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B.0 Appendix B - Rural DRT Pilot Projects
B.1 The rural pilots were funded directly to support the development of DRT and the joint working required to more effectively utilise transport resources and support DRT operation. This appendix describes the key features of the pilots based on interviewing and research currently undertaken.
Aberdeenshire Council DRT Pilots
Overview
B.2 The Aberdeenshire Pilot has involved the development of five different DRT services, all co-ordinated by a central TDC based at Aberdeenshire Council, and using Trapeze despatch software. The project will ultimately have the capability to operate on a real time basis through the use of in vehicle technology (this is currently still in the development and testing stage).
Design and development
B.3 The five services comprise:
- An Aberdeenshire Council operated S19 service based around Alford using an Education department vehicle (Optare Alero)
- Stagecoach Bluebird operated public service running in Strathdon
- Two S19 services operated in partnership between Social Work, Education and Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus in and around Peterhead and Fraserburgh - using Council Education and Social Work vehicles.
- A public service replacing an existing 'circular' bus route in Central Buchan operated by Kininmonth Cabs (taxi firm).
B.4 All services are booked at least a day in advance (up to one week) through the central TDC in the Council, with schedules despatched to drivers the evening before service run. Each service shall be described briefly in turn.
B.5 The Alford service is based in and around the village of Alford, operating on an area wide service, generally operating in different zones on different days, using a vehicle that undertakes home-to-school transport for special needs pupils. The service has been operating since July 2004 and is running an average of approximately 20 trips per week.
B.6 There were some initial problems with this service in relation to holiday relief for the regular driver which have now been resolved. The driver often has to offer assistance, however, passengers have been advised of what the driver can and cannot do to assist them so this is no longer an issue.
B.7 The Strathdon service operates on a fixed route with the option to deviate on request. This has replaced non-peak services in the valley, and is operated by Stagecoach, using a semi retired local bus driver. The service receives very few bookings to deviate from the route and patronage is low - any bookings that are received are telephoned to the driver in advance. There have been no major operational problems noted with this service at present. The Council are however not ruling out ways to combine the Alford and Strathdon services if patronage does not increase.
B.8 The Fraserburgh and Peterhead services serve the areas around and in the two towns, and are operated in partnership with Buchan Dial-a-Community Bus (DaB). The Fraserburgh service runs two vehicles, one Education vehicle, operated by Buchan DaB, and the other Social work vehicle operated by a Council driver. The latter vehicle was already operating a similar service on two days a week before this pilot expanded this. Fraserburgh patronage is currently at approximately 78 trips per week, with Peterhead at 43 per week.
B.9 The Central Buchan service is operated as a registered service by a local taxi firm under a special PSV licence. It carries pre-booked passengers only and operates on an area wide basis using two vehicles, with a third vehicle on 'standby' if demand requires its use. The service has replaced a subsidised fixed route service. The service currently averages approximately 300 journeys per week, less than the previous fixed routes service. Although there are likely to be a range of factors that account for this 'loss of patronage' (including, for example the requirement to book a day in advance) passenger numbers are increasing steadily as awareness increases. As the service has only been operational for eight months it would be expected that this will continue to rise in the short to medium term.
Key Findings, Notes, Experience
B.10 The TDC and software appear to be operating successfully and no significant operational problems have been experienced by staff. However the reporting procedures and processes offered by the software are still not delivering the level of analysis required. Volume of trip requests is currently relatively low and the staff have no problems managing demand.
B.11 The Council has applied to claim BSOG for its section 19 services, but has yet to submit detailed claims. The Central Buchan service is ineligible for BSOG as it operates on an area wide basis - a type of service currently ineligible for BSOG in Scotland.
B.12 There has also been successful joint working in the delivery of DRT services. The Public Transport Unit have generated co-ordinated working practices with internal Social Work and Education transport departments and the CT sector through this pilot, showing evidence of maximising the use of resources, although not without some initial minor problems relating to staffing. The link with the CT sector through service level agreements to provide drivers has proved successful.
Angus
Overview
B.13 The Angus Transport Forum ( ATF) was established by the local community to act as an agency promoting the transport needs in the area. The pilot project was developed to meet these needs through the development of a 'flexible agency' to act as a one stop shop for users' transport requests in the Angus Glens. The agency acts on behalf of a number of bus and taxi operators to direct the most appropriate transport provider to meet the needs of the users. The key strength of this approach is that the users only need to refer to one central contact to request their trips, and that the transport needs of these passengers are then co-ordinated by a central agency.
Design and development
B.14 The service operates in the Angus Glens where users are dispersed and trips relatively infrequent. The agency has been effective in identifying the needs for these users through and feeding these back to the operators for service enhancements - for example demonstrating the market for accessible taxis in the area, and the need for group hire services to community groups in the area.
B.15 The service has not been able to expand as a local agency for two key reasons. First, the inability to offer a single pricing structure through the different operators involved in the scheme has meant that users did not necessarily have a constant price for a trip as they may be operated by different operators. In addition, as users were being taken on trips with individual operators, some chose to request subsequent trips directly with the operator, rather than through the ATF pilot.
B.16 The strength of the pilot, and in the agency approach in this case, has been in identifying the travel needs of an area and communicating this through to operators (including ATF itself) to deliver enhanced services.
Fife
Overview
B.17 The Fife pilot consists of two schemes: A taxi-based DRT service in a collection of small zones in south east Fife (services F3-F8) which are not served by conventional public transport. This service is run by a small local taxi operator - Town and Country (T&C) Taxis. The second service (F1) is a fixed route service with flexible zones available on request, running between Newburgh and Cupar via Ladybank, operated by Stagecoach.
Design and development
B.18 The Council developed the service design based on their local knowledge and a range of consultation activity over recent years (through Local Transport Fora), along with recent developments in the commercial networking in the area. The F1 service did not operate as a fixed route service previous to introduction. Service F8 part replaces a supported service within Cellardyke.
B.19 The taxi firm that operates the F3-F8 service (Town and Country Taxis) initially had some teething problems operating the service, as they had not previously undertaken a service of this kind. The service was costed to run with two vehicles although the contractor underestimated his running costs required to operate this type of service therefore the contract was renegotiated. The pilot scheme has resulted in the employment of three full time drivers (previously part-time).
B.20 The service was initially operating under shared taxi legislation, but steps are being made to transfer this to a special restricted PSV operation to allow for the continuation of the concessionary reimbursement to be paid to the operator under the new National Scheme.
Key Findings, Notes, Experience
B.21 Bookings are undertaken by the operators - with the T&C taxis calls diverting to drivers if the office is unmanned (a driver staffs the office and the cost of employing a TDC operative would be prohibitive). This has led to some problems regarding receiving calls due to areas of signal 'blackout' for the mobile phone networks in the area, although a change of service provider has now solved this problem. Stagecoach do not receive high call numbers, due to the nature of the on-demand areas, but these are taken in house in the St Andrews Depot.
B.22 T&C taxis are clearly invested in the scheme and believe that the service they are operating is of benefit to the local community - in particular to elderly persons without access to a car. From interviews it would appear the service is primarily meeting the needs of those that would use a 'dial-a-ride' type service (elderly and mobility impaired users), with this in mind the Council designed the service to be available to all types of Public Transport user including concession card holders and fare payers. Fare payers currently contribute to 25% of the current trips, with trips linking to other PT services forming a small part of the patronage.
B.23 Current costs per passenger are approximately £7.40 for the F3-F8 service and £4.00 for the F1 service (excluding concessionary income). It is not expected that the costs will be greatly reduced for the F3-F8 service, but this compares favourably with similar services elsewhere.
B.24 It is clear that Town and Country Taxis and the PTU have a close working relationship and consult on a regular basis. When awarding the contracts Stagecoach contributed to the design of the route. This was helpful when registering the service with the Traffic Commissioner. The role of Stagecoach in St. Andrews is more of an operating role with the management within St Andrews contributing any suggested operational change.
B.25 At the time of awarding the contract the PTU did not involve their in house ring and ride service booking centre. This was primarily due to the operating hours differed from service to service and, at that time, the Ring & Ride booking service was in its infancy and it was felt that they would not have the capacity nor experience to deal with the 'Go-flexi' scheme. The PTU have since established that the software (which has gradually been developed since installation) - Trapeze - has benefits and are currently exploring potential links with both Go-flexi and Ring & Ride. However to establish this pilot project it was felt that maintaining the local ownership and flexibility of the taxi based service through using operator TDC was important for both the operators and the users as at present the current system allows booking up to 60 minutes ahead of travel.
B.26 Fife Council has also run a pilot DRT scheme in Kirkcaldy & Levenmouth to serve people with mobility impairments that normally cannot use conventional public transport. The Council has also taken the decision, in principle, subject to funding being made available, to gradually roll out DRT services Fife wide. To this end, the East Fife pilot will form part of this policy, and the principle of combining DRT for mobility impaired people with flexible public transport for the rural population at large is being adopted under the pilot guidelines. It is hoped that this approach will ensure the service becomes an integral part of the wider public transport network in rural areas. In urban areas it is expected that the DRT service dedicated to mobility impaired people (only like the Kirkcaldy and Levenmouth services) will most likely be the norm.
Argyll and Bute
B.27 Argyll and Bute have used the Scottish Executive pilot funding to develop and maintain three services. On the Island of Tiree, the funding is being used to continue and expand an existing dial-a-ride service run by a local PSV operator that has been operated for a number of years. The funding has allowed a minibus to be purchased to replaced the taxi that was previously used on the service, and for the operating hours to be expanded. Patronage has increased since the introduction of the service and it is perceived by the Argyll and Bute Council that the introduction of the minibus has made the service more attractive to tourists. This is backed up by an significant increase in patronage over the summer months.
B.28 The Campbeltown Service is run by West Coast Motors (bus operator) and has been designed to 'fill holes' in the bus network that have arisen out of a rationalisation of local services. The service is of note as it incorporates social work transport provision into the operation of this public DRT services, and as a result seeks to integrate the transport provision in the area. The Social Work department of the Council use the service twice a week (and supply a passenger assistant) and reimburse the Transport Unit for each passenger carried. The operator is encouraged to take other passengers if possible during these periods. Both the Tiree and Campbeltown service bookings are undertaken by the operators.
B.29 The Lomond service has been developed jointly with SPT to offer an SPT-branded ring and ride service (operated by First) in the Lomond area. The service is run through the same methods and contracting processes as the other SPT ring and ride services, and bookings are taken through the SPTTDC. In effect, the Scottish Executive funding has been used to develop an additional SPT ring and ride service for the Lomond area that previously was not provided as a result of funding limitations. Patronage has been increasing but Argyll and Bute are yet to receive any detailed patronage figures from SPT to explore any particular trends and locations for trips.
Highland Council Access to Employment DRT Service
Overview
B.30 This service is a later addition to the Scottish Executive DRT pilot projects and is of particular note as it is focused on addressing the problem of access to employment. The Transport to Employment (T2E) service addresses the problem well known in rural communities of a lack of traditional public transport corresponding to work shifts. The service will provide local access to employment where traditional private and public transport options are not available, for new employees and those seeking employment in East and Central Sutherland.
Design and Development
B.31 The project has developed out of previous access to employment related research undertaken in the area by Napier University in partnership with local Jobcentre plus and the Highland Council.
B.32 Users or potential users are recommended through prospective employers or Jobcentre plus and make bookings through a dedicated call centre (based at Napier University).
B.33 The service is operated through conventional taxi operators, using shared taxi legislation. The Highland Council have developed specific contracts with registered taxi firms for this purpose, building from existing education-related contracts.
B.34 Patronage is currently low with 19 regular users, but is slowly developing.
Key Findings, Notes, Experiences
B.35 Although a very small scale project (in part due to the nature of the area served) the project is of particular note as it seeks to develop a business model that encourages contribution from users and employers to purchase the taxi trips to make the projects self-sustaining in the longer term.
B.36 The scheme provides subsidised transport for an initial period of use, currently set at six months, to remove the transport barrier to employment. Subsequently, users are expected to make full payment for the shared portion of their journey. Other users of the same vehicle may not have used the service for the same length of time, and continue to be supported by the scheme until they have been in employment for six months.
B.37 Self sustainability should be possible if the service can continue to expand, and operate with vehicles that are at capacity. Evidence highlighting that employers have sought to alter shift times to facilitate shared taxi use are encouraging, and highlight the importance of involving all relevant stakeholders in transport developments.
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