18 bus route

1240/5(7554)

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 16th APRIL 2013

Question

Would the Minister, with regard to the bus service -

1. provide details of passenger numbers per route for the years 2010, 2011 and 2012 and overall numbers for the first quarter of 2012 and the corresponding period of 2013;
2. given his assertion that re-instating the No 18 route would cost £180,000, provide a detailed breakdown of how that sum was calculated and whether it included fares from the quarter of a million passengers that used that route annually; and,
3. confirm that the increased frequency of Route 1A from every two hours to every hour (plus other changes) came into effect on schedule at Easter?

Answer

1. The following table summarises the total recorded number of passengers per bus route for the period 2010 to 2012 (excluding the school bus network), as supplied by Connex:

The total recorded number of passenger journey during the first quarter of 2013 (2 January to 31 March) is compared with the equivalent figure in 2012 as follows:

.

2. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it is not possible to reveal the rate per mile and rate per hour used in the calculation. In accordance with the 2013 Bus Operating Contract, the total annual marginal cost was derived as follows:

• (Annual mileage cost) + (Annual personnel time cost)

Where annual mileage was determined as follows:

• (Journeys per week) x ( Miles per journey) x 52 weeks

And annual personnel time cost was determined as follows:

• (Journeys per week) x (Total hours per journey) x 52 weeks

Where total hours per journey was calculated as follows:

• (In-service time per journey) + (Standing time per journey).

For the purposes of calculating the total annual cost, no net gain in fare revenue was assumed to occur in the event of service 18 being reintroduced, as any passengers using this service would be abstracted from existing services 1, 1A and 16. Between them, these three services cover all of the roads previously served by service 18, with the exception of Marina Avenue (140 metres in length) and the northern part of Le Squez Road (190 metres in length).

The resulting marginal cost of reinstating the old service 18 is associated with the fact that simply replacing the current 16 route with the 18 is not possible, without effectively leaving Georgetown with no bus service. Altering the service 1 via Havre des Pas back to its pre-2013 route through Georgetown is a change which would require extensive consultation prior to implementation and is likely to be unpopular with regular passengers who appreciate the revised route of this bus service. Consequently there would be no alternative but to continue operating the current 16 so that Georgetown remained served by buses (or accrue the further additional the costs associated with a new Georgetown service), and thus it is not possible to avoid incurring the marginal cost of operation associated with reintroducing a service 18.

Interworking on the buses on the various routes across the Island more efficiently, to maximise use of the fleet and minimise standing times, has among other things allowed Liberty Bus in conjunction with TTS to develop a contract that equates to about £1 million improvement in value against the previous contract.

3. Proposals published in the Jersey Gazette on 14th February 2013 included an increased frequency on service 1A, to once per hour. Following representations from States Members, organisations, and bus users, a number of proposed enhancements to established winter bus routes were replaced with the introduction of the LibertyLink' group of services. Within this group is service 23, which shares a large proportion of its route with that of service 1A, ensuring that one bus per hour in each direction is currently being operated along the St Clement Inner Road past Marina  Av.  Enhancements  on both services  are  currently being drafted by LibertyBus  for consultation to take effect from 27th May 2013, for the peak summer season these include proposals to further increase services along the St Clement's inner road to two buses an hour in each direction.