West Yorkshire Combined Authority

             Bus Service Improvement Plan

some observations

West Yorkshire Combined Authority [WYCA] has prepared a Bus Service Improvement Plan [“the Plan”] in conformity with the document ‘National Bus Strategy: Bus Service Improvement Plans’ [“the national strategy”], issued by the Department for Transport [DfT].

Officers at WYCA are to be complimented on producing such a comprehensive document within the tight timeframe set by the Government. In the circumstances, it is understandable that the various proposals have not been offered for public scrutiny, though good use has been made of information gleaned from previous consultations and there has also been some welcome contact with various local stakeholder groups.

Here are some personal comments in response to the Plan, clustered around three dominant themes:

• CONECTIVITY - encouraging more intensive use of a seamlessly integrated network;

• COHERENCE - building confidence in a secure and well-informed public realm;

• CHARGING FOR TRAVEL - offering products that are simple to grasp, yet fairly balanced in the eyes of users and taxpayers.
  
  

CONNECTIVITY

The national strategy calls for service patterns to be integrated with other modes: for instance, “bus services should be timed to connect with trains”. [¶89]

Comment This may be a reasonable expectation in the case of (a) a dedicated feeder service or (b) a single railhead serving a discrete catchment area. However, where a bus route calls at more than one railway station, these words amount to nothing more than a dangerously naïve exhortation. Multi-modal network integration is a schedulers’ nightmare - given the impossibility of the task, I would suggest that the most sensible response is to ensure that all holding points are suitably equipped to keep waiting passengers safe, comfortable, and well informed.

In the same paragraph [89] of the national strategy we read that “Bus stations should be protected from closure and redevelopment and be improved and well maintained.”

At 4.2.29 & 4.2.33 of the Plan, WYCA makes a number of welcome commitments to these ends: -

• to maintain a high standard at bus stops & bus stations, and to continue modernising;
• to explore the possibility of external funding for an audit of bus stops & bus stations to identify current issues (especially those relating to safety or accessibility);
• to develop a plan of action to resolve the above issues and achieve the Authority’s vision for accessible, safe and attractive waiting places that also serve as community hubs, offering broad public benefit.
   

Comment It is a matter of regret that the Arriva bus station in Wakefield no longer has any ‘Metro’ presence. Given the call for uniform branding, it would seem a reasonable ‘ask’ for WYCA to provide an official ‘Metro’ point-of-presence in each West Yorkshire bus station, irrespective of the premises’ owner/operator.

COHERENCE

In paragraphs 91-96 of the national strategy, authorities are urged to consider “strong network identities”. Mention is made of the need for accurate information at bus stops, up to date maps, and consistent naming.

Comment Perhaps the ‘audit’ proposed at 4.1.33 of the Plan could usefully be extended to address simple but significant deficiencies and sources of confusion such as:

• Same numbers used by differing routes within the same locality, and differing numbers used by separate operators serving the same route at different times of day / days of the week [such issues may become easier to tackle as and when municipalisation of bus services enables local authorities to take over some of the functions currently undertaken by the Traffic Commissioner];

• Different names used for the same stop (sometimes leading to conflict between onboard announcements and information displayed on street furniture) - surely it would be advisable to standardise using the National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN), and, if this is felt inappropriate in any particular case, seek to amend the national database accordingly;

• Incorrect spellings/descriptions on bus flags, as at stop 45015570 (sign-written ‘Popular Way’ rather than ‘Poplar Way’) and stop 45025419 (spurious mention of ‘Back Duke of York Street’);

• The need for clear and timely announcements in bus stations whenever a vehicle is obliged for operational reasons to dock in a bay other than that which is publicly displayed on the electronic departure boards.
  

The national strategy also highlights the need to promote routes serving visitor attractions.

Comment Introduction of the 108 service to augment the existing 96 service calling at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park was a welcome move, but insufficient patronage has led to its discontinuation. It might have fared better if it had been routed to call at Wakefield Westgate railway station.

CHARGING FOR TRAVEL

The Plan’s summary table includes an ambition “to reduce the wide range [of fares and tickets] currently available”, yet within the body of the plan we find proposals for various extensions to the range: -

• a 90-minute ticket (through a single sales channel) (4.2.46 & 4.2.66);

• ‘district’ products (4.2.66);reduced fares and travel offers targeted at particular groups (4.2.49);

• special offers as part of the projected Superbus pilots (4.2.77);

• other local variations (4.2.44).

Comment Given the indication that contactless pay-as-you-go capping will be rolled out across the West Yorkshire network by means of a “multi-stepped-approach”, bus users must anticipate a period of potential confusion (comparable in same ways to that experienced recently in Leeds during the course of re-identifying each City centre bus stop to reflect the new ‘core network approach’). Care will be needed to ensure that the forward thrust of fares simplification is not clouded by a plethora of transitional arrangements and experimental offers.

At 4.2.25 the Plan indicates that “a simplified graduated ‘consumption based’ pricing structure personalised to individual travel needs” is indicated by responses collected through market research.

Comment It is understandable that many customers in West Yorkshire “only want to pay for the amount of the journeys they take” (4.2.45). This reaction is based on an ingrained sense of ‘fairness’ - those who consume more should contribute more. However, the marginal cost of running a fully laden bus as opposed to a completely empty vehicle is relatively low. The added complexity of graduated fares, as opposed to the flat fare found in London, is such that it would appear prudent to explore alternative means of giving customers a sense of fairplay.

Historical note - bus fare stages traditionally comprised a fairly large number of relatively small steps. When London Transport first experimented (in Romford, during the 1970s) with a multiride product, stages were coarsened into three blocks: short hop, medium length, and long journey - at the time, this was greeted with much opposition by the general public, yet paved the way towards the present flat fare system. The current London system offers weekly as well as daily capping, which may help to offset the apparent unfairness of a flat fare.

WYCA might wish to consider additional capping ranges (monthly, quarterly) in place of fixed-length season tickets, with the possibility of lower caps for those who travel off-peak (exclusively and/or up to a certain proportion) - subject to back-office capability. Such an arrangement would avoid a clear-cut distinction between regular travellers and irregular travellers as drawn at 4.2.47.

“Consumption based” pricing requires both a tap-in and a tap-out, unlike the London bus flat fare, which needs only a single tap, on entry. The Plan envisages (4.2.60) the installation of tap-out readers on all buses, together (4.2.69) with a suitably enabled ‘back-office’ system (NB national strategy ¶86 asks those involved in the preparation of bus service improvement plans to simply “assume that a technical solution is available” to the need for ‘back-office’ support and not to look for independent solutions.) West Yorkshire is said (4.2.70) to be “in a unique position with all operators using the same specification electronic ticket machines (ETMs) and contractual arrangements in place with the same payment provider.

Comment

    Some questions arising from the introduction of tap-out readers:

• has there been any discernible effect upon dwell times at bus stops?

• has there been any significant overhead in servicing customer enquiries dealing with incidents such as failure to tap out, or card clash?

• how may cross-boundary routes be incorporated into the system?

  • what might be required of a passenger riding from (say) Huddersfield to Oldham on route 184 and registered with apps provided by both WYCA and Transport for Greater Manchester (TGM)?

  • what might be required of an operator whose vehicles may be dynamically allocated from day to day, sometimes to routes entirely within West Yorkshire and at other times to routes entirely within another authority?

The plan proposes [4.2.66] the introduction of “district MCard Day and Week products”, “at a price equivalent to the prevalent operator-only tickets in the area”, in January 2022, as part of an initial step towards fares and ticketing reform.

Comment Care will be needed to avoid conflict with the over-arching move towards fewer products and simpler fares. Perhaps the district products could be marketed as a single family with common features and consistent pricing. Zonal boundaries should - wherever possible - be related to visible markers within the public realm, rather than to invisible administrative boundaries. Zones should be allowed to overlap where it is appropriate to reflect a genuine overlap between contiguous areas of affinity. Subject to back-office provision, it would be helpful to provide a mechanism for the collection of additional payments in response to the occasional excursion beyond the boundaries of a district product.

In the longer term, consideration may need to be given to the introduction of combined bus and rail products covering local areas. This will inevitably involve a re-think of the zonal system, given that the rail network topography is based on a set of concentric rings radiating from a central point (Leeds), whereas the district pattern envisaged for bus services is more akin to a jigsaw pattern.

STOP PRESS:

A COUPLE OF FURTHER THOUGHTS IN CONCLUSION

1) Cultural undertow

Our public transport system depends upon many subtle cues to encourage decent behaviour throughout the public realm. The BSIP rightly identifies the importance of branding, but there are other items that can usefully be included in the armoury. Examples of good practice already to be found in West Yorkshire would include the Arriva exhortation to “budge up” whenever a wheelchair position is required, the Harrogate bus poster “ey up!” greeting passengers as they board the vehicle, and Leeds City litter bins use of ‘owt’ and ‘nowt’ in their vocabulary. It would be desirable for bus service announcements to use Northern vowel sounds when referring to places such as ‘Castleford’, and also for officers and contractors to bear in mind that in England we normally speak of ‘routes’, ‘rail(way) stations’, and bus ‘seats’ (not ‘lines’, ‘train stations’, or ‘chairs’), and our national custom is for pedestrians to keep to the right - and overtake on the left -on stairways, escalators, and walkways.

2) “Subject to funding…”

This phrase echoes through the Plan. It needs to be unpacked. Does it refer to anticipated funding from National Government or increases in local precepts? Recent experience with the Trans-Pennine Rail Upgrade (TRU) does nothing to encourage confidence in the availability of funding for bus and rail infrastructure across the North of England. This issue requires greater political clarity, to ensure that available resources are directed towards imminently deliverable improvements, and not squandered on visionary blueprints that stand no chance of attracting adequate funding in the current climate.

Paul Haworth

Normanton

December 2021

(with minor updates October 2023)