Associate feature: Bus users deserve better

Travelling by bus has fundamentally changed in recent years. It’s breakfast time and with a busy day ahead, I can use my app and walk or cycle from my flat in Glasgow to my local bus stop, knowing in real time when my bus is going to arrive to take me where I want to go or to the subway station for onward travel. The bus that arrives is a top of the range electric vehicle and allows me to pay by simply tapping my card. Yet, the bus I catch will be stuck in the same congestion as any other motor vehicle because the infrastructure to support bus services is simply years behind, lacking the investment green buses and technology have enjoyed over successive years.

Journey times have been worsening for over a decade, and traffic congestion is going in the wrong direction. In Glasgow, journey speeds are now close to matching those in London – which are some of the slowest speeds in the UK. To get more people on buses we need to prioritise bus travel. We need bus priority measures to speed up journeys, rather than buses being stuck in heavily congested city streets. 

Currently, government policy is pulling in different directions and the benefits of bus travel are not being fully recognised, nor fully funded. We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to public transport and support for buses through a range of initiatives, including the successful under-22's scheme, extending free ticketing to asylum seekers and the new Bus Infrastructure Fund. However, the lack of commitment to multi-year infrastructure funding and cutting car kilometres, risk taking us in the wrong direction. 

The impact of increased journey times

Bus journey times are increasing, reducing the attractiveness of buses and, in turn, reducing the number of passengers using the service. It’s a vicious cycle that can ultimately make bus services unaffordable to run. 

That has significant cost and maintenance implications for any bus operator, with costs exceeding £10 million each year for First Bus alone. Just to maintain the same level of service and frequency, we need to invest in more bus drivers and vehicles, which means diverting money away from new routes or improved buses. 

As journey speeds have declined and resources have had to be allocated elsewhere to maintain punctuality, services to hospitals and other destinations have lost out.

There is also a significant economic cost associated with congestion. Buses play a fundamental role in helping people find work and support people in work – particularly those from more deprived backgrounds. Congestion puts jobs at risk. Investing in bus services can provide significant economic value. According to a recent KPMG report, every £1 of public funding spent on a package of measures could generate £4.55 in economic benefits, with targeted interventions generating over £5 in economic benefits.

The need for bus infrastructure funding

The Scottish Government’s decision to pause the Bus Partnership Fund has impacted the delivery of significant improvements for bus infrastructure. We need clear multi-year funding commitments to ensure that local authorities can bring their plans to fruition, and while it is positive that the Scottish Government has announced the Bus Infrastructure Fund in its recent Programme for Government, there are no funding details yet.

A multi-year fund, such as that which enabled the Aberdeen bus gates project, allows projects to be fully delivered and the savings made by bus operators can be committed to reinvestment in new routes and better services for our customers. 

Bus gate implementation has reduced average journey times by 25% and increased bus use: 20% more bus use during the weekends and 9% more people using the bus overall. 
Quicker journey times, less bus and driver resource needed and money saved has enabled First Bus to invest in free travel schemes for customers and gives an indication of what can be achieved through partnership with the local authority.

Reducing car kilometres

The most recent announcement by the Scottish Government to drop the target to cut car kilometres by 20% by 2030 will do little to attract passengers to net zero buses. While the policy might have been ambitious to deliver, it is a huge missed opportunity for sustainable travel. It can only be hoped that the proposed renewed policy statement between COSLA and the Scottish Government can deliver a similar level of ambition. 

If we want to create a more sustainable society and economy and achieve net zero as quickly as we can, we need complementary policies. That is not just about bus infrastructure; it means policies on land planning to support the mode of bus and ensuring that the transport hierarchy is always applied. It is vital that people have real alternatives to car use.

A partnership approach

Partnerships offer a key to a renewal of our buses and an opportunity to unlock strategic routes across our cities. 

Before the Bus Partnership Fund was suspended, work was progressing on bus corridors in Glasgow, including work by consultancy engineers to progress designs for review by Transport Scotland. 

We’re committed to ensuring this work does not go to waste and aim to create a new partnership model and working groups that can continue to explore and deliver these bus priority opportunities across Glasgow. 

We are keen to have a voluntary legally binding partnership because we believe it is important that all the partners have confidence in one another in relation to partnership commitments. Other options, such as franchising, will take longer to deliver and delay benefits to customers.

Such partnerships are already delivering major benefits throughout the UK. In Leicester, eight new bus lanes have been built to enable speedier bus times, along with a new bus station and further four bus lane improvements planned. This is in addition to 750 new real time displays, text-to-speech facility, 1200+ stop totems and 500 new bus shelters.
In Hampshire, the Eclipse dedicated busway has been built on a disused railway track bed, eliminating the impact of congestion, reducing journey times by 25% and increased our customer base by 60% in the first year alone. 

Similar plans could deliver major advantages across Scotland’s cities. First Bus has identified a bus priority scheme in Glasgow city centre, which could result in reinvesting the savings in three new services, one of which would be dedicated to serve hospital locations. 

A better future

Despite the continued problems with bus infrastructure improvements, there is still much to be positive about. The proportion of net zero buses in our Glasgow fleet is among the highest in the UK and we now operate over 200 zero-emission buses.

Within the confines of the existing partnerships, a lot of good progress is still being made.  For example, operators are working together on integrated ticketing—the Glasgow Tripper ticket, for example, can be used on any bus service in Glasgow. As a result of operators working in partnership, we have grown the use of the Tripper ticket by 300%. 
Yet bus infrastructure remains a critical issue. Without bus priority measures, journey times will continue to worsen and with it bus services to those who need it most will decline. Bus services deserve better and so do the people who use them now and in the future.

This article is sponsored by First Bus. 

www.firstbus.co.uk