Minutes:
The Group welcomed Tony Meacham, Transport for Wales (TfW) who provided a presentation on the review of bus services.
The following points were covered:
· TfW is creating a programme business case.
· Need identified for a national bus network, integrated and better co-ordinated ticketing and back office across public transport in Wales and integrated responsive transport with a broad spectrum of users (children and young people travelling to education, health appointments, social, community etc.).
· No intention to centralise decision-making for transport as local decision making is key. There may be a co-ordination function.
· Options include: i) do minimum, ii) re-prioritise, iii) improve, iv) transform or v) revolutionise.
· TfW to deliver replacement for concessionary card scheme on behalf of local authorities who are the statutory providers. There will be a national system to provide consistency across buses and trains. This is a challenging project to deliver in a short timescale. New cards will be issued from 1st August 2019.
· National bus survey: This has concentrated on Cardiff, Wrexham and Pembrokeshire as representative case studies of similar areas in Wales. ARUPs is working on what services in these regions would look like and is identifying schemes. Outcomes will form part of the business case. It is fully taken into account that local people and local government understand their areas best.
· Integrated Responsive Transport; may be suitable for some rural routes to feed into core routes.
· Multimodal and cross operator ticketing.
The chair thanked Tony Meacham for his presentation and invited questions and comments as follows:
· A Group Member explained about the campaign for a new walkway station at Magor which is looking to deliver integrated transport. The unique business plan addressed all relevant points for new station funding but the GRIP 2 application was unsuccessful as the business plan was incomplete. There was encouragement to continue. However, local transport funding was applied for and not granted. In response, the frustrations were agreed with, clarifying that TfW is the operational and delivery arm whereas funding is decided at Welsh Government. It was recommended that the matter is raised again with Welsh Government officials and also to Keolis Amey who may be interested in developing new stations, revenue and integrated travel. It was confirmed that the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council, plus the MP and AM will be meeting with Welsh Government officials. It was suggested that there may be other opportunities for funding schemes via different avenues e.g. social inclusion, active travel.
· A Group Member was interested in the bus review and observed that rural bus services are not well promoted, information is poor (bus stop panels are often empty and dirty), there are poor connections and limited connectivity with other services. It was added that passenger power can be harnessed e.g. to generate new users and wider engagement with service operators. Reliability and consistency are also key in terms of services operating to timetable, consistency of vehicle and willingness to work in partnership. Possible areas for communities’ participation were identified as promotion through community networks and newsletters, responsibility for bus stops, providing good accessible information e.g. time in town journey planners. Some other ideas include e.g. village hall park and ride scheme to connect to scheduled services. These points were supported and it was emphasised that the business case deliberately makes it clear that there will be decline if things stay the same to make a bid for investment for improvement. The national bus network scheme will address information, connectivity etc. Local branding will be encouraged with a reference to national integration. The importance of reliability and consistency was agreed.
· Community transport was raised as a problem within some communities. Considering integration of services with railways, it was noted that TfW has a plan for regenerating Abergavenny station in 2023. It was commented that there must be integration with bus services as currently, a customer can often wait one or two hours for a connecting bus. Disabled access is an issue at the station and also on buses. It was commented that customers’ mobility trolley/walkers take up considerable space on buses for which solutions are sought.
· It was confirmed, in response to a query that the older person’s and future generations commissioners are being engaged with. The suggestion of engagement with the children’s commissioner was taken on board.
· A Group Member commented that passengers must be listened to, that bus timetables and information must be provided and commended the work of community groups, who do a fantastic job.
· The Chair commented that future housing developments must take public transport into account.