The way ahead for buses and trains

Thursday 25th July 2024

Here’s what King Charles III read out in his speech to both Houses of Parliament last Wednesday: “A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services. My ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership.”

Here’s my take on both developments based on a 40 year career in public transport and the eyes of an informed bus and train user travelling full-time around Britain for the last 11 years.

First up, the Better Buses Bill. Here’s what the Government briefing document alongside the King’s speech had to say….

…. pointing out “a modern transport network is vital to kickstarting economic growth. Buses are the lifeblood of our communities, connecting us to opportunities, providing access to services, improving air quality and tackling climate change. However, it is widely accepted that the current system is not working for passengers.”

It’s true the “current system” has had its challenges in some parts of the country, but we must be careful not to throw the proverbial ‘baby out with the bath water’. Aside from Covid, many parts of the country have seen consistent growth in fare paying passenger numbers attracted by quality bus services provided by commercially and community minded bus companies led by locally based passionate, highly experienced bus managers who know how to provide an excellent bus network working hand-in-glove with like minded local authority officers and committed politicians.

Such locations (in England) that come immediately to mind include Brighton & Hove, Portsmouth, Southampton, the Isle of Wight, Bournemouth and Poole, Plymouth, Devon, Cornwall, Reading, Oxford, Cambridge, Leicester, Nottingham, parts of Derby/shire, Warrington, York and a good number more showing signs of welcome improvements thanks to the previous Government’s funding of Bus Service Improvement Plans including Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, West Midlands, Telford and Wrekin and others.

Secretary of State Louise Haig reckons Transport for London (TfL) delivers “one of the most efficient, affordable and sustainable transport networks in the world” and that it is “living proof” passengers “do not have to put up with a broken bus system.”

Her choice of “efficient” as a descriptor is interesting. It’ll be an eye opener if officials at the DfT showed her TfL’s costs compared with those in the above mentioned provincial cities and towns. Certainly I reckon Chancellor Reeves would find it interesting. The “bus system” is certainly not “broken” in the aforementioned areas.

However there’s no doubt there are examples of lacklustre bus provision in many other locations, including some large conurbations, which don’t deliver “a modern transport network vital to kickstarting economic growth”.

The briefing document goes on to explain…

… but there’s a very real danger the attraction for every community “to take back control of their buses” will blindside them to the main reason why many bus networks are not meeting their travel needs.

And that is the problem of traffic management, or to be more precise, the lack of it.

It matters not one bean who owns the bus company – the community, the local authority, a long standing family owned business, a PLC or a global infrastructure and investment company – if buses aren’t given the priority they need on the road network to run a reliable service despite congestion and motorists regarding any curtailment of a so called “freedom” to drive (and park) anywhere at any time as a “war” while utility companies (and sometimes local authorities’ own highway departments themselves) get away with placing road cones, barriers, temporary traffic lights and other impedimenta for road works without any coordination, overall organisation, or priority for traffic flow ….. then “providing more accountability over bus operators and ensuring standards are raised wherever you live across the country” will be like the proverbial ‘having a wee in the wind’ (to put it politely) than a serious attempt to deal with the root cause of any “broken bus system”.

What we need is a “Better Traffic Management Bill” in which local authorities are given empowerment to “take back control” of managing traffic and priority for buses becomes the key objective. The last Government’s National Bus Strategy said as much (thanks to Andrew Gilligan) but that commitment seems to have quietly been forgotten.

Standards need to be set for ‘Bus Speed Improvement Plans’. Until that happens rearranging the deck chairs of control and accountability of bus companies will not make one jot of difference to the bus turning up on time at the bus stop.

To really sort things out and bearing in mind the Government’s large majority, now must be the time to set up a Royal Commission (or whatever grand sounding body is appropriate) into road user charging. It’s the proverbial ‘elephant on the road’. If not now, then when?

And one other thing: “…giving local leaders more control and flexibility over bus funding …” pointedly states nothing about the level of, and long term certainty of that funding. Both of which are crucial.

The last Government gave a welcome post Covid funding boost with Bus Service Improvement Plans and although I’ve been critical there were ‘have nots’ as well as ‘haves’ in the first funding round, and in some cases in the ‘haves’, too much money has been ‘spaffed up the wall’, Johnson style, on DRT, free travel days and crazy new routes which stand no chance of sustainability once the funding ends, there’ve also been some truly excellent developments which will undoubtedly succeed. And more can be done.

Indeed rather than all this “control” malarky, this new Government with its penchant for “devolved powers” could do well to embrace all those original BSIPs that didn’t receive full or any funding at all in the first round and ensure they (or an updated version) are now delivered. It would be a much more effective use of the next six months or so – revisit what’s already been prepared – rather than go down the rabbit hole of “accountability” and “control” which takes us nowhere, even if it makes for good idealogical sound bites.

Pointedly, there’s also been no mention yet by the new Government of the future of the £2 fare cap in England. If it is to end in December it’ll need proper consideration and sensible phasing.

What “Better Buses” need is certainty of funding and realistic funding (compared to rail and other modes – eg fuel tax rebate as enjoyed by airlines). So let’s have a five year funding commitment for the life of this Government (on rail they call it a ‘Control Period’) and let dedicated local authorities work in partnership with enlightened bus companies to deliver (at least the) minimum levels of services for all communities everyone knows are needed with the oh-so-necessary priority for buses on the roads.

And talking of priority (but on tracks) brings me to the Railways Bill.

It’s been six years and millions and millions and millions and millions of pounds spent on preparing for Great British Railways. Goodness knows what those hundreds of staff who’ve been working for the Great British Railways (GBR) Transition Team have been thinking these last eighteen months knowing the previous Prime Minister had no interest in pursuing Rail Reform at all. At least, at long last, it looks as though this long period of uncertainty is finally coming to an end.

With so much of the rail network already in public ownership (Network Rail, LNER, Southeastern, TransPennine Express, Northern, ScotRail, Transport for Wales) and the rest (other than open-access) micro-managed by the DfT under strait-jacket type management contracts, one would be forgiven for asking what difference will it make for the passenger waiting on Platform 1 at Hassocks station, particularly the first two bullet points below?

Furthermore there’s a sense of “believe it when I see it” with some of the other commitments in the briefing document, not least the “delivery for passengers” pledge: “we will put passengers back at the heart of the railways and introduce new measures to protect their interests. This will include paving the way for a powerful new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to independently monitor standards and champion improvement in service performance against a range of measures.”

We already have Transport Focus and I’ve given up counting the number of times I’ve heard the “we will put passengers at the heart” mantra. Every Passenger Charter issued by current Train Operating Companies (TOCs) headlines it, but it doesn’t get us anywhere if there’s no driver to drive the train, the track circuit fails, there’s an issue with signals and the train connection isn’t held even by a minute.

There’s a strongly held view in the rail industry the driver shortage is now so endemic and widespread it underpins many of the current unsatisfactory issues, not least the sensitivity of trade union relations and staff ability and willingness to work overtime. The current fragility of weekend travel is unsustainable. So much depends on voluntary overtime it’s become a lottery whether you’ll be able to travel. Take a look at the train service provided by Northern to Blackpool for example. A hugely popular tourist destination especially on summer weekends yet the service is too often decimated by cancellations. It’s now becoming common for “DO NOT TRAVEL” warnings to be in place such is the diabolic service on offer.

Northern is nationalised, in public ownership, running on publicly owned and maintained tracks confirming once again it’s not ownership that’s the point, it’s proper organisation, management and facing up to priorities and admitting the “elephant on the tracks” for rail is driver shortage.

What’s needed is a clear idea of the extent of the driver shortage. No one knows at the moment, because no one dare ask. The real issue is there’s no incentive for those TOCs still in the private sector to spend money on the costly process of recruitment and training of new drivers with their current management contracts destined for the history books as nationalisation looms. This MUST be the number one priority to regain passenger confidence.

The good news is the one person who I have every confidence can get to grips with the situation is now in charge. Minister of State for Transport, The Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill CBE, rightly has a formidable reputation as someone who ‘gets it’ and, more importantly, ‘does it’ during his lifelong passenger transport career. For example, Peter has vast experience dealing with the severe driver shortage that blighted London’s buses in past decades. He knows what to do. And he’ll do it.

And then we come to the fourth bullet point: “simpler tickets”. It’s a scratched record, it’s been played so many times. We’ve had countless consultations. Transport Focus has been involved. The Rail Delivery Group has pontificated. LNER launched a pilot which led to public outrage giving a good indication of just how difficult it is to please all the fare paying passengers all of the time (including this one).

But, here again, Peter has form. Look at TfL’s pricing structure and compare it to the old days of London Transport’s buses and Underground with their complex fare charts. While it’s not nearly so easy sorting out a national structure with its labyrinthine set of terms and conditions and so many vested interests, I’ll bet we finally see some progress now Peter’s in charge, albiet he’s a Minister and it’ll be the GBR team who actually do the work.

And there’s no doubt in my mind the way to start is to build a bonfire of all those TOC only priced tickets between major destinations (eg Gatwick Airport and London Terminals; York and Newcastle; London and Birmingham). Granted this may mean some price increases but if done imaginatively at the time of an annual price increase with simplification as a high profile objective, it can work. It’s how passengers in Brighton became pleased to have a 25% fare increase from 80p to £1 back in 2000 because they understood the concept of a simple flat fare structure (and those paying £1.30 loved the 30p decrease even more). They responded in record numbers having the confidence they knew and understood the fare.

One other point; “simpler tickets” and “open access has a proven track record in driving competition” do come across as strange bedfellows, but perhaps I’m missing something there, not least with the recent mini explosion in applications for more open access operations.

Then there’s the thorny subject of HS2. We can’t possibly end up with a useless Acton to Aston high speed railway that’ll be of no use to anyone. And as the National Audit Office reported on Tuesday, unless action is taken, there’ll be less seats than now between Euston and Manchester come the Sunak Slimmed Down HS2 opening.

Luckily respected railwayman Chris Gibb has come up with a sensible compromise utilising Pendolinos as well as the new HS2 fleet which has been well chronicled in the rail trade press so I won’t go into detail here.

But let’s have a commitment it’ll be implemented. And now.

And finally, forget any more rail re-openings after the ‘low hanging fruit’ of Okehampton, Levenmouth and, (coming this Autumn), Ashington. The costs involved in schemes such as Portishead simply cannot be justified. They’d fund an alternative gold plated, high frequency bus network operating with free travel for a generation … which brings us back to …. the Better Buses Bill.

Roger French

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