Introduction
The study highlighted some of the key barriers for local authorities to deliver their ambitions, as set out in Section 2.
Funding
As well as being one of the key enablers for the delivery of local public transport ambitions, funding was one of the most commonly cited barriers in our interviews with council officers and councillors.
Reductions in funding mean that local authority spending on local transport is down by ~40 per cent over the last decade. Further pressure has been placed on local transport spending in recent years due to a long-term decline in bus patronage and the corresponding loss of commercial bus services which need to be supported, as well as by patterns of concessionary travel spending, as discussed below. The immediate and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 are having, and will continue to have, a negative impact on demand for public transport, e.g. due of an increase in home working.
Concessionary Travel
Earlier this year, a National Audit Office report highlighted that an increasing proportion of local transport spend is being used on concessionary travel reimbursement to operators when compared to spending on supporting bus services. The report noted that the duty to reimburse operators an eat into non-ringfenced funding which would otherwise be used on public transport improvements and to support local bus services. This message was echoed by council officers and councillors interviewed in this study.
Research by the LGA has concluded that the level of underfunding is around £700m a year.
By having less money to spend on supporting or delivering services, councils have less influence over where, when, and how bus services are delivered in their area.
Long-term trends in transport use
Over the last decade there has been a drop in bus passenger journeys outside of London of 11.9 per cent, while in London there was a drop of just 1.4 per cent. Along with this decline in patronage, the volume of bus services miles delivered has also fallen outside of London, largely driven by a halving of local authority supported service miles.
Within this general trend of decline, there is considerable variation outside of London in terms of usage, with some areas in close proximity to each other seeing large differences in ridership and mode share. This may be due to different approaches taken to local transport delivery within these areas, or from varying operating contexts.
One particular issue which has worsened in recent decades is that of rural bus network decline, with ridership falling sharply. Reductions in funding for local public transport have led to many supported services being withdrawn, as have those services which were operated commercially but which were found to be unviable. Rural routes tend to be longer and have lower demand than urban areas, costing more to operate but collecting less in revenue. The loss of public transport services in rural areas can have a particularly negative impact – when compared to in urban areas – in relation to eroding access to jobs, education and training options, as well as to key services such as healthcare.
Potential Impacts of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the need, desire and ability to travel in England. The initial period of national lockdown saw major drops in travel across the board, with public transport most heavily affected. At some points, bus use outside of London dropped to 11 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels.
Messaging from national Government on the use of public transport and promotion of car as the ‘safe’ transport option having short-term impacts on travel choices now, but could also have longer term impacts, especially for those who have committed to some level of car use by purchasing vehicles to address short-term needs.
Research into the longer-term effects of COVID-19 suggests that:
- UK employees are expecting a more flexible way of working once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, with most office-based workers looking to reduce the number of days they are in the office. Many are looking to work more from home and have more control over the times at which they work;
- Even with a vaccine in place, most travellers expect to use public transport less than before. Many look to replace these trips with car use.
These changes will have a significant impact on the demand for and patterns of travel in England and, in turn, the viability of public transport services and how networks can be planned and operated. In most cases, the changes to travel patterns will make delivering an attractive conventional public transport network harder than before the COVID-19 crisis.
Changing working patterns may see a new rise of de-urbanisation and greater localism in services and travel requirements. This may provide opportunities for stronger local services, but can also risk eroding or spreading out demand for public transport. This is traditionally a tough problem for bus services to address, as bus is a mode which is based on shared travel demand between points along a network.
Public transport operators are having to respond quickly to changing demand and, in many cases, this means cutting services for which there is no Government funding made available. In the face of diminished local authority transport budgets for supported services, it is likely that much of the bus network will be lost or face a reduced level of service in coming years.
Spending, Appraisal and National Funding
Interviews highlighted that money is often spent on big budget infrastructure and roads projects and isn’t always available for what is needed to deliver daily public transport operations or for spending in other areas which support car-free lifestyles, such as active travel.
It was suggested that this may be due to the scheme appraisal process being highly focused on economic benefit and missing real social and environmental benefits which can arise from effective provision of high-quality public transport services.
Almost all council officer interviewees noted that delivering change to bus networks, fleets, and operational models has become heavily reliant on national funding pots, which can:
- Be restrictive in their conditions and focus on particular solutions which may not suit local challenges;
- Come all at once when funding is announced and have a short turnaround (in the context of major transport scheme delivery); and
- Be highly politicised and changeable, making long term strategy delivery difficult.
Often, funding being concentrated through national funding streams means that there is pressure on local authorities to retrofit their ambitions to make these fit with national funding pot conditions and timescales.
The need to prepare funding applications can cause difficulties for some local transport departments due to limited staff time or the lack of expertise to construct an effective case for change, and lack of funding to commission feasibility studies or provide match funding for the changes which are proposed.
Staff Resources and Expertise
The majority of local authorities which were engaged with highlighted the fact that they have lost staff over the last decade and this means that they do not have the time or expertise to deliver their ambitions.
While some authorities continue to plan for the future, staffing pressures mean that many transport officers struggle to delivery statutory requirements, let alone have time to innovate or deliver major schemes. Indeed, one of the particular problem areas arising from a lack of staff resources was that of using new bus powers, as described as an enabler in Section 3.3 above. These take significant time and resource commitments which are not feasible for most authorities.
In terms of expertise, many authorities noted that they are constrained on their use of data by skills gaps within local authorities, i.e. even where data and modelling tools are available, staff may not have the expertise, or time, to use these. Funding pressures mean that they are not able to recruit or outsource appropriate resources to tackle this issue.
Delivering Effective Strategies and Plans
Council officers stated that it can be difficult to deliver long-term strategies due to some of the issues highlighted above, such as fluctuations in funding, reliance on national funding pots, and lack of staff resource and expertise. This issue can result in reactive public transport network management which does not tackle long term problems such as congestion.
Recent and proposed changes to the planning system, aimed at streamlining the development planning process, means that is will become harder for local authority planners to influence development and ensure that effective public transport is in place, as highlighted as an ambition in Section 2.3.
Switching to Low Carbon and Zero Emission Buses
Particularly large barriers are facing the delivery of low and zero carbon bus rollout ambitions, despite this being a major ambition for local authorities and being at the centre of policy at national level and at most local levels.
Some of the main barriers include that:
- Bus operators are struggling as a result of recent changes to travel demand and revenue, and have been looking to make cost savings. This means that many have cancelled bus orders and are planning to use existing fleet vehicles for longer in order to reduce immediate fleet replacement costs. This has had an impact on bus manufacturers also and some companies are under significant threat of losses and closure. Loss of UK based manufacturing capabilities may limit the potential for clean vehicle rollout in the future.
- Zero Emission Buses (ZEB), e.g. electric or hydrogen powered vehicles, tend to have a significant capital outlay for the vehicles and infrastructure which, as noted above is difficult for operators to justify at present.
- Previous central government funding streams have been insufficient to drive widespread change or adequately support the bus operator and manufacturing industries.
- Current national bus funding sources, such as the Bus Service Operators Grants (BSOG), may be stifling ZEB uptake. Current BSOG funding favours efficient diesel buses over ZEBs, as operators can claim both Base BSOG support (currently £0.35/litre) and BSOG LCEB (currently £0.06 km), whereas electric buses, for example, can only claim the latter.