STOCKTON on TEES PUBLIC TRANSPORT FORUM ARC, Dovecot Street, Stockton – 31St October 2015
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STOCKTON ON TEES PUBLIC TRANSPORT FORUM ARC, Dovecot Street, Stockton – 31st October 2015 Present: John Fletcher Chair Joanne Roberts (JR) SBC Jonathan Kibble (JK) SBC Cathy Summers (CS) SBC Lynne Tebbs SBC Karen Stephen SBC Nathan Stanislawski Stagecoach Tony Shaw Stagecoach Richard McGowan Arriva Public: Approximately 52 residents and elected members ITEM AGENDA ITEM ACTION 1.0 Welcome and apologies for absence 1.1 Apologies were received from Di Hewitt (Councillor), Pete Myers (Northern Rail), Mark Ellis (Go North East), Alex Nelson (Chester-Le-Track), Alan Plaice (Resident) and Iris McGrath (Resident) 1.2 Chair welcomed attendees and introduced panel members. 2.0 Feedback from meeting on 06th June 2015 2.1 No matters arising from previous transport forum minutes in June 2015 3.0 General progress and update 3.1 Stockton Borough Council Rail North and Franchise Rail North which is a partnership between local authorities and passenger transport across the Northern Region with Department of Transport is still in early days but membership agreement has been signed off with the constitution. A Director is now in place and will be looking at strategic issues and how we can build on railway within the Northern Area. Franchise update – Northern and Transpennine are due for renewal in April 2016 and are currently at the stage of looking at bidders and any conflict of interest. Announcement is due in December 2015 with implementation April 2016. Station Adoption Project Part of a wide Tees Valley bid to the Governments Local Sustainability Transport Fund. Darlington Borough Council have extended an Officer post to look at Station Adoption and are currently looking into Stockton and Billingham. Chester-Le-Track have already adopted Eaglescliffe Train Station and Allens West. Station Adoption varies in meaning but can mean communities or business looking after and running the station. Bus Updates Network Rail are due to carry out some work on Bishopton Lane Rail Bridge, work to be carried out Saturday and Sunday Evenings in the 1st 2 weekends in November. Stagecoach have won a contract to run a shuttle bus between Stockton Town Centre and The Daylight Bakery. Tees Valley Bus Network Improvements 5 Year Programme is coming to an end with the final project being Thornaby Town Centre which is due to start within next few weeks. The latest project completed is Billingham Town Centre with new bus shelters, seating installed within the shelters and bus layby lengthened to allow more space for buses. Bus Community Based Alternatives Stagecarriage are due to start operating to The Southern Villages (Kirklevington, Maltby and Hilton) on 17th November, bus timetables are available on connectteesvalley.com Pathfinder A discount scheme which Stockton Borough Council offer for 16-19 year olds which is due to continue into March next year, after March the scheme will be reviewed. Bus Stop Audit Audit is now complete which looks at bus stop accessibility, bus operations and facilities available for passengers. Results from the audit are currently being reviewed. 3.2 Arriva Update Operations of service X66/X67 commenced in October 2015 which operators every 15 minutes between Middlesbrough-Stockton-Hartburn-Darlington. Continued improvements to services in West Stockton & Hartburn, with new Sunday and evening service. Investment into vehicles in the area, all to be complete with free Wifi and Next Stop Announcements. New bus service S1 starts Saturday 31st October 2015. This service will operate on Saturdays only from Stockton to Teesside Park every 30 minutes. If a good response is received to this new service there could be possibility for more days and other destinations. Arriva are working in partnership with Connect Tees Valley and DfT, putting plans into place to increase the roll out of Next Stop Announcements in the area, with the following services to be fitted: Service 7/7A Yarm to Stockton Service 63 Middlesbrough to Redcar Service X66/X67 Darlington to Middlesbrough Service 15 has been fitted with Wifi over the past few months and it is available to use now, however awaiting plans to brand the service into a high frequency brand which will include the required vinyls advertising the benefit 3.3 Stagecoach Update All 17 Dotty buses are now in operation. The changes have been made to replace the ageing non- DDA compliant vehicles in the Stockton & Billingham areas and Provide a better quality service to the Customers on the services 35, 52, 58, 59 & 61 All vehicles feature: • Free Wi-Fi. • Low floor, easy access kneeling platforms. • Improved seating for Customer comfort. • DDA compliant wheelchair bays. • Easy to read LED destination screens. • A groovy ‘Dotty’ design. 4.0 Public Question Time Q Could we have on all buses an automated voice and visual display telling passengers when they are approaching next stop and where it is near A Stagecoach – currently no vehicles within the area have this system and no plans as yet to have this installed. Bus drivers are there to help and if you inform the driver when boarding the bus you require informing of a certain stop they will assist. A possible mobile phone app is being looked into which will notify passengers of the next stop Arriva – covered in presentation. As a goal they would like this system on all buses but this is not something that is possible at the moment due to costs and times Q The Arriva sapphire buses with the voice system, are the operators able to switch them off? And sometimes unable to connect to the Wifi A Drivers should not be switching them off however Arriva do acknowledge there are some issues with the system The Wifi relies on connection and in some areas can be lost Q Given the length of time that people have to wait for the number 7 bus at times, and there only being room for 3 people to sit down in the shelter provided in the High Street near boots, could Arriva pay for some additional seating in the High Street for people who are waiting, with shopping, for 20 minutes or more at times? A Arriva – wouldn’t pay for additional seating, if funding was available they would allocate that money to improving the services Q Service 7 - Suggestion of perhaps having one or two buses each hour turn at South View rather than carry on into Yarm, might help to alleviate the problem of them all A Arriva – question is not new to Arriva and has previously been raised on a few occasions, the reason it has been rejected is people use the bus between Yarm and Stockton High Street and would not be beneficial to turn at South View. As a company Arriva will work on this and try and regulate the service Q Could service 7 stop at the North West side of Stockton High Street, stands V, U, W & X to reduce the distance elderly passengers have to walk? A Arriva – we try and get shoppers as close as possible to shops. Drivers are advised to turn at Maxwell Corner and it is a local depot instruction to do with safety SBC – this is an Arriva decision but would work along operator if wished to improve this Q Why do the bus shelters have armrests which only allow 3 people to sit? A SBC – the design is to stop people from sleeping on the seating overnight, no plans at this time to change the design to 5 seats Q Are there no longer any buses that enter James Cook Hospital grounds? A Stagecoach – there was a major re-structure of services last year following feedback from passengers. All operators suffered from congestion at James Cook which was causing delays to the service and decided along with all other operators to stop operating, service 10 operates outside of the grounds and up to date has been a vast success Arriva – agrees the same reasons as Stagecoach Chair – There is a hourly train service from Stockton and Thornaby to James Cook Hospital station Q Why so you persist in putting branding over the windows? Windows are to see out of. The new buses on 36/37/38 don’t have adverts on the offside so why not put the branding there instead of over the window A Stagecoach – branding is on the buses to promote the route and is very successful and is used up and down the country. The reasoning for no advertisement on the offside of the bus is because people don’t see that, however will take comments on board and feedback the marketing department Q People sitting in luggage racks, crowding round the front of the bus etc. if they had adequately sized buses it wouldn’t happen. 36/37/38 needs double decker buses like they always used to A Stagecoach – people sitting in the luggage racks was mentioned at the last forum and revenue inspectors have been on some of the busier services and didn’t come across many issues with luggage rack, however did come across the issue of people not moving down the bus. If instances are reported straight to Stagecoach they will look into this. Q Since the route of service 38 was changed the back end of last year Mrs Monkhouse and I have been in touch with Sunderland (Stagecoach Offices) and Stockton with no luck. As a Residents of The Glebe Estate we are working to help all the other Residents and would like the chance to speak face to face to someone and explain every thing A Stagecoach – Stagecoach visited the Glebe last year to meet residents/passengers to discuss any issues or problems and took them back to the commercial team.