Transport Committee - Monday 29 January 2024, 11:00am - West Yorkshire Combined Authority Webcasting

Transport Committee
Monday, 29th January 2024 at 11:00am 

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  1. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  3. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee
  4. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee
  5. Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council)
  6. Cllr Liz Rowe
  7. Cllr Scott Patient Calderdale Council
  8. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  9. Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
  10. Brandon Jones (‏Firstbus)
  11. Cllr Matthew Morley Wakefield Council
  12. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  13. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  14. Mr George Thomas
  15. Andrew McGuinness
  16. Henri Rohard
  17. Cllr Martyn Bolt
  18. Cllr Peter Caffrey (Calderdale Council)
  19. Cllr Jakob Williamson (Wakefield Council)
  20. Cllr Annie Maloney
  21. Luke Albanese, Director of Mass Transit (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  22. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  23. Melanie Corcoran, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  24. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  25. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  26. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  27. Melanie Corcoran, Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  28. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  29. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
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  1. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  2. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  3. Mr MickBunting (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  4. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  5. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  6. Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  8. Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
  9. Simon Warburton, Executive Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
  11. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  12. Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  13. Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  14. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  15. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  16. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  17. Andrew Fitzpatrick
  18. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  19. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  20. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee
  21. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  22. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  23. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  24. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  25. Brandon Jones (‏Firstbus)
  26. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  27. Andrew McGuinness
  28. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  29. Cllr Annie Maloney
  30. Cllr Oliver Edwards
  31. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  32. Cllr Annie Maloney
  33. Cllr Oliver Edwards
  34. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  35. Cllr Moses Crook Kirklees Council
  36. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  37. Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee
  38. Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority
  39. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  40. Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  41. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  42. Cllr Matthew Morley Wakefield Council
  43. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  44. Cllr Matthew Morley Wakefield Council
  45. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  46. Cllr Matthew Morley Wakefield Council
  47. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  48. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  49. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  50. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  51. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  52. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  53. Cllr Eric Firth (Kirklees Council)
  54. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  55. Cllr Annie Maloney
  56. Cllr Oliver Edwards
  57. Cllr Matthew Morley Wakefield Council
  58. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  59. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  60. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
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  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  3. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  4. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  6. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  7. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  8. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  9. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  10. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  11. Cllr Abdul Hannan
  12. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  13. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  14. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  15. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
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  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  3. Cllr Colin Hutchinson
  4. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  5. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  6. Cllr Matthew McLoughlin
  7. Cllr Annie Maloney
  8. Cllr Oliver Edwards
  9. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  10. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  11. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  12. Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council)
  13. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
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  1. Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority)
  2. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  3. Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair)
  4. Webcast Finished

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:00:00
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:00:00
khalil and Oliver Deputy chairs and Transport Committee with responsibility for bus and active travel.
Miles Lavington Committee Services Officer.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:12
Councillor D Firth and a collective ex-Councillor, and another one of the Deputy DJs who were responsible for them.
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:00:19
Councillor Helen Hayden, Executive Member for sustainable development
Cllr Eric Firth - 0:00:25
and infrastructure at Leeds City Council.
Liz Rowe councillor on Bradford Council.
Cllr Liz Rowe - 0:00:31
Scott Patient Cabinet lead on action to travel in housing Calderdale
Cllr Scott Patient - 0:00:38
Council Councillor Cohen captions, and now cuddles transport engagement lead.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 0:00:44
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 0:00:46
Councillor Shah portfolio, holder for regeneration, planning, transport and Bradford Council.
Councillor Matthew, Molly Cabinet, Member Polunin Highways Wakefield Council.
Councillor Moses, Crook, Cabinet Member for Housing, Highways and
Brandon Jones - 0:01:00
Transport and Coakley's.
Kerry Peters regional director for the East region with Northern
Cllr Matthew Morley - 0:01:05
trains.
Cllr Moses Crook - 0:01:10
Good morning, Brandon Jones, from First Bus.
Cllr Moses Crook - 0:01:19
admin, everybody campaign or eBay direct over the river.
mortgage, George Thomas from TransPennine Express
Mr George Thomas - 0:01:26
morning everybody Andrew McKenna, CPZ, regional manager representing all bus operators in West Yorkshire.
Andrew McGuinness - 0:01:34
Good morning all you are managing director of translation.
Henri Rohard - 0:01:39
worrying alternative Commercial Director Trust Fifield.
Councillor Andrew Lloyd, Bradford Council.
Cllr Martyn Bolt - 0:01:46
Councillor Peter Caffrey Calderdale, Council.
Cllr Peter Caffrey (Calderdale Council) - 0:01:51
Cllr Jakob Williamson - 0:01:54
morning everyone Councillor Anne Maloney transport engagement late at Leeds City Council.
Cllr Annie Maloney - 0:02:00
good morning, everyone Councillor Oliver Edwards, Leeds City Council.
none in everyone, Councillor Matthew McLoughlin from the Colne Valley ward in Kirklees and Caroline Firth councillor in Bradford.
money and everyone at Helen Nelson, head of transport policy at West
Luke Albanese, Director of Mass Transit (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:16
Yorkshire Combined Authority.
morning, everybody Mick, Brompton, Interim Director of Transport
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:02:24
operations and service transformation Combined Authority.
Good morning darker skins interim director of passenger experience at
Melanie Corcoran - 0:02:30
Essex Combined Authority.
at an AGM Simon Warburton Executive Director for Transport
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:02:38
thank you very much, so obviously we've got councillors from across across West Yorkshire here, debating bus and rail and all those impacts on passenger transport across the region and were able to supported by officers of the Combined Authority here and also today we have bus operators and rail operators who are in attendance for us to ask questions of them.
so, moving on now to the next item on the agenda, then we've got minutes of the meeting of transport committee held on 16th November, Councillor Hutchinson, you rightly pointed out something here.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 0:03:14
furniture, the slum on poach, through sensible to let me get, following the consultation, congratulations to all those who contributed to the consultation on ticket office closures, but it does say that at the last meeting we determined the RHI result that a letter would be sent to Rail North Partnership, seeking further clarification on staffing levels and the provision of public facilities and how those would continue following the outcome of the consultation, I've just wanted to seek assurance that that letter as gone and whether there has been a response to it
yes, I believe it did go and we have had assurances of her as Lisa had
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:03:52
verbal assurances that they are now going to start recruiting because obviously there was a vacancy freeze, wasn't there and the operators and the officers were in attendance and that Bill to advise us, but Simon do you want to date ongoing or indeed correct that that is the
Melanie Corcoran - 0:04:09
case and no it's referenced in the report as well around what De the rail operators will be doing going forward in terms of rail ticket office and and, as he said they are here today to be able to take those queries as we get to that point in the agenda.
thank you, I spotted Councillor Hutchinson any further comments
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:04:22
queries on the minutes of the last meeting.
no, with that thing, can I suggest, as a our record has an attached record of that meeting, all those in favour, please show, thank you that is carried.
with the rest of the agenda, I propose a changing the order of the agenda because obviously we have guests here, so I'll move the Rail Strategy update, which is currently number 5 down to after number 7, so we'll go 6 7 5 and then 8 if that's OK with everybody and so I'll go first of all to passenger experience updates but before I do that I'd just like to highlights the bus interchange update that has been distributed this morning to members. I'm hoping you've had chance to have a read through. This report is something that requested a Combined Authority officers to do to this meeting, because obviously it has been a massive inconvenience of Bradford bus interchange being closed quite suddenly really at Christmas time, and it's been very confusing for members of the travelling public and, as say, hugely inconvenient to their journeys as they go round West Yorkshire and so are the such important issue for Bradford and indeed for the Combined Authority that I wanted to bring it here so that members of the authority across West Yorkshire could ask questions of the officers about what the current state of players and how quickly we can get to a a more stable arrangement for the travelling public. So, Simon, did you want to just sort of start this and then we can ask questions and subsequent. Thank you. Thank you, Cher Lucy, as you rightly say
it's very much been the focus of
Simon Warburton - 0:06:11
the work of for both myself and and the team here since we returned from the Christmas break, but what I suggest is out, I'll just quickly guide members through.
the short note that we've circulated here, which of course we will subsequently publish as an appendix to to to the papers on the on the website.
so we took the regrettable but necessary decision to close the bus facility, a proper interchange from the end of business on Thursday and the fourth of January.
and that was following growing concerns that we had around the structure.
brought about by a combination of the adverse w weather conditions that are underway and the ongoing work are taking place within the facility.
the short history to this is that on the 22 of December.
I am quite a sizeable piece of concrete fell into the underground car park underneath.
the interchange and I took the decision to close the car park in the first instance.
for a public safety reasons, and we made the necessary alternative parking arrangements for users of the car park at that point.
we then instigated further inspections and, within the capability of of the team alone, we were unable to satisfy all bar concerns around the structure and therefore, in the light of considering our public safety responsibilities.
we decided to make sure that no members of the public could be placed into danger and instigated a an emergency operation, I'll come on to that in a moment, and members may well be aware of the fact that there has been work ongoing on the bus facility a business case 8.5 million pound business case for that work was approved by the Combined Authority in December.
at 20.21, and at that point, was increased from an additional indicative budget of 2 million pounds which had been suggested at the start of the previous year.

6 Passenger Experience Update - Bus and Rail

so that work could be undertaken to address the principle structure, the bus station is highly unusual, are in in it's in its nature and has buses operating over an elevated area.
supported by a continuous concrete slab and above a cavity, which has served as as the basement
car park,
we have instigated inspection work, we've appointed the parties to undertake the inspection work that in itself is a challenging undertaken at this point because of the recent history, in terms of rack inspections mean in the that particular supply chain is is is very much stretched.
I only make that reference to rack because of some of the challenges it's bringing for us in terms of timescales, I should stress that we had already undertaken a RAC survey.
of the exchange, and we don't believe that RAC is, is the cause of the specific issue here, the initial inspection that we've had, has confirmed to us verbally that we were right to take the decision that we took in in the first instance, and so that a full survey of what is in the order of an acre of continuous slab covered over time by
various internal fittings and so forth can be undertaken, that is an inspection process that will take a matter of weeks,
and that was the reason why, on that, I think the January we issued further public information to confirm that the bus station will remain closed for at least the next two months, so as to allow time for all of that inspection work to take place and for me to be able to bring an advice back and we have therefore had an emergency operation plan in place since the evening of the 4th of January we do have emergency operating plans already agreed around each of our bus facilities and,
where are our plan here has enabled us to temporarily operate the majority bus operations in the Hollings, Nelson Street area and we've supplemented?
that with
were with the use of the Jacobswell car park, which is now operating as a temporary lay over an area or, and there is that there are a range of incremental improvements that we've made to add information, pedestrian signage, and we've also had great support from our industry partners in that regard, so it's a testament that,
at 7.00 the next morning we had 16 members of Combined Authority staff, the bottles have significant numbers of of bus operator staff all working very flexibly Withers to help to advise the public, and we're very grateful of that equally we've had terrific support from colleagues in Northern Rail who've now accommodated a temporary travel centre.
in the Northern Rail ticket office or in the rail station, which again is hugely beneficial for the for passengers.
we have a daily liaise on arrangement in place.
with
both are bus operators and also council staff, and we've now moved to a 3 times a week or stand-up call with with bus operators and all of the temporary operations has been overseen by.
by Mick Bunting and of course, what we now start to do is to turn our minds to what else can we continue to do to improve, and just through the last week we've put additional arrangements in place to make sure that local businesses can be best serviced while protecting passengers and so forth, and we're very clear that our objectives are as follows. So firstly, to protect public safety in the area, secondly, to ensure that we can assist the Council in managing traffic in the area, recognising the important services continuing to progress with the transforming cities fund works that are underway,
in the area and also the work to.
remove the former NCP car park on the corner of Holdings or Nelson Street.
we are conscious of the potential for wider congestion impact in the city centre and again working closely with Council colleagues on that and what we now look to do is to continue to develop a facility that can be best managed in the interests of passengers, operators and, and this et cetera as a whole.
the second key area of work has been around assets and estates, the the interchange sits adjacent to a number of.
operating buildings, and we also have a tenants and who've been treading out of the the interchange area, so we've looked to make sure that all of those interests are cats up to date on the operation and our anticipation in terms of any impact on business.
and we are also
through that work, managing down, for the time being, the work that was previously underway on needs change, and all of that work is being overseen by Dave Dave Haskins
and his team, including now the the inspections work, we have looked to maintain regular communications and Nick Appleyard, who had a combined authority, communications team, as I was saying that were looking to stay closely with both council and and operators.
and we do recognise that there will be costs and impacts associated with. These are arrangements that there are lost revenues both to ourselves and also to the council, and clearly we recognise that there are third parties on our premises as well. Who will face issues in that regard, and so we are are one and there are also. There will also be costs associated with the interim arrangements that we put in place and also costs that that might follow if there is any knock-on impact for the current contracts for other works in the city centre. But we are, as I stress before, looking to manage those at very closely, so we've established a mechanism to capture all of these costs. We will be noting in the budget report to the February Combined Authority that there will. This will present an additional budget item for the Combined Authority budget
and then we will look to bring forward some form of initial estimate
on that in a an update report to the Combined Authority in March and finally, all aspects of the operation and the engagement,
and are being overseen by a Gold command arrangement that we've stepped up inside the organisation since 4th January.
I chair, that and we're also I also, I'm learning a twice weekly GOLD interface.
session with lead officers within the council and happy to take any questions Chair.
thank you very much, and so this obviously I said no, not since hugely
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:17:25
inconvenient playful, I suppose from my point of view, first of all what kind of measures were put in place as to what the customer experiences and how can we improve it because obviously I am getting messages from people on a daily basis saying you know when is it gonna be sorted, how do I do X Y and Z and I want to have some kind of measure about how they're experiencing things as they go forward to any improvements we need to make when it's named quickly shop voucher and so we've got officers on the ground who are speaking to passengers
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:17:52
at various Stockholm locations throughout the city.
we are enhancing our offering the realm rail station in terms of the travels temporary travel centre option that we've got there for
Mr MickBunting (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:18:01
available for passengers and wow we continue to work with operators to ensure that these that the disruption plan is is is working and that we're monitoring them Detchant information about journeys to ensure that performance is where we need it to be.
so wow we've got that constant interface with passengers. We are working closely with them. We are speaking with them but completely understand that, particularly in the early stages of the disruption plan, where there was some confusion as as as can be understood with passengers, but we needed more people on the ground, so to have that interface with them. We are finding, through anecdotal evidence, from speaking to people that they are now settled with the CA current arrangements, but that's not breeding any complacency from elsewhere. We are working on our next phased and disruption plan that will work alongside officers of the Council at all hours are one and the Council to develop its TCF plans and the works in the city so that we can work in harmony with that and with operators. So there is a a large amount of work ongoing. We've also got our accessibility coordinator was working closely on the ground, to work with accessibility groups and speak with people who may have additional needs with their transport and put in mitigations in place with bills as well. We've got Health and Safety Team on the ground, and I've got a further meeting with my officers on a Wednesday,
with with a list of issues that have been identified to ensure that all mitigations are being and continue to be put in place to ensure that the passengers are or are safe, as well as accessibility issues are taken, care officer would continue to engage with the public with operators and with Council officers to ensure that everything that can be done is being done to ensure that passenger experience it is as good as it can be.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:19:56
so if we can have some kind of measures we go on so that we as politicians can just see how that is improving over time, that will give us some reassurance, I think, and obviously people who are regular bus users may be getting used to things, but what pattern of the new people as well? We might be trying to bus out for the first time, that's what people to do, is it gonna be more difficult for them to actually enter the bus market if you like, because there isn't a central bus station for them any more, and I saw the magic question is how long is this discussion gonna last? I suppose
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:20:28
you, you've probably aware, I can't answer that specific question, Councillor Ian scrif, but what I can say is that it's in terms of my element of the operational planning and the disruption plan around this central to that is the passenger experience or so in terms of new people coming into the network and in attracting people into public
Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:20:50
transport. Now that we are, as as Simon said at the beginning, we're aware that we're staying at Jerk as well for the for the next two months, and potentially beyond that, we are now setting up a more permanent temporary fixture at the rail station in terms of the passenger information facility that we've got there, so we're doing everything we can to make it as easy as we can for passengers and we've got people deployed around the city as well as around the interchange as well, and will continue to do so and as our disruption plans, change will ensure that we enhance that offer on the ground. I've got a number of operational leads, who I have daily contact with, I've got daily standup calls one of those leaders about the resource planning and, in his role, is to ensure that the passenger needs are taken care of and that we've got the right people on the ground to deal with those issues. So I can give you that assurance. At least
the time is yet uncertain, it's what you're saying and other questions for Councillor Ushaw.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:21:46
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 0:21:49
thank you Chair just start actually Francome erectus accessibility team, we went on site after some concerns were raised about the routes as well, and they went on site really fast, so it was really appreciated just on the on a survey, I guess in a length of time it'll take, so obviously we're saying two months and it's close to two months, but presumably and it's just about how we frame it to the public as well, but presumably that survey is not going to come back and say actually it was all right all along and you'll be able to reopen it. So there's an indeterminate amount of time after that. Where works, if possible, will have to be undertaken. Yeah, I don't obviously don't want you to make it comes announcement now, but I think it's important that we kind of acknowledge that because if we're not careful, we're kind of saying, just as he did then Jacobs Well for two months, but in reality if it's surveys gonna take two months, we can presume, with some significant works to follow, and I think that the issue with the communications is the public a kind of sense in that, but because we're not Kennedy bullying power to frame that appropriately, that's where people think something else is going on, and therefore we will kind of want to avoid that. So I guess it's almost more of a coming into question because I know full well you won't be able to say, and we think it'll be this long after, but it's just really to underline the importance of that threatening because yeah, when I speak to people, I say Well, we can all read between the lines and understand this could be significant length of time and everyone accepts about, but the conversations are starting from a place of frustration, at a perceived lack of information because of the nature of how hard it is to to provide a.
could you provide us a bit more information on the overlap with our transforming cities work in the city centre, because that's always severely varied, so as we go into City of culture 2025 timescales would tie already?
and it's a really good scheme, it's gonna deliver those good outcomes, but there's obviously a lot of interaction we're being to change in that, and it's mentioned a little bit in the report, but can you just provide a bit more detail on that place yeah certainly so colleagues
Simon Warburton - 0:23:50
may well the ones who are just on the the the issue of of timescales Y you're absolutely right Councillor that at this stage we don't know
for certain the nature of works
that will be needed to put what or whatever issues we find bright, you're absolutely right to point that we need to plan for a series of scenarios and, and that's that's precisely.
what we are are doing now, so so this two-month period gives us the time to have set out very clearly between ourselves.
the council officers and and also colleagues in in in bus companies, how we would respond to a series of different scenarios arising from the inspections and programme, and we are very, very conscious of the fact that within that we now need to have options.
that we could genuinely mobilise that would safeguards the presentation of the city centre for Bradford 2025, should the inspection proved to demonstrate that there are very significant issues to to to be addressed, so that is very much the focus of all of of the work now and in terms of transforming cities works on on Hollings, as, as things stand at present, the the traffic management plans are such that the programme was looking to retain bus access through Hollings or and therefore it coincides what we want to make sure is that there's
the right understanding of what's also needed at the same time in terms of the bringing down of of the car park, so from a TCF perspective, I think we're comfortable with Highways officers or in the Council that that the that is manageable, but we're making sure that we're absolutely right as well in terms of the removal of the structure which of course is critical in terms of the presentation of the city centre.
yeah, I mean just to come back SB the key milestone in cities coming up in March, when the Bush changes come in altogether, so that
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 0:26:16
obviously there will be a move in fixed for now, but I got to the key thing I think will all be entered.
thank you very much, Councillor Shah, any of your questions or comments from people.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:26:24
Councillor Firth.
thank you, Chair yeah, my question is more what people saw in terms of profit council officers, how many pay Hamlet officers have been said in my role at the moment within the council, particular think about wardens, et cetera, what is the plan for the Combined Authority to redeploy WYCA staff to cover those roles so that wardens are taken away from their role for two months or as one of the most highly populated and busy wards in the district?
Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:26:57
thank you, Councillor Bellusci, a good question. So we are working very closely on all the signs that we've got on them and interface with our Gold command team between ourselves and senior Bradford Council colleagues, and this is this is one of the resource planning, is a standard agenda item on there, so it's something that we are mindful of, and we've also got operational teams who are working together to ensure that workloads are managed monitored and that we look at the longer-term going forward in terms of again Lincoln into Councillor Rogers point as well in terms of the and future planning from an operational side, understanding that we don't know the long term prognosis on the situation. There's a number of the number of scenarios that we're planning far so that any eventuality is covered in one of those key areas in that operational planning is is about resources. So I cannot give you a specific
view on what that's gonna look like going forward, but we are working really closely with the with the council and understanding that we need to balance the they pull on their resources with with with their other statutory and other functions within the Council, and it is a key part of our resource planning in in both the operational elements and the Gold command so it is it is being looked at.
time and in Bradford Council staff had been taken away on any other date as to beyond this event, Melkington helping people to navigate.
I think if I could come back to you with a specific number, I think
Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 0:28:24
it's difficult to give a specific number because we're using and we're working with Bradford colleagues for different things at different times, so to give a a specific number of of staff that are fully deployed to this one and in terms of that question in with any degree of accuracy if I can go back to colleagues and get that information for you that will perhaps be the most prudent way of answering that one thank you.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:28:47
I think that will be key for Members in Bradford to be kept up to date on that, because it is a question that's gonna be asked and it has a massive impact on results potential. Thank you Councillor, further away, I think it's a good point to say actually, if it is gonna go on
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:29:03
for a length of time, then those staff need to the backfilled recap to take them off from their duties without backfilling those staff because there is ongoing need ongoing lots of work for wardens to do across the district and obviously in city ward as Councillor First says, so that is something that needs looking at Angela just to support those people
any more comments or questions on this item.
no, I'm if this is obviously going to be something that comes back on a regular basis now, because obviously this is a combined authority, yes, if that is gonna, need significant amount of investment, it is significant disruption for Bradford the significant ongoing people costs to make sure that no other Bradford Council responsibilities are not diverted from to to support this work, so let's keep revisiting this and make sure that there's a solution, so of course,
and we're just a bit of a plea on the communications that we can get regularly as Councillor Roger says we need to be really ongoing, even if there's nothing to say we need to say there's no update this week and I think that probably needs to be a regular notes on the combined theory website or through bus timetable channels said this is what's happening this week.
a and a bit of a feedback loop to us, so we can actually make sure people are comfortable, navigating the way round, Bradford city centre and getting onto buses, and if there's any learnings we can take as we go on, let's take those and implement change, so let's just make sure that happens. Thank you very much.
so moving on now, then to the rest of the report, which is also passenger experience update, we do have a bus operators here and train operators had already introduced themselves at the start of the meeting, thank you very much for coming today.
we'll I think we should probably put it in two halves, do bus versa and then then rail, if that's all right, so if we want to start with the bus operation updates from a passenger experience point of view, Dave D Johnson I'll certainly do that I'll give a very, very brief
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:30:59
overview as I mean it's quite a long, long report and probably a bit less dramatic than what we've just been been hearing about but no no less important as it relates to the passenger passenger experience out there in West Yorkshire.
starting with with the bus.
some key points in the report weekday bus use in West Yorkshire are 87% of baseline now compounds a pre pandemic, and at weekends it's up to 89% that compares to 82% last year, so we've seen some some some steady growth over that period and indeed park and ride sites were at 81% so there is there is improvement overall.
in terms of servants service changes, we've already referenced the work that's been going on in Bradford, and there's a link to point 9 to a full details of all bus service changes across West Yorkshire moving onto the bus network performance. Obviously we have to give the bus operators in the room would be able to answer questions around these. These points that set out in the table below 2 11 sets out going back to the period between July and September. Bearing in mind it may be some more recent information now available are reliability and punctuality figures are falling low lower than the expectation in terms of work respect, and we're expecting your liability at 99.5 and punctured to 95. Also notable is the drop in punctuality between August and September down to below 80% ourselves, so it's quite a significant change over the full period
moving on to real-time information and Members will be aware we've previously given updates on the real-time information system and, in particular what we often refer to as the ghost bus problem, where passengers are standing at bus stops and not not getting the information they feel they're getting we've undertaken quite a bit of work over the last number of months working very closely with bus operators to understand.
what were the primary causes are and looking at some solutions as part of that, and there are still some issues around ghost buses, which relate to the recording of cancellations of buses in a timely manner, obviously, if buses are cancelled on the system they then still show up on on-street for people and that's that's at the root of some of the problems did this this this has improved over time and it's pleasing to say anything some of that is a result of the close partnership working that has taken place there.
we also identified some systems system issues which could improvements in or on the technology side, so we were confident that there will be some quite significant improvements over time around around the real-time information system moving on to the in terms of what called from pricing what I'll do here is upbringing a little bit of information from the following report which is the basic bus service improvement plan report where it references,
the maize farmers in particular will start off with a very brief overview from Andrew, because some survey work has been undertaken with passengers to understand the benefits of mass affairs and then one centuries introduce that bit, I'll go on to talk about what changes fact to be made to affairs and pricing in general in in and about to come into play.
Andrew Fitzpatrick - 0:33:59
I thank the running of one Andrew Fitzpatrick from wishing to provide authority to announced the researchers patient intelligence team here, so we've run an online, we've even used an online panel survey, I'm gonna share my screen to to share some results. These are our are in Item number 7 Appendix 2 so I was gonna whizz through these that's located on which can use the same slides that are on the
so we used a year on online panel in October to assess the impact of mayors versus three reasons for doing this one, it provides local evidence to we've got nothing in the captions dated, it specifically attributes the impact of mayors. There's two, the pattern has changed, so there's that disentanglement element of the COVID recovery versus the impact of the fares initiative, and we want to act to explore people's perceptions about the impact on the cost of living crisis. Not gonna get through all the slides apologies from speaking quickly that they are in the pack, but first of all yes about awareness, as you see on screen on the PAC that we've got
the majority of people saying that they are aware and this rises to 78% for, are regular users, regular users uses the BCF definition of those people who use the bus at least once a week, so a good amount of people who are aware note that just over a third of people who who basically never use a bus are still aware of of the of the intervention, so here we ask whether people had increased their bus use versus before my affairs that was before September 2022 and this is across the whole sample of 1,000 people, I should say this is 19 to 60 or 65 year olds. This is turn up and go fare paying passengers and it is weighted by age gender,
district and ethnicity, to be representative, to be a representative sample. So here we see that when we ask people whether they are using the bus, more or less so, we've got 25% people who said that using the bus more than before September last year see so that's a net gain versus the proportion who said that they are using it less. When we explore that in a little bit more detail, we then ask those those 25% of the sample whether that was because of the fare cap initiative and 67% are two thirds of those people said that they were using the bus more because of mayor's fares and what you see on the right-hand side is, we ask people what how they were making those journeys for Mayor's fares to to look at whether there had been Modeshift, whether there was new journeys and you can see that there has been a shift at least self-reported from particularly passengers using the car younger people using the car using Mayor's fares. I should say that actually, that that figure kind of rises, depending on a couple of kind of demographic attributes, so younger people are using the must more of the same. These numbers more because of mass barriers and people are particularly nasty, so particularly black British Caribbean African backgrounds are using the bus more because of mayors, mayors,
I should also say that regularly uses people who are already using the bus, quite a bit at least once a week, are using the bus more, so it's not necessarily even introduced lots of new people, but people are basically using the bus more.
I won't go through all of these, but there is a degree of people who are using the bus the same amount, we posted them the same question whether they're using the same you know with these numbers the same amount as performance as fares, whether the weather that had influenced their decision CC on here so 38% of the almost half of the overall response to the reason the bus the same amount have you attribute that to the two minutes for so it's essentially a retention element here too.
we asked about buses for those people who have the 19% who are using the bus less, and the majority of this was came down to personal circumstances. There was a certain proportion who do state, they are using the bus, less often because of reliability and punctuality issues, but the majority of them are a change in personal circumstances. If we combine that data together, what we can say is out of the whole sample. So just over 1,000 people, we can say that 35% of those arrived at number 1, using the bus more because of mass barriers or have retained in terms of being a customer on the bus because of mayor's fares. Finally, we asked them to a series of questions about the potential impact, particularly in light of the cost of living crisis. In relation to mayor's fares, as you can see that I can have a positive sweet of
of results, we've got over half of people saying that it makes them easier to use the bus.
Over half of people agree that the mayor's powers makes it easier for them to get around West Yorkshire 60%. Agreeing that makes him makes it easier for them to make multiple journeys on the on the same day, and a good percentage of people who are would recommend using the bus because of the fare cap. Finally, last point is this. This research that we've done here sits alongside a wider suite of research DFW doing their own research, transport focus and into two waves of survey work. We have our own annual public perceptions of Transport Survey 2, which asks about confidence, find the best value ticket. I shared with you last year, I intend to do the same again this year and finally, we are commissioning a wider piece of work on fares and ticketing in general, where we will revisit some of these questions so we can see the change through time
happy to answer any questions if there are any.
that's OK. I will do so, I'll pick up on the range of it's only a little bit more to go around the bus side and then we'll get on to the
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 0:39:30
operators and questions so so linked to what Andrews just said. Obviously, some very positive feedback around there. As far as the perception of first-person use, use of of buses as a result of that intersect in a report to the key. The key thing for me is that the domestic fares was originally set up and it was due to have inflationary impacts are built into the cost increases, which were to come in at the end of year. 1
we did hold other affairs were held in September, mainly on account of the fact that the government then introduced a national 2 pound fare scheme, and we it was our intention, and it remains our intention to remain in line with national fare of 2 pound, as the government's setting-up scheme, which we are not part of mayor's affairs, is being paid out of Derby CIP as we've referenced already, so as a result of not being able to increase the affairs. There are some unexpected pressures that came in in terms of marriage affairs and, as a result of that, we will be moving to increase the for pound 55 to 5 pound from beginning of March. Now this brings it in line with Manchester and is still lower than the Liverpool fare that they have operating at the moment as well. And overall, when we look at the fares, increase on Mayor's fares and the other ones, which I'll just talk about in a minute, the overall increase in the average fare across the whole network to bus passengers, because we're holding a 2 pounds there is in the order of 2 to 3%, so it it's much lower than many people might have expected in this in this period of cost of living crisis,
there are some other affairs increases are being brought in.
through the West Yorkshire ticketing company limited, which is a separate entity to to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, this is to deal with a range of a range of products where affairs have been held over time so for instance 219 fares have been frozen for about the last three years now, so there is a level of catch-up that has been required in terms of replacing those products within the overall framework of what are pricing it across ticket.
there the could then the key elements that I wanted to bring about here, it is key to remember that this is a long-term programme we've got around there as far as we need to be using the be so similar, abusive money that governments are giving us for 24 25 to effectively assisting contributions to longevity of Maya's affairs as a result of us holding holding the thousands low as we possibly can over this period of time.
thank you very much for that, and obviously a mess has had a great
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:41:54
impact on that 2 pound thousand overtime, and often we get asked to it's great that the government is extending this actually because the mayor was first in the country put in 2 pounds per espousing, then it is actually a decent money it pays for that rather than national governments, but great that can continue not just with the passenger uplift but of course for the cost of living crisis, because people are really still struggling and therefore it is great that they can travel for less and get connected to work and leisure opportunities for less Councillor Keller. Did you want to comment? First of all, not
no, I'm fine, nothing, obviously that comes into the next report any way around the the mess says Britain keeping that going, but that's
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 0:42:36
guaranteed now, until March 2025, what we've been trying to get some clarification on this is what might happen with the government scheme around the national.
affairs because we don't know whether, at some point that was originally supposed to go up to 2 pound 50 at some point we haven't had any answer on that, so I think it would be clear to get the answer to see them what other areas decided to do with those funds.
thank you very much, so, questions on buses, I think I'll say passenger experience is something that we all hear a lot from for our
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:43:07
constituents and we haven't bus operators with us today, thank you very much for coming here today, I think there's any questions for our colleagues Councillor Hutchinson,
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 0:43:16
thank you, Chairman, can I pass on the apologies of Councillor patient who has had to move to deal with an incident at school?
as we've seen, the figures for reliability and punctuality are going in the wrong direction and the ones, certainly the ones that have been presented to us, and we have heard from the report that has just been given that that does play a role in people deciding not to use the bus bus services any more than they than they absolutely have to.
and against that it's disappointing to see what the new, the recently announced changes to timetables, further cuts to the frequency of services on the core network in Calderdale, from Halifax to Bradford, going down in the evening, going down from hourly to two hourly, from Halifax to Leeds going down from half hourly to hourly, from Halifax to Hebden Bridge, going down from half hourly to hourly, and when that's combined with poor reliability, if your hourly bus service is cancelled, then it means there's two hours to have to wait, and it's even worse. Obviously if it's too early. So I really am very disappointed that those such severe cuts to frequency are still having to be applied on what has been determined as our core network
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:44:54
sir, is that a question to First Bus is it's First Bus, yes, and one, I'm not sure if you know, if that particular service got slave from Halifax Calderdale point of view.
yeah, thank you, Chair I, I think there's a there's a few points here
Cllr Moses Crook - 0:45:05
that I'd like to like to pick up at first of all.
Brandon Jones - 0:45:14
ourselves and and I'm sure, like other operators, constantly work really closely with both the local authority and the Combined Authority to improve reliability and punctuality, and naturally I fully accept there is much more work for us to do, but when we look at that trend particularly when we look at the period up to Christmas last year there's been significant improvements.
in reliability and punctuality, now some of that is driven by the fact that we've worked very hard to retain and recruit staff.
whether that be through salary through terms and conditions.
we are starting a driver apprenticeship scheme next week which will be launching during apprenticeship week.
we've also sign up to a real living wage from April, so there's a lot of work going on in terms of our staffing position, and that is.
showing in terms of the statistics and the data that there is some improvement now, certainly compared to last year, punctuality wise, which is more affected by things like traffic congestion, we are making regular adjustments to timetables now I do appreciate in some cases where that demand and that capacity is required, we are putting extra resources in and certainly the changes that we introduced last December is certainly showing some strong punctuality improvements.
on the other side of that we have to react to traffic conditions and just taking Bradford this example, we put eight extra buses into that network just in the last few months, to be able to manage and maintain that service network so there is resource going into the network where that capacity and demand allows. I appreciate where those corridors are
the demand is less, we have to make adjustments and optimise our network, to where the where the resources and where the demand is needed so.
we, we do recognise that some of those changes are necessary, but where we can see growth, we are putting that growth in and we are, as an operator, very much focused on on the growth network now, but also a reliable network.
and those timetable changes that we are have announced recently are, and putting more changes in in February is very much about being data-led, so trying to improve that puncture unreliability so that our timetables match the conditions on the road so.
I can go away and look at some of those specific details and look at some of our plans ahead, Councillor in terms of specific corridors, but this is a very much a data-led approach that is putting resources back into the network, where we can see growth in demand but also trying to put in place a timetable that's reliable for the customer.
thank you very much, Councillor Hutchinson, I've got Andrew Guinness,
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:47:55
would like to come back and thank you Chair I can answer to specifics
Andrew McGuinness - 0:48:00
because I represent the operators collectively are not an operator or myself but in terms of generally, of course operators have no direct control over the highway network, clearly that's done local authorities, so there's three main areas which are which come disrupting can affect reliability and punctuality, one is as a large number of major schemes
across West Yorkshire, genuinely and again, that's a positive thing, that's both road schemes and good for economic impact for West Yorkshire, that's positive, of course you don't make an omelette without bacon, unfortunately I can bring disruption there's congestion at peak times, which I'm sure will be aware of.
but also live disruption, so things like roadworks, things like no disruptions, and there is places where the strategic road network can also impact on and on the local network, and so there is challenges that there is areas where we can be better and, for example, Live issues such as the coordination of roadworks as is one of them that belief local authority, colleagues are something shadow frustrations from
on the and statutory undertakers.
and sometimes roadworks can be badly coordinated, there's an interest in start the sooner Manchester unfortunately had one of the specifics that for West Yorkshire yep, I'll I'll take an action, what 10, but we had to stay on an average journey times in Greater Manchester our Chief Executive articulated a conference in Manchester last year and that was the decline of average bus journey speeds over the last three years.
and what that means is the swapped buses are then clearly or software, as others haven't to adapt to that environment urban said eight vehicles when in Bradford and talk and operate as on the way, and I think a conservative number post COVID would be 20 vehicles across West Yorkshire to deal purely with traffic and life conditions, and that obviously affects the economic performance of services, because you don't ultimately have automatically another 20 sorry and passengers proportionate to another 20 vehicles in there if anything.
just saying Councillor, if there's liability challenges if anything it isn't customers, so I would always consistently issue the challenge that we need to do more collectively on the highway network. As we appreciate we have a finite roadspace, we can't just build roads, it will not flying buses unfortunately, but always challenge what we can do or more nothing, we would always value your challenge to authorities, I think, would always value your partnership work on however as possible there but bus operators have to operate the life challenges of the day.
when that work, which I think is probably one of the biggest challenges, I would say thank you, thank you, I mean, obviously we can always improve Caribbean coordination, but I think we all have to
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:51:16
recognise we're always going to have roadworks, you know, Yorkshire and Watson that adverse Maine Northern Gas Networks managed to get back to the pipe that's not performing so that's always going to happen so we're always gonna have roadworks and that is just part of day to day business and making sure we manage those as effectively as possible.
Councillor Edwards, you had a question. Thank you Chair, and I would
Cllr Annie Maloney - 0:51:40
welcome some of the data about the Mayor's fares and the impact, and
Cllr Oliver Edwards - 0:51:47
one of the points that I saw was the giving an example, the number 60 and there was an increase in services, and there was also an increase in patronage, which I think demonstrates that if you put the services on and if they run on time, people will use them, but we need those services. However, I wanted to pick up on the points about ghost buses, so too, which is a big issue in the area that I represent, and it's an issue in many wards, especially outside of the city centres, and it's still happening
and it was talking about the pus, the report talks about bus operators not reporting these in a timely manner, so I'd like to ask each of the operators here today, will you commit to any cancellations being reported immediately as soon as people in the depot know that that cancellation?
this is happening, it needs to be reported immediately and if it is not reported.
whichever member of staff. It is whose job it is to do that there needs to be consequences, because in areas like mine and other areas that can be very serious for people, if, if they don't know whether the bus is coming and one that is on you, and that is something that you can do so can we have that commitment around ghost buses, and also in terms of accountability? Andrew, you talked about partnership work and I agree that's what we would all want. However, for that to work, we need to know that we're getting data from the bus companies, and we also need to have that partnership. I'm pleased to see that Jan staff are here today and because in all the time that I've been on this committee, it's the first time we've had to you here, it's good to see two of you. In fact, however, my wards has three services, the A1, the A to the A 3. These provides a crucial connection between Bradford and Leeds to the airports, but they're essential for people who are working in the area. They're essential to visitors,
I've contacted Jan Stef on a number of occasions through different means and I've never received a response to any of my e-mails, any of my attempts can I put it to you that that is not a spirit of partnership, that's not a good spirit of good partnership work and it's completely unacceptable when, as a company you are receiving significant amounts of public subsidy,
so I would like a commitment to better partnership, work from trans staff, and particularly around some of the airport services, including the A1 where there have been a number of cuts or changes. And first, as one hi I have had contact with First and Branson, I know we've met before and some your colleague Keighley, and that's welcome. However, when we've asked for bus performance data, we've got I've been told, but it will be provided, but several months later we're still waiting for that or we've been told that it can't be shared because of commercial sensitivity, commercial sensitivity on routes where there is only one bus which is most wow, which is quite a lot of my wards and other outer outer areas. What commercial sensitivity is it if there is no competition on that routes and there is not likely to be any competition anytime soon, so can we have can we have a commitment from first to share that bus performance data with us as elected members in a prompt and timely manner I'm I'm talking
a matter a week or a matter of weeks, not months, because again we can't we are here to represent our communities, and it's simply unacceptable to be waiting and waiting and waiting and for this information not be provided, so ghost buses and bus performance accountability. Thank you, Sir, Andrew J likes of I'll probably go
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:55:50
suppositions at something you cannot respond to and then go to the Charles Darwin. First Bus to address councils' new block shall be valid and they'll be one of the operators that's service-specific. OK, I'll give trans staff Tromsø Dodger to
thank you Chair, thank you, Councillor Edwards, and in terms of attendance here yeah, we we bought two to make up for the bus stops you, but actually this is the first time.
in five years of up to 0, probably the 10 years working in West Yorkshire that have been invited to the to the Transport Committee, so sorry nice to.
to be here, an obvious opportunity to to engage in terms of ghost buses.
I think we'd do pretty well that getting our cancellations today on the web and unfortunately there will always be instances in it.
a high pressure situation where you believe a breakdown on the road that that notification may take a little while to filter through, and we certainly aren't perfect at doing it, but rest assured we, we do keep on top of that and ensure that we are getting the processes right behind it. We've also got a couple of system changes coming up with a that will tie in the the feed for cancellations through into all downstream systems. At the moment we have to cancel it. Would you believe three different times in three different systems because the systems don't always talk to each other, but thankfully that will be resolved by April when we get an upgrade to the system to do that and therefore just counselling at what's in our back office will remove the risk of
whatever coming into there, so yes, I should resolve that in terms of communication and
first of all, sorry if we haven't got that to you.
I do personally I have had a correspondence with you, so I'll I'll drop you a line after this meeting and perhaps if you could share some of the correspondence you've had then I could investigate on your behalf but well that'll correspondence you have set, you've said, sorry, the lack at least trace what's happened to that and make sure you've got the the the right conversation, I know from our regular conversations with Councillor Collett as well that
there's been a couple of instances where things have been fed back to him like stop capital, Councillor colleagues haven't had a response from so yeah, it was investigate that for you, because that's not something we would normally normally do on there and you are more than happy to have a discussion with you about the
the 0 1 8 2 at 83 going forward, hopefully that covered everything you asked of us, but I suspect that you by your face, it may be not so good, you can remind me of anything else, I need to comment.
Cllr Annie Maloney - 0:58:44
and so specifically specifically about accountability and who be contacted a chance. Deaf can you clarify for all of us, because I know there are a number of Members around here whose wards are served by transit services who to week contacts and can NAP information, be shared with us and also with our constituents as well, because at the moment and people sends in comments, members of the public sending a
Cllr Oliver Edwards - 0:59:07
comments it goes into this vast black coal is customer service black hole and nobody knows what happens next. So can we have some specific
addresses or some specific contact details for members of the public and also for us as elected members yeah, I can provide that through the,
through Whicker so we can get that circulated to all members rather than experts, all too often don't know they'll step up more happy to update you on this aspect, that you need to have a look at Christmas service and how that's working behind the scenes is obviously
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 0:59:45
something not not quite working there First, Bus banding
Cllr Moses Crook - 0:59:52
thank you Chair, and thank you Councillor for the questions on, if I could just very briefly pick up on the Ghostbusters issue.
I think my first point is, as you see in the papers, there's a working group are established through the Combined Authority now and actually, and that is a really good platform to share where we are, there are some challenges around data data flow around some technology around some systems, but I can assure you, as an operator working with the Combined Authority it is a focus for us we are,
very aware of those of those issues that occur for customers.
the vast majority of the time it works well, there are times when it doesn't work well, which is really inconvenient and causes a lot of challenges for our customers, and we understand that, and there are four key areas where we're working on really one of them is around software in the way that the our systems analyse that data and how they then turn that into outputs for customers and there are some changes that we've made.
at the end of last year, which is starting to see some improvements. It's not just one solution. The second, as you point out, is around how our staff manually intervene and make those cancellations occur on your right. There have been occasions for various reasons. When we've not been as good as we could have been in doing that, we've put a lot of our work in terms of both training and resource, to to improve that process. There are still times of the day and days of the week when there are a significant amount of issues that recurring on a network that that mean it is quite difficult to prioritise that when there are some sort of priorities, but we need to manage that more effectively as effectively as we can
but there has been a lot of work going into that and we are starting to see improvements on the ground.
one of the things we're trialling in another location, absolutely but across our EWHC UK bus network is something called automatic cancellation, so the manual intervention is required less, but our our systems can automatically process that through to give our customers a better solution. So as that trial, follows on will be able to see if we can replicate that across our networks and the last one is, it is just the network technology so updating our ticket machines with with 4G technology, rather than some of the 3G technology that would be currently used on there. So there's quite a lot of work going on and it is improving, but the, as you rightly say, there's a continued focus
from the operator side, to make sure that there is sufficient resource to do that, manual intervention, and that is happening.
in terms of data.
we we do provide a lot of data through the Combined Authority already on, and we have had conversations around opening that up, particularly around where the congestion hotspots are around our network so that we can work closely with the authorities to to target interventions, I think as a general principle,
we are keen to share that data, I need to have a look at what the specifics were that you asked about to be able to then share that, because clearly, if you're asking it s in respect of one ward then I think we need to look at how we would share certain amounts of data more across the network and BAPS that's a conversation we need to have with the Combined Authority about how we do that but but in principle and we want to share data because we want to share performance with with customers and with stakeholders so that we can share where the challenges are as well as where the benefits are.
thank you very much and have been Councillor Carlin at this point,
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:03:37
just slightly against bus thing, and I I think there is something wider here about customer experience and the passenger charters and it we're talking about just then that I've had this again and again that people don't get their e-mails, responded to, and I do think there's something for us to look at that. So if we not, if the services from the operators are not responding, then how do we have alone as a whole system and therefore I would like us to look at that, perhaps do something about the passenger charter and see how it operators are performing against that. At the next meeting, I think I've got something to do, but, Councillor Carole, you wanted to come in on the Ghostbusters, yeah, I can do because obviously we reported, I think,
Cllr Peter Carlill (Deputy Chair) Transport Committee - 1:04:19
at the last few of the Transport Committee is around this working group, that's been set up and that's looked at a number of the issues around ghost buses. I think at first it wasn't clear, in fact, where all of the
the issues were coming up on where the most significant problem was, there's been a few data problems that have been put right, they've been a view.
different changes in process, but I think that it shows in this report that the main one we're seeing is it is buses not being effectively cancelled so that it still shows on the screen, and that is a requirement on operators, I know that in most cases that needs to be done manually and that's a problem but operators have got a position into to do that but we've seen huge fluctuations at times I think in the processes that operators have and then the number that are cancelled.
to the point where there's no static figure and one that shows you that some periods of time, maybe when everything's going smoothly, then everything is cancelled as it should be, because there is enough time in the Deputy dir in the depot to do that. At times when the network is hit hard by relative reliability problems, perhaps then things aren't being cancelled as they should, perhaps because quite rightly, there are staff in the depot have a lot of other things to do, to make sure they're dealing with the problems of not having enough drivers or or you know what boxes going out, but unfortunately at that the one thing that does seem to miss off at that point is cancelling that bus on the system, if it's not gonna, be run as soon as we know, and that's why sometimes, unfortunately, that somebody's waiting for a bus that there's somebody new wasn't come in. In terms of the part of the passenger experience, I wonder if mix able to just remind us a bit of the detail of what's in there, because that's something that came to this committee very recently, isn't it to sign off and just in terms of the responses,
that Councillor Carroll, or Yes I've, for my recollection, is that the passenger charter was launched in March 2023 thrillers committed in
Mr Mick Bunting, Interim Director West Yorkshire Combined Authority - 1:06:05
one of the key elements of that was about customer complaints and passenger feedback mechanisms and the difficulty we had at the time in in centralising that in one and perhaps his reason for some of the comments that have been made today about about that, I've just been on to the colleague who leads on that piece of work and we've asked that the the an addition to the report to the charter, when it's relaunched in April 2024 on its or on its first anniversary, will be a list of key players at your performance, but also to revisit the customer feedback mechanism to see if that's working, what the effective effectiveness is and look at the data through that and to work with operators to bring a or or a refreshed passenger chat to be launched earlier this year, bringing a response to your comments, Chair, we can get something in the next Transport Committee that gives you a or a or an interim update on that position. Yeah, thank you, I'd offset on
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:07:01
sweat until April to make improvements, so I think that working let let sort it now, annual college questions or comments on the bus operators or do move onto rail,
I'm not saying here hands indicating amendments, so if they've onto the rail elements, then is that again Dave that's me again, I'll
Dave Haskins, Interim Director (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:07:22
again, I'll I'll talk through briefly mindful of time here in terms of the rail side of things as opposed to the bus where we do tend to relate the passenger levels back to pre pandemic levels, Rail Rail accompanied Northern transparent now move to a year on year reporting just to be just be mindful of that.
so Norton relating to an 8% increase November to November, community levels remaining stable, but leisure is important market and teepees got 33% increase compared to that time.
but actually there were, you know, a high level of exceptionally high levels of cancellation during that period and demanded his time and that when I did at the previous time that that year.
I will go much into too much detail around that, but if you look at the rail network service changes, I think you'll recall with a number of discussions at the last Transport Committee about the new winter timetable coming in on 10th of December, there were some concerns and issues around or concerns I say around the impacts that would have Northern trains with some reduction in the lengthening of trains and a couple of lines there, and also would TransPennine with introduction than over three and again. My understanding is that the rail operators here today have perhaps some update on some of those issues. We shall be able to give us if we, if we so wish to in the meeting as well.
in terms of network performance and reliability. I think it's fair to say there have been some some big challenges in this area, notwithstanding the fact that the operators may wish to update on the figures we've got here, there's been a significant decline in punctuality, from both Northern and TP and cancellations from Northern have increased and and GPs have also increased but not to the high levels they were previously experiencing, so there's the some areas of concern around performance, so I think it's fair to say overall, of course, there has been some issues within that around availability of rest day working and whether a Network Rail attributable incidents, so Rail Rail performances and next stages are solely a function of the rail operators Network Rail. To do convinced this equation at all, it has to be remembered
I touched on the TP and the rest day working.
I'll pick up very briefly on a couple of other aspects or rail strikes, as a brief, brief bit of tax near him, rail strikes, as you know, we're in a period of have rails rail strikes at the moment, between 29th of January, which is today up to the 6th of February.
and I'd expect it to be some additional disruption on lines due to the Aslef overtime ban.
specifically this Wednesday 31st of January the there is a rail strike where there'll be no, there'd be no or very limited services near, I think, no services actually, as is the case to mention the section in here around upgrades on transplant on o activity on transplanting route upgrade, we have some active groups of work on this and work closely to make sure that this information is communicated clearly to members, because there's gonna be significant disruption coming up over over quite a substantial period of time which we shouldn't lose sight of.
the final couple of things to mention I think
Councillor Hutchinson, quite rightly mentioned before, around the closure of rail ticket officers and consultation that took place around that we have been in discussion with the the rail operators around what measures they are taking to fill the posts because of course there was some Re recruitment freezes in place at the point at which the consultation was ongoing and again we have the operators in the room who who may wish to wish to comment on that and finally, although so have not not patch, we have been informed by Norton that there's introduction of charges for car parking at and infestations around the country. I think that's about nine stations outside of West Yorkshire but be mindful that two of those stations are those which border onto his Wheaton and Connolly. So we are expecting to work closely with Northern to understand the impacts of of those charging
charging matches have been putting in, including where it may have an impact on our own, our own level of patronage of rail heading coming into into West Yorkshire from outside West Yorkshire as well. So I'll leave it at that for now and for the approach to ask any questions or to ask any questions of the a procession. Thank you very much as much
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:11:29
better where it presents yet, so I think two things, big things is, I'll say, the strikes this week as well, so how can you say how you're operating this week and how you're alleviating any pressures and members of the travelling public and then also Councillor Hutchinson's point? Romania are about the ticket offices are and whether you know you're now fully staffed in the ticket office because obviously, after
you held back vacancies and after the government decided not to close ticket offices, then the work we did find there was an a closure of ticket offices or unexpected closure of a ticket offices across West Yorkshire because he just didn't have the stretching of staff, Alan obviously wants to eliminate that now, so some indication on those two items I don't know wants to go first in some northern nor transparent yeah, thank you very much.
Cllr Matthew Morley - 1:12:22
I think just to address the ticket office situation, you're absolutely right, Councillor, that the
the promise was made for us to start recruiting to fill those vacancies that recruitment has started, or we're having to do what you need to be mindful of is do it in a bit of a phased approach because we've got so many.
vacancies that needed that backfill, so we're prioritising the the areas that have been hit the hardest, where we haven't got as much cross cover to allow our training departments that the ability to be able to get that training up and running, so those are being actively advertised and and interviewed for as we speak, and there'll be more and more coming through as the weeks progress to make sure that we fill all those vacancies. So that's from from Northern that's our commitment that we'll be doing it, so there'll be
will be following the commitment to keep ticket offices open for the hours that they were scheduled to be open. For you know, when you be
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:13:29
finished with that recruitment, I'm afraid Lucy is gonna take place
Cllr Matthew Morley - 1:13:32
over the next few months so that we can get them through the training, because our training teams on the a finite resource so we need to, but we've got those training courses funding now over the next few months and will we just fill in those as we go through based on on whatever you know, whether it's a ticket office specific or whether it's ticket office and dispatch a slightly different sort of training requirements? But we've got plans to have all those courses filled and and we'll be doing that over the next few months, but we have got cow cross cover in other places, so we've seen a significant improvement already in the ticket office, opening being able to to cross cover that as well. So there has been some improvement in that
and it just shows us that even even mooting the point that ticket
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:14:18
offices might close has caused a massive disruption across the network actually for the travelling public, so I'd like government to be careful about how they go about making announcements and putting pressure on operators to trim their budgets because it does have long-term consequences and regarding the strikes Kerry did you want to come back?
Cllr Matthew Morley - 1:14:42
yes, some strikes take place on the 31st of January, so there'll be no northern services running on Wednesday this week.
there's action short of strike action, which is a rest day ban for the full week which started yesterday and runs to the 6th February.
so we do expect to see more challenges with being able to cover all our services, so, for instance, this morning SE Yorkshire had about 20 services uncovered at start of day, that's that's pretty much have now, but it is something that could fluctuate as the week goes on, so we do expect to see a higher number of
cancellations this week, but we're trying to mitigate that where we can, it's that there's no flexibility for drivers to be able to move their hours, either as part of the action short of strike action, so it does limit us to to what we can do in some scenarios.
thank you very much, thank you for the opportunity to give a quick give a quick update, so I think that a couple of areas that have been asked about there to recover the strike first, so we won't be running any any services during the main main part of being part of the day the FA the focus is really on making sure that we get the the shutdown and the startup right so we're presenting the least amount at least amount of disruption to customers travelling on the on the daylight days either side.
I think, as we talked about previously at the camp at the CBC, there's.
the action short of a strike weeks have been particularly challenging for TP in the in in the past. So what we're seeing at the moment is that with the timetabled interventions that we made back in back in December, we are looking at a much improved level of level of resilience there, so we're expecting that there will still be around around 20 or so Councillor cancellations happening each each day to cover for the fact that we still have that training backlog, which we're working really hard to clear, clear and clear at the moment, but we will be in a much much better position to where we were in the in November, when I think the last the last strike action took took took place and then in terms of the ticket offices, enclosures are like Northern. We'd been working working hard in the background to recruit, recruit, up and start staffing the to visit good offices
to the to the hours so that spätzle ongoing rather than going relatively well, but we struggle a double a few areas that will need to close out in the next or the next next couple of months we should be seeing much improved opening hours from us thanks I asked first from our point of view, I just want some reassurance that you know you
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:17:22
are absolutely willing to talk to the trade unions and there's no reluctance on your part to come to the table. So it's in everybody's interests to get to a good resolution as quickly as possible.
he earns them absolutely so, are we, with whistle, were standing by to have they have the doesn't have those discussions as clearly as a national aspect, to which we need to be, which we need to be mine mine, mindful of, but when we were absolutely ready to ready to engage when there's a Windsor rather than there's a mandate and engagement, thank you.
and your comments or questions, Councillor Hutchinson, Councillor
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:17:56
Firth, thank you Chair, I would like to understand a bit more about
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 1:17:59
Northern's stations as a place.
policies obviously manned ticket offices and the other services that can be supply provided from them is part of that, but also more widely.
I believe that Northern Hub just decided to f fairly short notice to.
introduce licensing fees for car clubs to use the station, the station car parks, which it's obviously has an impact on the on the hope to increase or reduce the dependency on private vehicles.
and how that fits in with the wider car parking charging strategy, which could be used helpfully if it determines people from, by default, using private cars, to actually get access to the rail network if there are other options open to them, but how it can be done as a kind of coordinated properly thought through process so I would like to know more about.
stations as a place and what we can do to promote that
one sided Dave has been an estate agent's comment that, as I said, as
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:19:30
I have discussed this many times before, actually and from my point of view and I do see station car parks like a park and ride solution really and to get powers of the road from that point of view isn't Helen sorry Hannah, whether it's gonna Helen,
thank you any, we say we have been looking at stations and through a
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:19:49
number of pieces of work for them, particularly in the rail strategy, and about how we can work.
how we can look at kind of building more infestations through place-making and bringing them that kind of interconnectivity around stations.
there's also a piece of work, we're currently doing around mobility hubs and around kind of bringing a number of other connected places through through that, so looking at how we can integrate.
through car clubs and through wider kind of active travel and place-making through their so so we are kind of looking at how we can build a station kind of places if you like, into wider and wider policy.
J Councillor Firth.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:20:28
Cllr Eric Firth - 1:20:34
I thank you, David, in his presentation, touched on communications, and I would just like to mention that quite well and transparent.
because communications are excellent, with Network Rail, the informers well in advance of any blockages that are taking place, and it works in doing, and I'll repeat again, absolute many times people have realised that this is the biggest project at present happening in the country, a Network Rail upgrade as transparent and Touchwood.
it's all working very well at the moment and so congratulations to them at risk.
thank you, Councillor Firth, it's nice to hear that positive feedback
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:21:16
and it is absolutely, as you say, a huge investment for the north of England and wonder if we've been wanting for a very long time, so it's lovely to see it being realised at Councillor Edwards, thank you Chair.
Cllr Annie Maloney - 1:21:29
to put two questions, and so the first one about strikes, which will be a concern to many people, especially those where there is only one
Cllr Oliver Edwards - 1:21:39
operator, whether it's only one rail operator, I mean I I've raised this issue before about relations between the companies and the trade unions and I would put it to you that nobody working for the railways would take the decision lightly to to withhold today's work I mean not only is the impact not only is there the impact on passengers but also it's the loss of a day's salary.
in the middle of a cost of living crisis in the middle of winter, and also in order to get to that point, there has to be a democratic balance within the Union.
and and there we know there are significant issues with sickness ongoing sickness with vacancies, as well as service cuts which can result from that. So can I put it to you and also this has been ongoing. This is not something which has just started, so can I put it to you that relations between the train companies and the trade unions are not good enough and you have a significant responsibility here to members of the public who are paying the consequences of this, and so can I put the challenge to you that you must do better because because this is having a serious impact on the travelling public and that that relationship needs to be improved, it's not good enough at the moment and it's having a serious impact, and so it's a question about the strikes, also a question related to passenger experience. So I and a number of the other Leeds Members on here
I received an e-mail some time ago from a residents this particular resident was talking about the 70 53.
I am trained from Morley to Leeds and which I think starts in, it starts in Wigan and repeated cancellations, however, the points that he was making about the train from Morley could equally apply to other stations as well, and not just in Leeds across West Yorkshire and,
and what he was saying is that repeated cancellations meant that he was getting to work late, he was a young professional DJ, he was getting to work late, the train was the only option for him to get into Leeds.
and as a result of arriving late, he was getting into trouble with his employers.
who quite understandably expected him to be on time, but this is not his fault, and so when there are these cancellations, there are real life consequences for people who need to get to work, who need to get to hospital appointments who have onward transport connections and so from a passengers perspective.
if a passenger is in that situation where their train is cancelled and it's not a one-off, it's a regular occurrence, what were due to what is that person supposed to do in that situation that they are at the station, they're trained in the 7 53 or whatever training is has been cancelled, what are they supposed to do in that situation
Northern 4 July, when scoring first you're absolutely right, you know
Cllr Matthew Morley - 1:24:54
we don't want to cancel any trains, it's as simple as that and and performance before Christmas was showing high levels of cancellation, so we were at 7.00.4%
there are some green shoots, we we have enough train crew, let me be clear, we have the right amount of train crew to be able to deliver the full service we do as you referred to have continual high levels of sickness thankfully as of the 25th of January for this last period the cancellation rate is over halved, so we have seen much stronger performance since the start of the year, which is which is good news.
we continue to drive high levels of training, so we've got currently in the East region alone, 2,660 outstanding training days, but with the help of us having the rescue work agreement we've been able to get through just for the east region over 200 days a week through using that rest day work agreement to get that training down so that's our absolute priority is to make sure we are getting our people through the training and qualified and out doing the job that we
employ them to do and to absolutely drive those cancellation numbers down, and I'm not familiar with any correspondence on the the train that you mentioned in particular, but you you write, you know, people do depend on us to get to work to get to the notice, whether it's be schools, jobs, funerals shopping, you know it's all important to those individuals and we need to. We do need to improve
and then trust benign.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:26:42
yes, I think I think it very, very much the same way. We actually recognise that the challenges our customers experienced when we've got high levels with high levels of of cancellation. So I think that the key thing is the Wickmere we always we've tried to apologise when that does when that does does happen and we do offer until at least some sort some forms of comfort compensation. When that when that happens, we've been working really hard, as I said earlier, to clear the training backlog and get ourselves in better shape. We've seen some real improvement since the December timetable change. There were about 26% better in terms of in terms of cancellations than we worked for that timetable at that time to what was introduced and actually the lot of the a lot of the challenges we have. We've had been much more much more weather, weather weather related another and other infrastructure issues over the last of the last month last month, or so I think, the underlying picture of TB is really is where it is really improving. So hopefully we can. We'd start to that. Customers could start to see some real, sustained improvement from segments to come. Thanks,
and I know Councillor Jones would like to continue this. Also, we are
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:27:45
short of time, but I can I just ask you to also notes seriously his comments around the trade union relations, which obviously does need to improve, otherwise we wouldn't be in this position. Sorry, I think it's probably worth perhaps a longer response to Councillor Edwards'. Perhaps outside this meeting is, I have to say, something briefly, if that's the case are open to answer, that can answer that question. So we have been working really really hard since that the transferring to Bureau H all back in the back in the spring so locally. That has seen the relationship with the trade union in input improved to the extent that we've been able to restore Bristol Wednesday. Working which is clearly helping with our performance performance at the moment and locally relationships are are improving. I think in respect of the dispute which has created the strikes this this week, as I said when I spoke earlier, there's a there's, a national, both national mandate, in play in play here, so there is there is a relatively limited amount that we can we can do. We can do locally, in terms of the relationships and so on, to do it to effect that we have to work with the national with or within that national mandate as it as it stands as it stands today,
thank you, and I want to move on now to the next paper, only one
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:28:56
letter has he got a further burning questions.

7 Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) Update

no, and so am I. Thank you very much for your attendance, I would like the bus operators to save the council, is the next one is about the bus services improvement plan, so it might be something on there that is of your interest and it might be a conversation perhaps with Councillor Edwards before you leave rail operators just to reassure him of your positive action on the items that he raised.
so bus service improvement plan
Helen,
thank you, Councillor Hinchliffe, there's a couple of things in this
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:29:31
paper that we just wanted to work through them, first of all, there is an investment around the phase 3 funding, which is the new government funding for business so we've received the paper sets out the funding we've already received through the basic programme government had proposed a further 13.3 million for 24 25.
them. We would like endorsement from Transport Committee of how we spend that funding over the current year, 11 million of that to go towards measures and a further 2.7 minutes ago. I'm onto network and then them a small amount of money to go into the enhance safer travel, our next stage is to access that funding is to update our enhanced partnership.
so, with endorsement from Transport Committee, that is, that would be our update to the enhanced partnership, is that spending profile so that's building on funding that we're already doing within that enhance partnership?
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:30:32
to jump to a first leaflet. Thank you very much, so obviously for Members who are new to this committed or service improvement plan is money that West Yorkshire or receive from government, and then we decide in Transport Committee, an officer with the Mayor about how that money is spent. About half of it is spent on the mayor's affairs and the other half is spent on service improvements and of course referred has money is reduced with a bus service operation grant, then this has been come to make up for more core services, which is not what his intention was, but some more money we can get some more services the better, and I think we'd all agree on that in the room as anybody got any questions or comments on this paper.
I've got Councillor Hutchinson, then Councillor Hussain,
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 1:31:15
thank you, Chair, and Appendix 1 in this section on risks of the of the BSF programme, it since I'd just like to understand why are busy projects costing more than originally anticipated and obviously there will be the components due to inflation inflation and other other factors that are leading to increased risk from the club from the cost of not being able to then delivered the other.
benefits that the programme is intended to
so the bit you are referring to is the approval that we require from
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:31:52
this paper and through the change request for from the basic funding, so if I go, I go over that and then I can explain the risk would that help that probably make it lazier so through this paper is also requesting an approval for a further or for a further part of the basic funding to support and the super bus services and the first tranche of a new improve improve bus services for through the funding.
the risks, but you require there is essentially setting out increased costs for the services that have come back,
over and above what we'd allow are allocated in the original budgets, so that's for so the number of services we can deliver through the basic that we'd originally set out may be lower than we expected, and due to operators coming back with higher costs then we had allocated originally.
plus inflation is is increasing rapidly, I think that is probably the
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:32:49
explanation that you're asking for Councillor chasing her.
that was the only factor
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 1:32:56
there is another one in there, so I think inflation is apart, there's
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:33:00
another one in nowhere where it has been very difficult over a number of years to see where bus patronage is gonna go, is it gonna get back to 100% or similar, I think when we've made an assumption of the costs from talking to operators early on in the basic programme there's been an assumption that some of that patronage may come back.
we now get new figures that might factor in that patronage not being there, so there's some services that we really wanted to do, which were costed as there's a small contribution, I guess, from the combined authority, but when we've gone back to operators they've said really that they think the patronage it is gonna be lower than they thought so they would like more contribution from the combined authority than previous I think that's a pop-up player as well.
yeah
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 1:33:47
that if those gloomy predictions from the operators don't play out and we find patronage increases, is there some flexibility then to actually regain all rebalance it towards the original assumptions?
yeah, so we have, we have a budgets for the network part of the SEP
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:34:07
Edward, what kind of worked through and understand where we are with each of those services, we can therefore understand how many more services or lengths of contracts we can award through that process.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:34:20
obviously we all get a better off if more people use the bus that we for all sorts of reasons, Councillor Hussain, thank you, DJ check, and
Cllr Abdul Hannan - 1:34:28
me and Councillor Colin Firth to thank the Committee for on behalf of key residents who have benefited from the Mayor's powers those deprived communities that we represent.
is very, very important that we speak at about the ground that they mentioned that they have benefited through this.
COVID crisis and you know the cost of living crisis with the Mesbah has just my questions on the allocated budget on the key towns network seizures one and a half million. Do we have a figure that we have leftover and how much is going to be spent next year on the key 2000 network? Thank you. Thank you. I mean it has been tremendous, isn't it religious this, the superbugs investment has shown really good results
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:35:07
in terms of 21% increase in people using the bus, which is great and I think the syllabus in Leeds as well and obviously we've got some more approvals were done here on the Halifax Huddersfield which I hope therefore will show similar results, so the investments we are making on these additional services is really positive and it's nice to see that Sir Alan did you want to come back on that.
yeah, and I think that's where we can show that we've had when we've
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:35:32
done some investment, and can we've got the output from that think the final thing here was just to have the recommendation that the 3 point 3.1 6 8 million further is released from the programme and to deliver the further suitable services and the additional transform services can I just note one change for those that's in the paper the service 2 1 2 is listed.
and that one will be coming forward as part of this, this tranche of services will be coming forward in a later tranche of services and that's due to costs and timing of that funding coming back.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:36:07
I think in answer to Councillor St question is, is it not is a three year programme? Isn't it a funding for the Keighley programme and I think it may be tapered, but after three years that it has translated will know because Stratford ever run the service, so we liked the Keighley bus service stronger as a bit of positive news, sorry, we're like the Keighley service. I must say anything else after that shortly after the key quote, but I thank you for that. I I think, yes, it is a three-year agreement and the funding tapers. After that there was a potential 2 year extension on the
I think the the interest, if he were really keen to get Keighley early on in this, because actually a cult of communities in Keighley didn't do really see much benefit from those vows because the maximum for a lot of the town's services was 2 pounds, which is why we thought actually going for the 1 pound to offer that would be something that would have some good impact and that's the other routes that only benefit from that we've got 5% growth.
in the first few months, the two routes with increasing frequency are already up to 20% in the it also.
in response to Councillor Hutchinson's point of view, with the the 60 into Leeds
they we've quoted 28% in that, and that's actually perhaps slightly underselling it, because that refers to the root of the whole, whereas at the moment the benefit is primarily between Shipley elites but actually coming out of Leeds where up to 40% growth compared to where we were before and which is credited one or two capacity problems and despite us putting on 50% extra resource we have got some quite busy journeys which is excellent so in response to that will be adding in some extra capacity and will be extending the the Cohen new trips that only one to Shipley through to Keighley for from April will be doing that.
within the funding envelope is already there, so because the response to your point, because it is doing better than we expected, that gives us a framework to do more, and hopefully that creates this some cycle of benefits and say that allows us confidence to to invest in more and hopefully say,
the effects will be witnessed similarly elsewhere as well in West
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:38:31
Yorkshire in due course lovely that's that's great to hear or and good to say that is exactly what this committee wants to see. Of course we invest in trial routes if they work in partnership with ourselves and then increases patronage and gets vehicles off the road and Lismore profitable routes, and that that is essentially what we're all about here, so this money has given us an opportunity to do that and I'm really glad we were using it to the best advantage any more questions or comments on this.
when we've checked approvals, OK, I'm happy to recommend approvals Councillor Cowell, can you second then yeah I've said we are all those in favour, please show
thank you that is carried, so moving on now, then to item Rail Strategy update, we can do that briefly, thank you.

5 Rail Strategy Update

thank you, Councillor Hinchcliffe, so just a brief report here, so
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:39:20
this the rail strategy went out to consultation in the summer last year.
this looked at the full coverage and rail strategy and set out to adopt this year, and we are working towards an adoption at the Combined Authority meeting a match on the 14th. What we would like Transport Committee to do here today is to note them the outcomes of that consultation and how it is taken forward. It should be noted that the rail strategy will be adopted to our current transport strategy. It will then be transferred over to our new Local Transport Plan.
when we hopefully move that towards adoption,
later next year,
the main changes in the rail strategy and following consultation, which was an overall positive consultation, we're really to just update around the rail Vale a rolling stock and decarbonisation to just strengthen can of some of the content around the the other. Update was really the timing of the rail strategy being consulted on and Network North happening in October, we reflected on the consultation for the rail strategy and what Network North was saying and we essentially used Network North as a hook to sort of set out our Conniff
is still keen for some long long distance connectivity and increase the service operation so so within that we set out where we wanted to kind of premature, we were promoting West Yorkshire through Network North and including some key kept clear key areas within that that weren't promoted through Network North, particularly around the T-shaped station for Leeds improved connectivity in western South Yorkshire and eastern West Midlands and electrification of the Calder Valley and the Harrogate line.
and them flagging the penicillin line through that as well, so.
sorry, what we want Transport Committee to do here is endorse the rail strategy and endorse it, moving towards adoption them in March. Thank you. And of course we've seen this as redundant on Gollum, its
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:41:22
development hasn't as it should become a surprise to anybody. Has anyone got any questions or comments on this office forgot to recommend it today? I've got Councillor Hutchinson, Councillor McLoughlin Councillor Edwards,
thank you Chair.
Cllr Colin Hutchinson - 1:41:34
it's good to see that the Corporate Valley line, electrification is flagged up and that this should be a very, very strong business case for that, but it didn't appear in the Network North.
programme, so I would like to make sure that that does get emphasised strongly to to the government, but also the Ann Castle Fields corridor, which would be essential to link the core services and the Colne Valley line with the universities, hospitals and Manchester Airport.
and it's how you how the West Yorkshire Rail Strategy actually references scheme projects that would be needed to happen outside the borders of West Yorkshire and I'm not entirely clear of that.
yeah, thank you, so area strategy focuses on what we want from West
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:42:34
Yorkshire and what we're working on it work within my structure, but through that process, but also through the LTP process, we will be working with our neighbouring authorities to can promote and work to kind of jointly promote one kind of other schemes that would help benefit restructure.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:42:52
Councillor Clough, thank you, Chair yeah, I'd like to welcome the the results of the consultation that will seem to reveal a consensus around the opinion in and around the industry and the public sector and the private sector, as well, that more integration with the rest of the public say the public transport network and active travel decarbonisation being an absolutely key part of the core of any of our strategies and improving stations and accessibility which I know is a key priority.
I also welcome mention of connectivity between West and South Yorkshire being one of our priorities as a Combined Authority and thank you for mentioning the Pennington line I was, I am going to
Cllr Matthew McLoughlin - 1:43:26
bring up a penicillin because a nicer priority for Kirklees Council and it is a massively under utilised resource connecting those two parts of the country so I noticed it was conspicuous by its absence in this report, so I just wanted to bring it up here don't forget about the peninsula.
fine and Councillor Edwards.
thank you Chair.
Cllr Annie Maloney - 1:43:46
one is my colleagues have said there are many positive points in this
Cllr Oliver Edwards - 1:43:52
reports I wanted to pick up on one of the points to the importance of improving stations, particularly around accessibility. I mean one of the things that came up, one of the messages that came out very loudly from the consultation around and the Government's proposed ticket office closures was around accessibility and particularly for people with disabilities, and I noticed elsewhere on it in one of the reports so there was talk about an accessibility audit at stations,
so when we look at the map of rail station accessibility, there are a significant number of stations across the network where it's not which are not fully accessible and a number which are not step-free, so can I really urge that there's a lot more that work is done on that and work is done in partnership with interested organisations and that that is progressed.
as quickly as possible, and it can also make the point about stations with audible audible announcements. I know one of my stations, that's been an issue, that's been raised with us, and I think it's an issue elsewhere, I didn't notice it in the report,
but particularly where there are cancelled services delayed services, it's really important that people can hear the announcements, and that's an issue that's been raised by passengers, so if that can be added to this that'd be great. Thank you, thank you Councillor, some
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:45:23
good feedback there, Helen would you like to come back on those comments be made
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:45:30
thank you, and yes will note note note that in the Wilton I cannot make that update, thank you, and also again with what what was said by Councillor McLoughlin in terms of the priorities yeah and will Mitchell Penston line is presented in there as well.
OK, thank you, Councillor Shaw.
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:45:46
Cllr Alex Ross-Shaw (Bradford Council) - 1:45:49
no, thank you, and thank you very PA, and it's good to say there has been some bits added, I think, based on feedback with authorities as well, so obviously iPhone names for favourite bit, but I think probably understated in its importance of Aire Valley subscription Cohen line, so I'm really pleased that that's been in obviously worked with your officers as well on a meeting with the celeriac campaign group recently, so we're just pushing the government to released a feasibility study that has been done around that which allegedly shows a positive case, but they're refusing to take it forward to the next step, just to thank Blacker officers for the work with us being pushing up phone, it's good to see it in the
the rail strategy as well, along with I know it's always had to be too prescriptive in a strategic, so it needs to have some in some cases, kind of reflect things at the time, but
just keeping open that potential for new stations in places like Laisterdyke, which we think could just add that extra capacity as we have those long-term plans around the interchange and a new station which I think we all accept now is an even stronger case for a new station in Bradford City. Certainly it was before and if we do a 2 billion pound upgrade to that area of and a new station at Laisterdyke just outside provides a bit of capacity on that line as we're doing that work, so I think we think it would be good value for money to look at that and just please do these kind of kept it open as an option in the strategy as well, so thank you for that.

8 Local Transport Plan (LTP) Update

thank you very much, so with that, then I propose to accept the
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:47:13
recommendations in the report which is to be invoked, endorse the revised rail strategy, and this will be going forward to the Combined Authority final approval, on 14th March, Councillor Ojo seconded by Councillor Firth. Thank you very much all those in favour, please show that is carried. Thank you very much for that then, finally, just on this agenda, them Local Transport Plan update briefly your step.
Helen Ellerton, Officer (West Yorkshire Combined Authority) - 1:47:39
yet this will be great, thank you, we, as you know, we're only aware of one kind of working through a new Local Transport Plan for West structure, this is to set the what the local transport future plan will look like prefer across all of West Yorkshire and the Districts are currently also working on their transport strategies at the same time with the exception of Leeds because Leeds has been in place.
we
if this is what this paper is setting out is our kind of next phase of work within our Local Transport Plan, for which we are looking towards to doing a kind of an update to our programme, which is a a two-stage consultation, so our first stage consultation we are looking to go towards which will look into June for that to kind of give a strategic can of outside outset and vision for our local transport plan and then to come back towards the end of the year started next year on more detailed policies, so this paper's
looking for endorsement from Transport Committee to allow us to do that process.
the solution is a two-stage process, isn't it, they're asking for
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:48:40
approval for today, let me make any comments about that approach.
under yes.
firstly, I would just like to offer support from the operators here on contributing and being part of that told them.
true, you would agree, I'm just going to talk about coach briefly, so weak of a coach as well, and often coaches for government, there's two aspects with coach one for small operators in West Yorkshire, there's a huge interdependency between bus and coach, will see coach operators running local services and competing for local contracts.
and also there's huge economic benefits to be released, realised and and heightened through very minimal interventions, so it's actually a CPT national policy position to ask local authorities to include the coach section, so I just wanted to plant that seed and would be delighted to work with you. Unasur flats OK, Helen
thank you, yes, it's a good points, pay after isn't it realistic and
Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe (Chair) - 1:49:47
then comprehensive thank you for that suggestion amo, commence questions.
no Letwin in that case.
can we accept the recommendations as outlined here and have to recommend that two-stage approach, Councillor Carlos, say, second VAT, because the all those in favour please show
that is carried, thank you very much and it undermines me to say thank you very much for coming today. I believe for Nottingham our papers. Are we on the that's lovely or Melanie Corcoran? Talking about south-west working Melanie Cochrane is leaving the Combined Authority to go to South Yorkshire actually, so we're going to have a bit of a join up, there are and she would have been irritating, but unfortunately able to come today, but she leaves on the 9th of February, so I just wanted to say thank you from this committee for seven years of work. She's put in, obviously, are delivering at pace a very increasingly large capital programme that we ought to see in our respective places. So
thank you very much to Melania and we wish her well in South Yorkshire, and hopefully that leads to better West staff working, we which we all endorse, thank you very much, thank you very much, anybody.