ANNEX B TO ITEM 11 A Bus Strategy for Milton Keynes This document provides a strategy for the delivery of bus services in Milton Keynes and is a requirement of the Transport Act 2000. Many of the different aspects of the strategy have been consulted on over a number of years whilst other aspects have been raised through the recent bus review process. This strategy will be reported for adoption at the Cabinet meeting on 25 February 2003. The Strategy will be reviewed in early 2004 and any comments on content should be made to the Council for inclusion in that review. Once the Bus Strategy has been adopted an implementation plan with budgeted and forecast costs will be produced for intended spend in 2003/04 with an indication of the likely areas of spend in 2004/05 and 2005/06. Cabinet approval will be required for this plan. Thereafter the Bus Strategy will be reviewed every three years. There are two major areas of strategy which need further work, these being the Standards for Minimum Service Levels; this work will include an analysis of what is currently provided and benchmarked against the recommendation 22 of the Bus Review and a review of the Park and Ride Strategy. The recommendations of the Bus Review are shown within this document at the appropriate location for reference only to illustrate what is proposed within the bus strategy. 1.0 Overview 1.1 The publication of a Bus Strategy is one the requirements of the Transport Act 2000 and supports the policy and programme of works described in the Milton Keynes Council’s Local Transport Plan 2001/02 - 2005/06. 1.2 The Council’s vision for transport is set out in the Sustainable Integrated Transport Strategy. The main criteria which will influence modal choice are set out below. 1.3 Development and improvements in the provision of bus transport will contribute to the following SITS objectives: · all people should be able to move around conveniently and safely, regardless of their circumstances, with those able to pay doing so; · that, in developing our planning policies with our partners, we will actively seek to reduce the number, length and need to make journeys; · to encourage walking, cycling, and quality public transport, whilst reducing journeys by car and promoting a healthier lifestyle; and, · to ensure that Milton Keynes’ economic prosperity is enhanced by our new transport policies by helping people to travel when and where they want, but in more environmentally friendly ways. 1.4 By providing good public transport information, we will be supporting the following SITS objectives: · all people should be able to move around conveniently and safely, regardless of their circumstances, with those able to pay doing so; · to encourage walking, cycling, and quality public transport, whilst reducing journeys by car and promoting a healthier lifestyle; and, · to ensure that Milton Keynes’ economic prosperity is enhanced by our new transport policies by helping people to travel when and where they want, but in more environmentally friendly ways. 1.5 By raising awareness of the need to reduce reliance on the car, the following SITS objectives will be met: · all people should be able to move around conveniently and safely, regardless of their circumstances, with those able to pay doing so; · to encourage walking, cycling, and quality public transport, whilst reducing journeys by car and promoting a healthier lifestyle; and, · to ensure that Milton Keynes’ economic prosperity is enhanced by our new transport policies by helping people to travel when and where they want, but in more environmentally friendly ways. 1.6 Improvements to the provision and integration of voluntary and community transport will contribute to the following SITS objective: · (that) all people should be able to move around conveniently and safely, regardless of their circumstances, with those able to pay doing so. 2.0 Assessment of the Bus Network 2.1 Network Availability 2.2 Since reaching a peak just after bus deregulation in 1986, urban bus service frequencies in Milton Keynes have declined steadily. The principal local operator has had three changes of ownership in nine years. In previous years the average age of the buses has been high, with most of them being small, difficult to access, and having a very poor image. 2.3 The quality of bus services in the urban area has generally been perceived as poor. Poor service provision is largely a consequence of the low density development policy, dispersed employment areas, the grid road system, considerable free parking, high bus fares and network instability. 2.4 Since 1997, there has been substantial investment of £3.8m in new vehicles by the main bus operator in the City, M.K. Metro. Milton Keynes’ bus services are now gradually transforming into a stable, long-term, network. This development, however, needs to be supported by sympathetic and complimentary transport and planning policies by all relevant stakeholders in Milton Keynes. 2.5 Services meet most basic transport needs but are not seen as an attractive alternative to the car. Most principal urban daytime services run every twenty minutes or half hourly but significant parts of the urban area have a daytime service that is hourly or worse, though there have been improvements on certain services. 2.6 Most daytime services are commercially operated but a number of Saturday services and almost all evening and Sunday services are operated under contract to the Council, mainly running hourly, reflecting the expense of operating such services within a limited revenue support budget. 3.0 Regional Bus Services 3.1 Regional bus services have seen some encouraging commercial developments in recent years, with the introduction of hourly limited stop services between Milton Keynes and Oxford, Bedford, Cambridge, Aylesbury and Luton. 3.2 Express coach services call at the Milton Keynes Coachway, adjacent to the M1. They provide direct services to London, the Midlands, the North, Scotland and most of the principal airports in the south-east. However, the Coachway is 5 km from Central Milton Keynes. Integration with local bus services has been very poor, so taxis have until recently provided the best alternative to the car to get there. However the introduction of the first permanent Park and Ride service from Junction 14 and the provision of service 210 has improved this link during the day. However early morning and late evening links are still not readily available. 3.3 Milton Keynes has links to both regional and national destinations. The Council publishes an East West Public Transport Links leaflet. Recommendation 17 Regional Links a) A strategy to ensure that Milton Keynes is well linked with other towns and cities in the sub region (Luton, Bedford, Oxford, Northampton and Cambridge for example) should be developed, alongside and to compliment rail travel. b) Long distance coach services should also form an important part of a regional strategy. 4.0 Level of Service 4.1 Existing Council policy indicates the minimum standard of frequency for urban services on standalone sections is every 30 minutes for Monday to Saturday daytime services and hourly for evenings and all day on Sundays, the standard service on Sundays is from 08:00 through to 22:45. It is noted that the majority of Quality Bus Routes proposed only meet these criteria, it is hoped that usage increases on the daytime services will be reflected by increases in evening patronage. The standard for last departures from following main points, CMK, Bletchley, Wolverton, Stony Stratford and Newport Pagnell, is 23:15 hours. It is intended to improve services to meet these standards and it is possible that we will also include Kingston and Westcroft as a major timing point. 5.0 Rural Transport 5.1 Improvements to the provision of rural transport will compliment the Countryside Traffic Management Strategy, and will contribute to the SITS objectives. However it is recognised that there needs to be a comprehensive review of the provision and usage of bus services in rural areas resulting in a clear strategy statement of what residents in rural communities can expect from bus service provision. 5.2 The provision of the Rural Bus Grant has helped in improving services but it was initially difficult to engage rural communities in deciding how this money should be spent. The provision of additional facilities has resulted in raised awareness of service levels. 5.3 However as Rural Services withdrawn more recently have not fallen under the guidelines for Rural Bus Grant subsidy some communities, notably between Northampton, Newport Pagnell and Milton Keynes have lost their workers journeys. 5.4 The Council supports the ‘Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Rural Transport Strategy’. 6.0 Park and Ride 6.1 33% of car journeys to work in Milton Keynes originate from outside the Council area. The majority of these trips have a destination in Central Milton Keynes. Even with improvements in the provision of public transport, there will still be many journeys to Milton Keynes that do not have a viable alternative mode. For SITS to be successful, we need to encourage alternatives to driving especially to the centre. 7.0 Transport Patterns 7.1 Milton Keynes Council undertakes traffic flow monitoring in association with English Partnerships. The Council also monitors usage of CMK parking, and undertakes regular bus passenger and attitude surveys. The main bus operator in Milton Keynes has also given a commitment to provide passenger information. Surveys of rail passenger numbers have also been recently undertaken. 7.2 In citizen satisfaction surveys undertaken in Milton Keynes in early 2000 Public Transport and its provision has come high up the items of importance and the fact that the network should be improved.