7 Bus Patronage in Tyne and Wear
7.4 Bus Performance
7.4.3 Secured Services Spending
A significant amount of money is invested in secured services throughout Tyne and Wear. The table below shows the net costs and subsidy per passenger over the last 2 years66.
Secured services spending and subsidy
Spending (£000s) 2007/08 2008/09 % Change Real % chg
Net costs £8,695 £9,348 7% 3%
Subsidy per passenger £1.03 £1.11 8% 4%
The table shows net costs have increased 7% year on year, however this is due to the inclusion of TaxiCard, Group Transport and Shopper Services. Excluding these costs for 2008/09, a like-for-like comparison shows net costs have increased by almost
£154,000 when compared to 2007/08 (an increase of 2%), with a subsidy of £1.06 per passenger journey (3% increase). Collectively, the 3 additional services incur a subsidy of £4.45 per passenger.
It is important to recognise the effect of inflation on costs however. Based on RPIX (Retail Price Index excluding mortgages)67, we would expect to see a 4% inflationary increase in costs regardless. Therefore, the “real change” column shows the actual change has been an increase in net costs of 3% above inflation.
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66Nexus Finance department
67Average of monthly interest rates (ONS) as described by MeasuringWorth.com
8
8.1 Metro Patronage Overview
In 2008/09, Metro carried 40.581m passenger journeys and this represents the first time patronage has exceeded 40 million since 1991/92. The chart below shows historic patronage trends and the related year on year change. The large increases in 2002/03 reflect the opening of the Sunderland extension. Although 2008/09 marks the 3rd consecutive year of growth for Metro, it is also important to note how the rate of growth has slowed year on year since 2006/07.
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0
Yearly change (%)
Patronage (millions)
Annual patronage and year on year change
Pax (mil) % chg
Despite a year with rising levels of unemployment levels, fewer leisure and retail journeys being made with the onset of the recession, and extreme wet weather during the summer months, Metro still recorded annual patronage growth of 1.9%, which represented an additional 0.752m journeys year on year. However, growth was not recorded in all periods of the year, as shown in the chart below that provides a periodic breakdown of year on year patronage change throughout 2008/09.
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-10.0%
-5.0%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
Periodic patronage change year on year
Poor summer performance: weather bad this year
Poor Christmas performance: retail footfall generally down
The trends show a general pattern of patronage growth with some notable exceptions. The summer months of 2008 performed particularly poorly year on year, however, as previously highlighted, the summer of 2008 was particularly wet with significant rainfall68 being recorded for much of the summer months. The December period also records a large decline, but there too, external factors were present with retail footfall down by 4.9%69 meaning fewer people were travelling into the main retail centres with the impending recession. Overall, Metro patronage has performed well in 2008/09 despite severe external economic factors.
8.1.1 Passenger Type
The table below provides a breakdown of Metro patronage by passenger type and shows that the adult fare paying and elderly and disabled concessionary travel groups both recorded year on year patronage growth in 2008/09.
Passenger Type 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
Adult fare paying 28,765 29,193 427 1.5%
Elderly & Disabled CT 5,464 5,857 393 7.2%
Child 3,742 3,701 -42 -1.1%
Fraud 1,857 1,831 -26 -1.4%
Total 39,829 40,581 752 1.9%
Metro Patronage by passenger type (000s)
In terms of actual journeys the 1.5% increase in adult fare paying travel contributes most of the growth as this represents 427,000 additional journeys year on year. Elderly
& Disabled concessionary journeys recorded the largest proportional growth of 7.2%, which equates to an additional 393,000 journeys.
Although child travel records an annual decline of 1.1%, this trend did improve from September 2008, when the Child All day Ticket (CAT) was introduced. However, as Metro already offered the Child Day Saver ticket, which was also the same price as the CAT until January 2009, the impact of the CAT on Metro was less significant than it was on bus. The number of fraudulent journeys also recorded a decline and is down by 1.4% year on year.
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68Met Office:327.1mm of rain fell between July and September; 92% more than in 2007 69ATCM Springboard
The chart below shows the % split by passenger type and shows that Adult fare paying journeys accounted for 72% of all journeys, and Elderly & Disabled concessionary journeys, which accounted for 14.4% of all journeys. This is in sharp contrast to bus, which has a much higher market share of Elderly & Disabled concessionary journeys, which account for 32.1% of all bus journeys. Adult fare paying journeys account for 59.6% of all bus journeys (section 7.1 refers).
71.9%
14.4%
4.5% 9.1%
Passenger Type 2008/09
Adult fare paying Elderly & Disabled CT Child Fraud
8.1.2 Ticket Type
A breakdown of patronage by ticket type is provided in the table below. In most cases it is possible to make a year on year comparison, however, due to the significant changes in the way child travel was recorded, largely since the introduction of the CAT, it was not possible to make year on year comparisons of individual child ticket types.
Annual patronage by ticket type (000s)
Ticket Type 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
Adult Single Pax 4,914 4,721 -193 -3.9%
Adult Transfare Pax 691 463 -228 -33.0%
Adult Return Pax 7,223 7,462 238 3.3%
Adult DaySaver 1,681 1,582 -99 -5.9%
Child travel ^ 3,742 3,701 -42 -1.1%
Elderly & Disabled CT 5,464 5,857 392 7.2%
NTL Pax 6,587 6,552 -35 -0.5%
Explorer 70 72 2 2.4%
Metro Saver 6,877 7,623 746 10.8%
Staff Pax 488 522 34 7.0%
Sunderland Rail 234 197 -38 -16.1%
Fraud pax 1,857 1,831 -26 -1.4%
Totals 39,829 40,581 752 1.9%
^ Individual ticket comparison not possible due to changes in child ticketing
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The use of Adult Singles, Transfares and Day Savers declined in 2008/09, although Adult Returns have increased by 3.3% year on year. In contrast, the MetroSaver records a significant increase of 10.8%. Similar to growth trends in season tickets recorded on bus, the increase in MetroSaver journeys suggests that customers may be choosing the MetroSaver as it not only provides better value for money, it also provides more flexibility of travel, which allows customers to make more journeys than they did previously. For example, customers could be using Metro for leisure purposes at evenings and weekends when previously they predominantly used Metro only to commute to and from work.
Market Research70 shows that 67% of users of MetroSavers use them both on weekdays and at weekends. This supports the ‘value for money’ findings as it would appear that customers are looking to get more form their outlay, which they are paying regardless, however they are also saving additional costs associated with alternative ways of travel. This would support modal shift from the private car to public transport with more regular journeys being made and is also supported by similar findings on bus travel.
The number of elderly & disabled CT journeys has increased significantly since the introduction of free travel in April 2006 with annual growth of 7.2% year on year recorded in 2008/09. The number of journeys using NTL tickets has declined by 35,000 journeys which is consistent with trends over the past few years that have seen a switch from NTL to MetroSavers, suggesting that customers find the MetroSaver better value for money.
There was a small decline in the number of fraudulent journeys in 2008/09, however at more than 1.8 million this was largely the same as 2007/08. This has to be taken in context with an overall increased Metro ridership, which results in an annual decline in the fraud rate of 3.4%.
8.1.3 Network Breakdown by Section
In order to reflect the different geographic locations and the varying service levels across the Metro system (shown in map below) the network has been split into 6 different sections.
70Nexus Market Research: MetroSaver Report January 2009
Page | 84 The busiest section of the system, Pelaw to South Gosforth (purple), predominantly serves Newcastle city centre and has the highest proportion of patronage with 47% of all journeys being made on this section. Of the top 10 busiest stations, 9 are located on this section. The chart below shows the % share of passengers by section in 2008/09.
South Shields Hebburn
9%
Pelaw South Gosforth
47%
Regent Centre Airport
6%
Longbenton Tynemouth
13%
North Shields St James South Hylton 16%
Fellgate 9%
Patronage by Section 2008/09
The table below provides a year on year breakdown of Metro patronage by section and shows that the section from North Shields to St James recorded the highest year on year growth of 10.3%, which accounts for almost 600,000 additional journeys.
While the main Pelaw to South Gosforth section actually records a year on year decline of 1.2%, the extensive work being carried out at Haymarket means that patronage has declined there by 12%, and although most of these journeys have been transferred to surrounding stations it would appear that the Haymarket loss has not been fully compensated for.
Section 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
South Shields - Hebburn 3,457 3,685 228 6.6%
Pelaw - South Gosforth 19,380 19,139 -242 -1.2%
Regent Centre - Airport 2,736 2,643 -93 -3.4%
Longbenton - Tynemouth 5,037 5,269 232 4.6%
North Shields - St James 5,722 6,313 591 10.3%
South Hylton - Fellgate 3,496 3,533 36 1.0%
Total 39,829 40,581 752 1.9%
Metro patronage by section (000s)
The section from Regent Centre to Airport records a 3% decline, with patronage at Bank Foot being particularly poor. The flooding at the Airport station will have contributed to this decline whereby the station was closed for just under two weeks in September 2008. Furthermore, declining air passenger numbers at the airport have ultimately had a related effect on Metro patronage (section 11.3 refers). The South Shields to Hebburn section records year on year growth of 7%. Simonside was a key contributor to this growth as without Simonside this section records a more modest growth of 1.4%.
8.1.4 Network Breakdown by District
The Metro serves all 5 districts of Tyne and Wear; Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside and North Tyneside. The map below shows the Metro network shaded by district (note the size of each shaded area is not to scale) and identifies the individual stations in each district.
Map showing Metro network and districts
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Newcastle has the highest proportion of patronage with 48% of the total. The chart below shows the % share of passengers by district in 2008/09 with the market shares between the five districts remaining largely changed from the previous year.
South Tyneside
11%
Gateshead 13%
Newcastle 48%
North Tyneside S'land 21%
7%
Patronage by District 2008/09
Looking at Metro patronage by district gives a different picture to the sections of line with most districts recording patronage growth as shown in the table below.
District 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
South Tyneside 4,349 4,573 224 5.1%
Gateshead 5,490 5,452 -38 -0.7%
Newcastle 19,399 19,592 193 1.0%
North Tyneside 7,987 8,320 333 4.2%
Sunderland 2,604 2,645 41 1.6%
Total 39,829 40,581 752 1.9%
Metro Patronage by District
The Gateshead district records a small decline of 0.7%, which equates to 38,000 journeys and was influenced by patronage decline at both Heworth and Gateshead.
As these stations are both major interchanges for commuters and retail shoppers alike, the decline could be linked to the rising unemployment levels and declining high street footfall.
North Tyneside has also shown a 4% increase largely influenced by an increase at all stations between Benton and Monkseaton, including Northumberland Park (section 8.3 refers), which collectively increased patronage by more than 13%. Shiremoor shows the highest % increase of 17.3%, which represents an additional 55,000 journeys.
Monkseaton shows the highest passenger increase in terms of actual journeys of nearly 90,500 additional journeys.
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8.2 Case Stuudy – Simoonside Metrro
8.3 Case Study – Northumberland Park Metro
Northumberland Park cost £5.7m and opened in December 2005. The Metro station is located on the new housing development at Backworth between Palmersville station and Shiremoor stations on the existing line in North Tyneside. The station is convenient for the A19 and A186 corridors and opened a new 400-space multi-storey car
park in December 2008 which is aimed at attracting commuters and shoppers travelling to Newcastle city centre from other parts of North Tyneside and South East Northumberland areas.
The table provides a breakdown of patronage in the 1st 3 years of operating and shows successive year on year growth. When comparing 2008/09 with 2006/07 patronage at Northumberland Park has increased by 23%.
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50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000
Northumberland Park annual patronage
0
2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
Based on an assumed level of passenger shift from adjacent stations, Northumberland Park generated almost 212,000 ‘new’ journeys in its first year of operation. However, more recently, the station appears to have benefitted from the significant private housing developments in the immediate and surrounding area, which has generated year on year passenger growth at Northumberland Park and the adjacent stations at Palmersville and Shiremoor of 12%, which represents almost 100,000 additional journeys as shown in table below.
Station 2007/08 2008/09 # change % change
Palmersville 214,387 243,206 28,819 13%
Northumberland Park 305,661 320,965 15,304 5%
Shiremoor 319,516 374,641 55,125 17%
Total 839,564 938,812 99,248 12%
Annual Patronage Change
8.4 Case Study – Airport Metro
Passenger movements through the airport directly influence patronage at Airport Metro. Over the course of the year, the number of Metro journeys originating at Airport Metro equated to 12% of all incoming airport passengers. However, this is not to say that all journeys are made by air passengers as local residents and airport employees will also make journeys from this station.
The correlation between the trends in Airport Metro patronage and the airport passenger flow since 2002/03 is 0.78, which means that 78% of changes in patronage on Metro can be explained by changes in passenger flow at the airport. This relationship is statistically significant and demonstrates how patronage at Airport Metro has been negatively affected by the reduction in air travel caused by the economic downturn.
The boardings at Airport Metro mask another pattern seen in the relationship between the airport and the Metro. The table below shows the proportion of Metro passengers compared to Newcastle Airport movements72.
Proportion of Metro to Airport patroange
Passenger direction % of airport patronage Airport arrivals / Metro boardings 13%
Airport departures / Metro alightings 20%
The table shows that there are a greater number of passengers who alight at the Metro station compared to those boarding. The proportion of boarders to inbound airport passengers is 13% while the proportion of alights to outbound airport passengers is higher at 20%. This is most likely caused by travellers using Metro to get to the airport but then using alternative modes of travel when they return, for
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72Total passenger flow has been halved in order to show boardings and alightings: newcastleairport.com
example, being picked up by friends or family or using a taxi, as a more direct means of getting home after a potentially long and tiring flight.
Just as boardings masked the difference between the flow of passengers to and from the station, it also masks how the use of the airport by time differs compared to the network as a whole. The chart below shows the proportion of journeys made in the weekday peak period and on Sundays prior to 18:00 for both airport station and the system as a whole.
3%
21%
11%
5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
Weekday peak Sunday < 18:00
% of all boardings
Airport and systemwide variation
Airport Systemwide
For Airport Metro, Sunday daytime generates a significant amount of patronage (21%) compared to just 5% systemwide with travellers returning home from holiday.
Conversely, what is a peak time generally for the system (weekday 07:30 – 09:00) is a quiet time at the airport with just 3% of all passengers boarding at this time. This highlights how Airport is very much a unique station and its user base and travel patterns will differ considerably from the rest of the network.
8.5 Metro Stations and Interchanges
Many of the stations on the system link Metro with other modes of transport on the Tyne and Wear public transport network providing more people with access to the system. There are 16 stations with bus interchanges and 3 rail with both bus and rail.
The table below provides a year on year breakdown of patronage levels and % change at each of these stations.
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Interchange 2007/08 2008/09 % change Monument (Upper & Lower) 5,536,576 5,957,729 8%
Central Station * 3,114,178 3,148,903 1%
Haymarket 3,129,878 2,748,643 -12%
Gateshead 2,103,990 2,044,545 -3%
Heworth * 1,602,335 1,494,734 -7%
North Shields 1,069,043 1,091,660 2%
South Shields 1,004,213 1,010,649 1%
Regent Centre 971,413 876,793 -10%
Sunderland * 771,179 784,918 2%
Wallsend 647,741 718,890 11%
Jarrow 634,683 659,463 4%
Chichester 622,823 621,578 0%
Park Lane 573,011 549,310 -4%
Four Lane Ends 591,022 543,230 -8%
Byker 374,039 431,311 15%
Northumberland Park 305,661 320,965 5%
Total 23,051,785 23,003,320 0%
* Both Bus and Rail Interchanges
Interchange Comparison
Monument is likely to have benefited from the development and subsequent closures at Haymarket and records the highest growth with a year on year increase of 8%.
While Byker and Wallsend both record strong growth of 15% and 11% respectively, the stations at Heworth, Regent Centre and Four Lane Ends all record significant year on year declines. The net result of the changes means that year on year patronage at these stations has remained steady at more than 23 million journeys, which represents 57% of the 2008/09 annual total. The stations located in Newcastle city centre represent the highest share of interchange patronage, which is unsurprising given their significant location with regards to the local economy. The ‘others’ consist of some of the smaller interchanges with a market share of less than 7%. Heworth and Sunderland, representing two of the larger interchanges in this group, have a market share of 7% and 4% respectively. The chart below provides a breakdown of the market share of some of the major interchange stations.
20%
15%
9% 13%
43%
Market share of interchanges
Monument Central Station Haymarket Gateshead Other
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8.6 Fraudulent Travel
The number of fraudulent journeys in 2008/09 was largely the same as 2007/08 at more than 1.8 million and represented 4.5% of total patronage. However, it is important to note that relative to the total number of journeys, the fraud rate (the number of fraudulent journeys as a % total journeys) actually declined by 3.4%, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the anti fraud initiatives.
With an aim to deter fraud, Metro employs a private contractor to check passenger tickets throughout the Metro system while Northumbria police officers also have the power to check tickets. Metro also has dedicated British Transport Police officers patrolling on the Sunderland extension.
Failure to buy a ticket or overriding on the Metro can result in a penalty fare of £20, which was increased from £10 in May 2005. Failure to pay the penalty fare can lead to court proceedings and fines of up to £50073 and a criminal record. Those who are prosecuted have their names displayed on posters around the system in a ‘name and shame’ campaign.
8.6.1 Fraud – Breakdown by Section
For the purpose of providing an area based analysis, the table below provides a breakdown of how fraud levels vary throughout the different sections of the system, and shows that the fraud levels have improved in most areas.
Section 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
South Shields to Hebburn 250 268 18 7.4%
Pelaw to South Gosforth 474 448 -26 -5.5%
Regent Centre to Airport 107 105 -2 -1.9%
Longbenton to Tynemouth 216 200 -16 -7.2%
North Shields to St James 638 649 11 1.7%
South Hylton to Fellgate 173 161 -12 -7.2%
Total 1,857 1,831 -26 -1.4%
Metro fraud by section (000s)
However, the section between South Shields and Hebburn records an increase of 7.3%, which represents more than 18,000 additional journeys year on year. As this section recorded a year on year growth in all journeys of 228,000 this shows that fraud
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73Source: Nexus intranet archive name and shame fare dodgers June 2009
represented 8% of the annual change. The main Pelaw to South Gosforth section records the highest improvement in absolute terms, where the 5.5% decline represents a decline of more than 26,000 fraudulent journeys. The North Shields to St James section, which has consistently recorded the highest fraud levels in recent years, records a year on year increase of 1.7%, which represents more than 10,500 additional journeys. Stations on this section regularly feature high in the fraud ‘hot spot’ tables, with North Shields being largely unchallenged in recent years for the unwanted number 1 fraud ‘hot spot’ on Metro.
8.6.2 Fraud – Breakdown by District
As the previous section showed, there can be considerable variations between the different sections of line. The table below provides a breakdown of fraud by districts.
District 2007/08 2008/09 No. change % change
South Tyneside 290 309 19 6.5%
Gateshead 231 225 -5 -2.4%
Newcastle 553 540 -13 -2.3%
North Tyneside 651 637 -14 -2.1%
Sunderland 132 119 -13 -9.7%
Total 1,857 1,831 -26 -1.4%
Metro fraud by district (000s)
The table highlights that fraud in South Tyneside, which consists of the section from South Shields to Hebburn in addition to the stations at Fellgate, Brockley Whins and
The table highlights that fraud in South Tyneside, which consists of the section from South Shields to Hebburn in addition to the stations at Fellgate, Brockley Whins and