Essex County Council ‘Getting Around in Essex’ Local Bus Service Network Review Consultation September 2015 Supporting Documentation 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Proposed broader changes to the way As set out in the accompanying questionnaire, Essex County Council (ECC) is undertaking ECC contracts for services that may also affect a major review of the local bus services in Essex that it pays for. These are the services that are not provided by commercial bus operators. It represents around 15% of the total customers bus network, principally in the evenings, on Sundays and in rural areas although some As well as specific service changes there are a number of other proposals which may do operate in or between towns during weekdays and as school day only services. This affect customers. These include: consultation does not cover services supported by Thurrock and Southend councils. • Service Support Prioritisation. The questionnaire sets out how the County Council will The questionnaire asks for your views about proposed changes to the supported bus in future prioritise its support for local bus services in Essex, given limited funding. network in your district. This booklet contains the information you need to understand This is based on public responses to two previous consultations and a long standing the changes and allow you to answer the questionnaire. Service entries are listed in assessment of value for money. This will be based on service category and within straight numerical order and cover the entire County of Essex (they are not divided by each category on the basis of cost per passenger journey. Future changes to the district), with an indicator of where and when they are operating to distinguish services commercial network that require the Council to consider responses will be assessed in with the same number. For example: this way too. Service 1: Ashen to Sudbury - Thursdays only. • Contract Terms. Contracts can be let in several ways: In each entry there is a timetable showing which journeys ECC funds at present, a written summary of the proposed changes, with reasons for making the changes and a revised a. Gross Cost Contract - the Council generally pays the operator more money up front, timetable showing the proposed new services. In some cases where journeys have been but keeps the fares and has control over fare prices. moved to a different service number, you may be referred to other service timetables. If you are using the on line version of this document you will be able to do this by clicking b. Net Cost Contract - the County will generally pay the operator less up front, but the on the hyperlinks provided. operator retains the fares and has control over fare prices in future. This gives the operator more incentive to invest in the service and to increase passenger numbers as NB: The timetables only include information on journeys that are paid for by Essex they gain the benefit from them. However fares are likely to reflect the need to provide County Council. Where a service is partially run commercially and partially paid for by a commercial return on the investment made so may be higher than those set by the ECC, only the ECC journeys are included. No changes are proposed to the commercial County Council. routes by ECC in this consultation. At present half of ECC bus contracts operate on a gross cost basis, but in future the Council plans to move towards net contracts. For new services, ECC will encourage operators to bid on both net and gross cost bases, accepting the bid type that offers best value for public money. 3 It is not possible to say at this stage whether a particular service will be awarded on a • Disclosure and Barring Service requirements (DBS). As part of it’s child protection net or gross cost basis. This decision will be made as part of the procurement of the responsibility, the County Council has to decide whether a service it provides falls new network which will take place over the Winter of 2015. under the ‘Regulated Activity - Notifiable Occupation’ regulations and requires staff performing them to have a DBS check. In 2012, national guidance on what types • Fares. At present where services are run on a net cost basis, the level of fares already of activity constitute ‘regulated activity’ changed. Driving on dedicated school broadly reflects commercial rates. However, where services are currently let on a transport continues to be considered ‘regulated activity’ and so drivers on these gross cost basis, fares in many cases have not been increased since 2009. This services continue to require an enhanced DBS check. Under the new guidance ECC means the fare currently being charged is well below the commercial rate. has re-assessed which supported local bus services or journeys constitute ‘regulated activity’ and therefore require the driver to have undertaken an enhanced DBS check. As a result where services are currently let as a gross cost contract awarded at tender on a net cost basis, there are likely to be rises in fares to bring them into line with To see which ECC services or journeys constitute ‘regulated activity’ see our web page commercial rates. http://www.essexhighways.org/Transport-and-Roads/Getting-Around/Bus/ Services/Supported-bus-services Where a service becomes a net cost contract, some special fare offers such as the ‘Day Villager’ fare may no longer be available. In cases where tickets are currently • Home to school transport policy and home to school bus services not run as local inter-available between operators, every effort will be made to retain this, although bus services. These are not affected by any proposals included in this document. this may not be possible in all cases. For gross cost services, where ECC retains control of the fares, wider proposals are being developed to review the ticketing • Specific changes to school services in Uttlesford structure/ products. These will be consulted on at a later date. • Changes to Secondary Education Transport to Joyce Frankland School in Newport and • Concessionary Fares. For clarity, no change is being proposed to the concessionary Saffron Walden High School. fare offer in Essex. People qualifying for a concessionary bus pass will still be able to use the pass to travel free on services as they do now, including any Demand – The way transport is provided to Joyce Frankland Academy in Newport and Saffron Responsive Transport ( DRT) services (See below for more information on DRT). Walden High School is changing. • Service Commercialisation. Over time a number of services currently paid for by ECC – The majority of the services will be provided commercially from April 2016* have grown sufficiently so that there are now enough passengers and revenue to make them commercially viable. Some of these services have already been taken on – All students who currently use school transport will be able to get to school commercially by bus operators. For others, this will take effect from April 2016. although the bus number, time and route may change. In a small number of cases the student may have to change from one bus to another. If an operator starts a commercial service that fulfils the role of an ECC contracted service, the contracted service is likely to be withdrawn. – Students entitled to free transport will continue to receive free transport that will enable them to get to and from school. If a service is commercialised there may be changes made to the route and frequency of these services by the operator. In addition fares will be controlled by the operator. – Students whose parents pay for transport will still be able to do so, although it Such changes will be assessed in the same way as changes to a commercial service may be necessary to purchase tickets direct from the operator. The fares may be as set out in the consultation paper. reviewed by the operator and are likely to increase in line with commercial fares. *The current contract for service 322 is not due to expire until 2017. There are proposed changes to the route but the provider will not change. 4 Local Bus Service Network Review Consultation September 2015 Demand Responsive transport (DRT) services When passenger numbers are low or irregular (in rural areas or in the evening), the costs of providing a regular, frequent, timetabled local bus service start to exceed the benefits derived (i.e. the cost per passenger increases as it is spread amongst fewer passengers). Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) is an alternate way of providing bus access to key services from rural areas with low or very dispersed populations or in urban areas at less well used times of day (such as the evenings). How does DRT work? Instead of using fixed routes with fixed stops and timetables, DRT customers book journeys with the operator in advance and are picked up from an agreed point – often their own home. That is why DRT is sometimes called a taxibus – it’s a cross between a taxi and a bus. Often DRT means that a service can be offered where a traditional bus service just wouldn’t be cost effective to provide. The operator collates the journey requests into packages of work which are allocated to the available pool of vehicles, with the aim of maintaining a balance between customer service (i.e. journey length and start time) and vehicle efficiency (to minimise the number of vehicle movements required). Such services can either offer the whole journey or act as feeder services into regular local bus services ie. take people to the nearest bus stop. This is the model adopted by most Community Transport schemes’ dial a ride service.