Bus services meeting the connectivity challenge in rural areas

Cheshire West and Chester Council was awarded £1.075m by the Rural Transport Fund to target an area with ‘challenging’ public transport connectivity. iTravel is the solution...

It’s sometimes difficult to understand quite how poorly rural areas are served by buses. The general picture of routes, numbers of buses, bus trips per head of population hides huge disparities. We know, for example, from DfT figures, that there is one bus per 2,268 people in England outside London. However, we can take certain areas and count the bus routes, vehicle numbers and population served and see just how very different this is at a local level.

The iTravel area is a case in point. Cheshire West and Chester Council was awarded £1.075m by the Rural Transport Fund to target an area with ‘challenging’ public transport connectivity. Just how ‘challenging’ the connectivity is can be judged by comparing it with the average service for England outside London.

The area is a rural zone of 150km2, with a population of  47258, living in a number of villages rail stations and an area of natural beauty. Before the launch of iTravel, just 2 timetabled routes touched its northern edge (requiring 4 vehicles) serving a population of 47258.

Whilst this equates to 1 bus per 11,815 people (less than a quarter of the average for England outside London) the reality was that there were no bus services within walking distance of the vast majority of the population.

With the addition of the two iTravel minibuses the total number of vehicles serving the area rose to 6. However, the design of the DRT service made the buses accessible to over 80% of the population, who now live within walking distance of a virtual bus stop.

The service was launched on 31 July 2023. The Local Authority has contracted Stagecoach to operate the service and provide customer service with Padam Mobility providing the technology platform. 

The iTravel passenger numbers have grown steadily, exceeding its initial target of 1.89 passenger journeys per hour and reaching at least 3 passenger journeys per hour within 7 months of launch. 

In addition 60% of people share their trips with others and the plan is to grow this figure. There have been over 700 unique users since the launch of the service, with a mix of regular and more casual users. Around 10 people are using it almost daily, and larger numbers travel by iTravel less frequently. However, it’s clear that there is a group of people who rely on it as a key mode of transport.

Some periods are very full – with upto 13 people on the bus – whilst it does also travel empty to get to and from passengers.

Key destinations are to and from local railway stations, with three stations in the five most popular stops. This implies that people are travelling further afield by train, rather than driving.

Marketing is key to the success of the service; the brightly coloured vehicles tend to advertise themselves as they travel around the trial area. Leaflets have been distributed locally, with posters at some railway stations.

The Council has a marketing plan in place to promote the service more widely to encourage further passenger growth which will include advertising in Parish council newsletters and social media messaging. The scheme is part of the £2 National fare, accepts concessionary fares and offers pricing incentives for young people.

The grant provision to create a service covering 80% of the population within the zone was £1.075 million over 3 years. This equates to s cost per km2 of £2,389 per annum and £9.25 per head of population served (within walking distance of a virtual stop) or £7.58 per head of total area population (assuming the DRT stops could be adjusted to cover additional requests).

The reported cost per passenger carried fell dramatically from the start to around £10 per passenger trip.

Whilst ‘sustainability’ is one of the key watchwords for DRT services, it is clear that large swathes of rural areas are completely unserved by timetabled buses. It’s hard to see any fixed timetable model that can serve less dense populations at even half useful frequencies with buses that stop within an accessible walking or wheeling distance from people’s homes.

At under £10 per head of population per year, the cost of iTravel to provide access to transport for an unserved area does not sound unreasonable.