General Discussion

This is my blog from this week's Bulletin. Please feel free to chime in with your responses!

Did you see Britain from Above on the TV recently? Andrew Marr took a look at a day in the life of the UK as seen from the air. It was intriguing seeing rail networks spring into life from above - and Wincanton must be very happy with their coverage of a supply chain from DC to the road to destination.

The railways didn't come off quite as well as logisticians, as much was made of Britain's Victorian railway infrastructure by Andrew Marr - a commuter who confessed to feeling ‘helpless' for much of the time.

But from above passenger transport infrastructure and supply chains from dock to DC look remarkably cohesive and logical.

The problem is that some of that logical cohesiveness seems to me to be unravelling down on the ground at the moment.  Transport for London had initiated a programme to get its Oystercard more compatible with other smartcard travel technology. But now TfL has decided to ditch its Oystercard providers - so where that leaves any move towards integrated passenger networks is anyone's guess.

England, Wales and Scotland have all introduced their OAP bus passes that are not linked to each other countries', and all are subtly different in terms of conditions, times of use, etc.

Again, free buses for OAPs were a great idea but the dots have significantly failed to be joined. And while my Dad's happy as Larry taking buses into the wilds of Dorsetshire, the level of funding for the scheme to bus operators certainly needs to be looked at more closely.

The over 65s as a group grew up using buses and are - together with students - the biggest regular user. So the hit on bus revenues has been disproportionately high and does not seem to have been entirely factored in to the scheme. Local authorities are reportedly having to cut less busy routes to fund the losses.

Not entirely the seamless and joined up transport network it looks from above!

Trying to sort out the cheapest available tickets for a south-north rail journey that covered two train operating companies' networks recently almost had me hankering for the days when all trains were blue, buses green and coaches white. Almost. Then I remember it was a desire for cheap large scale nationwide transport solutions that led to Pacers and Leyland Nationals and suddenly Big Brother transport seems less attractive.

One other fascinating thing popped up in Britain from Above about supply chains. We were introduced to the main control centre for the national grid - and to a phenomenon unique to Britain alone. When East Enders finishes at 8pm there is a huge surge in demand for electricity as millions of kettles go on across the country. Power is diverted from French power stations to the UK and power stations across the nation are ramped up to full capacity to help cover the sudden spike in demand.

We may not have an integrated transport network running, despite nearly 200 years of practice, but we'll create the best supply networks known to mankind at any cost to ensure we get that cuppa.

David Jinks wrote:

This is my blog from this week's Bulletin. Please feel free to chime in with your responses!

England, Wales and Scotland have all introduced their OAP bus passes that are not linked to each other countries', and all are subtly different in terms of conditions, times of use, etc.

Again, free buses for OAPs were a great idea but the dots have significantly failed to be joined. And while my Dad's happy as Larry taking buses into the wilds of Dorsetshire, the level of funding for the scheme to bus operators certainly needs to be looked at more closely.

The over 65s as a group grew up using buses and are - together with students - the biggest regular user. So the hit on bus revenues has been disproportionately high and does not seem to have been entirely factored in to the scheme. Local authorities are reportedly having to cut less busy routes to fund the losses.

 Its not quite that simple...

 Essentially all concessionary pass holders get free off-peak bus travel after 0930, and all day weekends/bank holidays.  There are variances in that some authorities will offer travel before 09:30, some will offer disabled pass holders free travel for a companion and so on.  

Funding is extremely complex and does need to be looked at.  DfT are doing, or are about to commission, research into alternative re-imbursement methods.  A separate issue is how the DfT decide the amount of additional funding each Travel Concession Authority needs.  Some authorities have been left with not enough, and others have done quite nicely out of it.  A TCA must pay for all concessionary passenger boardings in its area.  If you're an authority where not that many visitors come into the area, chances are travel concession budget won't be under much pressure.

Re-imbursement is predicated on the principle that operators should be "no better, no worse off" - in other words they should only receive the amount of revenue that they would have collected in the absence of a concession with everyone paying their own fares.  Unfortunately the without-concession scenario is quite theoretical and relies on coming up with a generation factor (how many additional passengers the free concession has created).  The generation factor in turn is related to fare elasticities, characteristics of the local population, trip rates of old and new pass holders and so on. Theoretically it can vary between operator, and even individual routes.  Then there's calculating an average fare which again gets horribly complex - should day / season tickets be included in that calculation for example.  How accuarately these things can be worked out depends how closely the "no better, no worse off" position is achieved.  

Its not entirely accurate to say the hit on operator revenues is "disproportionately high" - an operator might be carrying more passengers than before, and not being paid for all of those passengers but they aren't necessarily worse off.   There are instances where an impact on revenues could be argued.  These may include overcrowding deterring fare paying passengers, the need to provide additional capacity, and perhaps extended journey times due to higher loadings.  However, operators are entitled to claim additional costs to cover these items, though in practice it is extremely difficult for operators to prove additional costs and for travel concession authorities to disprove them - so additional costs are something of a black art.

Its also inaccurate to say that authorities are having to "cut routes to fund losses".  Unitary authority areas excepted - the responsibility for concessionary travel lies with the District / Borough Councils, whilst the Transport Authorities who financially support bus services are the County Councils.  Since the budgets lie with different authorities one  is not being cut to fund the other.  The only impact might be where operators feel the need to withdraw commercial services due to not being satisfied with the level of concessionary re-imbursement.  In which case the Transport Authority may then have to pick up the bill for putting that service out to tender.  The DfT have quite clearly told authorities though that concessionary travel re-imbursement must not be left at overly generous levels to prop up bus services, as this would amount to illegal state aid.

There is certainly a need for a standard and unambigious means of calculating re-imbursement that approximates to the no better, no worse off position but that allows operators and local authorities to know exactly where they stand.  That probably involves the DfT coughing up more cash though...