Oxford “exemplar” for York buses?

A survey of every household in the City is promised as part of another review of bus services in the City.

The idea will be discussed at a meeting to be held on 9th January.

It comes as Labour Councillors struggle to find ways of delivering on their election promises to increase bus frequencies, provide singe ticket journeying and low fares.

The report says that some corridors are “over bussed” suggesting that some neighbourhoods could get a lower frequency service in future.

Consultants are to be asked to consider what “regulatory options are (available) for delivering improvements to the bus services in the city and which of the various regulatory frameworks for bus services (e.g. quality contract, statutory quality partnership, voluntary quality partnership) would be best”

The report points to “the better performance of bus networks in other tourist/ historic towns, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Brighton and Nottingham, which are perceived to be good practice exemplars”.

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The report fails to identify the costs of conducting the review. More importantly, it fails to identify where any resources might be found to increase bus subsidies.

Labour may be hoping that the introduction of a franchise route system (effectively bus companies tender to provide services against a Council specified contract network) would produce lower costs. The experience elsewhere suggests that any increased frequencies (or lower fares) could become a major additional burden on the taxpayer.

Nor have the “exemplar” local authorities got a universally good public transport record. Subsidies in Nottingham are very high, while Park and Ride fares elsewhere in the country are higher than in York.

Journeys – where a passenger need to change from one bus operator to another (and therefore has to buy a second ticket) – account for only 2% of (non concessionary pass) trips.

In Oxford a single ticket scheme has come under fire in the local newspaper a few days ago. The truth is that you can find someone everywhere who will have some sort of grievance about their local bus service

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The solution to “through ticketing” – and stimulating bus use – lies in the adoption of a smartcard fare payment system. This might be the “touch on, touch off” use of the new generation debit cards or could it utilise a stored value system similar to that already in use on Park and Ride services.

Passengers want a public transport system that is:
• Reliable
• Affordable
• Frequent &
• Accessible.

Labours obsession with reversing modernisation trends like the ftr and shunning technology improvements, could mean no improvements in the bus network before 2015 at the earliest.