What do you think About your first

A fare hearing for West of Fare consultation questionnaire What do you think About your first

We recently consulted on bus fares in the City area. More than 7,000 people took the time to respond, allowing us to use the feedback to help shape a radical new fares structure for bus journeys in Bristol.

We now want to do this for the rest of our West of England services.

We would like your help in achieving this, and would like you to complete the questions below. There is space for you to add your own thoughts about how to improve local bus services at the end. This survey is available in other languages on request.

Prefer to do it online?

Visit www..com/fairerfaresforall or scan here: Please note you should only fill in the survey once though.

Complete the survey and win an iPad!

As a thank you for taking part in the survey we will also, at the end, offer you a chance to win an iPad mini.

To enter the prize draw simply complete the survey and fill in your details on the last page. When filling in this survey, please remember it’s about First bus services only. Q5 And where do you usually board the bus for this journey? Name of bus stop and road name, or describe location Your use of First buses...

Q1 How frequently do you use First buses in the West of England area? Q6 Where do you usually get off the bus for this journey? Every day (including the weekend) Name of bus stop and road name, or describe location Every weekday More than once a week (e.g. 2 or 3 days per week) Once a week

Once a month Q7 How frequently do you make this journey? Less than once a month Every day (including the weekend) Never (we’d still like to hear your views on what you want Every weekday from a bus service, so please go to question 19.) More than once a week (e.g. 2 or 3 days per week) Once a week Q2 Thinking about the last day in which you used First buses in the West of England area, how many individual rides did you make? Once a month (Each time you board a bus counts as one ride. So if you change buses on a journey that’s two Less than once a month rides, if you make a return trip that’s two rides and if you make a return trip and change buses that’s four rides) Q8 What is the main purpose of this journey? Travel to work I made rides Shopping Leisure Q3 And now thinking about the last week in which you used First buses in the West of England area, how many individual rides did you make? Travel to education (Each time you board a bus this counts as a ride. So if you change buses on a journey that’s Personal business (e.g. to the post office, GP appointment etc) two rides, if you make a return trip that’s two rides and if you make a return trip and change Other buses that’s four rides; doing this each weekday would be 20 rides)

Q9 Do you need to change from one bus service I made rides to another to make this journey? Yes No Q4 Thinking about your most regular bus journey in West of England which route(s) do you use most often?

State number(s) of bus routes About the tickets you buy... Don’t know if I will make another bus journey May not make another bus journey on a First bus I have a free concessionary travel pass Q10 Which ticket do you usually buy in the West of England area? I don’t buy single tickets Single ticket from the driver (now go to Q11) Return ticket from the driver (now go to Q11) Q13 If you usually buy a single from the driver, why FirstDay ticket (now go to Q14) do you not buy a FirstDay ticket? FirstWeek ticket (now go to Q15) Never heard of them FirstMonth ticket (now go to Q15) They’re too expensive compared to paying for individual trips FirstTerm or FirstYear ticket (now go to Q15) Don’t know if I will make another bus journey FirstTen ticket (10 journey) (now go to Q15) May not make another bus journey on a First bus AvonRider, BathRider, WestonRider or Freedom I have a free concessionary travel pass Travelpass ticket (now go to Q18) I don’t buy single tickets I have a concessionary travel pass (also known Now go to Q16 as an ENCTS pass) (now go to Q18) I have a free travel pass to enable me to travel Q14 If you usually buy a FirstDay ticket, do you consider it to be... to and from school (now go to Q18) Very expensive I buy another ticket (please state) (now go to Q18) Quite expensive Reasonable - good value for money Quite cheap Very cheap Q11 If you usually pay a cash fare to the driver for a single or return ticket, do you consider this fare to be... Now go to Q16 Very expensive Q15 If you usually buy a FirstWeek, FirstMonth, FirstTen, Quite expensive FirstTerm or FirstYear ticket, do you consider it to be... Reasonable - good value for money Very expensive Quite cheap Quite expensive Very cheap Reasonable - good value for money Quite cheap Q12 If you usually buy a single ticket from the driver, why do you not buy a return ticket? Very cheap Never heard of them They’re too expensive compared to paying for individual trips Q16 Have you ever considered buying a longer duration What does it cost to run a bus? ticket (for example, FirstDay, FirstWeek, FirstTen FirstMonth, First Year), and if not, why not? Insurance It costs a lot to run a bus service, 2.9%

Yes and have done so in the past more than you might think. Each bus Parts 4.5% No, too expensive costs around £126,000 per year to run. The graph shows how our costs Overheads No, don’t know if I will have to make bus journeys in future 8.2% break down. I have a free concessionary travel pass Depreciation As you can see, three quarters Costs of 9.2% running your of this cost comes from staff bus services Q17 If you usually buy a FirstDay or FirstWeek from the driver, did Labour you know that you can buy these at travel shops, or at PayPoint and fuel costs. As a responsible 59.8% Fuel 15.4% outlets, and that FirstWeek tickets are available to buy online too? employer we also invest heavily in our staff as we understand the Yes and I already do benefit this brings: our staff members Yes, but it is quicker or more convenient to buy it on the bus have access to pensions, sick Yes, but I prefer buying my ticket from the driver in person pay, uniforms and lifelong learning Yes, but I don’t have access to a travel shop, opportunities. It’s important that we’re able to recruit and retain the right number PayPoint outlet or the internet and right type of staff, so we have to make sure that the employment package No, I did not know that we offer keeps up with other job opportunities. Over the last 10 years, the cost of staff has risen by 43% (that is 10% above inflation).

Q18 In addition to your usual ticket or pass, which, if any, of Each week a typical bus operates for 75-85 hours, uses about 525 litres (115 the following First bus tickets have you bought in the gallons) of fuel and needs 2½ drivers to keep it in service. It needs to earn at least last year for travel in the West of England area? £33 per hour to pay for itself. We all hear talk of inflation and of the Retail Price Single ticket from the driver Index, but our costs are not linked to this and have grown more rapidly. As you Return ticket from the driver will know, the cost of fuel has sharply increased in the last ten years. Specifically FirstDay ticket our fuel costs have risen by a staggering 147% during this period (that is 85% above inflation). Insurance costs also keep rising sharply, by over 8.5% in the last FirstWeek ticket year. Overall the cost of providing bus services has risen by 47% in the last 10 FirstMonth ticket years compared with inflation of 30%. FirstTerm or FirstYear ticket FirstTen ticket (10 journey) AvonRider, BathRider, WestonRider or Freedom Travelpass ticket What else causes fares to rise? I have a free travel pass to enable me to travel to and from school Congestion is bad news. Traffic queues delay journeys, worsen air quality – and make our bus services less reliable, less attractive and more expensive to run.

We want to provide you with a reliable and punctual bus service that you can rely on. Current levels of congestion make that very difficult to achieve in many parts of the West of England. Bus travel times can be unpredictable and sometimes Q19 Do you think that people in the age range of 16 longer than they need to be. More time means more buses and more drivers to 21 should receive discounted fares? to deliver the same level of service. We want to do what we can to tackle Yes No this problem through working in partnership with local Councils to implement measures to improve bus priority and reduce general traffic levels. Q20 If yes, how much of a percentage discount We’ve made a start in the last couple of years. The bus priority measures do you think they should they get? introduced by West of England Partnership, through initiatives such as the Greater Bristol Bus Network project, have helped reduce the effects of congestion, avoiding the need for extra vehicles and staff which would have added greatly to our costs. But our buses can still be slow and less punctual than we’d like and we Q21 Which of the following would encourage you to want to do much more to improve things. use the bus, or to use it more often? If we can increase average bus operating speeds, we not only make the service Please rank the three most important issues in order 1, 2, 3 more attractive, but we increase our efficiency as each bus hour provides more A short-hop fare for £1 valid for travel up to three bus stops service. Experts reckon that each 1% journey speed improvement leads to A simpler and easier to understand fare structure a 0.8% reduction in operating costs. so you know the fare before you travel

Buying tickets before you travel can speed up bus running times. We’ve Cheaper single and return fares been working with PayPoint since 2011 to make tickets available in local shops, Cheaper day, week or month tickets as well as on the bus, and this year we’ll be rolling out the first phases of Better availability of ticket purchase at other our Smartcards. locations such as newsagents A ticket valid for unlimited travel for up to an hour Why do we have to make a profit? Buses which are more punctual Friendlier drivers with a greater emphasis on customer service Our critics often say that we should absorb some of these cost rises by reducing A more frequent bus service the amount of profit we make. But we need to make enough profit to fund Buses with free wi-fi, free newspapers or entertainment systems our investment in new buses (which cost up to £200,000 each), depots and equipment. Last year we introduced 50 new, improved single and double deck A smartphone app with bus stop locations and bus times buses to the West of England area. That’s an investment of well over £9 million A smartphone app with bus fares for individual journeys in the future of the West of England bus network. We have also invested in 140 Increased car parking charges in the City Centres other local buses through an extensive refurbishment programme. All this has A “smartcard” which you could use to pay enabled the oldest and less accessible vehicles to be removed from the fleet. for bus travel like a debit card All of which brings us back to fares. Almost all our income comes from carrying None of the above passengers, either through fares you pay, or the payments we receive from the Other, please give details below... (more space available on back page) local council for journeys made with your free concessionary pass or scholar’s pass although these payments are coming under increasing pressure due to cutbacks in local authority expenditure. Q22 If you chose a smartcard in Q21, would you prefer... Q25 Finally, if on Q1 you answered that you never use First (If you didn’t choose smartcard please go to Q23) bus services in your area, please tell us why that is? Please rank the three most important issues in order 1, 2, 3 Use a different bus service To cap the maximum charge for a day’s travel on First Use a bicycle buses (at a set amount, for instance £X in Bath or Like to walk £X across the whole West of England area) Use a car / car share / motorbike To cap the maximum charge for a day’s travel on all buses (including Unreliable journey times those not operated by First in the West of England area) Buses don’t go where I need them to go To cap the maximum charge for a week’s travel on First buses Have children and the car is more convenient To cap the maximum charge for a week’s travel on all buses in the West of England area Stopped using due to the cost of travel A card which I can use to pay for my newspaper, Infrequent service groceries and individual bus journeys Poor customer service I get cheap or free parking Q23 Would you be interested in buying a card which entitled Other, please give details below... you to discounts on all travel in the area, in the manner of a Young Person’s or Family Railcard, entitling you to a percentage off the cost of travel for up to a year? Yes No

Q24 If you have any other ideas on how we could offer better value for money bus travel and attract more people to use our buses, please tell us below... About you... Want to enter the prize draw? We just need a bit more information about you, so we can better understand your responses. If you wish to enter our free prize draw to win a brand Q26 What age bracket do you fall into? new iPad mini please provide your name, email and contact 16 or younger number below. We’ll pick a 17-21 years winner in March 2014, after the 22-30 years consultation closes. 31- 59 years Over 60 years Name

Q27 Do you have a current valid driving licence? Yes No Email

Q28 Do you own or have access to a car? Yes No

Daytime phone number Q29 What is your home postcode?

Prize draw terms and conditions Thanks for taking the time to complete this survey 1. Employees of FirstGroup plc and its subsidiary companies are not eligible to enter the draw 2. FirstGroup plc reserves the right to name the winner of the competition for future purposes You can now return your completed survey anonymously, see the section below. 3. The prize is an iPad mini, no cash alternative will be provided Alternatively if you would like to enter the prize draw, please complete the form 4. Only one entry per respondent can be accepted. FirstGroup plc cannot accept responsibilities for entries opposite. not received 5. The closing date for entries is 16 March 2014 6. The draw will take place on 31 March and the winner will be notified in writing by 28 April 2014 7. Details of the winner will be available to participants upon written request but no other correspondence can Returning the questionnaire be entered into 8. If you have any queries about this promotion, or the consultation in general, you can email You can hand this questionnaire in at any of our travel shops in Bath, Wells, [email protected] Weston-super-Mare or Bristol, or you can post it back to us at:

Fairer Fares for All, First, Freepost BS8931, Bristol, BS5 0DZ

The consultation closes on 16 March 2014 so please return it by then. Additional space for answers... (Please write the question number it relates to)

If you have any queries about the consultation in general, you can email [email protected]

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