Stagecoach Manchester

[Brickmill]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

(30/10/2018 15:27)djb Wrote:  I wasn't originally going to reply to this, as I imagine you'll disagree with me irrespectively. However 2 other posters have posted my sentiments in the middle (regards shift workers).

Carless passengers are in the unfortunate situation that in the short term they cannot alter their travel habits, and are fixed to public transport. However loyalty to these passengers alone will just allow the current spiral of passengers to continue (passengers reduce; service is reduced; passengers reduce; service is tendered; non-preferred operator arrives; passengers who can go elsewhere; carless passengers are stranded). The number of people without cars is reducing as I'm sure you know, so the risk is bus services will shrink too. There is going to be an increasing battle with technology based companies like uber/gett that people seem oblivious to up at the top that will eventually shave tech-savvy bus users away from traditional buses.

The Authorities, and seemingly operators too, are stuck in the past, thinking that everyone works 9-5 in town. There is also a gross misconception from a large number of people that people who have cars are incapable or unwilling to travel by bus.

The passengers that have been lost to car use, or have never really used the bus need to be persuaded that it is a viable option in order to arrest the decline in numbers. This in itself will commercially stabilise services allowing perpetual carless passengers to continue travelling by bus without the worry that its going to cease.

I will use myself as an example. Previously a city centre worker, I now work for a large company with more than one site in suburban or industrial areas. I work 7 days a week. Variable hours, and often the finish time changes while I'm at work. Some days I need to use a car for work (for work reasons), but on other days I choose to use public transport.

Most of my colleagues drive, but are completely open to using public transport. However it is not the commonly banded pre-conceptions that are barriers to their use (new buses, regimented numbering system, high frequency services - yes, they are nicetys). Also contrary to many bus enthusiasts beliefs, despite not being bus-enthusiasts my colleagues are actually capable of reading a timetable and dynamically planning a new journey if theres a problem.

The standalone problem for passengers that work in a modern job is multimodal ticketing, secondary to the fragmented operating system we have.

My journey to work involves a change mid route, and usually a tram. Depending on what happens or the time of day my journey can involve any or all of 4 operators (tram, stagecoach, first, MCT).
As it stands I have to buy an £8.40 system one each day, or the weekly or monthly equivalents, despite the fact that I often dont use the full value of the ticket (either because I end up driving too many times that month, or because I end up on the same operator that day). This is enough to put most people off. They dont want to spend £120.00 a month on something they dont use.

What paying passengers want is oyster style ticketing. They often cannot predict the exact journeys they will make anymore, they just want the flexibility to pay for what they use rather than having to second guess themselves. They dont neccessarily need London style fares, just a system which caps their fares to the real usage or the appropriate ticket(s).

You asked what I'd do as CEO of stagecoach - the answer is probably nothing because its not my place to initiate this, and id probably not be commercially inclined to do so. The ball squarely lies at the door of the authorities - they could write dynamic ticketing into the Metrolink contract, and that for all tendered services. All you would need then is an agreed reimbursement algorithm. Public pressure would ensure that the large operators came on board.

I think I partly misunderstood your original reply thinking you meant there should be no loyalty to carless passengers *at all* - which in practice, there isn't.
As for your other points; Obviously, circumstances vary but the point about the spiral of decline is that in the areas I'm talking about, the service cuts come *before* the passengers leave. And my other arguments are because I am acutely aware of uber/gett/wambamm etc. With bus fares consistently growing at 2.8 x inflation - as Single fares have done for the last 32 years - they are fast catching up with the taxi industry and in some cases (shorter journeys) are already more expensive. This will only get worse once the taxi industry target poor areas in particular.
Also, perverse as it may sound, most loyal passengers don't want more people attracted on (or back) to buses as they see their buses as full to capacity at peak times (and certain other times) as it is. There is no "give" in the system and if Operators are cutting well loaded services to start with, there is no reason to think they will restore headways if loadings increase.
Whilst I accept that things are changing and obviously I don't know where you live or work, generally speaking for most of the population (especially the carless), buses are the only form of public transport. Rail (both heavy/light) remains a remote form of transport to the majority and for all the bus industry's faults, rail is FAR less reliable.
The reference to being Stagecoach CEO was based on their current policy, and whilst you say people don't necessarily want London-style fares, its worth remembering that wages are far higher in London and a broader cross-section of society (in terms of income) use public transport down there. More to the point, under Stagecoach's current thinking, any "Flat" fares would be much higher in some areas (basically the eastern quadrant in an arc east from the A6 round to Oldham Road) than in south Manchester, Trafford and especially, Salford.
I don't know what can and cannot be written into contracts regarding ticketing, but again Metrolink is a minority form of transport to most carless people and contracted bus services account for barely 8% of passengers in GM - and an even smaller proportion of full fare paying Adults.
Remember also that there are two main reasons why "smart ticketing" is taking so long to roll out in GM:
1. The "re-imbursement algorythm" you refer to has been a long running problem, mainly because smaller Operators never felt they were getting their fair share. I assume its simply the decline in the number of commercial Operators that has allowed any recent progress.
2. The whole concept has had to be worked up from scratch. Constant reference to "Oyster card" doesn't help because TFL hold the Intellectual Property rights to that system and I understand they told GMPTE/ITA (as was) that it would cost £100 million to copy any part of OysterCard.