Young Bus Managers in the West Midlands

Tuesday 30th May 2023

Last Wednesday and Thursday saw another successful Young Bus Managers’ conference which once again I had the pleasure to jointly host with Martijn Gilbert and imbibe the energy, enthusiasm and positivity not only of the attendees who came from a wide range of different size companies from all over the country and beyond (ie Ireland) but also our presenters and site visit hosts.

We were in the West Midlands and it was instructive to understand the contrast in how the vision for first class public transport is being pursued through a strong partnership alliance between the Combined Authority and bus and train operators compared with the franchising plans in Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Wednesday afternoon was spent on a fascinating tour of National Express West Midlands’ new bus garage which opened at Perry Barr as recently as last December. And what a transformation from the old site just along the road.

Looking round the impressive facilities it was obvious much thought had gone into the layout and how to make, what is a very large garage, work for everyone based there.

Barriers between supervisors and drivers have noticeably been removed.

Signage is welcoming and informative.

Engineers have facilities to be proud of …

… as well as an extensive recruitment and training resource for drivers including a driving simulator.

It even surpassed the First Bus bus garage I waxed lyrically about at Olive Grove, Sheffield which we visited during last October’s conference. Perry Barr is definitely the most impressive bus garage I’ve ever been in.

And you might be thinking so it should be, being not yet six months old, but what’s interesting is this investment by the private sector of eight figures has been made by a bus company with confidence for the future rather than over in Greater Manchester where the Combined Authority is taking over long standing dated bus garages or setting up new ones with public funds.

We’d taken a ride out to Perry Barr along some of the new bus priority measures installed for the Sprint project which is delivering enhanced bus priority measures along the A34/A45 corridor between Walsall, Birmingham and Solihull.

Articulated buses, either hydrogen or electric powered, are yet to be ordered for the project and will be delivered in 2025 but meantime NatExWM is taking advantage of the new measures on its existing services. 22% quicker journeys are being achieved leading to a 16% increase in passengers.

We ended the afternoon with a visit to the Regional Traffic Coordination Centre where staff from the Combined Authority use CCTV and other monitoring technology to get the best out of the existing road and rail networks. NatExWM has staff based in the control room along with colleagues from other partner organisations.

David Bradford, NatExWM’s managing director, kicked off Thursday’s session with an upbeat look at the outlook for buses in the region, but he didn’t sugar coat the tremendous challenges the company faces, not least rising costs (a recent six day strike by drivers secured a 21% pay deal as well as increased prices of fuel, energy and parts) while post Covid revenue is static mainly due to a sluggish return from concessionary passengers but thankfully fare payers are back towards 100% pre Covid.

David emphasised the importance of partnership working through the now well established Alliance …

… and also set out an ambitious programme of fleet investment in zero emission buses with 29 electric buses already operating, 20 hydrogen buses arrived and 176 electric buses on order for Coventry as part of the Government’s plans to make both that city and Oxford all electric.

The company is bidding for Government funding to buy a further 124 hydrogen buses for Walsall and has committed itself to buy 300 more electric buses without any Government funds so that half its fleet will be electric or hydrogen powered within two years.

David explained the company had been making travel cheaper way before the Government’s £2 fare cap. To encourage passengers back post Covid, fares were cut by an average 6% in July 2021 leading to 9% growth in numbers travelling and a saving of £250 a year for regular commuters. Now passengers were enjoying the benefit of tap and cap across the network.

Coming very soon is a revolutionary change to ticketing in the conurbation with an all operator ticket priced the same as the hitherto NatExWM’s own ticket price. This is a risky strategy for the company but it’s hoped the simplicity of the one ticket all operators deal at a great price will attract growth in passenger numbers. I’m sure it will and the risk will be rewarded.

It’s fascinating to compare the scale of public funding supporting the West Midlands and Greater Manchester networks. David explained the number of bus trips are 38% higher in the former with funding on tendered bus routes a third of that spent in the latter.

But the challenge for the future is starkly illustrated by David’s analysis showing that while revenue is 93% of pre Covid, costs are now running at 125%. He described “the economics are brutal”. But the positive outlook comes from a Mayor and Combined Authority working with private bus companies delivering “England’s cheapest fares, a network serving every part of the region, half the fleet electric or hydrogen by 2025 and a zero emissions cross city network”.

I couldn’t help concluding having seen and heard all that we had … never mind the myth of “London style buses”; what politicians elsewhere should be demanding is “West Midlands style buses”.

The previous evening we heard from Martin Dean, Go-Ahead Group’s UK regional bus managing director who gave a wide ranging insight into how the Group is reacting to the way the bus industry is evolving not least its upcoming expansion with tender wins in Greater Manchester including recent temporary contracts for routes being handed back by Diamond which, as Martin pointed out, helps Go-Ahead gradually build up its expanding staff position ready for September when the new service contracts start.

Martin also explained how the Group had expanded from its UK north east origins taking in coastal locations as well as in Oxford and the Chilterns.

As is traditional we also heard from two young managers themselves and this time Matt Davis and Oscar Taylor both currently studying Transport Management at Aston University gave excellent presentations about their industry placements as part of their studies as well as other industry experiences.

Matt completes his degree course this summer and has secured a job at NatExWM where he also undertook his year’s placement including gaining great experience from being involved in the successful transport arrangements laid on for last year’s Commonwealth Games.

Oscar is currently on his placement year at Bluestar and Unilink at Southampton where there’s been no shortage of opportunities to get ‘hands on experience’ with the recent takeover of former First Bus routes in the city and the even more recent move into that operator’s former bus garage.

From mid morning to after lunch it’s also now traditional for the conference to break into smaller groups to come up with ideas to deal with an industry issue. This time we asked delegates to come up with suggestions to get those pre-Covid numbers back up again across various market segments.

Industry veteran Chris Cheek from Passenger Transport Intelligence (a regular at our conferences) ably set the scene by explaining the latest trends available from official DfT statistics and the National Travel Survey as well as his fascinating insight into future possibilities.

As Chris always reminds us, if the Government’s Net Zero targets – enshrined in law – are to be achieved involving modal shift away from car use (as well as reduced travel volumes), the bus industry has a very bright future. He points out that just a 1% shift from car to bus means a 26.9% increase in bus passengers.

As always our keen enthusiastic young attendees didn’t disappoint and after an hour’s deliberations in groups….

…. came up with a wealth of ideas which I’ve summarised in a list of headings at the end of this blog. Six volunteers explained the rationale behind the suggestions from each group and….

… these were assessed and commented on by our expert panel which along with Chris included Dawn Badminton-Capps from Bus Users and John Birtwistle from First Bus.

John was also next up on our agenda to explain the background and current status of the MultiCAV Project which includes the autonomous bus trial based on Milton Park in Oxfordshire (which I blogged about in March). In an exciting development the trial begins phase two next Monday when the bus will provide a public service linking Milton Park with nearby Didcot rail station using ordinary roads while in autonomous mode.

This will be followed by phase three in July when the trial will feature a full size bus rather than the existing midi size one. As you can imagine John’s presentation led to a large number of questions from delegates who will surely see much more use of autonomous technology during their long careers in the many years ahead.

And then we came to our conference climax, being a presentation from Peter and Ross Newman who I’d asked to come along and share the wisdom they’d gained over a lifetime of dedicated work at the award winning and hugely respected Ensignbus, recently sold to First Bus.

Peter explained they don’t really do scripted presentations and they didn’t this time. Instead both spoke from the heart of lessons learned and experience gained to pass on to our young audience in the early stages of their careers. It was a stunning performance with rapt attention from all attending.

Peter’s top tips for a successful bus company are all very simple and eminently achievable. He pointed out the benefits of running earlier in the mornings and later in the evenings recalling when Ensignbus first took over the network in Grays it inherited an 07:00-19:00 operation. Now there are journeys as early as 04:30 and as late as 01:00 reflecting changing travel patterns not least fulfilment warehouses and other shift workers. Allied to this Peter emphasised the importance of reliability. Other than the disruption caused by Dartford Crossing issues it was unheard of for Ensignbus to experience lost mileage. It just wouldn’t happen.

Secondly Peter explained how important it is to talk to drivers. Listen to their suggestions and ideas. They live in the community and are aware of changes that can be made to improve things. “They’re the eyes and ears of the company”, Peter pointed out.

His third point was: spreadsheets are about history. They won’t tell you what’s coming or what you’re missing. “Look forward by going out and about; drive or ride buses on early shifts; see where people are walking; where there are new opportunities to tap into”. As well as a restricted operating day the Grays network Ensignbus inherited had hourly frequencies which the Newmans have built up to every 10-15 minutes on the best routes as a consequence of keeping alive to changes in the market and tapping into them.

Fourthly Peter emphasised the importance of a printed timetable book widely distributed to hospitals, schools and libraries as well as available on every bus. “Make it colourful” he said noting Ensignbus distributed 20,000 copies of its book each time.

Peter’s fifth point was to ensure any changes to services are well communicated. “Flood the area with timetables – house to house. We don’t sell ourselves enough as an industry. Use Twitter and use humour in it too”.

Having shared those five points Peter concluded with his three biggest annoyances. Hearing that buses are not able to run due to badly parked cars: “this should never happen as bus companies need to be active in getting this sorted by the police. If a bus can’t get through neither can a fire engine”.

Next annoyance was hearing buses can’t run due to trees being too low. “Council’s have an obligation to provide free transit up to 15 feet high” Peter said, and bus companies must aggressively pursue this “issuing a court summons if necessary to get councils to act”.

And finally when buses can’t run due to no driver available. “We never cancelled a bus due to no driver” Peter proudly concluded.

Ross echoed Peter’s messages adding the benefit of driving buses in service yourselves from time to time to get hands on experience as well as having an approach to helping staff so they’ll help you when you might need it. He emphasised the importance of a smart uniform for drivers and also pointed out the busiest days of the year for Ensignbus had been Christmas Day (at the time the company ran sightseeing tours) and Boxing Day – demonstrating there are markets to be served and exploited.

Peter and Ross fielded many questions especially from those working for the big corporate Group owned bus companies wondering how they could adapt and adopt the Ensignbus approach to service development and staff management.

It was a great exchange of wisdom and experience from two undoubted legends of the industry to those just starting out on their careers.

Which is what the Young Bus Managers Network is all about.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

How to get more passengers back post Covid.

Urban Leisure Travel … improve the perception of safety; improve infrastructure at bus stops, work with destinations to encourage an increase in demand

Attractions and scenic journeys … use influencers on third party blogs; expand open tops/sightseeing offers; work with curators of events eg pub tours/food tours; work with destinations and collaborate with attractions; increase the quality of buses; more bikes on buses for active travel encouragement; multi-lingual advertising of bus services; promote scenic locations on a route.

Travel to work … work with employers on large sites eg Amazon to run bus services to suit shift times etc; encourage salary sacrifice for bus seasons tickets; suggest car scrappage schemes in return for reduced bus ticket prices; one month free travel for employees changing or starting new job; consider scope for more Park & Ride schemes for employees; make driving to work/parking more difficult; parking for work should never be cheaper than taking the bus,

Travel for retail … introduce better access for buses in retail parks; direct routes to retail parks; review locations of bus stops so they’re optimised for shoppers; work with retailers to offer discounts to bus users; bus ticket pricing

Travel for education … target markets – primary and college – encourage more primary school children to school by bus; and use apps and promotions to encourage students.

Travel by concessions … PRINT STUFF – don’t rely on having it online; have staffed information hubs; make the on board experience feel good; make the bus usable for all users – accessibility; have a user pack for new concessionary pass holders; market days out by bus and collaborate with destination attractions – discounts/offers etc; direct to quieter travel times; improve reactions with drivers through training.