One of the themes I mentioned in my Presidential inauguration speech was the need for the industry to showcase what it does well. For two reasons: firstly to balance the stream of negative stories coming from our critics but secondly to build a momentum so that the success stories then create the positive environment to do more of what we do well.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the UK bus industry experience of busways. In an increasingly challenging environment to build patronage we need to demonstrate we can be mass movers of people giving them a time and reliability advantage over the private car.
Busways provide that ability and all those that have been built and operated in recent years have, as far as I can work out, been resounding successes in achieving their objectives and growing patronage. And it is not hard to see why.
Investment by local authorities in quality infrastructure that gives buses a distinct advantage over other traffic and protects the right of way from congestion guarantees journey times and most importantly reliability: this is normally accompanied by the operator investing in quality vehicles, ticketing systems and stand out marketing.
Perhaps a hidden benefit too is that all that investment in partnership demonstrates to the local communities they serve that bus is the solution and that there is a willingness to invest in it to create a step change in provision.
This has led to some interesting dynamics on the busways that have been introduced. I remember reading that the users of the Cambridge Guided Busway resembled more of the socio economic grouping of a London commuter rail service and on the Fastway Go-Ahead subsidiary Metrobus operates proximity to a Fastway stop is mentioned in the blurb estate agents produce when flogging properties. Evidence indeed that busways can change perceptions of bus.
So what of the future? Given the perceived acceptability of Busways as a reliable and quality form of mass transit, surely a consideration must be conversion of lightly used rail lines to busways. The advantages are there to be seen: huge potential for lower operating costs, higher frequencies and the in-built flexibility of bus means that rail stations that are remote from the traffic objectives they are intended to serve can be accessed better by bus with the former rail permanent way acting as a spine with deviations at each end of the route.
But at the risk of creating a Third World War with rail colleagues, at the very least we need to showcase the success stories there have been already and encourage central Government and our local authority partners that Busways can help them to meet their transport policy objectives and to enable us to build patronage. There must be more applications out there that can build on the success stories that have already been implemented and I can think of no better use for the recently announced Transforming Cities fund than to encourage a new wave of Busway implementation.
And you never know it might be a good pretext to justify a fact finding mission to Curitiba in Brazil, the ‘big daddy’ of Busways and Bus Rapid Transit systems – although a serious point is the emphasis local authorities in that country have put on bus as a mass mover of people, being an example to all of us in other parts of the world.
