The new Labour government has made clear its intentions to overhaul dated regulation on bus services and give Local Authorities greater flexibility on how services are run. But how and why should Local Authorities look to make the switch?
Outside of London, buses were privatised in the 1980’s with limited powers given to metro mayors as part of devolution to enable them to set their own routes and timetables. Louise Haigh, Transport Secretary is now pushing for those rights to be extended to all authorities in England.
A major part of this process is how to simplify the franchising process, which took five years in the case of Manchester’s Bee Network. Early signs are that the pain was worth it, with the region reporting an increased patronage of 5% since franchised routes started running a year ago. This success is attracting interest from other combined authorities, such as West Yorkshire and Liverpool who are already indicating that they will take steps to franchise bus services.
It’s acknowledged that franchising won’t be right for every Local Authority, however the benefits of offering a coordinated public transport network with simplified ticketing is clear. Comprehensive, joined up multi-modal networks help encourage visitors to the region, increasing prosperity and reducing dependency on private vehicle journeys, bringing with it associated environmental benefits.
Core to assessing the viability of franchising is understanding whether local services are being run optimally, or if there is room for improvement. While commercial operators have worked in loose or tight partnership with Local Authorities for years, there is definitely room for improvement in assessing how well the infrastructure is supporting great bus services - especially when looking at all routes holistically.
With so many variables, a data-driven approach means a Local Authority can holistically evaluate the root cause for unreliable services; is it due to the performance of the bus operator, or external factors such as poorly performing infrastructure?
one of our products, Alchera Bus provides data-led analysis to understand bus infrastructure performance. By taking a highly granular approach, our reporting goes beyond timing point data to highlight where the pinch points are in the network, whether these are junctions or individual road segments. By doing this kind of analysis, Local Authorities can get ahead of the curve in finding infrastructure challenges, and re-build bus services with more evidence to optimise the operation of services.
Identifying the root cause of delays isn’t always straightforward. Badly optimised signal timings, illegally parked cars, excess dwell times or the impact of roadworks can all play a part. Alchera’s solution cuts through the noise, providing granular insight that enables transport planners to get to the answer quickly.
As an example, Watkin Lane in Preston (pictured in the below diagram) is a well performing stretch of road as it leads onto Leyland Road. The corridor moving south east is relatively free flowing, while buses on the north west direction suffer from delays on the highlighted stretch. Further investigation would show that this derives from buses getting held up by legal on-street parking. The parking allows space for two cars to pass unimpeded, but not enough room for buses to pass. Alchera’s solutions highlight this detail quickly and easily to allow transport planners to rapidly identify specific areas of the network requiring further attention.
Unlike most software our solution can be deployed for one off projects, giving you the evidence base to make important decisions only when you need it, without any ongoing costs. Assessing the opportunity for bus franchising is just one example use case we can help to evaluate, and work with your in-house teams, or support consultancies to arrive at data-driven evidence in a cost effective and efficient way.
Get in touch to understand how Alchera is helping Local Authorities make more informed public transport decisions. We’d love to speak to you.
