Passenger Transport: July 12, 2024

FORTEVERYNIGHT

‘Our

motto is simple: move fast and fix things’

The new secretary of state for transport, Louise Haigh, says transport is ‘central to achieving the missions for government that the prime minister has committed us to’

New transport secretary Louise Haigh has promised to deliver the biggest overhaul to transport in a generation.

Addressing Department for Transport staff on Monday, Haigh set out her strategic priorities, putting transport at the heart of a mission-driven government. They include improving performance on the railways and driving forward rail reform,

and improving bus services and growing usage across the country.

Haigh said: “It will take all our effort but the new motto of our department - our purpose - is simple: move fast and fix things.

“Our department is so clearly central to achieving the missions for government that the prime minister has committed us to.

“Growth, Net Zero, opportunity, women and girls’ safety, health

- none of these can be realised without transport as a key enabler.”

Haigh will be assisted by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, who has left his role as chair of Network Rail to become minister of state for rail. His predecessor as rail. minister, Huw Merriman, hailed Hendy’s arrival at the DfT as “a superb appointment for the railway and the reform agenda”. MORE ON PAGE 4

COMMENT

editorial@passengertransport.co.uk

Public transport now has a friend in government

Robert

Peter Hendy can’t resist a challenge, and his reputation as a respected leader with a keen eye for detail keeps bringing him new opportunities - the latest as minister of state for rail in Keir Starmer’s new Labour government. Hendy is one of a number of non-political appointments in a new ‘government of all the talents’, formed by a prime minister who knows he must make rapid progress with extremely limited resources. Hendy will be joined at the DfT by another familiar face in transport circles, with Lilian Greenwood, the former chair of the Transport Select Committee, taking on the roads brief. Is there anyone who has proven more adept than Hendy at working under different political regimes and consistently producing great outcomes for transport? In 2001 he was recruited by Ken Livingstone, a maverick left-wing mayor, to improve buses before later becoming transport commissioner. When Livingstone was ousted by Boris Johnson, Hendy “cast off the cloak of revolutionary socialism” and offered the new mayor the benefit of his experience. It was a Conservative government that appointed him as chair of Network Rail and his success in that role has been recognised by Labour. Hendy’s appointment is a shrewd one. He knows the sector inside out and he is also a powerful advocate for the role it can play. Public transport now has a close friend in the government. He knows its flaws, but he also has a strong belief in what it can achieve.

IN THIS ISSUE

14 NXWM A N D CITYSW IFT E X PA N D PART N ER S HIP CitySwift has announced the continuation of its partnership with National Express West Midlands. The three year extension comes following impressive year-on-year results, including improved bus punctuality and efficiencies.

5 Aberdeen City Council 8 Alexander Dennis 6 Arriva London 7 CitySwift 10-11, 14 CMAC 5 Coach and Bus Association Cymru 9 ComfortDelGro 5 Ember 6 Equipmake 12 First Bus 6 FirstGroup 5 Go-Ahead Group 7, 12 Go-Ahead London 7 Go North East 12 Island Line 5 Keolis/Amey 5 KleanDrive 12

London Northwestern Railway 5 London Trams 5 London Underground 5 Lumo 5 Metrolink 5 Network Rail 1, 5

National Express West Midlands 14 Office for Rail and Road 5 Oxford Bus Company 12 Pelican Bus and Coach 6 RATP Dev 7

South Western Railway 5 Stagecoach Group 6 TransMach 15 Transport for London 5, 6, 7 Transport for Wales Rail 9 Unite 5 Virgin Group 5 West Midlands Trains 5 Yutong 6

12 R EPOW ER S PEC IALI STS URGE GREE N BU S RETHI N K Bus repower specialists Equipmake and KleanDrive have urged the new government to embed the conversion of existing buses to electric as part of a rebooted ZEBRA scheme in their plans to accelerate the UK’s transition to an electrified future.

22 IM PROVI N G ACC E SS TO OUR NATIO N AL PARK S National Parks are blighted by traffic congestion but access by passenger transport has huge potential. “An agency that managed all transport issues on behalf of each National Park authority could help coordinate matters,” says Nick Richardson.

Great Minster Grumbles: Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the DfT. “Nobody at a senior level understands the railways, and indeed public transport, as well as Peter Hendy.”

Former ministers hail Hendy’s appointment

Huw Merriman, the previous minister of state for rail, hails his successor as ‘mentor’ and says ‘the future of rail looks bright with Peter’s appointment’

LEADERSHIP

The new government’s decision to recruit Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill as minister of state for rail was widely welcomed within the transport sector.

The chair of Network Rail was one of a number of non-political appointments installed by prime minister Keir Starmer to create a ‘government of all the talents’. Support for the appointment came from two former transport ministers contacted by Passenger Transport this week.

Hendy’s arrival at the DfT was warmly welcomed by his immediate predecessor, Huw Merriman, who served as minister of state for rail from October 2022 until last week’s general election. He previously served as chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.

Merriman remarked: “A superb

CPT SEES ‘HUGE OPPORTUNITY’

POLICY

appointment for the railway and the reform agenda. Like many, I’ve regarded Peter as a mentor. The respect he has across the industry will ensure that the integration of track and train will be delivered with GBR. As we approach the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, the future of rail looks bright with

Peter’s appointment.”

Meanwhile, Norman Baker, who served as a minister at the Department for Transport between 2010 and 2013, said: “Keir Starmer has, in his early appointments, shown a welcome tendency to appoint people who actually know their subjectslike the new prison and science

“A superb appointment for the railway and the reform agenda”

Huw Merriman, former minister of state for rail

LOUISE HAIGH’S FIVE STRATEGIC PRIORITES

Improving performance on the railways and driving forward rail reform

Improving bus services and growing usage across the country

Transforming infrastructure to work for the whole country, promoting social mobility and tackling regional inequality

Delivering greener transport

Better integrating transport networks

ministers. Peter Hendy comes into that category.

“At Network Rail, Peter made progress in getting the behemoth into a better state, though I would have liked to have seen faster and more radical progress than what we did see.

“If he is the only transport minister in the Lords, he will also have to answer questions on the whole range of the department’s activities, which will mean he has to be up to speed on buses, trams, motoring, aviation and shipping as well, though I imagine his main task will be to steer through the expected railways bill.”

Hendy is tasked with delivery of one of transport secretary Louise Haigh’s five strategic prioritiesimproving performance on the railways and driving forward rail reform - and making important contributions to others.

In addition, Starmer this week announced the appointment of other ministers at the DfT, including Lilian Greenwood, a former chair of the Transport Select Committee (future of roads), Simon Lightwood (local transport), and Mike Kane (aviation, maritime and security).

DAVID BEGG: PAGES 16-17

The Confederation of Passenger Transport has urged the new government to ensure bus and coach help deliver economic growth, decarbonisation, relief from recent inflation, and modal shift.

Responding to the general election result Graham Vidler, chief executive at the CPT, said:“The new government has a huge opportunity to use bus and coach services to

deliver its key priorities including economic growth, decarbonisation, and relief from recent inflation as well as its targets to shift people away from private car journeys and towards more sustainable public transport. To realise these goals ministers must drive forward policies that help bus operators and local authorities put the right services on the road for local communities.

“Stable long-term investment in the bus sector will be critical, but immediate action must prevent a cliff edge return to fully commercial fares when the £2 fare cap [in England] ends in December - a scenario that would harm passengers and services.

“CPT will also work with ministers and local transport authorities to share lessons from the early adopters of bus franchising - to help Bus and coach operators seek policy interventions

“Action must prevent a cliff edge return to fully commercial fares when the £2 fare cap ends in December”

ensure success in other areas that choose this path. It will continue working too with the many local transport authorities that want to retain a partnership model to deliver more services that are regular, fast, punctual, and more popular.

Meanwhile, he added: “To address persistent shortages of coach and bus drivers, ministers are urged to deliver promptly the proposals about driver training made earlier this year by the Department for Transport, and to ensure the future of both sectors we urge them to work with us to develop and bring forward an effective national workforce strategy.”

Paris is reallocating roadspace away from cars to walking and cycling

Call for approachlong-term to planning

New report from London Transport Museum calls for long-term planning in order to transform UK transport networks and promote sustainability

PLANNING

A new report has highlighted the urgent need for long-term planning to develop transport networks across the UK that meet passengers’ needs and promote sustainable travel options.

The report, Making Transport Fit for the Future, is a collaboration between the London Transport Museum, engineering consultancy firm Mott MacDonald, law firm Gowling WLG, and Hitachi Rail. It forms part of the Museum’s thought-leadership initiative, Interchange.

It challenges industry, transport authorities, government, and policymakers to adopt a long-term,

vision-led approach to planning and delivering transport systems that meet the needs of tomorrow’s society. It advocates for three ‘building blocks’ to underpin affordable, reliable, convenient, safe, and accessible transport systems. The first block, ‘Strong Foundations’, focuses on current needs, emphasising affordable, reliable, and accessible sustainable transport. ‘Visionary Outlook’ calls for aadoption of technological changes to support a low-carbon, equitable, and economically

prosperous future. Meanwhile, ‘Bold Transition’ aims to embrace change, drive innovation, and foster a culture of experimentation to encourage behaviour shifts.

Key recommendations include strong leadership supported by government commitment, embracing technological advancements, stakeholder collaboration, and considering social outcomes in future transport schemes.

“Transport plays a pivotal role in addressing the challenges posed

“Change is inevitable, so where will we be in 15 years and beyond?”

by the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency,” said Annette Smith, head of future mobility at Mott MacDonald. “It also holds the key to shaping a low carbon, equitable and economically prosperous future. This potential makes the focus of this report timely and highlights the need for urgent action.”

The report includes case studies demonstrating innovative approaches to transportation and urban mobility:

Transport for London’s Active Travel Scheme: TfL’s efforts to promote cycling and walking through expanded cycle routes and improved safety measures;

Montpellier’s Free Public Transport: an initiative offering free access to the bus and tram network, which has tripled the number of users and improved accessibility;

Paris’s Green Transformation: plans to combat pollution and become Europe’s greenest city by 2030, featuring expanded bike lanes and pedestrianised roads;

First Bus’s use of AI: implementation of artificial intelligence to optimise bus schedules and improve punctuality; and

TfL’s Superloop: a project to enhance London’s outer transport network with high-frequency bus links connecting suburban areas.

“Transport is about people,” said Giles Clifford, partner at Gowling WLG. “Change is inevitable, so where will we be in 15 years and beyond?” Andy Bell, vice president of ground transport systems UK at Hitachi Rail, added: “The UK’s transport network is the backbone of our country. Visionary leadership and long-term planning and investment are crucial to elevate and future-proof existing systems.”

The report can be viewed at tinyurl.com/f8jwn4zy.

London Northwestern aims for Manchester

Manchester to Euston link would ‘generate return for taxpayer’

NETWORKS

London Northwestern Railway (LNWR) has become the latest train operator to unveil plans for new rail services connecting Manchester with London Euston.

Virgin Group has applied to operate four open access services on the West Coast Main Line, including a Manchester Piccadilly service that would continue to either Rochdale via Manchester Victoria or Preston via Bolton, Horwich, and Chorley (PT314). Meanwhile, FirstGroup has also announced plans for a new Lumo-branded service between London and Rochdale.

Under LNWR’s proposals, its existing service between London

UNITE BALLOTS

METROLINK STAFF

Move follows ‘woeful’ pay offer from operator

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Around 600 staff members of the Unite union at tram operator Metrolink have been balloted on strike action following what the union describes as a “woeful” pay offer.

The ballot closed this week, and the results were unavailable as PassengerTransport went to press. If the vote favours strike action, Unite indicated it could commence before the end of next month.

Metrolink operator Keolis/Amey proposed a 4.5% pay increase for 2024. Unite argues that this offer comes “despite years of below-

Euston and Crewe would be extended to Manchester Victoria. Additionally, services currently operating between Stafford and Crewe would be extended to Manchester Airport. These new services aim to establish direct links from Rugeley, Lichfield, Tamworth, and Atherstone in the West Midlands to Manchester and Warrington.

LNWR plans to submit formal proposals to the Office for Rail and Road later this year. Pending approval, the services could commence in May 2026, subject to the recruitment and training of additional staff.

LNWR intends to deploy its new fleet of Class 730 Aventra units on the Manchester service. Each 10-car train is expected to accommodate over 1,200 passengers, significantly boosting

inflation pay increases” and seeks above-inflation pay rises over the next three years. The union highlights that staff accepted less than inflation (RPI) last year and experienced a reduction in the pay progression scales for drivers and customer service roles.

Meanwhile, strikes by London Trams engineers have ended after Unite secured an improved deal. The workers were disputing significant pay disparities between themselves and London Underground colleagues performing the same roles.

Negotiations with Transport for London resulted in an offer that substantially closed the pay disparity, with some grades seeing a pay increase of up to 20%. The deal also resolved long-standing contractual and holiday pay issues.

capacity along the West Coast corridor.

Ian McConnell, managing director of West Midlands Trains, operator of London Northwestern Railway, highlighted the benefits of LNWR’s proposal compared to the open access plans of First and Virgin. “With platform space at Euston at a premium, the best way to provide new journey opportunities to Manchester is simply to extend existing services, rather than trying to squeeze more trains onto the congested West Coast Main Line,” he said. “Additionally, unlike the open access model, the millions of pounds of extra revenue our proposals would generate will be returned to the taxpayer, providing a win-win for rail passengers.”

RAIL REPLACEMENT GETS NEW FOCUS

CMAC aims to improved customer service

RAIL REPLACEMENT

ComfortDelGro subsidiary CMAC Group has launched a new business focusing on improving the customer experience when rail replacement services are in place.

Great British Rail Replacement, aims to change the approach toward the provision of bus, coach and taxi services during planned engineering works and short notice disruption. It will work with transport operators and other stakeholders to ensure there is a more seamless and integrated overall experience.

The business will be headed up by experienced rail replacement

FURTHER ISLAND LINE CLOSURE

Lines woes continue with further closure planned

MAINTENANCE

The Isle of Wight’s troubled Island Line is to close completely for a month from September 6 with the Ryde Pier section of the route remaining closed until May 2025.

Network Rail and operator South Western Railway said the full closure is necessary to complete “vital maintenance”. The programme includes track and bridge renewals between Ryde St Johns Road and Ryde Pier Head, renovations to a historic footbridge at Brading, signalling works at Ryde and bridge repairs in Sandown. The Ryde Pier closure will allow engineers to continue work to repair and preserve the historic Ryde Pier structure, which began in October 2022.

For most of this year, the line has operated an hourly service due to faults with the line’s two-car Class 484 units, with only one of the fivestrong fleet available for service.

expert Ian Jeffrey, who led bus and rail operator Abellio’s activity in this area as managing director, as well as having held senior roles in the industry during a 40-year career. He will be supported by customer experience expert and Passsenger Transport columnist Alex Warner.

“The rail industry is long overdue a fresh approach to the provision of rail replacement,” said CMAC chief executive Peter Slater. “Too often, customers choose not to travel because they see that rail replacement services are runningy.

“The sector needs to take a strategic and customer-led view towards not only the specification for rail replacement activity but also a more industry-wide review of its spend, particularly as it is under pressure to reduce costs”.

Yutong lands big group electric bus orders

Chinese electric bus manufacturer wins orders for 327 buses

INSIGHT

Stagecoach and First Bus have placed substantial orders for Yutong electric buses through Pelican Bus and Coach, the Chinese manufacturer’s UK importer. The orders represent significant steps towards transitioning to zero-emission fleets at the two groups.

Stagecoach’s order follows hot on the heels of an order for 244 Alexander Dennis battery-electric buses that was announced last month (PT316). The Perth-based group has ordered 158 single deck electric vehicles from Yutong. Stagecoach recently accepted delivery of 23 similar vehicles for use in Sheffield.

The new order will make Stagecoach the largest operator

EMBER WINS GREEN BANK INVESTMENT

Triodos loan supports purchase of new coaches

EXPANSION

Ember, the UK’s first zero-emission all-electric intercity coach operator, has expanded its fleet of batteryelectric coaches with a £5.6m loan from green investment bank Triodos. Ember launched in 2020 with two coaches operating its first route between Dundee and Edinburgh. The company has since expanded its network to include Glasgow, Stirling, and Kinross services. The new loan will enable the purchase of an additional 14 coaches, increasing Ember’s total fleet to 38 vehicles and

of Yutong electric vehicles in the UK, with over 200 buses. They will be deployed across various locations in England, including Chesterfield, Slatyford, Rugby, Leamington, Nuneaton, Stockton, Preston, and Sunderland.

Stagecoach and local and national government initiatives, such as the Levelling Up Fund for Sunderland, the Full Electric City scheme for Coventry, and the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) funding stream for other areas excluding Preston, are jointly funding the buses.

Deliveries are scheduled to begin in July 2024, and all buses are expected to be in operation by the third quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, First Bus has placed the largest ever single UK order to date for Yutong electric buses, consisting of 169 vehicles. This order includes 127 U11DD double deckers and 42 E10 and E12 single

allowing for further expansion.

The £5.6m loan from Triodos Bank UK follows previous support from the bank. Ember initially received a £490,000 loan under the government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to purchase its first two coaches. This

deckers. The new buses will be delivered over the next 16 months to First Bus operations in Taunton, Weston-super-Mare, Basildon, and Bristol. First Bus already operates battery-electric Yutongs in Aberdeen, Leeds and South Wales.

“We are delighted to place this order with the team at Pelican,” said Andrew Jarvis, First Bus’s chief operating officer. “This order marks another significant milestone as we invest further in our journey towards a zeroemission bus fleet across our UK operations.”

With the completion of this order, First Bus will have over 800 zero-emission vehicles and electric vehicle charging infrastructure at 16 depot sites across the UK. At least 18% of First Bus’s UK fleet will also be zero-emission, aligning with the group’s 2035 fully zero-emission fleet target.

was followed by an additional £4.7m through CBILS and the governmentbacked Recovery Loan Scheme.

Alongside the loan from Triodos, Ember also received funding for the new coaches from Transport for Scotland using the Scottish Zero Emission Bus Challenge Fund.

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SUPERLOOP BEATING WIDER LONDON GROWTH?

TfL suggest flagship bus scheme is producing results

PATRONAGE

Transport for London has reported that patronage growth on a number of Superloop orbital bus routes is ahead of the 2% increase recorded across London’s bus network in the year to May 2024.

Route SL6 (Russell Square to West Croydon) saw a 20% rise in patronage during this period. The restructuring of services between Holborn and Waterloo contributed to this increase. Route SL7 (West Croydon to Heathrow Airport) saw a patronage increase of 91% due to a doubling in service frequency. After accounting for changes in patronage on parallel routes, the corridor demand increased by 21%.

Route SL8 (Uxbridge to White City) saw an 18% increase in patronage, partly due to extended operating hours. However, when considering these extended hours, the net increase was only 1%. The lack of growth on the SL8 corridor suggests a shift in demand from parallel routes. Meanwhile, Route SL9 (Heathrow Airport Central to Harrow) did not undergo any service enhancements but still saw a 2% growth in patronage. The overall corridor demand grew by 5%.

London bus figures hint at impact of congestion

Only five operators beat their performance targets in TfL stats

PERFORMANCE

Rising traffic congestion is increasingly impacting London bus performance, new figures suggest. According to the latest Transport for London report for the period ending April 26, 2024, only five of the capital’s 18 bus operators with high-frequency services met their minimum standards for Excess Waiting Time (EWT).

All five operators that exceeded their targets primarily operate services and networks in inner London. The best performer was RATP Dev-owned London Transit (formerly Tower Transit), based at Westbourne Park. Its EWT variance was 0.12 minutes, well ahead of its target of 1.24 minutes. This marks a significant improvement from a year ago, when London Transit was ranked 17th in the league table.

The other operators outperforming their targets include sister RATP Dev company London United, Arriva London South, Go-Ahead London subsidiary London General, and Metroline.

The worst-performing operator was Sullivan Buses, whose TfL business is shrinking. Although their EWT minimum standard is 1.10 minutes, they reported a performance of 2.61 minutes, resulting in a variance of -1.51 minutes. Docklands Buses, owned by Go-Ahead, also performed poorly, dropping from first place in the final quarter of 2022-23 to 17th place in Q4 2023-24, with an EWT variance of -0.61 minutes.

On a broader commentary on bus performance in the final quarter of 2023-24, TfL said that the Covid-19 pandemic initially led to fewer passengers and less traffic, which improved bus reliability significantly in 2020-21 and in 2021-22. However, by 2022-23, network reliability had

worsened to below pre-pandemic levels, and this decline had continued into 2023-24.

Before the pandemic, inner London saw improvements in EWT, while outer London experienced a decline. Covid-19 restrictions temporarily improved EWT across all areas of London, but by the fourth quarter of 202324, all areas reported poorer EWT results than pre-pandemic levels.

Low-frequency bus services saw a temporary improvement in punctuality due to Covid-19, but performance has since declined. In the fourth quarter, these services performed worse than both pre-pandemic levels and the same period last year. Night bus performance returned

Source: TfL (12 weeks to April 26, 2024)

to normal faster than day routes, but in the fourth quarter, the percentage of on-time night buses was below pre-pandemic levels and worse than the same period last year.

On bus speeds, TfL said that until 2017 average speeds consistently declined. This decline slowed over the next three years, but speeds were still much lower than in 2014. During the pandemic, bus speeds increased significantly in 2020. Although they started to drop once again at the beginning of 2021, they stayed slightly higher than pre-pandemic levels throughout 2022/23.

TfL continued: “In 2023/24, bus speeds have been much closer to pre-pandemic levels and in Q4 they matched the pre-pandemic baseline. Bus speeds in inner north east, inner south east, inner south west and outer south east [London] remain above prepandemic levels.”

Uncertain future for Aberdeen bus gates

Scottish Government-funded scheme has reduced bus journeys times and boosted use of services - but businesses claim that footfall has been hit

BUS PRIORITIES

The future of Aberdeen’s new bus gates is uncertain, despite evidence that they have resulted in reduced bus journey times and significant growth in bus passenger numbers.

The bus gates and associated bus lanes in Market Street, Guild Street and Bridge Street were introduced with a permanent Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) as part of a scheme to re-route most through traffic away from the commercial centre of the city. The investment was one of the most notable outcomes to date from Scotland’s Bus Partnership Fund (BPF), which the Scottish Government has suspended for this financial year.

Aberdeen City Council used an Experimental TRO to allow bicycles, goods vehicles and taxis to access central Union Street, in addition to buses. The new layout came into force on August 1 but has been mired in controversy, with businesses claiming it has reduced footfall.

Last month, councillors on the city’s net zero, environment and transport committee voted for temporary suspension of the bus gates at the junction of Union Street (westbound) and Market Street (southbound) while construction works take place nearby. They also voted by a majority to make the Experimental TRO permanent. Three members of the committee - two Labour and one Conservative - voted

for an amendment calling for pedestrianisation of central Union Street.

The matter was referred to the meeting of the full council held on July 3, but it was then deferred to a later meeting.

A report by council officers for the earlier committee meeting said that motorists could still access all of the city centre car parks, and city centres across the UK were experiencing lower footfall because of changes in working and shopping from home. It also included evidence

from First Bus Scotland on the benefits of the road changes.

“Our passenger volumes have continued to climb from the initial 9% growth back in October 2023 to the 16.5% enjoyed at the end of March 2024,” said First.

“The bus priority measures have done what we said they would. Bus speeds have been improved resulting in a more attractive service and significant fare reductions/free travel, giving customers much greater value for money, and delivering modal shift as a result. All in all, when taking

“Bus speeds have been improved resulting in a more attractive service and significant fare reductions/free travel”

First Bus Scotland

account of all the city centre interventions, so inclusive of the central section of Union Street, there has been a benefit provided to circa 12 million passenger journeys.

“It is essential these journey speeds are maintained on a permanent basis for these benefits to be delivered in the future.”

Stagecoach also reported increases in passenger numbers, including a 23% improvement on Service 59 (Balnagask to Northfield via Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) in the busiest week in December. Park & Ride services have also seen additional custom.

Council officers commented: “The new bus priority measures are improving journey times and reliability and provide a platform towards a city mass transit system that is quicker, greener, and cheaper, while at the same time supporting the City Centre Masterplan for an attractive and vibrant city centre.”

When the Scottish Government awarded £200,000 from the BPF last year for the Aberdeen bus priority infrastructure, the North East Bus Alliance of local authorities, bus operators and other stakeholders said that the infrastructure would make a tangible difference for bus passengers and support the development of Aberdeen Rapid Transit.

The proposed rapid transit system is still being developed, and would require a much larger injection of funding for bus priority infrastructure from the BPF or other sources. It would seem likely that removing the successful BPF-supported measures in the city centre would weaken the case for Aberdeen to receive further funding from the BPF for Aberdeen Rapid Transit infrastructure, should the BPF resume next year.

“The introduction of bus franchising does not assume any uplift in total funding to bus”Ken Skates

No extra funding for delayed bus franchising

Council tax suggested as source of funding for bus networks

FRANCHISING

Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates has said the plan to franchise all bus services in Wales is based on no increase in Welsh Government bus funding, but suggested that extra services or reduced fares in local areas could be funded through council tax. He also said the government has postponed the legislation for franchising again.

“Given the current financial challenges, the introduction of bus franchising does not assume any uplift in total funding to bus,” Skates told a Senedd committee.

“Franchising will provide Welsh Government with more control over financial risk and the power to control the significant funding we invest in bus services, making sure it is spent where it can have the greatest impact, reducing

Tf W COST RISES STARTING TO EASE

Farebox is strengthening as cost rises plateau

FINANCES

Cost rises at Transport for Wales Rail are starting to ease off but revenue growth has been affected by the pandemic and delays to new trains and enhanced services, a Senedd committee has been informed. Last autumn, the Welsh Government gave TfW £125m of in-year revenue funding for rail in addition to the planned rail subsidy. A similar additional amount was included in the budget

inefficiency and improving integration of services to make that funding go as far as possible.”

A committee member asked him how he was assessing the financial implications of franchising, to ensure the outcome of the forthcoming Bus Bill was affordable.

Skates said: “I think there is immense opportunity in having a more transparent, simplified fare regime that drives social justice, and also the potential to introduce innovation such as Pay As You Go, like they have in London, which we are now rolling out through the Metro [rail services in South Wales].

“So, enormous opportunities. All of this needs to be affordable, of course, and the key objective for us is to drive up patronage.”

He also said there was evidence that the main reasons for people not using buses was unreliability or that they couldn’t access bus services. The cost was the second

for the current financial year. The government said the funding enabled the rail transformation programme to continue.

TfW had ordered new trains worth £800m in 2018, for a 65% increase in capacity, and embarked on the £1bn Core Valley Lines (CVL) modernisation which will double or quadruple service frequencies on what is termed the South Wales Metro. These enhancements have driven up costs but the pandemic wiped out about three years of expected passenger growth, leaving revenue considerably lower than forecast in 2018. There have also been major delays to completion of

most important factor, but significant nonetheless.

“There are some really, really innovative things that we can learn from overseas as well, concerning how we can, effectively, purchase more services through the council tax regime, as they do in parts of France,” he said.

“There are parts of France that have a free localised bus network - free because it’s paid for through council tax. So, through the Bill and creating a network of services, we will then be able to look at how to afford additional and more regular services.”

Four months ago, the government published its roadmap to bus reform which said franchising would deliver “affordable” fares and “a structured and fair approach to fares that will offer good value to our passengers”. It also said the government wanted to provide more frequent bus services. It did not say that these benefits

the CVL modernisation works and introduction of new trains.

Last month, Llyr Gruffydd, chair of the climate change, environment and infrastructure committee, asked Welsh transport secretary Ken Skates and officials whether the gap between rail cost and revenue was bigger than anticipated.

Peter McDonald, the government’s director of transport and digital connectivity, replied: “It is bigger than anticipated, and it is starting to plateau. The farebox is holding up, but we need to remember that more services are still coming on stream. So for example, we are now paying for the drivers and testing of trains

could depend on funding through council tax.

The roadmap also said franchise roll out would commence in 2026, but the government now appears to be aiming for 2027.

The committee asked Skates why the Bus Bill had been delayed. Skates replied: “Simply because of the sheer intensity of the legislative programme. But actually, in terms of delivery, it doesn’t make a difference. The key date is 2027, when the franchise is actuallywhen we hit ‘go’ on the franchises. So the delay from autumn to spring makes no material difference in terms of delivery.”

The Coach and Bus Association Cymru, representing smaller operators, queried the assumption that franchising could be achieved without increased funding. CaBAC chair Scott Pearson told Passenger Transport: “We suspect that when Welsh Government actually starts to properly analyse the cost of franchising against the positive changes that are being delivered currently with the Bus Network Grant scheme at, we suspect, a fraction of the cost of franchising, common sense may prevail.”

that will run along the South Wales Metro in 2026.

“So we still are in that period of discrepancy, where the costs come before the farebox, but as performance has improved, the farebox is strengthening as well, which is excellent news.”

Skates said it was vital that TfW grew out of this challenge, rather than cutting its way out of it.

“Increasing the farebox is at the centre of ensuring that the subsidy can be reduced, and that will happen with the Metro going live in 2026. That’s going to be a huge change in terms of how we can raise revenue.”

A sector poised for growth

Our sample of public transport professionals expressed optismism about the sector’s future

We are at the beginning of a new era for the country - and perhaps also for the public transport sector.

This month’s general election saw voters indicate their desire for a change of direction - but what about those working in the public transport sector? What is their current mood?

In 2021 and 2022, as we emerged from the pandemic, our The State of UK Public Transport survey revealed remarkable optimism about the future of their sector, despite the obvious and immediate challenges. But so much has happened since then, including the disastrous Liz Truss budget, followed by Rishi Sunak’s ‘Plan for Drivers’ and the decision to axe HS2 north of Birmingham. We teamed up with data specialists CitySwift again to survey 48 passenger transport professionals, including many well known names in the sector.

In the short-term, 63.8% of respondents said that increasing patronage or footfall was the biggest opportunity for the public transport sector. Having adapted to post-Covid travel patterns, is the stage now set for the sector to move forwards and grow its customer base?

But there are challenges to overcome, and the biggest according to 46.8% of respondents is congestion. More than half (57.8%) said congestion was having

a significant negative impact on the public transport network for which they are responsible. What will the new government do to address this problem?

Launched three years and three prime ministers ago, the National Bus Strategy for England pledged to speed up bus journeys. Our survey respondents were not impressed. Only a fifth (21.1%) said that it exceeded their expectations. Almost twice as many (39.5%) said that it fell short or a long way short of their expectations. Will Labour come up with its own strategy for buses?

There is positivity about some other key aspects of bus policy.

More than half of respondents (53.2%) believe that devolution deals are improving the relationship between authorities and operators to deliver a better bus service to passengers. In contrast, only 10.7% said the opposite. There is also positivity about the preparedness of organisations for bus franchising and/or Enhanced Partnerships and the transition to zero emission bus fleets.

Finally, there is a high degree of optimism about the future. A clear majority (59.6%) predict that public transport patronage will be higher or significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2030, with only 19.2% forecasting the opposite. And almost half (48.9%) believe it’s likely that efforts to achieve Net Zero will lead to policies that constrain car use and promote public transport.

SHORT TERM

What’s the biggest opportunity right now for the UK public transport sector?

Increasing patronage or footfall (63.8%)

Using data to optimise the network (19.1%)

Growing environmental awareness (4.3%)

Other (12.8%)

What’s the biggest challenge currently facing the UK public transport network?

Congestion (46.8%)

Recruitment and retention (14.9%)

Greater regulatory powers (6.4%)

Other (31.9%)

SHORT MEDIUMTERMTERM

In 2030, how will public transport patronage compare to pre-pandemic levels?

Significantly higher (12.8%)

Higher (46.8%)

About the same (21.3%)

Lower (14.9%)

Significantly lower (4.3%)

Do you expect efforts to achieve Net Zero will lead to policies that constrain car use and promote public transport?

Very likely (14.9%)

Likely (34.0%)

About the same (14.9%)

Unlikely (29.8%)

Very unlikely (6.4%)

NEXT TIME: DATA AND TECHNOLOGY

Conducted in association with data specialists CitySwift, our surveyTheStateofUKPublicTransport - also featured eight questions on the subject of data and technology. The findings from this section of the survey will be published in the next edition of PassengerTransport

After the election: First and Arriva. Pages 24-26

SHORT TERM

CURRENT ISSUES COMMENT

How is traffic congestion impacting the public transport network you are responsible for?

A significant negative impact (57.8%)

A negative impact (34.0%)

Little or no impact (8.5%)

Has the National Bus Strategy for England exceeded your expectations?

It greatly exceeded my expectations (0.0%)

It exceeded my expectations (21.1%)

It is as I had expected (39.5%)

It fell short of my expectations (7.9%)

It fell a long way short of my expectations (31.6%)

(Excludes those who said ‘not applicable’)

Are devolution deals improving the relationship between authorities and operators to deliver a better bus service to passengers?

A significant improvement (17.0%)

A slight improvement (36.2%)

No improvement (36.2%)

A slight decline (4.3%)

A significant decline (6.4%)

How prepared do you feel your organisation is for bus franchising and/or Enhanced Partnerships?

Very prepared (48.3%)

Slightly prepared (37.9%)

Not prepared at all (13.8%)

(Excludes those who said ‘not applicable’)

How prepared is your organisation for rolling out and scheduling zero-emission electric bus fleets?

Very prepared (37.5%)

Slightly prepared (37.5%)

Not prepared at all (25.0%)

(Excludes those who said ‘not applicable’)

Now is the time to seize opportunities

We can drive forward improvements that will benefit all

Momentum is building within the UK public transport sector, captured by the new transport secretary, Louise Haigh, who has promised to “move fast and fix things”. This optimistic outlook is reflected in the results from the third The State of UK PublicTransport survey conducted in partnership between CitySwift and PassengerTransport. It’s an exciting time for the industry after a turbulent few years.

The survey results highlight that transport leaders see increasing patronage as the biggest opportunity for the industry in the medium term, despite patronage already being higher or significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. Providing reliable services that meet passengers’ needs is the quickest way to positively impact patronage levels, but one of the major challenges in the way of this is congestion.

Labour has outlined plans to reinstate the ban on the sale of internal combustion engine cars by 2030, and supporting the transition to electric vehicles, which hopefully will play a crucial role in reducing congestion and promoting the use of public transport.

With the Labour government, it

“The survey results paint a bright future for the UK public transport sector”

is clear that local authorities will be given more powers through devolution deals. The majority of respondents to the survey indicate their organisations are increasingly prepared for this significant change in operating environment.

Effective collaboration between authorities and operators is critical to delivering fit-for-purpose bus services that meet the needs of local people, communities, and businesses. This ensures the right enhancements are made for all parties - operators, authorities, and most importantly passengers. I strongly believe that using reliable data insights to optimise network performance is crucial to enabling informed decision-making and coordinated actions.

The survey results paint a bright future for the UK public transport sector. With the right strategies and collaborative efforts, the sector is well-positioned to accelerate the delivery of better bus services for passengers, operators, and authorities alike. Now is the time to seize these opportunities and drive forward improvements that will benefit all.

Brian O’Rourke is CEO and cofounder of CitySwift, an Irish-based intelligent performance optimisation platform that helps public transport authorities and operators deliver dynamic services that are ultraefficient and reliable. CitySwift’s customer base features some of the world’s largest public transport bodies, including Go-Ahead Group, Transport for Wales, National Express Group, Translink, Oxfordshire County Council, and East Yorkshire Buses.

Repower specialists urge green bus rethink

KleanDrive and Equipmake want conversion incentives

ZERO EMISSION BUSES

Bus repower specialists

Equipmake and KleanDrive have urged the new government to embed the conversion of existing vehicles to electric in their plans to accelerate the UK’s transition to an electrified future.

KleanDrive wants the Department for Transort to rapidly reassess the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme to include incentives for the conversion of existing diesel buses to electric.

“The cost of repowering a diesel bus is significantly lower than purchasing a new battery electric bus,” explained KleanDrive CEO Joe Tighe. “With a saving of

£350,000 per bus, this approach can lead to substantial financial savings. For example, even if just a quarter of the UK’s buses were repowered instead of replaced, the total savings would be over £3bn.”

“We know the government has limited funds but big ambitions, and the UK needs to hit our environmental goals as quickly as possible. Government support for repowering current vehicles rather than purchasing entirely new ones will not only support the UK economy, but is a far more cost-effective, and faster

way to transition the bus fleet to zero emissions and accelerate the improvement of air quality in urban areas.”

This view was echoed by Equipmake chief executive Ian Foley. He said: “The new government must bring in incentives to reduce the purchase price of a repowered bus, which will not only reduce pollution and provide the UK bus industry with a much-needed shot in the arm, but transition the entire fleet to zero emissions faster and more cost-effectively than through entirely new electric buses alone.

“If just a quarter of the UK’s buses were repowered instead of replaced, the total savings would be over £3bn”

Joe Tighe, KleanDrive

“The UK can and should be a leader in zero emission mobility, and the new government must grasp the nettle and make the most of this incredible opportunity.”

Equipmake last month announced a repower solution for the Wrightbus Streetdeck. Launched in 2014, the Streetdeck is one of the most popular double decker buses in service in the UK, with many thousands of vehicles in operation across the country in the UK’s biggest fleets.

Foley commented: “The conversion of these buses will not only have a huge positive impact on local air quality but provide operators with a vehicle with lower running costs and a better experience for passengers and drivers.”

The company claims that its technology has clear and proven advantages, with 90 tonnes of CO2 being saved by repurposing the existing chassis and body, rather than producing an entirely new double deck bus.

GO-AHEAD GROUP WINS AT GREEN BUSINESS AWARDS

Creation of all-electric fleet for Oxford recognised

AWARDS

Go-Ahead won ‘Transport Project of the Year’ award at last month’s Green Business Awards, for creating an all-electric bus city in Oxford.

As part of a multi-organisational approach, Oxford Bus Company is deploying a total of 104 zeroemission buses across the streets of Oxford by the end of 2024, the project being funded by local and national government and over £30m of investment from Go-Ahead. Over 80 of these vehicles are already in service in the city.

NXWM CitySwiftexpandspartnership

Following strong results from previous years, bus operator is now rolling out performance optimisation platform across entire fleet of 1,400 buses

OPTIMISATION

CitySwift has announced the continuation of its partnership with National Express West Midlands (NXWM). The three year extension comes following impressive year-on-year results, including improved bus punctuality and efficiencies.

Galway-based CitySwift is a specialist in performance optimisation for the public transport sector, with a growing client base across the world. Since September 2023 NXWM’s use of the company’s advanced data technology has led to a reduction of more than 20% in late running, customer wait times have been reduced, and passengers per journey have increased. This follows strong results from previous years and consequently NXWM is now rolling out CitySwift’s platform across its entire fleet of over 1,400 buses.

As a leader in the largest UK urban bus market outside of London, NXWM provides on average 210 million bus passenger journeys per year across the West Midlands and has worked collaboratively with CitySwift to develop best-in-class transport solutions that analyse passenger and service data, drive optimum performance, and delivers a much more efficient use of resources.

Speaking about the announcement, Alan Farrelly, chief commercial officer and co-founder of CitySwift said “National Express West Midlands has been core to CitySwift’s product development

since 2019, and we are thrilled to extend our partnership for a further three years. This next phase will enable National Express West Midlands to further strengthen their commitment to enhancing the public transport network and improving the passenger experience through our technology.”

The latest innovative CitySwift solution is Spotlight, a globally leading intelligent recommendation engine for bus network enhancements that is integral to building smart cities and regions of the future. NXWM is the first UK transport operator to adopt Spotlight, with the West Midlands being the first region in the world to benefit,

resulting in faster, more customercentric choices that balance resources, passengers, cities, and operators.

Ed Rickard, network director at National Express, commented: “Our collaboration with CitySwift to deliver Spotlight for the benefit of bus users across the West Midlands, and in major cities across the UK, is a groundbreaking achievement for the National Express West Midlands and CitySwift teams.

“We are delighted to continue working in partnership with CitySwift over the coming years and proudly leading the charge in the UK when it comes to the use of AI-powered data and insights that are key to an efficient, cost-

“We are proudly leading the charge in the UK when it comes to the use of AI-powered data and insights” Ed Rickard, National Express West Midlands

effective delivery of bus service performance for customers across our network.”

Designed for schedulers; Spotlight improves scheduler decision-making by providing insights into performance and resource considerations such as timeliness, cost, and vehicle numbers. It scans the entire network, delivering service optimisation options, and efficiency improvements.

Andy Foster, director of bus planning at National Express, added: “We are excited to be extending CitySwift’s performance optimisation capabilities across our bus network in the West Midlands. Traffic conditions on our region’s roads have worsened and can negatively impact the reliability of our services. However, using CitySwift’s analytics and optimisation tools our skilled schedulers and network planners have been able to respond effectively, maximising our productivity and efficiency while also reducing late running for customers that rely on our bus services.”

The renewed partnership with NXWM closely follows other developments for CitySwift, having opened its first UK office earlier this year in London and announcing additional partnerships with Transport North East, Transdev Blazefield, and trentbarton. Since its inception, CitySwift has grown to have a presence across the UK, US and its home territory of Ireland, covering transport networks in all major UK cities. Additionally, in February of this year CitySwift announced the close of its latest funding round of €7 million led by Gresham House Venture, as the company continues to scale for growth globally.

Transmach’s Supertram deal

Company has been awarded ETM contract by the new operator of South Yorkshire’s trams

In preparation for the recent operational handover of South Yorkshire Supertram to South Yorkshire Future Trams Limited, which is running the service on behalf of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), TransMach was appointed to provide the operator with its contactless electronic ticket machines (ETMs).

As part of a new contract awarded by SYMCA, specialist smart ticketing solutions provider TransMach is supplying Supertram with 90 of its handheld TM920 Pro devices, which will enable conductors to retail paper and smart tickets and accept pre-purchased smart tickets, as well as process cash and contactless transactions. These units accept contactless bankcard (cEMV) payments, ITSO smartcards and QR codes, that are fully integrated with SYMCA’s mobile app, which uses TransMach’s own dynamic barcodes.

In addition, SYMCA will benefit from TransMach’s innovative work on developing a cross-industry PAR deny list and real-time barcode checking, to protect revenue and minimise the risk of contactless ticket fraud.

“TransMach have been tremendously responsive to our input”

Suzanne Hutchinson

Commenting on its contract with SYMCA, TransMach’s director, Minesh Vandra, said:

“Our mission is to help local authorities and transport operators to make significant efficiencies in cost and time, by harnessing the benefits of security-assured contactless ticketing technology, backed up by a dedicated support function and cloud-based asset management.

“Being part of a cross-industry group in the development of the PAR Deny List protocol sets a new standard in safeguarding critical data and systems and this important work will strengthen SYMCA’s operation considerably. TransMach takes a bespoke approach to every project, to ensure that customers can identify areas where improvements can be made.”

Suzanne Hutchinson, head of commercial development at SYMCA said: “TransMach have been tremendously responsive to our input and requests in delivering a tram-based configuration appropriate to South Yorkshire’s operating area and the current mix of tram-only and multi-operator TravelMaster ticketing, whilst also embracing the new contactless technology through Littlepay and Elavon”. SYMCA was able to appoint TransMach due to the ticketing specialist’s inclusion on the new National Mobilities Procurement Hub (NMPH), developed by SAM (Smart Applications Management).

ROUND-UP

DRIVER APP

First Travel Solutions’s Driver Companion App

APPS

First Travel Solutions, part of First Bus, has launched its Driver Companion app, a solution for vehicle tracking that enhances transparency, safety, communication, and overall service quality. Available now for download on the Apple iOS Store and Google Play Store, the Driver Companion app enables drivers to share their location in real-time.

SIGN LANGUAGE SOLUTION TRIAL

ACCESSIBILITY

Arriva Rail London, which operates the London Overground, will trial an innovative solution to help British Sign Language users. The trial is in collaboration with GoMedia, a subsidiary of Icomera. Powered by Signapse technology, GoMedia has developed Luna which translates digital information listed online into BSL and transmits it directly to the user through their smart device.

TAXI-TRAIN LINK

INTEGRATION

Veezu, the taxi technology platform, and Seatfrog, the rail ticketing app, have formed a strategic partnership. Seatfrog’s technology is now connected to Veezu’s vehicle network, taking passengers from their home straight to the best seats on trains and then directly into a Veezu car on arrival at the best price available. The partnership will eliminate the headache many passengers face across the UK, waiting in endless taxi queues or missing taxis because their train is running late.

BOOSTING MOBILE COVERAGE

Extended to tunnelled section of Elizabeth line

CONNECTIVITY

Mobile coverage is now available to customers using the Elizabeth line as they travel across central London. Following all Elizabeth line stations getting mobile coverage earlier this year, Transport for London and Boldyn Networks have introduced coverage within the tunnels from the Royal Oak portal to Liverpool Street.

DAVID BEGG

Transport’s GOAT is great appointment

In

Peter Hendy, we have a minister who understands the public transport sector and the role it can play. Big challenges await him

Congratulations to Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on becoming a ‘GOAT’. He is one of a number of new ministers Keir Starmer has appointed to add experience and professionalism to his cabinet to emulate the last Labour prime minister Gordon Brown who created a ‘government of all the talents’. I have collaborated with Peter in different capacities for 30 years. He succeeded me as chair of the Commission for Integrated Transport in 2005. That same year I voted for him to succeed Bob Kiley as London’s transport commissioner when the mayor, Ken Livingstone, left the decision to board members. More recently he asked me to become a member of the Union Connectivity Commission, which he was asked to chair by Boris Johnson during his time as PM.

The transport secretary Louise Haigh is the youngest member of the cabinet at 36. It is a smart move to bring in an experienced transport professional such as Peter to assist her as she gets up to speed with the brief. Do not expect Obama-type oratory from Peter Hendy. What you can expect is hard work, diligence, professionalism, and extensive knowledge. He will be a key advocate inside government in emphasing the importance of investing in public transport.

While he was made a crossbench peer by Johnson, Peter has always identified more with the Labour party and will feel more at home as a Labour peer joining his brother, John, who was made a Labour peer by Jeremy Corbyn.

Indeed, in 2008, when Boris was on course to being elected as London mayor, it was uncertain whether Peter wanted to continue as transport commissioner, such was his loyalty to Livingstone. However, he quickly realised that he was a civil servant and not a political appointee and that he needed to remain in post to provide continuity.

While Peter has been more associated with rail in recent years in his role as Network Rail chair, he is at heart a bus man. Starting his career as a graduate trainee at London Transport he worked his way up the ladder and became MD of CentreWest London Buses before leading a management buyout and then selling to First Group in 1997. He returned to become MD of surface transport at TfL in 2001 and presided over an unprecedented growth in bus patronage.

He is supportive of Labour’s policy to make it easier for mayors and local authorities to introduce bus franchising but would share my view that this is a ‘level two’ issue and that future-proofing buses from congestion by reducing journey times through bus priority

“He will be a key advocate inside government in emphasing the importance of investing in public transport”

is a ‘level one’ issue. If we do not address this issue then buses are going to cost much more to run and we will haemorrhage patronage. Modal switch, car restraint in urban areas and road pricing are all policies he passionately believes in. But when commentators claim that the size of the Labour majority means it has a blank check to do whatever it wants with no checks on their power they are wrong. National renewal requires two or three terms in office. To achieve that you must take the electorate with you: this is the constraint on the radical transport policies advanced during the Prescott years. An alliance between Farage and the Conservatives will weaponise any policy which is viewed as anti-car. Amongst transport professionals there is broad agreement on the correct policy direction - this is not the main issue: it’s how you win public support and stay in office by pursuing it. What is politically deliverable in London is much harder to win public support for in other parts of the UK.

While he will be able to influence wider transport policy, he will be responsible for rail. Setting up Great British Railways will be his key task and transferring power from the Department for Transport and the Rail Delivery Group, including procuring services and setting fares. He will have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the right people are appointed to lead GBR.

The significant role rail plays in generating economic growth, connectivity, and equality will drive policy. You cannot build 1.5 million new houses over the course of this parliament without good connectivity and locating sites with good rail access will be crucial.

I would anticipate him getting HS2 back on track.It makes no sense for it to run from Lichfield and terminate at Old Oak Common. I would anticipate a staged approach to bringing the project back to life starting by building it from Euston to Crewe. This would free up lots of capacity for freight and local services and open exciting possibilities for housing development. A more ambitious strategy will be determined by patronage trends and availability of finance. Politics will play its part and the potential for Labour to take control of the Scottish Parliament in 2026 will hopefully revive the prospects of threehour journey times from Edinburgh/Glasgow to London and highlight the importance of Scotland and England working closely

“Lord Hendy’s immediate priority will be to end the paralysis caused by train drivers strikes”

together on major infrastructure projects. However, Lord Hendy’s immediate priority will be to end the paralysis caused by train drivers strikes. This will be priority number one in his in-tray. Without an end to industrial action and recruiting more train drivers there is no chance of delivering a reliable railway and giving passengers the confidence they require. If you live in Scotland or Wales, you will be unaffected as your railway is publicly-owned and the pay dispute has been settled. If you travel by one of the open access operators, such as Grand Central, Hull Trains or Lumo, your service will be running as these operators take all the revenue risk and their balance sheets will not be able to cope with strike action. If your train service is cancelled, you are one of the unlucky ones who has one of the 14 franchises that are micro-managed by the DfT as opposed to the publicly-owned model or the free market model.

When it comes to negotiating pay deals these train companies’ hands are tied by government. Previous Conservative transport ministers claimed it was up to rail management to agree terms, but it is the government who dictate

the terms. That is why, with some justification, ASLEF claim that they need to conduct negotiations directly with government.

Our railways are slowly recovering from the pandemic and almost half a million train cancellations in the last year are irreparably damaging its ability to win passengers back. Industrial action is only one reason for cancellations. The main reason is a shortage of drivers. With most train contracts short-term and ending in the next few years, there is little incentive for management to make the longterm investment in training and recruiting new drivers. It takes almost one year to train a driver and can cost up to £100,000. There is a naïve perception that it is an easy job that anyone can do, yet 60% of applicants fail the aptitude test. The shortage of drivers means that overtime and rest day working is essential to run the service and there is a complete lack of resilience in the timetables. To make matters worse the ageing workforce means that 20% of drivers will retire in the next five years.

This driver shortage means that the previous government were taking on ASLEF at the worst possible time with the union holding a strong

bargaining hand. It would be like Margaret Thatcher taking on the miners when there was a shortage of them and no stockpile of coal! Hendy will settle this dispute quickly and embark on a big recruitment drive for new drivers which will allow train services to be run in a resilient way without depending on overtime working. Then the government can insist that real-term pay increases are only achievable through productivity gains to prevent rail costs from spiralling upwards. If he delivers on this, gets HS2 back on track and beds in Great British Railways he will have more than justified his appointment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor David Begg is a former chair of the government’s Commission for Integrated Transport and was the chair of the Transport Committee of the City of Edinburgh Council when the radical Greenways bus priority measures were introduced in the 1990s. He has been a board member of FirstGroup, TfGM and TfL.

JONATHAN BRAY

Ireland challenges car dependency

Instead of continuing with the car-dominated policies of the past, Ireland has boldly prioritised public transport and active travel

Ireland’s ‘celtic tiger’ boom (between the mid-1990s and 2008) turned the Republic from one of the poorer western European countries to one of the wealthiest. In doing so it put a new car and a new house suddenly within reach of many more people. When the boom times ended a property bubble burst and Ireland was left with more sprawl (30% of the population live in one-off houses or ribbon developments), some of Europe’s worst traffic congestion in Dublin, and a sense that the country had failed to sufficiently invest in its public transport infrastructure during the good times. The hangover from the boom years is now over and the Irish economy is on more of an even keel (with population and employment at record levels that are way beyond what was forecast). There’s a desire to get it right this time, to show leadership on climate and to put Ireland more on a par with successful comparator small European nations where public transport infrastructure and provision is more comprehensive.

Cometh the hour cometh the man and determined but astute leadership is being given on transport by the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan who has held the post of transport minister in a coalition government since September 2020. Ryan is clear that it’s the end of the road for a car-dominated transport policy in Ireland and that a decisive shift to public transport and active travel is non-negotiable. But he also wants to bring people with him, given how people’s fear of the unknown can

easily be used as rocket fuel for reactionary politics. He talks about helping people who are ‘captive’ motorists and are spending too much of their time in traffic jams instead of with their friends and families. He says he is not out to ‘shame or price people off the roads’ but to provide viable alternatives to car use.

As well as seeking to bring the public on side, the transport strategy attempts to co-design ways forward through working groups representing both private and public sector interests. It also roots transport policy in its contribution to a broad range of wider government objectives, such as putting ‘town centres first’ and supporting rural economies. Interestingly, it also covers topics that seem to be sidelined by the Department for Transport in England, like the role of parking.

What this looks like in practice is the Irish state backing transformational plans by local authorities for active travel (active travel spend is up from €23m in 2017 to €343m in 2023), road space reallocation and the implementation of enhanced networks of bus services which will benefit from more priority measures. Support for capacity building for local authorities to

“Determined but astute leadership is being given on transport by the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan”

do this sits alongside the routeing of more funding to those authorities that get on board with this new agenda. All of which is accompanied by significant investment in mass transit in Dublin and a positive mindset about the potential for rail reopenings across the island of Ireland.

One of the biggest successes for this new approach has been in rural areas where hitherto bus services have been decidedly patchy. Although almost 38% of the population live in a rural area, over 70% of those have limited or no public transport connections and almost 200 villages across Ireland were not served by regular public transport at all.

‘Build it and they will come’ doesn’t always work for rural buses given that people have already planned their lives around the lack of bus services and cynicism about whether a new rural bus service is a gimmick that won’t be around long. But, in Ireland, they have built it and people have come. The rebirth of the rural bus in Ireland is built on the firm foundations of careful planning and effective co-design which have underpinned the role of new ‘Local Link’ bus services and networks (alongside greater provision by state-owned Bus Éireann and existing commercial services often provided by long established SMEs).

The National Transport Authority works with 15 regional Transport Coordination Units (TCUs) that administer and manage the Local Link services on behalf of the authority. Network redesigns have been rolled out based on regular interval, frequent services on core routes, coordinated with infill feeders (some of which are on a demand responsive basis).

Since the implementation of phase two of the project in 2023, 190 new towns and villages, 42 hospitals, and 34 higher education colleges have been connected by 120,000 more weekly kilometres of bus services. In one week, in June 2024, 95,000 passengers used these services (up from 6,000 passengers per week in 2018). Even its architects at the National Transport Authority have been surprised by the rate and extent of take up of these new services. Pent up demand from those who had been doing ‘work arounds’ because of the lack of a bus service, older and younger passengers (who can’t or don’t want to drive) and carfree tourism all appear to have played a part. Maybe too the fact that in Ireland the new bus services are seen as something provided by

“Car use in absolute and modal share terms is falling whilst public transport use is at record levels”

the Irish State and therefore there is more of a sense of permanence.

Moving from Ireland’s countryside to its capital city, the pace of change is also picking up - as is the challenge for Eamon Ryan of taking people with him. Road pricing may be off the table but radically changing the balance of road use in the city centre is not. A new Dublin transport strategy aims to do just that. Even before this, if you spend any time in Dublin it won’t be long before you see new, or under construction, active travel schemes. But, as has recently happened in New York (which stepped back from road pricing at the last moment), as implementation of the plan draws closer to sign off a reactionary crescendo is building with siren voices calling on Dublin City Council to water the plan down. Eamon Ryan is urging them to stand firm at what is a pivotal moment.

Alongside the hoped-for remaking of Dublin for people rather than predominantly for private vehicles, a step change in rail-based mass transit is also on its way. At present Dublin’s rail and light rail provision has three

main elements - all with their own separate branding and identity. The DART (cross-city from North to South), LUAS (a tram system on east to west and north to south axes) and heavy rail commuter services. Of these the DART does a great job but is showing its age. LUAS is modern and smart whilst commuter rail services can be low frequency and provided by Japanese-built trains which haven’t aged well for noise and vibration. Meanwhile Dublin’s buses are a further separate entity. Fare integration between the networks is improving (but not fully there yet) and when you know the system you can play tunes on it to get to where you need to be. The plan (in a nutshell) is to renew and extend DART (including transforming more existing heavy rail lines), keep expanding LUAS and add a new baby to the familyIreland’s first Metro, running from the airport to the city centre. You can see a lot of transit orientated development already if you ride the rails of Dublin’s transport network, but the system expansions are predicated on a whole lot more. Meanwhile there are plans to keep

rolling out more bus priority corridors - which, alongside the greening of the bus fleet, and a network redesign, should be transformative.

Ireland has a good story to tell already on public transport and active travel. The current young generation is the first where there has been an increase in walking and cycling to school. Car use in absolute and modal share terms is falling whilst public transport use is at record levels. Small countries can do big things at a time when leadership and opportunity come together. That’s where Ireland is right now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For decades Jonathan Bray has been at the forefront of making progressive change happen on transport - from stopping the national roads programme in its tracks in the 1990s to getting buses back under public control in the 2020s. He is an advisor to the Welsh Government on bus franchising and an independent advisor. www.jonathan-bray.com

ALEX WARNER

A railway ready renationalisation?for

As the new government begins bringing the railway back under public ownership, it would be wise to look at the history books

I was in a boozer in Lancashire on election day, chewing the fat with a couple of old lags from the so-called bygone days of British Rail. I made some comment along the lines of, “Well, let’s be honest, it wasn’t really any better under British Rail and was a bit of a national joke at times,” only to be told politely I was talking a bit of nonsense really. They contested that “sectorisation” was the glory era for the rail industry and I thought “here we go again…”.

I’m not planning another article comparing whether it was better or not back then, I’ve been down that road before a few times with you lot and in fairness to these old-timers, my recollection as a teenager is admittedly of a railway landscape that had more character, a greater brand personality and presence and a sense of strong leadership - big leaders, recognisable to the public and well respected by their staff. Safety didn’t seem as strong, but this was an epoch in transport and beyond that was transitioning from underinvested, outdated infrastructure to an industry which was more technological and where shoddier working practices and culture were becoming more professional. This period, that was neither here nor there, in my view, imported risk. Anyway, I digress, as we look forward with a new government, it’s worth ruminating on whether we are genuinely likely to see signs of this so-called halcyon era of BR.

My biggest fear right now is around leadership and capability. I’m not decrying the efforts of those in management roles.

There really is talent out there, but when the railway was last under national ownership, formal development programmes were more predominant. They had longevity and created pathways that took folk through the formative stages of their careers. Today’s development schemes are short-lived, falling by the wayside if their architect moves on.

When I look round the sector, I see huge enthusiasm among fledgling managers and a far more culturally savvy and diverse perspective, but I also see them, in some respects abandoned by their seniors, those galvanising, strong leaders at the top who should not only provide assuredness in times of adversity but also informal mentoring. I also see less career planning for leaders - folk aren’t moving into roles internally due to some kind of structured long term plan for them, more so because they’ve flitted from one job application to another and in some cases, got lucky.

The uncertainty and constant sense of ‘waiting for direction’ in terms of the future industry set-up has created malaise, alongside a blunting of scope and accountability for leaders. The post Covid-environment in which

“I don’t sense a mass of railway managers waiting excitedly to be unleashed and emancipated”

TOCs don’t take revenue risk, alongside a more prescriptive, scrutinising role for the Department for Transport, has stymied the span of roles for folk and prevented new skills and experiences being developed alongside a desire and ability to make decisions. The industry, in my view, has far fewer rounded and experienced leaders than in the dying days of nationalisation - and don’t forget back then, there was no separation between operations and infrastructure, so operations managers were more multi-functional. For this reason, during the privatisation years, London Underground managers, reared in an integrated railway, were always highly regarded, better remunerated and sought after in the ‘National Rail’ environment.

Sadly, I don’t sense a mass of railway managers waiting excitedly to be unleashed and emancipated within a new structure and buoyed by greater certainty for the future of GB rail, now the election result has been confirmed. It’s not helped by only old-timers remembering, as my lags down the pub did, how much freedom and fun it was last time round. Instead, I see a cadre of managers showing a mix of world-weariness, neutered of their creative flair to the extent they can’t even contemplate what it might look like to be able to develop and genuinely execute and follow through new ideas. They appear hesitant, waiting for direction from leaders who themselves are fatigued and confused, lacking the energy to go through all this change once more, this time reversing the privatisation years they’ve invested the bulk of their career in. Meanwhile, the modern generation is, in my view, more conservative and not as instinctively entrepreneurial or risk taking as their predecessors (not necessarily a bad thing) and this cultural shift will need to be taken into account before anyone thinks we can just pick up where we left off in sectorisation.

Importantly too, I fear that the railway, in its desire to achieve value for the shareholders of the various privatised companies, alongside an anxiousness to quickly exploit the benefits of technological enhancements, has cut its cloth too savagely. I understand the Treasury’s postCovid demands to reduce costs, but I don’t believe that there has been an appreciation of the complexity of the railway and the risks of reducing staffing to the bone. I see the pitfalls when disruption occurs, particularly

“The industry has far fewer rounded and experienced leaders than in the dying days of nationalisation”

during evenings and weekends, when managers have gone home and staff are depleted; large stations descend into chaos, bordering on anarchy with customers having to take control, in the absence of sufficient staffing and leadership. In the new world when the industry finally has a proper structure and strategy, it will take longer to rebuild and achieve success because we’ve reduced staffing numbers and the number of experienced managers. The landscape has indeed changed since last time round, though this is where the history books are so important for Labour and all those involved in the sector. Where sectorisation appeared to be a success was because it consisted of local, market-led business units, with very clear accountabilities and in a set-up and culture that encouraged commercial innovation. There were fairly fluid processes to sign off initiatives and ‘get things done’. There was also an emphasis on the railway and its assets, such as stations, to be treated as ‘profit centres’ and a retailing philosophy was fashionable within the sector, which naturally spawned a more customerfocused approach. Bear in mind back then, across society as a whole, customer service was very much in its infancy, seen as some radical and slightly odd principle created by the Americans and one which rested a little uncomfortably with the transport sector. When I started my career in 1993, I’d suggest that at least a third of my fellow employees were either unnerved by the concept of being subservient to passengers or considered it nonsense. The benefit we have this time round is that customer service is absolute bread and butter to every business, not just in transport - even if it’s not always delivered with aplomb. We’re working in an environment where there is more technological and human innovation around making the life of customers better. There are other things in our favour, that were less the case during the last knockings of nationalisation. Although there had been a major investment in London commuter rolling stock with the advent of the fleet of Networkers, for instance, the fleet profile across the industry was tired and deteriorating. Privatisation brought with it a flurry of new trains. It may have been less interesting for us trainspotters, but in the main the fleet across Britain has become more streamlined, yet still flexible in terms of its ability to serve different

routes and scenarios.

Whilst the downturn in customer numbers in recent years has made it harder to balance the books, this is also a railway that should be easier to operate. Spreading customer numbers more evenly across the day, due to more flexible and less intense working arrangements, should create a less pressurised environment and alleviate all the pinch-points that used to be the bane of our lives. It should also make it easier to reduce delays related to mass commuting that pushed the railway on some corridors to breaking point every morning and evening peak. Even challenges that were intrinsic to a frontline manager’s peak-time portfolio, such as the retailing experience, have, to a huge extent, been taken away. Queues out of the door at ticket offices, as well as broken or slow machines, were as big an issue for your average duty manager as a track circuit failure when I joined the railway.

Modern day advances that make this an easier playing field than back then, also include the ability to glean, track and act on customer and non-user sentiment, through social media and other research tools. Remember, the internet wasn’t really in play during the nationalised era. Today’s marketing manager in the railway can generate campaigns digitally, with an eye-catching graphic, compelling message and a few quid thrown at Meta and friends. Back then it was posters, leaflets and hugely expensive TV and radio ads.

Technology has also enhanced safety management, particularly in terms of remote infrastructure and asset monitoring and although anti-social behaviour is still very much active, the design and layout of stations and trains, as well as the use of CCTV mean that it should be easier to create a more controllable railway for staff and customers.

Whilst I fear that today’s managers are less equipped than before, through no fault of their own, I do believe that culturally the railway is in a better place. Firstly, it is in a more collegiate and collaborative space. From my observations, the railway towards the back end of BR was more ‘command and control’, which did, at least, create a sense of clearer direction, but perhaps made it less a place to provide feedback freely or where the less experienced could flourish. Then, in the early years of privatisation, a macho, adversarial culture emerged where former colleagues at British

Rail were now in separate businesses. Lacking any maturity gleaned from ever working outside of their organisation before, they enjoyed flexing their muscles, thinking that was how to operate in the ‘real commercial world’, taking legal recourse and acting parochially. At least we all seem to get along just fine these days in the industry! Integration.

Looking forward, there could indeed be a playing field more conducive to success than in many years if everything works in our favour. Imagine, a few short years (or sooner) a railway that isn’t distracted by a sleep walk towards nationalisation or privatisation and where its lasting structure is in place and all the unsettling re-organisations to get to this ‘end state’ have been completed. Consider a scenario where track and train are united in a truly integrated set-up and where all modes are also marvellously entwined and where the network is genuinely moving towards net zero, buoyed by technology, expertise and changing working and customer behaviours. Imagine a happy workforce, less militant because the trade unions have, in their eyes, got their own way and the railway isn’t dominated by rapacious, profit-hungry fat-cats.

All of the above sounds too good to be true and is a scenario that the railway of my lifetime has never been able to achieve. The closest was perhaps the early years of sectorisation before the distracting transition towards privatisation took hold, but even in its heyday, the railway managers of old could only fantasise about the kind of technological and cultural advances we now have at hand. In many respects this perfect landscape is actually achievable if the industry can come together, be perhaps patient a little longer and importantly gen up on its history, learning from past failures, even if it’s not fashionable in the modern era to be seen to recycle the stuff of three or four decades ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.

COMMENT

NICK RICHARDSON

Improving access to our National Parks

National Parks are blighted by traffic but access by passenger transport has huge potential. Is it time for a rethink of strategy?

Our National Parks are widely valued and offer a range of visitor experiences from coast to mountains to downland and hills, but getting to them can be challenging. Most visitors arrive by car, which presents the inevitable consequence of pressure on parking space and traffic congestion on key routes. Many people have discovered the staycation post-Brexit when travelling overseas has become more complicated, and post-Covid when shorter journeys became more popular. Many people expect to undertake leisure activities more often, fueled by the ability to drive further, Airbnbs and the presence of activities to attract visitors. There is plenty of scope for people to visit National Parks more often for various reasons. Add to this the second home phenomenon for weekend retreats despite the disastrous effects on local housing markets. While second homes have changed the makeup of communities in popular locations, access problems have undermined the attraction of National Parks. This summer is likely to prove how National Parks are more popular than ever. The Peak District and the Lake District will be choked, and a continuous stream of people will be aiming for Yr Wyddfa/Snowdon and with similar problems elsewhere.

Undermining the experience

More visitors can be equated to more traffic, which blights the rural views visitors seek, creates vehicle-related pollution, adds to

journey times and creates frustration for motorists about not being able to park where they want. A further consequence is that bus services are delayed by car traffic. Sadly, the quiet and fresh air that people aspire to becomes less available as visitor numbers increase. At peak times, some National Parks drown in cars because they lack space to accommodate demand, which is detrimental to communities, the environment, and visitors. By their very nature, our National Parks need good access, but the volume of visitors has reached a point where intervention is required. For example, Eryri/Snowdonia regularly removes inappropriately parked cars from key routes. This negative view tarnishes some visitors’ experience, but it is necessary. Charging for parking - an inevitability of motoring - is widespread and can be costly but is one means of rationing who parks where and pre-booking is a further option. It all points to a need for better management of visitor traffic with a range of possible interventions. This is where better access by passenger transport is key.

Better management

Many National Parks have good bus access and branded services that are aimed at the visitor market. A few have some rail access to key destinations, but others have lost their railways, which, with hindsight, would have been an excellent means of access. Bus services could perform a similar function in

the absence of a railway or act as extensions of train services and there are examples of this across the country. Accessing the National Parks by anything other than cars currently exposes variations in the quantity and quality of provision. For example, completing longdistance paths in stages requires getting to start and finish points, which are often difficult or impossible unless someone in a car is available to help. In addition, the coach excursion and holiday market has recovered from the pandemic although the vehicles themselves have got bigger and find it difficult to negotiate the constricted roads to their destinations. However, the current position is that we are inviting visitors to use passenger transport but doing nothing about restricting access by car. If passenger transport is to be successful, interventions are needed to contain car movements, a difficult conundrum.

Simply trying to exclude some vehicles is fraught with difficulty. There need to be multiple exclusions including local residents, staying visitors, minibuses, caravans, campers, disabled visitors, delivery vehicles and so on all of which would need to be identified, no doubt with an expensive technological back office. The other problem is that by excluding some users, the roads would be easier to negotiate for everyone else and likely to attract more traffic. Any exclusion scheme is bound to upset someone and would take years to get from concept to implementation.

One approach could be emission-based charging. This would aim to protect sensitive environments by excluding specific categories of vehicles as applied to selected urban areas but would entail vehicle identification and payment systems and no doubt attract considerable opposition in the vein of rationing access to National Parks. Visitors seek clean air and the outdoor experience so there is some justification for dealing with vehicle emissions but the effects are likely to be less discernible than in urban areas.

One key principle that could be deployed is to intercept large numbers of visitors before they get to key destinations. This would be a large scale park and ride scheme which would feature less parking availability at popular destinations on the one hand and providing replacement capacity at the periphery. The ‘push’ factor is knowing in advance that prebooked parking at key locations is essential,

Tel: 01536 740100 @ciltuk

that it isn’t cheap and that contravening parking restrictions will result in penalties and vehicle removal. The ‘pull’ factors include making the passenger transport element of the journey part of the visitor experience, avoiding difficult driving and confidence that delays and parking problems are alleviated. To achieve successful schemes, the appeal has to be that the passenger transport options are easy to understand even for visitors who have no experience of using trains, coaches or buses in their everyday lives. It also requires the services to be really good with high frequencies and adequate capacity with guaranteed last journeys and a range of other customer-oriented features. Payments should reflect the cost of provision and maintenance of facilities with a contribution towards wider items such as footpath maintenance and improvement. Finding suitable sites to be mobility hubs/transfer points is likely to be difficult given space and landscape constraints on key routes but need to be overcome if change is to be achieved.

“What is clear is that the current arrangements don’t work”

Coordinating change

Each of the National Parks has an authority that manages a host of functions including the local planning authority role but is not naturally suited to traffic management or the development of transport initiatives. Currently, the highway authorities, of which there may be several, need to liaise with the National Park authorities, communities and others to reach consensus on transport proposals but this is inevitably timeconsuming and difficult. An agency that managed all transport issues on behalf of each National Park authority could help coordinate matters including highway maintenance, traffic management, parking provision and enforcement. Initiatives need not be restricted to intercepting cars

and could include schemes for walkers and cyclists, new bus networks and even new or reinvented railways (not necessarily standard gauge) as the Welsh Highland Railway has proved. What is clear is that the current arrangements don’t work hence improvements are needed with passenger transport at the core of any approach. This will be difficult and probably costly but is essential to avoid corroding our National Parks and giving in to cars. A thorough review of options is needed, including some unpalatable ones, to manage the problem in a constructive way that protects and maintains our special places and where needed, support through appropriate funding for services and infrastructure.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Richardson is chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Policy Group and is a former chair of the Transport Planning Society. In addition, he has held a PCV licence for over 36 years.

AFTER THE ELECTION HULL TRAINS & LUMO

Green light for open access expansion

Andy Comfort reflects on the rise of Hull Trains and Lumo and the future of open access rail under a new Labour government

Some may still consider them the new kids on the block on the UK rail network, but the first open access operator is getting ready to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year.

Before the arrival of Hull Trains into the city’s impressive Paragon Station, there was just one train a day to and from Londona franchise requirement of the East Coast Main Line operator. Leaving Hull at 7am and returning from the capital at 5.20pm, “The Hull Executive” was very much aimed at the business traveller and the fares reflected that.

For most people, a trip to London would involve a ride on the “stopper” to Doncasteroften a Pacer train - and a change onto one of the busy GNER services heading south. I know of people who chose to drive to Doncaster to catch the train there. For a city with just under 244,000 people in the 2001 census, this was not the rail service Hull deserved.

Hull Trains came about after two former British Rail managers, Mike Jones and John Nelson spotted this gap in the market. In 1997 they formed a company called Renaissance Trains to promote the formation of private sector companies on the UK rail network. Fast forward two years and the company secured a track access agreement to run three return services a day between East Yorkshire and London. As a presenter and journalist at BBC Radio Humberside at the time, I was broadcasting live from King’s Cross as that first train pulled out of the station, heralding a new era, not just for Hull but for the whole network. The company’s first trains came from Anglia Railways and were only capable of 100mph, so passengers on those initial services became used to sitting in a loop while a couple of southbound GNER trains sped by at up to 125mph. However, many people in Hull and East Yorkshire were enjoying their new direct services and passenger numbers grew. The new operator carried 80,000 passengers in its first three months. That

compares with 300,000 customers between October and December 2023.

Today, Hull Trains runs seven services each way on weekdays, with six on both Saturdays and Sundays. Some are now 10-carriage trains, as opposed to those three-car Class 170 Turbostar trains they started with. The five bi-modal Class 802 trains were introduced from the end of 2019 and travel at full line speed of 125mph, meaning journey times are down to two hours 30 minutes on some services - over half an hour faster than those first trains.

That’s not to say that the Hull Trains journey has been an easy one - far from it. The previous fleet of trains, the Class 180, suffered reliability issues and breakdowns became all too frequent. Hull Trains has built up a reputation of sometimes doing things differently and they came up with solutions - one involved hiring in a couple of InterCity 125 High Speed Trains from sister company First Great Western. By this time, Hull Trains had become part of the muli-national transport operator First Group, which continues to run the company to this day.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit Hull Trains hard, with the operator having to suspend all its services and park up all its trains on three separate occasions. Staff were furloughed and Hull Trains received no financial support from the government, unlike franchised operators. Local MPs and business groups feared the company would fail and wrote to the government asking it for help - a mark of how much the company’s services meant to Hull and East Yorkshire.

Open access operators depend on ticket sales. They need people on their trains

“It makes the whole railway a more viable option for more journeys” Martijn Gilbert

and have to be quick to react to changing circumstances. That was the case after Covid when Hull Trains realised that its business market had dropped significantly and the company began to focus on leisure travellers. By December 2021, the operator was bouncing back with 94 return services between Hull and London every week. Of the seven weekday return services, two extend to and from Beverley, the market town of the East Riding. Without Hull Trains, here’s another town which would not have had a direct connection to the capital and to stations along the east coast route.

This year, Hull Trains commissioned independent research by a transport consultancy and a marketing agency which found a 96% satisfaction rating among the 1,000 or so passengers who were surveyedthe highest for any inter-city operator in the country.

Being an open access operator has probably allowed Hull Trains to do things differently at times. The company prefers to avoid rail replacement services during planned engineering works and trains will sometimes divert via Sheffield and down the Midland Main Line into St Pancras, if King’s Cross is closed. Yes, it’s a slower journey but the thinking is that passengers prefer that to using a replacement bus for some of the way.

During one engineering blockade on the East Coast Main Line, two First Group open access operators used a bit of joined-up thinking. Lumo, the open access operator set up in 2021, ran a train from Edinburgh to Doncaster, where passengers could connect onto a 10-carriage Hull Trains service running to London via a diversionary route through Lincoln.

Increasingly these two operators work closely together, sharing some back office functions such as marketing and PR. Hull Trains and Lumo have a joint managing director in Martijn Gilbert, who now also oversees the cable car which crosses the Thames in London’s Docklands.

Both Hull Trains and Lumo have plans to extend their open access operations. As Hull was identified as a gap in the market by Renaissance Trains in the late 1990s, the team behind Lumo and Hull Trains are eyeing up areas close to Sheffield and Manchester.

Sheffield hasn’t had a direct rail link with King’s Cross since 1968 but that could be

“Our

open access model focuses on

giving good value fares and really good quality service”Martijn Gilbert

about to change with plans for a new direct train service via Worksop and Retford.

Branded “Sheffield by Hull Trains,” the planned two daily return journeys would serve a population of around 350,000 around Worksop, which hasn’t seen a direct train to London since the 1960s.

In the same way that people in Hull and East Yorkshire saw their service increase from one to eight trains a day thanks to open access operations, a growing population in parts of Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire could enjoy a better train service from the second half of 2025.

Would this happen without open access? Possibly but history tells us it’s unlikely.

Successive franchised operators on the East Coast Main Line could have introduced more trains to Hull but chose not to. Yes, LNER is to be congratulated for starting services to new destinations such as Lincoln, but open access operators are able to offer more choice.

Lumo has submitted plans to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) for a new train service from Rochdale to London. Ten miles northeast of Manchester, the birthplace of the singer Lisa Stansfield last saw a direct London train at

The planned services would also run via Eccles and Newton-le-Willows, again both without direct links to the capital, and Lumo estimates its new trains could benefit a wider catchment area of some 1.6 million people. It’s hoped these new services will start in 2027.

The man in charge of Hull Trains and Lumo, Martijn Gilbert, told me: “Our open access model focuses on giving good value fares and really good quality service and gives customers choice.”

“There’s a little bit of healthy competition … it keeps pricing keen ... it makes the whole railway a more viable option for more journeys.”

Certainly, more journeys are being made on First Group’s open access operators2.2 million journeys on Hull Trains and Lumo combined in 2023, up 8% on the previous year. Hull Trains has recorded the strongest recovery of any UK rail operator after the pandemic.

The new Labour government is promising to “achieve high standards in our rail services,” with a new arms-length body, Great British Railways. However, will the government support open access operators, such as Hull Trains and Lumo?

In her previous role as shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh opened Hull Trains’ new driver simulator on May 31, just over a week after the announcement of the General Election.

While in Hull, Louise Haigh said Labour would reform the way applications are made: “At the moment, it’s really burdensome. I’ve heard anecdotes of operators taking months, if not years, to get decisions made - such as stopping at certain stations. We want to speed up those decisions.”

Labour’s manifesto says “wherever there is a case that open access adds value and capacity to the network, they will be able to continue to compete to improve the offer to passengers”. Whatever lies ahead, it seems clear that Hull Trains and Lumo will have green lights to continue and develop their operations. Open access is here to stay.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Comfort is a former BBC Local Radio presenter and news editor and now works as a freelance rail journalist.

AFTER THE ELECTION ARRIVA UK BUS

A twin-lane approach for growth

Regulatory reforms can help change buses long-term but there’s much we can do in the short-term

It’s been remarkable to see how the level of political interest in bus travel has increased over recent years. We should welcome ithat the major parties’ manifestos in the run-up to the general election all made reference to the importance of bus.

The incoming Labour administration has pledged to introduce a Better Buses Bill in this parliament, recognising that reliable, affordable and regular buses are the difference between opportunity and isolation for millions of people across the country.

We are committed to working with the new government to help achieve their longer-term ambitions for reform, while at the same time seizing the more immediate opportunities to encourage people to travel by bus.

Regulatory models are just one of a range of approaches that can be used to drive modal shift. We know from our experience operating across London and mainland Europe that franchised operating models can deliver the successful and integrated networks that local communities deserve.

In those areas that decide franchising is the right option, such as Merseyside, transitioning to the new model takes time, even with plans to accelerate the process.

But we mustn’t make the mistake of focussing entirely on changes to regulatory models, let alone seeing it as a silver bullet, especially when there are actions that can be taken now to establish the conditions for sustainable growth. Look at Leicester, where Arriva has worked in partnership with the city council to implement the local Bus Service Improvement Plan, including a ‘London-style’ payment system which ensures customers receive the best value fare. This has been successful thanks to effective dialogue and coordinated action, underpinned by a shared commitment to the importance of modal shift and the benefits it can deliver, both in terms of congestion and the local economy. As a result of prioritising public transport and active travel, bus ridership in

Leicester is now higher than it was before the pandemic, giving us the certainty we need as an operator to invest in a new sustainable fleet. Because it’s one thing to electrify a bus, but the benefits are truly realised when that bus is full of passengers, removing cars from the road.

And of course, there are policy areas where quick decisions and clarity would provide the industry with a welcome boost. Take the £2 fare cap, which was primarily introduced to help ease the burden of the cost-of-living crisis. With tightening public finances, the government could in the future look to evolve this scheme to become more targeted, such as by offering discounts to under-25s, making a potentially lasting impact on the travel habits of a younger generation.

The same can be said for the approach to funding. Discussions over reform of the Bus Service Operators Grant have been taking place over a number of years, and there’s a

strong argument for consolidating bus funding into one, more simple pot. In addition to implementing long-term settlements, this would give the industry the certainty it needs to continue investing in fleet, networks and the customer experience.

And we also have the opportunity to take the initiative and to be more creative with ideas to promote bus travel.

Operational performance will always be a part of that equation when it comes to whether people decide to use buses, which is why it must always be a key focus. But independent research has shown that even in areas with high performing networks, people aren’t always aware that bus is an option for their journey. That’s why we’re piloting an innovative new marketing and communications campaign to promote bus travel and encourage growth. The campaign takes an insight-led approach, recognising that potential passengers don’t automatically ‘Think Bus’ when planning journeys. Informed by this, existing and potential bus users are being communicated with via a targeted mix of channels (including television, cinema, digital and social media) under the tagline ‘There’s a Bus for That’.

The campaign is being rolled out in Merseyside, Luton and Milton Keynes, and we’ll be drawing on the lessons learned for use elsewhere on our transport network.

We all have a part to play in encouraging modal shift, and it’s imperative that we make best use of all the tools at our disposal, whether that’s through longer term decisions over regulatory reform, or shorter-term actions available to us now, through partnership working and innovation. By taking a twin-lane approach, we have the opportunity to grow ridership and establish the right conditions for the continued, sustainable investment that successful bus networks rely on.

ENERGY MARKET REPORT

Energy’s role in four election campaigns

Oil and energy featured in four recent general elections in four major countries taking place around the world, including the UK

Normally at this time of the year, we look back over the past six months to see how oil and energy markets have developed since January. But with four general elections taking place in four major countries around the world in the space of (roughly) 30 days, it felt more appropriate this month to look at each country and how their approach to oil and energy differs.

First up at the end of May was the South African election, which saw the party of Nelson Mandela - The African National Congress (ANC) - take a huge bloody nose, as it lost its overall majority and was forced to go into coalition with the main opposition party (Democratic Alliance). Having been in absolute power since the ending of Apartheid, this was huge news in South Africa and the dire state of the country’s power infrastructure was a major factor behind the ANC’s failure. Despite having huge mineral reserves and so much coal that the national oil company (SASOL) actually refines the stuff to make it into diesel, the bountiful raw material supply has not manifested itself in energy resilience. Since 2008, the country has experienced rolling blackouts (euphemistically called “load shedding”), often lasting more than 10 hours at a time. This culminated in 2023, when the national power provider (Ekstrom) - responsible for supplying over 95% of the country’s electricity - suffered an incredible 1,742 hours of power outage

(around 73 days). No wonder the ruling party was punished at the ballot box.

Next on the election timeline was Mexico, where the populist left-winger Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, was replaced by his protégé Claudia Sheinbaum. Both Obrador and Sheinbaum are avowed economic nationalists (ie, believing in state-owned entities, rather than private corporations) and for the last five years, the national oil company (PEMEX) has been used as a vehicle for both state building and poverty alleviation. New domestic oil exploration licenses have been granted, whilst seven new refineries are in the process of being built (to end the country’s reliance on US imports of fuel). At the same time, subsidies on fuel, gas and electricity have been increased. This pro-fossil fuel stance makes for an unusual left-wing administration in global terms, because decarbonisation programmes have principally become the mainstay of left-leaning politicians. This is not the case in Mexico.

India probably has more impact on the global energy picture than anywhere in the world at present. In a country where the population (1.6 billion) has now outstripped China (1.4 billion) and where economic growth (6.7% GDP growth in 2023) mirrors

“Labour’s plan for a Great British Energy company is ambitious”

growth in energy demand (up 7% in the same year), decisions in this area have profound reverberations. Be they in Europe, with its reliance on imported Indian diesel or in Russia, where India’s frenzied purchase of cheap crude is propping up Putin’s war machine.

In the election itself - culminating in June - we once again saw a ruling party (this time the Bharatiya Janata Party = BJP) performing badly. Whilst the BJP retained power, it was still a surprise to see the increasingly messianic Narendra Modi lose his parliamentary majority and have to form a coalition government. Nonetheless, this still means that Modi will be shaping energy policy for years to come and there is little evidence that he will balance his great desire for economic growth with the inevitable implications this has on India’s CO2 footprint. Over 70% of power generation in India comes from coal, which makes the country the third biggest CO2 emitter in the world and so inevitably, India’s decisions around energy use affect far more than global markets… Finally, we have dear-old Blighty, which saw its general election on July 4. Whilst by no means a central issue in the election, energy policy was at least debated. In Scotland the future of the oil and gas sector was a predictably hot topic, with the Scottish Nationalists brassily declaring themselves as the protector of North Sea jobs, having spent the last five years denigrating the sector to appease their coalition partners in the Green Party. Meanwhile Labour’s plan for a Great British Energy company (with its main focus on renewables) is ambitious for a seriously indebted country, but as a bold new idea, merits some credit. As for the Tories, they chose to push back the ban on petrol and diesel cars to 2035. This actually achieves little, because most car manufacturers had already committed to the earlier deadline (2030). At the same time, it generated unnecessary heat from the green lobby and also meant that the real environmental achievements in the UK of the last 10 years (largest offshore wind generation in Europe, frequent coalfree electricity generation, highest number of electric hybrid cars registered in Europe in 2023, explosion in solar power generation) have all been overlooked. And if you can’t manage the message on the things that you have done reasonably well, you are definitely going to be up against it when it comes to the things you have done badly…!

GREAT MINSTER GRUMBLES

Hendy is an appointmentinspired

Our Whitehall insider imagines what’s going on inside the minds of the mandarins at Great Minster House, home of the DfT

So it’s goodbye to Mark Harper, and hello to Louise Haigh, our new secretary of state for transport. And actually, it’s not just goodbye to Mark Harper as our former secretary of state but also goodbye as an MP. He lost his Forest of Dean seat to Labour by just 278 votes thanks to Reform UK which took 8,194 votes away from the Conservatives. Politics is a rough old game! There is no surprise, of course, that we now have a Labour government, nor that Louise Haigh is our new secretary of state. But the big surprise is that Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, the chair of Network Rail, is our new minister of state for rail! This is a major appointment for us here in Great Minister House, and one that I don’t think anybody saw coming. It’s actually a very clever appointment, even inspired. Nobody at a senior level understands the railways, and indeed public transport, as well as Peter Hendy.

It helps that he knows us well here in the department. Importantly too, having been commissioner at Transport for London under both a Labour mayor (Ken Livingstone) and a Conservative mayor (Boris Johnson) he has shown himself to be a non-partisan operator. Although he will now be a Labour minister, one suspects he will approach his job from a pretty pragmatic perspective, taking decisions that work for the industry rather than from any ideological point of view. But it’s going to be fascinating to see how he makes the transition from being chair of Network Rail, answerable to ministers and to us officials, to

a minister overseeing whoever replaces him at Network Rail/Great British Railways and instructing us what to do. How the tables are turned, and it will be an interesting dynamic as Peter Hendy knows where all the bodies are buried in Network Rail, and some!

Back to the general election. The writing had been on the wall for some considerable time that the Conservatives would lose, and lose big. But when Rishi Sunak called the election the last thing he was expecting was that Nigel Farage would stand as a Reform UK candidate and take over the leadership of the party. That changed the dynamics of the general election and resulted in the party smashing the Conservative vote. Reform UK actually came second in 98 constituencies and in some cases came within a whisker of even beating the winning Labour or Lib Dem candidate. Indeed, if Nigel Farage had not stood for election the surge in support for the party would almost certainly not have happened. It’s calculated that some two-thirds of the seats that the Conservatives lost were because of Reform splitting the right-wing vote, and on

“Nobody at a senior level understands the railways, and indeed public transport, as well as Peter Hendy”

that calculation the Conservatives would have held an extra 166 seats and we would probably have a hung parliament.

Are there any crumbs of comfort for the Conservative party as it surveys the wreckage of this election? Perhaps. The fact is that although Labour now has a massive parliamentary majority, the Conservatives did not suffer the extinction-level event that some polls had been predicting. It’s still the second largest party and able to form a viable formal opposition - just. Moreover, the Labour share of the vote barely moved compared to the 2019 general election confirming yet again that the electorate has not yet fallen in love with Labour. In Wales Labour’s vote share went down by 4% and in England it went up by just 0.5%. Only in Scotland did its vote share surge, by 17%. Moreover the combined Conservative/Reform UK share of the vote was 38% against Labour’s 34%. Yet Labour returned 411 MPs to the 126 of Conservatives/ Reform. Such is the nature of our first-pastthe post system. It’s also worth saying that the turnout was on average just 60%.

So as the Conservative party reflects on its worst ever performance, it can perhaps take comfort that this was not an endorsement of Labour. Rather it was a punishment beating for Partygate, the Liz Truss budget and various scandals and misdemeanours. Strange to say, but the massive Labour majority actually looks very vulnerable unless the party delivers on its promises - and fast. The Labour government could become very unpopular very quickly, as many political commentators have already pointed out. With traditional party loyalties breaking down, I think it would, based on these figures, be a brave person who would say that Labour is guaranteed a second term. Probable, perhaps, but guaranteed? I don’t think so.

Back to Louise Haigh. We know, of course, what her plans are for the railways and buses, less so for aviation, ports and shipping and roads. I suspect all her attention will be on rail. I have a hunch that when, after a year or so, rail performance remains poor, bus patronage continues to struggle to grow in any meaningful way, and passengers start to grumble that performance and reliability haven’t been magically sorted, Louise Haigh will come to see that political rhetoric and the harsh reality of life are not happy bedfellows. She will be very heavily dependent on Peter Hendy to deliver.

Hannah Man wins Everywoman award

Go-Ahead manager clinches prestigious Customer Award

Hannah Man, communications manager at Go-Ahead London, has won the Customer Award at the annual Everywoman Awards in Transport and Logistics. This award recognises a woman in the industry whose commitment to high standards of customer service has led to outstanding business results.

Go-Ahead noted that Man’s more than two-decade career in the transport industry began in 2003 as a graduate trainee. She has worked in various roles, from driving to management at GoAhead London, the city’s largest bus operator. Her career also included work on the London 2012 Olympics, where she showcased

MCCOURT NAMED A RISING STAR

Trentbarton manager clinches local award

Scarlet McCourt, marketing and communications manager at Trentbarton, has won the Rising Star title at The Generation Next Awards 2024, organised by the East Midlands Chamber. McCourt, who has been with the bus operator for six years, was one of a dozen winners announced at a ceremony in Derby on July 4. She was selected from a field of 10 finalists to clinch the title.

Commenting on her award, McCourt said: “It’s an absolute honour to be recognised for this award; I love what I do and leading the marketing and communications team is a pleasure.”

her communications skills. In her current role, Man oversees internal communications at Go-Ahead London. She also supports the advancement of women’s careers as an ambassador for Go-Ahead Women, an initiative launched earlier this year. The initiative aims to hire 1,500 new female bus drivers by

the end of 2025, achieve gender equality in the business, and invest £8m to create inclusive working environments across the group.

“I’m excited and proud to have won the Customer Award,” said Man. “Customers are at the very heart of our business and in everything I do I want to improve their experience and help to achieve better results for our business. I’d like to thank my colleagues for this nomination and their support”.

Go-Ahead London managing director Tom Joyner said: “Hannah’s knowledge and experience of the industry is exceptional. She has been a champion of customer service and continues to excel in her current role. I want to congratulate Hannah on this wonderful achievement”.

APPOINTMENTS

MOTT MACDONALD

Mott MacDonald has reappointed Professor Glenn Lyons as chair of future mobility.

The appointment of Lyons (pictured) follows him being named as president of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation for 2024/25. The consultancy will also continue its sponsorship of his position at the University of the West of England Bristol where he holds the post of Mott MacDonald professor of future mobility.

Having worked in the role with Mott MacDonald and UWE Bristol since January 2018, Glenn’s tenure has been extended for a further three years, through to the end of 2027, providing a vital link between academic excellence, policy and practice.

RAIL EUROPE European train booking service

Rail Europe has announced the appointment of Robert From as chief commercial growth officer.

From (pictured), who will be leading the B2C business, is a key figure in some upcoming changes at Rail Europe. His responsibilities will include customer acquisition, growth, retention, ancillaries, and monetisation. His arrival is particularly significant as Rail Europe is preparing to introduce a new booking experience for its B2C customers on both the website and app next year. He brings over 15 years of experience scaling technology and media businesses internationally. From was previously the commercial chief operating officer at MaaS Global.

DIVERSIONS

Is it Shania Twain or Shania Train?

Special announcement for Glastonbury appearance

Festival-goers heading to the recent Glastonbury Festival with Great Western Railway from London Paddington received a delightful surprise: a special message from the Queen of Country Pop herself, Shania Twain, ahead of her appearance in the ‘Legend slot’ on the festival’s final day.

Shania’s specially recorded on-board announcement included a playful nod to her hit song Let’s Go Girls, making sure festival-goers

FIRST HERALDS LONGEST SERVER

First Bus has celebrated the career of its longest-serving employee, Kenny Beckers from Swansea, who has worked with the operator and its predecessors

felt like they were riding the best train in town, even if the ironing board seats on the average GWR IET to Castle Cary may not impress you much. She also confirmed that passengers should not worry -

Shania was not in the driving seat. But she wasn’t the only star to greet rail travellers heading for the West Country. Broadcasters Nick Grimshaw and Annie Macmanus also chimed in, adding to the festive atmosphere. The duo’s lively welcome ensured everyone on board felt the love and excitement building up for the festival.

Rosie Viva, 28, and Ella Jenkin, 26, both from London and heading to Somerset, were over the moon to hear Shania’s voice on their journey. “It was so cool to hear her voice on the train,” said Ella. “She’s an absolute icon, and it’s so exciting to be traveling on the #ShaniaTrain.”

SACKED JOURNO WELCOMES HENDY

The appointment of Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill as a transport minister has been welcomed by many - it’s always good to see ministers appointed to jobs who have a clear passion and interest in their brief.

for 58 years.

The 76-year-old grandfather, who has four children and eight grandchildren, began his bus career at 18 as a conductor with South Wales Transport. Three years later, in November 1969, he became a bus driver.

Over the years, Kenny has worked for a total of five different bus companies due to various changes of ownership, takeovers and management buy-outs, but throughout he has consistently worked in the same location. Now in semi-retirement,

Kenny’s two days a week driving for First are a far cry from when he started in the 1960s, working six days a week. Since then his employer estimates he has transported an estimated seven million passengers and travelled about 800,000 miles.

Kenny also says he has no plans to completely retire: “I’ve never really thought about giving up the job, and I can honestly say I’ve never had that moment of ‘I’ve had enough, I’m off’. So long as I feel good and my health’s good, then I’ll keep going.”

One of those welcoming the news was Dan Hodges, political commentator at the Daily Mail and son of Oscar-winning former Labour transport minister Glenda Jackson.

“Peter sacked me once,” revealed Hodges on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. “Good appointment despite that. Or possibly because of…” Oops!

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