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London commuters happy with bus standards

Last month, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the public bus industry will be restructured under a bus contracting model, where operators will bid for a package of routes through competitive tendering. The model has been adopted by cities such as London and Perth. In a visit organised by the LTA, TODAY senior reporter Joy Fang (joyfangz [at] mediacorp.com.sg) looks at how a Quality Incentive Contracts system — which sets standards for bus operators to meet under the terms of the contracts — has brought about improvements in bus services in the English capital.

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Last month, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the public bus industry will be restructured under a bus contracting model, where operators will bid for a package of routes through competitive tendering. The model has been adopted by cities such as London and Perth. In a visit organised by the LTA, TODAY senior reporter Joy Fang (joyfangz [at] mediacorp.com.sg) looks at how a Quality Incentive Contracts system — which sets standards for bus operators to meet under the terms of the contracts — has brought about improvements in bus services in the English capital.

LONDON — Retirees Sue and David Shimell recalled how in the late 1990s, they had to endure “terribly long waits” of more than 30 minutes for bus services whenever they travelled from their home in Croydon, South London, to the town centre or central London.

Back then, information such as whether bus services were disrupted or delayed was only available from the radio or television, said Mr Shimell, 80.

Now, waiting times have been slashed by half and commuters can get more information through a variety of channels, such as the transport authority’s website, countdown boards at bus stops and SMSes. “Buses are more on time (and) there are more buses available. Things are quicker and there’s more urgency about it”, Mr Shimell added.

Since 2001, London bus commuters have enjoyed shorter waiting times as well as more reliability and better service, thanks to the Quality Incentive Contracts (QIC) system that has been in place. Under QIC, individual routes are tendered out to operators for contracts of five years, with an option for the authorities to extend them by another two years if performance standards are met.

Based on standards such as mileage clocked and reliability of services, operators receive financial incentives that are linked to the quality of service given, for up to 15 per cent of the contract value. They suffer deductions from the contract value of up to 10 per cent if their service does not meet targets.

Singapore rolled out a trial for a similar scheme — the Bus Service Reliability Framework (BSRF) — in February this year to focus on bus arrival times. The trial involves 15 buses and will extend to another seven buses by the end of the month.

When TODAY visited London last week, commuters in the English capital generally gave a thumbs up to the standards of bus services since the implementation of the QIC.

Still, given the city’s choking traffic, some commuters said there are times when the bus services are unpredictable.

Ms Jane Belotserkovskya, 19, an undergraduate from King’s College London, said she finds it tough to plan her journey as congestion can lengthen her bus journey from her home near Sloane Square to the Tube station — referring to London’s public metro system — by 15 to 30 minutes.

With more commuters drawn to making trips on public buses, the flip side is the buses are getting more crowded, Mrs Shimell, 72, noted. Coupled with the high volume of traffic on the road, the bus journey experience could be adversely affected during peak periods, she said.

Ms Soh Liyin, 24, a Malaysian and former Singapore permanent resident, has been living in London since 2008. She found travelling by bus a more pleasant experience compared with the Tube, which is “too crowded”.

The public relations consultant can take one of three buses for a 20-minute journey from her home at Russell Square to her office in Bank. Comparing the bus services in London and Singapore, she pointed out that there are many ways to get to one’s destination in London, unlike in Singapore, where there are fewer options and waiting times are also longer.

Figures from the transport authority, Transport for London (TfL), showed bus usage has increased markedly to a record 2.4 billion passenger boardings in the financial year of 2013/14, up 69 per cent from FY1999/2000. Buses account for 54.4 per cent of all public transport use by London residents, with 6.5 million passengers a day.

Excess Wait Time (EWT) — the average additional waiting time experienced by commuters at bus stops — for London has fallen from about 2.2 minutes in FY2001/2002 to less than a minute in FY2012/13 — the lowest in more than three decades.

Mr Tim Bellenger, director of policy and investigation for London TravelWatch, a watchdog for transport users, said improvements in the bus system have removed a great deal of uncertainty for passengers in terms of bus timings. But it wants TfL to also look at maintaining bus speeds on the increasingly congested roads. “With the rising population in London and rising traffic levels, that’s going to be a challenge,” he said.

Leveraging technology

TfL coordinates the whole bus network at its CentreCom. The hub houses the London Buses Command and Control Centre, London Streets Traffic Control Centre and the Metropolitan Police Traffic Operation Control Centre. Staff work round the clock to monitor road conditions.

Bus drivers can call its “code red” facility for emergency situations or its “code blue” facility for non-emergency situations to get help. CentreCom is able to pinpoint the locations of buses requiring assistance and contact emergency services directly. It can also send its own rescue vans and manipulate traffic lights. CentreCom receives 1,200 calls a day, with about 250 to 300 emergency calls.

To track buses, TfL uses iBus, a £117 million (S$248 million) Automatic Vehicle Location system. The system taps on technologies such as Global Positioning System tracking to pinpoint bus locations and provide bus arrival timings for all 19,000 bus stops. It relays information between the driver, garage and CentreCom.

At the operators’ control centres, they have their own controllers tracking the performance of their fleets. Mr Jorge Perea Suarez, 49, who has been a controller with Go-Ahead London for 12 years, explained that with iBus maps, they can quickly spot problem areas and implement solutions. One solution is curtailment — ending a service midway, getting passengers to alight and sending the bus to skirt a congested area to service portions after that. Or they can have buses looping within the disruption, he said.

“We put more buses in the good areas and fewer buses in problem areas ... I can then make sure 80 per cent of the route is flowing normally.”

An LTA spokesperson told TODAY that the practice of curtailment is not allowed under the BSRF trial, but she added that it is open to discussion with operators on “plausible practices”. She added that there are other solutions such as route diversions to avoid the areas with jams. “We will explore which solutions are feasible, while ensuring that we minimise disruption to commuters,” she said.

In April, the LTA announced it has awarded the contract for an intelligent bus management system worth S$68 million to a consortium set up by ST Electronics and Trapeze Switzerland. TfL’s iBus system is also supplied by Trapeze.

Demands on operators

The tightening of standards under QIC over the years has led to more pressure placed on drivers to keep to targets. Operators and their control centre staff also have to handle stressful conditions on the roads and implement quick solutions in the event of unplanned disruptions.

Still, the employees of the bus operators said they are happy that the QIC system has led to better service for commuters.

Ms Annice Adams, 31, a Go-Ahead London driver for seven years, said: “Passenger’s safety is paramount, so I never speed ... When there is traffic, the controllers are there to (help).”

Go-Ahead London hires 6,000 drivers for its 2,200 bus fleet, and runs about 140 to 145 routes. It has 130 controllers who are in charge of an average of 50 buses each. They monitor the bus trips and keep abreast of road conditions.

Having the right schedules and good control strategies are some ways they go about ensuring intervals between buses are regular. “We maintain headway almost like a religion,” said Mr John Trayner, managing director of Go-Ahead London.

Operators are kept in line with league tables drawn up by TfL, which ranks operators in areas such as EWT, quality of service, mileage run and the number of complaints.

The operating environment is challenging and dynamic, said Mr Sean O’Shea, chief operating officer of ComfortDelGro’s Metroline. Drivers are intensively trained to anticipate problems, among other measures, he said. Metroline has 4,500 drivers for its fleet of 1,500 buses. It hires 180 service controllers who manage 97 routes.

No longer an incentive regime: Operators

In London, bus breakdowns and planned disruptions come under the operator’s responsibilities, and they will be penalised if waiting times are increased or mileage is lost. However, TfL might disregard poor performances during a day where there has been “significant unforeseen traffic issues over a wide area”, said Mr Simon Thomas, TfL’s contracts tendering manager.

Operators can also apply for a “data suspension” for a longer period, but this would only be in the most extreme cases of disruption, he added.

Mr Alex Moffat, TfL’s performance development manager for buses, said QIC seeks to encourage operators to improve their services and it is not about punishing them.

“If you penalise too quickly, then companies can get into financial difficulty ... We want them to put in good performance; we don’t want them to collapse and leave the market,” he said.

However, operators said standards have become so high that their main preoccupation is not getting penalised.

Mr Nigel Wood, general manager for service performance at Go-Ahead London, said: “The targets now are much more difficult, so it’s almost impossible to earn anything more than 6.5 to 7.5 per cent (of the contract value as a bonus) ... You’re probably earning about 1.5 per cent now if you’re lucky.”

Mr Trayner added: “So, it has turned ... into what do we need to do to stop falling into a penalty regime. We don’t really look at it as an incentive regime anymore.”

Mr Jaspal Singh, who heads ComfortDelGro’s operations in Britain and Ireland, said the company tries to ensure cost efficiency, such as improving fuel consumption or making better use of existing resources.

The challenge is getting the contractual price right when it puts in a bid and managing the cost, he added.

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