Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Ev 166 Transport Committee: Evidence
Memor<strong>and</strong>um from Transport 2000: Herefordshire <strong>and</strong> Worcestershire local group (TPT 31)
The local group representing the national environmental transport campaign in the two counties
Inquiry into <strong>Ticketing</strong> on Public Transport
1. This short memor<strong>and</strong>um for the above Inquiry is submitted by way of illustration of how the present
systems operate in a smallish (c 95,000 residents) shire district on the edge of one of the conurbations with
a passenger transport authority [PTA] <strong>and</strong> executive [PTE]. The shire district is Bromsgrove, in
Worcestershire, <strong>and</strong> the whole of the boundary between Worcestershire <strong>and</strong> the West Midl<strong>and</strong>s county
(which forms the PTA/PTE area) is also the Bromsgrove/West Midl<strong>and</strong>s boundary.
2. It is not intended to cover all the issues raised in the Press Notice, but to highlight specific problems
in relation to ticketing in a particular area which may be hindrances or deterrents to the use of public
transport, either wholly or within the district.
3. Until deregulation of bus services in 1985 or 1986, almost all the stage carriage bus services in the
district were provided by a single National Bus Company subsidiary, Midl<strong>and</strong> Red West [MR]. A small
number of PTE services crossed the county boundary for a short distance to reach their terminus, but they
remained essentially services within the metropolitan county.
4. MR sold single bus tickets for each journey. If a traveller required to use more than one bus service to
complete their journey, separate tickets had to be bought for each leg of the journey, unless the traveller
bought a “runabout” or “rover” ticket, which allowed the holder to travel on any of MR’s services that day.
The cost was disproportionate for shorter journeys involving two or more legs on MR bus services.
5. MR became part of what is now First Group (as, according to the First website, First Wyvern, though
that name does not appear on the buses as far as I have noted). The “runabout” or “rover” ticket is now
the “First Wyvern” ticket, which is available in day, week, month <strong>and</strong> term versions. The FirstDay Wyvern
ticket in turn is available in adult (£5), child (£3.50) or family (£10) versions. That is relatively good value
for many occasional return journeys longer than 10–15 miles each way (depending on the particular service,
as fares are not calculated on a st<strong>and</strong>ard distance basis). or for shorter trips where a change of service is
required. In addition, a range of local tickets, available on any of the company’s services within a specified
area, is on oVer.
6. The benefits of that approach have however been limited by another eVect of the deregulation.
Whereas in 1986 all the bus services in Bromsgrove town (whether town services or inter-urban) were
provided by MR, that is no longer the case. It appears that nowhere which had a bus service in 1986 has
lost it, <strong>and</strong> indeed there are one or two new services which run as a result of local authority (or in the past
health authority) support. However, several services have been cut back, <strong>and</strong> instead of MR running along
nine radial inter-urban routes from the town, as was the case in 1986, First now runs only on five. In addition,
they have given up operating the town services (serving four local destinations).
7. On both the routes which MR or its successor no longer operates <strong>and</strong> on some of those run now by
First, other operators now provide services, in some cases commercially, but in all but two under contract
to the county council. Currently, six companies (including First) operate on the inter-urban routes, while
four companies provide the town services, two of which are entirely contracted, while there are limited
Sunday tendered services on one route. At one point, along one corridor (Bromsgrove-Redditch), the service
was provided by four diVerent companies, with some interavailability of tickets, since First was the only
commercial operator.
8. The eVect is now that First Wyvern tickets are available only on three of the inter-urban routes
operated by First. The company runs on two other tendered routes which are excluded from its Wyvern
tickets—these include areas where the bus will divert from its route to a pre-arranged pick up or set down.
9. The eVect of all this is that it is no longer possible to make a bus journey requiring the use of a local
service <strong>and</strong> an inter-urban one on one ticket. I live on one of the local routes which was served by First until
six months ago. A return journey by bus from the nearby stop to Birmingham <strong>and</strong> back would then have cost
me £5 (at current fares). It would now cost me £6.40 as a direct result of First’s withdrawing from the route.
10. Though (according to Worcestershire County Council’s Second Local Transport Plan) the use of
Bromsgrove railway station has increased fivefold in the 10 years from 1994–95 to 2004–05, the ticketing
system there also oVers several quirks <strong>and</strong> obstacles to the intending traveller, the eVect of which is to raise
the cost of travelling by train unreasonably. The quirks include regional journeys via Birmingham often
being cheaper if the traveller rebooks there—the combination of day tickets between Bromsgrove <strong>and</strong>
Birmingham, <strong>and</strong> between Birmingham <strong>and</strong> Shrewsbury costs £14.40. The cost of a through day ticket for
the same journey is £19.50. For some journeys where there is a service there is no “any permitted route”
ticket. For journeys to <strong>and</strong> from London, the traveller has to buy a ticket via Birmingham or via Evesham/
Stroud. In some cases, these idiosyncracies appear to arise from the privatisation process: there was were
“any reasonable route” tickets between Bromsgrove <strong>and</strong> London before the 1993 Act.