Stagecoach South West

Michael Watson

Managing Director

TravelWatch SouthWest 7th March 2015

Facilitating Economic Growth

in the South West

Overview of Presentation

• Stagecoach South West

• Recent growth projects

• Current Challenges

• Regional Growth Strategy

Stagecoach South West

• 1000 staff & 350 buses

• 30m passengers & 16m miles

• Serving Devon; North Cornwall; Taunton; Exeter; Torbay; Plymouth

• 4.5% mileage growth

• 5.5% passenger growth

• 90% Customer satisfaction

• Excellent Driver Training

• Heavy community involvement

Adopting the Stagecoach Ethos• Value

• Frequent

• Investment

• Reliability

• Training

Delivery of Patronage Growth

1. North Devon

2. Cranbrook

3. Gold

4. Dawlish Rail Closure

5. Take 5

6. Torbay Ticketing

1. North Devon• Network Opportunity

• Launch of new network – September 2012– Low fares (£3.60 day / £11.50 week in Apr 14)– Vehicle Investment of £4m – May 2013– Heavily promoted

• Patronage growth in first year of 61%

• Patronage still growing – currently at 3%

• Tender win delivered savings for DCC

• An example of the market correcting itself

• Epilogue…….Route 6/6A

2. Cranbrook

• New town with 2,900 new homes– 700 having been built in last year

• Infrequent commercial and tendered services

• Creation of Route 4 with Devon County Council

• Growth– 72% year 1– 37% currently

• Exeter zone

3. Gold• Service opportunity identified between Plymouth & Torbay

• New service launched in competition– £2m investment in new vehicles– Leather seats– Free Wifi– Specially selected and trained drivers

• Existing operator withdrew after one month

• 900,000 passengers carried in first year

• Approximately 22,000 carried each week

• May 2014– Plymouth to Torquay doubled to every 30 mins– Dartmouth separated and latterly extended to Exeter via the X64

• Year on year growth currently at 20%

• 97% satisfaction with 100% who would recommend to a friend

4. Dawlish Rail Closure• Sudden closure

• Initiative taken to accept rail tickets

• Fares reviewed……and slashed

• Reliability maintained at 99.6%

• 20-30% patronage increases during closure

• Lower fares maintained after closure

• 5% patronage growth maintained

• UK Bus Awards Special Commendation

• Transport Resilience is multi-modal!

5. Take Five – Crediton

• Corridor of disparate bus routes on an uncoordinated timetable

• Devon County Council Tender issued

• Compliant bid worth £171k

• Alternative bid worth £71k accepted by DCC

• Creation of coordinated 15 min frequency corridor with 10 min frequency in morning peak

• Patronage growth of 20% delivered vs 20% additional resource

• Longer term objective of building revenue base to justify investment in new vehicles

6. Torbay• Eighteen month history of patronage decline in Torbay due to:

– Closure of Fleet Walk– Closure of Sea Front– Rebuilding of Paignton Bus Station– Unreliability– Fares

• Rebranding exercise to transform route 12 into ‘Hop 12’.– Award-winning partnership with ERTC

• Vehicle invested into route 12

• Launch of Attractions Partnership passport

• Fares measures introduced:– £5.10 day ticket reduced to £4.90– Extension of Torbay zone to cover Dartmouth and Teignmouth– Introduction of Termrider

• Current Patronage growth of 10%

Challenges• Acknowledgement of the importance of the bus as an economic tool

– Trend of public investment being focused in other areas– Decision makers often aren’t bus users– Political football – Kicked into the long grass by talking about the administrative

backdrop rather than funding

• Austerity– BSOG– Concessionary Fares– Tendered Services

• Cost Pressures– Workforce– Congestion = £330k per annum (delay time, lost patronage, & +2PVR per annum)

• Role within Strategic Economic Plan

Regional Transport Objectives

• Facilitating Economic Growth

– Structured approach with Devon County Council– Facilitating the evolution of Exeter’s role in the region– Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy

• Role of the bus in the Strategic Economic Plan

– Linking isolated communities– Access to jobs and education– Value for money solution and short delivery timescales– Not as ‘sexy’ as road building & investment in the railways.– Value to city centre economy

Future Investment Aspirations• New Vehicles

– £6m in last three years– More planned……

• Technology– Ticketing– Automatic vehicle location and real time passenger information

• A holistic view towards highways schemes

• Bus Priority– Bus lanes– Traffic Signals & network optimisation– Queue relocation

• Bus Stop Infrastructure– Shop window

• Services to facilitate the mobility of labour– Linking areas of unemployment to areas of growth

Thank you – Any Questions?