Travel and transport

A couple of statistics from the Department of Transport on bus usage in the South East: in 2005 there were 283 million passenger journeys, in 2023 there were 272 million. The data also reveals for the South East that passenger journeys per head of population in 2005 were 35 whereas in 2003 there were 29. The data does not account for any demographic changes in the South East.

My recent travel by bus from Trotton in West Sussex has caused me to contemplate why people would choose to use buses in a rural area. Firstly, accessing the bus stop from our home is fine in summer when it’s warm and dry: we can either walk along a public footpath to Trotton Church bus stop using a path across the field, or we can walk across the common land to the Chithurst bus stop.

However, in winter these routes are often impassable without wearing wellies. Alternatively we have to walk along a single-track road to the A272, stepping aside every time a car comes by, and then along the busy A272 itself to get to a bus stop. There is no shelter at the Trotton Church stop on either side of the road; there is one on one side on the road at Chithurst Lane. Also neither of the routes to the bus stops have suitable disability access, such as for a wheel chair or mobility scooter.

I found the buses that run from Petersfield to Midhurst via Trotton uncomfortable, noisy and can be cold in winter. The bus from Midhurst to Haslemere is a little better. However when travelling on the Isle of Wight their buses are luxury by comparison (and on my usual bus route there, from Ryde to Newport, the buses are every 10 minutes and very well used).

In the press it was recently reported that Southern Vectis, the island bus company, are investing in 22 electric buses due for delivery in 2026 and that they are being built in the UK. Whatever they are doing over there is working rather better than what is happening around here.

The other main issue is the frequency of local bus services, and timetabling – buses to Midhurst often arrive at the same time as services onwards to Chichester or Haslemere have just left.

I appreciate bus companies cannot afford to invest in new vehicles, run more frequent services or add additional routes if they are not going to get a return on their investment. So, how can people be encouraged to use buses in preference to their cars? That remains a difficult question to answer. It is very much a chicken and egg situation; and then there are also the carrots and sticks available for the statutory authorities to use.

Are the necessary improvement to be funded by the motorist being penalised with even more punitive measures such as more speed restrictions, increases in parking charges, parking fines, VAT on new cars, road tax based on emissions and vehicle weight or pay per mile, zero emission zones and low traffic neighbourhoods? In other words, the stick approach to discourage car use.

Surely the best way is to use the carrot approach? So, I have revisited West Sussex County Council’s (WSCC) Transport Plan (WSCCTP) which according to the WSCC website was updated in August 2024. I last visited the subject of buses in the ERA Newsletter in August 2022.

Within the South Downs National Park Authority ( SDNPA) area of WSCC the aforementioned plan recognises (on page 82-7.145) that ‘travel behaviour in the SDNPA area is currently dominated by car travel while public transport and active travel modes are not seen as viable options for many journeys which leads to a number of issues’.

Also, it recognises that air quality in Midhurst is a concern, that in some areas there is limited or no access to public transport, and that there is ‘a dominance of north to south bus routes that run through the National Park but very few east to west routes’.

7.147 states that to ‘improve shared transport services, we will explore new service delivery models that may help to improve connections to nearby towns such as Dynamic Demand Responsive Transport services and undertake pilot projects to test the concept in areas such as the north west of Chichester’. We now have a Book a Bus operating in some zones in the SDNPA area - follow that link for more information.

On Page 83 the plan states, ‘7.149 Our approach to managing the network will also use behavioural initiatives to improve air quality in Midhurst and tackle inappropriate traffic speeds and use of unsuitable rural routes’. What form will these take and will they be carrot or stick?

It is of concern that on Page 88, it states ‘Partnership Working 8.7 The County Council is unlikely to be able to deliver the Plan alone as it has neither the resources, statutory powers nor funding to do so. Therefore, we will work in partnership with other organisations in the public, private and third sector to help deliver the Plan’.

Furthermore, on Page 90 ‘Funding and Prioritisation 8.21 Given the constraints on the County Council’s resources, it may be that some actions cannot be progressed or that they need to be delivered in a different way. However, the Plan is intended to demonstrate the County Council’s ambition to effect positive change on the transport network within the County’.

For all areas of WSCC their plans for delivery, funding permitting, have three time frames, Short Term 2022 to 2027, Medium Term 2027 to 2032 and long Term 2032 to 2036. Aspirational improvements to the bus network within the SDNPA are planned for 2027 to 2032. It therefore seems unlikely that unless private investment is secured the bus service for this rural area will not improve.

As far as I can determine WSCCTP for the SDNPA area has not changed significantly in the 2024 review since it was released in 2022.

If we want a better bus service provision, we either need to pay more tax (one way or another) to fund the service or make more effort to use it as it is and hope the fares we pay will fund a service that will negate the need for those of us in rural areas to have to travel by car, with its ongoing contribution to the environmental pollution and to our individual carbon footprints.

ERA has a stall at various local events during the summer months and at one of them this year a visitor to the stand felt very strongly that ‘we have to stop just accommodating ever more traffic’, but to do that we have to make other ways of travel more convenient, comfortable and somehow keep them within everyone’s financial reach.

So, for me, it is now time for me to try Book a Bus, and I hope very much that, just maybe, I’ll bump into you on a bus sometime soon?