County Survey Shows Benefits of Bus User Groups

 

During the month of September, Lancashire County Council conducted a survey on the views of bus passengers and non-passengers alike. The purpose was to discover what people thought about the county's bus service, what they liked and didn't like and if they didn't use the buses what would need to change to persuade them to do so. The results were used to inform the development of the Bus Service Improvement Plan, which sets out proposals for major improvements to bus services from next year.

The survey could only be completed online via the County Council's website and, knowing that the site was not widely read by local people, the Bus Users' Group promoted it widely on social media as did those local county councillors who take an interest in buses and the Bus User Group.

Our promotion seems to have paid off.  Out of 2,552 responses  fully one-third came from Lancaster! In contrast Rossendale District produced 2% and Hyndburn just 1% of replies.  Lancaster bus passengers can therefore rest assured that their voices were heard (and hopefully listened to!) at County Hall

Lancaster residents comprise only 12% of the population of the county council's administrative area, so in fairness have been over-represented. Twenty per cent of responses came from NoW card holders, whilst 70% were from the 25 - 64 age group.  Young people, who are major bus users but who only provided 10% of responses, were grossly under-represented, which is disappointing for an online-only exercise.

What Did the Survey Show? 

• 89% of passengers felt safe when travelling by bus.
• 59% of passengers agreed buses were "reliable" (although only 11% "strongly agreed"
• 50% of passengers thought buses affordable (although 20% of respondents were NoW card holders who benefit from free travel)
• 59% of passengers agreed it was easy to get information on buses, although only 15% "strongly agreed" and if the respondents were regular users they were unlikely to need to seek information for most journeys.
• 54% of passengers found bus services did not meet all their needs.

Why people don't use buses.

Respondents who said they didn't use the buses said that was because they:

• "are too expensive" 
• "are too slow"
• "don't go to where I need to travel to"
• "are too difficult to get information on times and routes"

What would make people travel more by bus?

Consistent with these findings, the most frequently-cited attribute to encourage respondents to use bus, or to use bus more frequently, was lower fares, followed by tickets that could be used on other modes, and availability of multi-operator tickets.

Respondents were then asked about the influence of ‘soft’ measures – over half said that the ability to track your bus, and real-time at stops and interchanges would encourage them to travel by bus more often. Only 1 in 5 cited Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) services or the availability of wifi and USB charging. 

Where do we go from here?

The survey was intended to inform the development of the Lancashire Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), which was published at the end of October and which sets out the measures the County Council and bus operators will implement from next April to improve the bus network, subject to the requested funding being awarded by government.  The Council has asked for £165m over the next three years but, realistically, doesn't expect to get the full amount. How much of the BSIP will be implemented depends on the level of funding received and every other local authority with transport responsibility in England is simultaneously bidding for funds from a limited pot.

The Bus Users' Group will be discussing the BSIP in our meeting on Thursday, 18th November at 14.45hrs in Lancaster Library. The meeting is open to everyone and those attending are asked to wear a face covering.

Lancashire's BSIP (all 224 pages of it) can be read here.

The Fall of the Wall

 The Berlin Wall, which divided that German city, was in place for 27 years and during that time people thought that it would last for ever. Recently, the Bus Users' Group has been feeling the same about the hoardings that have been blocking the pavements at the junction of Damside Street and Wood Street. 

Their removal has been promised many times, but a visit by a BUG reporter today found that the latest promise has been kept and the wall is down!

The wall has fallen! Wood Street today.

The hoardings first appeared over two years ago, when work began to convert the derelict shops and amusement arcade at the junction of Damside Street and Wood Street into another example of Lancaster's latest growth industry - student accommodation.

The hoardings completely blocked the pavement along Wood Street, meaning that Stagecoach had to employ banksmen to ensure that buses reversing away from their stands didn't come into contact with pedestrians trying to use the roadway because the pavement was inaccessible.

A crossing to nowhere on Damside Street

The hoardings also blocked the footway on one side of Damside Street and meant that the safe walking route between the bus station and the city centre, which involved crossing Damside Street on the zebra crossing, couldn't be used.

When it became clear that the obstruction wasn't just a temporary feature, the Bus Users' Group began agitating for something to be done to make it safe for passengers going to and from the station. It soon became clear that the problem had arisen due to a lack of co-ordination and co-operation between Lancaster City Council, which had given planning permission for the building work and Lancashire County Council, which as the Highway Authority was responsible for maintaining safe passage for vehicles and pedestrians. The two authorities had just not been talking to each other!  Piggy-in-the-middle was Stagecoach, who now became lumbered with the task of supervising access to the bus station via Wood Street and managing a safety issue that wasn't of their making.

  In January 2020, with the help of County Councillor and BUG member, Lizzi Collinge, we thought we had solved the safety issue when a set of pedestrian-operated signals appeared. Our success, however, was temporary as three months later they were taken away again, apparently when the County Council realised that they would have to pay the hire charge and operating costs from the contractor that provided them!

The conversion work on the buildings was delayed well past its projected completion date and it became clear to the BUG that neither the City not the County Council would take any responsibility for the safety of pedestrians going to and from the bus station. In November 2020 the County Council told us that "we do not have the authority to take things forward", which as they are responsible for highway safety we found frankly amazing.

The developer promised various dates for removal, which came and went and even when the completed accommodation units had been occupied by students the hoardings were still in place, with the blame for the delay now being foisted on another party - United Utilities - who needed to undertake drainage works at the site!

Throughout the process our member and City Councillor, Tim Hamilton-Cox has been a great help to the BUG keeping us informed and putting pressure on the developer to complete the work. Cllr. Hamilton-Cox had extracted a further promise that the hoardings would be gone by today and, for once, that promise has been kept.

Stagecoach need no longer provide the banksmen, which will save them £1,000 a week and more importantly means they can redeploy the staff concerned to what they should have been doing all along - driving buses to help alleviate the current driver shortage. The Wood Street side of the bus station, which has been closed after 19.00hrs at night to avoid incurring yet more banksman costs, can now re-open and evening buses can return to their normal stands. Most importantly of all, there is now once again a safe walking route between the bus station and the city centre.

Service 755 Suspended as Driver Shortages Continue

Service 755 at Windermere

Driver shortages at Stagecoach continue to bite, with regular short-notice cancellations occurring in Lancaster mainly on services 1/1A and 100, but also on other routes.

Now, having been "suspended" for much of October and having returned briefly for half-term week, the company has announced that service 755 Heysham (Ocean Edge) - Bowness-on-Windermere will not be running between Monday 1st and Saturday 6th November inclusive.

Stagecoach has also announced a raft of  planned service reductions in Carlisle, West Cumbria and the Lakes with numerous individual journeys withdrawn and the trunk X4/X5 Workington-Keswick-Penrith services reduced to an hourly frequency.  Two services in the Keswick area, 77/77A (Buttermere) and 78 (Seatoller) are  completely withdrawn, although this is said to be due to an "emergency road closure".

Although 755 provides a number of bespoke through links, most of its route is duplicated by alternative services and the timetable is geared around leisure and tourist traffic, which is lower at this time of year. The Bus Users' Group would not be surprised to see the service "suspended" again in the coming weeks and wonders whether it might be better to admit defeat and suspend it until the Spring so that the drivers can be employed on busier services and passengers can plan ahead with more certainty.

The full list of cancellations can be seen on this link.