Understanding customer needs

Preface

This document seeks to clarify our understanding of customer needs. There is substantial consistency between data sources regarding what needs to be right to attract more customers onto buses. It isn't so much about grand projects as the 'boringly mundane' - getting the basics right each time and every time - frequency, reliability and fares.

Buses, however, do not operate in a vacuum, and are only one potential travel mode. People always have choices as to how they make a journey, or indeed whether they make a journey at all. Bus travel needs to compare favourably with other transport possibilities, particularly the car, to deliver modal shift.

There is only so far that individual transport providers or groups of partners can go to offer incentives, ultimately the existing legislative framework needs to be used to manage demand and complement an improved bus product. These include such things as: measures to tackle illegal parking, and changes to the cost and availability of parking in our town and city centres.

Getting this right has the prize of a virtuous circle of reducing congestion and enabling freer flowing, more attractive buses that will benefit a very large section of society.

This document seeks to explore this area further.

John Sidebotham Centro (Chair)	Catherine Mason Arriva
Caroline Cahm National Federation of Bus Users	Giles Fearnley Confederation of Passenger Transport
Peter Davies Nexus	Peter Openshaw Department for Transport
Ian Morgan Trent and Barton Buses	Charles Soutar Staffordshire County Council

Executive Summary

What do people want from bus networks?

1. Market research amongst users and potential bus users reveals overwhelming support for the following:

• High frequency services;
• Services that are reliable and punctual; and
• Better value for money fares.

2. People want to have public transport access to a broad range of destinations, whether they have access to a car or not. More importantly, people without access to a car require bus networks that allow them to participate fully in employment, training, healthcare, shopping and leisure activities.

3. Even when these services exist, people are not always aware of how and when they operate. To make the best possible use of services, they want easy-to-understand timetable information at bus stops, information leaflets delivered to their home and basic information in local newspapers. They also want simple ticketing arrangements including the availability of tickets in newsagents, post offices and town centre shops.

4. In summary, they want frequency, reliability and simplicity. This will promote a better understanding of bus service operation and help increase patronage amongst regular, occasional and reluctant users.

How can this be delivered?

5. Recent experience in the UK demonstrates that bus patronage is declining in most areas outside London. However, there have been pockets of patronage growth, and the government recognises the potential of the bus to reduce urban congestion and promote social inclusion. Bus industry analysts assert that bus patronage increases are likely to be produced by 'Overground' type networks that concentrate services on core routes in busy urban areas and are supported with strong company-based marketing and publicity. These services need to be developed in partnership between bus companies and local transport authorities. Further, they need to be complemented by lower frequency 'supportive' networks to provide access to a full range of destinations.

6. In rural areas the key problems are not dissimilar to those in our towns and cities. People want frequent and reliable bus services that give access to a range of destinations and offer value for money, although journey times and distances are longer. Here customers express a need for a greater variety of routes and services operating more frequently throughout the day. In rural areas the solutions to increasing patronage are less obvious, because the commercial provision of services doesn't always justify high frequency network coverage. Reliability, punctuality and cheaper fares therefore emerge as areas where the greatest improvements are likely to be made.

7. Outside London, there is a consensus that buses suffer from an 'image problem' and have come to be regarded as a service that is provided for people who do not have access to a car. The urban renaissance evident in many European cities has included the development of light rail systems which are complemented by comprehensive bus networks. In the United States, the Federal Government has initiated a series of Bus Rapid Transit schemes that emulate the essential components of light rail in a bus-based product. Government sponsored multi-modal transport studies in the UK have recommended the establishment of a new generation of bus services that will deliver a step-change in the quality of the bus product. It is apparent that the development of these new concepts will need to draw on best practice from around the world.

Summary

8. Improving bus services in rural and urban environments will require partnership working between bus companies, local transport authorities and other public agencies. It will require a supportive legal framework from central government that promotes bus use as part of an overall strategy to manage demand.

9. As well as improving the basic components of the bus product - frequency, reliability and fares - the image of bus travel needs to be radically improved. Occasional bus use by people with access to a car needs to be a much more acceptable lifestyle choice. Through increased patronage from all social groups, it is hoped that a virtuous circle of improvements can be realised that will help tackle congestion in urban areas and promote social inclusion.