Tackling congestion is the key to an efficient bus service
Yesterday saw the launch of Qatar Airways’ direct flight between Cardiff Airport with its wide catchment area and Doha with a wide range of onward destinations.
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft will provide a daily service and a beneficiary from its 254 seats will be the Cardiff Airport Express, whose largely scheduled market will be considerably enhanced.
This landside local bus network and a more efficient operating environment will be among the topics discussed at the Welsh Government’s Bus Summit in Swansea tomorrow.
There have been several mediumsized bus companies in Wales with financial difficulties resulting from management challenges. However, discussions with Welsh bus companies in recent months indicated that road congestion continues to be their biggest concern.
The downward spiral from congested roads to slower speeds, increased and unpredictable journey times and a less satisfactory travel experience results in fewer passengers, route closures and financial unsustainability.
Congestion affects reliability, timekeeping and journey time for bus operations and bus operating costs, particularly at peak times of day, during the holiday periods and on major event days. The solution is a significant increase in bus priority provision for strategic bus commuter such as:
■ In Swansea, an extension of the existing busway provision to a parkand-ride (P&R) site near Amazon with access to the M4, as proposed by this columnist in a 2016 government report;
■ In Wrexham, establishing the North Wrexham Transport Interchange, extending the bus lane in Chester and introducing others on the corridors referred to above;
■ In Cardiff, introducing a continuous bus lane along the A470 from Nantgarw junction to central Cardiff.
■ In Aberystwyth, along Penglais Hill.
Cardiff and Swansea’s predicted population growth over the next decade means bus priority schemes – such as bus-activated traffic lights in Swansea which help buses keep to time and bus lanes at key locations on several key routes – are needed to encourage modal shift to bus.
The success of such a move is seen in Dublin since the early 1990s. Then, one lane of the dual carriageway primary route from the south suburbs of the city to St Stephen’s Green in the city centre was converted to a bus lane in the morning peak. Brand-new (EU-funded) double-decker buses were introduced, with considerable success. As car-users saw the faster bus journey times compared with the car, and the free flow of buses with predicable journey times, they transferred their travel mode to work in numbers, which reduced car flows by up to 20%, thus also reducing car journey time. These buses have since been replaced in part by the new Dublin tram system.
It has, however, become clear that bus priority schemes require enforcement to be effective. In the Dublin example, high-visibility enforcement, with relatively high fines and extensive publicity, helped achieve this.
In the Netherlands, changes since the 1970s in segregating pedestrians, cyclists, buses and trams have become part of the national psyche, so bus lanes are rarely illegally blocked. More limited enforcement exists overall in Wales despite the widespread use of bus lane cameras in Cardiff. The estimated cost in Wales of achieving the Netherlands position of 40%-70% of commuters not using cars is £60m each year over 10 years.
Recent evidence (2016) showed that over the last 50 years, bus journey times rose by almost 50% in the more congested urban areas. If passengers had been better protected from the growth in congestion by schemes such as those described above, there would arguably be between 48%-78% more fare-paying passenger journeys today. A direct correlation has been shown between a 10% reduction in bus speeds and a similar fall in patronage.
A 2016 report for FSB Cymru Wales showed improved punctuality/reliability was an important criterion in persuading commuters to change from car to bus/rail.
On the congestion issue, bus operators and passengers are in agreement. Bus companies have to provide extra buses to maintain frequency and timekeeping. Passengers want to get to work on time or to catch their plane at Cardiff Airport. On that route there have been valuable priority improvements, not always popular with car-users. But to make the bus more attractive for commuters, what we’re doing currently has to be just the start.
■ Professor Stuart Cole CBE is Emeritus Professor of Transport (Economics and Policy) at the University of South Wales.