Merseytravel Committee Merseytravel Committee 6 April 2017 Present: Councillor L Robinson, Chair Councillor G Friel, Deputy Chair Councillors R Abbey, D Barrington, A Carr, J Dodd, G Flatley, S Foulkes, H Howard, K McGlashan, P McKinley, N Nicholas, M Rasmussen, K Roberts, L Rowlands, J Stockton, P Thomas, J Williams and J Wolfson Apologies for absence were submitted by Councillor T Shields 63. Declarations of Interest There were no declarations of interest received. 64. Minutes of the Last Meeting Resolved that the minutes of the last meeting held on 2 March 2017 be approved as a correct record. 65. Arriva Presentation The Committee considered a presentation from Howard Farrall, Area Managing Director of Arriva Merseyside with regard to their operations. Councillor Robinson thanked Mr Farrall for the presentation and referred to a previous meeting he had attended whereby he was questioned about the price of travel for young people. As the Committee were aware, this issue reached a satisfactory conclusion shortly after the meeting and he hoped that any matters that arose during the discussion today could be resolved in a similar manner. Councillor Abbey referred to the challenge that Arriva Merseyside faced with achieving the company’s Merseytravel Committee commercial interests but also fulfilling the commitments of the Liverpool City Region Bus Alliance (the Alliance). One particular example was fares as Arriva had recently announced a fare increase, however, this went against the aims of the Alliance. He went on to commend the Alliance’s achievement of almost 10% passenger growth and asked what Arriva’s plans were to support future growth. Mr Farrall replied that the previous two years had been a great success and the growth was predominantly from child tickets. This had been achieved without the assistance of a marketing strategy, which now approved would allow the successes of the Alliance and the investment made to be promoted. With regard to the comments on fares, this had to be carefully balanced as profit was required to enable further investment. In order to achieve continued growth, the Alliance had set further targets and although these were ambitious all partners would strive to meet them. In relation to franchising, Mr Farrall advised that this did not concern him, although partnerships would be the operator’s preferred arrangement. Councillor Abbey further questioned how the operator could justify offering discounts on some tickets, with only certain passengers benefitting, but increasing fares overall; particularly when Arriva had benefitted from low fuel prices over recent years and an increase in patronage. Mr Farrall agreed that the increase in the age of young person’s travel to 19 had generated significant growth, specifically 80% for Arriva Merseyside; however this equated to a 120% discount on the original ticket price. As mentioned previously the matter of fares was a balancing act and the operator required more than 80% growth to break even on such a massive discount. In response to the comments regarding fuel, the prices were fixed for three years but it was labour that was the biggest outlay, with these costs equating to 55%. Arriva had also made significant investment over the past three years spending £70 million on new vehicles, which had not been matched by any other operator in the country outside of London. In response to a question from Councillor Williams regarding Arriva Merseyside’s willing to enter into discussions with Merseytravel regarding the introduction of short hop fares, due to the expense of flat fares for some passengers, Mr Farrall advised that he would have no objections. The operator recognised that short Merseytravel Committee journeys were expensive but flat fares provided great value for longer journeys and were easier for customers and drivers. He reminded the Committee that regular travellers benefitted from purchasing a weekly ticket. Councillor Foulkes referred to the cross river bus services, which were the most expensive mode of travelling between Liverpool and Wirral. These services had seen an increase in passengers due to the on-going loop line closures and he asked whether consideration had been given to reducing the fares and retaining the new passengers once the loop was fully operational. Mr Farrall once again referred to the weekly ticket, which at £17 provided better value for those who travelled regularly. It was acknowledged that ad-hoc users would not benefit from this and the operator had tried to mitigate the impact on these passengers by recently reducing the day ticket from £5.30 to £4.60. Councillor Friel enquired as to whether Arriva Merseyside would consider the introduction of ‘dial a ride’ services for the more isolated communities as other operators had done throughout the country. Mr Farrall informed the Committee that Arriva had recently started a Demand Responsive Transport Scheme in the Southern Counties, which was still very much in the infancy stage, but if successful other areas would look to introduce the same. There were also other options that could be considered, for example mini bus operations in rural areas of Cheshire which could be booked similar to a taxi were being considered in rural areas of Cheshire. Councillor Friel further enquired as to the operator’s plans for an increase in the introduction of greener vehicles and Mr Farrall advised that provided that further funding was available from the Department for Transport both Arriva and their parent company were keen to continue to do this. A substantial amount of work was put into the bid for the hybrid buses and the operator was very successful in obtaining funding to introduce 51 hybrid buses onto the network. Future funding, however, would not stop continued investment in the fleet which was critical to the success of the operation. In response to a question from Councillor Wolfson regarding the performance of the 24 hour 86A route and whether there were plans to introduce 24 hour operation on any other routes, Mr Farrall replied that patronage was dependent on students. During university holidays the Merseytravel Committee service was not well used and as a result he was not convinced that the introduction of the same would be successful on other routes. Councillor Rasmussen commented that the fare package introduced for young people had been massively successful and was the main contributor towards the achievement of the Liverpool City Region Bus Alliance’s 9% passenger growth. The MyTicket was a simple to understand offer and highlighted the importance of simplicity when trying to encourage growth. She enquired how the same methodology would be applied to encourage adult growth and what plans there were to make travel more affordable for the 19 -21 age range. It was Mr Farrall’s opinion that the 19-23 age range should be the next target for the Alliance. The increase in age of the young person’s ticket to 19 was a huge risk but it paid off and the focus for this next age range was to encourage retention of passengers once they left education and had other transport choices. The risk would once again be significant but would also need to be carried out taking commercial considerations into account. Councillor Flatley highlighted one of the pledges of the Labour candidate for the Liverpool City Region Mayor, which was to tackle fares for those in apprenticeships and introduce the same offer as students. Mr Farrall advised that Arriva Merseyside recognised the importance of apprenticeships for the Liverpool City Region and the economy; their Business to Business Manager would be looking at the introduction of a discount. This was also an important matter for the Alliance. Councillor Howard enquired and received clarification that Mr Farrall’s area did not include Halton. He further referred to the recently introduced consolidated fares, which had not included Halton due to the disruption caused by the construction of the Mersey Gateway and asked whether they would apply once the bridge was opened. Mr Farrall advised that the construction of the bridge had significantly disrupted travel around the area and affected bus services but the decision regarding consolidated fares could be re-assessed following completion of the project. This could maybe be a decision of the Alliance or as part of a business case developed by Arriva following the recovery of services. Merseytravel Committee Following another enquiry from Councillor Howard regarding the possible introduction of an Arriva Managing Director for the Liverpool City Region, Mr Farrall felt that in the long term it would be appropriate to include Halton in the structure but was not in a position to comment on the specifics of what this would entail. Councillor McGlashan mentioned the importance of seamless integration between buses and trains and Mr Farrall acknowledged that this perhaps was not as co- ordinated as it should be; however work was planned to resolve this. Arriva Rail North would be working closely with bus operators to improve the links between timetables; high frequency train and bus routes would be relatively easy to co-ordinate, however it was the less frequent services in rural areas that would be more difficult and these would be given priority. Ticketing would be key to interoperability and work would also be done regarding this. On a local level Arriva Merseyside would be collaborating with Merseyrail to improve the co- ordination of timetables. Councillor Stockton raised concerns about the proposed 10% increase to MyTicket. This would seriously affect families on a low income and could potentially impede the growth that had been achieved. He strongly urged for this to be re-considered. Mr Farrall appreciated the concern; however the £2 cost had been sustained for three years and could not be continued long term.