The County Council is committed to a three year phased programme of reducing the £2.7 million used to subsidise bus services. Cambridgeshire County Cabinet on the 6th March 2012 approved a programme of subsidy withdrawal which seeks to reduce the funding to £1.5m by 2014/15 in a more targetted manner, and groups the county into 13 separate areas (labelled A-M) to achieve this. The villages of Caldecote, Kingston and Toft are all in Area C.
The County Council set up the Cambridgeshire Future Transport project to work with Local communities and Service providers to invest a more targeted budget of £1.5m in providing transport solutions that better reflect the needs of the local areas. Through the CFT project Officers will focus on four/six areas per year, working with local communities to provide alternative transport solutions.
Transport for Today
How is the transport system run today then? Around 80 percent of public transport in Cambridgeshire is run commercially with no involvement from the local authority, only 20 percent receiving any form of subsidy from the county council. Some of the services only receive a partial subsidy, effectively operating commercially in the peak time, when passenger numbers are high, but require financial support in order to operate outside of these times.
The majority of subsidised services operate in the more rural areas of the county where passenger numbers are low or where the lengths of journey mean that operating costs are high, making the services unviable to operate commercially.
On some of these services the level of subsidy required is very high in, one example it costs the authority £12 per person, per single trip. This does not represent good value for money, the CFT project is therefore looking to work with the local community to investigate alternative ways to provide transport which provides a solution to the transport need but is also cost effective.
Thankfully, the County now appreciates that these rural areas are also the areas where there is the greatest need for transport. For some the subsidised service will be the lifeline that enables them to access services. For this reason a new transport solution must be in place before any subsidies are stopped.
Subsidised bus services in Area C
There are two services affected in Area C, though really only one route 18/18A. The 16:00 service was axed in May 2012, but as it affected the CVC pupils who would normally use it to get home after their after-school activities, it was imperative that something was done and following a lot of hardwork by the County Councillor Fiona Whelan, Service No 10 was created.
Service 18/18A (Comberton – Cambourne – Eltisley/Caxton)
Description: Partial subsidy extending the commercial service every 2 hours beyond Comberton to Cambourne. Serving Gamlingay, Waresley Gransden, Longstowe, Eltisley, Caxton, Cambourne, Eversden, Kingston, Comberton, Bourn, Arrington, Wimpole, Toft.
Subsidy per passenger: £1.32
Annual Net Cost £86,224
Ridership: 65,504 passengers per year
Service 10 (Comberton – Caxton)
Description: Interim bus service introduced temporarily following the changes made by stagecoach provides 1 journey between Comberton and Caxton, via Toft, Kingston, Bourn, Cambourne and Lower Cambourne, when Comberton Village College is open. It departs Comberton at 16:13. This is heavily used by the CVC pupils
Subsidy per passenger: £1.48 (estimated)
Annual Net Cost: £845.50 (estimated)
Ridership: 570 passengers per year (estimated)
Transport for Tomorrow
The question now is what sort of services should be put in place to serve our rural communities cost effectively?
It is accepted not all the options will be appropriate for an area an no one solution will be expected to solve all the transport needs of an area. The Solution for each area will vary across the County and one size will not fit all.
Solutions may include some of the ideas in the Demand Responsive Transport idea put forward by South Cambridgeshire District Council, as I wrote in a previous article. Other solutions will include local operators, smaller vehicles, links to commercial hubs, such as the Busway or Park and Ride as well as direct routes to certain destinations and the many variations in-between. The project aims to be creative and find innovative solutions to historic problems but if the best solution to deliver an essential service is to retain the current form of subsidy, this will remain an option.
Community Engagement
The County has now promised to engage and consult with residents through a series of meetings. But this was only after a lot of complaints from residents and after the County had decided to remove subsidies anyway. Still half a loaf …….
These meetings will have a number of purposes.
- Share information on the CFT project and to give information on the impacts of subsidy withdrawal
- Give communities the information they need to be fully involved in the process.
- Sharing the evidence available, seeking agreement (or not) to the evidence results and identifying gaps that need to be filled. This will have the effect of providing a clear baseline that everyone is ultimately agreed upon.
- Outline the engagement process and look for community champions who can sit on a more focused ‘solutions working group’
- To get communities thinking about transport
- To enthuse residents and to empower them to be part of the process
It remains to be seen how effective these consultations will be.
Action for Today
The County Council is now consulting with residents, so this is the opportunity to have your say and tell the County exactly what you as a transport user would like.
The first meeting for villages in the Eastern section of the county (including Area C) where officers are currently working will take place at 7.45pm on 17 January 2013 at Cambourne Community Hub. The address of The Hub is High Street, Cambourne CB23 6GW. Click on the postcode to see where the Hub is located.
The purpose of the first meeting is to look at the Demand Responsive Transport proposals put forward by South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) and other options that are being explored through Cambridgeshire Future Transport. It will also be an opportunity for Parish Councils and local group members to bring attention to any specific needs for their communities.
A second meeting has been organised by County Councillor Fiona Whelan, with County Officers in attendance, specifically to get local feedback about the bus service people would like to see run. We have put posters up at local bus stops to get this message out as widely as we possibly can. Unfortunately officers weren’t able to meet in January before 17th, so it will take place at 7:30pm on 23rd January at Comberton Village Hall. The address is Green End, Comberton, Cambridge CB23 7DY. Click on the postcode to see where the Village Hall is located.
Please encourage anyone that you know who uses the bus to either come along or email either Councillor Whelan or me any concerns or suggestions that they have.
Together we can build a better local bus service that will work for our all our residents who need public transport.
