Nexus Strategic Intelligence Report 2012-13 Contents

1 Funding 2 Headlines 3 Socio-demographic overview 4 Bus Services 5 Elderly and Disabled Travel 6 Metro 7 Metro: All change 8 Ferry and Rail 9 Information and Infrastructure 10 Accessibility Introduction

Welcome to Nexus’ Annual Intelligence Report. This report provides an overview of performance and a compilation of public transport and socio‐economic trends in Tyne and Wear in 2012/13.

Nexus is the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (PTE) and administers funds on behalf of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority (ITA).

There are few people living in Tyne and Wear whose daily lives are not touched in some way by Nexus. Around 180 million public transport journeys are currently made in the region per year. It might be getting you to work, or taking the children to school. It might be treating yourself to a day out shopping or a family trip to the coast or a museum. It might be helping you enjoy a night out on the town without worrying who will be driving home.

Our task is to improve the quality of life and fortunes of everyone in Tyne and Wear, creating better transport networks by;

'Building for tomorrow through better transport today'

We provide, plan and promote public transport to improve the economic prosperity of Tyne and Wear, and the daily lives of its people. We also look to the future, creating the travel networks people will want to use in decades to come.

This report is primarily focussed on public transport however it also considers the intrinsic links between public transport and the wider socio‐economic environment. This report consists of 10 sections;

1. Funding 2. 2012/13 headlines 3. Socio‐demographic monitoring 4. Plans for 2013/14 5. Bus services 6. Concessionary Travel 7. Metro 8. Metro: all change 9. Customer services 10. Sustainable travel

For further information on any of the information contained in the report, please contact Nexus’ Business Intelligence section via email [email protected] or phone 0191 203 3467. Nexus Aims & Objectives

Connecting communities

 We want public transport to connect the largest number of people with work and leisure opportunities and vital public services. We try to reach those communities and social groups who do not have access to private vehicles. This can mean providing bus or Metro to an area with poor transport links, or developing new forms of transport to meet the specialist needs of some passengers.

Changing the way people travel

 We plan and provide transport options that encourage people to choose public transport over their own cars to reach work and leisure activities. This ‘modal shift’ is vital if we are to reduce congestion and pollution in our crowded urban environment today and in the future.

Supporting economic regeneration

 We plan the development of public transport to match the exciting economic regeneration programmes in our region. We pay for bus services to run to growing business parks and cultural quarters. Many of the largest regeneration, retail and job creation areas planned for the future of Tyne and Wear stand close to Metro lines.

Tackling climate change

 By promoting sustainable travel, including public transport, car sharing, walking and cycling, we help to reduce the impact our communities have on the environment. At the same time Nexus is committed to reducing the carbon impact of its own activities and those of its suppliers, by examining every part of our operation and finding ways to reduce waste and consumption.

Nexus is pursuing four major programmes aimed at improving public transport in Tyne and Wear.

 The Bus Strategy, a programme to deliver the Integrated Transport Authority's aims of arresting the fall in bus passenger numbers, improving accessibility and providing greater value for public spending.  Smart Ticketing, a programme to bring the whole of North East England a single smart technology for transport, education and other local services, in partnership with local councils and transport companies.  Metro: all change modernisation, a £385m programme to secure the future of the light rail system for future decades, while improving the passenger experience.  Go Smarter, a programme of schemes in Tyne and Wear delivered in partnership with local councils and other agencies, aimed at encouraging more people to choose sustainable transport, helping reduce congestion and meet environmental targets.

1 Funding 1.0

The ITA, which meets every two months, is made up of elected councillors delegated from the five local authorities that makes up Tyne and Wear.

The ITA receives its money in the form of a levy on the five district councils. The amount each council gives is in proportion to its population. Revenue collected in fares and advertising on Metro are also ploughed back into the service, keeping its operating subsidy at a minimum.

1.1 Nexus Gross Revenue Expenditure 2012/13

Nexus’ Gross Revenue Expenditure during 2012/13 amounted to £168.6m. This enabled the provision of the services shown in chart below.

1.2 Nexus Grant Income 2012/13

Nexus’ grant income in 2012/13 amounted to £110.8m. The chart below shows the sources of this grant funding:‐

The largest source of grant funding received by Nexus during 2011/12 (around 62% of all grants) was from the ITA and this funding provides a direct link between the local taxpayer and the services that Nexus provides. This is discussed in more detail below.

Other sources of grant funding in 2011/12 were provided for a specific purpose:‐

 Metropolitan Rail Grant – from DfT to support the operating costs of the Tyne and Wear Metro  Heavy Rail Grant – from DfT to support the operating costs of the Northern Rail franchise

The ITA funding in 2011/12 included monies previously paid by the DfT to support the costs of administering the Concessionary Travel Scheme, but which is now paid through the Local Districts in Tyne & Wear. During 2010/11, this grant amounted to £5.7m.

New analysis of Treasury public spending figures reveals that spending on transport in London has now risen to £644 per head compared with £223 per head for the North East. The gap has widened considerably since the previous years’ figures with spend in London rising from £642 per head to £644 per head, whilst the spend in the West Midlands and North of England fell from £269 per head to £243 per head. The analysis is entirely based on figures in the Treasury’s 2012 Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses which is published on HMT’s website.

1.3 The ITA Levy

The ITA agrees a budget and then issues a levy for each financial year to the constituent councils within Tyne and Wear so as to meet a proportion of its liabilities/expenses. The apportionment of the levy is calculated by reference to the total resident population of each Council. This is done in accordance with Section 7(5) of the Transport Levying Bodies Regulations 1992 where, in Section 3(a), Passenger Transport Authorities established by s28 of the Local Government Act 1985 (now renamed ITA’s as a result of the Local Transport Act 2008), are identified as levying bodies. In the case of the Tyne and Wear ITA, it set a levy for the financial year 2012/13 of £70.2m, of which £66.93m, including grant previously paid direct to Nexus by the DfT to cover costs associated with the Concessionary Travel Scheme, was paid to Nexus in order to execute the policy decisions of the ITA.

Nexus’ levy funded expenditure during 2012/13 amounted to £69.5m, exceeding the £66.9m income. The chart to the right shows how the levy was used by Nexus in providing the following services:‐ 2 Headlines 2.0 Headlines

2.1 Performance

 Metro patronage showed a ‐1.3% decrease from April 2012 to March 2013 compared with the same period in the previous year, partly because of further line closures for modernisation work and some severe weather conditions impacting upon availability and discouraging travel, and also due to a decline in Gold Card travel.  Bus patronage showed a 1.1% increase from April 2012 to March 2013, compared with the same period in the previous year. However, Ferry patronage has fallen by ‐13% in the same periods, with the 2nd Tyne Tunnel, poor weather and a fall in shipyard activity impacting upon trips.  Metro charter punctuality averaged 85.9% (target 87.2%) for April to March 2013. This compares to 88.45% in the previous year.  Bus user satisfaction stands at 79.1% for the period April 2012 to March 2013, a very slight decrease on the same period in the previous year of 79.8%.  Metro user satisfaction is rated as 7.93 out of 10 for the period April 2012 to March 2013, a very slight decrease on the same period in the previous year which was 7.99.

2.2 Delivering better public transport

 Nexus are progressing with the Bus Strategy Delivery Project which is exploring the idea of a Quality Contracts Scheme or Voluntary Partnership Agreement with bus operators in Tyne and Wear. A decision was made by the ITA in July 2013 to progress with public consultation on the QCS proposal.

 The Pride of the Tyne Ferry was refurbished for the summer season and was available for corporate hire by local business and charities. The Shields Ferry also now has its own Facebook page – part of efforts to market the service.  Nexus reduced the charges at Metro car parks from 1 December 2012 to £1.00 flat fee, rather than £1.60 previously. This followed a ‘free parking’ offer from July to December 2012.  The reduced price Day Rover campaign increased sales of the ticket by over 200%. The multi‐modal day ticket was available between July and December 2012 for a price of £5.50, compared to the normal price of £6.80.  Tyne and Wear has won £5m from the Better Bus Area Grant fund, in a joint bid led by the ITA. Work is commencing to improve key road junctions. Nexus also received just over £1m to fund bus station improvements and better CCTV at Heworth and Park Lane.  Nexus also won £85,000 for a new hybrid bus on the successful Sunderland Connect city centre route, which will be used to increase the frequency.  Nexus bid to Government for up to £5m Local Sustainable Transport Fund support, in partnership with the ITA and local councils. This bid focuses on actions around congestion hotspots, real time information, marketing and cycle facilities at interchanges.  The current 16‐18 Metro Student Card will be extended from September to cover all 16‐18 year olds, offering them half price season tickets and offering cheaper fares for up to 12,000 more young people than now.

2.3 Becoming a smarter organisation

 New travelshop ticket machines have been installed in shops across the region that can sell a larger variety of tickets, including smart products.  We have launched the new ‘myjourney’ online travel planning tool in web and mobile phone versions – this app shows the next departures from any bus stop or Metro station in Tyne and Wear.  Near Field Communication (NFC) technology was installed in bus stops across the region to provide timetable information directly to your mobile phone.  The proportion of waste recycled across the business rose to 50% in June.  The Training Standards team based at Eden Training Centre have achieved ISO 9001 quality management systems accreditation, and we will now be looking to extend this to other areas.  We will be consulting with stakeholders on our draft Equality and Diversity Report, which sets out progress and plans towards our obligations under the 2010 Equality Act.  Invested in the future with a commitment to create 30 new apprenticeships in rail engineering over the next three years and created a new team to deliver Metro modernisation projects efficiently, with 70 new posts  Nexus completed a structure review to deliver efficiencies across the existing organisation, from top to bottom. Merged Information technology and Metro communications teams to form a single integrated unit delivering technological solutions across Nexus  A Frontline Leadership Programme was launched to boost the skills of 60 supervisory staff and future managers, while 13 senior managers completed Masters qualifications.  Metal theft from the region’s rail lines has fallen 69% since before the campaign began and laws have now been changed to make passing on stolen metal much harder. Nexus led the fight against metal theft in the North East and were rewarded by being awarded PR campaign of the year at the 2012 UK Rail Business Awards.

2.4 Transforming Metro through re‐invigoration

 22 Refurbished Metrocars are now in service and we expect more to join them in the coming months, as they are now returning from the specialist works every three weeks.  Work between Byker and Tynemouth to replace or renew track, track beds and structures, as well as refurbishing stations was completed in March 2013. Nexus has invested £46m in this part of the system over three years.  The focus of modernisation will now move to the South Gosforth to Haymarket section, where we began by replacing the main junction at South Gosforth in just six days in October. This will mean further Major Line Closures in the next two years, as well as station refurbishments.

 We are nearing the end of a programme to replace escalators throughout major underground stations; Central has been completed and Monument will be completed in March, with work moving to Gateshead and Regent Centre later this spring.

2.5 Delivering smart ticketing

 More than 15,000 Pop cards have so far been issued to corporate, student annual Metrosaver and four‐weekly customers, allowing them to buy smart travel for the first time.  A new web portal for the sale of Pop products went live in 2012 where both annual and 4‐weekly Metrosaver customers are being encouraged to get smart cards. More than 500 applications were processed over Christmas ahead of a formal roll‐out to 4‐weekly customers in February 2013.  Gate lines have been installed at 13 stations including Central and Monument stations in January 2013.  We have now installed 225 new ticket machines at all stations. Our new ticket machines are operating at 99.7% reliability, with credit card customer reliability issues now resolved.  Invested more than £1m for NESTI (the North East Smart Ticketing Initiative) putting smart ticket machines on all buses in the region so they are ready to accept a single smart product anywhere in North East England  Nexus mailed out more than 210,000 new Concessionary Travel bus passes, without older and disabled persons having to do anything.

2.6 Our plans for the year ahead

3 Socio-demographic overview 3.0 ‐

3.1 Tyne & Wear region

Tyne and Wear currently has a resident population of 1.09 million divided amongst the five constituent councils of Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland in the North East of England. The shaded area in the chart to the right shows the current distribution of population in Tyne & Wear, based on the 2011 Census and the line represents the distribution of the population in 2001. Between the 2001 and 2011 Census, the overall population in Tyne and Wear grew by just under 30,000 residents, representing a 2.7% increase. This represents slower population growth compared to the English rate of 8% and North East rate of 3.2%. However, the population density of the area is comparable to that of other Metropolitan areas (Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire), and accounts for 43% of the North East’s population in just 6% of the total land area.

The area covered by the Service covers an area of 538 square kilometres and borders with Counties of Durham to the south and Northumberland to the north. By road, Tyne & Wear is around 451 km north from London and 175 km south from Edinburgh.

In addition to Tyne and Wear's two major cities, the area boasts two large football stadiums, numerous museums and art galleries, three universities and a number of higher education colleges. The area has gained an international reputation for sport, shopping, nightlife, historic architecture, urban parks and the contemporary arts. This reputation has been enhanced by such events as the Great North Run, New Year’s Eve celebrations and the Sunderland Air Show – all of which rely on well‐developed transport links including the Metro, local Bus services, Shield’s Ferry, the UK’s tenth busiest international airport, an international ferry terminal and Newcastle Central Railway Station serving both local and national heavy rail.

3.2 Employment

The global economy is still weak and surprising growth in the UK in quarter 3 of 2012, potentially due to the “Olympic effect” doesn’t alter the underlying weak trend with ultimately UK economic activity remaining broadly flat in 2012.

The employment rate measures the proportion of 16 – 74 year olds in employment. This has increased in Tyne and Wear from 56% to 60% between the 2001 and 2011 Census with just over 493,000 people in employment. The public sector now accounts for 33% of employment, up from 29% in 2001 which compares to an English national figure of 28%, up from 24%. The reliance of the local labour market on the public sector exposes Tyne and Wear, and the wider region, to the public sector spending cuts. Although overall employment numbers have increased recently, the number of part time employees has increased at a greater rate than full time.

Traditional employment areas of shipbuilding, coal mining and heavy industries have declined significantly over the last twenty‐five years, giving rise to a changing risk profile, and transitions in unemployment rates. Today, many of the traditional industries have been replaced by modern industrial developments and service based organisations, although manufacturing remains a sizeable sector (producing almost a quarter of the area's GDP). Sunderland is one such city where the job profile and spread of jobs across the region is changing. Up to 2008, areas based around the A19 saw very strong jobs growth. For example, the area including the Nissan car factory increased its number of private sector jobs by 1,300. And the area including Doxford International Business Park added around 4,000 private sector jobs over the period. In stark contrast, Sunderland city centre saw a contraction in its number of private sector jobs where employment fell by 2%.

Sunderland’s city centre still does have the highest concentration of jobs in the city but the city centre’s share of all businesses in Sunderland declined to 2008. The main reason for this change was that of the large number of businesses that did relocate to Sunderland, very few chose the city centre as their new location.

Gateshead town centre redevelopment is creating up to a thousand jobs in 2013, including up to 650 construction jobs which have been secured by local people. Once completed, Trinity Square will then bring employment opportunities in retail, hospitality and leisure. (Gateshead Economic Scorecard, Sep 12) 3.3 Business failures and insolvencies

2012/13 saw the number of business failures and personal insolvencies fall year on year. However, the figures still show a weak economy with around 4,000 more business and individual financial failures compared to 2007/08, pre‐recession levels.

Type of Financial Failure 2011/12 2012/13 % Change

Business Failures 22,019 19,572 ‐11% Individual Insolvencies 118,487 105,912 ‐11%

The charts show the rate of individual insolvencies across Tyne and Wear. Note the bars which show how all areas of England & Wales fit within the scale and the significant shift from 2000 to 2011.

3.4 Consumer confidence

Confidence amongst business is consistently higher than consumers. For consumers, 2,000 surveys rate the relative level of past and future economic conditions including personal financial situation, climate for major purchases, overall economic situation and savings level. For business, 1,000 surveys of ICAEW members asked how would you describe your confidence in the economic prospects facing your business over the next 12 months, compared to the previous 12 months.

Over the last 3 years confidence among both groups has fallen with a slight reprieve by the end of 2012/13.

3.5 Car production and registrations

The North East, according the DfT’s National travel Survey:2012, has the lowest levels of car ownership in England, outside of London; however car ownership is also growing at the fastest rate of any region. Nevertheless the North East still has the highest number of trips taken on local bus per person outside of London. In 2011/12 this equated to an average of 77 trips on local buses for each person.

Prior to the 2008 recession, there were consistently over 1m new car registrations annually. This fell considerably and by the year ending May 2009, annual registrations were at their lowest point. By the end of 2012/13, there were signs of improvement within the industry with annual registrations almost again at 1m.

The level of new car registrations could either be seen as a measure of personal economic health and confidence in the economy at large or perhaps a lack of alternative options other than a car.

Between 2001 and 2011, the number of cars in Tyne and Wear has increased by almost 75,000 to just over 436,000 or 63% of households, compared with 58% in 2001. There are local differences; see the rate of car ownership range from 58% (Newcastle) to 65% (Sunderland) and the greatest proportionate increase in the rate of car ownership is in Gateshead and South Tyneside which increased by 12% and 11% respectively.

The main increase was due to the number of households with multiple cars, which increased by 37%. The total number of cars increased by 21% to almost 440,000.

Indicator 2001 2011 No. Change % Change H'holds Without car 193,630 178,193 ‐15,437 ‐8% H'holds One Car 192,217 201,234 9,017 5% H'holds Multiple Cars 76,977 105,100 28,123 37% H'holds No. of vehicles 361,469 436,319 74,850 21%

By the end of 2012/13, annual fuel would be £27 cheaper than the start of the year*. The chart shows the current pricing level began at the start of 2013 and compared to early 2010, annual fuel costs are now £176 higher. The increase over the last two years has exceeded inflation and wage increases.

*based on 10,000 miles per year at 50 miles per gallon

3.6 Travel to work

The UK Census asks respondents about their method of travel to work and data is therefore comparable between the 2011 and 2001 editions. The results show that the proportion of people in the region using bus fell from 18.2% to 15.9% over the ten year period. The proportion driving increased from 59.9% to 63.7%. Method 2001 2011 Change Underground, metro, light rail, tram 5.8% 6.7% 13.6% Train 1.3% 1.3% 0% Bus, minibus or coach 18.2% 15.9% ‐13.4% Driver in car or van 59.9% 63.7% 5.9%

In the North East, the Family Spending surveys show the proportion of Transport Expenditure attributable to Transport Services (Rail & tube fares, Bus & coach fares, Combined fares, Other travel and transport). Spend in this area has fallen in recent years, despite the proportion of total expenditure related to Transport remaining relatively static.

2009‐2011 Expenditure Household Expenditure Category % of total Rank Spend 1Recreation and Culture £50.50 15% 2 Transport £50.10 15% 3Housing Fuel and Power £46.20 14% 4 Food £45.70 14% 5 Restaurants and Hotels £33.30 10% 6Misc Goods £28.30 9% 7Household Goods and Services £24.10 7% 8 Clothing £21.90 7% 9 Alcohol £11.30 3% 10 Communication £11.10 3% 11 Health £4.60 1% 12 Education £3.20 1% Total All Expenditure £330.30 100%

3.7 Weather The temperatures in Tyne and Wear 2012/13 were largely in line with the 30 year average. However, throughout the year the level of rainfall was high compared to the average with the first half of the year seeing the wettest weather. 2012 was the second wettest on record in the UK, according to data released by the Met Office. The total rainfall for the UK during 2012 was 1,330.7mm (52.4in), just 6.6mm short of the record set in 2000.

Nexus Business Intelligence has identified a strong correlation between public transport use and the weather. Interestingly, the effects differ between passenger type – on Metro adults are more likely to use it when the weather is bad (specifically cold/snow) while children are more likely to use it when the weather is good. We assume this is as a result of roads being either difficult to drive or congested during snow/ice which makes commuters more likely to use public transport (with Metro being unaffected by road problems) and that a number of child journeys are for leisure use which is encouraged during warmer weather.

Some notable weather events include:

 Floods in June 2012. On the 28th, Metro sales were down 20% and on the 29th it was down 20% compared to an average equivalent day in 2012  Snow in January 2013. On the 21st Metro sales were up 11% and on the 22nd sales were up 8%, on average equivalent day in 2013.  Snow in Nov‐Dec 2010. Across a 2 week period, sales 16% up on previous year and the morning Peak Return tickets were up 81%.

4 Bus services 4.0 Bus services

4.1 Background

Buses are a vital public service – they have a major role to play in the way the public go about its daily life because of the economic connectivity they help to achieve. As with all public services, efficient and affordable delivery is paramount. (1 Department for Transport (2012), Green Light for Better Buses)

Around 40% of individuals in T&W do not have access to a car (Greener Journeys website (30 March 2012), Buses to Provide Good Return for Investment). For these people, the bus is their main means of accessing employment, educational and shopping facilities, as well as a range of other essential services. Local bus services are, and will continue to be, important for the economy and the environment in Tyne and Wear.

Bus services in Tyne and Wear are provided by private companies in an openmarket, and these define and operate 90% of routes without regulation or subsidy. Nexus monitors bus service performance and secures the remaining approximate 10% of routes, around 300 services or parts of services, by subsidy on behalf of Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority. We do this to help ensure communities retain a bus service, particularly early in the morning, at nights and at weekends, where commercial operators are otherwise unwilling to operate. These services are also important in maintaining direct links to about 60 schools as well as workplaces and hospitals.

4.2 Long term bus patronage trend

There are a number of factors affecting the long term patronage trend, including the economic situation and therefore the number of jobs, car ownership and fuel prices and the relative attractiveness of bus as a mode of transport.

Although based on a sample of all passengers, the annual Tyne and Wear total bus patronage figure measured by the Continuous Monitoring process is accurate to within +/‐ 1.3% and is considered statistically robust.

The Nexus figures show a general long term decline in bus patronage. The introduction of the free local bus travel in 2006, and its extension through the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme in 2008 helped to increase overall patronage but this was due to increased ridership among children and the over 60s & disabled, fare paying adult patronage continued to decline.

Nexus have recorded year on year decline in adult bus patronage since 2001/02, with a brief exception in 2008/09. Between 2001/02 and 2011/12, adult patronage declined by 16% while total patronage fell by 5% as it was boosted by an increase in ENCTS travel.

Figure 1 shows bus patronage from 1973/74 to 2012/13 in Tyne and Wear. From 1999, a passenger type breakdown was available.

4.3 Additional data sources

Various other external and independent sources of information support the trends shown in Nexus’ patronage figures.

a. Bus vehicle miles in the North East have fallen from 105 million to 90 million between 2004/05 and 2011/12, representing a reduction of 14%.

Miles 2004/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 Millions 105 101 101 97 93 94 94 90

b. The Public Service Vehicle (PSV) also shows that the number of buses in use within metropolitan areas has fallen from 10,500 to 9,700 between 2004/05 and 2011/12, representing a decline of 8%.

Buses 2004/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 Thousands 10.5 10.6 10.7 9.8 10 9.8 9.7 9.7

c. The National Travel Survey is designed to track long term changes in the number of trips made by modes of transport. The survey results show that between 2004/05 and 2011/12 the number of trips on bus fell from 84 to 74 per person in the North East. Trips made on other public transport stands at 37 trips per person in 2011/12, the same as in 2004/05. Trips made as a car driver increased from 371 to 381 trips per person. Annual trips 2004/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12 per person Local Bus 84 87 82 84 84 82 86 74 Other Public 37 31 35 44 40 32 37 37 Car driver 371 381 403 406 405 389 368 381

d. The National Public Transport Data Repository (NPTDR) in regards to the number of vehicle trips. The NPTDR shows the number of weekly bus trips in Metropolitan Areas fell from 756,000 to 691,000 between 2006 and 2011, representing a decline of 9%.

Weekly Bus Trips 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Thousands 756 753 742 711 710 691

e. The PSV survey is based on annual returns made to DfT by a sample of holders of PSV operators’ licences. This shows a decline in bus journeys between 2009/10 and 2011/12 of 2.3 million within Tyne and Wear. It also represents a decline in the journeys per head of 2.1%.

Area 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Tyne and Wear (total journeys in millions) 129.8 129.2 127.5 Tyne and Wear (journeys per head) 117.3 115.4 114.8

f. An overview of the trends from the additional external data sources

4.4 Other PTE area trends

The decline in bus patronage numbers up to 2011/12 was also seen within other PTE areas. Only West Yorkshire PTE, “Metro” recorded an increase in patronage between 2009/10 and 2011/12. Bus journeys ('000s) 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 % change Centro 320 300 286 ‐4.7% MerseyTravel 142.9 141.6 137.1 ‐3.2% Metro 184 180 185 2.7% Nexus 143 141 139 ‐1.6% SYPTE 115 113 111 ‐2.2% TfGM 226 224 219 ‐2.4% City of Nottingham 47 48 49 2.4%

(PTEG Research Group)

4.5 Overview of 2012/13 bus patronage performance

However, after three years of decline, total bus patronage in Tyne and Wear increased by 1.1%, equating to 1.484m journeys during 2012/13, compared with 2011/12. This was predominantly due to an increase in adult journeys which increased by 2.5%, or over 1.9m journeys.

Passenger Type 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Change Vol Change % Adult 82.245 78.169 80.103 +1.934 +2.5% ENCTS 45.992 45.899 45.038 ‐0.861 ‐1.9% Child 13.383 14.026 14.436 +0.410 +2.9% Total 141.620 138.094 139.578 +1.484 +1.1%

Nexus’ Business Intelligence section has carried out some analysis into the current usage in an attempt to ascertain if the improvement in 2012/13 indicates a reversal of the long term decline. Key points regarding Bus growth in 2012/13 compared to 2011/12;

a. Long term decline outweighs short term gains Total adult bus patronage, including commercial and secured services, has been in long term decline. Over the last 13 years, there were only 4 recorded annual increases of patronage in the adult market. As the chart below shows, these occasional years of growth every 3‐4 years have not arrested the otherwise consistent decline. Should the performance in the 3‐4 years following 2012/13 follows this trend, it indicates the long term decline will continue in subsequent years.

Year Adults YOY Change Adult Bus Patronage 1999/00 94,707 100,000 2000/01 92,134 ‐3% 90,000 2001/02 93,445 1% 80,000 2002/03 90,703 ‐3% 70,000 2003/04 88,487 ‐2% 60,000 journeys

2004/05 88,626 0% 50,000 of 2005/06 85,750 ‐3% 40,000 2006/07 84,176 ‐2% 2007/08 81,524 ‐3% Number 30,000 2008/09 83,682 3% 20,000 2009/10 82,823 ‐1% 10,000 2010/11 82,245 ‐1% 0 2011/12 78,169 ‐5% 2012/13 80,103 2%

b. Recovery of recent losses rather than sustained growth The growth in the commercial adult bus market during 2012/13 has not offset the decline observed in the previous year. Commercial adult patronage in 2012/13 still represents a 4% reduction on 2010/11 levels, with almost 3 million fewer journeys. At the end of 2012/13 commercial adult patronage stood at the level last seen at the end of 2011. As such, this represents a recovery of some of the losses sustained in 2011/12 rather than a shift to underlying growth in the market at this point in time.

c. Short term boosts Nexus report annual figures based on 13 four‐week periods. 2011/12 dropped significantly, compared to 2010/11. Although 2012/13 improved, few periods in 2012/13 were higher than 2010/11. The periodic trend for total patronage between 2010/11 and 2012/13 is shown below.

Relating specifically to adult patronage on commercial services, 10 of the 13 periods failed to overcome the losses observed in the same period a year earlier. The two main periods that did fully recover represent July and August, a period which saw the Olympic Torch procession, Olympic football matches played at St James’ Park and the introduction of the DayRover promotional campaign. Over the full year, 2012/13 recovered 47% of the loss seen in 2011/12. Adult Commercial Journeys by Period and comparison against 2011/12 and 2010/11 Period 2010/11 2011/12 YOY 2012/13 YOY 12/13 vs 10/11 1 5,961,062 5,363,925 ‐597,137 5,213,277 ‐150,648 ‐747,785 2 6,440,344 5,614,838 ‐825,506 5,702,917 88,080 ‐737,426 3 6,087,757 5,566,102 ‐521,655 5,875,572 309,470 ‐212,185 4 5,993,646 5,753,356 ‐240,290 6,219,686 466,330 226,040 5 5,539,490 5,488,086 ‐51,404 5,675,566 187,479 136,076 6 5,838,481 5,710,761 ‐127,720 5,728,507 17,746 ‐109,974 7 6,867,364 6,573,604 ‐293,761 6,733,109 159,505 ‐134,255 8 6,519,379 6,052,522 ‐466,857 6,380,734 328,212 ‐138,645 9 7,067,699 6,554,195 ‐513,504 6,919,282 365,087 ‐148,417 10 5,034,637 4,918,123 ‐116,515 5,055,854 137,732 21,217 11 6,277,197 5,869,222 ‐407,975 6,111,841 242,619 ‐165,355 12 6,495,232 5,876,591 ‐618,640 6,233,611 357,019 ‐261,621 13 6,356,235 5,503,217 ‐853,018 5,668,284 165,067 ‐687,951

3. But stilldown on 2010/11 in most 1. 2011/12 2. 2012/13 periods consistently down consistently up YOY YOY after P1

Although minimal impact on the overall total patronage numbers, the impact of the reduction in price of Network One’s multi‐modal “Day Rover” ticket is worthy of note. Whilst the impact on other commercial tickets cannot be observed, the increase in the volume of sales for this product was around 3 times the previous year. The ticket normally retails at £6.80 but was available for £5.50 between July and December 2012.

d. Impact of Metro In recent years, Metro engineering work under the Metro:all change programme has led to sections of track and some stations being closed either for long periods, or for shorter periods but repeatedly over a longer time span. This has had an impact on Metro ridership and may have encouraged passengers to use other modes of travel during the periods of disruption. In addition the long‐term disruptive nature of the engineering may have had the effect of a longer‐term mode switch from Metro to bus. The chart below shows the rolling annual adult patronage on commercial bus and Metro.

Adult Patronage (Rolling year)

Bus Metro

82,000,000 31,500,000

81,000,000 2nd significant divergence 31,000,000 covers years with Major 80,000,000 Line Closures and Olympics effect 30,500,000 79,000,000 journeys

bus 78,000,000 journeys

30,000,000

adult 77,000,000 Metro 29,500,000 76,000,000 adult

of 75,000,000 29,000,000 commercial

of 74,000,000 1st significant 28,500,000 Number divergence covers 73,000,000

Number year with first Major Line Closure 28,000,000 72,000,000

71,000,000 27,500,000

Rolling year to...

e. 2013/14 Forecast Nexus Business Intelligence’s Moving Average Time Series (MATS) Projection Model indicates commercial bus patronage in 2013/14 will not continue to increase. This model takes into account the underlying trend observed over the previous three years. This will change as more data is incorporated into the model but it highlights that the recent growth has not yet been sufficient to assume a continued increase into 2013/14.

4.6 Bus passenger profile

As part of Nexus’ research, it is possible to ascertain various pieces of information relating to passenger profile, for example, purpose of travel, age and frequency of use.

Which ticket do 4 Visiting What purpose is 4 Visiting 2 Other 2 Other people use for each 1 Work 3 Shopping Friend / most common per 1 Work 3 Shopping Friend / Education Leisure Education Leisure purpose? relative ticket? relative Adult Single 23% 10% 13% 15% 17% Adult Single 32% 6% 34% 9% 18% Day/Transfares 14% 12% 12% 17% 14% Day/Transfares 27% 6% 33% 17% 18% Season Pass 28% 16% 5% 9% 8% Season Pass 35% 33% 14% 10% 8% Elderly CT 8% 5% 58% 39% 45% Elderly CT 5% 1% 64% 9% 21% Child 2% 43% 4% 8% 6% Child 8% 57% 17% 6% 13% Weekly Saver 42% 10% 28% 8% 12% Weekly Saver 23% 11% 8% 10% 8% Other 27% 10% 16% 3% 43% Other 3%2%1%1%2%

Age 13800 respondents 1 N Tyneside 2 S Tyneside 3 Newcastle 4 Gateshead 5 Sunderland T&W 1 16 or under8%6%6%5%6%6% 2 17‐24 11% 15% 21% 12% 20% 16% 3 25‐34 22% 21% 26% 21% 20% 22% 4 35‐44 17% 16% 17% 17% 13% 16% 5 45‐59 21% 21% 16% 20% 19% 19% 6 60‐64 3% 3% 3% 3% 4% 3% 7 65 & over 19% 19% 12% 22% 18% 17% Gender 63566 respondents 1 N Tyneside 2 S Tyneside 3 Newcastle 4 Gateshead 5 Sunderland T&W 1 Male 49% 47% 53% 49% 49% 52% 2 Female 51% 53% 47% 51% 51% 48%

4.7 Why passengers travel by bus

Passenger Focus (PF) are an independent public body set up by the Government to protect the interests of England’s bus passengers outside London, coach passengers on scheduled domestic services and tram passengers. PF developed the Bus Passenger Survey to deliver a measure of bus passenger satisfaction at PTE or district level and for bus operators within that area.

Part of their work identifies the reason people choose to travel by bus.

4.8 Bus passenger satisfaction

Through PF surveys, passengers also rate their satisfaction with a wide range of aspects of their bus journey, as well as their overall satisfaction with that bus journey and their rating of value for money.

Passenger Focus report that overall bus user satisfaction in the Tyne and Wear area has fallen significantly from 91% in 2011 to 87% in 2012. However, Tyne and Wear figures are still higher than the average for all PTEs. Satisfaction for all PTEs has remained static at 84%.

Other key points include;

 Satisfaction for fare payers (85%) remains lower than concessionary passengers (92%) and both categories have fallen by around 3% compared to 2011.  Satisfaction for commuters (83%) remains lower than non‐commuting passengers (90%) and both categories have fallen by around 3% compared to 2011.  Satisfaction with value for money (59%) has fallen significantly by 4% compared to 2011 (63%).  Overall satisfaction with the bus stop (84%) has increased significantly by 7% compared to 2011 (77%). Similar improvement has been seen in other PTEs, increasing from 72% to 78%.  Satisfaction with personal safety at the bus stop (80%) has increased significantly by 4% compared to 2011 (76%)

Passenger Focus reported the key drivers of satisfaction and key drivers of dissatisfaction as mainly relating to driving standards.

Nexus also carry out satisfaction surveys with bus users. These surveys are carried out on a rolling basis throughout the year and cover 15 questions that can be grouped into five main categories. As shown below, satisfaction is increasing in some areas such as “Infrastructure” but not others such as “Reliability”. It is interesting to note that while overall satisfaction has increased for “Ticketing”, the proportion of people dissatisfied (Red and orange bars) has increase and the proportion of very satisfied (Dark green bar) people has also decreased. The increase in overall satisfaction (Light and dark green bar) is mainly due to a reduction in the proportion of “Neither satisfied/dissatisfied” responses (Yellow bar)

4.9 Bus punctuality

Bus punctuality is measured by the Nexus Research team through at stop monitoring, around 15,000 services were monitored through.

Punctuality for non‐frequent services at registered timing points currently stands at 86.5% for 2012/13, following national indicator guidance. Non‐frequent services are classed as services with a less than 10 minute frequency. This is lower than the figure for 2011/12 of 89.7% and lower than the nationally set Traffic Commissioner target of 95%.

2.4% of services were recorded as running early with the remaining 9.3% late. Where early is defined as more than 60 seconds early and late is defined as more than 05:59 minutes late.

Punctuality for all high frequency services is measured through Excess Waiting Time. Performance currently stands at 46 seconds for Excess Waiting Time for 2012/13. This is better than the nationally set Traffic Commissioner target of 1 minute 15 seconds (1.25 minutes).

Nexus carried out some qualitative research with passengers to investigate feelings relating to bus punctuality.

 Passengers understood that buses will inevitably be affected by traffic congestion from road works and accidents in the same way as other vehicles on the public highway – and they accept it to a degree, as part and parcel of bus travel. Nevertheless, passengers feel that more could be done to reduce delays by focusing on those elements perceived to be within their control.  As well as practical issues, passengers talked about anxiety, stress and sometimes additional expense.  Driver attitude – the research shows a significant gap between passengers’ experiences and their desire that during delays and disruption drivers behave as the bus company’s customer service  Improvements in two principal areas would help bus passengers when delays and disruption occur ‐ better information and a more customer‐focused attitude from bus drivers o Better information – the research gives a strong sense that bus passengers feel powerless when faced with delays. There is, many feel, no means of finding out what is going on – as one passenger put it: “It’s mental torture sometimes at bus stops working out whether to stay or whether to go.” o Providing information that empowers passengers to make an informed decision in these circumstances will make a significant difference, and there is a clear preference for real‐time departure displays at bus stops.

4.10 Bus user importance versus satisfaction

In March 2013, Nexus carried out some research with members of the public to understand their views on public transport provision. The chart below ranks the importance of different issues with regards to bus travel (blue bars). It also plots the satisfaction with regards to the same factors. It is interesting to note that satisfaction is generally lower with factors deemed more important. As is frequently identified, reliability, service frequency and value for money (VFM) are seen as the most important. Also ranking highly were comfort and cleanliness, driver behaviour, journey information, journey time and personal safety. The responses were analysed to compare the priorities for different market segments. For example, the charts below compare the opinions of frequent and non frequent users.

 The importance of factors for frequent users are represented by the dark green bar  The importance of factors for non‐frequent users are represented by the faded green bar  The satisfaction with factors for frequent users are represented by the dark red bar  The satisfaction with factors for non‐frequent users are represented by the faded red bar

Generally, the satisfaction levels are lower than importance. However, there are often differences between the 2 groups and this is represented by the blue bar. On the charts below, the blue bar is biggest for “VFM” and “Knowing the cost of ticket”. To summarise, these 2 factors are both more important to non‐frequent users and they are also less satisfied than frequent users.

The same pattern was also evident when comparing those who have increased usage with those who have decreased and particularly comparing single and day ticket users with other passengers. These two factors regularly show the same direction of travel indicating a correlation between perceptions of value for money and understanding the ticket and fares.

4.11 Reasons for choosing the bus

Respondents to the same survey were asked why they chose to use the bus for a local journey. Issues relating to convenience and cost prevailed, particularly the avoidance of parking charges. Weather also appeared frequently, supporting the influence that this can have on people’s decision making. The more prominent the word in the diagram below, the more frequently it was mentioned.

On occasions where people chose to travel by bus, respondents were asked what mode they could have used for that journey as an alternative to the bus and how likely it was that they could have made the journey by that mode. The most common alternatives would be the car, either as a driver or a passenger, followed by the Metro. All rated the opportunity to use this alternative as approximately 7 out of 10, indicating that the modes provide realistic alternatives and competition to the bus.

Respondents were also asked why they may not use the bus for a local journey. Journey time featured heavily in conjunction with issues resulting from changes to routes. Some mentioned carrying shopping as a reason preventing bus use. Many cited alternative options as the main reason such as Metro or Car.

For occasions where the respondent didn’t use the bus, they were asked to state the alternative mode used how likely it is that they could have made the journey by bus. The Metro was the most commonly selected mode when not using the bus. The possibility of choosing the bus was classed as over 7 out of 10, indicating that there are those who could make journeys by bus who currently use other modes.

Mode used instead of bus

35% % of respondents 10 Likelihood 9 30% 8

25% 7

6 20% 5 15% 4

10% 3 2 5% 1

0% 0 Metro Car Car Walk Cycle Train Taxi

(driver) (passenger) 5 Elderly and Disabled Travel 5.0 Elderly & Disabled Travel

5.1 English National Concessionary Travel Scheme

From April 2008, residents in England, aged 60 and over, or with an eligible disability ‐ around 11 million people ‐ became entitled to free, off‐peak travel on local buses, anywhere in England. Under this English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS), older and disabled persons are able to enjoy free local bus travel anywhere in England, between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays and up to 11pm on other days.

In the four PTEs that did not already offer free concessionary travel, concessionary journeys increased by 40 per cent on average between 2005/6 and 2008/9. The scheme’s popularity demonstrates its value to older and disabled people. These groups are more likely than the general population to live on a low income and often do not have access to, or can no longer drive, a car. Free travel enables them to retain independence, access shops and services and visit friends and family without having to be concerned about, or restricted by, the cost of getting there. This freedom is essential for both physical and mental health and wellbeing. Recent research has found free bus travel to have resulted in significant health benefits amongst the eligible population. Moreover, our analysis suggests that trips by concessionary passengers generate economic benefits of £670m per year, in PTE areas alone, more than twice the cost of the scheme. (Concessionary Travel, The Funding Timebomb for PTEs, PTEG support Unit, November 2012)

However, although ENCTS has been highly successful in giving older and disabled people the freedom of free off‐peak bus travel, a report by PTEG Support Group in November 2012 highlighted the risk that the costs of the scheme are rising fast, while funding for the scheme is falling. They indicate that this financial ‘time bomb’ could lead to severe cuts in other frontline transport services unless a sustainable funding solution can be found. (Concessionary Travel, The Funding Timebomb for PTEs, PTEG support Unit, November 2012)

Funding for the ENCTS comes from the Department of Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Formula Grant which is paid to Districts, Shires and Unitary Authorities. Although the cost of the ENCTS is on an upward trend, between 2010/11 and 2014/15 DCLG will have reduced funding for the scheme by 27%. (Based on provisional local government funding settlement 2012) The government has argued that changes in the age of eligibility alongside recent administrative changes should have led to savings in the cost of the scheme. PTEG’s analysis suggests that the trend in commercial bus fares and the increase in disabled pass‐holders far outweigh any impact of eligibility changes. The diagram below illustrates the growing disparity between the cost of the scheme and central government funding.

5.2 Concessionary Travel within Tyne and Wear a. ENCTS within Tyne and Wear Within Tyne and Wear, around 50 million journeys per annum are made by elderly and disabled persons and 10 million by children. The current annual budget for the provision of Concessionary Travel is £46.5m.

The chart below shows the bus patronage breakdown by passenger type 2003/04 to 2012/13 in Tyne and Wear, showing the increase in ENCTS trips as a proportion of all journeys made.

Tyne and Wear has among the largest take‐up of concessionary travel passes at 92% in April 2012, compared to 77% in all Metropolitan areas (Concessionary Travel, The Funding Timebomb for PTEs, PTEG support Unit, November 2012), and the highest use of travel, in the country. This puts great pressure on the Nexus budget as it must reimburse bus companies for journeys made by passholders.

The ratio of T&W ENCTS travel is approximately 25% disabled, 75% elderly.

Around 150,000 Tyne and Wear residents make at least one trip each month

Almost 100,000 trips per day being made by Tyne & Wear card holders.

Trips made as far afield as the South Coast.

Based on usage for Tyne and Wear card holders travelling within Tyne and Wear, the following figures for the average usage can be obtained.

2012/13 average ; Disabled Elderly ...cards used 28,452 120,201 ...journeys made 764,423 2,200,266 ...trips per person per month 26.9 18.3 b. Additional Concessionary Travel Schemes Tyne and Wear Residents of Tyne and Wear enjoy several Concessionary Travel Schemes administered by Nexus which provide reduced price travel on different modes of transport in the county. Despite the funding issues explained above, Nexus has been able to extend the English scheme within Tyne and Wear using local funding to provide the following additional benefits:

 Free travel before 9.30am for those passholders with a hospital appointment, either to or from the hospital.  Free travel until the last bus of the evening, even where this is after 11pm.  All day travel where it is needed for eligible disabled persons attending work or education more than 15 hours a week.  Free travel by a companion for passholders in receipt of the higher level of the Disability Living Allowance (care element) or Attendance Allowance, who have applied for an additional Companion Card.  The opportunity to buy a Metro Gold Card, giving unlimited travel on Metro and the Shields Ferry at concessionary travel times. Gold Card is also available to non‐residents.  A concessionary fare on the Shields Ferry and Newcastle‐Metrocentre‐Blaydon trains.

c. Tyne and Wear Gold Card The Metro Gold Card gives unlimited travel on Metro and the Shields Ferry at concessionary travel times. The Gold Card was available for a fee of £25 per card in 2012/13 and was also available to non‐residents for £35.

In 2013, the Gold Card became the first additional “smart” product nationally to be added onto an existing ENCTS smartcard. This means the passenger will no longer require 2 cards, one for ENCTS and one for Gold Card as both products will be loaded onto the same ENCTS smart card. This has been done in preparation for the launch of the new ticketing and gating infrastructure to be introduced on the Metro, discussed in more detail in chapter 7.

Overall Metro patronage is discussed in more detail in chapter 6 but it is interesting to note the trends in the trend in Gold Card patronage, compared to ENCTS patronage on bus.

Due to the increase in eligibility age for the elderly, Nexus’ Business Intelligence section anticipated a drop in both ENCTS passengers on bus and Gold Card passenger numbers on Metro. However, the chart below has shown that the decline in 2012/13 has been at a far greater rate than expected on Metro and less so on bus.

Considering the long term trend clearly shows the impact that increasing the fee from £12 per year to £25 per year has had on overall patronage, as shown in the chart below.

Although not conclusive at this stage, indications are that the loss of Gold Card patronage on the Metro has been transferred to a gain on the Bus. Reinvigoration work on the Metro could also be a consideration. Further work will take place in 2013 to observe these possible trends. Mode Expected Loss Actual Loss Difference Bus ‐1.529M ‐0.869M +0.660M Metro ‐0.200M ‐0.865M ‐0.665M Total ‐1.729M ‐1.734M ‐0.005M

6 Metro 6.0 Metro

6.1 Background

The Tyne and Wear Metro is the UK's busiest light rail system outside London. It carries around 37 million passengers a year, and is the backbone of the area’s public transport network. The system is owned and managed by Nexus, and has 60 stations with peak time trains running up to every three minutes.

Metro has led the way in innovation ‐ as the UK’s first modern light rail service, the first to be designed with disabled people in mind, the first to be non‐smoking and the first to provide mobile phone and internet reception throughout its underground sections.

Since opening in 1980 it has been extended to Newcastle Airport (in 1991), providing a 20 minute link to the city centre and through Sunderland city centre to South Hylton (in 2002).

We are now delivering a £385m programme to renew and upgrade Metro, the most cost‐efficient urban rail network in the UK, between 2010 and 2021. A further programme of planned investment would see trains replaced in the 2020s.

Nexus’ Continuous Monitoring also provides patronage figures for the Metro. Whilst a decline has also been observed on Metro, this is at a reduced rate compared to bus.

6.2 Long term Metro patronage trend

The long term picture on the Metro follows a similar pattern to that of the bus, although the declines are not as extreme and over the past 10 years, there have been spells of continuous growth. The chart below shows the annual bus and Metro patronage from 1986 to date, plotted as an index from 1986.

Additionally, the proportionate growth of Concessionary Travel passengers using Gold Card on Metro has not been as evident as those using ENCTS for bus travel.

Metro Patronage 45,000 Full Fare Adults Elderly & Disabled Children Non paying Total

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000 (000's)

Journeys 20,000 No.

15,000

10,000

5,000

0 est

1990/91 1991/92 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/00 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Year 2012/13

6.3 Other PTE area trends

The decline in Metro patronage in 2012/13 was largely consistent with the trend seen in other areas, outside of London, with the exception of Manchester Metrolink and Blackpool Tramway, both of which have also seen a huge increase in operated mileage. (DfT Light Rail and Tram Statistics, 18th June 2013)

6.4 Overview of 2012/13 Metro patronage performance

Metro patronage fell to 37 million in 2012/13, representing a ‐1.3% drop on the previous year. However, it is interesting to note that, although still some way short of 2011/12, adult patronage increased upon the previous year by 0.4%. The majority of the decline is due to the fall in Gold Card patronage, discussed in chapter 5. Also, although a relatively small passenger group, the drop in child patronage represents a fall of ‐4.3% on the previous year.

Passenger Type 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Change Vol Change % Adult 29.154 27.445 27.568 +0.123 +0.4% Gold Card 5.903 5.496 5.020 ‐0.476 ‐8.7% Child 3.088 3.092 2.952 ‐0.140 ‐4.5% Fraud 1.664 1.492 1.489 ‐0.003 ‐0.2% Total 39.811 37.525 37.029 ‐0.496 ‐1.3%

a. Performance by section of track

Section of Network 2011/12 2012/13 Change Vol Change % Fellgate to South Hylton 3.727 3.811 +0.084 +2.3% South Shields to Hebburn 3.049 2.858 ‐0.191 ‐6.3% Pelaw to South Gosforth 18.434 18.501 +0.068 +0.4% Regent Centre to Airport 2.167 2.210 +0.043 +2.0% Longbenton to Cullercoats 4.750 4.444 ‐0.306 ‐6.4% Tynemouth to St James 5.398 5.205 ‐0.194 ‐3.6%

b. Child patronage

The table below shows the volume of sales of child tickets in 2012/13 compared 2011/12. The drop in both concessionary and commercial single tickets is huge.

Main Child Tickets 2011/12 2012/13 Change Change % CT Single 181,572 138,893 ‐42,679 ‐24% Commercial Single 430,602 357,234 ‐73,368 ‐17% CT CAT (Day) 285,671 264,518 ‐21,153 ‐7% Commercial Day 611,197 615,308 +4,111 +0.7%

The sales volumes are reflected in the patronage figures, as shown below for all child patronage. The table shows total child patronage with varying levels of decline across the system with almost 140,000 fewer journeys year on year.

Year Total Child Patronage Notes 2005/06 3,497,300 2006/07 3,722,875 Large Gain 2007/08 3,742,908 2008/09 3,699,817 2009/10 3,677,719 2010/11 3,088,000 Large Drop 2011/12 3,092,000 2012/13 2,952,000

Section of line (Child) 2011/12 2012/13 Change Change % Fellgate to South Hylton 289,921 288,010 ‐1,911 ‐0.7% Longbenton to Cullercoats 515,539 460,992 ‐54,547 ‐10.6% Pelaw to South Gosforth 1,262,814 1,200,762 ‐62,052 ‐4.9% Regent Centre to Airport 239,769 261,115 +21,346 +8.9% South Shields to Hebburn 296,948 295,880 ‐1,068 ‐0.4% Tynemouth to St James 486,570 445,071 ‐41,499 ‐8.5% Systemwide 3,091,561 2,951,830 ‐139,731 ‐4.5%

c. The change in product‐mix and purchasing habits

The introduction of new Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) from October 2011 onwards, replacing the previous machines at all stations, has seen a shift in passenger purchasing habits and tickets being used to travel. A major factor has been the reduction in “cash” tickets such as singles and DaySavers, in preference for the weekly MetroSaver, which can now be purchased from the TVMs at stations.

The chart below shows the consistent decline in Single and DaySaver sales (blue line) as the number of TVMs installed increases (green line). The numbers 316 to 346 represent four week periods covering the up to 4th May 2013.

Previously, weekly MetroSaver tickets were only available from the Travelshops. The chart below shows that by March 2013, 97% of all weekly MetroSavers were sold at TVMs and the volume of sales has increased from an average of 3,300 in 2011/12 to an average of almost 12,000 by the end of 2012/13.

The new sales channel influenced passenger choice by also attracting Four‐Weekly Tickets, with the added convenience over the traditional method of buying these tickets from one of nine Travelshops located around the network. Overall, this has proved revenue neutral but the convenience has improved the customer experience, as discussed later.

The chart below shows how the sales figures have impacted upon the patronage trends. The adult market has performed strongly in 2012/13 compared to the previous year, primarily due to the increased number of journeys recorded as weekly MetroSaver.

In June 2013, the Four‐weekly and Annual MetroSaver products will both be available for passengers to purchase or renew from TVMs using their Pop card. It will be extremely interesting to see how the product‐mix changes, particularly the balance of weekly and four‐weekly tickets.

One thing is clear, based on figures seen in London following the implementation of the Oyster card (TfL’s Contactless Ticketing: Transport for London, Lauren Sager Weinstein, Head of Oyster Development, April 2010, Passenger profile), the product mix will change and will continue to do so as pay‐as‐you‐go offers such as Pop STR (Stored Travel Rights) are introduced.

Increases in efficiency could also be observed as the number of ticket sales transactions reduces per journey made. The proportionate increase in MetroSaver journeys compared to single and DaySaver journeys shows this is beginning to take place. The below chart shows the rate of change in London.

d. Passenger satisfaction

Nexus carry out passenger satisfaction surveys with Metro passengers. 2,000 face‐to‐face surveys are conducted, 1,000 in May and 1,000 in November each year. Over 20 questions are asked relating to different aspects which can be grouped into the categories below. Those indicating they are very satisfied/dissatisfied with a factor are represented by dark green/red, satisfied by light green/red. Those indicating they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied are represented in yellow.

On the whole, grouping all indicators together indicates a general increase in satisfaction amongst Metro passengers.

The chart above gives the same weighting to all individual factors whereas in reality, the importance that individuals place on particular aspects is likely to differ. As such, respondents are asked to score the Metro overall out of ten. The trend in these scores has increased in recent years before dipping slightly in 2012/13.

In 2012, Nexus carried out some research in the form of a postal survey to 10,000 households within the Metro catchment area. Over 2,000 responses were received and Nexus investigated the importance passengers place on various aspects of the service. It was found that different market segments place different levels of importance on different factors and satisfaction levels also vary between groups.

The chart below plots responses for importance versus satisfaction. The further to the right of the chart, the more important the factor is to people and the higher up the chart, the more satisfied people are. It is important to consider the points relative to each other, rather than the actual scores. Points plotted in the red area are those that are important to people but they are less satisfied and therefore require attention. Those in the top right quadrant are those where it is important to maintain satisfaction as these items are viewed as important. When considering all respondents, value for money is one of the most important factors but has lowest satisfaction. However, reliability, punctuality and frequency of service are all also highly important and although less important to all passengers, satisfaction with cleanliness is relatively low.

It is interesting to see how the pattern alters when viewing different passenger groups. For example, for Gold Card passengers, cleanliness becomes the issue of most concern and there is greater satisfaction with value for money.

Cleanliness also becomes more of a concern for the infrequent user and, for workers, capacity also creeps towards being a concern.

e. Passenger profile overview

The chart below shows the age range of those travelling early (early afternoon and before) and late (late afternoon onwards) on the Metro, followed by a chart showing the shift in gender split, with more elderly and females travelling earlier in the day and proportionately more males and younger passengers travelling later.

50% 30% 10% 10% 30% 50%

1 16 or under Early Late 2 17‐24

3 25‐34

15% 4 35‐44 10%

5 45‐59 5% 0% 5 7 9 111315171921 6 60+ Hour boarded

100% 50% 0% 50% 100%

Early Male Female

Mid

48% 52% Late

The charts below show that, on the whole, over half of the people using the Metro, use it for work or education purposes. However, the balance between weekday and weekend usage is often overlooked.

50% 30% 10% 10% 30% 50%

Work Weekday Weekend Shopping

Education

Leisure

Visiting Friend/relative Work & 47% Education 53% Other Other Reasons Event

Based on Nexus research data, the chart below shows the proportionate breakdown for the purpose of journeys, for the different ways in which passengers arrive at the station. The proportion arriving by car for work purposes is less than those walking, changing Metro or arriving by bus.

Although only indicative, the chart below illustrates how far people can travel to access a Metro car park, some passengers recorded travelling 34 miles to Heworth and 15 miles to Four Lane Ends.

7 Metro: All change 7.0 Metro: all change

7.1 Background

Metro: all change is a £385m programme to modernise the system between 2010 and 2021. Metro carries almost 40 million passengers a year and is a key part of the region’s economy. Every £1 spent renewing and modernising Metro is worth up to £8 to the economy compared to the cost of letting the system decline and fail.

Without Metro there would be 15 million more car journeys every year on Tyne and Wear’s busy roads. But there would be 10,000 fewer trips made into the centre of Newcastle and Gateshead, as congestion grew and travel became more difficult.

Modernisation is vital to replace life‐expired infrastructure in place since the system opened in 1980, including tracks and track beds, overhead power lines, cabling and structures. It is also providing new standards of accessibility, comfort and customer information to passengers, as we refurbish 86 Metrocars and 45 stations and introduce smart ticket travel. The programme is broken down into many construction and engineering projects, contained within strategic framework agreements with a small number of major contractors.

Nexus are now celebrating 3 years of successful delivery of the Metro:all change modernisation programme and the Department for Transport recently confirmed it has awarded the maximum of a total of £93m for the next 3 years. This will allow Nexus to create 60 new jobs and 30 new apprentice posts to deliver key projects between 2013 and 2016.

The ambitious programme has already made a real difference to Metro passengers and the region’s economy. Large sections of track have been replaced, stations have been refurbished to be brighter and refurbished trains are entering into service.

7.2 Major achievements to date

 10 stations refurbished or underway  18.5km of track renewed or refurbished  18km of cable ducting installed  17 bridges repaired  225 new ticket machines installed  13 gatelines at key stations  3 bridges removed completely and replaced with embankment  8 escalators replaced (consider scada performance of new escalators)  4 lifts replaced  5 sets of points renewed or refurbished  1 new Metrocar wash installed  1 wheel lathe installed at Metro depot  1.2km of earthworks repaired (ballast retention)  8km of overhead line replaced

7.3 Station refurbishments

A positive impact on customer satisfaction was anticipated resulting from station refurbishments. The effect of the Sunderland refurbishment, completed in July 2010, can now clearly be seen. The percentage of passengers satisfied with aspects relating to the station’s infrastructure increased from an average of 61% before the improvements to an average of 89% since (Chart, below left). In particular, significant improvements were witnessed with regards to the condition of the station and station lighting. (Chart, below right) North Shields Metro station, used by 2 million passengers per year, was a multi‐million pound project in its own right. The old station was completely demolished to make way for a new structure with a bigger and better concourse, lifts for the first time and eye‐catching ‘floating wave’ canopies above the platforms.

Stations at Chillingham Road (below before and after), Howdon and Meadow Well have all been given major facelifts. Nexus also contributed to the refurbishment of Tynemouth station.

Early indications are that passengers are have noticed an improvement in the stations refurbished. This is shown by comparing the satisfaction scores relating to “condition of the station” and “cleanliness of the station” for interviews conducted at refurbished stations versus non refurbished stations.

Satisfaction scores at those refurbished have increased, with huge increases in the proportion of people “very satisfied”, whereas the scores at the stations that have not been upgraded have remained static or deteriorated. Chillingham Road, Howdon, North Shields, Meadow Well and Tynemouth interviews

Stations other than Chillingham Road, Howdon, North Shields, Meadow Well and Tynemouth;

7.4 Service disruption and satisfaction with punctuality

A major consequence of the Metro:all change programme has been the forced disruption to the service while imperative work is carried out and improvements are made.

Nexus has averaged 138 disruptive hours per period during the year 2012/13 compared to 116 hours within 2011/12. However, the total number of reported faults for 2012/13 was 296, a 13.45% improvement in comparison with the previous year of 342.

Under the Operating Performance Regime, punctuality performance is measured through Excess Headway Minutes (EHM) with less minutes being positive. The total EHM for 2012/13 was 30,741, 6.6% below the allocated target for the year of 20,751 EHM. The figure also represents a 22.8% increase in comparison with the previous year.

The Public Performance Measure (PPM+) is the percentage of trains that have arrived within 3 minutes of their expected arrival time. The PPM moving annual average for the year 2012/13 saw a 0.43% decrease when compared to the same period within the financial year 2011/12.

The moving annual average for train cancellations in 2012/13 saw a 91.1% increase compared to the previous financial year. The main issue for the rise in the number of Train Cancellations were the severe weather conditions experienced on the 28th ‐ 30th June 2012 (period 4) and 5th ‐ 6th August 2012 (period 7) and low rail adhesion in quarter 3 (period 8).

A great deal of effort is put into the planning and preparation before any planned disruption in an attempt to minimise disruption to the passenger. Frequent replacement bus services, with support from staff on the ground, are provided by DB Regio, who operate Metro trains and stations on Nexus’ behalf. Sales and patronage figures are used to plan works and minimise the impact on the passenger. For example, projects to replace ducting and cabling in the Longbenton area were planned in after 21:00 on eight mid‐week evenings, instead of the standard Saturday and Sunday closures as this would impact far fewer journeys. Even the choice of evenings was analysed as they differ between travel to and from the Airport.

Steps are always taken to minimise the impact on passengers but Nexus also works hard to account for Neighbours which can limit the work undertaken through the night. However, improvements are always sought, for example, in planning the Summer 2012 closure between Wallsend and Tynemouth, the contractor made adjustments to vehicles, used light‐sensitive site lighting and acoustic screening in the most sensitive areas. Unfortunately, it has been inevitable that passenger satisfaction has been impacted in certain aspects. The satisfaction with punctuality and reliability, for example, has fallen towards the end of 2012/13.

DB Regio have also installed fASSI into the driver cabs of all 90 Metrocars. This technology provides the driver with real time updates on the lowest running speed to arrive at the next station on time, aimed at improving punctuality.

Nexus Business Intelligence have also carried out some analysis that estimates it can take up to 3 weeks after a major line closure for sales volumes to return to near their anticipated levels. It is also estimated that around 2% of passengers may continue on a long term basis with alternative travel arrangements following a major line closure.

7.5 Communication

Keeping passengers informed and improving communication has been a key strategy of DBRegio, particularly during the Metro:all change programme. Focus group research with passengers identified a need for more real time information. Information is now available to the customer via SMS, Metro Facebook, Twitter, Nexus Website and email alerts. There are now over 10,000 followers of the Metro facebook and twitter pages.

 Between 2008/09‐2011/12, satisfaction with clarity of announcements at station and on trains was 80.4%. This increased to 82.6% in 2012/13 following the introduction of on train announcements.  Between 2008/09‐2011/12, satisfaction with ease of understanding and helpfulness of signage at station was already high at 92.2%. However, this has increased further to 95.2% in 2012/13 following the refurbishments.

7.6 Ticketing

All stations now have new ticket machines installed (TVMs), making paying for travel easier and more flexible, with an increase range of payment options and ticket types available at machines.

After 30 years with machines that would only accept coin payments, in the final quarter of 2012/13, over 25% of all revenue and 20% of sales transactions from adult ticket sales was taken by card payments. For the more expensive MetroSaver products, over half of the transactions are completed using cards.

A focus group carried out recently by Nexus with MetroSaver customers highlighted their desire to have increased payment options and flexibility. The ability to renew their season ticket at TVMs, due to be available from June 2013, was seen as a huge benefit. This should increase further the satisfaction levels with ticketing that have already seen big improvements, particularly with regards to “facilities for buying tickets” and “the range of tickets available”. There has also been some improvement in perceptions of “value for money” which is likely to be as a result of the switch to the better value weekly MetroSaver ticket, rather than DaySaver or Single tickets.

7.7

7.8 Cleanliness

At the commencement of the “Metro Operating Concession”, Metro Operator, DB Regio undertook a “100 day clean” initiative in which all trains were subject to a thorough clean. In conjunction with the arrival of the first refurbished Metro car, this was seen as a positive step by passengers and impacted positively in satisfaction surveys. In the four waves of survey carried out between May 2010 and November 2011, satisfaction scores were higher than the previous year, peaking in May 2011. However, in 2012/13, these scores have fallen again, a concern given the importance of cleanliness to many passengers.

% Satisfed Nov‐11 May‐12 2011/12 Nov‐12 May‐13 2012/13 Annual Change Outside of trains 78% 82% 80% 72% 68% 70% ‐10% Inside Trains 73% 81% 77% 76% 70% 74% ‐3%

Each four‐week period, Nexus audit the performance of DB Regio regarding a number of customer service aspects. Cleaning is measured through two aspects, heavy and light cleaning. Improvement is clear in the light cleaning measure through a reduction in the number of failures but a slight increase is recorded in the heavy clean.

However, a noticeable impact of the Metro Operating Concession has been the clamp down on graffiti on the system.

This improvement has clearly been noticed by passengers, reflected in their satisfaction scores with regards to graffiti and damage to trains.

8 Ferry and Rail 8.0 Ferry and Rail

8.1 Ferry

There has been a cross‐Tyne ferry service between North and South Shields since at least the 14th century. Nexus runs the only remaining Shields Ferry service, which carries more than 400,000 passengers per year. As well as running a passenger service, the ferry operates seasonal afternoon and evening river cruises and private hire trips giving people the chance to view the changing face of life and industry along the banks of the Tyne.

Ferry patronage fell dramatically during 2012/13. This is thought to have been negatively impacted by the opening of the 2nd Tyne Tunnel, the completion of works nearby removing the need for a large number of contractors to travel and the poor weather during 2012/13. Nexus Business Intelligence have carried out analysis that shows a clear relationship between passenger numbers and weather, with fewer trips expected during poorer weather.

Passenger Type 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Change Vol Change % Adult 383,217 376,979 324,799 ENCTS 105,385 109,575 93,293 Child 15,631 16,084 13,821 Total 504,233 502,638 431,913 ‐70,725 ‐14.1%

8.2 Northern Rail

Wearside and Tyneside are linked by fast Northern Rail trains, giving access to the heart of Sunderland and Newcastle city centres. Every hour on the half hour, until mid‐evening, trains leave both cities, calling at Heworth Interchange, also providing access to Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, the MetroCentre and Hexham. Rail services between Sunderland and Newcastle are funded by Nexus.

Section of Line 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 Change Vol Change % Newcastle ‐ Sunderland 0.553M 0.529M 0.469M Newcastle – Metrocentre 1.150M 0.972M 0.972M Total 1.703M 1.501M 1.441M ‐6,000 ‐4%

The Office for Rail Regulation record the number of entries/exits at all stations across the country. Outside of London, Newcastle ranks as the 20th busiest station. It is the rail hub of the North East, accounting for 39% of all passenger movements in the region. Passenger movements (entries & exits) at the stations within Tyne and Wear are shown below. Station Passenger Change on North East Rank UK Rank Movements 11/12 10/11 (of 54 stations) (of 2,533 stations) Newcastle 7,706,476 +206,138 1 43 Sunderland 753,120 +23,158 5 617 Metrocentre 356,798 ‐8,882 11 1,012 Heworth 16,812 ‐80 41 2,210 Blaydon 4,220 ‐64 47 2,376 Manors 4,120 +1,144* 48 2,378 Dunston 3,066 +818* 49 2,399 * very small absolute number of entries & exits attributed to large change

Work began in May 2013 on the Central Gateway project to transform the arrival experience at Central Station. The pedestrian environment will be greatly improved to reflect the high numbers of people using this area on foot. Access to public transport will be maintained, as will access to residential and business properties.

Passenger Focus carry out the National Passenger Survey (NPS), providing a network‐wide picture of customers’ satisfaction with rail travel. Passenger opinions of train services are collected twice a year from a representative sample of passenger journeys. Passengers’ overall satisfaction, overall satisfaction with the station and train, and satisfaction with 32 specific aspects of service can therefore be compared over time. Nationally, satisfaction stands at 82% and satisfaction with Northern Rail routes in Tyne & Wear recorded at 77% with Northern Rail as a whole scoring 84%. However, it should be noted that the sample size of 87 respondents in Tyne and Wear is relatively small.

Category Tyne & Wear Regional Overall 77% 84% Punctuality 83% 81% Station 75% 79% Value for money 60% 53% Capacity 72% 73%

9 Information and Infrastructure 9.0

9.1 One Stop Shop Call Centre

Nexus operate a One Stop Shop (OSS) call centre dealing with any general customer queries, Traveline, ticket administration, concessionary travel queries, online ticket sales, Taxi Card requests, Ferry event sales and other issues such as corporate travel, staff passes and refunds. The OSS is now located on the ground floor of Nexus House and handles an average of around 1,000 phone calls on weekdays. The chart below left shows the average number of incoming calls in 2012/13. The middle chart shows the distribution by hour of calls on an average weekday and the chart on the right shows the distribution on a weekend. These calls are handled in addition to handling an average of 500 email queries per week.

9.1.1 Traveline

Nexus operate the North East England regional service of Traveline, a national public transport inquiry service available by calling 0871 200 22 33. Our award‐winning contact centre deals with more than 300,000 requests each year for information about bus, Metro and ferry in North East England, as far as the Tees Valley.

The contact centre deal with fluctuating demand on a short term basis, influenced by a number of external factors including weather, special events, network disruption and so on. The chart below shows the number of calls received by Traveline on a daily basis and illustrates the significance of these external influences by the number of ‘spikes’ in call volume.

The table below further illustrates how the number of received calls can be significant with the flooding of June 2012 seeing over 1,400 calls per day, representing over 3 times the normal call volume.

External Event Average Daily Calls Event Daily Calls Volume Change Metro Strike: June 811 x1.8 Severe Floods: June 444 1,426 x3.2 Mild Floods: August 881 x2.0

9.1.2 Customer Service queries

Traveline calls represent the majority of the volume handled by the call centre. Although the short term, daily demand can fluctuate greatly, the periodic volume is fairly consistent. The yellow line in the chart below represents the volume of Traveline queries handled on a monthly basis is consistent at around 15,000 per month. Also consistent for the majority of the time are “Customer Service” queries, although generally at a much lower volume of around 3,000 per month. However, as can be seen on the blue line on the chart below, the volume exploded in February, March and April.

The volume of abandoned calls, also increased exponentially during this period and appears to have impacted upon the number of Traveline calls answered during this period.

Included within the “Customer Services” group are calls relating to Concessionary Travel. In March 2013, Elderly and Disabled Concessionary bus passes issued under the ENCTS in March 2008 were due to expire. Over 200,000 cards were re‐issued and sent to passengers throughout the region, along with the relevant information regarding the old and renewed passes. However, the volume of calls received by the OSS relating to “Concessionary Travel” reached almost 7,500 in March 2013, over 6 times more than the volume in March 2012. The chart below shows the phenomenal increase in “Concessionary Travel” query call volumes in the period February‐May 2013, clearly linked to the expiration and re‐issue of ENCTS passes.

9.2 Nexus Travelshops

Nexus operate 9 Nexus TravelShops at or close to major interchanges in Tyne and Wear. All shops sell a wide range of holidays and tickets for local and national travel, including through telephone bookings. Travelsales income totals more than £17m a year, with TravelShops selling 80% of combined bus‐Metro and other multi‐modal tickets in Tyne and Wear. Our TravelShops also serve an important role in providing tourist information and whilst the range of tickets sold directly at stations and online is increasing, as shown in chapter 6, the role of the Travelshop will continue to provide a vital information provision service to the public.

9.3 Published information

There are more than 6,500 bus stops in Tyne and Wear and every one has its own individual timetable, printed and displayed by Nexus. We are introducing real time information and SMS text information technology at a growing number of stops.

In all we produce more than two million items of printed publicity every year, in the form of timetables, maps, and leaflets about specific tickets and promotions. We have more than 100 distribution outlets, including TravelShops. Passenger Focus found that far more people in Tyne and Wear use route map/journey times information than in other PTE areas but proportionately more people in other PTE areas find information relating to fares and tickets than in Tyne and Wear.

Nexus carried out a household survey recently and received over 2,000 responses. One question asked the respondent if they had used information to plan a bus journey and if so, what information they used. Around two thirds of respondents had used information to plan a journey. The chart below shows how they obtained the information.

Nexus also:

 manages bus stations at Park Lane Sunderland, Eldon Average of Square and Haymarket Newcastle, Gateshead Interchange 2010/11 to Interchange, Wallsend, Jarrow, Blaydon and South 2012/13 Shields;  specifies high standards for emissions and accessibility on Blaydon 758,622 the bus services we secure; Concord 1,103,217  encourages innovations such as ‘easy access’ ramps, real Eldon Square 3,714,681 time information and bus priority schemes across the Four Lane Ends 578,381 network. Gateshead 5,393,333 Haymarket 3,799,613 Hetton le Hole 310,119 The table to the right shows the average number of bus Heworth 1,303,370 passenger boardings at interchange stations over the last three Jarrow 891,376 years. Killingworth 404,704 MetroCentre 4,068,216 North Shields 707,757 Regent Centre 354,187 South Shields 3,288,676 Sunderland 4,190,051 Wallsend 769,504 Washington 2,528,405 Winlaton 261,758

9.4 Nexus’ website ‐ nexus.org.uk

The Nexus website was visited over 3.6 million times in 2012/13, an increase of 56% on the previous year. Nexus Research indicates that over 50% of the public recall nexus.org.uk when asked about services Nexus provide and almost two‐thirds would recommend the site to a friend.

Similar to the contact centre, the website experienced periods of high usage during external influences, particularly with regard to bad weather.

Over the last year alone there has been a large shift in the way people have accessed the Nexus website. The desktop based Windows operating system dominated in 2011/12 with almost 3 out of 4 visits using this method. In 2012/13 this has fallen to just over half as both the iOS and Android systems have increased their share to 1 in 3 visits. Nexus adapted to the growing use of portable devices by launching the mobile version of the website in December 2011, providing streamlined access to key information. Operating System 2011/12 2012/13 Windows 71% 54% iOS (iPhone) 10% 23% Android 5% 12%

9.5 Nexus Infrastructure

Nexus provides almost 6,000 bus stops and manages 2,000 bus shelters across Tyne and Wear. Newcastle provide all of their own bus shelters through an independent commercial contract. Gateshead uses its own budget to provide the majority of new shelters, which Nexus then manages, maintains and cleans. In addition, Nexus also manages a number of bus stations and interchanges across Tyne and Wear. As it is the actual Bus Stops by District 2011/12 bus stop that determines a location as an access point to public transport the chart below provides a breakdown of bus stops across Tyne and Wear by district. Gateshead Sunderland 22% 27% The chart below provides a breakdown of the figures in 2011/12 and Newcastle South Tyneside sets these in context by also showing the trend when compared to the 22% 13% North previous year 2010/11; however, as would be expected, the figures Tyneside show that there was only a minimal change in these physical assets 16% year on year.

Passengers using bus stands at Heworth interchange are feeling the benefit of a £200,000 project delivered by Nexus to improve facilities. The project has seen bus shelters replaced and upgraded, better seating installed, new CCTV and environmentally friendly LED lighting. The work has been funded through the Government’s Better Bus Area Fund in which Nexus works with Bus Operators, Local Councils and other Stakeholders to improve services.

The programme of shelter maintenance, also funded through “Better Bus Area” grants, will continue in the year ahead with remote CCTV installation at up to 70 shelters, following a pilot project at Park Lane Interchange.

Energy‐efficient LED lighting at 45 shelters it manages across Tyne and Wear and more than 2,000 “flags” have been updated now bearing the new “B” logo. (Image)

9.6 Passenger safety

According to Passenger Focus, one in ten journeys is marred by drunkenness, loud music and aggression. Overall, 10 per cent of passengers have complained of feeling “uncomfortable” during their trip, although in some parts of the country the proportion is as high as 17 per cent. However, Passenger Focus report incidences of disorder as less in Tyne and Wear than other PTEs. In 2012, 974 incidents of vandalism were recorded which represents a 4.2% reduction on the previous year.

As part of Nexus’ rolling bus passenger satisfaction surveys, passengers are asked about their perceptions of safety whilst travelling to/from a station, whilst waiting at a station and whilst travelling. Consistent improvements have been made over the last 5 years. The table below only refers to feelings during darkness as over 99% of people were recorded as feeling safe during daylight.

Year Walking Waiting Travelling 2008/09 73% 72% 85% 2009/10 77% 79% 88% 2010/11 77% 80% 91% 2011/12 81% 81% 90% 2012/13 88% 86% 92%

Smart ticketing project

Nexus is delivering the biggest smart travel programme in the country as tens of thousands of public transport users convert to Pop cards. This “transport revolution” marks the biggest change in the way that passengers pay for travel since 1980.

In just two years, Metro will have gone from being a largely “coin operated” system to a system where people can carry pay‐as‐you‐go credits on smart Pop cards, topping up value online or at stations by card or cash, as well as being able to access a full range of season tickets and student and child discounts.

Older and disabled passengers will also benefit as Metro Gold Cards, frozen in price at £25, have been transferred to their existing ENCTS card ‐ the first time in the UK the smart concessionary cards have been used in this way.

New machines will include a “payWave” card option as well as for the first time, selling four weekly and annual Metro tickets, including Gold cards.

The changes will spread across the North East region, thanks to NESTI. NESTI is a partnership of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority, local authorities, Nexus and transport operators to build a single smart infrastructure covering the Tees Valley, Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. Pay as you go travel will be available to Pop card holders for bus travel throughout North East England.

Students at Newcastle University are now able to use their campus smart card to travel around the City on the Metro. The scheme is a pilot between the North East Smart Ticketing Initiative (NESTI) and the University and will eventually reach up to 20,000 students and also cover other modes of transport.

10 Accessibility 10.0 Accessibility

10.1 Accessible network

One of Nexus’ objectives is to provide greater personal accessibility to the people of Tyne and Wear; 22% of the population have some form of disability, life‐limiting long term illness, or other mobility difficulties. As at 31st March 2013, it is estimated that 93% of all buses operating in Tyne and Wear are low floor vehicles, based on fleet information supplied to Nexus.

By working with bus companies and continually reviewing and improving conventional public transport we hope to encourage more disabled people to use mainstream services ‐ and make those services easier to use ‐ increasing choice and lessening reliance on special transport measures that are by their nature less available.

The figures in the table below show the proportion of people in Tyne and Wear with access to a specified frequency of public transport service or access to a specified key site within a target time of 30 minutes. The column headings relate to the network in March 2012, November 2012 and May 2013. The row sub headings show the results during weekday mornings, weekday evenings and weekends.

Tyne & Wear

March 12 Nov 12 May 13 Base Base Base % Access to a 10 min Service 10:00 Weekday 56.8 54.5 54.2 12:00 Sunday 0.2 2.9 2.9 20:00 Weekday 0.2 0.2 0.2 % Access to a 10 min Route 10:00 Weekday 72.5 72.1 72.2 12:00 Sunday 23.2 24.7 26.2 20:00 Weekday 19.2 12.5 12.2 % Access to a 15 min Service 10:00 Weekday 77.7 76.5 76.5 12:00 Sunday 26.4 28.3 28.3 20:00 Weekday 17.5 21.2 20.5 % Access to a 15 min Route 10:00 Weekday 89.0 88.8 88.8 12:00 Sunday 57.7 60.1 60.5 20:00 Weekday 46.9 48.3 50.7 % within 30 min journey time Local District 10:00 Weekday 67.5 69.3 69.2 Hospital 12:00 Sunday 59.7 60.5 60.7 20:00 Weekday 57.6 57.5 57.1 % within 30 min journey time Local Centre 10:00 Weekday 97.7 97.9 97.8 12:00 Sunday 96.4 96.6 96.3 20:00 Weekday 95.5 95.2 94.8 % within 30 min journey time Major Centre 10:00 Weekday 57.1 57.8 57.6 12:00 Sunday 53.0 55.5 55.5 20:00 Weekday 52.1 51.4 51.2 % within 30 min journey time 3 Key 10:00 Weekday 62.2 63.2 63.1 Employment Sites 12:00 Sunday 45.4 48.5 47.5 20:00 Weekday 41.0 43.1 42.4 10.2 Taxi Card scheme

Nexus provides a TaxiCard scheme in which members get discounted door‐to‐door travel with local taxi operators, with whom they book journeys directly. TaxiCard is a Nexus initiative to provide subsidised accessible public transport for people with significant disabilities. In 2012/13 there were over 120,000 trips made by just fewer than 3,300 active members across Tyne and Wear.

100%

90% 80% of journeys made by 50% of members 80%

70%

60% 40% of journeys 50% made by 20% of members

40%

30%

20%

10%

0% 0% 2% 5% 7% 9% 12% 14% 16% 19% 21% 23% 26% 28% 31% 33% 35% 38% 40% 42% 45% 47% 49% 52% 54% 56% 59% 61% 63% 66% 68% 70% 73% 75% 77% 80% 82% 84% 87% 89% 92% 94% 96% 99%

10.3 School bus induction

Nexus fund a number of school services across the region enabling access to schools and widening children’s ability to travel. For the past two years, Nexus has worked in partnership with each District’s Travel Plan Officer and bus operator Go Ahead to provide a school induction information day. Working with over 30 schools and 950 year 6 pupils, this project provides students with theory about travelling to their secondary school including safety, ticket information as well as personalised journey plans offering the students an opportunity to travel on a scholars‐type bus to their new school. It is organised so that the head teacher from the secondary schools meets the bus at the end of their journey to give the pupils an opportunity to ask them any additional questions on an informal basis. Each student is provided with a school information pack which is hoped will result in reduction in car journeys associated with the school run.

10.4 Cycle & Ride

In conjunction with a successful bid from the LSTF, 300 street pods are to be installed across Tyne and Wear at all Metro stations and at a number of key bus stations. The cycle street pods have been designed in conjunction with the British Transport Police to ensure they are ‘fit for purpose’. In addition to the street pods, there are plans to deliver secure cycle lockers at key strategic locations in Tyne and Wear.

10.5 Smarter to work

The Go‐Smarter to Work Voucher scheme is a project funded by a successful LSTF bid combined with Nexus internal resources. It assists unemployed people in Tyne and Wear by issuing weekly and monthly tickets which help people attend interviews and for support in a new job. In 2012/13, 1,450 weekly tickets and 295 monthly tickets were distributed to Job Centre Plus and Ingeus to assist jobseekers getting back into employment.

10.6 Public transport promotion

The project focuses on Year 6 and Year 7 children, but also on their parents who are often responsible for decision‐making around transport. It provides a set of national curriculum‐supporting resources to enhance and test children’s knowledge of how to use public transport, discounted child fares, map reading and safety. Further resources and information are sent to parents at critical ‘decision points’. The project aims to achieve; cutting ‘school run’ traffic congestion around schools, pupils learn independence by travelling themselves, pupils and parents can save money and potentially cut travel costs for school trips.

10.7 Metro Park & Ride (P&R)

The table below shows how passengers make their journey to the station. Nexus offered a trial of free parking at stations where they owned the car park. The charge at many of these car parks was a flat fee of £1.60. Interestingly, at free P&R sites the proportion of those arriving by car appears to be only slightly higher than at non‐P&R sites – this is most likely due to the limited number of parking spaces available and to people parking on‐street near to non P&R stations.

Metro Non‐P&R Paid P&R Paid Council Free P&R Network sites All P&R sites Sites Sites sites Walk 77% 77% 78% 72% 59% 78% Car 4% 3% 6% 11% 10% 4% Metro 4% 4% 3% 1% 2% 5% Bus 13% 13% 12% 15% 29% 13% Other 2% 3% 1% 1% 0% 0%

The chart below displays the occupancy levels for all car parks across the financial year. The impact of the free trial took effect in late 2012 and has remained higher than previous levels after the flat £1 fee has been introduced.