The past few years have not been good ones for bus services in the north of England. As elsewhere, a shortage of funding from local authorities has led to large-scale withdrawal of supported services with evening, Sunday and rural services particularly badly hit. In 2016 Lancashire County Council reduced its spending on buses by £5M per annum, leaving large parts of the county with no buses after six-o-clock or on Sundays.
But for other areas of Transport it appears that money is no object and according to a report in the online newsletter Transport Network, "Transport for the North" (TfN), a self-styled partnership of local authorities, business leaders and central government agencies has been spending money like water - unfortunately to little effect.
TfN, which describes itself as "England's first sub-national transport body, formed to transform the transport system across the North of England, providing the infrastructure to deliver economic growth" has as one of its key objectives the provision of an "smartcard-based integrated transport ticketing system for public transport throughout the North". The aim is to replicate the "Oyster Card" system in use on buses, tubes and trains throughout London, although many former users of Oyster Cards now use their contactless bank cards to provide the same benefits.
TfN set itself three targets for phased development and introduction of the scheme. Phase one - an integrated smartcard across Northern Rail, Trans Pennine and Merseyrail (but not Virgin Trains or East Midland Trains) had an introduction date of the end of 2018.
The first stages of phase two,including adding bus and light rail fares to the mix was to be complete by Spring 2019 and Phase 3, the setting up of a system to co-ordinate and operate the integrated smartcard system across the north was to be ready by the end of last year.
TfN has not stinted in its efforts to spend money on the project. A total of £9.6M has been spent in 2018-19 with "tens of millions" being held in reserve for future spending.
So, what do the bus and rail passengers of the North of England get for their millions? The answer is "not a lot". Bear in mind that the Oyster Card, which TfN are seeking to replicate, allows ticketless travel by all modes of transport throughout Greater London. It also includes an automatic capping system whereby once the cost of the journeys made during a day or a week reaches the level of a daily or weekly travelcard all further journeys during that period are free, just as they would be with a paper ticket. The advantage,of course, is that you don't have to calculate in advance how much travel you are likely to make and decide whether or not to invest in the daily or weekly ticket.
And how far has TfN got towards replicating this?
The existing "Walrus" smart card is only valid on Merseytravel services and does not offer any capping or pay-as-you-go facility.
Trans Pennine's smartcard can be used for travel between any two stations for a week or longer periods up to a year. It offers no other functionality and is merely a plastic version of a paper ticket.
Northern's smartcard is similarly merely a plastic season ticket.
A spokesman for TfN apparently told Transport Network that developing an integrated smartcard system was proving "extremely complex" but that they were working with the Department for Transport and operators to find a way forward. However, the business case for developing the system for operating the scheme has been awaiting government approval since February.
What nobody seems prepared to admit is that replicating the London system elsewhere in England is bound to be fraught with difficulty. London's multiple bus and rail operators all work under the control of a single organisation - Transport for London - which franchises the network. There is one simple zonal fares system for tubes and a flat fare on all bus services. Compare that with the North, where each train operator has a separate franchise agreement with central government, which also sets many - but not all - of the fares and where all of the multiple bus operators have complete commercial freedom to set fares, together with a duty to maximise returns to shareholders.
TfN is always going to find introducing an "integrated fares system" difficult and the Bus Users' Group can't help but wonder whether the £9.6M spent so far - to no effect - would have been spent improving bus services that people actually want to use.