Passenger Transport: September 8, 2023

FORTEVERYNIGHT

TfL records highest ridership since Covid

August Bank Holiday Weekend saw a near 10% increase in bus travel on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% rise

New ridership figures from Transport for London have revealed a record number of public transport journeys since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The August Bank Holiday weekend saw the highest number of bus and Tube journeys since the pandemic in comparison to the same long weekend in previous years, as millions travelled to west London to participate in the Notting Hill Carnival.

Bus travel saw a near 10% increase on the equivalent weekend last year, with Tube journeys seeing a near 6% increase. The weekend rounded off a busy summer on the network that saw

stations in central London hit pre-Covid levels at weekends, if not exceed them, by early August.

TfL is now hoping to maintain this upward momentum as autumn approaches. Londoners are being encouraged to walk, cycle and hop on public transport this month to make the most of the Open House Festival, a firm favourite in the

680,000 ticket office responses

04

Consultation ends on closure plans

capital’s cultural calendar.

Emma Strain, TfL’s customer director, said: “We have had a bumper summer with people using public transport to make the most of London’s cultural offerings, including the Notting Hill Carnival over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Scotland’s capital also enjoyed a surge in public transport ridership during August. On August 18, two weeks into the Edinburgh Festival season, bus operator Lothian recorded over 100,000 ‘taps’ on its ‘TapTapCap’ contactless payment method. Usage of the system usually averages at over 80,000 journey taps per day.

LOTHIAN RECORD: PAGE 15

INNOVATION & TECH

DfT releases guidance on MaaS

14

Apps should consider accessibility needs

16

Norman Baker on

frontal attack’

Striking the right balance for ULEZ

20

Nick Richardson on ULEZ goals

Go-Ahead gains bus chief

26

Kinetics’s Matt Carney takes up role

“We have had a bumper summer with people using public transport”

Emma Strain, TfL

‘Prime Minister is weaponising transport’

‘full

TOP OF THE OPEN TOPPERS Go North East’s ‘Toon Tour’, the sightseeing bus service for Newcastle and Gateshead has won the inaugural UK Open Top Bus Cup, sponsored by Ticketer. The competition was created by Great Scenic Journeys

Will MaaS finally go on and fulfil its potential?

18 IT’S NOT BAD, BUT I T’S FAR FROM POL I SHED

Sometimes we hear that transport is in a dire state, other times they are hailed as heroes. The truth is somewhere in between, says Alex Warner. “There seem to be fewer anti-customer muppets out there,” he adds.

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Robert Jack Managing Editor

It was seven years ago that I was first introduced to the concept of Mobility as a Service or MaaS. As someone who depends on public transport and wholeheartedly believes in it, I had hoped to see it go forth and conquer. I felt far less enthusiastic about the name and I agreed with Laura Shoaf, who was then boss of Transport for West Midlands, when she made the following plea to a MaaS conference in September 2017: “How can we rename Mobility as a Service?’. Because it is such an exciting, fascinating concept - and such a terrible name for it.” Some will shrug their shoulders and dismiss MaaS as a fad, but that would be wrong. MaaS is everywhere, because MaaS is about the digitalisation of transport. MaaS is Google Maps. MaaS is contactless payments. But, the prophecy that MaaS would provide us all with a simple, convenient online one-stop-shop for transport provision has not quite materialised - although there are interesting trials out there. The Department for Transport sees MaaS as a tool for increasing the use of public transport and active travel (shhh, don’t tell Rishi Sunak!) and its newly-published code of practice for MaaS is a welcome development, offering clarity to developers on how they should proceed. Digital disruption is not always done with the best interests of communities at its heart, and the government is right to urge that no-one is left behind in the digital revolution. Perhaps now it can go forth and conquer - but it’s still a shame about the name.

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Robert Jack

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Directors Chris Cheek, Andrew Garnett, Robert Jack

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HS 2 TRA I NS W I LL BE THE WORLD’S GREENEST

The high speed trains being designed and made in the UK by a Hitachi and Alstom joint venture are due to start running on HS2 within the next decade. They have been recognised as the most environmentally- friendly rolling stock in the world.

23 WI LL SUSTA I NABLE JET FUEL TAKE OFF?

The use of green aviation fuel is mandated from 2030 onwards, but what are the technologies and their prospects? James Spencer warns there are huge challenges and once again, the issue of decarbonisation is neither simple nor quick.

T H I S POL I T I CAL SH I FT W I LL ST I FLE MODAL SH I FT

Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the Department for Transport. “We can expect the public transport policy agenda to do little more than tread water,” they warn.

West Midlands unveils rail investment strategy

The West Midlands Rail Executive’s comprehensive 2022-2050 investment strategy prioritises sustainability, resilience and growth

STRATEGY

The West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) has unveiled its ambitious West Midlands Rail Investment Strategy 2022-2050.

The strategy outlines a comprehensive vision for the region’s rail network over the next 30 years to accommodate substantial growth in population, jobs, and economic activity.

It notes that the region, with a population of 6.47 million and an annual economy worth £128bn, is a vital contributor to the UK’s prosperity. Anticipating 900,000 more people and 450,000 new jobs by 2032, WMRE recognises the critical role of enhanced rail services in sustaining and building upon this growth.

Since the initial publication of the strategy in December 2018, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on rail travel, with 2021 rail usage fluctuating between 50% and 70% of pre-pandemic levels. This shift has prompted a reevaluation of priorities, with a stronger focus on resilience, reliability, and future passenger needs.

The government’s ambitious plans to decarbonise the economy in line with climate change obligations have also influenced the strategy. The rail industry is expected to rapidly electrify its network to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Significant changes in the High-Speed Two (HS2) project, including revised opening dates and a wholly new plan for Phase 2b

Eastern Leg, further necessitated a reassessment of the strategy. The pandemic has also altered the rail industry’s financial landscape, resulting in short- to medium-term cost control pressures that must be balanced with long-term network requirements, the strategy says.

In response to these evolving factors, WMRE’s updated strategy emphasises eight strategic objectives: Support the recovery from Covid-19: WMRE aims to encourage passengers to return to rail travel by ensuring a clean, safe, secure network with efficient timetables, cost-effectiveness, and

new train fleets and stations; Contribute to Net Zero: WMRE seeks to promote rail transport as a sustainable mode, supporting Net Zero. Immediate electrification priorities include several key lines and the removal of conventionally-powered diesel multiple units;

Deliver Midlands Rail Hub: The Midlands Rail Hub project is crucial for unlocking capacity in central Birmingham, improving HS2 access, and enhancing regional connectivity; Maximise the benefits of HS2: WMRE supports the full delivery of HS2 and aims to secure and maximise its benefits, including accelerated HS2 services and network integration; Develop high growth corridors: WMRE recognises the potential for growth in corridors toward Coventry, Worcester, and Nuneaton/ Leicester, supported by HS2 and

Midlands Rail Hub; Maximise access to the rail network: WMRE aims to create an inclusive and accessible transport system with stations at the heart of communities, new stations for economic growth, and user-friendly fares; Support the movement of goods by rail: The West Midlands plays a vital role in the freight sector, and WMRE acknowledges the importance of accommodating freight growth and logistics requirements; and Consider radical change in the long term: WMRE looks to the future by planning for significant rail network growth, assessing new capacity needs, and ensuring the network’s ability to support the region’s long-term prosperity.

There were more than 330 responses to the consultation and feedback included a series of key areas such as better integration with other transportation modes, improved rail network accessibility, more efficient ticketing systems and a focus on electrifying all lines.

West Midlands mayor and WMRE chair Andy Street said: “Rail has an absolutely central role to play in our region’s success. New rail links and stations generate jobs for local people and prosperity for local communities.

“Since the first strategy was published five years ago, we’ve made tangible progress - drawing in more than £200m in funding for new and redeveloped stations.

“Alongside our own substantial programme of investment, it’s vital for the West Midlands that both HS2 and the Midlands Rail Hub are completed - providing the much needed extra capacity required to improve services for residents right across our region and give them a rail network that is truly fit for the future.”

“It’s vital for the West Midlands that both HS2 and the Midlands Rail Hub are completed”

Strategy says Midlands Rail Hub project is crucial for unlocking capacity in central Birmingham

680,000 responses on ticket office proposals

Watchdogs get to work as consultation process closes

MODERNISATION

The consultation period for proposed changes to railway ticket offices in England has concluded. Passenger watchdogs London TravelWatch and Transport Focus have revealed they have received a staggering 680,000 combined responses for the plans which would see the overwhelming majority of ticket offices closing.

There have been widespread concerns that the plans could lead to a number of issues to rail passengers. These issues have included accessibility, safety, security, problems with ticket machines, and future plans for station staffing.

‘DO NOT TRAVEL’ NEEDS CLARITY

Watchdog

INFORMATION

Rail passengers have expressed frustration with the language used by train operators during service disruptions, stating that the messages can be confusing and unhelpful, according to a report by Transport Focus.

The watchdog studied passenger responses to ‘do not travel’ advice on operational yet disrupted days, finding communication effectiveness depended on operator explanations. Passengers provided feedback on existing ‘do not travel’ messages. It revealed that the information provided did not always help them

The two watchdogs will now analyse the train operators’ proposals and responses received from the public. They will respond to each train operator’s proposal by October 31.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of London TravelWatch, commented: “We’ve had an incredible response from the public with more than half a million responses, so it’s important we take this time to consider our response.”

Anthony Smith, chief executive

of Transport Focus, expressed gratitude to all contributors, emphasising that their views would be crucial in shaping the outcome.

The watchdogs will review the responses received alongside the train company proposals to gauge their impact on service quality.

Both London TravelWatch and Transport Focus will publish the responses to each train company’s proposal online. These documents will provide an overview of the number of responses received and the primary concerns raised during the consultation.

Should the watchdogs oppose a train company’s proposal, the matter can be escalated to the secretary of state for transport for a final decision. The Department for Transport has issued guidance outlining the approach the

transport secretary will take in such cases.

The ticket office closure plans have also faced criticism from trade unions. Mick Whelan, the general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef, called the decision “naive and dangerous” and criticised government and rail industry leaders for making “blatantly false” claims about plans to redeploy staff. He argued that these plans would lead to job cuts and diminish passenger and employee safety.

The TSSA union, which represents many station staff, welcomed the strong public response to the consultation.

Peter Pendle, the TSSA interim general secretary, urged the government to reconsider, and highlighted the essential role ticket offices play in ensuring railway safety and accessibility for all passengers

Meanwhile, last week there was an RMT-led march in central London protesting against the controversial proposals.

make informed decisions about their journeys. Some passengers felt compelled to attempt their journeys despite disruptions, believing their trips were not easily rescheduled.

The research also solicited opinions on potential improvements, including content, language, tone, and the impact on passengers. It found that passengers’ information needs differed depending on whether they were just starting their journeys or were close to their final destination.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of Transport Focus, said rail passengers can be annoyed when they know trains are running but are told not to use them.

He continued: “The railway should reflect carefully on when it is right to say, ‘do not travel.’ Passengers would

rather be given the facts so they can make an informed decision.”

Smith said there was a need for clear and understandable communication during major disruptions and urged train companies to avoid using confusing jargon and to communicate in ways that passengers can immediately comprehend.

Jason Webb, the Rail Delivery Group’s customer information director and lead for the Smarter Information, Smarter Journeys Programme, said: “The SISJ Programme was pleased to jointly commission this research. The research delivered new insight into how customers react to information during severe disruption. Following the research, the SISJ Programme has worked with train operators to develop and implement best practice to be used when communicating ‘do not travel’ messages.

“This includes recommended language, good practice messaging examples and communication principles which is now being used by train operators, so customers should benefit from clearer, more consistent information.”

“It’s important we take this time to consider our response”

Michael Roberts

probes passenger views on key messages

Smith: ‘Industry needs to reflect on language used’

West Midlands secures bus network until 2025

BSIP+ funding secures local network

FUNDING

Bus services in the West Midlands have secured a lifeline agreement to maintain current or near current service levels until at least the end of 2024.

The agreement between Transport for West Midlands and bus operators quells the immediate threat of service reductions for now. The termination of government Covid support funding in June had put approximately one-third of the region’s bus services at risk.

Mayor of the West Midlands Andy Street led discussions with bus operators and the government to secure the agreement. Around £40m of the region’s £88m Bus

END OF THE ROAD FOR GREEN BUS?

School transport operator to surrender licences

COMPANIES

Birmingham-based school transport specialist The Green Bus announced its sudden and unexpected decision to exit the home-to-school transport market last week, just days before the start of the new academic year.

The company previously provided commercially-operated hometo-school services in the West Midlands and Warwickshire using two O-Licences in the names of The Green Bus Company and The Green Transport Company. The process has commenced to surrender both of these licences.

Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP+) grant from the Department for Transport will be reallocated to support bus operators while a long-term sustainable funding solution is found.

Despite a significant drop in patronage during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the West Midlands has managed to retain nearly 90% of its pre-pandemic bus routes. Fares were increased in July to alleviate cost pressures on bus companies, with a day ticket rising from £4 to £4.50.

Nevertheless, TfWM has highlighted that the region’s bus fares remain among the lowest in the country and are lower than 2017 levels.

“Buses are the backbone of our public transport network,” said Street. “That’s why we simply could not allow a substantial reduction in services and I personally made the case on behalf of our region during intensive discussions with the likes of National Express West Midlands and government.

“By stepping in and arranging this funding package to maintain bus service provision, we’ve successfully secured much needed certainty for the network all the way through to the end of next year.

“We’ve taken action and shown leadership in the face of the

immediate challenges confronting us but we all know that a more sustainable solution must be found in the years ahead. We continue to work closely with the bus companies - and of course with government - to achieve exactly that objective over the longer term.”

Confirmation of the funding has been welcomed by Alex Jensen, the recently appointed chief executive of Mobico’s UK & Germany business.

“We welcome the support from Transport for West Midlands which will ensure we can maintain the bus network at the current level until the end of 2024,” she said. “Our many customers depend on our services every day and we are pleased to confirm they can continue to rely on them.

Jensen also said Mobico’s National Express West Midlands operation would continue to work closely with partners “to seek a long term solution to the issues facing the bus industry at the present time”.

In a letter to parents whose children used the company’s services, chief executive Ian Mack cited a 38.1% increase in the firm’s insurance premium as the reason for growing financial losses.

“We had some viable services here but we have a basket of 20 services here,” Mack told BBC News. “Of them, three or four are really successful and do very well, but the rest fall below the level needed to make money.”

He said all parents and carers who had purchased tickets for their children to use The Green Bus’s services would receive a full refund and added that public transport was “not in a good place at the minute”.

“We’ve tried our best for the 22 years we have but we’re very sorry we can’t continue it,” he added.

READING PAY DEAL IN RECORD TIME

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Around 500 employees at Reading Buses, primarily bus drivers but also including office staff, engineers, and cleaners, are set to receive a substantial 8% pay increase in October. The swift agreement on pay negotiations has been praised, as they can typically span months. Reading’s pay deal was concluded in under a week.

Drivers will see their basic annual salary rise to £33,000. Some will earn even more due to additional increments for evening, night, and weekend shifts, as well as overtime.

Reading Buses chief executive

Robert Williams highlighted the council-owned firm’s commitment to its staff and the role they play in the local community both now and during the pandemic. This had played a part in the company’s decision to offer a significant pay rise. “Our drivers are well known for being a cut-above the rest, and we want to keep it that way,” he added.

Unite union branch secretary Kevin Walters added: “We are very happy that the company has acknowledged that with rising costs and inflation our members need security of a pay award that at the very least matches current inflation rates.

“By coming to the table with a good offer at the start it has allowed us to get approval from our members in the first round of voting which is exactly how it should be.”

until long-term plan found

“We’ve successfully secured much needed certainty for the network”

Staff agree to 8% pay rise with council-owned firm

First takes the axe with sudden depot closure

Bridgwater depot closed in bid to secure Somerset business

NETWORKS

First Bus South has announced significant changes to its Buses of Somerset operations, including the abrupt closure of its Bridgwater depot this week.

The operator said it remained committed to its West Country operations and said the decision to close the depot was aimed at reducing costs and resetting the business while safeguarding the broader Somerset network.

The decision to close the Bridgwater depot, which was the base for around 25 buses, follows the operator’s withdrawal from its Southampton network earlier this year in a move that marked an opportunity for expansion for

BRISTOL BOYCOTT COMMEMORATED

60th anniversary of landmark protest

HISTORY

Bristol last week commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Bristol Bus Boycott, a significant event that paved the way for UK’s Race Relations Acts of 1965 and 1968. The boycott, which lasted four months in 1963, protested the ban on Black and Asian people from gaining jobs with bus operator Bristol Joint Services. Events marking the milestone included the unveiling of a specially wrapped First West of England bus featuring the Jamaican flag and dedicated to boycott pioneer Guy Bailey. He was refused a job as a bus driver, sparking the protest.

Go-Ahead subsidiary Go South Coast.

First Bus South said that despite some minor service changes, the vast majority of services will be retained and simply operate from a new base with little to no effect on passengers. Some key routes will also see peak time

improvements as a result of the changes as well as improved reliability.

“We have taken the difficult decision to close our Bridgwater depot with immediate effect,” said Simon Goff, First Bus South’s managing director. “This is not a decision we have taken lightly,

but one that is a necessity in order to protect the future of Buses of Somerset and its bus network for the local area.

“I am aware that there has been some local resistance to the depot closure, but it is important that our decision is taken in the wider context of striving to secure the long-term future of services across Somerset.”

Goff said the business was operating “in extremely challenging circumstances”, with rising costs and patronage that stubbornly remained below pre-pandemic levels.

“We will continue to use data to inform our decision making to allow us to match services with demand,” he said. “I hope that the passion shown recently by local interested parties around this decision can now translate into support for the local bus network through regular usage.

“As a responsible bus operator, we see our role is to provide a reliable network where people need us most.”

Illustrator and animator Alissa Thaler designed the special wrap for the First West of England bus

“As a responsible bus operator, we see our role is to provide a reliable network where people need us most”

Bridgwater was the base for 25 buses

TPE axes ‘Nova 3’ fleet to simplify operations

Locomotive-hauled trains to be phased out after prolonged issues

ROLLING STOCK

TransPennine Express (TPE) is to cease operation of its push-pull sets of Class 68 locomotives and MkVa coaches - known as ‘Nova 3’ sets - with the December 2023 timetable change.

The decision follows a comprehensive operational review after TPE was transferred to the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort (OLR).

Originally, the DfT had included procurement of locomotivehauled rolling stock as part of the invitation to tender for the TPE franchise. Reports have suggested there was an expectation the future operator would repurpose redundant five-car Class 442 third-rail EMUs for the purpose.

However, after FirstGroup was awarded the franchise in December 2015, TPE ordered 13 five-car sets of new coaches, plus a spare driving trailer, from Spanish manufacturer CAF and financed

HS2 BENEFITS NEED POLICY DECISION

CAPACITY

A new report published by Network Rail has suggested there is a looming policy decision in how capacity released on the West Coast Main Line (WCML) by the introduction of services on HS2 should be deployed.

The West Coast South Strategic Advice report confirms the transformative potential of HS2 on

by Beacon Rail. These sets entered service in July 2019.

The introduction of the rolling stock has faced several challenges, including technical issues, driver training progress, the onset of Covid-19, and prolonged industrial relations issues. Noise complaints about the Class 68 locomotives passing through the Scarborough maintenance facility further impacted operations. An attempt to use the fleet on the Liverpool to Cleethorpes route was also abandoned in July. The result is poor utilisation of the Nova 3 fleet. Meanwhile, cracks discovered on some of the coaches, similar

to those found in other CAFmanufactured fleets elsewhere, added to the woes.

As part of TPE’s move from FirstGroup to OLR ownership, a thorough business review has concluded that operational simplification is essential. This will also result in a temporary service reduction from December. This will coincide with a shift in crew training and scheduling.

TPE intends to intensively use its 19 Class 802 bi-mode trainsets and the entire Class 185 fleet. The original 2016 franchise had planned to release 15 of its 51 Class 185 DMUs, but this was postponed in 2020, and the entire fleet will now remain with the train operator.

The 2016 franchise also aimed to implement ‘optimised diagramming’ with routes and traction types streamlined amongst train crews. In practice, this resulted in numerous crew changes on long journeys, leading to inevitable cancellations due to staff shortages.

In future, crews will receive

broader training in a bid to minimise crew changes and disruptions. Training will also encompass the many diversionary routes required during the Transpennine Route Upgrade. To enable this change, services on the northern Transpennine route will be rationalised on a temporary basis from December. It will result in hourly services from Liverpool to Newcastle; Manchester Airport to Saltburn via the Ordsall Chord; Manchester Piccadilly to Hull; and Scarborough to York.

Stopping services between Manchester Piccadilly and Huddersfield will continue, but the Huddersfield to Leeds route may be covered by Manchester to Hull trains, extending journey times on those services. Additionally, TPE is reportedly planning a new Manchester to York service via Wakefield Kirkgate that bypasses Leeds altogether.

“December 2023 provides us with a great opportunity to restore reliability and stability to our services by addressing some of the issues that have caused problems for us in the recent past,” said TPE managing director Chris Jackson in a circular message to staff last month.

the conventional network, aligning with the government’s initial strategic goals for the project. It highlights substantial improvements in connectivity for various passenger flows while maintaining service levels for non-HS2 routes.

However, the report acknowledges that deploying the conventional capacity released by HS2 presents challenges and trade-offs. Policy makers must decide how to allocate this capacity effectively - whether to prioritise freight, open new passenger routes, or support existing

markets - while considering impacts on the national network.

The report underscores the importance of supporting intermediate markets and the completion of the HS2 Western Leg infrastructure Euston-Manchester to unlock the full potential of this capacity release.

Meanwhile, infrastructure enhancement priorities beyond capacity utilisation are identified. Addressing capacity constraints between Bletchley and Milton Keynes, in order to fully integrate

East West Rail with WCML South services, takes precedence, along with other enhancements.

The report warns that the opening of HS2 doesn’t eliminate the necessity for limited stop intercitystyle services on the regular network. The Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury corridor is highlighted as a potential beneficiary, with improved direct services through to London Euston. The report also proposes lowering WCML speeds to a maximum of 110mph in order to avoid the need for expensive tilting trains.

Nova 3s to be phased out in December

Decision required on who to prioritise on WCML

Mayor paves the way for bus franchising

Bus franchising public consultation scheduled for 2024

FRANCHISING

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) is preparing to release an independent audit of an outline business case for bus reform, with intentions to make it available for public consultation early in 2024.

Last year Dr. Nik Johnson, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, suggested that franchising would give the CPCA greater control over the local network. It followed Stagecoach East’s decision to launch a wide-ranging network review that saw it withdraw a significant number of services (PT274). It resulted in the combined authority launching a thorough analysis of the business proposition for both bus

franchising and the alternative Enhanced Partnership process.

In May the region received £2.3m through the Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP Plus) scheme. In response, CPCA announced it was developing plans aimed at doubling bus patronage across the region by the year 2030. It seems franchising could play a part in that process.

“As mayor, it’s clear to me that the status quo is not an option,

SURREY EXPANDS DRT MINIBUSES

Council claims success after initial pilot service

RURAL BUSES

and that as a combined authority we’re best placed to lead on muchneeded change,” said Johnson.

“Our ambitions are not modest, and nor should they be... To do this we first need to make services more convenient, more frequent, more reliable, and more affordable, and are hard at work on ways of delivering what I see as being essential, invaluable, and long overdue reform.”

While acknowledging that there are no silver bullets when it comes to improving the bus network, the mayor expressed optimism about the potential for progress as a result of the bus reform process.

Johnson continued: “As for next steps, we anticipate having completed the required preparations... in time to launch what promises to be a major public consultation early in the new year. In the meantime, I’ll continue to champion the better future I believe is possible.”

Bristol councillor calls for franchising

Cabinet member for transport blasts cuts to network

The Bristol City Council cabinet member for transport has called on Dan Norris, the mayor of the West of England, to consider public control of the region’s buses.

Labour councillor Don Alexander’s plea comes in the wake of bus cuts across the West of England region. His call has garnered significant support, with over 2,000 people signing a

petition urging Norris to explore bus franchising, something the mayor has claimed was already “on the table”. However, the mayor has previously raised concerns about the costs associated with franchising and the long-winded process to introduce it.

“Bus services are the lifeblood of communities all over Bristol,” said Alexander. “But every year, thanks to the Tories, more and more are

cut off, hitting the local economy and holding people back.”

In response Norris said: “The only way to have a thriving, growing bus network is to increase the number of passengers and bring in more fare income.

“That’s why I’m proud to be investing in new and innovative services. These include ‘birthday buses’ which [give] every resident free travel throughout their birthday month, so they can try out buses free for a month and hopefully continue to use them long term.”

Surrey County Council’s Surrey Connect demand responsive minibus service expanded its footprint to Tandridge, Farnham, Cranleigh, West Guildford, and Longcross this week. The expansion complements the existing service in Mole Valley, which, since its launch last year, has carried over 20,000 passengers.

The original Surrey Connect service launched in November 2021 after the council received a contribution from the Department for Transport Rural Mobility Fund of £660,000 towards the service. It uses DRT platform technology from Padam Mobility.

“We started this service in Mole Valley last year and it’s generated positive interest and helped residents travel around the area in a sustainable way,” said Matt Furniss, Surrey’s cabinet member for transport, infrastructure, and economy. “I am delighted that we are now able to offer this convenient, shared bus for residents who may be isolated due to their rural location or have had to traditionally be heavily car dependent.”

MILESTONE FOR DALESBUS

Network carries its half millionth bus passenger

RURAL BUSES

Charity Friends of the Dales has celebrated the 500,000th passenger to use the DalesBus network. Operated by its subsidiary The Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company, it sustains a number of bus routes across the Yorkshire Dales. This year has seen strong patronage growth thanks to improvements and the £2 fare cap.

Johnson: ‘Our ambitions are not modest’

TfW and Visit Wales team up for promotion

Campaign focuses on Aberystwyth, Conwy, Chepstow and Tenby - but none of these destinations has an hourly train service throughout the day

MARKETING

Transport for Wales has teamed up with tourism promotion body Visit Wales to encourage travellers to use the train to visit popular places in Wales.

The initiative is designed to extend the main tourism season into autumn, as well as entice more people to use trains for leisure trips. The campaign focuses on Aberystwyth, Conwy, Chepstow and Tenby. There are two-for-one offers until May 31 for entry to properties owned by Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic monuments arm.

The initiative demonstrates cooperative working across three Welsh Government bodies. TfW’s website offers hints and tips for things to do and ways to spend a weekend in each of the four locations.

TfW said all four towns are easily accessible on Transport for Wales services. However, none of them has an hourly train service throughout the day.

Most trains pass through Conwy without stopping, despite leisure travel dominating TfW Rail’s revenue since the pandemic. A day trip to Conwy Castle - Cadw’s most visited property - and walled town by train is unattractive from Chester and other places in England on weekdays, when there is a three-hour gap in westbound trains. The 08.20 from Chester is too early for most leisure travellers. The next service to Conwy arrives at 12.24, when daytrippers would have missed the

entire morning.

On Saturdays, the 10.24 from Chester calls at Conwy, compensating for the following train calling at 12.48 instead of 12.24, but the 09.24 from Chester passes through Conwy without stopping. Conwy’s service is even sparser on Sundays, one of the main days of the week for leisure travel, including weekenders returning home.

TfW Rail was due to introduce hourly services for Conwy, Aberystwyth and Chepstow this December, having already postponed them as a result

of Covid-19. These timetable enhancements have now been deferred for a number of reasons, including issues with infrastructure and rolling stock. Tenby, on a single-track branch line, has an approximately two-hourly service. The 09.28 arrival - the 07.46 from Swansea - is too early for most leisure travellers. The next Tenby arrival is not until 11.41. Earlier this year, TfW had proposed to extend some of its Manchester to Carmarthen trains to Tenby and Pembroke Dock from the December timetable change.

Publicity for the new tourism partnership refers only to encouraging travellers to “use the train”, although TfW is required to operate multi-modally (PT295).

TfW manages TrawsCymru bus services on behalf of the government, including four routes into Aberystwyth. The hourly T1 from Carmarthen has recently been enhanced, including introduction of electric buses, and the T2 from Bangor and Machynlleth will be enhanced in November, while the tourism promotion continues.

Bristol to Chepstow has a direct TrawsCymru service, operated with electric vehicles, but no direct trains.

While holders of bus tickets are excluded from the new promotion, a TfW spokesman said two of the TrawsCymru services southwards from Aberystwyth are integrated into TfW rail journey planning and retail systems, so tourists intending to visit relevant destinations would be able to buy tickets for these services as an integrated journey with TfW rail services. “Further integration of other TransCymru services is also planned for the near future,” he said.

Welcoming the new partnership, deputy minister for arts, sport and tourism Dawn Bowden said: “I’m delighted that Visit Wales is teaming up with Transport for Wales to showcase what Wales has to offer.”

Victoria Leyshon, partnership marketing manager at TfW said: “We’re delighted to be working with Visit Wales to showcase the best Wales has to offer and helping people travel more sustainably via public transport. We have some excellent offers to save money on rail tickets and combined with our partner offers for entry into attractions, there’s something for everyone.”

“We’re delighted to be working with Visit Wales to showcase the best Wales has to offer”

Victoria Leyshon, Transport for Wales

Tourists waiting at Conwy station

20mph limit sees Welsh operator ditch Euro 6

Vehicles sold because of concerns over particulate traps

FLEET

A bus operator is selling two of its Euro 6 buses because of concerns over the vehicles’ particulate traps when 20mph becomes the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales. However, an experienced bus engineer told Passenger Transport there was no need for Welsh operators to sell Euro 6 buses because there were other ways to manage the issue.

From September 17 all roads with street lighting are presumed to be 20mph unless signed otherwise. Many bus operators have expressed concern about the impact on journey times and the resources required to sustain current frequencies. Some have made anticipatory timetable adjustments but most are waiting to see how the increase in 20mph running works in practice before applying for changes to service registrations.

Pontypool-based Phil Anslow & Sons Coaches is so concerned about the effect of the more widespread 20mph limits on Euro 6 buses that it has decided to replace its two buses which were new in 2020 with older ones. Managing director Phil Anslow said: “At 20mph, I know our Euro 6 buses won’t be able to clean themselves. We’re going down from Euro 6 to Euro 5.”

He said the company was forever cleaning out the soot traps on the Euro 6 vehicles. The engine needed to reach a certain temperature for the system to empty the particulate

traps automatically. Anslow said the vehicles would not reach that temperature if their duties involved no sustained running at speeds above 20mph. The company previously had to pay £15,000 to repair one bus after the soot trap became completely clogged up.

An engineer who has maintained buses in one of Britain’s biggest cities agreed that there was a risk of too much soot building up if a bus was always limited to 20mph.

The same risk applied where a bus never went faster than 30mph, but the issue would arise more often with 20mph running.

He said: “I wouldn’t sell Euro 6 buses for that reason. If I was running one on a route that didn’t go on any dual carriageway and was always 30mph or less, I would do a run on a motorway or dual carriageway [periodically] to get it up to temperature, or I would do a manual regeneration on a laptop.”

Instructing the system to regenerate manually, however, would require staff time and vehicle downtime. Another option would be to give Euro 6 buses duty cycles which included some operation on inter-urban routes where the limit is 40mph to 60mph.

In his experience, one of the practical difficulties with large numbers of roads having 20mph limits instead of 30mph arose from

ATCO fears 20mph will harm buses

Two-thirds of bus routes said to need extra vehicles

Council officers in Wales fear that the 20mph default speed limit will further undermine the viability of bus services, since the Welsh Government has not earmarked funding to compensate for the consequential higher operating costs and decrease in revenue.

The Association of Transport Coordinating Officers Cymru said bus average speeds in Wales were already well below 20mph,

and this would decline with fewer opportunities to travel at 30mph. Passenger journeys would be less competitive, and engines and gearboxes would suffer more damage. Modelling has shown that two-thirds of bus routes will need extra vehicles to keep to time.

Chair Richard Cope said: “The reduction from 30mph to 20mph will lead to longer journeys, with irregular service intervals. These make buses even less attractive

gearboxes being programmed for 18mph or 22mph. This was solved at his previous company, part of one of the large bus groups, by a software update which ensured the vehicles could maintain a steady 20mph comfortably, without repeatedly changing gear.

Phil Anslow Coaches has registered changes to four of its routes to take effect on September 20 because the journey times will be extended by the decreased speed on 20mph roads. Anslow said he hoped that the impact on some of his other routes could be absorbed by the leeway built into turnaround times, but expected that amendments would need to be registered on some routes once the impact of the speed limit change was visible.

He also said the additional running time would prevent five of his vehicles from serving both a school and a college each morning, as they had done previously. Although the school day begins before the college day, there will be insufficient time for each vehicle to deliver students to a college after dropping off at a school.

to use or need more buses to run the existing timetables. Both outcomes are detrimental, decreasing revenue and increasing cost at a time when we have still not recovered from the impact of Covid.

“Cuts are already being made to bus services in response to post-Covid passenger travel habits, and as the Welsh Government transitions away from emergency funding, further increases in operating costs without compensatory funding will only lead to more service cuts irrespective of whether or not the operating model is regulated.”

“The reduction from 30mph to 20mph will lead to longer journeys”Richard Cope, ATCO

A Phil Anslow bus in Cwmbran

HS2 trains will be the world’s greenest

First to achieve rigorous PAS 2080 global accreditation

HIGH SPEED RAIL

The high speed trains due to start running on the HS2 within 10 years have been recognised as the most environmentallyfriendly in the world.

The trains, being designed and made in the UK by a Hitachi and Alstom joint venture, will be less carbon intensive throughout their lifecycle than any other high speed train in design, production or operation today.

The new design, based on the successful Frecciarossa very high speed train now operating in Italy and Spain, has become the first train in the world to achieve the British Standards Institute’s PAS 2080 global accreditation.

Work during the train’s detailed design will optimise the weight of its carbody, wheelsets and cabling; and build more of the train with

YORK BEGINS E-BUS REVOLUTION

£23m investment in greener public transport

ZERO EMISSION BUSES

First Bus together with City of York Council last week ‘switched on’ a new fleet of zero emission buses for York. It is a transformation that will see its depot become one of the first outside London to be fully electric.

The buses herald a new York Electric branding with the first vehicles operating from August 27 on the Service 4 route from the city centre to Acomb. Electric buses will gradually be introduced on selected

recycled and recyclable material.

Great effort is also going into reducing the train’s energy consumption, including improvements in its aerodynamics, which has led to it becoming the first high speed train in the world to have a smooth, dynamically efficient underside, cutting its drag coefficient.

Finally, the train’s traction system and electric motors will be highly energy efficient - reducing

energy demand for a train that will reach speeds of up to 225mph and is designed to run for 18,500 miles between servicing.

HS2 Ltd’s head of deliveryrolling stock, Bernie Rowell, said: “We’re delighted that our train is the first in the world to be recognised for its low-carbon credentials. It is testament to our determination to deliver a low carbon mass transit high speed rail system for Britain. HS2 will

persuade people to choose the train over the car and plane and help the UK reach net zero by 2050.”

Jim Brewin, chief director of Hitachi Rail UK & Ireland, said: “HS2 challenged us to meet this certification as part of our competitive pitch, and we’re proud to be achieving it. HS2 trains have gone through a design process of unparalleled rigourbecoming more aerodynamic, more energy-efficient, lighter, leaner, and greener.”

HS2 Ltd awarded the £2bn contract to design, build and maintain 54 very high speed trains to a joint venture between Hitachi Rail and Alstom in December 2021. Due to start rolling off the production line around 2027, the eight-carriage trains measuring 200 metres in length, will be manufactured across three UK factories.

Hitachi’s Co Durham plant will handle vehicle body assembly and initial fit-out before transferring further fit-out and testing work to Alstom’s historic Derby works. The trains’ bogies will be made and maintained at Alstom’s Crewe facility.

corridors in the coming weeks.

The full order of 53 StreetDeck Electroliner double-deckers and the single-decker GB Kite Electroliner are manufactured by Wrightbus with features including audio visual next stop technology. The fleet represents a total investment by First Bus of £13m supported with £10.2m funding secured by City of York Council from the government’s ZEBRA scheme.

As part of the overall investment, the First Bus depot is currently being transformed with the installation of power charging and infrastructure to handle the full zero emission fleet, which will total 86 buses.

The new design is based on the Frecciarossa very high speed train now operating in Italy and Spain

First York’s electric fleet has been ‘switched on’

DfT releases guidance on Mobility as a Service

Developers told to ensure that technology leaves no-one behind MOBILITY AS A SERVICE

The government has launched a new Mobility as a Service code of practice for app developers and companies that aims to ensure they offer more streamlined journeys for travellers and commuters while ensuring the technology is accessible to all.

MaaS apps such as Citymapper and Google Maps bring together data, such as timetabling or ticket prices, from multiple types of transport to offer streamlined choices to travellers all on one app.

The guidance encourages app platform providers to consider accessibility needs when suggesting routes, which could include outlining wheelchairaccessible routes and stations and providing step-free options for all journeys.

It also recommends that app providers consider the personal safety of app users when suggesting routes. For example, apps should allow people to choose “main roads only” options for journeys, keeping to well-lit roads. Apps should also be able to share their live location with a contact while on the move. Further recommendations include ensuring apps consider users in rural areas where internet connectivity could make accessing online journey planning difficult. As part of this, platforms are encouraged to include offline options, such as a phone number for ordering taxis or claiming compensation for delays.

“New technologies are

transforming how we travel, making journeys easier for those with disabilities and connecting rural towns and villages better, among much else,” said technology and decarbonisation minister Jesse Norman.

“With the new code of practice, the Department for Transport is encouraging app providers to make the most of the new technology, helping to ensure potentially vulnerable groups and communities are not left behind.”

The DfT says that MaaS tech platforms can make journeys more convenient by bringing together planning and payment

into one app and allowing people to tailor journeys to their specific needs. It also hopes that this could lower the cost of journeys for travellers, by ensuring more choice and competition.

Welcoming the new code of practice, Max Sugarman, chief executive of Intelligent Transport Systems UK (ITS UK), said: “The code provides valuable guidelines in areas like open data, accessibility and commerciality, all of which will support MaaS providers going forward.

“MaaS - bringing together various modes of transport, with key information and payment

PM urged to progress Future Transport Bill

Plea by 50 businesses in intelligent transport sector

A letter to the prime minister signed by over 50 businesses in the intelligent transport sector has called on the government to move forward with a Future of Transport Bill in the upcoming King’s Speech.

The open letter, organised by Intelligent Transport Systems UK (ITS UK), the voice of the transport technology industry, has highlighted the need for a bill in order to deliver the right environment for transport innovation to continue to thrive

in the UK, including by setting out regulations for self- and remote-driving vehicles, moving forward with industry reforms to enable smarter ticketing options, providing certainty on the future of micro-mobility schemes and supporting the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

Max Sugarman, chief executive of ITS UK, said: “The UK is home to some of the most innovative transport technology companies in the world, including those working in areas like connected

via one combined service - can be a game-changer in supporting greater use of shared and public transport and encouraging the public to take low carbon forms of transport. As the £90m Future Transport Zones and the Scottish MaaS Investment Fund show, the implementation of MaaS is already having real benefits across the UK, but there is far more that could be done in rolling out further applications.

“Alongside this Code of Practice, we urge the government to continue its support for MaaS schemes, particularly through the continued backing of the Future Transport Zones post-2024/25, and explore other regions across the UK where MaaS could be rolled out. With government’s assistance, the UK can support a more integrated, end-to-end transport system, speed up the decarbonisation and digitalisation of the transport network and deliver economic growth, investment and jobs in a growing intelligent transport sector.”

and autonomous vehicles, smart ticketing, micro-mobility and Mobility as a Service. For the sector to continue to thrive, it needs a Future of Transport Bill that builds upon the work of the Law Commission on remote and self-driving vehicles, that allows the rail sector to modernise through industry reform, that sets out a long-term plan for shared micro-mobility schemes and which sets up the right framework for the development of a more integrated transport system through MaaS.

“With a bill promised in the 2022 Queen’s Speech, it is now more urgent than ever that we see legislation introduced.”

“The code provides valuable guidelines in areas like open data, accessibility and commerciality”Max Sugarman, ITS UK

Optibus inspires Arriva High Wycombe revamp

Bus users will see up to a doubling of frequencies

PLANNING AND SCHEDULING

Arriva has redesigned a simpler, more frequent bus network for High Wycombe using Optibus.

For the first time, the network was wholly designed entirely within the Optibus planning and scheduling suite.

Utilising demographic data and historic bus tracking, it allowed prompt visualisation of real-world running times within varying network planning scenarios.

The network revamp, which started on September 3 will mean customers will be able to use more buses to get around the town.

Customers will see up to a doubling of frequencies, amongst other enhancements, to most bus routes, which are operated with a modern fleet of ultra-low emission buses.

Arriva says that there will be better connections around the town, which will enable people

DAY

TICKETING

Bus operator Lothian recorded over 100,000 ‘taps’ in one day using its capped contactless payment method, ‘TapTapCap’.

The contactless system, which was introduced in 2019, reached the milestone for the first time on Friday, August 18, 14 days into the Edinburgh Festival season, which traditionally sees the population of

to change at the bus station to more frequent buses. Departure times have been co-ordinated so that customers’ onward journeys are simple, straightforward, with shorter waiting times.

Buses will also run later in the evenings, with additional late-night buses from Reading and Henley-on-Thames, financially supported by Oxfordshire County

Council.

The new network becomes fully hub-and-spoke, with simpler, co-ordinated clockface departure times so that customers’ onward journeys have shorter waiting times at the bus interchange.

Matt King, network manager for Arriva, said: “We’ve analysed how and when customers use our buses currently, as well as looking

“We’re bringing more buses, more often for most areas as our network grows and thrives”Matt King, Arriva

“The conversion to a hub-andspoke model with pulse scheduling reflects these changing travel patterns, promoting seamless connectivity across the town on more routes rather than on a small number of select corridors. This also allows for a greater flexibility of bus and driver resource.

“Improving timekeeping is a key tenet for future user confidence in any bus network, so we’ve compiled a year’s worth of comprehensive pointto-point running time data, customer recommendations and local feedback into realistic schedules allow us to better plan our network to become more resilient. This will transform and optimise our performance - all translated in a more user-friendly way within the Optibus platform.

the city increase in size.

Throughout August, customers have been ‘tapping’ their bank cards or mobile devices to pay for travel across Lothian’s services, leading to faster boarding times during the busiest period for services in the city.

Sarah Boyd, managing director of council-owned Lothian said: “Our contactless payment system has been a real success story for Lothian since its introduction and we look forward to breaking even more records in the future.”

Provided by ticketing technology

specialist Flowbird, the contactless system averages over 80,000 journey taps per day, and has logged over 5.4 million unique users in over four years of operation.

David Thompson, managing director of Flowbird’s transport division in the UK, said: “It’s amazing to see that so many people at this year’s festival are taking advantage of the convenience of open payments and the benefits of fare capping ... This is ideal for encouraging Edinburgh’s international and domestic visitors to use the bus network.”

www.passengertransport.co.uk 8 September 2023 | 15

RECORD 100,000

TAPS IN ONE

Matt King: ‘Customers will benefit’

at emerging and changing travel trends - so we’re bringing more buses, more often for most areas as our network grows and thrives.

NORMAN BAKER

PM is transportweaponising policy

Rishi Sunak seems to have concluded that adopting macho anti-environment policies across the board could be a vote winner

Opportunist. Unprincipled. Shameful. Shameless. Desperate.

Choose your adjective to describe the full frontal attack on environmental policies now coming from the prime inister and his cabal of fanatical advisers holed up in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office.

For a couple of years now, the Conservatives have recognised that electoral disaster at the next General Election beckons, with the polls and by-election results offering no respite. Then suddenly there is a straw to grasp at.

Against nearly all expectations, the Tories scraped home in one by-election, in Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge, the by-election having become to a degree a referendum on Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ scheme.

Never mind that the ULEZ concept was one rolled out by former London mayor Boris Johnson (yes, him again) and that Khan was encouraged down that track in his negotiations with the government for a funding package for London. That was then and this, apparently, is now.

So Sunak has, it seems, concluded that adopting macho anti-environment policies across the board could be a vote winner, even though ULEZ expansion was a narrow issue affecting barely any constituencies and of no interest to people in Walsall or West Wittering. We are back to the Osborne days of “getting rid of the green crap”. And in transport terms we are back to ending the “war on the motorist”.

The tired old “war on the motorist” mantra

was last heavily deployed by my old boss, Philip Hammond, back in 2010 (though I studiously and politely declined invitations to use it). It sounded jaded then, and even more so now, with climate change visible for all to see.

And what war, you may ask? After all, we have had a fuel duty freeze for about 12 years now, indeed even a generous “temporary” cut, while rail fares and bus fares have risen inexorably over the same period.

Stupid Vehicle Excise Duty reforms introduced after the coalition by Osborne (yes, him again) encouraged the adoption of bigger, heavier vehicles, ugly clunky box giants now commonly deployed to take Tarquin 200 yards to school and back each day, vehicles so large they no longer fit in supermarket parking spaces.

Meanwhile, business secretary Kemi Badenoch is rumoured to be pushing back on the government’s plan to fine car manufacturers if they fail to meet the target of making at least 22% of the cars they sell electric by 2024.

The £27bn road-building programme remains intact, despite all the evidence, going back to the then Department of Transport’s 1994 report from the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment (SACTRA) and beyond, that more road capacity simply generates more traffic.

You can’t build your way out of a traffic jam. As Cliff Richard (yes, Cliff amazingly) sang in a surprisingly forward-looking track in 1970 called The Joy Of Living:

“They’re pulling down more houses every day To give the family car more room to play And won’t it be grand

When the whole of the land Is one big motorway”

Just look at Birmingham which has had more money spent on roads than almost anywhere else and where the traffic problems are some of the worst in Britain. Thankfully the local politicians in our second city are now bravely trying to undo decades of damage.

Or look at those towns like Newbury where by-passes were supposed to take traffic away from the centre, and note how traffic levels in the centre are now back to, or sometimes surpassing, those that existed pre-bypass.

In fact the real enemy of the motorist is the failure to invest properly in good public transport alternatives. For example, bus lanes that offer quicker journeys into the city centre make a shift to the bus attractive for the car driver. And for those who do not want to shift, well suddenly there are fewer cars on the road to compete with and less congestion. As we know, a bus can hold up to 90 passengers, potentially 90 fewer cars on that route from just one bus journey.

I actually feel sympathy for those ministers in government who understand the need for investment in public transport, who are committed to serious action to tackle climate change, who are working to deliver the government’s official policy of net zero, and who has to a large degree, had the rug pulled from underneath them by the prime minister.

I feel particularly sorry for Mark Harper and Huw Merriman at the DfT who are two of the best ministers in government, but who are suddenly finding No 10 taking a close and unwelcome interest in transport. The difference, even chasm between them, is that the DfT ministers are trying to deliver transport improvements. No 10 is only interested in weaponising transport in an attempt to wrong-foot Labour ahead of next

“The real enemy of the motorist is the failure to invest properly in good public transport”

year’s election and to enthuse the Tory base. It is of course nothing new for No 10 or No 11 to grab hold of the policy reins from a department without usually even consulting the relevant secretary of state. I saw it in my time both as a Transport and as a Home Office minister.

What is particularly frustrating is that those at the centre who pull rank - especially the spotty 22 year-old special advisers - invariably know less about the issue at hand than people in the relevant department, but always think they know more.

The DfT in my day took care to try to evaluate road schemes carefully, to produce a fair benefit-cost ratio that took into account all factors including environmental ones. Indeed the mechanism was actually improved jointly by Philip Hammond and me.

I recall at the time we had about 39 local road schemes on the books, all carefully evaluated, and some of which the analysis showed should never be built. Bottom of the list, by the way, was the very expensive and almost totally useless so-called Hastings-Bexhill link road.

But what use was all that careful analysis? For one day we had a call from the office of the chancellor, George Osborne. What road schemes did we have on the books? In the budget that followed shortly afterwards, Osborne announced the go-ahead for all of them, just to get a quick headline that would disappear soon after like a will-o’-the wisp. I did manage to hold up the Hastings-Bexhill scheme

for a year or more, but it finally got built. It was the same at the Home Office. A pub had opened on the M40 selling pints to motorists. This was clearly not a good idea. I suggested to home secretary Theresa May that we should ban pubs on motorways and she agreed. But then the PM, David Cameron, found out and blocked the move.

Such is the lack of support now at No 10 that they cannot find the enthusiasm even to give the green light to the legislation required to establish Great British Railways. This idea, set out now years ago in the Williams plan (Shapps has been quietly deleted), has been welcomed by industry, given the thumbs up by the Treasury, and requires only a short Bill of about 10 clauses to enact. This Bill, already written, is unlikely to be opposed by any party in the House and could sail through in a couple of days.

The excuse that there has been no parliamentary time is ludicrous, with the House regularly adjourning early, even on Mondays. DfT ministers, who are clearly desperate for the legislation, must be tearing their hair out, especially as they are left to parrot the nonexcuses for the Bill’s non-appearance.

Let me be clear. There is a dereliction of duty by No 10, and one which leaves the whole rail industry in limbo, not least the shadow team at GBR who are running up a big bill for the taxpayer in the meantime.

Moreover, from the Conservative point of view, it makes no political sense. If there is any

division of opinion on the merits of the Bill, it is likely to be between the pragmatists and the nationalisation obsessives on the Labour benches. And if no Bill appears before the election, then the Conservatives are leaving a blank piece of paper for an incoming Labour government to write on, and what they write may well be less amenable to the Tories than the GBR model waiting in the wings.

And so the anti-environment rhetoric gets louder, especially on the far right, but very influential fringe of the Tory Party. We even now have MPs from the party of law and order encouraging acts of criminal damage to destroy and remove ULEZ cameras. The Met has lodged 510 crimes related to ULEZ cameras in the last six months.

Beyond transport, we saw last week the PM take a helicopter (of course) to Norwich to meet housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and announce that longstanding and essential water protection measures that are in place to stop river quality deteriorating any further need to be swept away. Apart from anything else, this is politically inept. The Tories are already upsetting their own supporters over the issue of sewage discharges.

In addition, a cursory study of history over the last couple of decades will easily reveal that housebuilders always claim that removing this or that regulation will unblock the path to more houses being built. Actually, all it does is boost profits. Housebuilders are already sitting on a mountain of permissions that they have yet to enact.

Then there is the proposal to max out the North Sea with a bonanza of new oil and gas development, the new coal mine in Cumbria, and up and coming the rejection of the recommendation that there should be no more airport expansion. And the rest.

We can only hope that after the Tories lose the next election, they are left with a sufficient number of sensible MPs able to reclaim their party and ditch this madness, and a Labour government with more courage to do the right thing than presently appears to be the case.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“No 10 is only interested in weaponising transport in an attempt to wrong-foot Labour”

Last week the PM took a helicopter to Norwich to meet housebuilders Taylor Wimpey and announce that water protection measures need to be swept away

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

Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street

ALEX WARNER

Polish and self-awareness still remain an issue. Quite often, I hear these endless noise polluting, bordering on officious ontrain announcements before the journey commences and just wish them to end so I can continue a conversation with a colleague, get back to listening to music on my headphones or concentrate on work. When I listen to this authoritative, droning drivel, I imagine the employee that comes through the train to be a customer service dissident, pain in the neck, but thankfully that’s never the case, which makes me wonder why, if they are genuinely nice people, do they fail to realise that just because they are given a microphone at the beginning of a journey, they need to come across all jobsworth and verbose?

I’ve had a right royal shindig of a past month or so, on and off trains and buses, in all parts of the UK. I’ve clocked up more miles than Phileas Fogg and if the railway is not on strike, I’ll be on it. Amidst all this doomsday scenario moaning about the state of the transport industry I’ve been well blessed with some good experiencesfriendly staff and barely any disruption. This isn’t an article eulogising and praising everyone, goodness me, I’m hosting a table at the National Rail Awards next week (long story, but I’ve not gone all native, before you ask). There will be enough backslapping and fawning there to see out the year. The problem in the industry is that it’s all binary - we’re either telling folk we’re heroes or everything is stuffed. My journeys made me reflective - transport is not too bad in parts, but far from polished. What struck me about my trips is that over the past couple of decades, the quality of staff has improved and there has been a step change. There seem to be fewer anti-customer muppets out there. Over the course of the summer, I cannot recall a single bus driver or member of railway staff who I had to blink twice at and ask myself ‘is this for real?’ or get a note of the registration of the bus or description of the gateline employee and feed it back to the transport operators. Back in the day, on at least a third of trips, you’d always stumble across someone who would stick out as a jobsworth who was going out of their way looking for a rumble with customers. Transport managers know who I mean, I’ve a list in my head of the

most satanic employees I’ve managed in my career - the type whose name would dominate almost every customer complaint. I’m not saying they don’t exist anymore, but they are in the extreme minority, and I’d say their antics have made them ostracised by colleagues who care about customers and realise that transport is in the fight of its life for survival right now, particularly post-Covid. Whatever the strike-induced employee relations woes, I’m not noticing a backlash among staff - if anything they have more of a spring in their step than ever before, particularly on-train folk. We shouldn’t crack open the celebratory champers just yet, because there are hard yards still to be put in. The challenge is less around getting staff to put customers first, it’s more a case of making them more polished in the first instance and being bold enough to then try and encourage them to live and breathe a brand personality and create more of a vibe and sense of occasion. I’ve mostly bus drivers in mind in this respect. As part of the Great Scenic Journeys business that I’ve set up, we audit and accredit from a customer experience perspective the routes that are part of our collection across all modes, and this gives us great insights in terms of the state of the nation.

In terms of polish, we’ve also still got a lot to do with bus drivers and it’s like a dagger to my heart when I’m undertaking a mystery shopping report and literally ready to give full marks as I disembark, only to see the driver also get off the bus and stand outside in full view of customers, with a fag hanging out their mouth, indulging in horseplay with colleagues. It’s also noticeable how a few drivers still have a groupie hanging around them on journeys and often - dare I say it? - those who do not help add value to the branded on-board experience. Yesterday. on an open top bus through the most stunning of scenery, the driver was literally followed throughout his return journey by someone standing chatting to him with ripped jeans, studs and piercings across all parts, unwashed, unkempt hair - he was like someone that you’d see in The Walking Dead. I knew he wasn’t a customer because when I boarded, the bus arrived with him already there and the driver said “hello, you are my first customer today” and then when I alighted, he joined him for a fag. This kind of behaviour should be consigned to the era of On The Buses

Customer contact staff still lack a bit of polish too and the onus is still on the caller to prompt the employee to provide more than the most superficial of information for their call, tempting them to give more than just the bare minimum. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve asked, ‘could you tell me what the best journeys for a day out are?’ or ‘what’s the most scenic bus route you have?’, only to receive staccato replies and a complete gulf between my childlike enthusiasm and the employee’s soul-sapping circumspection. I’ve

It’s not bad, but it’s far from polished

Sometimes we hear that transport is in a dire state, other times the sector is hailed as heroes.The truth is somewhere in between

“There seem to be fewer anti-customer muppets out there”

customer touchpoints

seen better sales patter in the procurement or IT department than from customer relations!

Drivers and rail staff often fail to realise that on a leisure journey, in particular, customers want to feel that their experience is going to be special. The trip they are making is a big deal and they want staff to rise to the occasion - to reflect the brand personality that the images on the side of the bus or train or the marketing has portrayed, to act as if their adventure might pan out in a certain way because the weather outside will give the view a more serene or moody or generally atmospheric vibe and they want simple and decent product knowledge. Animated families arrive at a bus, all fired up about their experience to come, having read the great marketing leaflets, only to be greeted with a driver who isn’t impolite but simply doesn’t wish to share in their enthusiasm. You can see the joy and anticipation fade from the faces of these fun-hungry customers. Why can’t the driver keep their mood going by entering into the spirit and going out of his/her way to create a sense of occasion - a massive smile, some titbits on the scenery, heritage of the route and the sights and attractions on the journey and a hearty ‘goodbye’ when they disembark? Scenic thrill seekers don’t want to feel as if they are getting on the bus for work on a rainy Monday morning.

Self-awareness is key and on social media last month a lady complained that she and her chum had travelled across the world to go on a train over the Forth Bridge, only for the RPO to decide to walk through the train at that point and undertake a ticket inspection, thus encroaching on the experience.

It’s easy to chide staff, but I actually think they are doing a reasonable job despite the efforts of those in suits back in HQ or more likely the comfort of their homes, sipping tea and stroking the cat on the keyboard, whilst they are on Teams calls. On a train last week, I scribbled in my notebook some of the gaps in the end-to-end customer journey proposition that I’d encountered on my travels, and they were mainly those where top brass and their support structures had failed staff and customers, either through a lack of inspiration, impetus, strategy or poor process.

Marketing is a challenge and it’s one that frustrates me massively. I celebrate raucously when I go into a tourist attraction or office, a hospital or university and see some leaflets

pertaining to the local bus company or I ask the employee at these third-party organisations if they can give details of the services and they do so and in a manner in which they look like they are advocates. I visit some places, like the Exmoor National Park Centre and the staff are practically caressing prospective bus customers and forcing them to travel on First’s wonderful Exmoor Coaster. Not content with doing just that, they then eulogise about the service on their official and personal social media channels. But these scenarios are the exception rather than the norm and it’s no use just saying ‘we don’t do leaflets anymore, they’re too expensive and it’s all online’ - there are a whole range of ways to engage partners.

The challenge, of course, is time and resources and if the marketing manager works within a big transport owning group, the chances are that they have a patch which stretches from the tip of the Northern hemisphere to the foot of the Southern and they are more overworked, overstretched and under-supported than your local GP or police. What’s more, these valuable resources are paid a pittance even though they are the revenue generators at a time when the industry needs new products and reasons to travel, in a more crowded space where folk in this digital age, are bombarded with marketing messages trying to capture their attention.

Trust me please, particularly as I probably travel more than most, but the area of the service proposition that seems to be most reliable currently involves staff, whereas those customer touchpoints that are not reliable involve infrastructure. This list is not exhaustive, and it includes short-formed trains, empty catering trolleys, plug sockets and Wi-Fi that don’t work. Add in further shortcomings and it’s a litany of woes - defective buses, ticket machines, damaged and out of date notices, empty covings on-board, unbranded buses, unreplaced leaflets. Meanwhile, we have hourly bus services timed one minute after the hourly train has departed at the bus/rail interchange, bus stations that look dilapidated, with blank graffitied poster frames and layer upon layer of grime on the floor, and so on. Don’t get me started on the Travel Shops without a single branded notice and décor that is about as modern in appearance as your musty, local charity shop or church hall.

All this is particularly worrying as the trend

towards de-staffing continues unabated, with ‘Workplace Reform’ (as the corporate clones have called it in rail) leading to ticket office closures and reduced on-board staff. We’ll have bus drivers for the foreseeable future but less and less non-driving staff, such as hosts or inspectors hanging round bus stations giving helpful advice. Meanwhile, customer call centres are cutting numbers, leading to longer wait times or transport companies are actively preventing customers from knowing their phone number or email address.

With each month that passes, we travel on a network where the proposition is presented to us in terms of infrastructure, but less or no staff to guide us through it - a classic ‘you’re on your own, fend for yourself’ mentality. All this is made worse by, from my experiences over the past month, by the fact that the gaps in the product are those where customers are left to their own devices (literally) and where touchpoints bereft of a human interaction. Can’t those in authority see that it’s frontline staff who, even though they lack panache and polish and can be ham-fisted at times but almost always well-intentioned, they are the favourable touchpoints right? More often than not, staff are the only positive that can be gleaned during the whole end-to-end journey experience.

In some parts of UK transport, it comes down to that age old problem that a minority of those in charge, the so-called boffins who design the proposition and those inspirational, ‘me, me, me’ leaders, are invariably clueless because they seldom if ever travel on their own services. And when they do very occasionally get on-board, they are too busy posting selfies of their great leadership skills on social media to actually look at their substandard proposition with any sense of customer-focused objectivity. Bring on the National Rail Awards next week.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of recruitment business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration and chair of Surrey FA.

“Those

that are not reliable involve infrastructure”

COMMENT

NICK RICHARDSON

Striking the right balance for ULEZ

The debate about London’s ULEZ should be about balancing environmental goals, economic realities, and individual choices

London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has been a recent hot topic, pitting the antimotorist mantra against a scheme intended to improve air quality. This divisive approach has not helped anyone, not least because everyone seems to have lost sight of what urban pollution is all about. We know that vehicle emissions form a sizeable proportion of total emissions and include certain noxious substances that undermine the health of the population with serious consequences for some individuals.

Lost direction

The London mayor’s expanded ULEZ scheme has been widely touted as the reason for not winning the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election caused by the resignation of Boris Johnson. This is somewhat strange because plans were announced by London mayor Boris Johnson in March 2015 for the initial zone to come into operation in September 2020. Sadiq Khan, the subsequent mayor, introduced the zone in April 2019. It would seem that there is some political spin emerging from the current government’s apparent hatred of the current Mayor.

Now I’ve never found a politician who is in favour of more pollution (excepting perhaps Michael Gove); however, unrestrained vehicle emissions means just that. Apart from being undesirable, there is a legal imperative placed on local authorities to do something about poor air quality, particularly where Air Quality

Management Areas (AQMAs) have been designated, most of them being associated with busy road corridors. What we have proved over recent years is that leaving people to make their own decisions about lifestyle and how they travel is a route to ruin. With more big cars in circulation – often replacing smaller vehicles – emissions have not decreased, an appalling indictment of a supposedly advanced economy. Leaving individuals to do what they like when it comes to driving everywhere is hardly progressive – the problem won’t go away even if the screaming get louder. A Daily Mail headline (August 29) sums it up as ‘Sadiq Khan’s £1 billion blitz on the motorist begins as the unpopular ULEZ expansion comes into

force’; note the personalisation and the choice of words like ‘force’ and ‘blitz’.

It adds that “the mayor is expected to rake in record revenues thanks to his onslaught on drivers - with the ULEZ expansion set to add an extra £2.5m a day to cash-strapped City Hall coffers”. Even the secretary of state for transport is of the view that it is about raising revenue rather than air quality. At least there is recognition of the financial predicament of the capital’s transport networks as a result of the pandemic and the cold relationship between the mayor and government.

Proportionality

We have heard a great deal about hardship for the 10% of car owners who will be required to pay the daily charge within the ULEZ. Oddly, we haven’t heard much about the millions of people who suffer the consequences of mass vehicle use. No-one has mentioned that London has an intensive passenger transport network that is the envy of many other cities, all of which costs large sums to operate. The new Superloop bus services offer new journey opportunities, further undermining the need to drive everywhere, in addition to the further reaches of the London Underground, London Overground and a multitude of suburban rail services. It is an ideal opportunity to promote the benefits of using passenger transport.

Some of the local authorities bordering London have proved to be uncooperative when it comes to placing the necessary signs on the approaches to the ULEZ but have failed in their legal action to prevent

The new Superloop bus services offer new journey opportunities

it happening. Their argument seems to be that their residents have a right to drive into London unchallenged. There will be people who suffer hardship in that they have to pay for something that they are not charged for currently but that’s what has happened with parking; compare this with people who quietly pay to use trains and buses to get into London. I never fail to be amazed by individuals who rant against parking prices but have no idea what it costs to use passenger transport instead.

It may appear harsh to charge £12.50 to enter the ULEZ. However, with London’s Congestion Charge, drivers have been paying for some years and pre-pandemic traffic levels crept up to the level they were before the scheme was introduced. This indicates that the charge is not a deterrent but something that is grudgingly accepted as a means of trying to manage demand, the revenue from which supports other forms of transport. Similarly, in Nottingham the Workplace Parking Levy has not brought the economy to its knees but has provided useful funds to support measures such as the extension of the Nottingham Express Transit light rail network. In the debate surrounding ULEZ, the cost of not doing anything exceeds anything that is now in place.

Lack of restraint

The whole debate about ULEZ exaggerates what we have known for years, that unrestrained vehicle access is not the key to economic success or environmental utopia. Neither is it undemocratic, because the mayor of London is elected. Note the parallels with the Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes in Oxford where asking the people who benefit from them shows that they are a really good idea, not an infringement of liberties.

Actually ULEZ doesn’t stop anyone doing anything, it just requires a payment to do so in the same way that a toll is levied for use of a road or bridge/tunnel, although no doubt a certain faction will oppose tolls as well on the grounds that everything that makes their lives easier should be paid for by everyone else.

Probably the biggest question is what vehicles are eligible for a ULEZ payment or penalty and which are not. It appears that any smaller vehicles less than five years are exempt, including diesels. Given that 90% of

vehicles likely to be in the firing line of ULEZ are exempt, it could be argued that the ‘Ultra’ component isn’t particularly comprehensive. If a major impact on air quality were required, the balance would be the other way with a majority of vehicles required to pay, with exceptions for buses and essential delivery vehicles. There is of course scope for further restrictions in the future, noting the politics, because there is an element of flexibility and incremental application. Note however, that the Western Extension of the Charging Zone was removed by Boris Johnson as mayor to appease his electorate rather than having a basis in any rational policy.

Taking low emission zones as a means of demand management and a precursor to more comprehensive road user charging, it is possible that it will have some effect in removing spurious car journeys into the affected area. There will always be some who have to upgrade their vehicle to carry on doing what they have been doing but it makes people think more deeply about their travel options. Demonstrating the links between cause and effect may take several years simply because in this case, air quality is a complex issue affected

not only by traffic levels and vehicle types but by other factors beyond the control of the Mayor. The effectiveness of ULEZ should be set against its objectives rather than how much cash it is supposed to generate.

As the largest scheme of its type in the world, it will provide a benchmark for those other areas where certain vehicle types are charged to use the roads in a defined area. Part of the trouble seems to be the usual lack of consistency about what is or isn’t included in different places and a mismatch between a policy to manage air quality and the vehicles it affects. This is where a UK-wide road user charging scheme would be useful, gain based on the premise of demand management in a policy context that is supposed to be environmentally protective. It needs to be transparent but any necessary consultation needs to understand that it’s not a referendum and that elected representatives are there to make decisions for the common good, even if they are not universally popular.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Richardson is technical director at transport consultancy WSP and chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Policy Group and is a former chair of the Transport Planning Society. In addition, he has held a PCV licence for over 36 years.

“ULEZ doesn’t stop anyone doing anything, it just needs a payment to do so”

As the largest scheme of its type in the world, London’s ULEZ will provide a benchmark

OIL MARKET REPORT £

Will sustainable jet fuel take off?

The use of green aviation fuel is mandated from 2030 onwards, but what are the available technologies and their prospects?

Thousands of holidaymakers have now returned from destinations around the world, making 2023 the busiest summer for air traffic since (prepandemic) 2019. Evidently, of all the things the general population seems willing to sacrifice on the decarbonisation journey, stopping flying is not one of them! It is little wonder then, that when it comes to alternative fuels, there is currently no hotter ticket than Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Every organisation from the International Air Transportation Association (the body that represents major global airlines) to the European Union have mandated the use of green aviation fuel from 2030 onwards with the intention of being carbon neutral by 2050. This is a huge ask because, bluntly speaking, planes run best on liquified fossil fuels! Battery power for aviation? No chance! No set of batteries can lift a 747 carrying 500 passengers off the ground at 200mph and then keep it in the air for 12 hours. What about liquid hydrogen? Forget it! The density of the fuel is so great that planes would either be too heavy to take off or the fuel tanks would take up 90% of the available capacity. The challenge then is how to successfully and sustainably decarbonise jet fuel so that you end up with the same fuel, but one that is not derived from crude oil.

To do this, three possible routes present themselves. First up and in fact, already over

the line in small quantities, is SAF made from the Hydroprocessing of Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) - the same manufacturing process that is used to make green diesel (ie, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil = HVO). The second technology available is Alcohol to Jet (A2J), whereby alcohol emanating from (non-fossil) sources (eg, waste corn kernels) are processed into jet fuel. The final renewable method is Fischer-Tropsch technology, which synthesises waste gases into liquids such as methanol, before converting them into aviation turbine fuel.

Of the three production routes, HEFA is easily the furthest developed and process plants are now producing over 300 million litres of SAF globally per annum. Currently, almost all of the volume produced in this way involves the co-processing of Fats, Oils and Greases (FOGs) with crude oil in refineries. This however is set to change between now and 2030, with 10 European renewable plants (including two in Britain) scheduled to come on-stream and produce eight billion litres of SAF annually. On the other side of the Atlantic, A2J has won the “sprint” to SAF production with a company called Lanzajet (backed by both Microsoft and Shell) launching its first operational plant this year in the state of Georgia. Production

will be modest though (50 million litres per annum) and HEFA processing still looks like winning the US production “marathon”, with over 20 SAF plants planned in the next 10 years (combined capacity = 36 billion litres).

With CO2 reductions of between 50-90%, airlines are desperate to get hold of SAF and thus prove their green credentials. British Airways, KLM and United Airlines are just a few of the mainstream flag-carriers that have signed long-term SAF supply deals. This looks good on paper, but there remain a number of predictable problems within the nascent SAF industry, starting with feedstock scarcity. The HEFA process is likely to dominate global SAF production until 2030, but this most promising of technology relies on waste FOGs, which are both limited in supply and already trading in the highly competitive road transport fuels market (as a source of HVO and biodiesel). Yes there are alternatives to FOGs (palm oils, soya etc), but these open up debates around fuel for food and deforestation. Then, there is the horrific price of SAF, with the product trading today at over $3,000 per tonne, versus $990 per tonne for bog-standard Jet A1 Kerosene. Finally, there is the very obvious problem of the “scalability” which will be required to meet global jet fuel consumption. To meet net zero requirements by 2050, over 500 billion litres of SAF will need to be produced for the 40 million commercial flights that currently take place each year. In 2022, 300 million litres of SAF were produced...

Clearly, huge challenges lie ahead and we are once again reminded that decarbonisation is neither simple nor quick. However, there is increasing consensus that there will be sufficient feedstocks for the production of SAF, without requiring seismic changes to land-use nor an upending of the agricultural supply chain. As for prices, the logic will always be that increased supply brings prices down.

That won’t happen overnight so we can’t kid ourselves that the greening of aviation will be cheap or that the solutions are straight-forward. And with fuel overheads making up more than 30% of the overall cost of running an airline, it is inconceivable that passengers will not pay more for their flights once SAF begins to take over as the fuel of choice. Then again, such is the broad global appetite for flying, Portland would bet that the airlines will have few problems selling their seats at higher prices.

PORTLAND FUEL ANALYTICS - SEPTEMBER 2023

James Spencer Portland

“It is inconceivable that passengers will not pay more for their flights”

GREAT MINSTER GRUMBLES

This political shift will stifle modal shift

In recent weeks I’ve been suggesting that the policy pendulum was swinging firmly behind the interests of the motorist, a political development that is hardly going to warm the hearts of the public transport sector. The reaction to the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to all of Greater London, with demonstrations and vandalism to many of the ULEZ cameras, simply reinforces how politically toxic anti-motoring policies can be. Ministers continue to pour cold water on any prospect of some kind of road pricing scheme being introduced, while the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has himself apparently now ruled out his plan to introduce some form of road pricing scheme for London in 2025. Advocates of strongly pro-public transport, pro-active travel agendas will doubtless be watching these developments with a resigned shrug of the shoulders, perhaps even a stronger sense of dismay. But the reality is that people are wedded to their cars because of the enormous flexibility and convenience they give them, and the hostile reaction to the extension of the London ULEZ is almost certainly going to reinforce political prejudices in favour of the motorist. But being pro-motorist doesn’t mean you have to be anti-public transport, so I hope the current political mood music doesn’t swing too far towards pro-motorist rhetoric. It’ll be interesting to see what ministers have to say on the issues in the coming weeks, especially as the Conservative candidate for London mayor in the mayoral elections next

May, Susan Hall, has vowed to scrap the ULEZ extension, and one has to assume that the Conservative Party will swing firmly behind her on this. If ULEZ becomes a key electoral battleground in the elections then there is surely a real possibility that Susan Hall could win, given that the outcome of the election will now be determined on the ‘first-past-thepost’ principle. If a single issue determines the outcome of the London mayoral election, as it did in the recent Uxbridge by-election, then you can see politicians sitting up and taking notice. Having said all of that, how concerned should the public transport industry really be about all of this? After all, the rail budget has essentially been set for Control Period 7 through to March 31, 2029, through the latest High Level

Output Specification (HLOS) and Statement of Funds Available (SoFA). This isn’t going to be cut. The SoFA for Control Period 7 may be inadequate to maintain the infrastructure in its current state, but there won’t be a cut to the current settlement. Funding for the bus sector may be inadequate, and by some distance, but we aren’t going to see any funding cuts here either just because the political rhetoric has become more sympathetic to the motorist. So what’s the problem? The problem is that a pro-motorist policy agenda will mean that travelling by car will continue to be a more cost-effective means of transport for many, if not most, people because it won’t lead to policy initiatives which discourage car use and encourage modal shift to public transport, even though there are a number of fiscal measures that could be taken to encourage modal shift. We can expect these to be overlooked. I think we can expect the public transport policy agenda to do little more than tread water.

However, the bus continues to attract attention or, rather, cuts to services continue to generate plenty of comment. The Labour Party has claimed that 50% of bus routes have been lost in England since 2010 while a report from the County Council Network has claimed that one in four buses have disappeared in county and rural areas between 2010 and 2022, and that rural areas have seen a decline of some 44% of bus users over the same period. The CNN has at the same time neatly pointed out that 67% of the first round of funding under the Bus Service Improvement Plans regime went to metropolitan areas while rural areas, which face the greatest decline in patronage, got no funding in the first BSIP round and only £40m in the second. A neat political point, even if it is somewhat politically naïve. Buses are rarely out of the news these days but the political noise around cuts is barely shifting the dial in terms of the funding made available.

Meanwhile our former secretary of state, Grant Shapps, has been promoted to defence secretary, his fifth cabinet position in a year. Despite his lacklustre track record here at transport, and his showcase Plan for Rail seemingly withering on the vine, he’s done mighty well for himself. A consummate media performer, it perhaps just proves that style over substance is as important a quality to get on in politics as is substance and intellect.

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

“We can expect the public transport policy agenda to do little more than tread water”

Go-Ahead gains bus chief

Matt Carney to move from Go-Ahead co-parent

Kinetic to take on role of chief executive - bus

The Go-Ahead Group has announced the appointment of Matt Carney as chief executive - bus. He will join the Londonbased group later this year from his current role as the managing director (Australia) at Australian transport group Kinetic, which co-owns the UK group.

Carney’s appointment is part of Go-Ahead’s restructuring in order to support its “The Next Billion Journeys” strategy. This newly established position of chief executive - bus will complement a similar role, chief executiverail, which will be occupied by Patrick Verwer, the current chief executive of Govia Thameslink Railway, the UK’s largest train operating company.

Group chief executive Christian Schreyer said the restructuring had been in the works for some time. He continued: “Matt and Patrick are both exceptional leaders with a wealth of experience. I am

APPOINTMENTS

FIRST BUS

First Bus has announced the appointment of Zoe Hands as managing director of its Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire business.

confident that the changes we are implementing will make us more agile and dynamic in expanding our business, identifying opportunities, and maintaining our commitment to excellence.”

Kinetic acknowledged Carney’s instrumental role in driving the transport group’s success in the Australian market. A consortium comprising bus operator Kinetic and transport concession manager Globalvia Inversiones acquired Go-Ahead in 2022.

Michael Sewards, co-chief executive of Kinetic, said: “Matt has played a pivotal role in Kinetic’s recent achievements, and his leadership experience will be a valuable addition to our team in the UK. He will contribute to Go-Ahead’s ongoing global growth and industry leadership ambitions. We are eager for Matt to share his expertise and operational excellence practices at Go-Ahead, all while championing our core sustainability objectives, including the accelerated transition to Net Zero.”

Carney’s career with Kinetic began in 2019, following previous roles in ground transport and parking at Melbourne Airport. Prior to that, he held positions at low-cost airline Tigerair Australia and prior to that the Australian Federal Police.

Greg Balkin will succeed Carney as the head of Kinetic’s operations in Australia, joining from his role as Chief Operating Officer at Kelsian Group. Balkin will assume his new position on September 18.

Hands (pictured) has a decadelong career in the transport industry, with her most recent role being chief operating officer at Merseyrail. Before that, she held various director positions related to safety, sustainability, operations, and engineering.

She joins First Bus after an impressive tenure at Merseyrail, where she oversaw all train service operations and played a key role in achieving respectable punctuality records. Hands was also responsible for the introduction of Merseyrail’s new fleet of trains.

ALLSERVICEONE

Alex Gadd has has expanded his role at AllServiceOne, Wrightbus’s sister fleet support company, by taking on the role of sales and business development director. In addition to his role in business development, Gadd (pictured) will now also oversee global sales responsibilities.

Before joining AllServiceOne, Gadd accumulated twenty years of experience in the heavy equipment rental and manufacturing sector. He has a solid background in specialist vehicles, including two years in the road rail plant sector. Prior to that, he worked at JCB and Hewden, an equipment rental company. Gadd also has previous experience in business development from his time at brewer Carlsberg.

NETWORK RAIL

Network Rail has announced the appointment of Jake Kelly, currently the company’s system operator director, as managing director of its Eastern region.

The news follows the appointment of the current Eastern region managing director Rob McIntosh to the same position within Network Rail’s North West and Central region, and the confirmation of Ellie Burrows as managing director of the Southern region.

Kelly (pictured) joined Network Rail in 2019 as passenger director for North West and Central region, thenmoveing to system director in 2021 where he managed some big projects including Operation London Bridge and leading the operational and timetabling challenges of almost a year of industrial action. He has also played a key part in supporting the preparations for Great British Railways. Kelly joined Network Rail from East Midlands Trains where he was managing director.

Lawrence Bowman, network strategy and reform director, will temporarily lead the system operator team until a longer term successor to Kelly is appointed.

WRIGHTBUS

Ballymena-based bus manufacturer Wrightbus has expanded its sales team. Mick Campbell (pictured) has joined the company as the head of sales (key accounts). The company said Campbell’s extensive background in the bus industry includes prior work with FirstGroup as part of its divisional engineering team.

Matt Carney

Loo-nacy revealed: battle for Tube toilets

Sometimes travel isn’t always very convenient

Caroline Russell, the Green Party London Assembly member, has embarked on a quest of epic proportions: to vanquish the dreaded loo deserts lurking deep within the Transport for London network.

It has led the politician to launch her new report - ‘The London Loo League Table’ - which she hopes will expose the dire state of public toilet provision across the London transport network.

She found less than a quarter of stations in zones 1-3 possessed toilets. The Northern line, in particular, was the villain, with a mere 27% of stations offering convenient conveniences to passengers.

to date by hosting it’s very own electric bus charging station.

IMBER’S POP-UP CHARGING STATION

The Routemasters - both old and new - used for the Imberbus event each August are well known, but this year the lost village of Imber on Salisbury Plain came right up

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It was all thanks to Abellio London working with EV fleet and battery storage specialist Zenobe. For this year’s event Abellio sent one of its fully electric Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV buses that is normally found on Route 63. Thanks to Zenobe’s innovative mobile charging technology, the bus was able to run a full service at Imberbus and bus enthusiasts also had the opportunity to explore the bus and EV technology whilst

It seems that even new investments have not left the network flush with success either. The £700m upgrade of Bank station, which included wider platforms, new tunnels, and even two new entrances, failed to plumb in any new facilities. The City of London’s own map of toilets revealed a ‘loo desert’ around it for toilet seekers seeking satisfaction.

Russell has demanded action from London mayor Sadiq Khan, reminding Londoners that crossing their legs and hoping for the best shouldn’t be a Tube commuter’s battle cry. She quipped: “We can’t even spend a penny before arriving at the Bank of England!”.

it charged in Imber village.

Zenobe supplied a 100kw second-life battery known as a Powerskid to create the temporary mobile EV charging station. The Powerskid, made from refurbished batteries formerly used to power electric vehicles, provided ample charging to the bus without the need for a grid connection - handy as Imber is completely off-grid!

“We were privileged to showcase the very latest in sustainable transport technology,” said Zenobe’s Bradley Fox.

METRO CUBE GETS A ‘MOBOT’

The Tyne & Wear Metro’s iconic Metro cube has received a flashy Mo Farah makeover ahead of his final appearance at the Great North Run next weekend. It has seen the cube at Heworth Metro station transformed into a ‘MetMo’ cube (geddit?), featuring Mo Farah’s famous ‘Mobot’ pose and the athlete has also recorded some special announcements that will be played across the network.

Lynne Dickinson, head of station delivery at Nexus, said: “This is the first time that we have ever changed the logo on a Metro cube, but we really wanted to do something to celebrate Mo’s amazing career.”

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Need the loo? Don’t Bank on it

No, it’s not a diesel generator...