Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Transportation and Highways

Councillors J O’Boyle and D Welsh, Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item along with Councillor P Akhtar, who, along with Councillor Welsh, are the Council’s representatives on the West Midlands Combined Authority Transport Delivery Committee.

The Committee considered a briefing note of the Director of Transportation and Highways which provided a summary of existing bus service provision in Coventry with a specific focus on the city’s current bus network; how services were managed; commerciality; contract services and core statistics in relation to bus service reliability, patronage and quality. Councillor P Akhtar, one of the Council’s two representatives on the West Midlands Combined Authority Transport Delivery Committee attended the meeting for the consideration of this item. Chris Gibbens, Martin Hancock and Nikki Houghton, National Express, and Pete Bond and Andy Thrupp, Transport for West Midlands, were also in attendance.

The briefing note indicated that the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) was the statutory Local Transport Authority for the West Midlands, including Coventry. The WMCA discharged their responsibilities through Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM). TfWM was responsible for management of bus stops and shelters, passenger information, and other bus related infrastructure such as the Pool Meadow Bus Station, as well as the management of contracted (non-commercial) bus services.

Overall bus usage within Coventry was around 28 million passenger journeys a year, which has remained fairly constant over the last few years. In Coventry, bus punctuality (the percentage of services operating no more than 1 minute early and 5 minutes late) was 82% in 2017/18 and 80% in 2018/19, which was slightly above the West Midlands average. The nationally average was 83%.

There were currently 8 bus operators with regular services within Coventry.  However, over 90% of the mileage was operated by National Express Coventry who, excluding school routes, operated 19 distinct services within the area. Stagecoach operated seven services, De Courcey operated four, Diamond, Johnsons and Community Transport each operated two, whilst Arriva and A&M Travel each operated one service.

Across the city, there were a total of 1,400 bus stops, 62 of which provided real-time service information to passengers. The briefing note included a map of the National Express network and detailed the latest significant changes to be introduced on the network.

The briefing note highlighted how the City Council worked closely with TfWM and local bus companies to ensure that services reflected local needs as closely as possible and identified and pursued potential investment and funding opportunities for improvements to the bus network and associated facilities.  Recent examples of successful funding bids included the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme, with a funding bid led by the City Council with support from TfWM and National Express. The Committee was informed that TfWM was preparing a series of Network Development Plans (NDPs) across the West Midlands setting out initial thoughts on how the bus network in each area needed to develop to support growth in the region.

Reference was made to subsidised bus routes.Where commercial operators did not provide a bus service link that was deemed to be socially necessary then it could be subsidised. The decision on which services were eligible for subsidy was taken by TfWM.

The briefing note indicated that figures taken from the city’s most recent household survey showed that the car remained the dominant mode of travel. Detailed information was provided on the different modes of transport used on journeys in and out of the city centre. Regionally and nationally bus use had been declining at a much faster rate than in Coventry. In relation to bus service reliability, data comparing scheduled timetable and actual journey times on the routes 20 and 9 was highlighted. 

Information was provided on private operator investment. National Express had invested heavily in renewing its bus fleet over the last few years, with the introduction of the Platinum branded buses on some core routes. Successful joint funding bids between the City Council, TfWM and National Express had also provided the funding to allow all the current fleet to have the necessary modifications to improve bus engines to EuroVI, which is the best environmental standard for current diesel engines. The other bus operators in Coventry have also invested in recent years with brand new buses being introduced onto some bus routes. The bus engine retrofit programme had now been extended to these other operators, meaning that by 2021 all buses operating public services within the city will be Euro VI or better in standard.

Punctuality and frequency of services remained a key focus for Coventry City Council, TfWM and the bus operators. New links are being considered to the University Hospital and Westwood Business Park as well as faith centres and health services.

The Committee were informed about the subsidised bus contracts and the funding levy which formed part of the West Midlands Devolution deal.

The briefing note referred to recent funding bids. In particular, in September 2019 Government announced further plans to invest up to £50 million in establishing at least one electric bus town or city. This would see a town or city’s entire bus fleet changed over to zero emission vehicles, with Government money supporting the purchase of new vehicles and the development of supporting infrastructure. The Government had said that they would shortly be seeking expressions of interest from local authorities, but further details of the scheme had yet to be published. Such publication was expected imminently.

The Coventry UK City of Culture 2021 was forecast to generate around 2.5 million visits to the city and would see a significant increase in travel demand to and from the city, especially around the major events expected to attract larger audiences.  A transport strategy was under development in partnership with the City of Culture Trust, and it was anticipated that the bus would play an important role in getting people to and from events within the city. Bus based Park and Ride was being considered as part of the transport strategy alongside potential enhancement of existing public bus services and the role that longer-distance coach travel could also play in getting people to and from the city. Investment in the improvement of Pool Meadow Bus Station has already been identified as an important issue.

Members questioned the officers and representatives on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included:

·  Although bus usage had flatlined in Coventry over recent years, there had also been a considerable population increase during this time so was the service meeting expectations 

·  A concern about customer service in relation to dealing with a twitter complaint from a resident about bus stops being continually missed out

·  Clarification about the impact of the Council’s decision relating to the removal of bus lanes

·  The impact of climate change and the need to introduce improvements to the service to encourage more people to use public transport

·  The requirement for additional measures/ services in relation to the expected 2.5m visitors coming to Coventry during City of Culture 2021

·  Information about the role of the West Midlands Combined Authority Transport Delivery Group

·  Whether there were any penalties incurred if buses did not run on time

·  Details about cross boundary travel ie from Coventry to Leicestershire or Warwickshire and the impacts for passengers

·  Further information about how service changes were managed including consultations and timescales

·  A suggestion that it should be cheaper to use public transport rather than making a car journey

·  An update on what was happening with the Ring and Ride Service

·  Information about the number of subsidised bus routes in the city

·  Details about the funding levy

·  The suggestion that reregulation would allow for improved services and how could the Council contribute to the current review

·  Details about public/ private investment and how this related to journey times and improvements in carbon emissions

·  Information about the successes of the Platinum buses

·  A suggestion that bus travel needed to be more convenient than making a car journey. 

A further item on bus innovation was to be considered by the Committee at their next meeting on 19^th February. It was decided that in addition to the original information requested, the following information be provided for this meeting:

i) Framework of options under the Bus Services Act 2017 and how Coventry could input into the current review

ii) Breakdown of the levy, ie the specific costs for Coventry

iii) Detailed statistics for the recently introduced platinum bus service (12/ 12x)

iv) Infrastructure solutions to assist bus travel to be more convenient than the car.

RESOLVED that the contents of the briefing note and the arrangements for the follow up meeting on 19^th February to discuss ‘Bus Innovation in Coventry’ be noted.