View Chris' presentation on the County Council's consultation "Better Buses"

Introduction by Duncan Thomas, Treasurer of Whitbread Wanderbus Ltd. All aboard! Community buses

The Whitbread Wanderbus Limited (“Wanderbus”) formed about 15 years ago provides a community bus service centred on the villages around Shefford. It is a Not For Profit (“Third Sector”) organisation run and managed entirely by volunteers and is structured as an Industrial Provident Society, and is regulated by The FSA.

Operating under the “Permit 22” rules the Wanderbus operates daily, fortnightly and monthly services picking up passengers from Shefford and it’s surrounding villages and taking them to (and back from) the nearby shopping centres. About 95% of our passengers are bus pass holders and the majority are female. Our USP is that on the return journey we are able to deliver our passengers, where possible, to their doors and although not official policy drivers can help unload shopping bags!. A service simply not possible available from the “commercial carriers”

The Wanderbus carries about 350 passengers per month and as far as we can tell is much appreciated by our passengers and we believe that our service helps keep a number of our passengers active and independent in their communities.

Although our passengers numbers have declined a little recently partly as a result of demographic changes and in some part due to our own lack of promotion of our activities we hope to continue our service into the foreseeable future.

Workshop discussion summary

The group first discussed what positive things are already happening in the county, then examined some of the barriers to progress.

What’s going on already?

• Capital investment opportunities via Local Transport Plan
• Supportive local authority that is trying very hard to plug the gaps
• Conferences like this one are providing a forum to develop and debate ideas on transport in the county
• Community buses:
  •  We already have a well-established not for profit bus service in the county.
  •  Have Wanderbus considered marketing to walking groups back to railway starting points?
  •  “Our bus”
  • Easy access for disabled
  • Good for non drivers and elderly.
  • Easy access to shops
  •  Help with heavy shopping
• Modal shift initiatives connecting rail with bus or vice versa have developed significantly
• Access to countryside via rail - could Natural England rural transport and tourism initiative ‘mesh’ in with services like Wanderbus to provide an ‘occasional’ service for walking groups.
•  Awareness of environmental impact
• Smaller vehicles - more economical and environmentally efficient
• Concessionary travel scheme:
  • Has drawn people who qualify to try and find out what bus services exist (more so than the financial saving, in view of previous capped fares scheme).
  • Cheap compared to the car - Stagecoach has been updating many of the bus stop flags and timetable cases, which formerly presented a very dilapidated appearance.

Issues/Barriers

(in order of priority, starting at top priority)

• Poor bus routes and times, not meeting current needs
  • bus routes circuitous, taking an hour to travel only a few miles
  • No service at weekends - No direct service to Stevenage Lister Hospital
  • Need joined up delivery of services
  • need to ask passengers, where, when and why use buses (destinations) and adjust times/routes
  • reductions in services
  • bus timetables may only allow a short (or sometimes very long!) stay at your destination
  • shortage of earlier buses
  • help needed for elderly and disabled with shopping
  • scope for park and ride at the 101 roundabout to Flitwick station?
• Lack of information and awareness
  • Decline in services with no information why to local communities by commercial companies, nor communication/research into needs of potential passengers
  • consequent lack of confidence
  • lack of publicity of what bus services exist, particularly for people who do not have access to the internet
  • hard to read roadside timetables
  • information needs to be stop-specific (Herts CC has achieved this; Northants CC has started to implement)
  • lack of information about reduced fares for children
  • inconsistent upper age limit for children’s fares e.g. Stagecoach is under 16’s; Centre Bus is under 14’s
• General public attitude
  • towards public transport -  image of public transport, perceptions of bus travel as dirty, unreliable etc. Need a postbus/taxi level of provision.
  • car culture - People like their cars, won’t share
• Deregulation. Not for good of public users but for profit.
• Lack of clear priorities
• Central funding – level of funding not perceived as being high priority, despite changing rural demographics.
• Fear of crime – especially at bus stations.
• Existing infrastructures
• Decline in passenger numbers
• No provision for cycles – “I can’t get my push-bike on a bus!”
•  Ease of car parking

Key issues to feedback to plenary session

• Bus routes need to be considered in light of today’s needs, not historic usage patterns
• There is a lack of awareness and information about bus services (public and community services)