Contact: John Mariner, ext 6922

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

(i) That the action taken in awarding an emergency contract for a subsidised local bus service between Petersfield and Liss Forest at a cost of £60,000 per annum be endorsed.

(ii) That the action taken in awarding contracts for subsidised local bus services in the Alton area be endorsed.

2. Reason

2.1 To identify the additional budget pressure of providing a replacement service following the withdrawal of commercial service 38 between Petersfield and Whitehill via Liss and Liss Forest.

2.2 To record the tender results and their budgetary implications and the action taken under delegated powers.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected

3.1 Providing a replacement service over the whole of the section of route between Petersfield and Whitehill.

3.2 Extending the replacement service beyond Liss Forest to Greatham.

4. Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Decision Maker or a Member or Officer consulted - None.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the Matter being dealt with if Urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: Date:

Councillor K B Estlin

7. Alton Area Retendering

Existing Contracts

7.1 These are for services centred on Alton and operating in an area bounded by Winchester, Basingstoke, Odiham, Bordon, Liphook and Petersfield.

7.2 The tendering exercise forms part of the County Council's rolling programme. It seeks to replace contracts A107-A109 inclusive, A111-A113 inclusive, A115-A118 inclusive, A121-A125 inclusive and A131.

Commercial Services

7.3 Commercial services in the Alton area are operated by Stagecoach. Altonian Coaches and AMK Minicoaches also participate. A significant part of the Stagecoach operation is interworked with services paid for by Alton College.

The Tenders

7.4 The Alton area contracted services consist of 16 contracts covering 12 separate services costing £340,700 per annum. The majority of the services are rural and a number operate on less than six days per week.

7.5 Patronage surveys of the contracted services revealed only modest levels of ridership but, on the basis of existing contract prices, all but one met the £2.50 'cost per passenger' criterion.

7.6 The design of the tenders took into account the proposed service reductions aimed at meeting the perceived budget shortfall for 2002/03. Hence each tender contained separate timetable specifications for Monday-Friday (schooldays), Monday-Friday (school holidays) and Saturdays in order to easily establish those elements of each service which failed the value for money criteria. This also gave the opportunity to reassess the position of service reductions.

7.7 A total of 14 tenders was prepared. The tenders are listed in Appendix 1 with an indication of the level of service.

Results and Financial Implications

7.8 Tenders were sent to over 50 operators of whom only six submitted responses. The results are summarised in Appendix 2.

7.9 In the majority of cases it has been possible to award contracts and retain services. There are some parts of services however, particularly Saturday timetables, which failed the cost per passenger criterion. Some of these were already scheduled for withdrawal. On the other hand, it has been possible to reprieve other services on the budget review list. At the same time, the tendering exercise has identified additional candidates for withdrawal. The details are summarised in Appendix 3.

7.10 A small number of journeys have been withdrawn. These are journeys which carried less than five passengers on average. In some cases no passengers were carried.

7.11 Tender A136 was for service 23/24 Alton Town. This service is mostly commercial on schooldays and operated by Stagecoach. A contract has been awarded to Stagecoach for Saturday journeys but another has been awarded to Altonian Coaches for Monday-Friday in school holidays. This is unfortunate in that a mix of operators will work the service. The tender results did not permit a more straightforward solution.

7.12 Tender A139 was for journeys which form part of service 201/211 Fleet-Odiham-Alton. This tender will be circulated again as there was an ambiguity in the original specification.

7.13 Tenders A140 and A141 were for services 205 (East Tisted-Farringdon-Alton) and 206 (Froyle-Binsted-Alton). These services have for some time been operated by Altonian Coaches but will now pass to Stagecoach. The former service has been enhanced with additional journeys in 2000 using funding from the Rural Bus Service Grant (RBSG). Sadly, although sufficient time has elapsed for patronage to build up, the extra journeys - with one exception - do not appear to be used and are among those to be withdrawn.

Cost Summary

7.14 The net cost of the tendering exercise can be summarised as follows:

Cost of contracts before tendering £340,700

Cost of contracts after tendering £328,200

Saving £ 12,500

8. Conclusion

8.1 The retendering of County Council contracted bus services in the Alton area has resulted in a cost saving of £12,500. Whilst some journeys have been lost, it has proved possible to reprieve certain journeys which were scheduled for withdrawal when a budget shortfall was forecast. Some Saturday services have been reduced in frequency but no route has completely disappeared.

8.2 New contracts commenced on Sunday, 2 June 2002 and would be of four years' duration.

8.3 Most of the Alton area contracted services are included in the Alton and Alresford Travel Guide. Some appear in either the Petersfield Guide or the Bordon and Liphook Booklet. New editions of all three are imminent.

9. Additional Budget Pressure

Service 38

9.1 For the last five years Stagecoach has operated a through service from Portsmouth to Aldershot via Petersfield, Whitehill and Farnham. The company acknowledges that during this period there has been some passenger growth but, as costs continue to rise, that growth has been insufficient to ensure the long term future of the route.

9.2 Citing poor passenger loadings between Petersfield and Whitehill, Stagecoach applied to the Traffic Commissioner to withdraw that section of service 38 as a commercial operation with effect from 2 June 2002.

Passenger Usage

9.3 On-bus surveys were undertaken and access was obtained to Stagecoach ticket machine data. Having assessed the total number of passenger journeys affected by the commercial decision, a price was obtained from Stagecoach for the whole of the 'withdrawn' section. This price - £150,000 - produced a 'cost per passenger' figure of £5. No further action was taken on this option.

9.4 It was apparent from the passenger data however that the majority of passenger journeys were concentrated into the section of route between Petersfield and Liss Forest/Greatham. A timetable was devised to cater for these journeys. Although priced at £60,000 for a Monday to Saturday service, the 'cost per passenger' was £1.61.

9.5 It was also apparent from the passenger data that significant use is made of journeys that carry pupils attending Petersfield secondary schools from/to Bordon and Whitehill.

9.6 Negotiation with Stagecoach resulted in the suggested timetable being merged with the remaining commercial section of service 38 between Portsmouth and Petersfield to produce a through service between Portsmouth and Liss Forest. This would be on an hourly frequency and would have the effect of retaining the existing service over that part of the service 38 route and the impact of the commercial decision limited to the section between Liss Forest and Whitehill.

9.7 Further negotiations with Stagecoach added journeys for secondary school pupils from Bordon/Whitehill who attend schools in Petersfield. They too will see no major change to their travel arrangements. None of these negotiated items increased the price.

9.8 Regrettably it has not been possible to make a case within existing criteria to retain any form of service between Liss Forest and Whitehill. The community most affected is Greatham. While the village is served by service 72 which operates between Alton and Petersfield, it is far less frequent than service 38 and lacks journeys at important times. Attempts are being made with Stagecoach to improve service provision for Greatham.

10. Contract Action

10.1 As there has been insufficient time to circulate formal tenders, an emergency contract has been awarded to Stagecoach at an annual cost of £60,000 to provide an extension of commercial service 38 from Petersfield to Liss Forest. The contract will operate until the October school half-term. In the meantime tenders will be circulated for a longer term solution. This provision will form part of the Alton tendering area.

10.2 The £60,000 will be funded from savings made from the Alton area retendering and from the RBSG.

10.3 Service 72 was to be withdrawn on Saturdays as part of the proposed service reduction package. These Saturday journeys will now be retained.

7178/JM

APPENDIX 1

ALTON AREA RETENDERING - LIST OF TENDERS

APPENDIX 3

ALTON AREA RETENDERING - SUMMARY OF AMENDMENTS TO POTENTIAL NORMAL HOUSEKEEPING REDUCTIONS