7 Bus Patronage in Tyne and Wear
7.2 Showcase Services
A number of major bus schemes are partly funded by Nexus including Route 19, Quaylink, LinkUp and TaxiLink/Card. This section looks at these services in more detail.
7.2.1 Route 19
Route 19 is a frequent bus service that goes to areas of North Tyneside that can be difficult to reach without a car. It connects with Metro at Northumberland Park and Percy Main, as well as the Shields Ferry. The route includes some stretches of road that only Route 19 can use.
Over the last few years, the R19 service has performed well with increasing passenger numbers year on year. However, 2008/09 marks the first annual decline as shown in table below.
R19 annual patronage
Year Pax % chg
2005/06 325,518
2006/07 468,136 44%
2007/08 498,843 7%
2008/09 453,153 -9%
All of the growth recorded in 2007/08 has been offset by the significant decline in 2008/09 with the patronage levels falling below that of 2006/07. The table below shows patronage on R19 by period and the yearly total. We report patronage decline in every period of 2008/09 with an overall annual decline of 9%.
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R19 periodic patronage
Period 2007/08 2008/09 % chg 12/04/08 39,770 36,314 -9%
10/05/08 39,924 37,264 -7%
07/06/08 39,246 35,912 -8%
05/07/08 38,931 37,427 -4%
02/08/08 42,130 38,427 -9%
30/08/08 39,502 37,106 -6%
27/09/08 38,368 35,069 -9%
25/10/08 37,862 35,150 -7%
22/11/08 38,246 34,323 -10%
20/12/08 38,139 33,937 -11%
17/01/09 28,098 25,110 -11%
14/02/09 38,810 33,174 -15%
14/03/09 39,817 33,940 -15%
ANNUAL 498,843 453,153 -9%
The decline in patronage is not isolated within 2008/09, as the first year on year decline was recorded back in October 2007 and as the chart below shows, it has yet to record year on year growth since.
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-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
14/04/2007 12/05/2007 09/06/2007 07/07/2007 04/08/2007 01/09/2007 29/09/2007 27/10/2007 24/11/2007 22/12/2007 19/01/2008 16/02/2008 15/03/2008 12/04/2008 10/05/2008 07/06/2008 05/07/2008 02/08/2008 30/08/2008 27/09/2008 25/10/2008 22/11/2008 20/12/2008 17/01/2009 14/02/2009 14/03/2009
R19 patronage change year on year
One full year of decline
In the previous reports from Business Intelligence, it was noted how the cause and effect relationship had already occurred and how it was important to note that subsequent reports showing the same level of decline did not reflect a worsening scenario. However, the line in the chart above indicates a full year of decline and therefore the 6 periods to the right of the line, the last 6 periods of 2008/09, illustrate the decline has continued beyond a normal cause and effect relationship. This shows that the decline in patronage on R19 is increasing rather than levelling off.
7.2.2 Quaylink
QuayLink links the Quayside areas of the River Tyne with the centres of Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead and to other local public transport connections. The service is operated using 10 hybrid accessible buses with a distinctive appearance, enhanced by a unique livery.
Stagecoach North East operates the service under contract for Newcastle and Gateshead Councils and Nexus.
The QuayLink service was introduced as a high quality public transport service for the recently redeveloped and expanding Quayside area, which, although extremely close to the centres of Newcastle and Gateshead, was not sufficiently served by existing bus services, and consequently it was dominated by car usage. The Quayside roads are also not located on any of the traditional bus routes.
Quaylink consists of two services, the Q1 and the Q2. The Q1 service serves Central Station, Monument, The Sage Gateshead, Gateshead College's Baltic Campus, Baltic and Gateshead Interchange. The Q2 service serves Haymarket, Monument and travels along the Quayside to Ouseburn and now continues on to St Peter's Basin.
Both services travel between Newcastle Quayside and Monument via Dean and Grey Street.
The Quaylink service has performed well in 2008/09 with an increase in patronage of 19% overall. The table below show that over the course of the year, the service generated almost 140,000 additional journeys on the previous year. Although the Q2 service generates the most patronage growth in actual terms, the biggest proportionate improvement was recorded on the Q1 service with an increase of 20%.
Annual Quaylink patronage
Service 2007/08 2008/09 % chg No. chg
Q1 service 340,661 409,148 20% 68,487
Q2 service 389,650 460,812 18% 71,162
QUAYLINK 730,311 869,960 19% 139,649
The chart below shows the year on year patronage change for each of the 13 periods of 2008/09.
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-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
12/04/08 10/05/08 07/06/08 05/07/08 02/08/08 30/08/08 27/09/08 25/10/08 22/11/08 20/12/08 17/01/09 14/02/09 14/03/09
Quaylink patronage change year on year
Q1 Q2
Despite an impressive performance, both services show a slowing down in the rate of growth. The Q2 service records significant year on year increases at the beginning of the year which is far in excess of those seen on the Q1. However, this pattern changes in September with the Q1 service recording higher year on year growth since then. The opening of Gateshead College’s Baltic Campus in September 2008 increased the passenger base of the Q1 service and contributed to the year on year growth of more than 20%, which was recorded in most months between September 2008 and March 2009.
For the Q2 service, the slowing in the growth rate began as early as July 2008 and has continued to date with the last period actually registering a 0.5% decline – the first year on year decline recorded since the service commenced. Although the growth in the Q1 service also slowed around this time, the main slowdown for Q1, which has continued to date, occurred in November 2008.
However, it is important to note that it is unlikely for the service to maintain the significantly high levels of patronage growth it had previously recorded, and that this slowing of the growth may be a natural ceiling for patronage on the service.
Furthermore, as personal spending has been reduced as a result of the economic conditions. This may have led to a two-fold impact; fewer journeys made to the entertainment areas of both quaysides and some of those journeys which are still made may have been substituted for walking. The weekend (including Friday) shows the lowest increase in patronage at 15% compared to a 20% increase during the week. The chart below shows that collectively, the Quaylink service records year on year growth in every period since April 2007. However, it is unlikely that this trend is Page | 68
sustainable and this needs to be taken into context when observing the slowing rate of growth towards the end of 2008/09.
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000
Total Quaylink patronage by period
2006/07 2007/08 2008/09
The level of patronage should be closely monitored over the early part of 2009/10 to determine whether this slowing rate of growth is an indication of the service reaching its patronage ceiling or whether it is the first signs of a genuine patronage decline.
7.2.3 LinkUp
LinkUp is a bus service which is booked by phone and is available to everyone in Tyne and Wear. It provides journeys at times when regular services are not operating or where direct services are not available. LinkUp operates within a 16 zone area with travel permitted within each zone and, in some cases, to adjacent zones.
LinkUp, was originally introduced as Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) service, however, it also runs fixed routes as part of its provision, which have increased significantly since the service began. DRT patronage on LinkUp has fallen year on year with a loss of over 13,000 journeys, although some of this decline will be directly related to the introduction of additional fixed routes and a shift of passengers using the new fixed routes in place of the Demand Responsive element. The table below shows the combined patronage on LinkUp for each of the 5 districts.
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LinkUp pat
7.2.4 TaxiLink
TaxiLink was a specialised service for residents of Tyne and Wear who were elderly or disabled and was launched in
July 2006 to replace the previous Care Service network and cost a flat rate of £1 per journey. The service was modified again in October 2008 to become TaxiCard, which made significant changes to the way the service operated and therefore a direct comparison between the two services is not practical.
Throughout its operating period, TaxiLink carried almost 341,000 passenger journeys.
In 2007/08 (the only full financial year the service operated), it carried in excess of 160,000 journeys – 17% over target58. However, patronage began declining at the start of 2008/09 and with the exception of one period of growth, continued this downward trend. The table below shows the number of journeys carried in the operating periods of 2008/09 compared to the equivalent periods in 2007/08.
TaxiLink patronage (April to September inclusive)
TaxiLink 2007/08 2008/09 % chg No. chg
Pax 87,820 84,916 -3% -2,904
Over the 7 relevant periods, patronage on the service fell 3% in 2008/09 with a loss of almost 3,000 journeys. The TaxiLink service was changed for a number of reasons59 which include the following:
• There were long periods during the evenings when the taxis stood idle, while still being charged to Nexus (50% under-utilised between 20.00 and 23.00).
• The total cost of cancellations amounted to (at least) £159,000
• The service provision was considerably under-resourced both in terms of call-taking and provision of taxis
• Only a small number of people were able to use the service frequently due to resource constraints
• Service was unequal: of a membership of 4500, just 80 people were getting 25% of journeys
These and other similar factors inevitably resulted in the transition from TaxiLink to TaxiCard.
58Nexus website
59Report on TaxiLink November 2007
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7.2.5 TaxiCard
TaxiCard began operating in October 2008 and uses smartcard technology. The passenger uses it to pay for
part of their journey by taxi. It has £100 worth of taxi fares pre-loaded but the user pays the first £1.50 of any journey, then the next £2.50 is deducted from the card. Any remaining fare is paid for by the passenger. While the cost to the passenger is considerably more than on TaxiLink, the availability of the service and convenience in booking (bookings can be made at the time of travel if taxis are available whereas TaxiLink journeys had to be made no later than the day before) are designed to make the system more user-friendly.
In the 6 periods TaxiCard has been running, it has carried in excess of 32,000 journeys.
Although this is significantly fewer than the 75,000 carried on TaxiLink over the same period in 2007/08, the system results in reduced costs which can be redistributed to benefit all members rather than just a minority (whereby 1.8% of members used 25%
of journeys under TaxiLink). Furthermore, in conjunction with the introduction of TaxiCard, a Companion Card scheme was also launched which allows carers to travel free with disabled users on the convention bus network. Therefore, while a direct comparison would show a decline in passenger numbers on TaxiCard compared to the previous TaxiLink, it is important to note a number of these journeys would have been displaced to the conventional network.
The 32,000 TaxiCard journeys were made by 2,682 members with 670 being medium or high users in contrast to the TaxiLink where 80 users made 25% of all journeys. The cost per journey to Nexus was £3.28, a reduction of 60% compared to TaxiLink.