Northern Ireland Forum

for

Political Dialogue

~~~~~~~~~

TRANSPORT IN RURAL AREAS

A REPORT

BY

STANDING COMMITTEE 'E'

(The Northern Ireland Economy)

~~~~~~~~~

Presented to the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue

on 3 April 1998

Note

DRAFT REPORTS

This report has been prepared by Standing Committee E for

the consideration of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political

Dialogue. Until adopted by the Forum in accordance with its

Rules, this report may not be reproduced in whole or in part

or used for broadcast purposes.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Committee wishes to express its sincere thanks to

all who provided submissions or contributed in any

other way to this investigation into Transport in Rural

Areas.

CONTENTS

Section Page

1. INTRODUCTION 1

2. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM

INITIAL RESPONSE ON INTEGRATED

TRANSPORT POLICY 3

3. RURAL TRANSPORT ISSUES 5

4. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 14

APPENDIX A - MEMBERSHIP OF STANDING COMMITTEE E

APPENDIX B - ROADS REQUIRING UPGRADING AND

IMPROVEMENT

APPENDIX C - MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN FROM

MR TED HESKETH (TRANSLINK)

TRANSPORT IN RURAL AREAS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 On 14 November 1997 the Northern Ireland Forum for Political

Dialogue adopted the initial response prepared by Standing Committee

E (The Northern Ireland Economy) to the “Developing an Integrated

Transport Policy” document published in August 1997 by the

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

1.2 Following its adoption by the Forum the response was forwarded to the

Transportation Unit of the Department of the Environment for Northern

Ireland for onward transmission in response to the UK-wide invitation

to contribute towards developing an integrated transport policy.

1.3 When the response was being debated in the Forum a number of

members while welcoming the response and commending those who

worked on it felt that it was mainly relevant to the Belfast conurbation

and was remiss in not highlighting the needs of rural areas, particularly

those in the western part of the Province.

1.4 In his summing up the then Vice-Chairperson of Standing Committee E

welcomed the opportunity to consider this issue further in Committee.

In the interim, Standing Committee E has considered in greater depth a

number of the issues raised in the Forum debate and has concluded that

1

it would be appropriate to present to the Forum a separate Report on

Transport in Rural Areas.

1.5 For ease of reference and by way of linking the two Reports the key

recommendations from the initial response on Integrated Transport

Policy are re-stated at Chapter 2 of this Report.

2

2. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM INITIAL

RESPONSE ON INTEGRATED TRANSPORT POLICY

2.1 A co-ordinated effort should be made to reduce the level of car

commuting in Northern Ireland and particularly in the Belfast area.

2.2 An extensive and sustained “Hearts and Minds” campaign should be

initiated to encourage modal-shift, where possible, from private to

public transport.

2.3 Priority should be given to the development of Flagship public

transport services in Belfast.

2.4 An integrated smart card payment system should be developed for

transport services, both public and private, in Northern Ireland.

2.5 A “Residents Only” car parking policy should be considered for the

inner city area of Belfast and, as appropriate, for other parts of

Northern Ireland. This policy could be part of an overall strategy to

reduce the provision of free all day parking facilities in city and town

centres.

2.6 The problem of existing bottlenecks, such as the West Link in Belfast,

the Toome Corridor and the main route to Larne, should be urgently

addressed.

2.7 Road pricing should only be considered for implementation on a

national basis.

3

2.8 The integration with, and co-ordination of, Ulsterbus services with

community transport and voluntary provision should be encouraged,

particularly in rural areas.

2.9 Government should aim to reduce social exclusion of certain sections

of the community such as the elderly, the disabled, the young, people

on low incomes, etc, and ensure that transport and planning policy

deals with rural community needs.

4

3. RURAL TRANSPORT ISSUES

(a) Need to Upgrade Existing Road System

3.1 The Committee considers that there is an urgent need for upgrading

and improvement of many roads throughout Northern Ireland and while

resource implications probably rule out the building of any more

motorways a need does exist in some areas for lengths of additional

high quality road to be built eg to facilitate the development of the

East/West economic corridor. With the ongoing development of out of

town shopping centres a system of feeder roads to these centres should

also be introduced.

3.2 The Committee shares the concern voiced by several Forum Members

when integrated transport policy was debated in the Forum that many

of the roads in the Province and particularly those in rural areas west of

the Bann are not adequate for the amount of traffic currently using

them. This situation needs to be remedied and allowance made for the

future development of rural industry.

3.3 There is a clear need for a review of the road infrastructure throughout

Northern Ireland and a list of some of the worst bottle-necks and roads

which require upgrading and improvement is set out at Appendix B.

5

Recommendation:

A review should be carried out of the road infrastructure

throughout Northern Ireland with a view to upgrading and

improving existing routes and building additional high quality

roads where necessary, including feeder roads to out-of-town

shopping centres.

(b) Adequacy of Public Transport

3.4 The frequency of the public transport service in some rural areas is

low. This is brought about through lack of passengers and infrequency

of use and when the frequency of service is low the number of

passengers tends to fall further. Services in a rural community are most

at risk and are more likely to be withdrawn.

3.5 In many areas public transport is now used only by those who do not

have access to private transport. This fall in the demand for public

transport services increases the difficulty of providing services that are

commercially viable. If services are cut to retain viability in the face of

decreasing demand those without access to a car will be further

disadvantaged. The Committee believes that there is a need to

subsidise these rural services and would encourage consideration of the

use of school buses on rural public service routes, where appropriate.

3.6 In view of the scattered nature of development in Northern Ireland and

the very high dependency of rural dwellers on cars, the Committee is

6

also deeply concerned about the effect of recent Budget measures on

both private and public transport.

3.7 The commercial remit of Ulsterbus means that conventional public

transport is unlikely to provide an adequate level of service and the

development of the strategic use of community and voluntary transport

could bridge this mobility gap. The Community Transport Association

aims to meet the transport needs of people who find it difficult to use

conventional public transport because of cost, disability or age.

Recommendation:

Government should consider subsidising rural bus services and

utilising school buses on rural public service routes. Community

and voluntary transport should also be used to bridge the mobility

gap created by inadequate public service provision in some rural

areas.

(c) Requirements/Problems of Freight Transport

3.8 The ability to move goods freely is important for the economic

prosperity of Northern Ireland. While there may be some opportunity

for increased use of rail (see paragraph 3.14) the vast proportion of

freight movement will continue to be by road. The Committee

considers, therefore, that it is important to create improved conditions

for essential commercial traffic.

7

3.9 Improved road structures and adequate alternative routes would keep

lorries out of villages and small towns where they tend to disrupt traffic

flows. A number of main routes like the A4 - Dungannon to

Enniskillen and A5 - Londonderry to Dublin which have been

designated trans-European routes and the A3 Armagh to Monaghan

route are also clearly unsuitable for the volume of heavy traffic which

currently uses them. The Committee considers that funding should be

made available to bring these through routes up to standard.

3.10 Recognising that it is essential for goods to be delivered to shops in all

locations the Committee feels that a greater effort could be made to

arrange for deliveries to be made outside normal working hours.

Recommendation:

To create improved conditions for essential commercial traffic

funding should be made available to bring main routes up to

standard.

Recommendation:

A greater effort should be made to arrange for delivery of goods to

shops outside normal working hours.

8

(d) Car Sharing

3.11 The principle of car sharing is attractive in terms of its ability to reduce

the total amount of car travel. Car occupancy levels are low and most

car journeys are undertaken by the driver on his or her own. The

Department of the Environment is planning to carry out some research

to see what can be done to encourage the practice of car sharing and

they will be providing better parking facilities at some locations, as a

pilot exercise, to make it a more attractive option. The Committee

would also encourage the Department to examine existing

arrangements in other countries, for example, high occupancy cars

using bus lanes, as part of their research.

3.12 There is potential throughout Northern Ireland to reduce travel to work

car journeys through the greater use of sharing arrangements. Such

arrangements are more acceptable in rural areas where journeys tend to

be longer. To facilitate car sharing the Committee feels it is necessary

to provide free car parking areas adjacent to appropriate main road

junctions and roundabouts.

Recommendation:

Provision of free car parking areas adjacent to appropriate main

road junctions and roundabouts is necessary.

9

Recommendation:

The Department of the Environment should examine existing

arrangements in other countries like the use of high occupancy

vehicle lanes.

(e) Rail Network

3.13 The Committee welcomes the announcement of the re-opening of the

direct line between Antrim and Belfast. This will create an opportunity

to develop travel from towns north of Belfast into the urban area. The

Committee feels that in planning for the future there may be scope to

expand this project to include a link line to Belfast International

Airport. This link could be viable if there is future industrial

development at the airport.

3.14 The rail share of the overall freight market is very small, although

railway lines run close, but not into, our major ports. The Committee

considers that an examination should be undertaken of the potential to

move freight from the roads onto the railways by extending the rail link

into the ports. There may also be scope for the introduction of roll-on

roll-off rail/ferry links at Belfast and Larne harbours.

10

Recommendation:

The project to re-open the direct rail link between Belfast and

Antrim should be extended to include a link line to Belfast

International Airport to cope with future industrial development.

Recommendation:

An examination should be undertaken of the potential to move

freight from the roads onto the railways by extending the rail links

into the ports.

(f) Environmental/Planning Issues

3.15 The location and nature of development affects the amount and method

of travel, while the pattern of development is itself influenced by

transport policies and infrastructure. The Committee believes that by

planning land use and transport together, in ways which enable people

to carry out their everyday activities with less need to travel, the

environmental impact of transport can be reduced in the longer term.

The re-development of brown field sites, for example, is one way to

help reduce the need for travel. All transport planning should, of

course, also take into account the need for reduction in pollution levels.

3.16 In "Transportation in Northern Ireland - the Way Forward" the

Department of the Environment states that environmental

considerations already play a fundamental role in the development of

11

proposals for new roads. In rural areas the road alignment is chosen to

take account of the character of the landscape, to conserve landforms

and features of historic or natural interest, and to avoid disruption of

local communities.

Recommendation:

Land use and transport should be planned jointly in ways which

enable people to carry out their everyday activities with less need

to travel.

Recommendation:

All transport planning should take into account the need for

reduction in pollution levels.

(g) East/West Economic Corridor

3.17 The Committee considers that the East/West economic corridor is of

vital importance considering the amount of business transacted

between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. In the light of this there is

a need to ensure that suitable road structures are developed and

maintained both in the Province itself, eg the A8 route between Belfast

and Larne Harbour and in Scotland linking Stranraer with major cities

in Scotland and England.

12

Recommendation:

Government should ensure that suitable road structures are

developed and maintained to service the entire East/West

economic corridor.

(h) Road Pricing

3.18 Road pricing, in various forms, is common in many parts of the world.

The Committee considers, however, that on account of the size of

Northern Ireland and acknowledging the special needs of rural dwellers

road pricing is not acceptable in the Province.

Recommendation:

Due to its inappropriateness road pricing should not be introduced

in Northern Ireland.

13

4. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 A review should be carried out of the road infrastructure

throughout Northern Ireland with a view to upgrading and

improving existing routes and building additional high quality

roads where necessary, including feeder roads to out-of-town

shopping centres.

4.2 Government should consider subsidising rural bus services and

utilising school buses on rural public service routes. Community

and voluntary transport should also be used to bridge the mobility

gap created by inadequate public service provision in some rural

areas.

4.3 To create improved conditions for essential commercial traffic

funding should be made available to bring main routes up to

standard.

4.4 A greater effort should be made to arrange for delivery of goods to

shops outside normal working hours.

4.5 Provision of free car parking areas adjacent to appropriate main

road junctions and roundabouts is necessary.

4.6 The Department of the Environment should examine existing

arrangements in other countries like the use of high occupancy

vehicle lanes.

14

4.7 The project to re-open the direct rail link between Belfast and

Antrim should be extended to include a link line to Belfast

International Airport to cope with future industrial development.

4.8 An examination should be undertaken of the potential to move

freight from the roads onto the railways by extending the rail links

into the ports.

4.9 Land use and transport should be planned jointly in ways which

enable people to carry out their everyday activities with less need

to travel.

4.10 All transport planning should take into account the need for

reduction in pollution levels.

4.11 Government should ensure that suitable road structures are

developed and maintained to service the entire East/West

economic corridor.

4.12 Due to its inappropriateness, road pricing should not be

introduced in Northern Ireland.

15

APPENDIX A

MEMBERSHIP OF

STANDING COMMITTEE E

(THE NORTHERN IRELAND ECONOMY)

Democratic Unionist Party - Mr St C McAlister - Chairperson

Mr S Wilson

Mr W Snoddy

Mr M Carrick

Ulster Unionist Party - Mrs M Steele - Vice-Chairperson

Mr D Nesbitt

Mr R J White

Mr J Clarke

Alliance Party - Mr S Neeson

Mr S McBride

*Mr P Osborne

NI Women's Coalition - Ms M McWilliams

*Ms N Heaton

Labour - Mr M Curran

*Mr W White

*Miss C Rainey

Ulster Democratic Party - Mr G McMichael

*Mr D Adams

Progressive Unionist Party - Mr H Smyth

*Mr R Stewart

* attend the Committee on behalf of the party under Rule 14(4)(a) of the

Forum Rules of Procedure.

16

APPENDIX B

ROADS REQUIRING UPGRADING AND IMPROVEMENT

A2 Belfast-Carrickfergus

A3 Armagh-Monaghan

A4 Dungannon-Enniskillen

A5 Londonderry-Dublin

A6 Belfast-Londonderry

A8 Belfast-Larne Harbour

A32 Omagh-Enniskillen

Omagh throughpass (Stage 3)

Comber by-pass

Motorway Link: Craigavon Centre to M12 Roundabout

Northway (Portadown)

Toome by-pass

Saintfield-Belfast

West Link

Vital links with GB (East/West Corridor)

17

APPENDIX C

NORTHERN IRELAND FORUM

FOR POLITICAL DIALOGUE

_______________

STANDING COMMITTEE E

_______________

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE

(Mr T Hesketh and Mr A Watt

(Translink))

on

RURAL TRANSPORT

Thursday 18 March 1998

18

NORTHERN IRELAND FORUM

FOR POLITICAL DIALOGUE _____________

STANDING COMMITTEE E

Thursday 18 March 1998

_____________

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE

(Mr T Hesketh and Mr A Watt

(Translink))

on

RURAL TRANSPORT

The Chairman: Mr Hesketh and Mr Watt, thank you both for agreeing to meet with

the Forum’s Economy Committee. While feelers have been put out about transport in

general, some members thought it timely to look at rural transport in particular, bearing in

mind that the Department of the Environment has been looking at it.

One of the issues to come up in our initial discussions was that of public transport, rail

transport and the relationship between the two. The Committee will also be keen to hear

whether you consider there to be a place for community school buses et cetera.

Finally, bringing it up to date, we would like to have your comments about the Budget,

and, indeed, anything else you consider to be helpful. For example, do you have any

information about subsidized transport in rural areas? Have any studies been done in the rest

of Europe that either approve or disapprove of it?

Mr Hesketh: Your introduction has been extremely useful. I welcome this

opportunity to discuss rural transport specifically.

I have with me, Mr Andy Watt, who by way of background started out in Portadown,

went to Enniskillen, Magherafelt, Derry/Londonderry and is now back in Belfast as the

director of operations. I hope his extensive experience of rural transport will be useful this

morning.

Before I hand over to Mr Watt can I say that although the Budget details are not

totally clear yet, it does seem that we are not going to get hit by a further increase on diesel

fuel duty, which was adding £1 million to our costs every year.

Another significant issue is the rural bus grant. The Government have been talking

about putting £50 million towards providing buses in rural communities, of which I

understand the Northern Ireland share will be in the order of £1·3 million. There are to be

discussions between ourselves and other interested parties about this. For instance, while

Northern Ireland’s voluntary transport sector is relatively fragmented, there are organizations

19

such as the Rural Community Network in the Cookstown area and the Community Transport

Association. There is also an organization in Derry and people in Lurgan. So there is

probably the potential for us to work alongside some of those people because we have the

hardware — the buses.

A lot of our buses take children to school and workers to work in the morning, but

they do not do much during the day because we are under pressure to meet the Government’s

financial targets. So a lot of buses are sitting around during the day which could be made

available for use under certain controlled conditions. I hope this additional money will give an

impetus to that sort of co-operation between the publicly-owned bus companies and the

voluntary sector.

The Chairman: Will £1·3 million make any difference?

Mr Hesketh: £1·3 million will always make a difference. It is not a fortune in the

context of a £100 million turnover, but we are grateful for everything we receive.

The Chairman: But is it going to have any real impact?

Mr Hesketh: We have to start from the position where Ulsterbus has seen a decline in

its number of passengers of 4% or 5% per annum. Public transport is in serious decline.

Great Britain started to go through this period of decline in the mid-1980s and we are only

beginning to experience it now. As well as having to meet financial targets there is the whole

question of maintaining services; losing 4% or 5% of your passengers is not a lot, but when it

happens year on year it can suddenly make a bus service non-viable.

The other factor affecting school transport is this freedom of choice policy. We carry

approximately 70,000 children every year, but in this first year it has gone down by 2,000.

That is not a dramatic decrease, but next year as this new policy feeds through the system it

will be 4,000, then 8,000 and so on. A town like Omagh is a classic example. The buses are

there mainly because of the school traffic, but they are also available to take workers into

town. So if you weaken the school transport system, you weaken the overall network. We

are carrying something like 160 loss-making routes, and although that is part of the overall

deal, if you are losing 4% or 5% of your passengers each year you have to start looking very

hard at those routes.

Also, how much should be charged for fares? The history of fares in Northern Ireland

is that they have been kept very much in line with inflation, whereas there have been real fare

increases in Great Britain. We have had to factor that into our thinking. We have tried to

strike a balance between higher fares and making cuts in services.

Now, that was all before yesterday’s Budget, which does help. It was the first Budget

in a generation that has done anything positive for public transport. We could not have

expected any more from the Government in their first Budget. They have signalled their

support for public transport, and that is particularly important for a province like Northern

Ireland.

Mr Watt: You did mention funding, and we have a report hot off the press which

compares funding here with the situation in Great Britain and parts of Europe.

20

You mentioned rural transport and I have a few slides which will give you some insight

into the picture here. This shows the major depots throughout the province. Later on I will

show you the number of bases that we have and where we operate from. The black line

shows the railway network, but it is impossible to show the bus network on a chart this size

because it is so extensive; each base has a spider’s web of services linking the main towns, as

well as serving the rural areas.

Northern Ireland Railways has 57 stations and halts, and Ulsterbus has 72 depots and

sub-depots. For example, Sixmilecross, Fintona, Gortin and Dromore are all sub-depots of

Omagh depot. Staff are locally-based which helps us to cut down our costs.

We have three area managers, one in the north, one in the south and one covering

Belfast and the Citybus area. And we have a railway services manager. We have 23 district

managers, 10 of whom have joint responsibilities for bus and rail. Those district managers

must live in the area that they serve, and they must be involved in the local business

organizations and have a relationship with the local community. And we have three depot

controllers in the smaller depots (Ballymoney, Cookstown and Carrickfergus), who are a

grade below the district manager, but who do a similar job. They are potential future district

managers.

As Mr Hesketh has said, the numbers of passenger journeys have been decreasing over

the last two to three years, particularly fare-paying journeys. From the reorganization of

school transport in 1990, where open enrolment was introduced, school passenger journeys

increased from about 60,000 to 72,000 last year. This has dropped this year by about 2,300.

The organizations employ a total of 3,619 people. The overall turnover is

£102 million, with passenger journeys for the last financial year amounting to £84 million.

That figure will go down slightly this year because of the fall in passenger journeys this year of

about 4% or 5%, and there are a number of possible reasons for that.

Lastly, I will touch briefly on the types of services operating throughout the province.

The Goldline network which was introduced in 1990 links all the major towns, primarily with

Belfast, but also with each other on certain routes. We have a number of vehicle types now in

stage carriage: we have the conventional 49- and 53-seater vehicles; minibuses, which are

12-, 19- and 25-seater vehicles; and the Handybus, which is a 39-seater vehicle. A significant

amount of our business is to schools and villages throughout the province.

Contract business is primarily for factories, with a very limited number to schools.

And then there are the special services. For example, a significant Easibus service has been

built up in Belfast since its introduction three years ago. We increased it in June 1997 to

17 services throughout the province. We are currently reviewing that and some have in fact

been taken off because they have not proved cost effective. We are presently considering

introducing Easibus-type services in Bangor, Londonderry and Dungannon. Easibus is a

low-floor accessible minibus and we encourage people, through the completion of a special

form, to let us know their particular needs.

The Centrelink service in Belfast links the bus and railway stations in the city. And,

finally, there are Citybus and Flexibus.

21

The Chairman: Given the Government’s push towards getting more people to use

public transport, have you identified the reasons for the overall decline in passenger numbers?

Mr Hesketh: There are a number of reasons, the main one of course being the

increased use of cars. There are a variety of lesser issues such as the growth of out-of-town

shopping centres, extended shopping hours and Sunday opening. These shopping centres are

significant insofar as people no longer need to travel to town centres or city centres — for

example, in Belfast they can get all they need at Forestside.

The original shopping centres were primarily grocery outlets, so that when you needed

a new coat you went into town and that journey was more likely to be made by public

transport.

Fifty per cent of households typically have a one car, which is very often used by the

breadwinner to travel to and from work, and then is available at other times of the day. And

now that these shopping centres are open until 9 o’clock at night — indeed some of them are

open all night — people can use their cars for their shopping so that is business lost to public

transport. The third big factor is the significantly reduced numbers of school children, and this

trend is continuing.

As against that we are taking a number of measures to try to improve public transport.

But while the Government’s ‘The Way Forward’ document was issued with the best

intentions, with optimistic noises about improving the quality of the service, my budget was all

the while being reduced. We used to have a relatively young bus fleet, but over the past three

to four years our bus fleet has got significantly older and is now above the national average.

The type of initiatives that will attract people away from cars are those like Park and

Ride or bus lanes, where people can see that they can make their journey more quickly by bus.

I am not disregarding the railway interest but in rural Ulster — which is what we are mainly

here to talk about today — 84% of the journeys are made by bus. Therefore it is the success

or failure of the bus network that will really determine the quality of public transport for most

people.

All the towns highlighted in Mr Watt’s slide have a local manager who has a high level

of autonomy. He is expected to be very responsive to changing needs and demands and he

can do that without direct recourse to Mr Watt. That is a real strength of the organization

here, and you will not find that same level of devolved authority to local management in other

parts of the British Isles.

Mrs Steele: You mentioned that passenger numbers are decreasing by between 4%

and 5% per annum. Is there a greater decline in rural areas than the city?

Mr Watt: By and large, the scene is quite similar throughout the province, according

to the financial results from each of the main depots. Belfast has probably suffered most for

the reasons that the managing director outlined: the growth in car ownership; the out-of-town

shopping centres; and we have suffered greatly recently from the increased number of

roadworks and the disruption they cause to traffic in the city.

22

Rev William McCrea: You mentioned that the new arrangements on parental

freedom of choice for schools would reduce the 70,000 children who currently use the bus

service by some 2,000 per year. Could you clarify that again?

Mr Hesketh: There is protection for those children already attending schools beyond

the three mile limit for their school life. The new rules this year will affect 2,000 new form one

secondary school children and a similar number each year as the roll-out continues.

Mr Watt: There was also a proposal to exclude over-16s from free transport last

September. While that did not go through we are not sure what this year holds, but it is

obviously still on the table. That could mean the withdrawal of 1,500 to 1,600 passes per year

over three years.

Rev William McCrea: The Government document ‘Shaping Our Future’ talked

about the vital role for transport and it recognized that the current infrastructure will need to

be improved to provide a high level of accessibility to combat social exclusion. But how do

you square that with your very first slide which highlighted the vast difference in transport and

road networks between the west and east of the province. How on earth are we going to

attract people onto buses when we do not have a proper network in the west of the province?

What railways do we have? There is only a railway network on one side of the province. The

west has nothing. And the roads in the west are pathetic as well, we are starved of major

roads. Yet we have the largest network of low-grade roads, in terms of mileage. How on

earth do we get people out of their cars when many of the roads are not even serviced by

buses or anything else?

Mr Hesketh: We have the rail network that we were left with. With the benefit of

hindsight I think some of the people who made the decisions years ago would not have made

those same decisions today. But we can only go forward. We are looking forward to the

reopening of the direct rail line between Belfast and Antrim, which will greatly benefit people

in Antrim, Ballymena and Coleraine and so on. But I accept that that is a very limited

advance.

The rural network that we have is, believe it or not, much better than that in

comparable parts of Great Britain. You may find that hard to believe, but that is the reality.

The strength of it lies in the integration of the schoolchildren and the ordinary buses. In a lot

of other places they have more dedicated school fleets contracted. Those buses are not

available to the ordinary customer, and that is the difference. In Northern Ireland the boards

also have their own fleets — about 700 buses. I said earlier that we have hardware available

that we could perhaps make better use of. It is not for me to talk about the boards’ buses, but

I would have thought that the same argument applies. This may be something for the

future — closer co-operation between the public sector and the voluntary transport groups.

Mr Watt: As the managing director said, the school transport and public transport

network are inextricably linked. I have a breakdown here of where the 700 buses are located.

The closer to Belfast the boards are the fewer buses they have. For example, the Belfast

Board has only 64 buses, whereas the Western Board has 285 buses, so a lot of the local bus

services there are drawing only schoolchildren. The services we operate draw schoolchildren

and farepaying passengers and give the general public the opportunity to use those vehicles.

23

Mr Snoddy: You mentioned in your opening remarks that you will no longer have to

pay the extra duty on fuel. We talked about how to get people out of their cars. Will this

help subsidize fares in order to make it cheaper for people?

Mr Hesketh: It does not subsidize it because none of it is retrospective. What they

mean is that they are not going to put their arm in their pocket for another £1 million next

year, so in that sense we have been let off. Obviously we have no other way of passing it on

to the customers.

Mr Snoddy: In terms of running costs, fuel, obviously, is a big factor. If you do not

have to pay that duty, that is a big saving. Surely that should lead to a reduction in fares or

the stabilizing of prices?

Mr Hesketh: What it means is that we will not have to increase fares this year. It

does not mean that we will be able to reduce them. The difficulty that we are going to have

this year is striking a balance between maintaining rural services and putting up fares. When

you are faced with a 4% or 5% decline, what do you do? My instruction from the

Government is that I have to deliver the 8% financial return — that is the number one priority.

If I do not deliver on that they will get somebody else who will. The important thing is that

we try to deliver this policy sensibly and sensitively, and that is where the strength of the local

managers around the province is quite important.

We have a difficult decision coming up. We have to strike a balance between fares and

services against the background of declining passengers, and there is no way of ducking it.

Our drivers will rightly expect their increase. Wage inflation is running ahead of ordinary

inflation, and wages account for 60% of our costs. In order to meet the financial targets the

Government have set we have difficult decisions ahead in the next couple of weeks — it

would be even more difficult had it not been for yesterday’s Budget, I may say.

Mr Poots: You mentioned park-and-ride. I think everybody accepts that that is a way

forward, but I do not see anybody moving it forward. I represent the Lagan Valley area,

which takes in a fair sweep of the M1 motorway and three major roundabouts. Recently an

area plan was done for the Lisburn area, and there was nothing in that to indicate where they

would be prepared to put park-and-ride facilities. Obviously the Department of the

Environment Planning Service is going to be driving it forward. Is anything happening?

Mr Hesketh: The Department has set up a transportation unit under a chap called

Dennis O’Hagan, and he is the person responsible for driving this forward. That group works

in conjunction with the transport steering group. That was one of the good things that came

out of ‘The Way Forward’: it brought together the key players — the transport operators, the

planners, the Road Service — in one group. There are other people there as well such as the

Environment and Heritage Service, Traffic Branch and other groups. It is the first time in the

context of Northern Ireland that all the key players have been brought round the one table to

look at things like park-and-ride and car-parking policies.

Mr Poots: What about the bus lanes? Is there any progress being made there?

24

Mr Hesketh: There is some progress, but it is very slow. We started off with fairly

modest bits of bus lanes to get the Belfast public, in particular, used to the concept. That is

now starting to gather pace. When you have a bus lane into somewhere like Great Victoria

Street that makes a very significant difference.

The other bus lane that is going to be very important for rural Ulster is the one that is

planned on the M1 and the Westlink and into the back of the Europa bus yard. That will

benefit every service that comes in from the south and the west of the province, be it from

Newry, Omagh, Enniskillen or wherever. They will all get a quick run in from Stockman’s

Lane into the Europa Bus Centre on a dedicated bus lane most of the way. That will be a

huge step forward. It is being done in phases. The first phase is from Roden Street into the

bus yard. Planning permission has been granted for that. It is now going through the final

phases. The European money is in place and that project should be going ahead fairly soon.

The Chairman: Can you give us a time-scale for the whole thing to be in place?

Mr Hesketh: I cannot because it is out of my hands, but the first phase should be well

underway, if not completed, by the end of this calendar year.

The Chairman: Will it be completed in two years?

Mr Hesketh: I think that two years is not unreasonable. It is one of these projects

that everybody wants to succeed. There are no losers; it is a win, win for everybody involved.

The Chairman: So it is definitely a runner.

Mr Hesketh: There is no question about that, and with the amount that has been

spent on consultants’ fees nobody is going to abort it at this stage.

Mr Clarke: With regard to bus routes, what is happening about the super route that

was put on from Saintfield Road right down into the city with park-and-ride?

Mr Hesketh: I have to accept responsibility for the super route in the sense that

I promoted it as a concept, as one way of solving the traffic problems on the southern

approaches. It was one of those schemes that nobody picked up and ran with. They have

now come back to it. They have done bits and pieces around Supermac, but they realize that

they still have the same problems. The Department of the Environment has just employed

consultants to review the original super-route proposals.

Mr Clarke: The congestion in that area is dreadful, and it is going to get worse with

the opening of the extension to Forestside.

Mr Watt: There are proposals to develop the southern approaches first. That could

include a park-and-ride facility at Cairnshill and bus-priority measures into the city centre.

Mr Hesketh: When it was decided not to go ahead with the super-route proposals,

we put forward the concept of a quality bus corridor along that route with a high-quality

service, modern vehicles, fast, frequent service, bus lane all the way, priority at traffic lights

25

and high-quality bus shelters — in other words, public transport the way it ought to be as a

means of helping to ease the traffic congestion on that route.

Mr McBride: I want to endorse a couple of things that have already been said. I am

concerned about the progress on park-and-ride, particularly on the Ormeau Road.

One point that does arise from what you have said is the question of communication

within the Department of the Environment about all these issues. I see a lot of planning

decisions as running flatly against what you and we would like to see out there. This whole

emphasis on out-of-town shopping centres is to facilitate the private car. You build masses of

car parking and the damage to the urban centres is very great, yet the Department of the

Environment seems to be promoting those quite ruthlessly. Forestside is an extraordinary

thing and D5 is apparently going to be a great deal bigger. The left hand does not seem to

know what the right hand is doing. Can we do anything to ensure that transport is taken more

into account when planning decisions are being made?

Mr Hesketh: I could not agree more. Also someone mentioned ‘Shaping the Future’.

That document is very worrying because they have seized on the transport/green issue and

said “OK, if we are going to have 120,000 new households outside Belfast, we had better put

them on transport corridors.” In our submission we point out that the population of the inner

city has come down from 400,000 to 280,000. Why not put people back in that area? You

can see it beginning to happen around Laganside. The Laganside apartments are very

acceptable and popular places to live. If you go to Dublin or any European city, you will see

plenty of people living very nicely in apartments. High-rise and medium-rise living got off to a

bit of a bad start in Belfast, but the blocks at Knocknagoney and Mount Merrion, which were

failures in the public sector, have been transformed very successfully in the private sector.

The other point is that they keep talking about households, but so many people are

now not the nuclear family. An awful lot of people live on their own and do not want their

little garden and are very happy to live in an apartment. We believe that regeneration of the

brownfield sites in the city centre is very important. However, put yourself in the planner’s

position. Assembling a site in the city centre is difficult, and poses him all sorts of problems,

whereas releasing 100 acres for new houses at Crumlin is easy. The developer and everybody

else is happy. But what gets left out of the equation when you build all these houses out at

Crumlin is the fact that you then have to provide them with all the services — schools,

sewerage, water, and so on. If we were to make Belfast a better place to live in, we would

make better use of existing services, and it would greatly strengthen the public-transport

aspect.

Mr McBride: I agree completely. Brownfield building is absolutely essential. In

Belfast they have given permission to build this new millennium structure, which is frankly a

waste of money, on what was probably our best large urban site. Of course, they need all that

space for car parking.

I am concerned about what you were saying about the ageing bus fleet. That has a lot

of long-term implications, if we are not even able to keep up with the reinvestment to maintain

it.

26

Mr Hesketh: There is some degree of comfort in that part of the reason the

reinvestment was held up was due to the private finance initiative. As you know, everything

had to be tested against PFI. That was one of the factors that held up the purchase of new

buses — only one of them, mind you, but at least that has moved a bit further forward.

Rev William McCrea: Forgive me, but I thought we were to talk mainly about rural

areas. I thought we were going to deal with the problems outside of Belfast. It is good when

you are close to the M1 where there are bus lanes, but most of the province has no motorway

or railway system. We are talking about a situation where none of these wonderful things are

in place outside of a place like Belfast and its suburbs. I am only standing in for someone this

morning, but I am really glad to be doing so because the west of the province has now got a

representative at this table. I am the only one from the west, yet we are talking about rural

Northern Ireland and that the area which is least well-served.

Translink had a conference recently at which people were invited to hear your thoughts

about transport planning, development and public transport provision. That all sounds great,

but what does it mean? The vast part of the country area west of the province does not have

a proper bus service network. People hardly ever see a bus. There is a new hospital at

Antrim. You can get to it via the M2, but you cannot get back from it without having to

travel around the countryside. It is like these shopping centres sitting out in the countryside

— for example, Sprucefield. We have got a hospital located away from the towns, away from

the people. How do people get to and from these places? Services have been concentrated in

an area hospital, away from people in vast areas of the countryside, but there is no proper

transport system to it. With the greatest of respect to everyone, you are all talking about

encouraging rural transport and encouraging people to get out of their cars. But what are

they to get into? It is certainly not a bus.

Mr Watt: You mentioned the Antrim Hospital and Sprucefield. Before these projects

were up and running we were very closely involved with both developers. At Sprucefield we

had every bus service coming from the west of the province and a significant network of

services from Belfast and the Sprucefield area. A lot of those have had to be withdrawn

because people did not use them. We even got abuse from regular passengers on other buses

if they called at Sprucefield.

Likewise, we introduced and promoted a number of services to the Antrim Hospital

from the Larne area — areas that we had identified in conjunction with local people. Those

were the people who would have to go to the Antrim Hospital because that was the area it

served. Again, we had to withdraw those services after two or three years because nobody

travelled on them. That is our dilemma. We will try these services. I could list you numerous

services that we operated throughout Fermanagh, but again they had to be withdrawn because

people did not use them for whatever reason.

Rev William McCrea: How do you get the people out of their cars and onto buses?

The Government have told you that fares are to be kept down in order to get people onto

buses. So, with the greatest of respect, you do not have the choice between raising fares or

cutting services.

The Chairman: Just to add to that, are you saying that it is not feasible to have a rail

network in the west of the province?

27

Mr Hesketh: The permanent secretary made it clear to all and sundry at a conference

last February that there was no prospect of the existing rail network being extended. The

people who felt sorest about that were people like the residents of Armagh, for example, who

felt that the line was only 10 miles long, most of it was still there and that it could be

reinstated.

Just so that everybody understands, our priority as a railway company is to complete

the relay of the Belfast/Lisburn track. That started on 3 March, it will be finished on

7 December, and it will cost £12 million. Our second priority is reopen the Antrim line, which

is a £14 million project. In spite of all the Government announcements we have not actually

got approval to go ahead with that yet. However, I hope that that is on its way and that work

will start on it later this year.

Rev William McCrea: Again, not a penny of that to the west of the province.

Mr Hesketh: I accept that, but it does actually benefit the west of the province

because we do run trains to Derry and places like that and people do get a benefit from it.

However, we have to live with the existing network, and I want to get it into proper order and

to make the best use of it. That is my starting point. But there is no money within the current

Government’s framework for any extension of the rail network.

Rev William McCrea: You have your commitments and I appreciate that. But how

many years has it been since Magherafelt’s bus depot was blown out of existence by the IRA?

How many years have you had the money for its repair, yet it is one of only two town centre

buildings that have not been repaired? How do you expect to get people onto public transport

when they are standing out under the heavens getting soaked? You have got the money from

the Government to replace it, yet not a brick has been laid. With the greatest of respect, that

is disgraceful, and it will not be accepted any longer.

Mr Hesketh: The position is that our premises which fronted on to Broad Street in

Magherafelt were bombed. A decision was taken not to replace those existing premises

because the buses caused a lot of congestion in Broad Street, which is the main street through

the town. Mr McCrea was familiar with those problems — more familiar than most people —

and he was most helpful to the bus service and supported the relocation of the bus station to

another site. But that in itself brought its own problems because we were effectively taking

over part of a DOE car park, and part of the deal was that we had to buy replacement car

parking. That was eventually done to everybody’s satisfaction. I have been as frustrated as

Mr McCrea about this. It has taken an inordinate amount of time, but that is a fact of life. I

can assure the Committee that there is no lack of willingness on our part to get it built.

Rev William McCrea: When is it going to be done?

Mr Hesketh: We have to go through approval processes like everybody else these

days and there is an appraisal with Mr Watt at the minute. It is almost there, but it is one of

those things. It has taken a long time.

28

Rev William McCrea: I want to get this clarified because it is important. We have

been most helpful. We got a Department that was initially totally opposed to it, to help and

assist. We took the side of the bus depot and the bus company against the Department. We

encouraged them, we teased them, we squeezed them and we got them to agree to it. Now,

when you say it is with someone for their approval, who is it with? Is a Department holding it

up? We are certainly most desirous that any impediment is removed.

Mr Hesketh: There is no impediment at this point. There have been various

impediments along the way — for instance, planning, getting the replacement car park, getting

the existing entrance redesigned to accommodate the buses going in and out. All that has now

been done. Unfortunately, all of that has taken time.

Rev William McCrea: When will it be starting? That is the bottom line.

Mr Hesketh: The official answer is that it is in the programme for the next financial

year.

The Vice-Chairperson (Mrs Steele) took the chair.

The Vice-chairperson: The last time you were here you talked about extending the

rail network to the airport. Is there anything further on that? Secondly, is it feasible for the

rail network to carry freight?

Mr Hesketh: I will deal with Belfast International airport first. There is a rail line that

goes very close to it and a spur-off would seem attractive. The problem is that people coming

off a plane do not want to wait half an hour or an hour for public transport. If a vehicle is not

there within 20 minutes or half an hour, forget it. We would be able to operate four, five, six

or seven services on that rail line each day, but that would not provide the level of frequency

which an airport customer wants.

I have met with the new owners of the airport to discuss all of this. They have very

ambitious plans, of course, for developing the airport facility, and we have discussed how

together we could improve the bus service in the first instance. It may be that the rail option

could come into play at a later stage if they ever got the Taiwanese car factory or whatever.

If they landed a “biggie”, I think we would want to be in there with a rail network. We have

provided them with drawings to show the best alignment for a rail spur, and we have asked

them to protect that in case it is needed in the future.

Secondly, the island of Ireland is relatively small and rail freight tends to get beaten by

the cost of putting it on and off. Techniques are being developed on the continent — a

railway equivalent of roll-on roll-off — and if that ever comes about it would certainly lead to

greater development of rail freight. I keep in touch with leading private sector companies like

Montgomery Transport which have a real interest in getting stuff on to trains. They would

like to take goods right through to the continent by rail if possible.

The railway runs quite close to Belfast Harbour, and there is to be a European Union

funded study to examine ways of achieving rail access to the harbour. Unfortunately, the M2

gets in the way, but apart from that there seems to be no reason why we should not have rail

29

access to the province’s premier port. That is going to be looked at in a joint study between

Translink and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners.

The Vice-Chairperson: I am conscious of what Mr McCrea said about discussing

rural transport, but I want to ask about the school buses. You said there are 700 school

buses.

Mr Watt: They are owned by the education and library boards.

The Vice-Chairperson: And the Western Education and Library Board owns about

285 of them. Do they cover the same routes that you cover? Are you and they sending buses

to the same schools? Is there duplication of provision?

Mr Watt: No; in some instances both services do operate to the same schools, but

they do so on different routes. In many cases a minibus owned and operated by the education

and library board connects children with the main bus route, and the Ulsterbus service

completes the journey to school. However, we work very closely with the education and

library boards.

The Vice-Chairman: I am glad to hear that that is happening, but is it possible to use

those buses for fare-paying passengers during the day? That would be very helpful to rural

communities. I live in a rural area, and I know the problems faced by people there with

regard to public transport.

Mr Watt: The education board buses, like our own, are probably available from

about 9.30 until about 2.30. I have no doubt that we could come to some arrangement if they

wanted to operate a joint service or feed into our main network.

The Vice-Chairperson: I am glad that you have that co-operation because it is

terrible to think of all those buses sitting there, or of two buses going to the same school — it

is stupid.

Mr Hesketh: There is no wasteful duplication. We work very closely with the

boards, but there is a lot of hardware sitting idle for much of the day. For the greater good of

Northern Ireland we will have to try to find some way of making better use of our resources.

The Chairman took the chair.

Mr Clarke: The cost of fuel was increased in the Budget. How will that affect you?

Will there be any benefits, or will the effects all be negative?

Mr Hesketh: The effects are not all negative. One positive thing was the £50 million

rural grant. I understand that Northern Ireland’s share will be something like £1·3 million, but

that has still to be confirmed.

Mr Clarke: Will the increase in fuel tax affect you?

30

Mr Hesketh: We understand that the increase in fuel duty is not going to be passed

on to bus companies this time, and if that is the case, it is good news. We are waiting for that

to be confirmed because these details did not come out in the Chancellor’s statement.

The Chairman: Thank you for your time. You have helped us by giving us an

update. If we need to check anything, Mr Clements will write to you. When our report is

completed we will send you a copy.

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• Transport in Rural Areas: A Report by Standing Committee E (introduced on 1998-04-03 00:00:00 - CREATE - e841076) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • None (introduced on 1998-04-03 00:00:00 - REPORT_PROPOSAL - e841077) [view current proposal at this moment]