TRANSPORT AND TECHNICAL SERVICES
PROPOSALS FOR 2010 SUMMER BUS SERVICES
Purpose of the Report
To seek the ‘in principle’ approval of the Minister to proposals for the 2010 summer bus service schedule and to request comments from the public on these proposals.
Background
Since 2002, Connex have been contracted to run the bus service network to a specified timetable dating from 1999/2000, split into a winter schedule lasting 34 weeks and a summer schedule for the remainder of each year. This year, the summer schedule will start on 30 May. The summer timetable has traditionally taken the previous year’s schedule as its basis with minor adjustments to improve passenger amenity. A number of small amendments have been identified this year and are summarised below.
Discussion
The proposals are listed in the accompanying report from Connex, but are explained in further detail here. They fall into three categories:
1. Adjustments to established routes to provide a better service to the public or for operational efficiency
2. Incorporation of additional services introduced on 01 February 2010 into the published timetable, with minor adjustments
3. Removal of inbound buses from Conway Street and Broad Street during the evening peak period, with the aim of improving timekeeping and availability of relief buses.
1. Adjustments to established routes
A number of alterations are being proposed aimed at helping to spread out demand and correct some timetabling anomalies:
a. Service 1, 0715 departure from St Helier leaving Gorey at 0750 and arriving back in St Helier at 0820. This is an unnecessary duplication of the 0720 departure from St Helier, which leaves Gorey at 0755 and arrives in St Helier at 0825. Instead, the vehicle currently working the 0715 will run light to Grouville Station, and take up service there at 0750, with arrival in St Helier at 0816. This is nine minutes ahead of the next departure, and should solve the problem of the later bus running empty and catching up with the earlier one. The revised journey will now operate Monday to Friday only, rather than Monday to Saturday.
b. Service 4, all departures except 0900 and 1745 from St Helier. These will cease to serve Bouley Bay, as there are now six journeys a day on the Island Explorer Yellow Route providing this facility. The first and last journeys above have been retained to ensure the same hours of operation can be maintained.
c. Service 4, all departures. The route in Trinity is amended to operate as a figure-of-eight rather than a clockwise loop. This is a sensible alteration mainly aimed at providing residents of the recently-completed Highfield Apartments with a safe bus stop on the footpath and avoiding the need for them to travel via Mont Mado, Bonne Nuit and Les Platons before the bus heads back towards St Helier.
d. Service 8A. All Monday-Saturday departures except the final one at 17.05 will leave half an hour later in order to fill the large gap between inbound Island Explorer services leaving the Living Legend and War Tunnels.
e. Service 15. 0755 departure from St Helier leaving Airport at 0830 and arriving back in St Helier at 0900. This is an unnecessary duplication of the 0750 departure from St Helier, which leaves Airport at 0825 and arrives in St Helier at 0855. Instead, the vehicle currently working the 0755 will run light to the Mermaid, and take up service there at 0816, providing a second express journey via Victoria Avenue and arriving in St Helier at 0846. The established 0810 express journey will be brought forward to 0806 therefore creating a 10 minute frequency of service to St Helier on the section of route between the Mermaid and the stop before Bel Royal, between the times of 0756 and 0826.
f. Service 15. 1710 Monday-Friday departure to Airport from St Helier (running light back to St Helier). This journey is very close to the 1705 service and may be too early for many workers. It is proposed to move it five minutes later, so that it is neatly positioned between the 1705 and 1725 journeys. It is also proposed to run non-stop via Victoria Avenue, so that passengers for points west of Bel Royal are not competing for seats with those travelling only to First Tower or Millbrook. As such, residents of St Aubin and Red Houses are likely to target this journey which should create some capacity on the 1705 and 1725 journeys.
g. Service 18. An additional departure from Le Marais is proposed at 0725, due to overcrowding on the 0730 service. This will need to be monitored closely and further adjustments to the times considered in future. The cost of £2460.15 quoted in the Connex proposal is for the provision of this additional journey for the 18 weeks of the summer schedule.
h. Service 21. The 1615 departure to operate 15 minutes earlier throughout, with the aim of replacing a poorly-used part of an afternoon school bus that uses unsuitable roads to access Victoria Village.
2. Continuation of additional routes introduced 01 February 2010
Several new and extended services were brought into operation in February 2010 in an attempt to put more capacity into areas where it was required and to provide additional departures in anticipation of greater usage resulting from increased parking charges effective from that date.
a. Service 7. Continuation of extended Monday-Friday ‘duplicate’ journey from Six Roads, introduced to take pressure off the existing journey from Devils Hole. The cost of £3277.13 noted in the Connex proposal is for the provision of this additional journey for the 18 weeks of the summer schedule, not the 2 minute adjustment to its departure time.
b. Service 9. Continuation of additional Monday-Friday journey, providing St Peter with an additional morning peak departure. It is proposed to start this journey from St Ouen’s Parish Hall. The cost of £5345.55 quoted in the Connex proposal is for the provision of this additional journey for the 18 weeks of the summer schedule.
c. Service 12. Continuation of extended Monday-Friday journeys from Portelet at 0713 and St Brelade’s Bay at 0738, providing two additional morning peak departures. Contrary to the Connex proposal the St Brelade’s Bay service will not operate via Portelet because of the earlier 0713 departure from there. The 0738 journey will depart ten minutes earlier at 0728. The costs of £1299.06 and £1479.43 stated in the Connex proposal are for the provision of each additional journey for the 18 weeks of the summer schedule.
d. Service 15. Continuation of extended Monday-Friday journey, providing Red Houses with an additional morning peak departure. This is being moved from 0728 to 0738 to permit the change to the St Brelade’s Bay service discussed above. The cost of £1399.86 quoted in the Connex proposal is for the provision of this additional journey for the 18 weeks of the summer schedule.
3. Peak hour service to Broad Street
Connex are experiencing ever-increasing pressure on timetables, and every revision to allow more round trip time on bus routes incurs a cost in respect of driving hours. This has traditionally been absorbed by the operator but they are now at the stage where fulfilling their contractual obligations is at risk of becoming impossible.
Connex maintain a spare bus/driver provision to cover for eventualities. Ideally this would be confined to ad hoc duplicate departures when demand is greater than a single vehicle can cope with. Unfortunately, these spare resources are now almost entirely used to plug gaps in departures caused by the scheduled vehicle being held up in traffic elsewhere.
Currently, buses arriving on services from the west of the island travel past the bus station, into Conway Street, then Broad Street and Castle Street, before back into the bus station. At busiest times this can take upwards of 15 minutes and is a poor use of limited and costly resources. Traffic congestion in this area often has a knock-on effect on the Mulcaster Street/Hill Street/Colomberie corridor, which is used by buses on services from the east of the island. Additionally, due to the restricted passing room in Broad Street, buses loading and unloading there are prone to making tailbacks worse for other buses, especially if two arrive at once.
It is recognised that the use of Broad Street is popular with passengers, especially the elderly and infirm who value the ability to catch a bus from there back to the bus station. However, by the evening peak, few passengers are travelling to the town centre so the value in routing vehicles via Broad Street is much reduced, and the difficulties caused by late running vehicles at this time of day are seriously constraining the flexibility of Connex in providing duplicate departures. Therefore, it is proposed that as a compromise, buses arriving in St Helier after 1530 will terminate at the bus station without calling at Broad Street first. Before this time, they will continue to do so, as this is when the vast majority of those who value the facility most are normally travelling.
Conclusion
The total cost of the summer proposals comes to £15261.18, of which £12801.03 relates to the continuation of the extra morning peak services introduced in February 2010. It is anticipated that some money from developer contributions due imminently can be used to help pay for these services, and it is expected that by addressing the spacing of journeys there will be a better targeting of capacity to existing and potential demand, leading ultimately to increased ridership and higher revenue to offset the additional expense.
Recommendation:-
The Minister is recommended to approve the changes to the summer 2010 bus timetable as shown in the accompanying Connex report, subject to receiving submissions from members of the public as required by Article 24 of the Motor Traffic (Jersey) Law 1935.
Reason(s) for Recommendations
The changes being proposed enhance the summer network, remove some routing and timing anomalies or duplications, plug some gaps in the schedule and increase the ability of the operator to respond to times of heavy demand.
Actions Required
1. Advise Connex of the decision.
2. Prepare advertisement to be placed in the Gazette section of the JEP and media release.
3. Circulate proposals to all Constables, Parish Halls and other interested parties.
Written by: | Transport Logistics Manager |
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Approved by: | Acting Director of Transport |
Attachments: | Connex report – Summer Timetable 2010 Proposals and Costings |
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