Town Bus Service

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A decision made on 27 July 2021

Ministerial decision reference: MD-C-2021-0062
Decision summary title: Town Bus Service
Decision summary author	Administration and Research Officer	Is the decision summary public or exempt?		Public
Report title: Town Bus Service
Report author or name of person giving report	Director, Transport and Technical Services	Is the report public or exempt?		Public
Decision and reason for the decision The Chief Minister approved the introduction of a town bus service in 2021 as outlined in the accompanying report and approved the funding of up to £364,953 for the first year of the initiative. The service will operate six days per week, (every day except Sunday) and with no provision on Bank Holidays. The draft timetable incorporates a frequency of every 15 minutes throughout the day, with a round trip journey time being 35 minutes in average traffic conditions. The earliest journey would depart from the bus station at 09.00hrs with the last one at 18.00hrs.
Resource implications: The proposed Town service is to cost up to £364,953 for the first year of the service as outlined in the accompanying report, with the money to be made available from the Chief Minister’s projects budget.
Action required Approval to sign contract for provision of a Town bus service.
Signature			Position Senator John Le Fondré Chief Minister
Date signed			Effective date of the decision

Town Bus Service

Department for Infrastructure,

Housing and Environment

“Town Bus Service - Summary”

For

The Office of the Chief Minister

July 2021

TOWN BUS SERVICE OPTIONS – Summary

Introduction

The Chief Minister has requested the introduction of a town bus service in 2021. This document outlines the characteristics of the service which have been assessed as viable.

Background

Bus services once travelled through the centre of St Helier on their way towards suburban and rural areas. Since the 1960s, due to a combination of pedestrianisation and the implementation of one-way traffic flows, almost all buses have gradually been pushed out to the Ring Road and few now penetrate the town centre. Most areas of town are still within a reasonable walking distance away from the public transport network, but some are not.

An experimental town bus route was operated for a few months in 1999, but fare revenue only covered a small proportion of the total costs, and the service ceased when funding ran out. In 2011, the States Assembly made an in-principle decision that a town service should be reintroduced, but subsequent Budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan debates made no provision for the required budget. Therefore, bus services in the town area continue to be routed largely via the ring road.

2011 studies - Options for a town bus network were drafted in 2011, in advance of the new bus operating contract which commenced in January 2013. Focus groups were held to identify what it was felt such a service should look like in terms of places served, frequency, and hours of operation. However, the bus operating contract budget proved not to be large enough to allow for any of the options to be introduced.

2021 proposal – The Chief Minister has asked for a town service to be put in place during 2021, and a press release announcing this was issued in mid-January. The service will follow a route loosely based on the least expensive of the three options from 2011, and follows a figure-of-eight linking key destinations across St Helier. For clarity, it is shown on the following map as distinct “outbound” (light blue) and “inbound” (purple) sections:

- Bus station to General Hospital, Central Library, Arts Centre, Grande Marche superstore, Springfield Sports Centre

- then travelling back toward the Bus Station via Millennium Park, Halkett Place (for Market), Pier Road and Commercial Buildings.

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The service would operate six days per week (every day except Sunday and with no provision on Bank Holidays). The draft timetable incorporates a frequency of every 15 minutes throughout the day, with a round trip journey time being 35 minutes in average traffic conditions. Ten minutes “recovery time” per round trip is allowed so that the bus can operate its next departure from the bus station punctually. The earliest journey would depart from the bus station at 09.00 a.m. with the last one at 18.00 p.m.

The town service is being proposed as a trial. One of the benefits of a trial is it will allow the gathering of data on passenger usage, modal shift and the effect on traffic levels within St Helier. This data can then be fed into the Sustainable Transport Policy’s “Bus Network Development Plan” to determine how the service contributes to Government’s strategic priorities, including whether it is beneficial to Social Inclusion, and/or serves as a Carbon Reduction measure.

Type of bus

The proposed route has been assessed and LibertyBus has identified that the two existing shorter wheelbase, 25-seat Optare Solo vehicles in their fleet are safely manoeuvrable throughout the proposed route. To service the route, it is therefore proposed to acquire three new buses to the same design, equipped with the latest low-emission Euro 6 engines.

These are fully accessible, low-floor vehicles which can accommodate wheelchairs and pushchairs in common with the existing LibertyBus fleet. As they would need to be built to a bespoke Jersey specification, as opposed to the larger footprint accepted as standard in the UK, the minimum period over which it would be possible to lease them is three years.

Vehicle fuel/CO2 emissions

The possibility of using ultra-low or zero-emission buses to the required dimensions has been investigated, but currently there are no suitable single-decker electric or hybrid vehicles on the market that would be suitable for the proposed route. However, it is understood that new-build Optare vehicles can be equipped with engines capable of running on HVO biodiesel.

Compared to conventional diesel fuel, this would impose an extra operational cost of approximately £20,000 per annum on the town bus service. It is understood that the use of HVO biodiesel would be approximately 75% cleaner in terms of CO2 emissions than normal diesel fuel.

Route and bus stops

IHE and LibertyBus have proposed a town service route which largely follows roads under the administration of IHE. However, the section between Minden Place and St Saviour’s Road uses roads administered by the Parish of St Helier, whose permission would be required to enable the operation of buses.

Some minor changes to route road markings would be necessary to aid manoeuvrability, for example a Keep Clear/yellow box junction at Devonshire Place and a set-back stop line to westbound traffic at Union Street.

Existing marked bus stops at Broad Street, Gloucester Street, Salisbury Crescent, Hotel de France, Springfield Stadium, Byron Road and Pier Road would be served. Those in bold are equipped with waiting shelters.

IHE officers will identify suitable locations for intermediate stops on the roads which are not currently used by bus services, and consider the road markings and street furniture that would be desirable in connection with the service.

Branding and identification

LibertyBus will be tasked with marketing the service, and are proposing that the service will carry appropriate branding. To aid passenger information systems, the service should also carry a route number in the conventional LibertyBus series.

Fares and ticketing

In general, the new service would not directly replicate any existing services, but it would allow the possibility for passengers to make certain trips that can be carried out on the current network. Examples include Bus Station to Springfield Stadium, Byron Road to Bus Station. Accordingly, the on-bus cash and card fares charged need to mirror those on existing services, so that the new service does not abstract passengers and therefore fare revenue from other LibertyBus routes.

It is expected that a significant proportion of journeys made on the service are likely to be by holders of concessionary travel passes or transfer tickets. Because the service will operate at a fixed cost to the Government, concessionary fares and transfer tickets will not be reimbursed to LibertyBus by IHE in the same way as they are on the existing bus route network. Any on-bus cash and card fares will be retained by LibertyBus.

The extra vehicles will require ticket machines to be fitted, and these are included within the proposed operational costs.

Delivery timescale

From the point at which funding is approved, it is anticipated that at least 30 weeks would be required for contract preparation and service design finalisation, procurement of vehicles (4-5 months manufacturer lead time), and mobilisation.

The Funding Requirements for the Service

Under a Variation to the existing Bus Contract LibertyBus would procure the vehicles on a three-year Lease Finance basis, and handle the marketing, branding and operation of the Service. In addition, IHE would implement any associated infrastructure works associated with the route as previously noted in this document.

Therefore, the funding requirement covers an annual fixed operational cost for providing the service and defined Vehicle Lease Finance cost for three years along with one-off Infrastructure costs.

With Transfer Ticket and Concessionary Travel income foregone, the annual cost (based on the marginal rates for additional services set out within the 2013 Bus Operating Contract) is £339,953 per annum and based on a minimum of 4 drivers and 181 miles per day.

In addition, IHE one-off costs are estimated at £25,000 in the first year for Road markings, bus stop poles, timetable cases etc.

Therefore, costs for the first three years would be:-

- Year 1 = £364,953

- Year 2 = £339,953 (plus RPI)

- Year 3 = £339,953 (plus RPI)

Total = £1,044,859

Notwithstanding the first year costs of £364,953 noted, if the service was to be cancelled after one year, additional GoJ funding of £148,608 would be applicable to cover the outstanding vehicle lease finance liability. This would make the minimum cost £513,561.