Making Bus Services Viable
Following the ending of pandemic restrictions we find that patronage has not returned to old levels, but road traffic has. Closing the gap in patronage is proving difficult as travel and user behaviours have changed. The old approaches to encourage the use of public transport must change to reflect the new normal.
The missing public transport users are those who are the most important to ensuring the future success of public transport. Indeed, their patronage will not only be the difference between profit and loss and therefore sustainability, but I would argue, in driving appeal to new users. If someone has a choice of transport mode, then the choice they make says a lot to their peers about the appeal of that mode.
This appeal is influenced by a wide range of factors: from those on bus including the basics of maintenance and cleanliness to the ride quality - to those off bus considerations such as how easy it is to find information and buy tickets and the speed of journey.
Work to improve the availability of, and quality of information and ticketing is a continuous task and areas that need to be reconsidered in light of the new travel patterns – ticketing is certainly starting to change to reflect the changed travel patterns, but I have yet to see a meaningful shift and change in information provision in more than a few isolated places. There are many competing requirements from customers for information about bus services and as a result it is more important than ever to engage with individuals and representative groups to understand the current and future requirements to enable new products to be developed.
Perhaps more challenging, than getting ticketing and information correct, in encouraging former and new passengers who have a choice of mode onto buses is ensuring that they provide a competitive journey time in comparison to other modes – both now and in the longer term. It is vital therefore, that as traffic levels and congestion continues to increase, that journey times do not become slower or less reliable as a consequence – thereby making bus transport less attractive. Unlike ticketing and information this is not under the control of bus operators, whilst Bus Back Better has a lot to say about bus priority the solutions sometimes need significant funding and time to implement, not something that the bus industry current has on its side.
What is often forgotten is that improving bus reliability and journey times are not one-off projects that can be solved by infrastructure investment or a new digital bus priority solution. There are a wide variety of location specific causes such as roadworks, parking enforcement, timetables and driving styles that will change over time and therefore need to be regularly reviewed and addressed to ensure the optimum public transport experience. This can only be addressed through long term partnerships between bus operators and local authorities and politicians.
Through the sharing of good practice the BCoE and RTIG can help the industry make a difference to the outcomes for bus services.
Tim Rivett
General Manager of RTIG-Inform