Centrebus in Luton & Dunstable – Achieving a lot with a little

Working together

The depot works with three local authorities: Luton Borough Council, Central Bedfordshire Council and Hertfordshire County Council. In Luton, the Borough has stopped funding all local bus services. All of the services there are now operated commercially or, in a small number of cases, funded by other authorities. In both Central Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, Centrebus has had to take peak vehicles out because their funding has reduced. David commented, ‘Where this happens, we have worked together to minimise the impact and by doing so we’ve maintained bus services far better than has been possible in some areas.’

He continued, ‘We know our business, what is and isn’t cost effective and by sharing that with them we can keep an effective service and deliver the savings that need to be made. So far it has worked but the more the cuts that come, the harder it gets. I am not saying that services are unaffected but I am saying that we have a really important role to play in mitigating the effects.’

Ticketing and ticket machines

Centrebus has been rolling out Vix TP5700 ticket machines across the fleet over the past four years, and they are very pleased with them. It was one of the first to have the Vix integrated ticket machine and GPS box. Dunstable’s turn came two years ago. They are fully ITSO compatible with a dual function capability that enables them to handle both ITSO and non-ITSO cards at the same time. If there is an ITSO multi operator scheme Centrebus can participate but they can also be used for proprietary smartcards outside of ITSO, one example of which is Carbonara.

Carbonara is a non ITSO Smartcard valid only on the local Luton and Dunstable network. It won’t take you to St Albans or Milton Keynes but within the vicinity it represents tremendous value. There are two options; either unlimited weekly use for £8.00 or ten trips for £13.00. David commented, ‘I think it is one of the best value weekly tickets you’ll find. It even makes Stagecoach megarider look pricey, and megarider is fabulous value.’

There is also a development of Carbonara called ‘Back to School’ which is aimed at the home to school market. On top of this, there is an under 21s discount card that costs £4.00 for a year and gives 15% of all fares.

Overall, at least 50% of Luton and Dunstable passengers are using smartcards, much more than this on some routes, though the majority of this usage is concessionary. Commercial smartcards remain a small part of the overall mix but it is growing. In many towns where Centrebus runs it has, for some years, been the only operator with commercial smartcards. Concessionary fares reimbursement is crucially important. The company has an annually renegotiated fixed funding agreement with Luton Borough Council.

David said, ‘We’ve done a lot of work to improve our ticketing offering for all of our customers without jeopardising our revenues which, given our margins, is something we can’t afford to do.’ Examples are a student 15% off offer if you have an NUS Extra card, a take a friend 15% discount, and the Tango ticket, which works in the same way as the Norfolk Green Duo ticket with two adults travelling together getting 15% off. There is also a facility whereby, during school holidays, you can take two children for free on a Tango ticket. To make it easy for passengers, there is a flat £1.20 child fare within the Luton area.

Through ticketing is available with Grant Palmer between the E service and their 42 service from Toddington, where a connection to Bedford can be made. There is also joint ticketing with them on the Busway, where Arriva returns are also accepted. In another interesting joint ticketing initiative, the company offers through ticketing with First Capital Connect enabling passengers in Luton and Dunstable to get a rail ticket to St Pancras included with their bus travel. Whether this will continue when the franchise changes remains to be seen? Centrebus also participates in the PlusBus scheme which it administers in Luton.

David commented, ‘We’ve all worked pretty hard to tick off all the criticisms of ticketing that we reasonably can. We have even introduced a three day ticket you can buy on the bus or in Payzone shops for Luton’s incoming tourist market.’

The search for new options goes on. ‘We are talking to suppliers about mobile ticketing,’ said David. ‘We’re looking at rolling over more home to school transport to smartcard to cut boarding times and reduce abuse.’ There are other potential targets. One could be the Luton Hip-Hop multi-operator paper ticket scheme set up in conjunction with Arriva three years ago and now embracing all local operators. This includes day, week and family day tickets. ‘There has been a very positive reaction to it and it is continuing to grow. We also participate in multi operator ticketing schemes in St Albans and Hemel Hempstead.’

Where next?

Every operator would like a crystal ball that enabled him to tell what will happen next but there are a set of realities that drive future direction for Centrebus. As David explained, ‘The market is really changing. Local authority budgets are continually reducing and operators can’t rely on tendered services. Luton Borough has scrapped concessionary fare funding for student travel and has also moved their concessionary scheme for the elderly and disabled to the standard minimum instead of the previous 24 hour offer.’

‘Operators can’t rely on tendered or local authority funding for the future. You’ve got to build your commercial network and that’s what we’re trying to do, build patronage and revenue on our commercial networks.

Other developments

All Centrebus buses now have realtime information. Although they all produce signals, not all local authorities choose to pick them up and feed them back to stop displays as they do in Dunstable.

David explained that although in some places passengers were not getting the benefit they might from the technology, it was nevertheless worth having. ‘We’re using realtime information for management and it’s proving invaluable,’ he said. ‘The control room can track all buses and get punctuality statistics. We have already amended the 10 service twice based on surveys of the data. No peak time departures on the route have the same running times.’

A part of the business that they are trying to develop is that of corporate type contracts outside of the main bus network. A regular shuttle is provided for the University of Bedfordshire between their central Luton campus and an accommodation block in East Luton, a sports centre in Stopsley (featured in the television programme ‘Splash’) and a campus they have in Putteridgebury on the way to Hitchin.

Another contract they have recently started running is for Tui Travel carrying crews and staff. Two of the new Enviro200s are dedicated to the service which links their main offices at Wigmore House with the airport and the Parkways station.

Rather than just running a contract the company tries to develop an ongoing relationship. In the case of the University of Bedfordshire we are offering quite generous concessions to their students on our local bus network. A weekly ticket for £4.00 and child fares outside the Luton and Dunstable area. In the case of Tui we allow their staff to use our local services to get into the town centre free during their lunch breaks.

Social media

Asked about social media, David said, ‘I’ll have to be very careful what I say about it.’ To a considerable extent he handles it himself. There is a Centrebus Facebook page and two Centrebus-wide twitter accounts. Of these, one is about fare deals and product marketing including service changes and special fares marketing. The second is Centrebus Live which gives realtime information. Every control room has access to this account and is encouraged to put out feeds. Inspectors also have access to it and if a bus is running very late they can let passengers know. A product called Hootsuite is used to manage it as well as the comments on Twitter and the Facebook account.

The decision to have Centrebus-wide representation was taken because it would be difficult to divide the different operations. For example, the Corby network touches the Luton network in Milton Keynes and the Leicestershire network in Market Harborough.

In addition to the ad hoc messages dictated by day to day running, David also schedules messages. If there is a service change, he will put details of it out in advance and on the morning of the changes will schedule a ‘don’t forget’ message.

He said of the social media provision, ‘We use it proactively and constructively. Where social media is more difficult is in the increasing expectation that, as we live in a 24-hour society, people contact us at all times and expect an immediate response. It’s a very difficult expectation to live up to. Our phone lines are open from 08.00 to 18.00 and even at 18.00 we’re better than quite a few bigger operators.’ Calls that he is unable to take are monitored. The first on the morning of my visit had been at 07.12, which was relatively late, and David said he still received calls at 01.00 in the morning, while there were quite a lot around 21.00.

He continued, ‘It’s a difficult area to manage cost effectively. One of our approaches is to put more and more on the website. While I admit the site is a bit clunky, I think in terms of the depth of information it provides it’s as good as anybody’s. There are full timetables, route maps, fare tables that explain how they are calculated, Facebook feeds, roadworks, and a portfolio of forms so that out of hours customers can log an enquiry or a complaint that will go through the same system, generating an email that goes to the depot.’

The website is constantly being improved. Season tickets are already sold on line, but it is a time consuming process and as an alternative an ecommerce site link is under consideration that would be quicker and more comprehensive.

A recent change to the customer contact telephone numbers has been dictated by changes to the law which mean you can’t use 0844 numbers for post contract enquiries. They have had to introduce local numbers for enquiries that fall within the scope of the legislation. It is actually not as good for customers because previously there was a single ‘one stop shop’ number for all enquiries. It wasn’t a premium number, the customer paid a standard rate of 4.2pence per minute, which meant the company earned no revenue but it covered everything. An 0844 number is now used for enquiries and sales with customers encouraged to use the online facility when contacting. It now costs the business to take the calls and it is more complicated. ‘It has all come about because of mobile phone companies levying a charge,’ said David.

Although the ‘strategy is to get more and more people on line,’ every effort is still being made to cute down or preferably eliminate missed calls. ‘We did try calling people back the following morning when we had missed calls made after 20.00 at night, but when we did we got a mixed reaction. People’s expectations are getting greater and we are trying to meet as many as we can within reason and at a reasonable cost,’ said David.

Vehicles

Over the past seven years, fuel costs have gone up from representing 12% of revenue to 20% today and this has had a significant impact on Centrebus vehicle policy. ‘The choice of vehicle and its fuel consumption can make or break the viability of a route,’ said David. ‘It has counted against Scania and is why we brought in lighter weight buses, settling on the ADL Enviro200 as the vehicle that seems to do the job.’

‘We’d love to see more manufacturers come out with vehicles doing the 10+mpg that we get out of our E200s. We’ve been very pleased with the ones we’ve taken. We’ve bought 13 in the last 12 months of which seven (six 14-plate and one ex demonstrator) are in Luton with the others in Corby and Melton Mowbray.’

‘At the moment we are focused on the Enviro200 but we’ll always consider other options. We have three more on order for elsewhere in the company for later this year and they will have the bigger six-cylinder engine for longer distance services.’

As well as Enviro200s, eight Optare Solos with 05, 08 and 60 plates are operated, together with 15 Dart SLFs of various ages back to R-prefix and with various bodies (mostly Plaxton Pointer or ALX200). There are also five Plaxton Centros, all but one of them on VDL DB120 chassis. The last Mercedes-Benz Vario, a lift accessible 55 plate example, was recently transferred to the Corby depot.

The exception to the lightweight philosophy is the Busway, which has to have heavyweight buses to cope with the stresses and strains imposed by the guidance wheels. The oldest bus on the fleet, a step entrance Scania Alexander Strider new to Newport Transport, is still used on contracts but is on borrowed time, as the rest of the batch have already been withdrawn. There are also two former Brighton & Hove Wright bodied Volvos used on school contracts that have been converted to 3+2 seating giving them a seated capacity of 55.

Being careful about money does not mean scrimping on maintenance. Every member of the fleet is on a four week servicing cycle.

Bikes

The industry’s relationship with the bike can be a difficult one but, at least as far as Dunstable’s staff is concerned, it is a positive one. David explained, ‘We try to encourage our staff to use bicycles to come to work. It helps with parking, has health benefits and is a good way of keeping fit.’ 20% of the depot’s drivers have acquired bikes under a company cycling scheme prompted by the Government’s ‘Cycle to work’ scheme. ‘The company buys a bicycle on behalf of the employee and the employee pays the money back through the payroll over the next 12 months with the repayments free of income tax and NI. The advantage to the employee is that they get 12 months to pay and effectively get a discount,’ he said.

Last word

‘We’ve done a lot more than people may perceive,’ said Dave Shelley, who is proud of what has been achieved on routes that have been carefully and determinedly developed towards commerciality by a dedicated team that has succeeded in spite of difficult economic times. When you look at what has been invested and the network and pricing structure passengers in the area enjoy, it really is very impressive.