(1) First Group
(2) Stagecoach
(3) Rotherham Community Transport
Minutes:
First Bus
Michael Moore reported that the routes First currently operated were not showing any huge challenges in terms of operation at the current time. There had been some problems in relation to trees last year which had caused issues in terms of the capacity that could be provided on vehicles. The aim was to run buses that were safe for the highways and where there were trees that overhung that could strike the vehicles, they did cause a safety risk to passengers.
First continued to see a challenge of buses running to/through/via Meadowhall and was mitigated as best it could. Since the closure of the Midland Road garage, some of the services had been split e.g. X2 and X11 with half of them running from Sheffield and the other from Doncaster. From Sunday 22nd February all the X2 service would run from the Sheffield garage giving more co-ordination of the service. It also had the added benefits of giving more opportunities to look to employing a wider rota from Rotherham people and encourage colleagues to drive buses in the Borough. There would be a pool of buses that worked in and out of Rotherham.
Councillor Currie, on behalf of Councillor Garnett, asked if there was any chance of the No. 139 bus being reinstated on Ox Close Avenue. The church and shops on St. John’s Green were extremely popular but the removal of the bus service had made a real difference and was alienating people from the good work being carried out in the community.
Michael Moore replied that he could not speak as to why that change had been made but it would be remiss to reinstate the service if it was not part of the franchise.
Agreed:- That SYMCA discuss further with Councillors Currie and Garnett and Rotherham Community Transport.
Stagecoach
John Young reported that period 10 had finished the previous week and had seen a dip in punctuality performance to 82.54% for the last 4 weeks. There had been a number of challenges particularly towards the end of January; there had been temporary traffic lights on Rawmarsh Hill which had caused significant delays, roadworks on Balby Road, Doncaster, which had impacted the No. 221, Ardsley Hill, Barnsley, and the traffic lights on Bank Street, Mexborough.
Stagecoach’s punctuality for the 20 week period average was 86.88% which was a more respectable figure so overall was in fairly strong place. Reliability for period 10 was still very good at 99.76%; only 0.24% of journeys did not run but the journeys that did run were more likely to run late because of the issues aforementioned.
The network was stable and there were no service changes planned in the short to medium term. Stagecoach was in discussion with SYMCA to ensure a smooth process from now until the franchising started and there were some challenges which had already been touched upon at the meeting. Adult patronage was down significantly; it was not a Rotherham specific issue although it was highlighted particularly at the Rawmarsh Depot. It was a trend across the wider area and would appear across many parts of the UK that adult patronage had declined. It was a challenge for commercial bus operators because they were the group of people they got the most revenue from. Trading conditions were particularly challenging because costs were increasing. Concessionary fares were performing better as well as young people travel. The scheme in Barnsley – free travel for under 16s – had seen some knock-on effect on some of the services that ran into Rotherham cross boundary with Barnsley.
There had been a growth in the number of young people using public transport across all Stagecoach depots but nowhere near enough to counteract the significant decline that was being seen in the adult market.
Of Stagecoach’s 5 depots, the depot that had seen greatest decline was Rawmarsh. The service delivery was extremely strong with a slight dip in punctuality but the overall trend had been very good for months. The fleet was in good order with almost half of the fleet being only one year old and consisting of electric vehicles.
A number of Stagecoach fares were still less than £3 - £2.60 or £2.70 and offered a range of day-a-week tickets such as the Silver ticket, that covered all Stagecoach buses across the whole of South Yorkshire, extended into West Yorkshire and allowed travel to Chesterfield at £6.50 a day or £23.50 for a week. There was also the Travelmaster and options to include tram, rail as well as bus.
The Barnsley MiCard worked on the same premise as an OAP concessionary fare with Stagecoach receiving a concessionary reimbursement. The scheme had been extremely successful with Barnsley outperforming expectations.
The £2 price cap had probably generated some new travellers but when it had increased to £3 it depended upon how often the passenger was travelling and for a lot of customers they paid a single fare which was less than the £3.
Rotherham Community Transport
Adrian Parkinson had submitted his apologies.