Subject say it all - details to follow - for representatives of public transport and specialist groups and unassociated independent campaigners across the South West

 
A lot of water has flowed under the bridge with regard to TravelWatch SouthWest in the last six weeks since I wrote "Hold the date", and the water continues to flow.     The TWSW date has been in their calendar with several excellent speakers lined up for a while, and is also the date that GWR have chosen for their central region timetable meeting.   Oops - except that in an example of partnership and innovation, GWR and TWSW have come together to combine the events on that day - 11th October 2024.  Makes utter sense.

Physical meeting to be held in Taunton, and arranged to work well with train times for those arriving and later leaving in all directions.   Venue will be within a very short distance of the station.

If you are on the TWSW list of members or associates you should be hearing over the next 10 days or so.  If you are in any doubt and would like to attend to represent your group or community or specialist interest, please let me know; I am well positioned to officially spring you an invite.

 
Thank you, grahame - please do count me in on this one! 

I can attend, and I will be delighted to do so - there are so many characters I haven't met for a while. 

CfN.

 
I'd quite like to get train tickets booked for tyhis - do we know a start time? It it running per usual? (1030ish to 1500ish)

 

I believe 10:30 for 11 through to slightly later - should know in the next couple of days. Noting there's s train via Westbury a few minutes after 4 ... not checked it though

 


Open for booking - Eventbrite ((here)) and on Facebook ((here))

Friday, October 11 · 11am - 3:30pm
Somerset Digital Innovation centre (Firepool Digital Innovation Centre)
Trenchard Way Taunton TA1 1FH


About TravelWatch SouthWest


If you are with a "Stakeholder Group" or indeed an individual stakeholder, TWSW would love to see you in Taunton in just under two weeks. If you have any doubt as to how relevant it is for you / whether you quality, please ask me and I can help / advise.

 
Look forward to seeing you there!

 
Oh, no: not you as well? 

 
Yep, and me! & David Redgewell & most of the usual suspects I think. We're all quality, you know! (another Graham typo, that!)


 

 
You are all indeed quality, and qualify: I simply don't have enough time to keep tidying up after grahame. 

I look forward to meeting you again in Taunton. 

Chris from Nailsea. 

 
I'll be popping along. As I'm living in Taunton for most of the week these days its easy to get to compared to two trains from Templecombe via Exeter.

Finn is a public transport user too, but he'll keep Mum company while I attend.

 
I'm rather disappointed that Finn won't be able to join us in Taunton on 11 October. 

He's already an 'honorary member' of the Coffee Shop forum, due to his ongoing contributions to our discussions, and I'm sure he would find the TravelWatch SouthWest meeting of interest.

Probably more so than his reaction to the Kelpies.



CfN

 

TravelWatch has a great line-up for Friday. 

Mel Watson is the Keynote speaker.  Mel is known for being at the cutting edge of better transport delivery and has masses of experience including Lead on Public Transport in Cornwall; Transport Focus; Head of Bus Network Performance  at Transport for Greater Manchester. 
Dan Okey from GWR is taking about the scope network ambition and changes to the central region offer.
TWSW member's friend Giles Fearnley is talking candidly about getting the best opportunities and meeting the challenges to passengers within the possible bus operating frameworks going forward.
We have been chasing the final speaker for a while and finally, Nigel Blackler is going to let us into Cornwall's secret and ask if new legislation will offer everyone this opportunity as something new.
The final sessions is a panel where the room considers how the new way of doing things will enable the voice of user experience and ensuring it's value is captured.

Booking for the in-person (with lunch) is available on Eventbrite.  Book to watch the session online as a broadcast only version will be possible from 9 pm tonight.

 

Our "Coffee Shop" forum is unique - each member who is a Frequent Poster or more is, or has been, someone who takes an interest in public transport toward the South West from London, and furthermore takes that interest rather beyond a one off / casual approach.   And those are the sort of members who will really gain from coming along to TWSW on Friday - to listen, learn and interact with others who are likeminded and with similar interests over and above their normal conventional groupings.  I encourage you to sign up and come along.

TravelWatch SouthWest is also unique - we bring in top quality speakers to our twice a year general meetings.  These are key players in the public transport scene - it's to your benefit to hear from them somewhat deeper and closer than otherwise available, and it's to their benefit to help get their message and methods out to those who are knowdlegable movers, shakers, critical and logical friends. I encourage you to sign up to come along.

Both the Coffee Shop and TravelWatch SouthWest are run by teams of volunteers and are free to participants.  Perhaps not unique, but highly unusual. I am used receiving briefing / seminar invites at a significant cost and rarely take them up; these commercial setups have a different motivation and an income target for the organisers and the lecturers, for whom the audience is to be addressed far more than listened to.   TWSW and the CoffeeShop listen and inform in a far more balanced and symbiotic way.   We can't go to extent of offering free travel to the event, though we at TWSW do provide teas, coffees and even a light buffet, but that's out of practicality on a day out and we would be concerned if people came along for the catering.

 
I have booked my place, through 'Eventbrite', and I noted that their website suggested 'not many more seats available'.

Please do book now, if you are able to attend - I look forward to meeting you in Taunton on Friday.   

By the way: if there are any attendees with mobility issues, just for example, please make yourselves apparent to me at Taunton station and I'll be happy to assist you towards the venue.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 
That'll be me in my wheelchair - I'm hoping Bryony has organised me an accessible taxi both ways - too far to push myself....

 
Should anyone require assistance getting from the station exit to the TWSW location, I'd be happy to offer a ferry service with my car.

Drop us a PM with your train arrival details.

 
My train from Nailsea & Backwell at 9:06 gets me to Taunton at 9:56.

I'm happy to stand around on the platform there, offering help to any of our members who may require assistance on their way to the venue.  It's really not that far - we can arrange it!

To avoid any possible confusion with official railway staff, I'll choose to wear a yellow 'TransWilts' tee-shirt, rather than 'hi-viz'.  Please do wave me down if you need any assistance.

Chris from Nailsea. 

 

Bryony has sorted me out - her daughters have (been?) volunteered....thanks for the other offers!

 
The venue - the Firepool Digital Innovation Centre - is a new one and walkable for the majority. Leave the station from platform 2 (the one you'll normally arrive at if you come on a train heading for Exeter and beyond) and walk ahead / left past the new multistory car park and cross the road to the venue.

 
Appropriately, the Innovation Centre is itself built on the site of an historic innovation - the first of the shortlived Grand Western Canal's lifts - the first to be put into commercial service in the UK.

A watching brief was kept during the construction of the centre's foundations, and some structures from the lift were revealed. The lift itself had a chequered start to its life, and required modification before it would work.

The structure with its modifications survived long enough to be recorded on the OS 1:500 plan for Taunton.

Mark

https://www.somersetheritage.org.uk/record/44129

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=20.1&lat=51.02218&lon=-3.10196&layers=117746211&b=GoogleSat&o=100

 
Rail travel to Taunton is disrupted by a line closure ~Bridgwater. The 06:00 PAD-PNZ has been turned at Bristol and will run via Westbury.

Mark

 
GWR tweets saying its a points failure at Weston-s-m and trains are unable to call at WSM.

 
Trains are now running Bristol - Taunton following an earlier incident at Highbridge, but are not serving Weston-super-Mare due to a points failure unrelated to the incident at Highbridge.

Also, my apologies. I won't be attending as I'm feeling a little under the weather.

 
Excellent meeting .. not quite the usual full house due to rail (and motorway!) issues.  I have typed in my notes and being gone through for the worst of typos / will summarise too.

 
Congratulations to TWSW - it was one of the best meetings - good speakers & excellent content!
The space wasn't bad either!

 
... however I found those seats to be inferior in comfort when compared to the IET seats encountered on the way home. 

 

It was so helpful to hear examples of good/best practice + clear identification of what's needed to make a success of something, especially with regards to buses - and the value of identifying customer needs and also of partnerships. It's something that shone a glaring light on a couple of the current issues with buses local to me and it would be good to see the local operators (and local authority) more involved in Travelwatch Southwest.

There was some really good stuff coming from the audience too, particularly the person at the back towards the end of the day who spoke up on the need to ensure that people under, say, 26 years old were treated a lot better - yes, a minority are taking a complete liberty as far as public transport goes, but then, some public transport staff are leaning heavily into tarring the whole cohort with the same brush.

Mark

 

Thanks for posting that, JayMac. 

To explain my own non-appearance at the meeting:

The train I was planning to get from NLS, the 09:06, was horribly delayed - eventually arriving some 70+ minutes down.

While I was standing on the fairly basic platform at NLS still waiting for it, I felt increasingly unwell, so I decided to abort my journey.  I was sick when I got home, so I'm glad I didn't travel on that train to Taunton - which apparently arrived there 90 minutes down, despite skipping Weston-super-Mare.

I'm glad to read that the meeting still went well without us. 

CfN.

 

Slide set (66 pages) at http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/mirror/TWSW_autumn_2024.pdf (for members)

 

These are the main elements in that slide set:

A New Era for bus users - Melanie Watson

GWR Local Transport Forum - presented by Dan Okey, Mark Utley, Andy McRae
Includes December and May timetable and fleet changes
Inlcudes Engineering posessions at Christmas and for 2025

Delivering One Public Transport for the Peninsular - Nigel Blackler

---

Here are my notes - please forgive some of the truly shocking typos - all done live during the sessions

David Northey
Stakeholder engagement going to be key
INFO at station / challenged
For me to struggle - ouch

Bryony
Big challenge - where we sit in the landscape
What use are we as passengers?
Our input to timetable changes
Cornwall joining
Become too much better
Message to whoever is running GBR▸
Is it healthy that we only have one organistion
What to say to your MP - panel at end of day
Tim Davis / active but retired from TWSW» . GE welcomed back
Lunch at 12:40

9 online - Just a minute

David R - JAM
GW & SW coming off franchise
Integrating bust and train. Loss of 503 and Megabus
Making interchange effective.   Mention Padstow

David N
Thought pattern for bus users
Voice needed consider with car
Bryony - accessibility, female users.

Derek Beer / Dorset and CRP▸
We need detail as to how it will be done.
People scare to death - confidence in use

Chris Hilditch
Problem dealing with local authorities planning towns
NA - 12 being pushed out
About to elimitage bus toutes
Example - Stourbridge has become a desert
Same happening in Torbay
BC - Health based services in high street

Kit Harbottle - Tavistock
Disagree against pedestrianisation
What allows Exeter to allow but not NA▸ / few tavistork
CH - Access all modes needed

Mick Lowry - Bridgwarea
Huge fringe devleopmentg
DN - Town Grown exponentially but lost links

Saltash / tunnel works / 60 minute dealys
DO - looking. DN - short term planning.

Barry West - Padstow
New bus terminal up hill not suitable for less mobile e.g. elderly
DN - Public engagement does help

Barry Clark - Ivybridge
Concern / what is bus for?  Beware - train competition
Bus / long distance where

John Hamley
Buses on very narrow roads past cars.
DN - to good design

-----------------

** Mel Watson
Chose to drive. Sorry - stuck on M5
25 years public transport. Director MW associates
A new deal for bus users.  Both Mcr and Cornwall
On cusp of new ere?

Challenge - how to make bus desirable and the norm
Who is the customer what do they aent?
Get basics right and bigger poicture
Join things up
Make it happen

Some simply not on the radar
How do we get people to think on this?
TF and Cornwall research expmples.
More using bus, more part of routine
NOTE - awareness of lower bus fares lacking

Role of BSIPs
"We all know what local authorities are priritieisng"
"Should have mechanisms in place"

Cornwall - ONE network, timetable, map, website, ticket
Remove barriers to customers ..
do we care who operates?
Just want it to be simple!
Tried and tested in London.
Nearly there in Cornwall, Coming in Manchester.
Pooling the resources we can deliver.

Ticketing - need simple and afforbable
Return element on any opertor.
Operators were resistant.
"The standardisation of accepting tickets has been a gamechanger"
30% down ENCTS▸ & P&R▸ but 12% up overall. Shift of behaviour

Transparency for customer
Are we overcomplicating the need to drive revenus
Night time economy 2 - 4 a.m. consistency?
How many names for a ticket?
How many single ticket bands?
Poised on government input

Bigger picture - see beyond public transport
Incentives.

---------

Dan Okey

Same issue with train rather than bus
Need to look at customers
Network
2 x central region TW.
Mark Utley and Andy McRae
Lots changing. Money very tight.

Mark Uttley - Long term plnanning
December 15th
TfW major changes so adjudgements to GWR are minor
Weekday Minor GWR changes

Fleet constrained on BRI» -OXF» resumed next Sept
No fleet chsngs
80 IET▸ diagrams

-----------

Mark Utley moving to Canada ...

Andy McRae - "Interface Team".
HS2 update - 2024 and 2026 to 2031 HS2 possessions
17.11 + 27-29.12 ... TAU» and SWI» last stop before EUS
(op stops RDG‡ & Ealing)
120 customer assists/ day
SWR» want services only half full ex RDG.  May funnel to Ealing

No trains  WSB» , DMH» , WMN» , MM

------------

Giles Feearnley
"To franchise or not" - it depends
Changed - travel needs have changed
Commercial element still vital
Political rhetoric that ops are bad boys and franchise will cure all is a worry
Vital is to increase passenger use.

Also franchising won't (?) work on smallest areas
Public expect it instant - very real
Mcr up 5% year one - but what would that have been without franchising?
Costly and ongoing cost
Go-Ahead had announced investment in electric bsues

Most / many franchising exiting services and will struggle bavuase networks live
Madness - "some service carrying 1s and 2s and that's madness"
Principle same as pre1980s PTEs▸ - difference is that franchises are competed
Spiral issues in those days - prices up, fewer passengers, services down

Mayor said "thank you" to first for taking the hassle off.
Franchising overkills. Better examples these days - cornwall
operators want to work with.

BC - Has it been used to get outcomes?  Answer - Jersey and Guernsey.
Q: Would it work WECA» area. A: Yes potentially, Impetus for a north where things join.
Q: Exeter bus users / competition.  A: Looking to move to be more sensible co-operation. Fearnley / Hilditch discussion. Said to be sense off camera but then "ned to look at legal issues - that;s why we're here.

---------

Nigel Blackler

STBs - key functions
Work with local authorities / reduce duplication / share best practisce
Do a lot with Western Gateway

A strategy for the user
2030 ... Easier to use / going electric / connected peninsular
2035 on ... completing the transport network

New DfT» Strategic priorities (see slide)

Talk about "one" for Cornwall
Franchising from 2015, given powers. Discussions with First, Go-ahead etc
Customer outcomes (slide)

Challenge in translating legislative principles into achievement. Could be better if done in co-operation

Delivery - support in principle
Belefirt - use, safeguard, deliver improvements

Q: How did you do it / relationships. Even getting all timetables together
Why bring old buses?  Move to 8 year contracts - brought new buses.

Also - need to reach the people we haven't engaged
- linking up with school transport
BC - Total transport / hot subject

Having franchising power brought ability to persuade operators to co-operate.
Devolution was a game changer.

---------

Dan Okey

Lot of structural changes. Bill (1) brings back power to take control ans (2) much bigger one for GBR.

Government CAN bring back next June but (?) may not. Strange atmosphere at present so all focused on delivering performance. Govt wants subsidy reaction, money is tight. Just received DfT request for next year business plan.  Concentration on service delivery. DO - may not have "road tested" services in the past. Assistive sequesters are record high. Also why people are travelling ans still getting used to new flows.  Strong demand where new services come in.

How do we move to integrated tickets?  Proposal Cornwall and West of England.


--------- Panel ---------

GP: The extend we focus on digital?  "Selling out of timetables" ... still valued in hard copy. Mel:  Yes, split it out. Whole printout.  Need to be responsive; 2 changes a year.

Q: Reliability of bus services. How do you overcome.  Mel: Bus training is key for advocacy. BSIP has targets for performance and reliability.

TW: Paper v digital. Mel: 16 to 25. Bus stop needs to be preseneted

NB: Changing. Concern should be improving public transport. Not just wait while local government deckchairs are moved around.  We need to move on now - concerned that we make progress.

Mel: Don't get stressed - plough on with local promotion to

 
Dan O *thinks* that the DfT can give 12 weeks notice of contract termination once the sore date end next June has passed. I asked about early notice being given such that termination on core end date, but he thought not, wasn't sure & would check.

 

Slide 2 is intriguing......I'm fascinated as to why Pubic transport worked better for Cornish passengers!

 

Slides 58 onwards - especially slide 58 - tell you how. And listening to Nigel Blacker telling how and why - with everyone working together for the same goals, prepared to step into a new situation discarding some old conventions and with an inspirational but modest "can-do" lead and team, it has worked.