Agenda item

PowerPoint presentation by Rupert Cox, Managing Director (Stagecoach West)

Council had referred the matter of Cheltenham’s bus service and how it could be improved, to this committee.  The Chairman explained that the Managing Director of Stagecoach (West) had been asked to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and reminded members that the focus of the debate would be the bus service in general, rather than individual services.

Rupert Cox, the Managing Director of Stagecoach (West) introduced the PowerPoint presentation (attached at Appendix 1).  In addition to the slides, he explained;

·         They  employed 180 people based in Cheltenham, up from 140

      10 years ago.

·         The depot at Lansdown Industrial Estate could accommodate 65 buses.   The fleet currently totalled 63, so this represented a future constraint.

·         35 new buses were introduced 2 years ago and only 10 days ago,  new 94 buses had been introduced.  The average age of the fleet was 4.7 years compared to the national average of 8.5 years.

·         According to the DfT only 1 in 9 counties was seeing passenger growth.  Cheltenham was at 2% growth; 30% since 2005.  This did not apply to all routes however, some of the letter services had seen a  1-2%  decline  and  he  felt  that  cheaper fuel prices were impacting these  local/shorter  services.  This reduction was on all categories of passenger free/child/single/concession).   At the       moment, the £2 daily fare for under 19’s was showing growth of 30% plus.

·         Transport Focus were finalising the 2016 surveys.  Overall satisfaction with the service was at 90% in 2014 and rose to 91% in 2015.   The national average was 83%.  Value for Money, whilst ahead of the national average, was the lowest scoring at 69%.  Each year approximately 1000 passengers were surveyed and 30% said that the bus represented better value than their car.

·         In 2014 Stagecoach undertook an exercise with GCC surveying people about why they had come to Cheltenham.  Over a 1 week period 1400 people were surveyed (the target was 1000) and of those 1400 people, 40% had travelled to the town by bus.  Whilst on average bus users  were  spending  less  on  each  visit,  they  were making more journeys  to  the  town  and  so spend more across a typical year. He therefore considered it a myth that getting people to journey to town in their car was better  for  the economy.  42% of those that had driven to town on the day of the survey said that they had used the bus at some point.

·         In  support  of  Small  Business  Saturday and some of the highstreets  in  Gloucestershire,  a  special  fare  of  £2 was being offered.

·         If  only  2% of those that drove to the town centre used a bus it would help to ease congestion.

·         Zurich paid for their staff to travel to and from work for free.   A new service  was  introduced  which  stopped  outside the terminal  building  at  Gloucestershire  Airport  and which is seeing growing   usage. Stagecoach had a good relationship with the Racecourse and 80 extra buses ran during Festival week.  Through work with the Cheltenham BID any employee of a business in Cheltenham could now get 30% off a local travel ticket.

·         The biggest challenge facing Stagecoach was congestion.  The  94  was  the  most prominent service in Gloucestershire, linking Cheltenham  and  Gloucester  and  now took 60 minutes, 90% longer and required  11  buses  rather  than  6, compared to 1990.  The knock on impact of  a  journey  taking  5-10  minutes  longer  than it should ultimately resulted in a journey not operating, currently measured at 0.5% of journeys.

·         Stagecoach  were working closely with GCC and the JCS Team and  had  identified  areas  where there was capacity within existing services  and  where  investment  would  be required for bus priority measures.

·         Faster journeys would result in more people using buses, as with every 10% reduction in bus speed equating to a 10% reduction in those using that service.

·         The cost of parking in Cheltenham for 2 hours was the same today as it had been 10 years ago and he did not feel that Economic Development should focus on promoting people to drive into town.  He would  be comfortable  working  in  partnership with the council and having  a  written  agreement that if parking charges were increased, bus  charges  would  be  reduced.   He was aware that Nottingham City Council had introduced a work place parking levy.

·         The BID deal could backfire in the sense that no more people use the bus service and instead existing users simply get to travel for less each week/month.

·         Bus priority measures were key; not only would bus journeys be speeded up but they would also be more predictable as the bus would be unhindered. To this end parking and bus lane enforcement would also be important.

·         The  new 94 buses entered service 10 days ago and included USB points  for  every  passenger,  free  Wi-Fi,  leather seats, air cooling systems and greener engines that produces less emissions.

·         Smart cards accounted for 60% of journeys but he saw mobile tickets sales were the future.

Rupert Cox gave the following answers to member questions:

·         There were no  issues with the location of existing town centre bus stops but his concern was, if bus use increased, was there adequate space in convenient locations for new bus stops.

·         There were some areas where the Transport Plan would alleviate issues with parked vehicles making it difficult for buses to pass.

·         Tewkesbury Road in particular would benefit from a bus lane.   The Benhall A40 scheme was unpopular with the public but the business case had merit.   He felt that the JCS represented a good opportunity as 106 monies could help fund improvements.

·         He considered North West Cheltenham to be a good area for      development as it had potential to add a park and ride service.

      Existing services could be made more frequent and given the size of      the site, new services could be introduced; to the hospital and/or       station for example.   This would benefit existing users as well as       incentivising more people to use the bus.  Depending on demand a bus      hub could quite possibly work at this site.

·         He didn’t feel that building properties with a single car parking space would be beneficial as in reality people would simply park on the road.

·         His view was that affordable housing should be located closer to bus stops and it wasn’t advisable to build initial phases at the back of a site and furthest away from bus stops.

·         Changes to the road layout at Albion Street had resulted in a shorter route for the B service, which meant less emissions and fuel savings. An A40 bus lane would result in a shorter journey particularly at peak times and throughout the day an uninterrupted one.  When the inbound Cheltenham route was introduced passenger numbers increased by 3% but it was not possible to say whether these were previously car users.

·         The B service had not only been extended but was now more reliable since being linked with the H service.  It also meant that residents on the back of the estate in Springbank were now being served, where they were not before.

·         Stagecoach had a lease with the racecourse and there had been   no   indication, either formally or informally that the racecourse hoped to change these arrangements.

Rupert felt that there was a perception about bus users that needed to be dispelled and he accepted that Stagecoach themselves could do more to do that.  The 12 new buses on the 94 service were luxury and could certainly dispel any such myths.

The Chairman thanked Rupert for his time and input into what he felt had been a very useful discussion.