Freedom of Information Act / Environmental Information Regulations Request
Reference: ECC-053404-14
Response:21/11/2014
Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the following information relating to the withdrawal on or after November 7 2014 of the last two services each way on the 21 route operated by Townlink buses between Warley and Harlow:
I specifically refer to Section 16 of the Act in requesting your advice and assistance in helping me to make this request
1) The formula by which the cost of £21 per passenger for a replacement for the terminated services was calculated, showing the various components of the costing.
The cost per passenger journey is a simple calculation whereby the overall cost of the service to the County Council is divided by the number of individual passenger trips undertaken. As set out in it Road Passenger Transport Strategy The County Council sets an upper support level of £5.00 per person travelling beyond which it will not normally support bus services.
In this case ECC approached 4 operators (including Brentwood Community Transport) in order to obtain a quotation provide a service between Ongar and Brentwood to connect with the service from Harlow. The cheapest price received was £83 per day.
In the absence of any form data from the operator (who were totally unable to supply us with any data regarding the journey) about the number of passenger being carried Passenger usage data was obtained from roadside observations (in which you kindly assisted collecting) and anecdotal commentary from the operator.
As per your conversation with Richard Gravatt on 20 November 2014 the data that you helped gathered on our behalf was originally interpreted as indicating an average of 4 passengers per day based on the number of passenger getting on/off the bus in Kelvedon Hatch. However, it so now clear that we should have included all the passengers you mentioned as travelling from Harlow to Kelvedon Hatch as they refer to those travelling on the lost Ongar to Warley section of the service. As a result we have now adopted this higher figure - 15 persons per day for our calculation.As a result the cost per passenger is calculated by dividing the costs by the number of passengers, £83/15 = £5.53. As Discussed with Mr Gravatt this still in excess of the £5.00 per person travelling upper sort limit that is usually applied to our support for bus services.
Nonetheless as discussed with you by Mr Gravatt, given that the figure has changed it has been agreed that the case will be re submitted to our commissioners for them to review the decision not to support the replacement of the service.
2) The impact assessment for the termination of the four services.
Townlink Buses operate service 21 as a commercial basis. Bus operators have the freedom to decide on the route and times they wish to run their commercial services including deciding not to run all or part of them. The County Council has no powers over operators in this respect. The decision to withdraw these journeys was taken by Townlink.
In such circumstances the County Council has the remit to consider the impact of the changes making reference to its current policy. Included in the policy is a value for money measure whereby the cost per passenger figure of any services supported by the Council must not exceed £5. We also look at alternative transport and the ability of local people to access key service accessibility (such as to shopping, health, employment and education).
Also included are a series ofaspirational minimum service levels that act as a guide for the Council when deciding how it implements its policy. These are generally focused on accessing service and base on population for smaller settlements like Warley or Kelvedon Hatch. The full MSLs for Essex can be found in our road passenger transport strategy that is available from the ECC website (please see link below). In this particular case the minimum service levels for the areas in Brentwood served by service 21 will continue to be met after the withdrawal of the journeys in question.
As outlined above the cost per passenger of providing a replacement service was in excess of the £5 threshold.
3) The equality impact assessment for the termination of the four services
Commercial operators are not required to carry out an equality impact assessment when withdrawing commercial local bus services. The ECC process is outlined in the answer to your second point above
4) The County Council's policies for facilitating travel to work and avoiding social inclusion
The County Councils current Road Passenger Transport Strategy outlines its policy in respect of the provision of bus services. This can be found at :-
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