annual performance May 2012 - April 2013 annual performance May 2012 to April 2013 key facts 33.4 million passenger journeys were made on Stagecoach Midlands services Over 16 million miles operated within the Stagecoach Midlands region 934 employees working across all 7 Stagecoach Midlands depots 359 buses operating throughout Northamptonshire and Warwickshire 99.5% service reliability on Stagecoach Midlands services 90.7% service punctuality on observed journeys 2012-2013 results 2012/2013 has been a challenging year for Stagecoach Midlands with the company continuing to minimise the impact of the 2011/12 cuts to bus support by both Northamptonshire County Council and Warwickshire County Council. The large majority of routes previously supported by the councils have been retained. However despite this Stagecoach has continued to develop its’ business, with the relocation of its’ Northampton depot to new premises with much improved engineering facilities and a £6 million investment in 39 new low floor buses. The company has also considerably expanded its’ services in Northampton following the withdrawal of routes run by First. In addition Stagecoach Midlands played a major role in Stagecoach UK Bus’s involvement in providing transport for athletes, officials and the media at the 2012 Olympic Games & Paralympic Games. This report covers the year from May 2012 to April 2013. we carried our passengers 33.4 million We carried a total of 33.4 million people passengers over the year. We received a total of 3227 passenger complaints about our services, a decrease of 0.2% over the previous year. This equates to one complaint for very 10,358 passengers. We comply with our industry code of practice. Every complaint is investigated and action taken to try and avoid a recurrence of the problem. our staff We are a major local employer with 721 drivers, 141 engineers and cleaners and 72 administrators, supervisors and managers. All our drivers are in the process of gaining the new Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) qualification. Our engineers are all skilled workers and we currently employ 2 apprentices to provide skills for the future with additional apprentices being employeed in 2013/14. Our supervisors and managers have all completed relevant training courses for their various professions and have considerable experience in the industry. our fares In 2013 fares were increased by an average of 3.9%, which compares to a 14% rise in the annual cost of motoring (RAC Nov 2011). We have rolled out StagecoachSmart throughout the Midlands which enables passengers to store their bus season tickets on a microchip embedded in a travel card. The introduction of StagecoachSmart also allows passengers to set up automatic payments, by simply providing their debit/credit card details online. This method of payment gives a months travel for the same price as 28 days. Over the year we also introduced a range of money saving opportunities for passengers including new termrider tickets for school and college students in Northamptonshire and cheaper travel from Market Harborough to Leicester with a Leicester Megarider Plus ticket. Half price singles and returns have also been introduced for jobseeker card holders to assist with travel. The company also helped establish new multi operator tickets in Milton Keynes and Leicester Our bus services continue to offer great value travel and we continually re-invest the income from fares in improvements for passengers. our services Stagecoach Midlands is the major provider of local bus services in Northamptonshire and Warwickshire also running routes in Coventry, Leicestershire, Peterborough, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire. new We operated over 16.1 million miles during the year. Our key measure of engineering performance is the reliability and punctuality of our services. In the facility at past year we operated 99.5% of our scheduled services, with 0.2% failure Northampton due to internal reasons, and 0.3% due to external reasons such as Depot congestion, snow, diversions, etc. We monitor our services for punctuality and 90.7% of our services operated within 5 minutes of their scheduled time - traffic congestion being again the main reason for delay. We continue to seek improvements both through rescheduling services and by working with our local highways authorities. This year has seen a 10% increase in the number of buses we provide in Northampton with new routes introduced to Kings Heath, Camp 90% of Hill, Briar Hill & West Hunsbury. Further expansion will take place in our fleet is Summer 2013 including services to Sunnyside, Acre Lane, Thorplands currently low and Rectory Farm. These new travel floor easy opportunities will increase our operation in Northampton by a access further 20%. In conjunction with Northamptonshire County Council we have also introduced new direct links to Northampton General Hospital from the Eastern District/Rectory Farm on route 1 and connections from Duston to the Hospital and Weston Favell in the early mornings and evenings, as well as, Sundays on route 9B. Route X7 was extended to provide a new direct service from Leicester, Market Harborough, Brixworth and Kingsthorpe to Milton Keynes. The extension also enabled a new half hourly service from Northampton and Grange Park to Milton Keynes to be introduced in conjunction with the Stagecoach Gold X4 route. Service 14 was extended beyond the town centre to provide a 30 minute direct service from East Hunsbury to Northampton General Hospital, Bedford Road and John Dryden House. In Kettering new direct links were provided between Brambleside and Rushden/Bedford. In Corby new links were introduced to the new Tesco superstore on routes 7 & 19. In Leamington service X17 was diverted via Leamington railway station to provide new regular links from both Warwick and Kenilworth. Once again we provided transport for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, which is one of the largest events held in this country. We provided 4 services from park and ride sites (Hinton, Towcester, Sixfields and Turweston), 2 dedicated bus routes (F1 Northampton to Silverstone & MK1 Milton Keynes to Silverstone) and a large internal shuttle operation (for racing teams, the media and VIPs). On the day of the Grand Prix Stagecoach ran 305 buses. our fleet We operate a fleet of 359 buses, of which 90% is currently low floor wheelchair accessible to assist the disabled, senior citizens and parents with buggies in particular. In 2012/13 we purchased a total of 39 new buses - 10 Wi-Fi double decks for our University of Warwick U1 service in Leamington, 15 Enviro 300s for services 7, 8, 14 & X7 in Northampton and 14 Enviro 200s for routes 5/5A & 10 in Nuneaton. We also introduced our first 2 open top, low floor, City Sightseeing buses for operation in Stratford Upon Avon. All our vehicles are inspected by our engineers at least every 3 weeks, and maintained to much higher standards than those recommended by VOSA to ensure our passengers safety and comfort. Every vehicle is externally washed and swept out on a daily basis and has a full internal clean every three weeks. our environment We used just under 2.0 million gallons of diesel last year, at an average of 8.45 miles per gallon. We are working hard to improve fuel consumption wherever possible including the introduction of ‘Eco Driver’ which is designed to help drivers adapt their driving style to be the most economical possible. All our fleet runs on low sulphur diesel, with a high-tech additive Envirox to reduce pollution and improve fuel consumption. Vehicle engines must meet increasingly higher Euro standards of exhaust emissions. 80% of our fleet meet Euro 3, 4 or 5 emission standards. We recycle most of our waste, such as litter, used oils, filters, batteries, parts, etc. We also recycle the water we use to wash our vehicles every night. 39 new buses for Northampton, Nunetaon and Leamington community We believe that it is an important aspect of our business to support the local community and encourage our staff wherever possible to do the same. Just some of the good causes we have helped this year include: Rugby-based New Directions; a vibrant Community Charity helping people with learning disabilities, who we helped purchase additional computer equipment for their day care centre. We sponsored Stuart Russell, a bus driver based at Nuneaton and his dance partner Lisa Standen as they took part in ‘Strictly Learn to Dance’. An event held in aid of the Mary Anne Evans Hospice in Nuneaton where 24 novice dancers performed. Ron Steele, one of our long serving Kettering drivers, who lives and works in Kettering, undertook his 8th annual Swimathon in support of Marie Curie Cancer Care at Kettering Swimming Pool. In Northampton we sponsored a new football kit for the 303 Polish junior football team in Northampton supporting our staff & the community we operate in Stagecoach Customer Services Stagecoach Midlands Main Road Northampton NN4 8ES 0845 600 1314 [email protected] disability helpdesk 08456 001 314 [email protected] nationwide bus times The Bus Appeals Body PO Box 119 Shepperton TW17 8UX 01932 232 574 www.bususers.org www.stagecoachbus.com/warwickshire www.stagecoachbus.com/northants.