems with systems integration on what is Britain’s first digital railway, the problems with the trains and their three signalling systems and the backlog of work in the stations meant there was no hope of achieving that deadline. That is why eventually in 2021, Wild would only agree to an opening date that was vague - the first half of

2022, a target which he is on track to meet.

This terrible saga of delays and cost overruns, though, will all soon be forgotten because this is an incredible project that Londoners will appreciate for decades - indeed for centuries, given the durability of the Metropolitan Railway first opened in 1863 and which also had a rather rocky start - even though it was completed in just three years.

Forget, for a moment, the cost, the stubbornness of those misguided executives, the three-year delay and the hassle of all those building sites across the capital, and get ready to enjoy a railway experience like no other. Despite its name, the Elizabeth line which implies it is an addition to the cramped and overcrowded Tube network, is a very different proposition from the Bakerloo or the Northern: a sleek, rapid railway protected by platform doors with stations that boast 250-metre long platforms and are so spacious that you could forget that you are 25 metres under the biggest city in Europe. The best guess is that it will open straight after Easter, but it could be a few weeks more or less.

Either way, hop on it and enjoy the ride. You will not be disappointed and you will think that £19bn was worth it.

Christian Wolmar’s book, Crossrail, The Whole Story, has just been published by Head of Zeus.

Available at any good bookshop or for a signed copy, email christian.wolmar@gmail.com 11 March 2022 | 21

09/03/2022 17:22

COMMENT

NICK RICHARDSON

Are we seeing a new era for bus services?

As the country begins to emerge from Covid-19, it’s becoming increasingly clear that bus services need to adapt to survive Bus services are struggling as a consequence of the Covid-19 restrictions, the legacy of which is lower than pre-pandemic demand.

Having dissected the reasons for this previously, we now need to think about what can be done to create services that people really want. This needs to be in the historical context in which many services were not performing as well as they once did. However, there have been multiple shining lights where services have been carefully designed to meet users’ needs and have created the upward spiral of demand and quality to which everyone in the sector aspires. What is now clearer than ever is that simply replicating what went before isn’t what is needed – more of the same just won’t do.

Another reason for looking forward rather than back is the balance sheet. Operating costs continue to rise so unless resources change, it isn’t possible to reinstate everything even if this were to be appropriate. Making better use of assets is a reasonable option. However, as I have said before, the financial framework in which buses operate is unsustainable in its current form. This includes infrastructure costs – the sort of spending that buys bus priority measures – which is susceptible to construction cost inflation which has been on the rise for a long time. The incredulity expressed about cost expectations when schemes are designed ready for tendering seem well-founded, but compared to the railways seem rather mild. There are a few approaches 22 | 11 March 2022 PT260p22-23.indd 22

including value engineering (changes in scope) and quantified risk assessment (reducing uncertainties) but these tend to create limited improvements while the bulk of the cost remains. As with other spend, it is about squeezing out as many benefits as possible.

Spreading innovation One of the offshoots of the national bus strategy for England and its equivalents elsewhere is that bus operators will be working alongside others rather than in competition with them. Taking this a step further, many ideas are transferable through wider cooperation and the bus centre of excellence.

A first step is to re-examine networks.

They will probably include some key corridors with strong demand that have become wellestablished over time and should be further improved or left alone. Bus journey times are likely to be the critical feature and should be supported by as much bus priority as possible.

At the other end of the range, marginal services are squeezed because local authorities are still having to make cuts and cannot guarantee any revenue support. Here at the margins, some services will be casualties in the same way that marginal lines in retailing need

“Buses don’t have to be new, they just have to be good”

to provide space for something more worthwhile. However, this will create hardship and have negative effects on individuals and communities; sadly, that is the inevitable consequence of reduced spending and rising costs.

Many inter-urban services work well and work-related services aimed primarily at workers has a strong track record. Postpandemic, a lot has changed in the home to work sector because people are not going to work in the same places at the same times as before. The journey to work may have later start and finish times but it remains a problem that many out-of-centre employment areas have pathetic bus services. Although designed for car use with manicured car parks, it’s a dismal prospect for some who don’t want to drive. Competitive journey times are essential and inter-urban services work well where there is no railway. For longer commutes, big shiny vehicles provide the surroundings expected by users, although there may be a role for the dual-purpose bus i.e. one with better-than-bus seats.

Journey purposes Once new work patterns have settled down, it will be necessary to identify potential markets. This requires engagement by talking to employers about how their staff get to site and when and why most of them are forced to use cars. Would it be feasible to provide a decent bus service from the nearest rail station, park and ride site or residential areas?

Employers should know where their staff live and may even be happy to contribute towards the cost of a bus given that they pay to provide and maintain car parks. If there are to be restrictions such as low emission zones, a bus might be the best option anyway. Then there are the excuses: dropping off children at school/nursery, visiting the shops on the way home, driving to the gym for exercise, using the car for business trips and other creative reasons to justify their car-dominated lives.

Children can walk to school or get the bus, fitness can be achieved by walking to the gym without having to pay to use it and business journeys could be made by bus or train in many circumstances.

There are other sectors to address.

Education is a big one, not just home to school but also home to college/university. The latter www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 18:02

IN ASSOCIATION WITH: www.ciltuk.org.uk Tel: 01536 740100 @ciltuk

Demand-responsive services like Fflecsi in Wales can be tailored for everyone

have less regular hours but bus use throughout students’ formative years is a market to be tapped. Throughout the country, there are many education-related journeys taking place perfectly well but we need to blot out the populist image of the school bus as the bottom of the pile, a grotty and unreliable experience. One lesson though is that trying to incorporate school users on ‘normal’ buses isn’t always a good idea. However, younger age cohorts are likely to want to sit together in groups and depend on somewhere to plug in their devices.

Healthcare is another area where access to medical facilities is often dire. There are lots of good examples but lots of stressful ones where the car parks are always full to overflowing.

Here location is critical and it is interesting to note that the Welsh Government has taken a dim view of the recent opening of the Grange University Hospital on the edge of Cwmbran because of its poor access. Some facilities were previously military or isolation hospitals not related to communities. For example, Salisbury District Hospital is on an isolated site to the south of the city and despite having a very frequent bus, the car park is heavily used. For such facilities, hospital visitors and outpatients may not all be able to use the bus but many of the staff could and the www.passengertransport.co.uk

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consolidation of health facilities points to good bus potential. Note that buses should have stops near the entrances though rather than ending up at the wrong side of the car park. As always, constructive dialogue with healthcare providers could be fruitful.

Demand-responsive transport (DRT) is often seen as fresh and innovative even though it has been around in various forms for a long time. The main point is to understand that it cannot be provided commercially but that it serves a useful purpose with strong potential. The other point to note is that is can be tailored for everyone, not just people who are unable to use conventional services for reasons of disability or remoteness. The Welsh Government has adopted this principle and provides ‘Fflecsi’ services because they have value to communities even if they do not fully pay their way. DRT in other parts of the UK will only work where there is some form of sponsorship by local or central government or others.

Big opportunities emerge from the leisure market. Historically this is rooted in sightseeing and open top seafront services, but inter-peak services that take people to attractions can be alluring. The Stonehenge Tour offers connections from Salisbury station for anyone who may or

may not have a car. Similar offers connect to Legoland, the Harry Potter Experience and many other destinations. Traditional bus services can be used to access all sorts of places, the main problem being providing service information that people (car users) can understand. Having driven somewhere on their staycation, some visitors would jump at the chance not to drive everywhere while on holiday.

Engagement and communications are fundamental to all of these new era services.

Minor changes can help, such as regular timetables, simpler information and tickets, a help line that works and reassurances such as a guaranteed last bus of the day. Ideally, the buses themselves should be stylish but the drivers are the public face of that service and should be recruited accordingly. Buses don’t have to be new, they just have to be good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nick Richardson is Technical Principal at transport consultancy Mott MacDonald, chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Policy Group and a former chair of the Transport Planning Society. In addition, he has held a PCV licence for over 30 years.

11 March 2022 | 23

09/03/2022 18:02

COMMENT

WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit Portland’s fuel forum page: portland-analytics.co.uk/fuel-forum

ENERGY MARKET REPORT PORTLAND FUEL ANALYTICS - MARCH 2022

Energy policy at core of Ukraine crisis Europe’s dependence on Russian gas is the result of successive policy decisions and is vital to understanding today’s conflict At the end of last year, we predicted a speedy resolution to the issues surrounding the Gazprom (ie, Russian) owned Nord James Spencer Stream 2 gas pipeline Portland (PT253). As gas prices spiralled out of control, we figured that no European government would sit on their hands and do nothing to increase gas flows into Europe. However, we now know that the line will not be going ahead (for the foreseeable future at least), as newly appointed German chancellor Olaf Scholz has vetoed its operation on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

One imagines that privately, plenty of European leaders would love to have given Nord Stream 2 the green light. Then the increased supply of gas might bring prices down and end the billions of pounds of energy bill subsidisation that is now taking place across the continent. It would also give breathing space to ragged energy departments who are stuck in a crisis whereby energy growth is booming, whilst supply is faltering be that fossil fuel based or renewable.

There were, however, two rather large objects that stood in the way of a green light for Nord Stream 2. One was the USA, who whilst facing a certain element of domestic turmoil in their own energy markets, are far more energy selfsufficient (when it comes to gas) than Europe.

This gives them a certain sang-froid in their dealings with the Nord Stream issue and their 24 | 11 March 2022 PT260p24-25.indd 24

opposition to the pipeline is absolute. They believe its opening will give Russia even more power over Europe. Plus, there is a healthy dose of self-interest thrown into the mix, because even green leaning Democrats are well aware of the economic value of US liquefied natural gas exports to Europe.

The second object standing in the way of Nord Stream 2 was as implacable as the first, but considerably more surprising. It would now seem that Russia began to pull back from the new pipeline in the final quarter of last year, sensing greater value in a catastrophic European energy crisis than in the commercial benefit that the line presented. Remember that current gas prices are now so high that Russia is earning more income through existing pipelines than was forecast as a result of the extra volume to be transited via Nord Stream 2. Furthermore, such is Russia’s enviable geographic position, that it has gas options to the East (China) and South (India), which means it can effectively starve (European) markets of gas as it sees fit.

Sadly this provides more than enough context for the current Ukrainian crisis.

Conventional wisdom had always been that for as long as Russia wanted Nord Stream 2 operational, any incursion into Ukraine

“Europe continues to rely on Russia for over 50% of its gas supply”

would not be forthcoming. But if it has now been decided in Moscow that Nord Stream 2 isn’t quite as important as it once was, then the immediate geopolitical outlook appears disconcertingly different. Putin has responded to the global energy crisis, sensing no better opportunity to take control of Ukraine, whilst Europe prioritises Covid recovery and domestic cost of living issues. Arch Machiavellianism for sure, but the Russian leader did cut his teeth in the KGB… History is made up of missed opportunities and there are many when it comes to European energy policy. One example was when the proposed Trans-Caspian ‘Nabucco’ line was confined to history in 2014. The proposed pipeline was to source gas from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Iraq (travelling into Europe via Turkey) and was specifically designed to avoid over-reliance on Russian gas. For reasons that seemed important at the time (amongst them strong environmental opposition), the line was killed and Europe continues to rely on Russia for over 50% of its gas supply. Put quite simply, we are at the mercy of Russian energy, because we have no other viable supplies to rely on. Politicians of different persuasions disagree on many things, but they normally agree that relying so completely on a foreign power for energy supply is not a good thing.

Yet, that is the current situation.

Which begs the question whether it has been wise to treat gas in the same way as oil and coal, when it comes to the decarbonisation agenda? The former has considerably better CO2 credentials and yet has been blocked and opposed in the same way as oil and coal projects. The result has been limited gas supply, rising prices, the slowing of CO2 emission reduction, the current state of complete energy insecurity and now, an invasion. Those Ukrainians facing a rather uncertain future, may now choose to disagree with the current European viewpoint that “climate change threatens lives and livelihoods”. So do wars and so does a lack of cheap and constant energy!

Furthermore, there is clearly no point in cutting back on domestic energy production, if we are simply going to replace the same product (gas) with supplies produced elsewhere. It’s too late to ask the question, but if we had taken as much care of our short-term energy needs - on an equal basis to the long-term - would the current Ukrainian crisis have been avoided? www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:22

“Somebody suggested to me the other day that Grant Shapps is desperate to move on”

GREAT MINSTER GRUMBLES

There will be no hiding place

Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the DfT

It was inevitable really, wasn’t it? With bus operators threatening service cuts of up to a third if additional financial support wasn’t forthcoming, and Labour MPs putting pressure on ministers to come clean on the challenges facing the industry, a further funding package was bound to be forthcoming.

And so an additional £150m has been made available for a further six months. Job done.

Or is it? Whatever the bold words from the Treasury might be about this being the last funding package to prop up bus services, I can’t help but feel we will be back in this position when the £150m runs out in October, unless there is suddenly a massive increase in bus patronage. The lifting of all Covid restrictions will certainly help, and bus operators seem to be increasingly confident that patronage will return. But whether that confidence is built on firm evidence or is simply based on a wing and prayer remains to be seen. And with the Transport Select Committee announcing an inquiry into the bus strategy, the faultiness in our approach to bus policy and the huge mismatch between ambition and available funding will be exposed for all to see. There will be no hiding place.

Our National Bus Strategy has been completely undermined by the impact of the pandemic, while almost a year on from the publication of the Williams Shapps rail white paper there is no tangible evidence of anything actually having happened as a result. Behind the scenes there’s a lot going on, and the Great www.passengertransport.co.uk

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British Railways transition team is apparently engaging with Combined Authorities and others at pace, but if you asked the average rail passenger if they have noticed any change, the answer would surely be a resounding “no”.

Maybe that’s a good thing. If there are policy reforms which improve services but the rail passengers don’t really notice what the reforms are then perhaps the policy is working. It’s unlike me to be complimentary, but despite the seemingly glacial pace of change, perhaps behind the scenes things really are beginning to take shape.

With the impact of the pandemic casting a big shadow over public transport, and with uncertainty about the future levels of bus and rail patronage unlikely to go away any time

COMMENT

soon, I suspect there are going to be repeated calls for ongoing financial support for both modes for a while yet - and we mustn’t forget Transport for London’s ongoing financial crisis. The Treasury’s patience and generosity is going to be sorely tested, I’m sure.

For our secretary of state, Grant Shapps, none of this really matters. As I’ve said before, he won’t be secretary of state for transport when the chickens really come home to roost, and I heard last week that a reshuffle is pencilled in for May, presumably after the local elections on May 5. Mind you, whether any reshuffle is carried out by Boris Johnson or a new prime minister remains to be seen. The Metropolitan Police may yet find against the prime minister and fine him for breaking lockdown rules, and the rumour I’m hearing is that if he is found to have broken the rules he could get multiple fines - not just one - a fine for each “party” he attended. And if the Conservatives get hammered in the local elections then surely Boris Johnson will face a vote of no confidence, won’t he? It could get quite exciting!

Somebody suggested to me the other day that Grant Shapps is desperate to move on and that, despite his claims that he actually asked to be secretary of state for transport, he is bored by most of the issues and really only wanted to come to transport because of his interest in aviation, and general aviation at that. I have no idea how true that is, but I have a sense that it might be, as we know he has his own pilot’s licence and light aircraft.

It rather underlines the point I made in my last column that anybody who claims they really want to be secretary of state for transport probably isn’t telling the truth!

The one good thing is that we haven’t had too much churn with our secretaries of state in recent years, having had just three since September 2012 (Patrick McLoughlin, Chris Grayling and Grant Shapps).

The next few weeks and months are, from a political perspective, going to be quite fun although there is a chance that it could all be a bit of an anti-climax if Boris Johnson survives “partygate” and the local election results aren’t as bad for the Conservatives as some seem to think they will be. As civil servants we may have to be politically neutral but watching leadership contenders trying to knock six bells out of each other in a leadership contest, despite apparently being colleagues, would be good sport!

11 March 2022 | 25

09/03/2022 17:22

CAREERS

Transport operators seek to ‘break the bias’ Bus and rail providers marked International Women’s Day this week with new research, podcasts, films and operation of an all-female bus route The passenger transport sector celebrated its female talent this week in aid of International Women’s Day on March 8.

The global theme for 2022 was ‘break the bias’ and the occasion was marked in different ways.

London North Eastern Railway released research that exposes the continuing bias experienced by women working to develop and progress their careers.

The specially-commissioned research, conducted by YouGov in February 2022, revealed the bias experienced by women in different sectors throughout their careers. Key findings include: A third (33%) of working women surveyed believe that gender bias exists in their workplace, with the worst industries being IT and telecoms (46%), construction (45%) and financial services (43%).

75% of women surveyed who have been mistaken for someone more junior at work in the past two years believe that their gender played a role in this error.

Almost half (48%) feel that, in their workplace, having children hinders progression opportunities.

Three out of five (57%) of women who have been overlooked for promotion in the past 24 months said their gender played a role in why they were overlooked.

As well as encouraging more business leaders to review bias in their organisations, LNER is a leader for gender diversity in the transport industry with a 42% female workforce, compared to the industry average of 16%.

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Women@Stagecoach, one of a variety of employee networks set up by Stagecoach last year, released its first podcast for International Women’s Day. It provided an opportunity for leaders of the network to discuss ‘breaking the bias’.

Meanwhile, in West Scotland, for the first time, the team ran an all-female driver bus route, Service 3 between Onthank and Shortlees in Kilmarnock, on March 8 to promote career opportunities for females within the bus industry.

Stagecoach is celebrating an 18% increase in female driver applications compared to last year.

The new employee networks are a key part of Stagecoach’s overall objective set out in its

recently launched sustainability strategy, which has an objective of achieving 40% of females in leadership roles by 2024.

Stagecoach UK managing director Carla Stockton-Jones said: “International Women’s Day continues to be an important platform for starting these conversations and with this year’s theme being ‘break the bias’ it allows men to join the conversation and become advocates, which is equally as important. Our targets for diversity are ambitious but realistic and we are making great progress to meeting them by 2024.”

The Go-Ahead Group released a video of women from across its business discussing why they

“We know that more diverse and genderbalanced teams are more engaged, collaborative, motivated and safer” Joanna Grew, Network Rail

Stagecoach ran an all-female driver bus route in Ayrshire to mark International Women’s Day

love working in transport, and the exciting opportunities they have to progress their own careers in bus and rail.

Among apprentices at Go-Ahead’s rail division, 37% are women, along with 17% of apprentices at Go-Ahead bus companies - a rate considerably higher than average. 30% of this year’s group graduate intake are women. Govia Thameslink Railway doubled the number of female train driver applications from 413 in 2019 to 825 in 2020. 40% of train drivers they recruited in 2021 were women.

Go-Ahead’s initiatives to attract more women to work across the group include the creation of a ‘Women in Bus’ network, offering mentoring and support for female bus workers. Go-Ahead has a target of increasing the overall proportion of women in bus from 11% to 20% by 2025. Scott Maynard, group HR director, said: “For too long, women have been under-represented in the transport industry ... we’re working hard to recruit more women but we know that we need to do more, and to go further.”

Great Western Railway, Network Rail and the British Transport Police teamed up to celebrate women in the rail industry, with a host of activities across the Great Western Network, including a new film featuring the breadth and variety of roles carried out by women on the railway.

Co-chair of Inspire, Network Rail’s gender equality network, Joanna Grew said: “We know that more diverse and genderbalanced teams are more engaged, collaborative, motivated and safer.

By promoting positive female role models, we hope to provide inspiration and encouragement for future generations who may like to follow in the footsteps of some of our female railway pioneers.” www.passengertransport.co.uk

09/03/2022 17:23

CALL NOW TO ADVERTISE 020 3950 8000 or email sales@passengertransport.co.uk

APPOINTMENTS RSSB Ellie Burrows, Network Rail’s Anglia director, has been appointed chair of RSSB’s System Safety Risk Group (SSRG).

Prior to joining Network Rail, Burrows (pictured) was train services director at Southeastern, as well as being a fellow and deputy chair of the Chartered Institution of Railway Operators.

SSRG promotes collaboration through the industry’s shared strategy: ‘Leading Health and Safety on Britain’s Railway’ (LHSBR). This sets out the opportunities to improve across 12 key risk areas as well as the industry’s own capabilities, helping to keep Britain’s railways among the safest in the world.

Burrows takes over the chair’s role at SSRG from Steve Murphy, chief executive of MTR UK. C2C London-to-Essex train operator c2c has announced the appointment of Rob Mullen as managing director, following the departure of Ben Ackroyd who leaves the role this spring.

Mullen (pictured) joins c2c from Thameslink and Great Northern, part of Govia Thameslink Railway, where he was train services director. However, he started his railway career working in consultancy, predominantly in performance modelling, timetable compilation before moving into the world of train operations.

He subsequently joined c2c as route performance manager, moving into various roles including operations director at Great Western Railway.

www.passengertransport.co.uk

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WEST MIDLANDS TRAINS Abellio UK has announced the appointment of Ian McConnell as managing director of West Midlands Trains.

McConnell (pictured) is chief operating officer at ScotRail and he will join the train operator during April, once ScotRail has been successfully handed over to the new public body, Scottish Rail Holdings.

Abellio says McConnell has considerable experience and expertise within the rail sector, having previously been franchise and programmes director at Greater Anglia and prior to that undertaking several project and leadership roles at ScotRail and London Overground.

He takes over at West Midlands Trains from Julian Edwards, who is stepping back from the role for family reasons, but he will remain with Abellio UK. HEATHROW EXPRESS Heathrow Express has announced the appointment of Mark Eastwood as commercial strategy lead.

Eastwood (pictured) has been business development manager at Heathrow Express since 2018 and in that time has been instrumental in implementing new distribution strategies with a number of aggregators for the business.

He previously worked in roles across Europe and the Middle East with British Airways and Aer Lingus parent IAG. He also developed loyalty schemes for the aviation sector at IAG’s Avios loyalty business, and led frontline teams with Virgin Atlantic.

Operations Director Due to an internal promotion, we’re looking for an exceptional Operations Director to join us here at First Bus in Scotland. With over 3000 colleagues, First Scotland covers four regional transport partnerships and 17 Local Authorities. We help people get where they need to be when they need to be there.

Through the pandemic, our colleagues excelled - delivering essential services without interruption, and now playing a vital role in supporting the economic and social recovery of all our communities.

What’s in it for you?

Public transport serves everyone, no matter what their differences might be, and at First Bus we want to be an employer open to you, no matter what your differences are. We want passionate and talented people to join our team from all backgrounds, to add to our diversity, as we aim to reflect the communities we serve. We want our colleagues to feel supported and inspired, removing barriers, and helping them to thrive and give their best every day, helping First Bus to become inclusive for everyone.

We’ll give you a competitive salary, private health insurance, free bus travel, and a whole host of discounts and perks as well as the opportunity to really make an impact in one of our most successful operating areas.

What we’re looking for In this role you will report into the First Bus Scotland Managing Director, and play a key role in shaping and delivering our strategy as we embark on an ambitious transformation. You will also work alongside the Commercial & Engineering teams, and the SLT, to lead the strategic direction of First Bus Scotland.

You’ll bring your entrepreneurial spirit and previous leadership experience to lead the Service Performance team to make sure First Bus are using technology to meet the evolving needs of our customers. You’ll need to be an influential communicator to build external relationships, building partnerships to deliver shared objectives around public transport.

As part of First Bus onboarding process all successful applicants are required to undergo pre-employment screening. Depending on the role you apply for we may carry out checks that will establish your eligibility to work in the UK, criminal record check and financial checks with a credit reference agency will also be undertaken.

To apply, scan here:

11 March 2022 | 27

09/03/2022 17:23

DIVERSIONS

Art can simply be rubbish sometimes...

TransPennine Express artwork celebrates recycling Train operator TransPennine Express and artist Andy Pea have unveiled a sculpture made entirely of recycled materials at Hull Paragon Station ahead of Global Recycling Day. The temporary artwork took more than 50 hours to create and features more than a tonne of water bottles, cups, cardboard, newspapers and plastic waste - all collected from some of TPE’s trains and from Hull Paragon itself.

The train company

Back to the future?

HYPERLOOP OR LOOPY HYPE?

Remember the hyperloop concept conceived by Elon Musk and how it was going to revolutionise travel? Well, it seems the wheels are falling off...

commissioned Hull-based Andy to create the sculpture, an impressionist view of one of their trains, to mark Global Recycling Day on March 18 and highlight TPE’s A load of rubbish?

It has been disclosed that Virgin Hyperloop has made almost half of its staff redundant as the company moves its focus on the technology from passenger travel to freight instead.

“It’s allowing the company to respond in a more agile and nimble way and in a more costefficient manner,” Virgin told the Financial Times. “These types of decisions are never taken lightly.”

The company is “changing direction”, it added. “It really has more to do with global supply chain issues and all the changes

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continued effort towards becoming greener and further reducing its carbon footprint.

Local children from Adelaide Primary School also contributed to the artwork by collecting items that could be recycled and created their own sketches of how the sculpture could look, which Andy took as inspiration for his final creation.

Andy said: “I’m thrilled I could work with TPE on this project, and it was fantastic to see so many admirers of the work at the station today, including the children from Adelaide Primary School, who did a fantastic job in providing me with the inspiration to create the sculpture.”

due to Covid.” It added the logistics market had changed “dramatically” and that it was responding to strong customer interest in a cargo-based service.

The company had raised more than $400m to test the technology, which propels pods through vacuum tubes using magnetic technology.

But as some wags noted, perhaps it’s a case of back to the future? After all, in the past, many shops used to transport cash around their premises using a system of pneumatic pipes!

Creating a buzz at the bus stop

GIVING THE BUS SHELTER A TRIM Social news aggregator website Reddit was buzzing this week with news from one Dutch city where a man had been spotted up a stepladder with a Flymo giving the local bus shelters a quick short back and sides.

As site user ChipSkylark noted: “The city where I live has invested in bee friendly bus stops which are covered in moss and local wildflowers. And apparently they need mowing from time to time.”

As one site user noted, the idea of planting flowers on bus shelters is “pretty neat”. That led to the inevitable response of, “I wonder how neat it is!”

Groan...

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09/03/2022 17:23