written by David LeederDavid Leeder, the young and dynamic Chief Executive of the Urban Transport Division of National Express Group plc (and of Travel West Midlands), wowed those present at the LRTA’s Annual General Meeting in Birmingham, England recently with a fast moving presentation about his Group’s activities and ambitions for integrated public transport. So much so that we thought that readers of this magazine should have the opportunity to “hear” his views - could this be the shape of public transport in the New Millennium?
NEG plc - moving people is our business
National Express Group Plc (NEG) is a private company that exists to invest
in and improve mass passenger transport systems. In 1992 the Group became
the first British land passenger transport business to obtain a listing on
the UK Stock Market. Today our employees hold around 20% of NEG's shares
with the rest owned by small investors directly or held on their behalf by
professional investment funds.
Although most people still associate National Express with our famous
network of express coaches, our core business is in fact moving people, not
running coaches. We believe that our key skills of safety management,
operations, investment, planning and marketing can be applied to any
passenger transport mode. In fact, rail operations are now our biggest
business and since September we have also become one of the USA's major
operators of yellow school buses. NEG is now one of the world's leading
passenger transport businesses, operating through four Divisions covering
Coaches, Buses, Airports and Trains with operations in the UK, mainland
Europe and North America.
Travel West Midlands
Travel West Midlands - the NEG Company that will operate the Metro - has
developed Britain's largest urban bus network, with over 2,000 buses
running on around 500 routes throughout the conurbation. NEG is currently
investing over £100m to up-date the TWM fleet with one of Europe's biggest
fleets of low-floor, easy access buses. This investment is being backed up
by improvements to routes, ticketing and customer information. Overall bus
ridership is now growing, after many years of decline.
Quality Partnerships - showcasing the bus
Any plan to revolutionise public transport must address buses. The facts
speak for themselves: every year TWM alone carries over 330 million bus
trips. This compares with around 20m trips pa on the local rail network.
Even a large-scale Metro network would only carry around 10% of this total
and would take years to develop, even if sufficient funding was available.
A vigorous bus network is not an alternative to light rail: it is an
essential first step towards it.
Over the last few years, TWM has developed ever-closer partnerships with
the West Midlands local authorities and Centro to improve the quality and
quantity of transport services in the area.
Showcasing the bus
Traffic congestion is the enemy of reliable bus or tram operation.
Congestion makes journeys slow and unreliable, and inflates operating costs
and fares, thereby encouraging further car use. 'Showcase' is the West
Midlands' formula for breaking-out of this vicious circle.
Starting with the now-famous Line 33 project, the West Midlands has
pioneered the Quality Partnership concept with a series of pilot schemes
that aim to showcase the best in bus travel:
The success of these pilots has led to plans for a regional 'showcase'
network, involving large-scale private sector investment in bus
infrastructure for the first time, including the possible development of
guided busways. A Regional Quality Partnership embracing over 50 bus and
rail operators, the seven district authorities and Centro, has recently
been launched: NEG has earmarked £30m for investment in cost-effective
information and infrastructure projects to supplement public sector funding
sources.
Where do trams fit in?
NEG's forebears include a number of tram operators, including Dundee
Corporation, Birmingham Corporation, BET and even parts of the Belgian
Vicinal. The Group is keen to invest in tramways and light rail systems
throughout the world, either through privatisation of existing operators or
through the development of new schemes. There may also be scope to improve
heavy rail services by the application of more flexible, Karlsruhe-style,
technology and operating practices.
Midland Metro therefore has two roles within NEG:
to complement two of our core businesses: Travel West Midlands and
sister-company Central Trains, operator of the Centro local rail network
to provide NEG with a pilot project for worldwide light rail
Integrating Midland Metro with the rest of the network
NEG believes that the main competitor to public transport is the private
car. High quality interchange between operators and modes enables public
transport to provide a more car-like service. But NEG also understands that
passenger transport is fundamentally a service activity, more akin to
modern retailing than the traditional view of a public 'utility'. If we are
to attract the proverbial man in the Nexus Viagra GTi we need to sell our
services like any other private business.
Our philosophy is to develop convenient ticketing and information systems
and opportunities for convenient interchanges and allow our customers to
choose where and whether to interchange. This contrasts with the
traditional 'planned' network as practised in Tyne & Wear before 1986 where
passengers were forced off buses to meet artificial notions of an 'optimum
network'. Our research has shown that many categories of passenger -
elderly shoppers, for example - will prefer a slower, through journey by
bus to interchanging with Metro, however convenient. Others will happily
trade a change of mode for a faster, overall journey time. Parallel bus
routes will therefore be retained, not least because they can provide the
most comprehensive range of feeder services. Wherever possible we are
up-grading Metro feeders with Easy Access buses to provide seamless
interchange with the trams.
Improving Information
Information is the Achilles' Heel of complex public transport networks. It
was the initial failure to address information problems that has done so
much to damage the image of the UK's deregulated bus sector. TWM and
partner operators have now begun to tackle this problem. The Company has
established an Internet site, colour-coded 'branded' routes are being
introduced and many buses now carry-'Underground' style maps. A network of
700 information points has been set-up that includes all local rail
stations. A complete review has been carried out of our printed material
from destination blinds to timetable leaflets. Professional graphic design
expertise has been deployed to create a clear corporate identity, with
specially designed graphics and letterface.
All this is backed-up by high-profile advertising, a travel card sales team
and a dynamic PR group led by Phil Bateman (the grand-father of the Midland
Metro). NEG is also working with the Confederation of Passenger Transport
(CPT) and Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to establish a
national public transport information service.
All of these principles apply equally to Midland Metro: like the buses, the
trams will be 'route-branded', and Ray Stenning, the transport livery
specialist, has created a dramatic system identity that blends the TWM and
Centro house-styles into something uniquely 'Metro'.
A huge range of graphic material is now being prepared, including fares
information, system maps and user guides.
Selling baked beans
TWM and Midland Metro receive no operating subsidies. Like a shop selling
baked-beans, our success or failure will depend on selling tickets to
willing customers and making sure that we provide the kind of value that
will keep them coming back for more.
One way of helping people make the transition to public transport is to
make it easy to buy tickets. Over the last few years a wide range of
multi-journey tickets has been developed in the West Midlands, ranging from
bus 'add-ons' to long-distance rail to specialist tickets targeted at
specific market segments such as students and leisure travellers. Over
three hundred Pass Agents have been created, including all the local rail
stations. The wide range of one-day bus/rail tickets is also now available
on bus, from over 2,000 buses of 50 operators, serving 12,000 individual
bus stops. The public transport network in the West Midlands is now
probably more 'integrated' than any similar city in Europe.
These concepts will be extended to Metro to facilitate multi-mode and
multi-operator journeys. Metro Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) will sell a
variety of one-day passes, in addition to single tickets, returns and
special bus and rail add-ons. The scope for more ambitious joint ticketing
with heavy rail is currently being evaluated.
Capturing the car user
Midland Metro is a massive investment by any standards: over £145m to
upgrade just one public transport corridor. Around £130m of the capital sum
has been provided from public sector sources and could equally well have
been spend on health or education services. This is at least ten times the
cost of providing an equivalent high-quality bus operation.
Metro is really just another Showcase corridor, albeit one that uses trams
rather than buses as its basis. To justify this level of expenditure, Metro
must not only deliver the goods in terms of passenger volumes; it must
carry the 'right' passengers. Metro will have failed if we simply divert
existing bus riders; we must attract new users and capture the 'generated'
trips that might otherwise have been made by car. Park & Ride is only part
of this equation. We really want the car user to park-at-home-and-ride,
walking to the tram stop, or hopping on a bus. Formal Park & Ride already
exists at The Hawthorns, and Midland Metro is working with Centro and other
authorities to put together other P&R sites.
The future
After many years of planning, Midland Metro is now on its way. It is not
just a light rail system, but an integral part of a dynamic, competitive
public transport market, and part of a passenger transport business with
global ambitions.
David Leeder, Chief Executive Travel West Midlands
Pocket biography: David Leeder joined Travel West Midlands from Exeter based Transit Holdings where he was right hand man to Chairman, Harry Blundred. Before that he was General Manager of both Docklands Transit and Portsmouth Transit and prior to that he worked for transport specialists, the MVA Consultancy, and also for British Rail where he began his working career in 1987 as a Senior Management Trainee. He studied Transport Operation and Planning at Aston University in Birmingham where he gained a First Class Degree.
There is no doubt that this formula works: the pilot Quality Partnership
routes - such as the award-winning Line 33 - have shown that bus-based
public transport can deliver substantial patronage increases. Passenger
traffic on Line 33 has grown by over 30% in less than two years, with
corridor growth of around 10%. Similar schemes have since been launched in
Coventry and Walsall, with the added ingredient of multi-operator corridors
that blend healthy competition with pragmatic co-operation.
David is 32. He was born and educated in Croydon, Surrey. He joined Travel West Midlands (then West Midlands Travel) in 1993 and became Marketing Director in 1995. He became Chief Executive in 1997.
For more about Midland Metro - click here
To return to the top of this page - click here
To return to the "Magazine" page - click here
To return to LRTA home page - click here