1. Greig Mackay – Acting Director Bus Users Scotland: An Overview

2. Role and Purpose of BUS:
We give Scottish bus passengers a voice
We work closely with bus operators to resolve passenger complaints/issues
Host Your Bus Matters events around the country to gather feedback from passengers and promote engagement with bus operators
Raise awareness of transport issues affecting Scottish communities
Promoting better standards in bus services across Scotland
Consulting with central and local government as well as other key stakeholders
Compliance monitoring on behalf of the Traffic Commissioner with 4 compliance officers.

3. Complaints: - 14% increase over 2017/18
-In 2018/19 BUS dealt with 871 complaints
- 14% increase over 2017/18
- Which comprised of 499 Stage 1 complaints whereby the complainant thinks BUS is the bus company and these are then passed onto the relevant company
- 372 stage 2 complaints where BUS is more involved to help resolve the complaint.

4. BUS Complaint Categories:

5. Complaints Analysis:
Chart on the right shows the breakdown by category of all complaints BUS dealt with in 2018/19 compared with 2017/18.
It is clear to see that passengers expect a reliable bus service with courteous and efficient staff.
Other ticket matter had a notable increase and this is mainly due to the rise of e-tickets sold via apps and contactless payment options whereby passengers have incurred issues with these methods of payment.
Incorrect information provided also had a slight increase over 2017/18. The latter refers to information at bus stops, `on line time tables’ and as well as on bus information.

6. Complaints Analysis by RTP Area:
Pie chart shows all 2018/19 complaints by per capita basis
Tactran has the highest number of complaints which is actually higher than SPT
Remaining RTPs similar scores

7. Complaints Analysis by RTP Area:
Comparing 2018/19 figures with 2017/18, there have been increases in the Tactran, SEStrans and Nestrans area.
SPT had a slight decrease.

8. Rural Challenges for Scottish Bus Services:
Loss of a rural bus service can leave people very isolated and leave them in a situation of transport poverty.
Negative impact on wider community, e.g. local business suffer, population migration, house prices can fall etc etc.
18% of population live in rural Scotland
98% of Scotland is classed as rural
11% live in areas <1000 population
5% live in area <500 population
409 million bus journeys made in 2015/16
136 million of those by Concession card holders

9. Urban Bus Challenges
Increasing congestion is the number one factor due to the effect this has on urban bus services
Declining patronage
Fare changes and service revisions
Emission zones
Still large discrepancies in bus service quality across the central belt
Improved connectivity with other modes of travel

10. Transport Bill: Key points in the Bill for BUS:
Franchising of bus services
Possible creation of local authority owned bus companies to run services not just on supported routes but also commercial routes
Partnerships to improve bus services
Improved information sharing with more transparency around fares/punctuality/timetables etc.

11. BUS Compliance Monitoring:
BUS is funded by Transport Scotland and we employ 4 compliance officers to cover Scotland.
In 2018/19 we carried out over 5,000 hours of road side and on bus monitoring
They look at all aspects of bus travel that a typical passenger would incur on any given day
The Bus Compliance Staff blend in to look like any other passenger and we monitor services at different times/ different days over a reasonable period of time to gain an accurate picture of how a service operates
All compliance reports are shared with the bus operators, the Office of The Traffic Commissioner and Transport Scotland regardless of the reason for carrying out a monitoring exercise.
The approach we have taken with the BCO team is a partnership approach with the bus operators to improve services for passengers across Scotland.

12. Any questions?