Bus Services and Quality Contracts

New Ground 68
Spring 2005

PTEs push for bus franchising

The Passenger Transport Executives (PTEs) that cover seven of the largest city regions in the UK are now drafting proposals for bus quality contracts. This approach, reforming the current deregulated market with a co-ordinated system operated according to an agreed specification, has gained cross stakeholder support.

Deregulation has been a disaster in terms of service quality, stagnating fares and passengers carried. Following the initial fall-out from deregulation in the late 1980s, there has been a 25% reduction in bus usage. This contrasts with a regulated bus service in London, which grew by 20%.

Whilst all PTEs have attempted to develop partnerships through innovative schemes (for instance, Metro's guided buses, Centro's Showcase Routes and Greater Manchester's Quality Corridors), these have often been at the expense of other parts of the network. Operators understandably focus investment on these high-density corridors, but neglect performance elsewhere. High cancellation rates are common, up to two out of every five buses fail to run on time and fares have increased by 27% over the last 12 years. The partnership approach is failing to deliver for the majority of passengers, often those most dependent on services.

The process of delivering bus franchising is not easy. PTEs must convince the government that the approach is right and demonstrate that bus franchising is 'the only practicable way' to deliver the bus strategy. Independent advice indicates a three to four year process to implement a franchising scheme. These barriers have so far dissuaded anyone from trying. However, after pressure from the PTEs, Government has now published guidance on the franchsing approach and encouraged local authorities to consider the possible benefits. There are many challenges ahead, but we may see proposals emerging designed to serve the needs of our city regions, rather than just to achieve shareholder returns.

Tim Larner, Director, pteg Support Unit