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TfGM’s commitment to building on the progress made so far

Posted: 25 April 2012 | Michael Renshaw, Bus & Rail Director, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) | No comments yet

The bus has a crucial role to play in keeping our economy upwardly mobile, which is why Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has laid solid foundations for long-term improvements to the region’s services.

Approximately 80% of all public transport journeys in Greater Manchester are made by bus – around 225 million a year. They are made on more than 600 different bus services, which are operated by around 50 different companies.

Our role is to oversee these services to ensure the focus is firmly on achieving the very best for passengers in what is an often complex and challenging network and market.

That is why we have launched a number of exciting initiatives designed to drive up standards in order to give passengers the confidence and comfort that comes with consistency.

And it’s that word – consistency – that underpins our ambitions for the Greater Manchester’s bus network.

We recently launched a ‘Supplier Rating System’ designed to measure the quality of a bus operator’s service against priorities that are important to passengers, before they can even start to bid to run a subsidised service on our behalf.

The bus has a crucial role to play in keeping our economy upwardly mobile, which is why Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has laid solid foundations for long-term improvements to the region’s services. Approximately 80% of all public transport journeys in Greater Manchester are made by bus – around 225 million a year. They are made on more than 600 different bus services, which are operated by around 50 different companies. Our role is to oversee these services to ensure the focus is firmly on achieving the very best for passengers in what is an often complex and challenging network and market. That is why we have launched a number of exciting initiatives designed to drive up standards in order to give passengers the confidence and comfort that comes with consistency. And it’s that word – consistency – that underpins our ambitions for the Greater Manchester’s bus network. We recently launched a ‘Supplier Rating System’ designed to measure the quality of a bus operator’s service against priorities that are important to passengers, before they can even start to bid to run a subsidised service on our behalf.

The bus has a crucial role to play in keeping our economy upwardly mobile, which is why Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has laid solid foundations for long-term improvements to the region’s services.

Approximately 80% of all public transport journeys in Greater Manchester are made by bus – around 225 million a year. They are made on more than 600 different bus services, which are operated by around 50 different companies.

Our role is to oversee these services to ensure the focus is firmly on achieving the very best for passengers in what is an often complex and challenging network and market.

That is why we have launched a number of exciting initiatives designed to drive up standards in order to give passengers the confidence and comfort that comes with consistency.

And it’s that word – consistency – that underpins our ambitions for the Greater Manchester’s bus network.

We recently launched a ‘Supplier Rating System’ designed to measure the quality of a bus operator’s service against priorities that are important to passengers, before they can even start to bid to run a subsidised service on our behalf.

They are all scored against 15 priority areas, including punctuality, reliability and service performance, as well as vehicle quality, driver conduct and the provision of CCTV on buses.

They are also scored against the timeliness and accuracy of the contractual data they provide to us, including revenue declarations and ticketing data, which is used to monitor their performance.

For operators whose score is not as high as it might be, we can review their scores and provide support and advice on the specific areas that they can improve upon.

Similarly, for operators who are already performing well, the rating system will identify specific areas where there is room for further improvement – so we are aiming to encourage all operators to continually improve.

This not only helps them to increase their score and, in turn, their ability to bid for our contracts, but it also delivers higher levels of service for passengers.

The system has been live for several months, but since February, any operator who has not acted positively to increase their rating and remains below the minimum level of quality required has not been able to tender for contracts with us.

This will be the case until their performance improves to the extent that their score rises back above the threshold.

That said, the threshold will be pro gressively raised and the criteria which are measured will be periodically reviewed to ensure improvements continue to be made.

Subsidised services count for 20% of the overall bus network in Greater Manchester. We invest almost £40 million each year in paying bus operators to provide these services in areas or at times where there is a genuine need, but where no commercial services are provided because they aren’t seen as viable.

While standards across the region’s bus network are, in some instances, extremely high, it is important that the industry works together to ensure the highest possible standards are delivered consistently for passengers.

That’s how our supplier rating system has evolved: to introduce an assessment of ‘quality’ into the process of awarding our bus contracts, which reflect the high standards that passengers rightly expect.

It is crucial that we continue to raise the bar by setting challenging but realistic improvement targets. We want to achieve yearon- year improvements.

That’s the true value of the scheme – it is a mechanism to identify specific areas for improvement which will help to deliver more consistent and improving levels of service across the piece and we very much want to work in partnership with operators to achieve that.

Consistency is very important. Passengers should be able to expect a set level of service regardless of who runs their bus. That’s the aim.

Consistency also lies at the heart of another pioneering piece of work, being driven by us but in true partnership with operators: our Code of Conduct.

Launched in late 2010, the code sets a benchmark for the quality and standard of bus services provided to passengers in Greater Manchester across the commercial network and was the forerunner to the launch of the supplier rating system.

Developed in conjunction with Greater Manchester Bus Operators’ Association (GMBOA), it aims to improve bus services by securing formal agreements with bus operators across the county in relation to punctuality, reliability and vehicle standards. It’s something we are very proud of. It has the potential to be a benchmark for the bus industry.

It sets out the minimum level of service that passengers rightly expect of their bus service. As a live document, it will also work to improve bus service performance into the future, with the support of local Highways Authorities and ourselves.

We’ve been encouraged by the engage – ment of operators and I hope it will help achieve a vision we both share – to make public transport, and bus travel specifically, an attractive option for everyone.

The ambition is that all bus operators join the scheme so that passengers know the minimum standard of service they can expect on every bus service wherever they are in Greater Manchester.

The three largest bus operators in Greater Manchester – Arriva, First and Stagecoach – together with a number of smaller operators – Rossendale, Transdev and Maytree – were the first to sign up, followed very shortly afterwards by Jim Stones. Together, the seven operators cover 86.5% of the Greater Manchester bus network.

The Code of Conduct will work to achieve improvements to bus services by securing agreed performance targets from operators on areas such as punctuality, reliability and regularity of bus services, passenger satisfaction and fleet renewals, including the speed at which newer and more accessible vehicles are introduced to fleets.

Thanks to several successful bids to the government’s Green Bus Fund, and recent commercial investment in new vehicles by Stagecoach, First and Arriva in particular, the rate at which new, greener vehicles are hitting Greater Manchester’s streets is stepping up a gear.

We have made two successful bids to the DfT fund so far, which aim to encourage and help bus operators and local authorities buy new hybrid and electric buses.

In all we’ve secured more than £6 million of funding from the fund, which is already being used to make several bus services in Greater Manchester more eco-friendly. Together with successful bids made by operators and other groups, the total number of ‘green’ buses coming to Greater Manchester is 138 – making it one of the most successful city regions for securing grants from the fund.

The first set of our vehicles to arrive replaced the 20-strong fleet used to operate the popular Manchester city centre Metroshuttle service, which is a free service operating on three city centre routes. In their first year of service, the vehicles carried around 2.5 million passengers and clocked up more than 300,000 miles between them; the equivalent distance of travelling around the world 12 times.

They’ve been very well received by passengers. A recent survey carried out on our behalf showed a boost in overall satisfaction levels with the service, including the safety of driving, the ease of getting on and off the vehicles, and customer care.

More recently, the first of 39 new ‘green’ Yellow School Buses entered service. We believe they are the first hybrid dedicated school buses in the country, and we hope they prove to be as popular as the Metroshuttle vehicles have been.

In April, another first will be witnessed on Greater Manchester’s bus network, and passengers are once again at the very heart of it.

A key bus corridor into Manchester city centre, the A6 route, operates with the most frequent single bus service in Greater Manchester (the 192) carrying almost 10 million passengers every year.

It plays a critical role in supporting sustainable economic growth and accessibility in Greater Manchester.

It has also benefited from significant recent investment in improved bus infrastructure, as a result of our ‘Quality Bus Corridor’ programme, as well as recent investment by operators in the fleets used to operate services on the route.

All of this made it the ideal candidate to become the subject of our first bus Quality Partnership Scheme (QPS), which will bring a number of benefits for passengers by setting standards and driving improvements in areas such as reliability, punctuality and vehicle standards.

The QPS will start on 1 April 2012 and will run for an initial period of five years, until 31 March 2017.

A statutory scheme, it brings together Manchester City Council, Stockport Metro – politan Borough Council, bus operators, TfGM and the TfGM Committee in a formal partnership. It will improve services by securing a commitment from the partners to maintain investment in infrastructure, such as bus lanes and stops, and to work together on congestion and traffic management issues, coupled with a commitment from operators to deliver set service standards.

Stagecoach Manchester, the principal operator along the corridor, will be a partner in the scheme. The routes that will be covered by the QPS include the 191 (Stockport to Manchester) and 192 (Hazel Grove or Stepping Hill Hospital to Stockport and Manchester).

The Manchester to Hazel Grove link is one of the busiest bus routes in the UK, making the service provided by bus operators important to a large number of passengers. The introduction of a Quality Partnership Scheme along this popular route will provide a quality guarantee to passengers in a number of areas.

On a wider scale, the scheme will also help to improve the overall image of bus services in Greater Manchester, increasing passenger satisfaction and making public transport a more attractive choice for more people.

It is the latest in a long line of initiatives that we and our partners have delivered that demonstrate our collective ambition, desire and commitment to deliver a bus network in Greater Manchester that passengers can rely on and can be proud of.

We have laid solid foundations but we fully intend to build on the good progress we’ve made to date in order to continue to achieve long-standing improvements for bus passengers.

 

About the author

Michael Renshaw joined the then Greater Manchester Transport in 1982 under their graduate training scheme and has since fulfilled varied roles both in terms of a technical and managerial capacity. Over the past 18 years, he has been responsible for the operation of all bus stations and the provision of street furniture within Greater Manchester and has played a key role in the operational planning and management of public transport arrangements for major events, such as the Manchester Commonwealth Games (2002). He was appointed as a Director of TfGM (then GMPTE) in 2003 and is currently Bus & Rail Director, leading the organisation’s relationship with key stakeholders across both modes and ensuring the on-going development of those networks and their performance.