As the high street declines, and roads get more congested, are express services the growth market the coach and bus industry has been looking for?
I was struck by the recent Stagecoach announcement that they are about to launch a new M2 express service linking Canterbury with London (North Greenwich) via Faversham and the Medway towns.
It was a very timely announcement as I (along with other industry colleagues) had just been engaging with Highways England to understand the scope for better engagement to encourage just the sort of initiative Stagecoach is launching.
Potential growth?
For coach operators the motorway and road network that Highways England looks after is the bread and butter of the trade, while bus operators regularly cross motorways and strategic roads at major junctions.
Bad design or congestion at those locations can totally foul up whole networks.
But that is not the reason for focusing on this important category of the nation’s transport infrastructure.
More to advertise the fact that when we use it, we do it rather well, which prompts the question: Why don’t we do more of it, and is this a hidden area of potential growth?
Stagecoach is building the M2 after developing Falcon, which almost exclusively uses the A38 and M5; there is the long-standing First X1 service between Lowestoft, Norwich and Peterborough which hugs the A47 in its entirety; and Go-Ahead’s Airline linking Oxford with Heathrow and Gatwick via the M40 and M25, are all examples of long-standing successful ‘express’ services which use motorways and strategic roads to get around.
Ahead of their time
Many years ago the Government launched a number of Multi Modal Studies (MMS) which looked at the most congested roads on the network to see if there were non-road-widening or -building alternatives to solving the excess demand problems they had.
I remember the M25 study suggested a network of express coach services around the famous motorway.
The proposals were more aspirational than practical, and the lack of a commercial partner to execute the study’s proposals meant the recommendations stayed largely on the shelf.
But maybe it was also because the proposals were slightly ahead of their time.
We now have networks of park-and-ride sites with excellent interchanges; coach design has come a long way from the standard ‘dual purpose’ type fare; and the retail, marketing and ticketing offers have been totally transformed.
The barriers
And, helpfully, the interest of Highways England in our services has led them to commission Transport Focus to research customer attitudes on services that use their roads.
It turns out the reaction is really good, with passengers appreciating their speed and directness.
There are still some barriers. Unlocking the full potential will depend on improving infrastructure at all stopping points (some of the intermediate stops away from the main interchanges tend to be less hospitable than a trip up Everest); priority for our vehicles, particularly getting out of lay-bys into the main traffic flow; and the need for less formal park-and-ride sites.
But the good news is that Highways England is ready to talk and has reserved funds to help promote the right sort of projects.
As our local urban networks become more congested, and our high streets decline, longer distance express routes could be the growth story we are all looking for.
