Kent Tonight Special: Can devolution solve Kent's bus crisis?

KentOnline / KMTV

Buses are a lifeline for thousands in Kent but ask passengers, and they'll tell you services aren't what they used to be.   Bus companies blame rising costs and fewer passengers, while councils say they can't afford to subsidise every route.  With devolution on the horizon, could a mayor with greater powers fix the problem?   Local Democracy Reporter Gabriel Morris has taken a trip around the county to find out.

Transcript

00:00Buses, a lifeline for thousands. But ask anyone who uses services in Kent and they'll tell

00:08you they're not what they used to be.

00:11None of us will be going out. We'll be prisoners in our own home.

00:14It's a private enterprise being run with public money.

00:17Bus companies say they're having to cut back on routes due to fewer passengers.

00:22We have to make sure that we can continue to operate in a proper manner. At the end

00:26of the day, we are a business just like a sweet shop or a major supermarket.

00:31Experts warn that bus travel must remain an attractive option.

00:35Well, it is the growth in use of private cars becoming more and more a piece of most people's

00:40households.

00:42With devolution on the cards, huge reform could be on the way.

00:46The Tory Transport Act of 1986, we're not allowed to have a TFL for Kent type system

00:52which is what we need.

00:53But will it be enough to fix Kent's bus crisis?

01:03It's just gone 11am on the Queensway Estate in Sheerness. These pensioners waiting for

01:08the 362 to take them into town for shopping. They all rely on the bus.

01:13Because of the means of transport, I don't drive and I can't walk because I've got bad

01:19legs, so it's just hard to catch the bus. But, yep, you're restricted.

01:24The last service into town is at 1.20 in the afternoon. Sylvia, in her 90s, takes the bus

01:30once a week. It drops her at Tesco. By the time she's finished shopping in town, there's

01:36no bus home and she has to take a taxi.

01:42Nothing's helping people on the island. It's just going downhill. And they're not looking

01:50after what the people want, you know. At my age, and a lot of other people, elderly, it's

01:57too tiring.

01:59They say services have been cut back again and again.

02:04You know, with the cutbacks and cutbacks, with the government as well, I know that's

02:08nothing to do with the buses, but I think Queensway will just get left behind.

02:14Why do you think Queensway's being left behind?

02:16I really don't know, because we're all old and we're handicapped. They're thinking if

02:23we leave them long enough, they all might just sort of give up and, you know, just become

02:28hermits.

02:35Elsewhere on the Isle of Sheppey, a mum of three in Laysdowne, one of the most rural

02:40areas, she relies on the bus to get her daughter to hospital appointments in Maidstone. Her

02:47daughter is partially blind and while buses do run here, the last one is just after six,

02:54makes it almost impossible to get there and back in a day. Her husband has to take the

03:00day off work to get them there.

03:04It would be really lovely if people in higher government could understand that not everything

03:11has to be centralised, that the rural communities, the real outreached ones, are the ones that

03:18really need the support, because Croydon's got enough buses, they've got the tram link,

03:23they don't need any more money. We need it here and we need it up and down the country

03:28and the rural communities where there is no infrastructure.

03:33Why are we seeing so many cuts? I've come to meet the man who runs New Venture Buses

03:40to find out what it takes to be an operator in 2025.

03:44Lovely to meet you, could we just ask all about your buses?

03:48We're New Venture, we're based in Ellesford near Maidstone, we operate about 30 buses

03:53in the community, round about Medway and throughout Kent.

03:56I guess part of the challenge is actually getting people onto the buses in the first

04:00place and if they're not viable then you're going to have to cut a bus. I mean, for people

04:05who live in rural communities, as a bus operator, explain why you've had to make those difficult

04:09decisions.

04:10Because the income from fares is insufficient to cover the costs of the fuel, the driver

04:15and so on. We need to have funding to ensure that the company can be sustained on a day-to-day

04:24basis and little bits of that which become unpopular mean that we have to take what might

04:31be seen as drastic action.

04:34Buses outside London were deregulated in the 1980s, that means they're privately run, but

04:40councils can subsidise routes. Kent County Council says it's had to cut back in order

04:46to fund its statutory services. Yet the council has just received £23m from central government.

04:54Now Kent is a very large place and buses are very expensive and that money won't go very

04:59far and he can't spend all of it on subsidising buses. Some of it is capital spend, but what

05:05he can do is try to ensure that the Isle of Sheppey gets its fair share of that money.

05:13Since 2010 there's been a 30% drop in bus miles travelled. With council subsidies decreasing,

05:20another type of local authority have stepped in in some areas to pay for services. This

05:27is one of two weekly services stopping in Borough Green.

05:31The parish councils haven't got revenue caps so we can put the precept up to cover this

05:39sort of cost and there was a real willingness amongst the parish councils, the whole group

05:44of 12 of them, to get involved in this and get it up and running. And it's a success

05:49with between 15 to 20 literally every bus every week.

05:55But it's unlikely this could be scaled up across the whole of the county.

05:59But in Kent and Medway there are hundreds of different routes operated by a whole load

06:04of different operators, big and small. But 97% of those are commercially viable with

06:10the rest funded by parishes or county councils.

06:15With fears growing that services could worsen in the coming years, is there any hope for

06:20public transport? Devolution will happen at some point.

06:26The Promise is a TFL for Kent. The Promise is an integrated transport service that isn't

06:32just about, you know, there is a bus company that can deal with this small part of a county

06:37where you don't get economies of scale, where you're essentially allowing private companies

06:41to call the shots. Instead you can have a system controlled by the democratically elected

06:46representatives who do the franchising, who choose the routes and then just find a contractor

06:51to carry it out, just as happens in London.

06:54The bus operators are sceptical that copying the Transport for London model in Kent will

06:59work.

07:01The bus operators have very little say in how the bus network works. It's largely controlled

07:07by politicians. And when you get politicians controlling something, sometimes the commerciality

07:12can be taken out of situations. I don't believe that the TFL model is financially sustainable

07:20above all.

07:21Yet there is broad agreement that local government reorganisation could lead to better co-ordination

07:28when it comes to buses.

07:29I think a lot could be done with the existing structures, but if structures are simplified

07:35and there's less authorities, then yes, certainly. But what it does need is a full understanding

07:40and the expertise and skills in whatever organisation is going to take the business and local authority

07:46forward in actually being able to overcome the challenges that are here. And we see a

07:52bright future for public transport.

07:54Neil Baker, the county councillor responsible for buses, has far less power than a mayor

08:00ever would. But says devolution is the ticket to the bus crisis.

08:05I think devolution could unlock lots of current logjams in the bus system. The big thing with

08:12all of this now or in the future is going to be funding. It's going to be difficult

08:16without seed funding, without some subsidies in places to actually really transform our

08:21public transport network. But I think devolution does that, both in the immediate term with

08:25having a mayor right at the top table being able to bang the drum for these improvements.

08:30But what could a bus network in Kent look like under devolution? Both fast track routes

08:37in the county have been given millions of pounds worth of funding from the government

08:42and electric buses are set to be coming later this year.

08:46Many people will say if they get a bus they want to know that they'll be able to get it

08:50when they want to get it and it arrives when they want it to arrive. Otherwise they'll

08:54just default back to using the private car. You do need a certain number of people to

08:59get the services viable. Clearly you're not going to have fast track running between villages

09:02of 40 houses. But hopefully in this move and the funding that's coming with it from central

09:08government, as long as it is, everyone should start benefiting.

09:11But earlier this month there was another bump in the road, the Kent's bus crisis. Devolution

09:17delayed. Real change isn't now expected until the end of the decade. Bus campaigners fear

09:24what could happen in the meantime. The group Save Our Buses was set up in response to declining

09:30stagecoach services, particularly in rural areas across Folkestone. They believe timetables

09:36will continue to shrink until devolution arrives.

09:40So I just set up a group to make it for action. So rather than just say to stagecoach we think

09:46you're wrong, we're actually going to the MP, we're going to the government, we're going

09:49to everybody that is affected by buses to try and make some changes.

09:55These campaigners are forming a so-called people's focus group, bringing together operators,

10:01councils and passengers.

10:04We should be able to tell people and the bus companies this is the best way to operate

10:09but they won't listen to us, sadly at the moment. But we will keep trying.

10:13And do you think devolution will make any differences to buses here?

10:17Yes I do and I think a mayor of Kent will be solely responsible for running the buses,

10:23they will control the routes and more importantly they'll control the profits because with stagecoaches

10:28at the moment they have what they call their golden routes where they're making a lot of

10:31money and they have the less well-off routes like my 74 service and they won't subsidise

10:39one with the other. But when the franchise system comes in and under the Andy Burnham

10:44scheme in Greater Manchester, the more profitable routes will subsidise the less profitable routes.

10:50Stagecoach says the combination of rising costs and fewer passengers mean they've had

10:54to face some tough decisions about loss-making services.

10:58With no quick fix in sight, the question does remain. Can Kent keep its buses running long

11:05enough for devolution to make any difference?

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