The strange death of rural buses? Part one

There is much on-going debate about providing value for money, useful bus services in rural areas. We recently did a bit of work on this looking at the passenger experience of Herefordshire Council’s ‘market day buses’ and Shropshire Council’s  demand responsive ‘Shropshire Link’. The research showed just how much passengers rely on these services with a good number of passengers saying they used these services for virtually all their travel outside their neighbourhood – the report is on our website.

What is interesting in the context of the effect of removing tendered bus services especially in rural areas. Half of the passengers we spoke to would have been unable to make the journey they did if the service did not exist. Getting a lift or driving nigh on impossible for a third. Sadly only a minority of passengers said they thought the council would take much notice of them if they wanted changes to the services.

What does happen when a service totally disappears? Desk research seems to indicate little is known. We are keen to do more work in this area – some research was done in the 1980s on the impact of closing rural rail lines, but bus is the new battleground. Some reports suggest some local authorities have come up with new and better ways of providing the services, but there will clearly be some negative impact. We, as a consumer group, generally research consumption. However, in this case we might need to look at non-consumption.

Passenger verdict returned

The autumn 2011 rail National Passenger Survey results was published yesterday. Wide variations around the country – different routes showing markedly different passenger experiences. Values for money scores veer from a very mediocre 27% to a not bad 80%. Satisfaction with punctuality and reliability ranges from 68% to 97%.

These scores really show where investment and energy now needs to be focused to bring the overall passenger experience up to a median level.

London Overground and Merseyrail have done well for significantly raising their game. Also First Capital Connect should be encouraged by reaching 80% satisfaction. Go and have a look at the results on our website. Forget what the pundits and talking heads say – this is what passengers think about Britain’s railway.

Big chance, big change?

When a rail franchise comes up for renewal it has always been a good opportunity to secure change and passenger benefits. Get something written into the franchise and there is a pretty good chance it will happen. Once a new franchise starts it is very difficult to get anything additional to happen, unless there is a strong business case for it or someone else pays. 

The franchise season is on us. A whole string of them are now in the pipeline for replacement. This is when we deploy one of our major products. We commission route based research to find out what are passengers priorities for improvement. We blend this into what we already know about passenger satisfaction on  a particular franchise. This helps the Department for Transport and increasingly the bidders target the right things.

However, we don’t have a monopoly on the passenger voice. We have already put in submissions on Greater Western and West Coast - there are more to come – make sure your voice is heard. With longer franchises, 15 years is a long time to wait for a decent train.