Bus passengers have their say… Soon!

05 February 2013

The autumn 2012 wave of the Passenger Focus Bus Passenger Survey will be launched by Norman Baker on 18 March 2013. Over 22,000 from 20 areas will tell us what they thought of their last journey. The areas we have surveyed are:

Metropolitan county areas
•    West Midlands / Centro
•    Greater Manchester / Transport for Greater Manchester
•    Tyne and Wear / Nexus
•    Merseyside / Merseytravel
•    South Yorkshire / South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive
•    West Yorkshire / West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive

Local transport authority areas
•    West England Partnership (Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, North Somerset Council, and South Gloucestershire Council)
•    Tees Valley Group (Darlington Borough Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council, Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council, and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council)
•    Nottingham City Council
•    Devon County Council
•    Northumberland County Council
•    Kent County Council
•    Milton Keynes Council
•    Suffolk County Council
•    Thurrock Council
•    Nottinghamshire County Council
•    Oxfordshire County Council
•    Essex County Council
•    Worcestershire County Council
•    Warrington Borough Council

Of course, there is no point in doing this work if it does not lead to change on the ground. Simply publishing comparative, benchmarked change does spur improvement. No one likes being bottom and we have clear evidence of change based on previous surveys. We follow up the results by meeting with local authorities, integrated transport authorities and bus companies to see what they think of the results and what they are going to do as a result. We will be visiting the following over the next few weeks:
•    Suffolk, Ipswich Buses
•    Centro, National Express
•    Coventry Area Partnership
•    Metro, SYPTE, First
•    Tees Valley Northumberland
•    Worcestershire, First, Rotala
•    Nexus, Go North East, Stagecoach
•    Hampshire, First
•    West of England Partnership
•    Cambridgeshire, Stagecoach, Essex
•    Network Warrington
•    Merseytravel
•    First East
•    Thurrock
•    Nottingham City Transport
•    Devon,
•    Reading Bus
•    Kent, Arriva, Stagecoach

Then, next year we will hopefully go back to repeat the survey and see what has changed. So, the passenger voice can and does drive change for the better, assuming government and the industry listen.