Passenger Transport: September 22, 2023

FORTEVERYNIGHT

Buses - ‘councils should be in the driving seat’

With bus franchising due to start in Greater Manchester, the LGA and Urban Transport Group are seeking a greater role for the public sector

The Local Government Association and the Urban Transport Group want new powers for English councils to decide the way local bus services are delivered to end a “spiral of decline”.

A new report from the LGA and the Urban Transport Group warns that the task of patching and mending gaps in the network is more challenging than ever for local authorities. It has been published just two days before Greater Manchester becomes the first city region outside London to run franchised bus services, 37 years after deregulation.

As the party conference season approaches, LGA and the Urban Transport Group are calling for a review of current legislation that

LOTHIAN’S £24M ELECTRIC DEAL

50 all-electric buses will enter service next year

Lothian this week announced an order for 50 new Volvo BZL Electric double deck buses, each with MCV bodywork, for Scotland’s capital city. At an investment of over £24m, Lothian will introduce these new vehicles in two batches across 2024, with the first vehicles appearing on Edinburgh’s streets in early spring.

Gisby: DOHL can ‘think differently’

06

Chief executive appears before MPs

would allow all cities, towns and rural areas in England to have the same rights to introduce bus franchising as those enjoyed by mayoral combined authorities.

This would include power over the fares that are charged and standards that should be met; the frequency of bus services provided and where and when they run; and the ability for buses to be part of joined-up transport networks.

The report, A Smoother Ride, recommends lifting the ban in the Bus Services Act 2017 that prevents councils from establishing their own bus companies, and calls for an urgent government review of Enhanced Partnerships.

Cllr Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the LGA said: “Councils should be in the driving seat to deliver good, affordable and reliable bus services in their areas, not private bus operators, but are restricted from taking greater control over them.”

Urban Transport Group director Jason Prince added: “If we really want to fulfil the ambitions of the National Bus Strategy - to truly transform bus services, it’s time to update the legislation.”

Government offers £129m for ZEBRA

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14

Second round of ZEBRA funding

18

Jonathan Bray on bringing back trams

COMMENT

20

Alex Warner meets TBF’s John Sheehy

CAREERS

Stagecoach grad scheme

26

Scheme resumes after four-year hiatus

“To truly transform bus services, it’s time to update the legislation”

Jason Prince, UTG

‘A disastrous mistake that must be fixed’

‘Like transport staff, the TBF plays vital role’

‘Bee-day’ could be the beginning of a new era

IN THIS ISSUE

16 SMARTCARD DECLINE WEAKENS DATA

Replacing smartcards with bank card and mobile payments reduces the data operators can delve into to understand long-term travel patterns, Transport for London has found. It could have implications for long-term transport planning.

15

Robert Jack Managing Editor

The day is almost upon us. Bus operators in Greater Manchester are making final preparations to run the city region’s first ‘Bee Network’ buses, with franchised services due to begin on September 24 on 50 routes in Bolton and Wigan. It marks the first reversal of bus deregulation in Great Britain since ‘D-day’ on October 26, 1986but it’s unlikely to be the last. Other areas will follow and the Local Government Association and Urban Transport Group want legal hurdles removed so that more can do so, quickly and easily. A dwindling number of people in the sector will recall D-day, and much has changed since then. Importantly, the basic economics of bus operation have not. Taking back control of bus networks will not remove the vagaries of rising costs and finite resources. It’s certainly not an appropriate step for authorities with little or no interest in bus services, but Greater Manchester is not one of those places. The region’s mayor, Andy Burnham, and Transport for Greater Manchester have long been committed to taking control of the region’s buses, and now they have the chance to show us why that was. It won’t all be plain sailing, as any bus operator knows, but, if the desire for control is matched by a desire to provide consistent funding and an unwavering commitment to pro-public transport policies, including those that constrain cars, franchising can and will succeed. ‘Bee-day’ could be the beginning of a new era for buses.

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LEICESTER ELECTRIC BUSES ENTER SERVICE

Bus operator Arriva is bringing 24 brand new electric double decker buses to Leicester. The first ‘low-bridge’ Wrightbus StreetDeck Electroliner double-deckers will roll out of depots and onto the streets of the city in October. 22

A RE STAFF GETTING A FAIR DEAL ON PAY?

With railway industry pay being in the news and the costs of bus services rising, what can we deduce from the latest pay figures? “Part of the problem of the ongoing rail disputes is that it isn’t clear who is negotiating with whom,” says Nick Richardson

TOC S HAD ‘GONE TO SLEEP ON THE JOB’

Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the Department for Transport. Robin Gisby’s recent comments to MPs were hardly a ringing endorsement of the private sector franchise model.

York’s park and ride services have reported the strongest growth since 2017 over the summer

York unveils ambitions bus expansion plans

City of York Council outlines plans to prioritise buses in a bid to reverse post-Covid pandemic decline and boost patronage by 50%

NETWORKS

City of York Council and the city’s bus operators have announced ambitious plans to enhance the local bus network in a bid to boost bus patronage, stimulate modal shift and ensure the city meets climate goals.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, York’s buses transported around 16 million passengers each year, with ridership on the rise since 2014. However, since the pandemic patronage is stuck at 85% of pre-Covid volumes. This equates to around 40,000 passengers each day or 10% of all city journeys, and 30% of those to the city centre, at an operating cost of around £70,000 each day.

Now the council and bus operators have announced they plan to increase patronage by 50% - to 60,000 passengers each dayover the next few years as a result

of the Bus Service Improvement Plan funds the city received from the government last year. York received £17.4m, comprising capital funding of £10.7m and revenue funding of £6.7m.

At a media briefing last week, the council explained that the first phase of funding had facilitated upgrades to York’s park and ride sites, allowed improvements to real-time information systems and delivered an all-operator, tap-ontap-off ticketing system, as well as a range of reduced fares targeted principally at younger people and

a fare promotion over the summer that targeted families.

A number of early morning, evening and weekend bus routes that were at risk of withdrawal are also now being subsidised by the council at a cost of £12,000 per month, although operator First York is being encouraged to restore commercial operation at some point in the future.

Regarding commercial viability, Michael Howard, York’s head of active travel and sustainable transport, noted that the city’s park and ride sites are defying national trends with some of the most substantial increases in patronage since 2017. Consequently, the city is now prioritising enhancements to the park and ride package.

“We’ve got a study just about to start on the park and ride sites, which we are looking to turn into

multi-modal hubs,” he explained. “We are looking to turn them into somewhere you can actually interchange to other bus services, you can interchange to a car club vehicles when you’re traveling into or out of the city, or where you can interchange to electric scooters or bike hire.”

But it is those plans to boost patronage on the wider bus network where the council is perhaps most ambitious. Pete Kilbane, York’s executive member for economy and transport, said the city was determined to boost daily ridership in a move that he said would alleviate congestion and meet Net Zero targets.

He said the forthcoming bus enhancements would align with a comprehensive review of the city’s bus network, engaging passengers, user groups, and stakeholders to boost efficiency. Furthermore, later this year the council will launch a consultation on a revamped Local Transport Strategy, that will place an emphasis on public transport.

Howard admitted that passenger numbers had not returned to York’s network as quickly as the council might have hoped. He continued: “But I think if you’re looking at the numbers we’re seeing on park and ride and certainly the figures we’ve seen over the summer... we are starting to really see a sort of steady growth back to the network.

“I think the challenges are the things that have driven up operating costs for networks and that’s where we’re getting some of those challenges around commercial viability. Yes, those targets are challenging, but we think the initiatives that we have by creating these multi-modal [park and ride] sites and the fare discounts... are going to be a real incentive to get passengers back on the network.”

“I think the challenges are the things that have driven up operating operating costs”

Cambridge c-charge plans watered down

Stagecoach East boss pleads for ‘bold public policy’ on bus use

CONGESTION

Controversial plans for a congestion charge in Cambridge have been scrapped in favour of a watered down proposal that would see motorists only charged during peak times.

The announcement follows a public consultation on the proposed Sustainable Travel Zone (STZ), which found 58% of respondents did not want any form of congestion charging.

The new proposals would see car drivers offered 50 ‘free’ days each year and a 50% discount applied for vehicles owned by local SMEs. Further hospital exemptions have also been added, and the charge for motorcyclists has been scrapped. Residents on low incomes would also be eligible for discounts.

The revised charging regime

would only be applicable on weekdays between 7am and 10am and 3pm and 6pm. The Greater Cambridge Partnership, which has proposed the scheme as a means of funding public transport improvements, said the move would allow “greater freedom for people to move around, and, for example, deliveries to be received in the middle of the day”. It added that peak time charging also substantially reduces the impact on small businesses and the self-employed.

“We have listened to people’s concerns and feedback during the consultation and taken action by revising our proposals,” said Greater Cambridge Partnership chief executive Rachel Stopard.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to future proof our public transport network and reduce our dependency on the car by creating a low cost, secure, reliable and viable option for residents, workers, students and visitors who want to quickly and easily get around our beautiful city. We simply cannot afford to do nothing - the growth of our city’s economy means that we need to urgently solve the problem of congestion that blights our roads.”

However, Darren Roe, managing director of dominant local bus operator Stagecoach East, said that while he understood there was opposition to the scheme, the local transport network was facing some “very

NOTTS YOUTH TICKET LAUNCHED

BSIP plan sees discounted ticket for those under 22

TICKETING

Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council have launched Nottinghamshire U22, a discounted travel ticket offering student prices to all under 22-yearolds on local bus and tram services. The scheme aims to support all young people by improving access to travel for work, leisure and study. Tickets can be purchased online, at travel centres, via operator apps and at tram stop machines.

real challenges”.

Writing in the Cambridge Independent, he added: “Our region’s roads are congested, leading to service cancellations, delays and increased pollution; service disruption is also caused by inappropriate parking, and insufficient traffic priority for buses - which slow down journey times. No amount of extra buses in the system will improve this, as extra buses just sit in the jams too.

“These conditions are not going to change on their own, so will require a response from our public officials. The existing proposals are a bold vision and, whatever option you or I might prefer, an equally bold vision will be required to attempt a rebalance between bus and car in Cambridge.”

Roe called for “bold public policy, designed to encourage bus use”. He continued: “We need to face facts: the existing proposals promise a much-needed sea change in how we do local transport in Cambridge... I have not seen any similar proposals, or a Plan B, that comes close to making the necessary funding available to enable changes on this kind of scale.”

Purchasing options vary by bus or tram company.

“When we were developing our Bus Service Improvement Plan we wanted to think holistically about our transport offer, and improving access for young people is a key part of this,” said Angela Kandola, Nottingham’s transport portfolio holder.

“It’s a difficult time to be a young person, the pandemic had a major impact on this generation’s access to employment, study and leisure at such a critical time in their livesimproving access to travel opens up so many opportunities, whilst also boosting the use of buses, and I’m proud we’re able to support that.”

FROM LUTON TO UKRAINE Go-Ahead Group has donated its fleet of articulated buses used on the Luton Airport Parkway shuttle service to a charity assisting with humanitarian efforts in the war-torn regions of Ukraine. The buses will be used as field hospitals and rest areas for front-line troops.

Roe: ‘Cambridge needs bold probus public policy’

“An equally bold vision will be required to attempt a rebalance between bus and car”

Long-term thinking at heart of TPE revival

Robin Gisby tells MPs of concerns about the UK rail industry’s lack of long-term thinking and called for a shift in mindset to ‘think differently’

STRATEGY

Robin Gisby, the chief executive of the Operator of Last Resort, believes the rail industry in the UK “has gone to sleep in the last two or three years”.

Speaking at a hearing of the parliamentary transport select committee convened to probe the work of the Operator of Last Resort, Gisby said he feared there was a lack of long-term thinking in the industry and it needed to be pushed to “think differently and do different things”.

Gisby and Richard George, the chair of Department for Transport Operator of Last Resort Holdings Ltd (DOHL), gave evidence on the same day that marked 100 days since DOHL took control of TransPennine Express (TPE) from former contractor FirstGroup.

“We wanted to get a lot of

things done in that first 100 days,” said Gisby. “Stabilising it is, first and foremost, running the trains on time and reliably, which is what we are doing.”

He added he was keen to see TPE performing just as well as LNER, the East Coast Intercity operator that has been managed by DOHL since June 2018. “LNER is outperforming the market,” said Gisby. “It has volume revenue ahead of preCovid levels. Our ambition for TPE is to make it look like LNER and push it forward and develop it in that way.”

He said the TPE brand was all about “getting across the Pennines quickly”. “First and foremost, that is what we want to do,” he added.

MPs probed Gisby and George on how DOHL differed from private sector operators. George

TPE ‘like a complex ball of knitting’

Gisby believes operator had become too complicated

TransPennine Express had become a far too complex operation for what is a relatively simple network. That was the message of Robin Gisby, the chief executive of the Operator of Last Resort when he was probed by MPs on the transport select committee this month.

“The business is really very complicated for what should be

quite a simple train operator,” he said. “If you are trying to run four different types of rolling stock across that pattern of services, with some of the working relationships, it is not easy.

“If you are changing crew two or three times between Newcastle and Liverpool, and you expect them all to turn up in the right place and one of them doesn’t, it

said that in many ways there was no difference whatsoever.

“We all operate to the same contractual relationships,” he said. “We have a very small holding group at the centre, but actually I think you will find that most of the owning groups have small groups in the centre.

“We have some differences insofar as we do not have the shortened timeframe that a franchise has. We can sometimes take longer-term decisions.”

Gisby added: “If you have been in a franchise for the last three or four years you might not be sure if it will be extended or not; Southeastern was a very good example. You think, ‘I’ve spent six or seven years. Have I got another year or another two years?’ The management are quite distracted by that. What we have always said

to our train operators is, ‘Do the right thing for the long term. Take an investment decision that is the right thing’.

“We are doing some things now with Northern and Southeastern on rolling stock. What we try to say is, ‘Do the right long-term thing. At some point the ownership will change and you will move from us back to wherever you go’. It is that longterm perspective that we try to emphasise in everything that we see: be bold, be brave, get on and do stuff.”

George said that Gisby chaired the board at each of DOHL’s train operators and that it was not his job to direct or instruct management. He continued: “He [Gisby] just makes sure that they have some really good ideas for the long term. They are ideas. That is the role of the chairman. It is to make sure that people are thinking about the right things and moving in the right direction.”

Gisby told MPs he was keen to see TPE improving its customer service and he was keen to see the operator’s staff supported after a “wobbly” and “traumatic” few years where the business has become far more complicated than it needed to be.

doesn’t work very well. If you have a backlog of driver training so that you have to have this person qualified to drive that traction on that route, you have to deal with that.

“You have walked into something that is quite a complex ball of knitting in its service patterns, its rolling stock and its working practices agreements with the unions. All of that has to be unpicked.”

Gisby added he expected big improvements with December’s timetable change.

“We have very shiny, smart new trains from Hitachi,” he said. “They have a catering galley in them. It is not used. There is a lot of debate about First Class, trains and food, and does it pay its way and is it expensive and all the rest of it. To send people from Manchester to Scotland and not feed them or give them a hot drink does not feel right. Either we are going to do that, or we are going to take the kitchens out and put more seats in if we get overcrowding.

“When TransPennine comes right quite soon, it will come right quite quickly.”

Khan backs Heathrow southern rail link plans

Move comes despite government insistence on private funding

INVESTMENT

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has given his backing for the proposed Heathrow Southern Rail Link. The proposed line would link Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 station through to Staines-UponThames, connecting it to the existing South Western Railway network. A second proposed branch would connect the airport to Virginia Water and to services towards Surrey and Berkshire. When Terminal 5 was constructed in the early 2000s, passive provision was included for such a link with platforms constructed adjacent to the current Piccadilly line and Elizabeth Line station.

NEW CONTRACTS FOR OPERATORS

Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry deals

CONTRACTS

The Department for Transport has granted National Rail Contracts for Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry, which will commence on October 15, coinciding with the expiration of the existing agreements.

Avanti West Coast, jointly owned by FirstGroup and Trenitalia, has grappled with performance issues and was granted two six-month extensions to allow for recovery efforts and ordered to develop a recovery plan aimed at addressing poor performance as a result of a driver shortage.

Khan told the London Assembly he would welcome the useful role that a Southern Rail Link to Heathrow could play in supporting a shift to sustainable travel to the airport, while transforming access to Heathrow Airport for passengers and staff from south London, Surrey and Hampshire.

“I am aware that a number of factors are coming together in recent months have increased the prospects of a scheme moving forward,” he said. “The Greater London Authority and Transport for London maintain regular dialogue with a broad range of

interested stakeholders as we look to resolve the issues which have obstructed progress to date, while ensuring that any scheme meets the needs of Londoners and does not impact the reliable operation of the railway network.”

Earlier this year, transport minister Baroness Vere said that a new rail link to the airport would have to be privately funded.

“Government remains committed to improving rail access to Heathrow Airport and our ambition is that any southern access to Heathrow scheme is funded and delivered by the private sector,” she said.

“Proposals need to be developed in a way that does not require government funding and secures significant benefits. We continue to discuss options and engage with the promoters.”

‘TICKET REFORMS COME FROM US’

Gisby claims industry led ticket office reform plans

RAIL REFORM

Robin Gisby, the chief executive of the government-owned Operator of Last Resort, has claimed that proposals to reform ticket offices have come from within the industry rather than from ministers.

Speaking at a hearing of the parliamentary transport select committee, Gisby said: “We are not responding here to directions, challenges, policies or whatever that have come from officials or from ministers. These proposals... have come from the industry.”

He added change was required due to shifts in railway usage with more journeys requiring accessibility assistance provided by either on-train or station staff.

“What I would like to do is to move my staff, recognising some of the cost constraints, to where, in general, they can be more use to passengers,” said Gisby.

The new contract will span at least three years, until October 18, 2026, with a potential extension of up to nine years. However, the transport secretary retains the ability to terminate the contract with three months’ notice during the six-year extension period.

The DfT reported significant progress in Avanti’s recovery by March of the current year, including a 40% increase in services and a reduction in cancellations within the operator’s control to 4.2%. Contract extensions were granted to ensure the continuation of these improvements and restore passenger confidence in services.

It added further enhancements have been observed since then, with cancellations consistently below 3% since March and as low

as 1.1% in July 2023, compared to 13% in January 2023. Over 90% of trains now arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time, a notable improvement from 75% in December 2022. Additionally, more than 100 additional drivers have been trained and recruited since April 2022.

Avanti will receive a fixed management fee of £5.1m annually, with the potential for an additional variable fee of up to £15.8m annually if punctuality and other performance targets are achieved. Similar to other National Rail Contracts, FirstGroup and Trenitalia will not bear revenue risk, meaning that all revenue will be remitted to the DfT, and Avanti will not incur losses if earnings decline.

FirstGroup chief executive officer Graham Sutherland said: “The new National Rail Contract agreed

today will allow our team to use its expertise on further improvements. These include programmes to refurbish the existing fleet and to introduce new, more environmentally friendly trains, which will encourage more passengers to return.”

Meanwhile, Arriva has secured a new contract for CrossCountry, featuring an initial core term of four years with the potential for extension up to a maximum of eight years.

The contract includes additions to help improve services, such as the replacement of the now-retired High Speed Trains with more modern equivalents, refurbishment of existing Cross Country train fleets, and the introduction of direct daily services between Cardiff and Yorkshire, the North East and Edinburgh from December 2024.

“I am aware that a number of factors are coming together ”

‘West of England mass transit is achievable’

A leaked report from the West of England Combined Authority suggests officials are poised to launch a study that probes mass transit options

NETWORKS

A comprehensive report by senior officials within the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has highlighted the urgent need for a new mass rapid transit system for Bristol and the West of England region. Busbased, very light rail and light rail options are being examined.

The draft report, which has been obtained by local media, is scheduled for submission to a key WECA meeting on October 6. It concludes that despite the substantial expense and disruption constructing such a system would entail, including underground tunnels, it is not only necessary but also feasible.

The report marks a significant milestone as it represents the first in-depth examination of mass rapid transit proposals conducted by WECA officers themselves. Previous feasibility studies and assessments had triggered disagreements between Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees and Dan Norris, the metro mayor for the West of England. Rees has been a long-time advocate of an underground mass transit system and first mooted the concept in 2017. Conversely, Norris has been largely dismissive of such ambitions.

What sets this report apart is that it originates from Norris’s own transport experts and evaluates all prior studies. They now conclude the necessity for a more transformative systemtentatively named Future4West

- stating unequivocally that “the project can be delivered”. The report urges approval of a Strategic Outline Business Case and the progression to a more detailed Outline Business Case, which would be instrumental in securing funding from government.

The WECA report evaluates proposals and costs for four main corridors radiating from Bristol city centre, primarily above ground but with potential underground segments. The study outlines how these underground portions could be achieved either through ‘cut and cover’ or deeper underground tunnels. The analysis shortlists three options for each of the four routes, selected from a pool of 73 possibilities using 12 different technology types.

The option with the most tunnelling would see 57 miles of network with just over 27 miles of that underground. Officials admit that such a scheme would incur

significant costs - estimated at somewhere between £15.5bn and £18.3bn.

However, the report offers a more cost-effective alternative involving a mix of overground and underground segments and the use of cheaper ‘cut and cover’ tunnels where necessary. In this case, the project could be executed at a considerably lower cost, ranging from £7bn to £9bn.

The report suggests that despite higher costs, the underground option could attract greater patronage due to journey times and greater reliability.

“As the transport system will remain near capacity as these improvements are made, there will be a need for a more transformative system,” the report states.

“It presents an opportunity to deliver a fully integrated transport system, connecting our key population centres and improving links to onwards

destinations across the country. It would enable us to build upon the schemes we are currently developing, integrating bus, rail, walking and cycling with potential future options for new services.”

However, the report acknowledges the challenges of funding and the disruption associated with construction. Options involving reallocation of road space for full segregation negatively impact other road users, while underground tunnels represent the most expensive alternative.

Nonetheless, the report concludes on a positive note, suggesting that by creatively mixing above-ground and underground elements, the Future4West project remains achievable. It recommends advancing the entire project to the next stage and highlights the potential extensive benefits it could bring to the region.

This proposal addresses four main corridors, each with its own set of options:

North Corridor: A route connecting Almondsbury Transport Hub, Cribbs Causeway, Filton’s Brabazon development, Bristol Parkway Station, Filton Abbey Wood Station, Southmead Hospital, Horfield, and Bristol Bus Station.

East Corridor: Extending from the Bristol & Bath Science Park through Staple Hill, Kingswood, Lawrence Hill and into Temple Meads. Some options include a branch to Cadbury Heath.

Bristol-Bath Corridor: Running from Bath Spa to Temple Meads, mainly along the A4 road. South West Corridor: Connecting Bristol Airport to Temple Meads.

In Bristol city centre, a loop is proposed to connect Temple Meads with the bus station and the city centre.

The West of England has invested heavily in bus-based schemes like Metrobus

Franchising option in new Scottish powers

New regulations enable partnership and franchising options

LEGISLATION

Scottish local transport authorities are set to gain increased powers to enhance bus services in their regions, with the Scottish Government laying out new regulations.

Transport Scotland said the regulations, outlined in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 and slated to become active on December 4, offer local authorities more tools to rejuvenate bus networks according to their requirements.

Under these new provisions, local transport authorities will have the option to collaborate with operators to boost the quality and efficiency of local services through a Bus Services

BUS USERS CALLS FOR PSVAR REFORM

Proposals to widen scope and end exemptions

ACCESSIBILITY

In a comprehensive response to the government’s review of the Public Service Vehicles Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) 2000, Bus Users UK has called for a radical overhaul of accessibility standards for buses and coaches.

The lobby group’s submission highlighted the pressing issues faced by individuals with disabilities and emphasised the need for more robust regulations to ensure enhanced accessibility for bus and coach passengers in the future.

The charity has urged a

Improvement Partnership or to establish a franchising framework should they wish.

This development builds upon legislation passed in June of the previous year, which allows local transport authorities to operate local bus services, a move previously prohibited by the Transport Act 1985. It led Highland Council to launch its own bus operation (PT279).

BUS SAFETY PLAN TO GO FURTHER

TfL outlines how it plans to improve bus safety

SAFETY

Scottish transport minister Fiona Hyslop said the Scottish Government was committed, in conjunction with operators and local authorities, to improving bus services to ensure everyone has accessible public transport.

She continued: “The Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 was designed to give Local Transport Authorities more flexibility to respond to their own transport challenges, empowering them to help us make Scotland’s transport network cleaner, smarter and more accessible than ever before.

“Buses have a key part to play in cutting emissions in transport and contributing to our worldleading climate change ambitions. Working in collaboration with local authorities and bus operators is crucial to achieving these goals and creating a lasting legacy for the future.”

Transport for London has revealed its robust Bus Safety Strategy, a blueprint for realising its Vision Zero objectives. The goal is to eliminate bus accident fatalities and serious injuries by 2041.

Key components include retrofitting safety technology, such as Intelligent Speed Assistance, on 1,800 additional buses by 2024, and a majority of the fleet by 2030. It also involves exploring measures to prevent and mitigate pedal application errors, trialling fatigue detection technologies, and conducting data-driven analyses to reduce passenger injuries, particularly slips, trips, and falls.

TfL reports substantial progress, with a 65% cut in 2022 bus collision fatalities compared to the 2005-09 baseline, surpassing the 52% reduction across all modes. Serious injuries dropped by 54%, exceeding the 38% cut across all modes.

consultative approach to bus design, promoting inclusivity for various disabilities. Recommendations comprise regular design standard updates to match evolving mobility aid technology and financial support for retrofitting existing vehicles.

Furthermore, Bus Users has insisted on full compliance with PSVAR for school and rail replacement transport, the lack of industry progress on which has led the Department for Transport to offer an exemption process for operators unable to comply.

In the coach sector, the group proposes that leisure coach operators offer a minimum percentage of accessible excursions each season. Additionally, it calls for extending PSVAR regulations to

cover smaller vehicles.

Meanwhile, a significant proposal made by Bus Users is with regard to the expansion of PSVAR’s scope to include free home-to-school, tour, private hire, and demand-responsive services. It said such a move would ensure equitable access for individuals with disabilities.

Acknowledging potential cost implications for operators, Bus Users has suggested introducing financial support for smaller companies and allocating a portion of taxes paid by disabled individuals to improve public transport accessibility.

The organisation also recommends a regulatory approach combining minimum standards with incentives for higher, more inclusive standards, offering flexibility in design while

ensuring essential accessibility requirements are met.

Regarding staff conduct, the submission proposes disability awareness and assistance training for all personnel, especially drivers. In terms of infrastructure, it advocates for improved accessibility at bus and coach stations, bus stops, and interchanges.

In conclusion, Bus Users highlighted the importance of regular reviews of PSVAR every three years to adapt to evolving technology and accessibility needs. It also called on the Department for Transport to involve disabled individuals in drafting revisions to PSVAR and commit to supporting higher accessibility standards in public transport.

Hyslop: Legislation offers greater flexibility to LTAs

“Buses have a key part to play in cutting emissions in transport”

Transport for Wales users are least satisfied

Poor performance reflected in latest Rail User Survey PASSENGERS

Transport for Wales passengers are the least satisfied in Great Britain, according to the latest survey data from Transport Focus.

Since September 2021, the watchdog’s Rail User Survey has asked passengers in Great Britain about travelling by rail and how satisfied they were overall with their most recent journey and with aspects such as value for money, punctuality and cleanliness.

Published this month, the most recent Rail User Survey report shows the results for train operating companies between October 2021 to August 2023.

Due to performance problems at TfW, the state-run operator received the lowest overall satisfaction rating. Only 73% of users said they were satisfied with their journey. The operator received by far the lowest user rating for punctuality/reliability, with only 61% satisfied.

Only half (50%) of TfW users were satisfied with the value for money provided by their journey. However, TfW was not the lowest rated operator on this measure - that went to Govia-owned Southern, which received a 47% satisfaction score for value for money.

The most satisfied passengers in the survey, which does not include any open access operators, was Merseyrail. The operator, which is owned by a joint venture between Serco and Transport UK Group (formerly Abellio

UK), achieved an impressive 95% overall satisfaction score. It also received the highest scores for punctuality/reliability (92%) and value for money (72%).

Trenitalia-owned c2c also scored highly, with an overall satisfaction score of 94%, followed by Govia’s Great Northern (91%). London Overground, ScotRail and TfL Rail/Elizabeth Line all achieved overall satisfaction scores of 90%.

The highest rated intercity operator was state-operated LNER, where overall satisfaction was 87%. Avanti West Coast and Great Western Railway each received an overall satisfaction rating of 85%.

Value for money remains a key concern. Of the 22 train operators included in the survey, most (12) had less that 60% of users satisfied with value for money.

Passenger Transport teams up with Daniels

MEDIA

The popular podcast Lunch with Leon is now produced in association with PassengerTransport. Launched in August 2020, this insightful podcast is now on its 77th episode. Each episode features half an hour of discussions between key transport industry figures and Leon Daniels, who was formerly Transport for London’s MD surface transport.

OVERALL JOURNEY SATISFACTION AND PUNCTUALITY/RELIABILITY (DECEMBER 2022 TO AUG 2023)

Source: Rail User Survey (11 September 2023), Transport Focus

Few in the transport sector have the breadth of experience or contact book to rival Daniels. He is currently working as a director with bus, taxi, traffic data and marine companies and is also president of CILT, chair of the new Bus Centre of Excellence, and chair of the Highways Sector Council. He is also a trustee of the London Bus Museum, the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, CoMoUK, and is senior warden at the Worshipful Company of Carmen.

To mark the new partnership between Lunch with Leon and PassengerTransport, Emma Hignett, the TfL voice of the bus announcements, has recorded a special voiceover message.

Daniels commented: “I am really enjoying having lunch with so many of my friends across the wider public transport industry. We talk about so many interesting things - the past, the present and the future. You, too, can listen in. Lunch with Leon is produced in association with Passenger Transport magazine and you can hear it wherever you get your podcasts!”

“[TfW] received by far the lowest user rating for punctuality/reliability, with only 61% satisfied”

‘LUNCH WITH LEON’ PODCAST PARTNER

“We talk about so many interesting things - the past, the present and the future”

ScotRail prepares to remove all peak fares

Six-month trial aims to discover if move will stimulate patronage

FARES REFORM

On October 2, ScotRail will remove all of the peak fares it sets for a six-month period to assess whether this attracts more people onto its services. The initiative has a budget of £15m to cover net revenue loss.

While Transport Scotland hopes the availability of off-peak fares throughout the day will encourage car users to change modes, bus operators fear abstraction from buses.

The Peak Fares Removal Pilot was announced back in December, when many households were struggling to afford everyday living costs after large increases in energy and other prices. ScotRail passenger numbers were then considerably lower than before the pandemic. Since then, rail patronage has grown strongly. ScotRail has revealed that more than 7.7 million journeys were made on its trains last month, a 35% increase on August 2022. This equated to 89% of its pre-pandemic passenger numbers. Particularly significant in the context of the pilot scheme was the 31% increase in passenger journeys in peak time, despite higher peak fares continuing to apply.

Passenger Transport asked Transport Scotland whether the pilot represented good value for money at a time when buses and other public services were struggling to cope with funding pressures, given that ScotRail passenger numbers were growing

in any case. A TS spokesperson replied: “The purpose of this pilot is to identify if it helps reduce car use and will make rail travel more affordable and accessible during its six-month period and to assess, using standard techniques, whether it represents value for money (VfM).

“The VfM will be formally assessed by comparing the exante forecasts and associated monetarised benefits and costs with the actual outcomes in terms of demand. This is a key benefit of the change being a pilot rather than permanent.

“There is already a broad package of long-term investment in bus, together with the enhanced suite of options for local transport authorities to improve

bus services according to their local needs, including formal partnerships, franchising and running their own bus services.”

She pointed out that a third of Scotland’s population, including everyone aged under 22, was eligible for free bus travel, and the Network Support Grant continued to be available to bus operators in 2023-24 with the aim of keeping services more extensive and fares more affordable.

Asked whether Transport Scotland had forecast the pilot’s abstraction from bus and what the scale of that abstraction was expected to be, she said: “Transport Scotland has undertaken an analysis of the abstraction of bus passenger numbers. We will monitor

the impact on bus patronage throughout the pilot period as part of the multi-modal evaluation work.”

Passenger Transport also asked whether the pilot would be less effective than originally expected because of the 10-month gap between the pilot’s announcement and commencement. “Since the announcement of the pilot in December 2022, ScotRail, Scottish Rail Holdings and Transport Scotland have been working to develop the scheme and how it will be monitored and evaluated. This is the first scheme of its kind in the UK and it’s essential that we are able to evaluate its impact thoroughly,” she said.

Overcrowding on some ScotRail services is a possibilty, if the reduced fares and the simplicity of the all-day pricing succeed in attracting new passengers. The spokesperson said ScotRail would deploy six additional trains, each with 210 seats, to strengthen services on the Glasgow north electric network and the Argyle line. In addition, the few remaining four-car Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High peak services will be strengthened, resulting in all services on this route being either seven or eight cars throughout the day. However, there is insufficient stock for strengthening on all routes. “ScotRail’s ability to deploy more rolling stock or redistribute trains around the network is limited,” said the Transport Scotland spokesperson. “ScotRail will monitor services using a variety of sources and their communications team will use this information on their website and social media, and by utilising staff at stations to let passengers know the busier trains and alternative trains that they may wish to consider using.”

“We will monitor the impact on bus patronage throughout the pilot period as part of the multi-modal evaluation work” Transport Scotland

Recent figures suggest a 31% increase in peak time journeys, despite higher fares continuing to apply

Welsh TC sets out 20mph expectations

Traffic Commissioner understands that transition to 20mph speed limits on residential roads may raise issues for bus services. Rhodri Clark reports

REGULATION

Victoria Davies, the Traffic Commissioner for Wales, has indicated that she understands bus operators may have had difficulties predicting how the new 20mph default speed limit would affect timings of individual services. Her sympathy may come as a relief to operators who held off from making alterations ahead of the speed limit change across Wales on September 17, because they could not be sure how much more running time would be needed and how much of that could be absorbed within turnaround times between trips. Previously, about 37% of Welsh roads (by mileage) were 30mph by default. As of September 17, only about 3% are 30mph by exception - where highway authorities have decided the 20mph default limit should not apply.

The Welsh Government believes that the impact on journey times for vehicles in general will be small, with modelling having shown a one minute increase on average. However, buses are less likely than cars to use inter-urban dual carriageways and bypasses, which are unaffected by the increase in 20mph roads. They are more likely than cars to travel along nearby streets, because they serve communities and facilities along the way. According to council officers, one of the Welsh 20mph pilot schemes resulted in 16 minutes being added to bus journey times between Chepstow and Newport.

Passenger Transport asked the Office of the Traffic Commissioner (OTC) whether Davies would accept the change in the default speed limit as mitigation for noncompliance with timetables after September 17. An OTC spokesman said: “The change to the default speed limit in Wales has been known about for some time and was preceded by a number of pilot schemes in different areas which started in 2021.

“The Traffic Commissioner for Wales is aware that operators have been preparing for this change but understands that some may find it difficult to assess new timings for services, at least until the speed limit is in force. She expects operators to work with Welsh local authorities to assess the likely

impact on services and timetables in good time for changes to be made by way of variations.

“She understands that the transition may raise issues and it would be open to an operator to put forward a case of ‘reasonable excuse’ in a case referred to the Traffic Commissioner, which would of course be considered on an individual basis - including an examination of what steps the operator had taken to ensure the robustness of the timetable.”

Would applications to change timetable registrations, in light of experience after the switchover, be accepted at short notice or would operators have to give the usual full period of notice?

The OTC spokesman replied: “The Traffic Commissioner

for Wales will consider all applications for short notice variations to services made under the Public Service Vehicles (Registration of Local Services) Regulations 1986 (‘the Regulations’) on their individual merits and in accordance with the relevant legislative provisions.

“As with any application made under the Regulations, the operator will be expected clearly to set out which provision of the Regulations the application is made under and to provide evidence and reasons, with reference to the specific provision, which would enable the TC to consider exercising her power to grant short notice in the particular circumstances.”

A torrent of applications from Wales would not overwhelm the system, because applications are processed by OTC staff centrally. “The OTC processes over 16,000 applications each year. Most of these are not from Wales. We will monitor the situation and relevant resources will be deployed where necessary,” he said.

‘Sensible and humane’ Norman Baker of Campaign for Better Transport has suggested that 20mph speed limits on most residential roads in Wales could increase public transport use.

“Reducing speed limits is both sensible and humane,” the former transport minister said. “At the cost of an average one minute added to drivers’ journeys, six to ten lives could be saved each year and thousands of injuries avoided.

“Safer, calmer streets will also encourage more people to walk and cycle, including walking to catch a bus or train - good news for our health and our planet.

“It is good that local authorities can set the appropriate speed limit for each road on a case by case basis.”

“The change to the default speed limit in Wales has been known about for some time”

20mph is now the default limit for residential roads in Wales

Government commits £129m for ZEBRA 2

Transport secretary announces second round of ZEBRA zero-emission bus funding and launch of new Net Zero Transport for a Resilient Future Hub

FUNDING

Transport secretary Mark Harper this month announced funding of up to £129m to help local transport authorities introduce “hundreds” more zero-emission buses.

To ensure additional parts of England benefit from zeroemission buses, particularly remote areas where building the infrastructure needed for the buses is more expensive, the government has prioritised the first £25m for rural communities.

The Zero-Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) 2 scheme is now open for bids from all local authorities in England (outside London), with applications to be prioritised from those that did not receive funding in the previous rounds. The first phase of the ZEBRA scheme helped to fund 1,300 zero-emission buses.

Harper also announced the launch of a new research hub, backed by £10m in funding from the Department for Transport, National Highways, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Newcastle University, HeriotWatt University, University of Cambridge and University of Glasgow have been awarded the funding to establish the Net Zero Transport for a Resilient Future Hub, where they will develop

innovative ideas to ensure future transport infrastructure is low carbon and resilient.

Transport secretary Mark Harper said: “[This] funding for more zero-emission buses will help decarbonise public transport and grow the economy by keeping our communities connected. We have already reached our initial target of funding at least 4,000 zeroemission buses and this additional funding will improve journeys for even more passengers, reaching those in the most remote areas.

“The UK is also cementing its position as a world leader in net zero tech with this new investment into climate resilience. Our Net Zero transport hub will be a centre of academic excellence, helping us keep our transport network resilient into the future.”

This month’s announcement

Repowered buses not included in scheme

Kleanbus disappointed by government’s approach

Bus repower company Kleanbus has called on UK Government to re-assess its latest zero emission bus scheme, which omits buses retrofitted with zero emission technology from green funding.

The Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) 2 scheme, which has now opened, makes up to £129m available.

However, while new electric buses are eligible, bids will not be accepted for vehicles repowered with technology to be zero emission buses, with no funding to reduce their purchase price.

Joe Tighe, co-founder and CEO of Kleanbus, commented: “We are disappointed repowered buses are not included in the latest ZEBRA2 scheme.

Repowering, where the ICE of an existing bus is replaced with a cutting-edge electric powertrain, is not only cost-effective, but fast, upcycling a perfectly good vehicle, ensuring it has many more years on fleet.

“It also has none of the emissions associated with the manufacturing of a new bus, and makes the most sense from every viewpoint, from operator TCO to the speed at which we can make this transition, to the best use of the Earth’s precious resources.”

takes the government’s total investment in new zero-emission buses to almost £500m.

Buses minister Richard Holden visited Alexander Dennis’s Scarborough factory to see how the second round of ZEBRA funding will impact British bus manufacturing.

“It has been a pleasure to welcome the minister to our Scarborough factory, which is a prime example of how government investment in zero-emission buses can support communities across the country when it benefits domestic manufacturers like ourselves,” said Alexander Dennis president and managing director Paul Davies.

“We provide thousands of skilled jobs and apprenticeship opportunities in an industry that is firmly looking ahead to a sustainable future for us all.

“Our next-generation electric buses are ready to support councils’ ZEBRA 2 bids, including the innovative Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV, which is particularly suited to efficiently provide zero-emission mobility for rural communities.”

Alison Edwards, Confederation of Passenger Transport director of policy, welcomed the additional funding for zero-emission buses. “We are pleased that the prioritisation of rural bus services in the bidding process recognises the challenges facing these operators,” said Edwards. “To help tackle these, CPT has established a Rural Zero-Emission Bus Taskforce, which will seek to identify practical solutions that are required for rural areas.”

Funding for the research hub will be used to develop new ways of modelling cities and towns, and understanding how vital structures such as bridges and rail lines can handle severe weather events such as flooding.

We have already reached our initial target of funding at least 4,000 zero emission buses”

Mark Harper

Electric fleet for Leicester

New buses are Arriva’s first electric deckers outside London

Bus operator Arriva is bringing 24 brand new electric doubledecker buses to Leicester.

The Wrightbus StreetDeck Electroliner double-deckers will roll out of depots and onto the streets of Leicester in October.

They will be the city’s first electric double-deckers as well as being Arriva’s first electric double-deckers outside London. They are also a ‘low-bridge’ specification - the first of Wrightbus’s double-decker electric buses built to this height.

The first of the zero emission vehicles was delivered in September for driver-training and so far around 50 drivers have been trained to drive the buses.

The Wrightbus vehicles are the fruits of an investment by Arriva and have been made possible thanks to the ongoing partnership between Arriva UK Bus and Leicester City Council. The operator and the local authority made a successful joint bid through the Government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas

(ZEBRA) scheme to unlock the £11m worth of green investment required to purchase new buses.

The StreetDeck Electroliners each carry around 90 passengers, have a range of around 200 miles and a recharge time of two hours and 45 minutes. The vehicles also have better onboard lighting, digital customer information screens and USB charging points.

Work is being completed at Arriva’s Thurmaston depot to install chargers and infrastructure for the battery-electric fleet and engineers are being trained about the zero-emission vehicles.

Alistair Hands, managing director for Arriva, said:

“Welcoming the new Wrightbus electric fleet into Leicester is a game-changing moment in our continued drive to operating a greener, decarbonised bus network. We are delighted to have worked in partnership with Wrightbus and Leicester City Council to have been able to make this happen.

“It’s our aim to make Arriva UK Bus the best choice for passengers and we know our customers value our progressive attitude towards decarbonising public transport.”

ROUND-UP

COACH FUNDING

Wrightbus gets support for hydrogen innovation

HYDROGEN

Bus manufacturer Wrightbus has received £534,000 of government funding towards developing zero emission hydrogen fuel-cell electric coaches. Over 30,000 diesel coaches operate across the UK and Ireland. Wrightbus is looking to tackle this difficult to decarbonise sector by developing an innovative hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain.

ZEMO TO REFOCUS WITH TASKFORCE

Clear pathway to zero emission mobility

STRATEGY

Following a strategic review to coincide with Zemo’s 20th anniversary, the Partnership is announcing the creation of a new ‘Zero Emission Mobility Taskforce’ which aims to become a leading authority on the policies and pathways needed to achieve a successful transition to net zero road transport in the UK. Progress towards the targets will be benchmarked and monitored through the creation of a series of ‘Zemo Zero Emission Mobility Roadmaps’ Zemo will harness its convening powers, developed over two decades, to engage the widest range of stakeholders in this endeavour; not just representatives of the Partnership’s existing members, but those representing government, industry, road user and consumer groups, NGOs and other sector experts.

ZENOBE BOOST

Investment will power global expansion

INVESTMENT

Zenobe, the international provider of end-to-end solutions in fleet electrification as well as battery storage solutions, has secured an investment of £600m from KKR, a leading global investment firm. In addition, a further £270m of equity has been invested by existing shareholder Infracapital. Upon completion of the transaction, KKR and Infracapital will become joint majority shareholders in Zenobe. By 2026, Zenobe aims to support 4,000 electric buses, trucks and commercial vehicles on the road.

AUTONOMOUS AND ELECTRIC

UK’s first all-electric autonomous bus service

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

A full-size single-decker bus with autonomous driving and producing zero carbon emissions has taken to the road in the UK for the first time. Operated by First Bus, the Mi-Link 003 service in Oxfordshire, uses a MetroCity 1080EV, manufactured by Switch in Yorkshire. It began operating on September 7.

The service uses a MetroCity 1080EV

The first of 24 Wrightbus StreetDeck Electroliners

“Welcoming the new Wrightbus electric fleet into Leicester is a game-changing moment”

Decline of smartcards weakens long term data

London’s Oyster card and other smartcards are registered to individuals whose data could be tracked over years of usage. Rhodri Clark reports

DATA

Replacing smartcards with bank card and mobile payments reduces the data operators can delve into to understand long-term travel patterns, Transport for London has found. London’s Oyster card and the many smartcards it inspired are or were registered to individuals whose anonymised data could be tracked over years of usage. This has been useful for cohort analysis, such as assessing how passengers responded to a permanent or temporary change in service. The results could provide valuable insight into how future changes should be designed or managed, such as service provision or capacity on alternative routes.

When smartcard users changed their bank, they would usually keep the same smartcard and change where the payments came from. This maintained continuity of data.

TRANSLINK PARTNERS WITH CITYSWIFT

Intelligent analytics will help Belfast’s bus network

DATA

CitySwift’s full suite of products will be used by Translink on the entire Belfast Metro bus network. The resulting data insights will inform how Translink works with authorities on city planning, data visualisation,

The spread of contactless and mobile payment media affects the potential of cohort analysis, according to David Arquati, TfL’s principal transport planner, development and policy. For example, when someone updates their mobile phone, in TfL’s data this would appear to register as one person dropping out and a new user starting to travel, even if the person retained their previous

SIM card and phone number. Similarly, banks’ periodic replacement of cards prevents cohort analysis from matching up data from before and after replacement. A further difference is that some people may vary the payment devices they use from day to day, instead of using the same smartcard for every trip.

Arquati said it was still possible to drill quite a long way down into

the data, but added: “The bit that’s difficult is that cohort analysis, where you’re trying to look at how individual people’s patterns of travel change over time.”

The apparent churn in users, as identified in the anonymised data, reduces the timeframe over which cohort analysis produces useful results. “By the time you’ve advanced a couple of years, you’ve lost quite a significant proportion of the devices that you’re tracking,” he said.

This has had some impact on TfL’s detailed and wide-ranging analysis of how the Elizabeth Line has influenced transport patterns.

David Warner, TfL’s principal transport planner, transport modelling, said that some of the Elizabeth Line demand in central London had probably transferred from buses, but at the same time new demand had been generated for bus trips to access the Elizabeth Line at outer stations.

“Our analysis method isn’t quite fine-grained enough to tell the difference between the two as we’re looking at journeys in (small) aggregates, but to get this level of detail we’d need to look at individual journeys. This is more difficult these days as there is more ‘churn’ in the cards and devices that people use to pay for travel,” said Warner.

and collaboration between operations and network planning teams.

Translink operates coach, bus and train services connecting cities, towns and villages throughout Northern Ireland and some cross border routes. The business’s mission is to provide a safer, more sustainable, efficient business.

Translink will use CitySwift’s Evolve module to analyse and simulate runtimes that improve service performance. CitySwift’s Explore and Discover modules will be used to

access high quality network insights including punctuality, passenger demand, and driver performance. All of this will help Translink to operate and adapt the Belfast bus network to deliver a better passenger experience.

Ian Campbell, director of service operations at Translink Northern Ireland, commented: “Putting data at the core of how we improve our operations and how we collaborate on network planning is a key approach for us. We’re looking forward to

working with CitySwift and this new technology to further enhance our services, maximise and optimise resources to ensure continued high-quality, sustainable and efficient services for our passengers.”

Alan Farrelly, CCO and co-founder of CitySwift, added: “CitySwift will help Translink to maximise their internal processes through data-based decision making, which will ultimately enable them to make their business more sustainable and efficient.”

Oyster and other smartcards have largely been superceded

JONATHAN BRAY

A disastrous mistake that must be fixed

Riding the tram as it rolled urbanely down Leith Walk a few weeks back, on the new extension of the Edinburgh Tram, reminded me that this is what trams do at their best. They keep it simple (you know where you are going) and they keep it comfortable (ride quality matters). We didn’t stop for anything other than when we should have (for tram stops). It felt like it had always been there. No longer one of the many former or ‘might have been’ tram and tramways which haunt our cities. It never gets less mind-boggling that the UK got rid, one line in Blackpool excepted, of every urban tram system we had before the 1960s had even got going. Why did we do that? And how best can we continue to put that mistake right with more tram lines like the Leith extension? I explored some of this in a previous article (PT245). An excellent recent book by Tony Young for the Light Rail Transit Association on Might have been Trams and Tramways filled in some more of the gaps for me.

From today’s standpoint it’s hard to comprehend the scale of the UK’s tram systems in the first part of the 20th Century. Indeed, and as an aside, my great grandad’s last manual labouring job was laying the tracks of the extension of the tram to Guiseley (nine miles out of Leeds). In August 1916 (if you were willing to walk to close a seven-mile gap in Calderdale) you could travel from Bingley to Liverpool by tram - if you had a day to spare. There had been plans for much more: everything from a tram to the heart of the Lakes at Ambleside and a

proposal for a tram transporter bridge to carry double decker trams over the River Ribble on their journey from Blackpool to Southport. If the various plans for even more tram extensions had occurred you could have travelled from Fleetwood to Macclesfield by tram.

But already some of the seeds of destruction had been planted. Profits from the trams’ heyday (where some systems were rather hastily knocked together), which should have been set aside for inevitable future renewal needs, were spent elsewhere (including holding down the rates). Trams had to take the hit for paying for the roadway on which the tracks were laid (and eighteen inches either side) and government was also starting to favour other transport modes. A Royal Commission report of 1929 (which formed the basis of the 1930 Road Traffic Act) recommended that “no additional tramways should be be constructed … and they should gradually disappear and give place to other forms of transport”.

Not everyone had seen it that way. Some forward thinking figures in cities like Leeds and Liverpool had been providing their expanding cities with new roads with segregated tracks in the central reservation. There were 25 miles of them in the case of Liverpool, served by

trams with evocative names like ‘Streamliners’ and ‘Baby Grands’. The same cities were also among those who had plans for tunnelled city centre sections, which would have been in effect a wider evolution of essentially Victorian tram systems into something closer to what we now know as light rail. It would have meant cross-city trams with below street level trams in city centres. As part of this approach the tottering double decker trams of yore would start to be replaced by sleeker single decker trams (including the use of unpowered trailer vehicles to provide greater capacity), which is common just about everywhere else in the world and which would have reduced operating costs. Some rather swish single decker pilot vehicles were produced in Leeds.

After the war the advocates for upgrading existing systems put their case within city halls one more time. It was modernise or die. But the trams had become a political football (in Leeds it was Labour that did for them, in Liverpool it was the Conservatives). They were unwanted clutter from the past at a time when operating costs of public transport networks were rising and meeting housing targets was the big priority for investment. Death was cheaper than modernisation so die they all did. 250,000 names on a petition against the Liverpool system’s closure was ignored. The trams were burnt and the infrastructure ripped out leaving the central reservations to grass over. Imagine Leeds now with trams criss-crossing the city from their metro-like, central underground stations speeding past the jams on their way to the suburbs, on their own segregated infrastructure. Go to Brussels and you can see sub-surface tram stations on tunnelled sections through the city centrejust like Leeds should have had.

Britain does have one tram tunnel (and it’s still there) - the Kingsway tram tunnel in Holborn. It allowed cross-city tram routes when previously they had all stopped at termini at the edge of the city centre. As in cities like Leeds there had also been efforts to complement such infrastructure by producing a tram of the future. Similar care was lavished on the design of what became known as the ‘Feltham’ double decker tram as later would be given to the design of the Routemaster bus. But, unlike the Routemaster, the Feltham was never mass produced. Ultimately London’s half hearted modernisation drive went the same

It’s mind-boggling that the UK got rid of every urban tram system (except one). Let’s not take longer than we need to remedy that

“Death was cheaper than modernisation so die they all did”

way as those in other UK cities. Trams were gone in London before the 1950s had got going.

The UK wasn’t the only country to get rid of its trams. France did too. But the difference is they realised their mistake earlier and have moved faster subsequently. Although tram has had a revival in the UK it’s been a halting one. Here Alistair Darling is the villain of the piece. Writing off millions of sunk investment by cancelling tram schemes in Liverpool, Leeds, South Hampshire and Greater Manchester in 2005 and as a result triggering something of a lost decade, although Greater Manchester showed grit and determination in resisting the decision and in doing so helped reduce the chilling effect on urban transit of Darling’s miserable tenure at transport.

So what lessons can we learn from recent history that are relevant today? Costs did for trams in the 1950s and costs will always be a factor in how fast trams come back. One of the many ‘if onlys’ of the past is could some systems have survived with greater standardisation? In particular if UK cities had (instead of designing their own trams) adopted what became as close as we have ever had to universal tram car design - the single decker Presidents Commission Car or ‘PCC’. Nearly 5,000 were built in the US and many thousands more became the mainstay of tram systems on both sides of Europe’s Iron Curtain for decades - from the 1930s, to in some cases the current day.

The tendency towards the bespoke is still evident in new generation UK systemswhereas VDV (the German equivalent of the Urban Transport Group) has recently procured 504 light rail vehicles at a cost of €4bn (£3.45bn) on behalf of six of its members. Is bespoke a contributory factor in what looks like relatively high costs for UK tram systems? Recent analysis by ‘Britain Remade’ found that tram projects in Britain are 2.5 times more expensive per mile than those in France. Is another contributory factor an approach to system construction that leans towards heavy rail engineering than is the case for many long standing European tram systems where a continuity of light rail specific expertise has been maintained? This heavy engineering first approach can also be seen on some parts of UK systems, where arguably the opportunity to reshape and remake the wider urban realm to make light rail indispensable has not always been fully realised (unlike in France which takes more of a city first approach to the look and feel of its systems).

Finally is London the dog that isn’t barking on trams and light rail? Clearly London has been under the cosh since Covid but the case for street trams to bring order to snarled up streets and congested corridors must on paper be as good as ever.

Of course, many of these challenges could be addressed by the principal problem - which

is the lack of a consistent policy and funding environment which allows for a smoother upward trajectory of the revival of the tram. In the absence of such an environment those who have managed to get schemes built deserve every credit for their perseverance.

Like the later rail closures of the 1960s the destruction of urban tram systems in the 1950s is a wound that hasn’t healed, leaving some of our largest cities with the traces of infrastructure which could have been the basis of modern transit systems. Let’s not take any longer than it needs to cost effectively remedy that disastrous mistake so more streets like Leith Walk have trams rolling down themlike they never went away.

MightHaveBeenTramsandTramways by Tony Young (2021) can be purchased at: www.lrta.info/shop

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For decades Jonathan Bray has been at the forefront of making progressive change happen on transport - from stopping the national roads programme in its tracks in the 1990s to getting buses back under public control in the 2020s. He is an advisor to the Welsh Government on bus franchising and an independent advisor. www.jonathan-bray.com

“Although tram has had a revival in the UK it’s been a halting one”

Like they never went away: Edinburgh’s tram extension to Newhaven

ALEX WARNER

Like transport staff, TBF plays vital role

The Transport Benevolent Fund has celebrated its 100th birthday. Like frontline staff, it should not be seen as a relic of of the past

With the ludicrous proposals to close ticket offices and the obsession with de-staffing across transport, it’s unnerving to imagine what it will be like working in the sector in a decade or more. Many of today’s up and coming managers wax lyrical, as if to be clever and impactful, about the joys of technology. You see and hear them in meetings acting as though they are whizz innovators and they go quiet when the debate turns to less exciting subject matter such as staff morale, accidents or assaults on duty, terms and conditions, recruitment, retention and development. Staff are a nuisance to them. I’ve seen many newcomers to the sector, and they literally have to be forced to venture out on the patch and hang around a depot meeting staff, watching engineers and cleaners at work. If they do, they generally talk to them in a patronising way.

Those of us who care about customer service and see the presence of well-managed, motivated, engaged and healthy staff as the key driver of customer satisfaction, patronage and revenue, must resist the stupidity of ticket office closures alongside doing our best to encourage a focus on the well-being of employees. For this reason, I’ve been delighted in recent times to stumble across the Transport Benevolent Fund CIO (TBF), which celebrated its 100th birthday a few weeks ago. SWR marked the occasion, naming a train ‘Transport Benevolent Fund CIO’ at a fabulous ceremony, hosted at Waterloo. Lord Hendy and SWR managing director Claire Mann

dropped everything in their diaries to spend around an hour and half at the event alongside the crème de la crème of the transport industry - testimony to the very relevant place that TBF and other similar transport charities still play in these days of diminished focus on employees.

The TBF model is a beacon of simplicity in a world of opaque complexity and seems almost too good to be true. Anyone working in the public transport sector can pay £1.25 a week into the fund and they and their dependents can benefit from support in hardship and distress - be it health or finance related. Its 60,000 members derive from a range of transport companies, be it train, coach, bus, aviation and ferry companies - large, medium and small, Network Rail and a range of

suppliers. Subscriptions are deducted at source from an employee’s pay, though 42 companies fund these as a benefit to their people.

TBF is a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation and is easily affordable and accessible for frontline employees and anyone in transport. TBF chief executive John Sheehy explains that almost all requests for support from members in adversity are granted and there are stories of life-changing financial, medical or counselling support being provided for folk across the UK.

Unlike most other transport charities, the TBF’s sustainability is based around membership subscriptions, and they don’t actively court donations. However, donations are welcome and the transport executive search company I co-founded, Lost Group, donates 2% of all revenue to TBF. To drive member numbers, it has a team of six membership officers and eight organisers who attend depots and induction training courses, trying to encourage employees to sign up.

Sheehy concedes that there are challenges ahead for employees and indeed organisations like the TBF going forward. Covid ratcheted up the mental health issues among transport folk and this has been reflected in the number of treatments provided for its members. So too, transport has seen a post pandemic increase in the hot-headedness and anti-social behaviour that frontline staff have to deal with. This has again been reflected in the requests for help dealt with by the TBF.

From a mental health perspective, Sheehy believes that the automation and general de-staffing of the transport environment has been in tandem with the decline in the sense of community across the sector. “When I joined London Underground, we were one big family, but now that’s gone.”

I can relate to this as I am a member on Facebook of a group for former London Transport employees and there are memories and pictures of social clubs, company sports teams, and a bar above the depot canteen at Camden Town. They are from an era that seems so alien from today, you have to wonder whether it really existed! There were real characters back then - extroverts whose force of personality was actively encouraged by management because, where channelled positively, it helped support colleagues, particularly younger ones. I benefitted from this in the early stages of my career. On the

A train has been named ‘Transport Benevolent Fund CIO’

Facebook group, there are recollections aplenty of staff Christmas parties, day-trip excursions in mini-buses or after work nights in the pub where camaraderie would be built as well as vital tutelage and problem-sharing. There certainly seemed to be a more collegiate and supportive environment back then. It’s hard to do this in a workplace with Teams calls replacing daily face-to-face interactions, and folk rushing home the moment the working day finishes - their only outlet to communicate being on social media, including LinkedIn.

I know I’m a renowned cynic of transport awards events, but I think they are now almost the only outlet for work-based socialising. Whilst I’m no fan of the drink and banter culture of old, I fear that a more sanitised working environment means that many folk naturally retreat from socialising with work colleagues, for fear of saying the wrong thing. I also believe that, if anything, HR departments have become overly prescriptive with ‘tickbox’ style processes for one-to-ones, reviews, appraisals and career development sessions, insisting also that these are written up online on some constraining, automated system, that has stultified managers, destroying the art of meaningful, deep, supportive and engaging conversations with employees.

Arsenal-supporting Sheehy can relate to my mix of nostalgia and lamenting. He joined London Underground in 1989, the year his beloved Gunners famously won the title in dramatic fashion at Liverpool. Like me, John also started on the Northern line. He was initially a guard then driver, based at Golders Green depot - “happy days” - before moving to the TBF in the mid-1990s when it was initially just part of London Transport, before taking on the nationwide role it has held since 1996. He observes: “Whilst we take mental health far more seriously than ever before, which is a good thing, in my 25 years at TBF, I’ve definitely seen, across the industry, people feeling lonelier or experiencing psychological conditions which might have been alleviated had they had the kind of community-based environment that we enjoyed back at London Transport in the early years of our careers.

“Even the sacrosanct staff canteens, where people used to chew the fat, enjoy others’ company and also offer and provide pastoral support to colleagues are in a spiral towards becoming obsolete. Staff just book on and off

now, they are just ships passing in the night.” Challenges in managing personal finances have also been reflected in the types and numbers of requests for help dealt with by the TBF. Sheehy is despondent about what he sees as us “living in a credit society, where there’s an acceptance of building up debt, as if it’s just the norm”. This, coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, is having a real impact on frontline staff.

“The burden of increased costs in the past couple of years, combined with situations where members might have suffered loss of pay due to sickness, bereavement or the loss of employment by a family member, has led to a number of claims for support, which we have paid out,” says Sheehy.

He explains that TBF benefits also include convalescing where staff have suffered on-thejob trauma, or alternative therapies, adding: “If someone comes to us with really serious problems, that need a bigger commitment, then we speak to our trustees (who range from bus drivers to company directors) and see if we can offer more for them. This year we will spend £3m in direct benefits to our members.”

Sheehy believes that there also needs to be greater advice to transport employees around how to manage their finances sensibly.

“Everyone lives to their means, at whatever level that is, and it can take one thing to unbalance that, and it tips things over the edge,” he says. “That’s where we can help, contributing towards priority arrears.” Earlier in the day, a member fell on hard times through sickness and the TBF paid for his wife’s mobility scooter so she could be independent again.

The TBF continues to thrive with the vast majority of transport organisations encouraging their employees to sign up as members, some more audibly than others. There continues to be a job to be done to ensure that younger managers are aware of the TBF and like-minded organisations. Across society, co-operative-style, subscription-based organisations and trusts, aren’t as visible or integral to the landscape as they perhaps were a few decades ago. The success of the TBF depends on first-level managers encouraging their membership organisers into their depots and offices to showcase the benefits to frontline employees.

There is, of course, a big lever the TBF can also employ, particularly during this era of workplace reform and where pay and conditions discussions and negotiations are

in play between staff and management. If stalemates are ensuing and where increasing baseline pay might set a precedent or be unaffordable and other staff benefits are being sought as a compromise, then a company offering to fund the cost of its employees being members of the TBF is a useful alternative tool. It’s a ‘win-win’ for both parties too as it’s a truism that if staff are able to benefit from medical and other support, then they will be fitter and in a better frame of mind.

If we are to predict a decade or two henceforth of a scenario where the value and presence of staff in transport has been relegated to the lowest of priorities, then there is a scenario, where the TBF might not be as vital as it is now. Sheehy concedes: “If there are fewer transport employees, then there will be fewer subscriptions and a smaller pot to fund benefits. We’re also finding that with increasing staff cuts, our members are suffering more stress and ailments as they are spread more thinly.”

A century on from its birth, the TBF model isn’t a relic of the past but can play an increasingly vibrant role going forward. At the same time, maybe the industry can just reflect on, rather than denigrate, some of the more positive aspects of yesteryear’s working life, before HR departments and automation took over - canteens, avuncular old pros giving ‘a word in your ear’, the depot’s cricket team getting bowled out for under 50, the bank holiday Beano to Southend Pier or the ‘station foreman’s leaving do’. This was a world where staff were the heartbeat of public transport and made or broke customer perceptionsnot a peripheral, ‘nice to have’ after-thought. They were the past, present and future and a community that created lifelong memories and looked out for you just like the Transport Benevolent Fund CIO still does today, as much as ever in its centenary year.

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.

“This year we will spend £3m in direct benefits to our members”John Sheehy

COMMENT

NICK RICHARDSON

Are staff getting a fair deal on pay?

With railway industry pay being in the news and the costs of bus services rising, what can we deduce from the latest pay figures?

The long dispute between rail workers and the government has been a regular step backwards in terms of customer relations. The series of strikes, ostensibly for one day but bleeding into the afternoon before and the morning after have disaffected users. Many regulars were already changing their travel habits due to the Covid-19 pandemic after which they found they didn’t need to use trains much anymore. Having no trains available and the ever-increasing rate of fare risis has alienated many users and firmly cemented the railway as an irrelevance to those who were indifferent anyway.

With Aslef, RMT and others taking strike action, government and industry spokespersons and of course the worker representatives have been bandying figures around about how much workers do or do not get paid. It appears that the dispute is about working conditions too but is focused on pay. Meanwhile, bus workers’ pay is struggling to deal with the ravages of inflation and the rising cost of living. The scenario here is different with an industry finding out that some recruits don’t last long and many are not tempted by current wage rates. Both sectors have a demographic problem given the age of many of their workers who will reach retirement age at much the same time. For the bus industry, this further undermines the business model on which it has depended for years. Therefore it is opportune to consider pay in more detail to see if there is any clarity behind the rhetoric.

Getting the facts

To help us, the Office for National Statistics generates some useful data. This is necessarily subject to lots of caveats and explanation and while the 2022 figures are provisional for now, they illuminate the debate. Looking at gross weekly pay rates for all UK employees, we can see how rail and bus workers’ pay compares with each other and other types of job, nearly 550 categories in total derived from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). The figures are qualified to reflect their statistical robustness based on sample size: ASHE is based on a 1% sample of jobs taken from HMRC’s Pay As You Earn records. It is possible to delve deeper into male and female, full-time and part-time roles but the overall picture is provided by the totals. This shows that over the past ten years, pay rates increased but were hugely affected by the pandemic, since when increases are again evident. At this point we need to consider the best measure – the median is the most reliable given that it eliminates possible weightings caused at each end of the spectrum but the mean/average is also useful providing it isn’t misunderstood –claiming that the pay of half the workforce is

below the average is exactly the point!

The data includes classifications for bus and coach drivers and for train and tram drivers, noting that pay is generally based on a working week of 40 hours. This then provides a direct comparison between bus and coach drivers’ median gross weekly pay of £521.10 in 2022 compared with that for train and tram drivers of £1,135.10. Annual equivalents are approximately £27,100 for bus and coach drivers and £59,000 for train and tram drivers. This is the clearest conclusion to draw from the figures i.e. train and tram drivers earn far more than bus and coach drivers and have done so for many years, the gap having been widening for some time. In simple terms, train and tram drivers earn more than twice the median bus and coach driver wage. The effects of the cost of living crisis and inflation are more likely to be detrimental to those with lower pay.

The comparison with all jobs is also illuminating: the median pay in 2022 was £532.50 per week, in other words, bus and coach drivers earned appreciably less than what might be regarded as the baseline but train and tram drivers earned appreciably more, over £600 more per week. From this it can reasonably be claimed that train drivers earn more than many of their customers.

Comparative earnings

Looking at how transport staff compare with other professions, the figures show that bus and coach drivers’ earnings are similar to those of restaurant and catering establishment managers and proprietors, farmers and librarians and related professionals and slightly less than hairdressing and beauty salon managers and web and multimedia design professionals. Goods vehicle drivers appear to be better remunerated than bus and coach drivers (median £700.00 per month in 2022) and are sometimes regarded as a direct comparator although licensed separately and they have significantly different roles. Train and tram drivers’ pay is broadly similar to that of functional managers and directors and senior police officers. For comparison, the median for rail transport operatives in 2022 was £938.00. Regarding working conditions, we can compare the two professions although there are inevitable generalisations. Train drivers have little or no interaction with customers

“Part of the problem of the ongoing rail disputes is that it isn’t clear who is negotiating with whom”

but perform a safety-critical role which requires concentration and experience. Bus and coach drivers do interact with their customers, not least bus drivers who cover the former conductor role as well as their own; their role is also safety-critical. Among the generalisations is the option to undertake overtime working which for those willing to work longer hours can be rewarding. When rail staff have banned overtime, some trains are cancelled because there is a reliance on staff doing more than the basic hours, illustrating a situation in which short-staffing is the norm. Given the shortage of bus drivers, overtime is there for the taking and may be essential if staff are to keep up with inflationary pressures. There is also a range of benefits associated with each role for which the monetary value is not generally considered, notably free rail or bus travel based on various criteria depending on employer and location.

Negotiating improvements

Part of the problem of the ongoing rail disputes is that it isn’t clear who is negotiating with whom. The unions are supposed to be

talking to their employers, the train operating companies which seem to be restricted by government controls, hence the unions blame government. With an industry that is fractured into multiple players, much of which is directly steered by government, it is easy to lose sight of who does what and where the money comes from. In contrast, the various large and small bus and coach operators are directly responsible for their balance sheets but are now in a position where their options are limited due to rising costs and recovery from the pandemic. Even the apparently simple solution of increasing pay rates may have a limited benefit because the current staff can work fewer hours for the same pay, an unintended consequence that at least one coach operator has discovered. Even if there is sufficient resource to pay higher rates, generating more revenue to cover it remains a challenge and doesn’t overcome the retention problem. For the bus sector, higher pay rates might attract better staff but increasing fares isn’t a good way to do it when as many people as possible need to be attracted to use bus services. Given that staff and related costs

account for up to two thirds of operating costs, pay is a very difficult area to deal with. Hence there are difficult choices to be made between investing in staff or investing in equipment (such as electric buses) or even timely asset replacement.

While any data set is likely to hide all sorts of nuances, it is evident that many train and tram drivers continue to have considerably higher pay than bus and coach drivers, noting regional differences and the scope of labour markets so there will be different circumstances across the country. While there appears to be no end to the rail workers’ dispute, the bus industry has deep-rooted funding problems for which there is no quick fix without a new approach.

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.

It appears that the current rail dispute is about working conditions too but is focused on pay

GREAT MINSTER GRUMBLES

TOCs had ‘gone to sleep on the job’

To most casual observers we haven’t really progressed the rail reforms set out in the Plan for Rail. The average rail passenger could be forgiven for thinking that the whole reform package has been quietly dropped, given that they have seen no difference to their rail services. But according to two parliamentary questions answered by our minister of state, Huw Merriman, we have still managed to blow a cool £96.8m on setting up the Great British Railways Transition Team (GBRTT).

In an answer to a question from Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the former Labour rail spokesperson and MP for Slough, we are told that £76.5 million has been spent on the set-up and operation of GBRTT between November 2021 and July 24, 2023. And in an answer to a question from the Lib Dem transport spokesperson and MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, we are told that GBRTT has spent £20.3m on technical specialist support. Given that GBR has not yet been set up on a formal statutory basis you’ve got to blink twice at these numbers haven’t you?

In another curious twist on all things rail, there was an interesting session of the Transport Select Committee on September 6 when Robin Gisby, the chief executive of DfT OLR Holdings, and Richard George, the chair of DfT OLR Holdings, gave evidence on the work of the Operator of Last Resort (OLR). Any impartial observer of these proceedings would have got the clear impression that the public sector OLR had done a jolly good

job in sorting out the mess created by the private sector operators in TransPennine Express and Northern Rail. Indeed, Robin Gisby commented that the private sector operators had “gone to sleep on the job”; he noted that with short-term franchise contracts a private operator might think twice about investment towards the end of the franchise period as it would not know if its contract would be renewed; and he observed that the management of the failed franchises too often spent time writing reports on problems rather than actually fixing them.

This was hardly a ringing endorsement of the private sector franchise model - although admittedly this was not about every operator - and all the while our minister of state was

sitting alongside Robin Gisby listening to this. And it was noted that LNER, which is also under the control of OLR, is outperforming the rest of the rail market. It was hardly surprising, then, when one or two Labour members on the committee questioned why it was still the intention to hand these franchises back to the private sector if the public sector OLR was doing such a fine job. Not an unreasonable question!

To be fair, our minister of state, who I must say is really pretty impressive and clearly on top of his brief, gave a robust response pointing out that spending money on schools and hospitals is a higher priority for the Treasury compared to rail, and that if properly incentivised the private sector will invest in the railways - so it was interesting to hear him tell the committee that the plan is that by the end of the year contracts will be changed so that more risk and reward is taken by the private sector. Even so, it was strange to see a Conservative rail minister happily sitting alongside other witnesses delivering a message that was hardly complimentary about aspects of the private sector operator model. Something of a gift for Labour members on the Committee!

Meanwhile, the future of the Derby rolling stock assembly facility is once again in the news, with reports that some 2,000 jobs are at risk as the plant will run out of work by the end of the year. This isn’t the first time the owners of the Derby facility have called on the government to come up with some kind of rescue package, with previous owners - ABB, ADTranz, Bombardier and now Alstom - all threatening the government with redundancies and plant closure if something wasn’t done. But come on, other rolling stock assembly plants have opened in the UK in recent years. Hitachi has a plant at Newton Aycliffe, Siemens has a plant in Grimsby and, if my memory serves me right, CAF has a plant in Wales. So what’s the problem if Derby closes?

The problem, of course, is that Derby is seen as the heart and soul of the railway industry, which is doubtless why it has been selected as the location for the GBR headquarters. To my mind this is sentimental nonsense. I can’t think of any other industry taking such a dewy-eyed view of its history or heritage. But the county of Derbyshire has 11 constituencies, nine of which are held by Conservative MPs. The rolling stock plant might be saved after all!

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

“This was hardly a ringing endorsement of the private sector franchise model”

Stagecoach’s scheme returns

Group’s graduate leadership programme returns after a four-year hiatus as a result of pandemic

Stagecoach Group has relaunched its graduate leadership programme after a four-year hiatus and welcomed nine future leaders to operating companies across the UK.

With a gender split of 44% female, the new group of graduates are set to join a team reflective of the communities served by Stagecoach. Alongside this, 33% of the cohort are from ethnic backgrounds and 44% of the cohort also qualify as socially mobile, supporting the commitment to a more diverse employee population as set out in its recent sustainability strategy.

Stagecoach offers graduates the opportunity to get involved from day one during their two-year programme and their induction week earlier this month was filled with networking, meeting leaders, and undertaking a self-discovery session before joining their host operating company teams.

Reflective of capability requirements for future leaders, those in the programme are set

to develop skills in stakeholder management, commercial innovations, people leadership, operational performance and change management. With additional access to their own support network, they are assisted by a buddy and mentor within the company.

“We are delighted to welcome these new graduates into our teams and know they will have a fulfilling time throughout the two-year programme,” said Stagecoach executive chairman Ray O’Toole. “Our graduates will be based across the UK, developing their expertise with multiple stakeholders which will build their skills and knowledge for becoming our future leaders within the transport industry.

“Having paused our graduate recruitment during the pandemic, it is a really exciting time to be welcoming a new group and generation of enthusiastic individuals into the sector, who I’m sure will go on to achieve great things here.”

APPOINTMENTS

GTR

Govia Thameslink Railway has announced the appointment of Angie Doll as chief executive.

Doll (pictured) was previously chief operating officer of the train operating company and succeeds Patrick Verwer, who is stepping away from day-to-day management of Britain’s largest rail network to become chief executive - rail at GTR co-parent The Go-Ahead Group (PT296).

TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS

Chris Jackson has been appointed managing director of TransPennine Express Jackson (pictured) had been leading the train operator as interim managing director since its transfer to the government’s public sector owning group, DfT OLR Holdings Ltd in May. A former regional director at train operator Northern, he is also a non-executive board member at council-owned bus and tram operator Blackpool Transport.

BUS USERS UK

Bus Users UK has announced the appointment of Lydia Horbury as director for England. She succeeds Dawn Badminton-Capps who recently left the lobby group. Horbury (pictured) has a background in marketing and public relations and began her career in transport as a junior project manager with British Airways. More recently, she has held senior management and leadership positions in the education sector.

TRANSPORT FOCUS

Transport Focus has announced the appointment of Alex Robertson as chief executive. He will take up the post on December 1.

Robertson (pictured) succeeds Anthony Smith who announced he would be stepping down at the end of 2023 earlier this year. He joins from the Pensions Ombudsman where he has been chief operating officer since 2020, but is no stranger to transport, having held policy and public affairs roles at Transport for London in the past.

WOMEN IN RAIL

Women in Rail has announced the appointment of Marie Daly as the charity’s new chair. Daly has worked in the rail sector for more than 13 years and her current role is chief customer and culture officer at Transport for Wales.

KEOLIS

French transport group Keolis has announced a number of changes to its senior management team.Joining from UGI Group is Laurence Broseta who becomes chief executive of the group’s international operations.

Jan Kilström, previously managing director of Keolis Sweden, is appointed chief executive of the continental Europe business. Meanwhile, former director of marketing, innovation and new mobilities Annelise Avril is appointed chief executive for France and major urban networks. Clément Michel is appointed chief executive for operations in Paris-Ile-de-France and territories.

Ray O’Toole (left) with this year’s graduate cohort

DIVERSIONS

Master barber makes a hairy railway exit

Chris

After a whopping 25 years of snipping, clipping, and quipping at Marylebone station, Demetris Georgiou, affectionately known as Chris, has become a cut above the rest for Chiltern Railways customers. He was the go-to guy for folks looking to track down a quick trim before their train trip.

But Chris hung up his shears at the ripe age of 78 earlier this month - you could say he’s finally splitting hairs.

METRO DRIVERS GO DOWN MINE

A trio of retired Tyne and Wear Metro drivers have taken a reverse career leap, heading back in time to the early 1900s at Beamish Museum in County Durham.

Hairdressing runs deep in the Georgiou family veins, with his father doing a cutting-edge job at London Bridge station. And as luck would have it, the late Adrian Shooter was a regular of Chris’s at Paddington

The former Metro train-taming triumvirate - Michael Bushby, Bob Blackburn, and Ian Jefferson - once navigated the light rail system’s tunnels, but now they’re tunneling back in time as miners. They’ve swapped steel tracks for coal seams, guiding visitors through the Mahogany Drift Mine and recounting tales of mining hardships.

It all started when Michael, the trio’s pioneer, joined Beamish in 2021 after 33 years on the Metro. Inspired by his switch, Ian and Bob hopped on board the

station and decided to whisk-er him away to Marylebone.

Since opening on February 1998, Chris, along with his son John, have been delivering top-notch haircuts. Their estimate? A staggering 75,000 haircuts - enough hair to weave a railway!

To bid adieu, Andy Camp, Chiltern’s commercial & customer strategy director, made a short (back and sides) visit for one final trim. He even gifted Chris a pair of golden scissors to celebrate.

As Chris embarks on this new chapter, he plans to spend time with his family, but who knows, maybe they’ll take a clip down memory lane for a holiday?

GISBY BLASTS TPE’S ‘HORRIBLE NOISY THINGS’

Robin Gisby, the chief executive of the Department for Transport Operator of Last Resort Holdings Ltd, described to MPs on the transport select committee earlier this month some of the woes train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) had found itself in.

He referred to TPE as a “complex ball of knitting,” admitting that running four different types of trains on their network was “not easy”.

museum train.

“I really enjoy my role at Beamish and it’s been amazing that I’ve been joined there by two of my former driver colleagues from Metro,” said Michael.

“It all came about when we had our annual get together. I told the guys all about what I was doing at Beamish and they were intrigued. They came to see me at the drift mine and it all went from there.”

“Ian applied and he was successful, and then Bob decided to give it a go too. We’ve all been re-united at Beamish.”

The chief troublemakers? TPE’s ‘Nova 3’ fleet of locomotivehauled trains. As we reported earlier this month, these sets of Class 68 locomotives and new MkVa coaches, will now be withdrawn in December due to continued technical issues and noise complaints from local residents living near TPE’s Scarborough depot.

As Gisby noted: “We cannot maintain [these] locomotives in Scarborough overnight because they are horrible noisy things, and people do not like it.”

All aboard the earplug express!

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PT297

cutting loose after 25 years at Marylebone

Chris takes a farewell cut

Fast track to the pit