ADDRESSING THE RURAL ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEM IN WALES

Transcription

1 Proceedings 1st - 2nd September 2016 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility ADDRESSING THE RURAL ACCESSIBILITY PROBLEM IN WALES Mr Owen Clark Research Fellow University of South Wales Abstract It is considered essential that everybody should have access to the services and amenities that enable them to participate fully in society. However, in rural areas where people and services are often some distance from each other, substantial problems related to accessibility may be experienced. Buses are the most widely used form of public transport in Wales, yet the industry is facing an uncertain future. Falling subsidies, falling passenger numbers and reductions in services across Wales, appear to represent a downward spiral particularly in rural Wales (National Assembly for Wales, Enterprise and Business Committee, 2016 [ 1 ]). The challenge facing the transport sector in rural areas such as Wales, is how to address rural accessibility and social exclusion with limited financial resources to support non-commercial public transport services. Research undertaken by the Wales Transport Research Centre, University of South Wales, has investigated the use of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services within an integrated public transport network as a means of addressing social exclusion and rural accessibility. A DRT service called Bwcabus was introduced in 2009 with the aim of improving public transport and access to key services for rural communities in West Wales. Bwcabus operates in the relatively sparsely populated rural areas to the north of Carmarthen and south of Aberystwyth, covering the Teifi Valley and south Ceredigion. The service is designed to provide rural communities with a local bus service which is integrated with strategic public transport services, offering connections to Carmarthen, Cardigan, Aberystwyth and beyond. Delivery project has been achieved through innovation and investment, secured through the local authorities, the Wales Government and European Regional Development Fund, or Regional Development Plan funds. The strategy to increase patronage was to develop a demand responsive service (Bwcabus) combined with the development of strategic routes to: Improve journey times Improve the quality and frequency of bus services Introduce through ticketing Integrate service timetables with improved connections with other bus and rail services. Bwcabus has facilitated the change, by enabling the strategic routes to be modified. It is an integrated transport system that is reliant on all component elements. One does not function effectively without the other. The paper will introduce an integrated approach to tackling rural accessibility problems as explored through a case study Bwcabus service. The paper will detail the approach, outcomes, challenges and lessons learnt.

2 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility 1 st - 2 nd September 2016 Proceedings Introduction The potential value of public transport in rural areas is well documented. It enables mobility and access to resources that are often not available locally to people without cars and provides an element of choice that can reduce car dependency. However, rural Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion in west Wales is not inherently good bus operating territory. The dispersed population does not generate many passenger flows large enough to produce a good income for operators and therefore many services have to be subsidised by the County Councils. Employment and service centres are widely spread out. The absence of efficient transport links can compound the disadvantages experienced by rural communities, which exist in terms of relative distances from major centres of population and commercial activity. These disadvantages place a brake on the ability of local businesses and commerce to respond to market opportunities. Key Challenges The National Assembly for Wales, Enterprise and Business Committee Bus and Community Transport Services in Wales report published in March 2016 [ 1 ] states that: Buses are the most widely used form of public transport in Wales, yet the industry is facing an uncertain future. Falling subsidies, falling passenger numbers and reductions in services across Wales, appear to represent a downward spiral particularly in rural Wales. Over recent years rural transport services in Wales have shown a serious decline. Annually published Welsh Government statistics [ 2 ] show that the number of local bus and coach passenger journeys has decreased significantly since In million passenger journeys were made by bus and coach in Wales [ 2 ]. The number of passenger journeys has shrunk by 15 million since or overall by 13% [ 2 ]. This decline in passenger journeys is greater in Wales than any other part of Britain. Figure 1 - Bus and coach passenger journeys Wales (Local services), to [ 2 ] Bus industry operating costs have been increasing above the UK inflation rate over recent years. This has an impact on the tender price and the sustainability of bus routes and has placed additional pressure on local authority transport budgets. Statistics published by the

3 Proceedings 1st - 2nd September 2016 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility Confederation of Passenger Transport [ 3 ], shown in table 1, highlights significant increases in labour costs, insurance premiums and the volatility of fuel prices since Table 1: CPT Cost Index: Change in Bus & Coach Industry Costs in Wales [ 3 ] Overall change in operating costs 1.7% 2.5% 3.8% 2.0% 0.5% Change in individual cost categories: Drivers wages and on costs 2.7% 4.1% 3.9% 1.6% 2.3% Other labour and staff costs -5.0% 1.4% 2.4% 2.8% 3.2% Insurance and claims 12.4% -0.5% 5.4% 7.5% 0.5% Fuel 4.1% 9.2% 4.8% -0.6% -11.2% Maintenance materials 9.4% 6.2% 7.4% -4.5% -8.7% Vehicle depreciation -2.2% -17.9% 13.6% 33.5% 9.9% Other operating costs -1.7% -2.0% -2.2% -5.8% 6.7% Sample size: Representing operating costs of: 131,500, ,500, ,000, ,600, ,700, 000 Many bus services have been withdrawn by commercial operators and local authorities in response to declining patronage and increasing costs. The Traffic Commissioner s annual reports show the number of registered Welsh bus services declined by approximately 46% between March 2005 and March 2015 (though a number se will be service rationalisations rather than withdrawals) [ 2 ]. The Welsh Government statistics on public service vehicles [ 4 ] show that the biggest reductions have been to subsidised routes. In terms of bus kilometres travelled, subsidised routes have decreased by 33% from 44 million kilometres in to 29 million kilometres in (Welsh Government, 2015).

4 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility 1 st - 2 nd September 2016 Proceedings Figure 2 - Bus and coach vehicle kilometres travelled Wales, to [ 4 ] Such service withdrawals can have a devastating impact on rural communities and in particular on the most vulnerable in society. The major impacts have fallen on groups such as those on low incomes, including job seekers, those unable to drive, such as the young and elderly, and mothers with young children. Even in a car owning household, not all adults have equal access to their own transport during the day. A commonly overlooked fact is that the largest group of people with potential mobility problems are those within one-car households who are unable to use the car when required [ 5 ]. There is also a significant group at risk due to the costs of maintaining and operating a motor vehicle. Therefore good public transport is essential in enabling mobility and access to resources that are often not available locally to people without cars and provides an element of choice that can reduce car dependency. Another major societal challenge is adapting to an ageing population. Population forecasts show that the proportion of elderly people will increase significantly in the coming years. This impacts the need for transport and demand for services including health care. A report from the Office of National Statistics [ 6 ] reveals that as people age car ownership level decline. Currently nearly a quarter of all people aged over 65 in Carmarthenshire do not have access to a car, and half of those over 75 do not have a car. Table 2: Car or van availability by age: No cars or vans in household [ 6 ] Local Authority Age 0 to 15 Age 16 to 24 Age 25 to 34 Age 35 to 49 Age 50 to 64 Age 65 and over Ceredigion 8% 24% 15% 9% 8% 18% Pembrokeshire 12% 13% 12% 9% 9% 20% Carmarthenshire 12% 13% 12% 9% 9% 23%

5 Proceedings 1st - 2nd September 2016 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility Addressing the Challenge As part Bwcabus project, there has been a strong desire to find innovative solutions and to challenge the traditional approaches to rural transport. Carmarthenshire County Council, and its partners Ceredigion County Council, Traveline Cymru and the University of South Wales, have Implemented an integrated public transport solution for rural communities. Bwcabus is a DRT feeder bus service that operates to flexible schedules determined by the demands of customers. A DRT timetable is not fixed and will vary each day. This form of dynamic scheduling allows passengers greater flexibility to book journeys at the times (or close to the times) they require. Bwcabus is fully integrated with the Traws Cymru and other strategic public transport services. Bwcabus compliments the Welsh Governments desire to improve and strengthen connectivity and integration on strategic public transport corridors. Bwcabus connects into 3 strategic public transport routes: 1. T1 Traws Cymru Carmarthen Lampeter Aberystwyth service Carmarthen Newcastle Emlyn Cardigan service 3. T5 Cardigan Aberaeron Aberystwyth service This level of integration allows easy interchange between the core strategic routes and provides access to the region s major towns. Passengers can also interchange to rail at Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. This provides rural communities with essential connectivity into these key regional centres and enables longer distance travel by bus and rail. With Bwcabus designed to compliment strategic public transport routes, such as the T1, 460 and T5, it has been possible to remove spur journeys with little patronage, thus improving the main routes frequency and point to point destination times, making the service more attractive to passengers. Bwcabus is therefore part of an important integrated network, better serving rural communities and allowing an improved strategic service to be implemented. Bwcabus also offers connections with a large number of other local public transport services via connections at hub locations. Bwcabus has been successfully integrated into the wider network. Analysis demonstrates 84% of trip patterns are booked to interchange hubs. Passenger surveys also highlight the importance of interchanges to the Bwcabus concept. Without the great service Bwcabus provides and its link with the T1 service, I wouldn't be able to travel from my home in Gorsgoch to Llanwnnen and then

6 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility 1 st - 2 nd September 2016 Proceedings into Carmarthen each morning, making it really hard to travel to work Kurtis Irvine, Gorsgoch The integrated nature timetables means the service is efficient and effective. I can t praise the service highly enough Phillip Ainsworth, Llandysul The service integration is combined with through ticketing to offer seamless travel between Bwcabus services and strategic routes. Bwcabus passengers can purchase a day return, twelve trip tickets, West Wales Rover Ticket or Bwcabus Saturday Saver Ticket on board the Bwcabus and also use these on the connecting strategic services. All services also accept Explore Wales and Cymru Connect tickets enabling passengers to travel on both rail and bus with a single ticket, and Plusbus tickets within Carmarthen Town. With the Bwcabus, T1 and 460 services all being lead by Carmarthenshire County Council, bus operators liaise directly with the passenger transport team to report any issues such as late departures, vehicles breakdowns, delays and road accidents. The passenger transport team can then take the appropriate action, resolving issues as quickly as possible, and ensuring that information is published on First Cymru s, Bwcabus and Traveline Cymru social media and passed onto passengers via other communication channels. Vehicle tracking is also used to assist with monitoring of buses and provide information to drivers on connecting journeys. Figure 3 - Bwcabus Integrated Public Transport Map

7 Proceedings 1st - 2nd September 2016 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility Due to the demand responsive nature service, Bwcabus passengers have more control. The users Bwcabus service are not constrained by a bus timetable so they have more flexibility to travel when and where they wish. The passengers also have a far greater say in how the service is run. Customer feedback is very important to ensure that Bwcabus continues to respond to passengers needs. Customer feedback on routes, procedures, requirements are collected through on bus surveys, interviews and regularly speaking to the passengers who use the service. Registered members who don t use the service are also surveyed to identify barriers that prevent them using the service. This feedback loop informs the management team on changes and improvements that can be made to the service. Partnership working is key to the success Bwcabus service. Bwcabus is only possible because a number of partners have come together and shared in the vision to create an innovative new approach to rural transport. The partnership relies on true cooperation and close collaboration and is a model of success for bringing together local and national government, academia, public bodies, community groups and the private sector. Key Outputs While the bus market in Wales has generally struggled in recent times, the Bwcabus project has demonstrated what a positive impact that investment and innovation can have in stimulating market growth and addressing rural accessibility. The Bwcabus project has reversed the long term decline of rural bus use in the Teifi Valley and South Ceredigion. Since 2009 the strategically important 460 route connecting Carmarthen and Cardigan has showed significant and sustained growth. The 460 service now carries approximately 160,000 passengers per annum. The average number of passenger journeys per day on the 460 service has increased by 48% since Table 3 Annualised Passenger Journeys Service Total Bwcabus 4,493* 12,637 13,226 23,771 26,970 27,905 30, , ,963** 143, , , , , ,677 1,084,291 T , , , ,123 Network Total 56, , , , , , ,762 1,878,661 * Actual journeys from August to December **Actual journeys from August to December The growth witnessed on the 460 service would not have occurred if Bwcabus was not available to connect rural communities into this route. Bwcabus has facilitated the change, by enabling the strategic routes to be modified, to make the service more attractive for customers by reducing journey time. The enhanced 460 timetable is only possible because diversionary spurs were removed and replaced by Bwcabus. It is an integrated transport system that is reliant on all component elements. One does not function effectively without the other. This success has also been replicated with the Welsh Government s T1 TrawsCymru service. Year on year growth in 2015 of 8.8% on the T1 has been recorded. The presence of Bwcabus has enabled the T1 to remove a diversionary spur through Cribyn, reducing

8 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility 1 st - 2 nd September 2016 Proceedings journey times for the passengers, and also removing an extra public service vehicle from the operation saving further subsidy on this route. The improvements to the T1 timetable have led to significant improvements in service reliability and improved rail connections at either end route in Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. Bwcabus has also displayed continued growth in passenger journeys. In total over 139,000 passenger journeys have been completed was a record year for the Bwcabus service, with 30,245 passenger journeys completed. The patronage gains for Bwcabus, TrawsCymru T1 and 460, show what can be achieved if the right integrated package of support can be implemented and bucks the general trend of decline witnessed across the bus sector in Wales. As a result significant passenger growth on the 460 service between , the subsidy per passenger journey 460 service has fallen from 2.16 per passenger journey in 2010 to 1.73 in The strong performance integrated network has resulted in the subsidy per passenger journey significantly decreasing. For 2015; the combined network (460, T1 and Bwcabus) subsidy per passenger journey equates to 1.25 per passenger journey. A number of accessibility metrics have been analysed to measure the impact Bwcabus project. These are set out in the table 4 below and supported by accessibility maps in Figure 4. Table 4: Access Metrics Accessibility Metric 2009 Base 2014 With Bwcabus With Bwcabus Change % Improvement s Number of people within 90 minutes of a Hospital % Number of people within 30 minutes of a GP surgery Number of people within 90 minutes of a college or university Number of people of working age within 60 minutes of an employment centre % % % The accessibility metrics demonstrate significant improvements in accessibility for the community, across a range of services that include access to employment, healthcare and education.

9 Proceedings 1st - 2nd September 2016 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility Figure 4 Accessibility Maps: Access to Hospitals Without Bwcabus With Bwcabus Survey work shows that Bwcabus is offering a high quality service to its customers. A 2015 survey of 74 users Bwcabus service revealed extraordinarily high customer satisfaction. Passengers were asked to rate how satisfied they were with a range of service features. The results showed that 98% of passengers are overwhelmingly satisfied or very satisfied with the service overall. A selection of passenger comments include: Absolutely brilliant service - always reliable and punctual. Drivers are first class and friendly An excellent service. Drivers polite and helpful. Without this service, people who do not drive would be house bound. Well Done. Thank you Fantastic would make life a lot harder without it Gwasanaeth arbenig, cwrtais arbenig ar y ffon a gan gyrrwyr bob amser diolch yn fawr It is in great need. Gets people together makes great friends and we would be lost without it. People would be stuck indoors without Bwcabus My life would be very negatively affected if Bwcabus were to be withdrawn. Call centre staff and all drivers are friendly and helpful Figure 5 Bwcabus Customer Survey (Top 125 Users) Quality of Service Sample Size 74 Very Satisfied Fairly Satisfied Neither Satisfied Dissatisfied Fairly Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied Quality of service compared with previous/other services The level of information available about this service 82.81% 15.63% 1.56% 0% 0% 68.18% 27.27% 4.55% 0% 0% Condition of buses 89.55% 10.45% 0% 0% 0% Ease of access onto the buses 86.15% 12.31% 1.54% 0% 0% Ease of booking a journey 67.17% 23.88% 4.48% 2.98% 1.49% Integration between services 74.14% 20.69% 3.45% 0% 1.72% Customer service on the buses 92.54% 7.46% 0% 0% 0% Punctuality buses 95.77% 4.23% 0% 0% 0%

10 Clark, O: Addressing The Rural Accessibility 1 st - 2 nd September 2016 Proceedings Conclusions The integrated network model has revolutionised bus travel in the West Wales area and stimulated growth in public transport. The growth in patronage has bucked the trend of falling passenger journeys on the public transport network across Wales and customer satisfaction levels are extremely high. The growth in patronage on the integrated public transport network and the reductions in the cost per passenger journey can only continue if the integrated transport network is sustained. Bwcabus enables a greater number of communities to be served and public transport to become more attractive to the public as journey times and the quality of service on services are improved. Further opportunities for overall service efficiencies have been identified, if other existing fixed route services are modified or transferred into the Bwcabus/ integrated model. Critical mass can be built by extending the zone. The project initially commenced as a three year pilot project but due to its success and ability to deliver more travel opportunities to areas that would not have access to public transport, it has run for just over six years. The project is vital to an ageing population as it mitigates the pressures on the Social Care and Health sectors. [ 1 ] National Assembly for Wales. March Enterprise and Business Committee Bus and Community Transport Services in Wales Report. [ 2 ] Welsh Government Bus and coach passenger journeys Wales (Local services), to [ 3 ] Confederation of Passenger Transport CPT Cost Index: Change in Bus & Coach Industry Costs in Wales [ 4 ] Welsh Government Bus and coach vehicle kilometres travelled Wales, to [ 5 ] Nutley, S. & Thomas, C. (1995) Spatial Mobility and social change: the mobile and the immobile, Sociologia Ruralis, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp [ 6 ] Office of National Statistics Car or van availability by age: No cars or vans in household [from Nomis on 5 May 2016]