Questions to Candidates for
 Combined Authority Mayor

Cambridge Area Bus Users have sent a set of questions about bus services to all candidates standing to be mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority

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The three candidates, in alphabetical order of party name, are:

• James Palmer (Conservative) the incumbent mayor, elected in 2017
• Dr Nik Johnson (Labour)
• Aidan Van de Weyer (Liberal Democrat)

Click on any name to visit that candidate’s campaign website.

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The list of questions about bus services, has been drawn up with the help of Cambridge Area Bus Users members and drawing on suggestions and complaints, we have received about local bus services.

Reference was also made to our Aims & Priorities document, dated July 2019

The questions were emailed to all three candidates on Sunday 25^th April 2021. As and when replies are received, the candidates’ responses will be interspersed with the questions. This post is also open for (polite) comments.

Read Labour’s Dr Nik Johnson responses here.
We await responses from the other two candidates.

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1. Incumbent: What can you point to as your achievements for bus passengers and how will you build upon these in the next term, if re-elected? Have you encountered unexpected difficulties? How do you plan to overcome these?

1. Other candidates: What can you point to as the incumbent’s achievements (or failures) for bus passengers and how will you build upon (or rectify) these in the next term, if elected? How do you plan to overcome any difficulties which you think the incumbent has encountered?
   
2. Incumbent: You are committed to the construction of the Cambridge Autonomous Metro. How do you plan to integrate this system with bus services and will you deliver bus priority measures for areas not served by the metro? Will you commit to allowing concessionary bus pass holders free travel on the metro?

2. Other candidates: Do you believe the Cambridge Autonomous Metro or a similar scheme is right for the area? If so, How do you plan to integrate this system with bus services and will you deliver bus priority measures for areas not served by the metro? Do you commit to allowing concessionary bus pass holders free travel on the metro? If you would not proceed with metro plans, What specific plans do you intend to implement to deliver reliable public transport?
   
3. All candidates: How will you improve interchange between different modes of public transport? Many areas of Cambridge and surrounding settlements lack direct buses to any rail station. Bus stops at Cambridge (city) station are a long way down a side street. How would you improve this? How will you ensure a better interchange with buses at the planned Cambridge South Station?
   
4. All candidates: What are your plans, and timescale, to reform ticketing?
   
   Do you agree with Cambridge Area Bus Users on the following?
   

• Cross-operator ticketing ought to be the norm.
• The current Multibus ticket is overpriced (other than for long multi-operator journeys), is poorly promoted, and not accepted by all operators.
• ‘Hopper’ fares should be offered, taking the financial pain out of changing buses.
• Zonal ticketing needs reform to remove the steep rise in fare between (eg) Sawston and Stapleford.
• Pre-paid tickets should be available at key sites, to speed boarding.
  

5. All candidates: As Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority takes on full transport authority responsibilities from Cambridgeshire County Council what arrangements will you ask officers to make to ensure that services on which concessionary bus passes can be used before 9.30am (Monday–Friday) are clearly communicated to residents?
   
   Currently there is a statement on the Combined Authority’s website:
   “where the only bus serving a settlement departs prior to 9.30am, an exception may be made. Please check with the bus operator or the Combined Authority first.”
   
   How would you improve communication? Or would you consider extending bus pas validity to cover all services, from the start of the day?All candidates: What do you consider the appropriate mix of timetabled bus services -v- demand-responsive transport (DRT)? To what extent should off-peak rural services operate only on demand and if booked ahead? Would you use DRT to improve access to public transport, or as a cost-saving exercise?
   

1. All candidates: Buses are frequently delayed by other (excessive) road traffic. how do you propose to ensure that bus services avoid delays and deliver faster, more reliable journeys? How will you reduce the reliance on cars, free road space for buses and speed bus services in the next five years?
   
2. All candidates: In the coming post-covid normal, what incentives do you plan for pre-pandemic passengers to return to public transport and encourage those who didn’t previously use public transport to switch? How soon can these be implemented? How will they be funded?
   
3. All candidates: There are some very large-scale developments taking shape, around the edges of Cambridge city, but also Alconbury and elsewhere. How will you limit pressure on the road network? How will you ensure an unobstructed bus service (possibly partially segregated) through each development, rather than on the edge?
   
4. All candidates: All of you have made statements committing to using the bus franchising powers under the Bus Services Act 2017. What specific steps will you take to meet the June 2021 deadline in the National Bus Strategy, by which Local Transport Authorities must embark on one path or another?
   
5. All candidates: Many road works, under the control of the highway authority –Cambridgeshire County Council – (eg Fendon Road roundabout works) have led to serious disruption to our bus services. How can similar disruption be avoided in the future?
   
6. All candidates: There have been numerous instances in the rural areas around Cambridge, of bus drivers unexpectedly finding their usual route impassable owing to roadworks. What systems will you commit to putting in place to ensure that operators’ control centres – particularly minor operators running supported services – are alerted to all roadworks, including emergency works, which may affect normal operations? What systems will you commit to putting in place to inform passengers?
   
7. All candidates: What should the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s role be in providing access to public transport information, eg lists of services, by both service number and location, authority-wide, all-operator bus maps, Real-Time Passenger Information (RTPI) at stops and on computer/tablet/mobile? Currently RTPI remains the responsibility of Cambridgeshire County Council’s Integrated Highways Management Centre and is plagued with errors. How will you improve this?
   
   Do you agree with Cambridge Area Bus Users on the following?
   

• Current, accurate route and timetable information should be displayed at all stops.
• Information about key fares and payment methods should be provided, to avoid queries when passengers board the bus.
• Prominent information boards detailing routes, service numbers, stop locations and  fares should be installed at key sites (eg Addenbrooke’s, city centre, rail station).
  

Will you undertake to provide these? On what timescale?

14. All candidates: Do you agree that many of our bus stops are not fit for purpose?
    
    The following have been noted:

• sited on sloping grassy verges
• lacking hard-standing
• lacking shelter
• wheelchair inaccessible
• lacking any timetable information
• where a Real-Time Passenger Information (RTPI) electronic display is installed, it is too frequently incorrect
• having a bus stop flag which shows only one operator’s service when also served by another (eg) supported service
• in some cases lacking any bus stop pole-and-flag to indicate this is a stop.

Many of these problems affect rural bus stops, but there are examples in and around new developments, even in Cambridge.

Provision of bus stops, hardstanding, shelters, timetables, and RTPI is split between the County Council, District Councils, Parish Councils and bus operators.

Passengers might reasonably expect the Combined Authority mayor to bring together – ‘combine?’ – all of these disparate bodies to radically improve the state of our bus stops. What specific procedures, if elected/re-elected, will you institute to rectify this situation?

15. All candidates: Will you undertake a review of ‘floating’ bus stops (cycle-lane bus stop by-passes) to ensure that they are fit for purpose and fully accessible by all passengers with disabilities?
    
16. All candidates: Whilst all are agreed buses should become zero CO₂ by 2050 at the latest, what actions will you take to ensure that all of our diesel bus fleet has the lowest PM₁₀ PM_2.5 and NO_x emissions possible?
    
    It is of note that one of our smallest local operators – A2B – has been voluntarily retrofitting its vehicles to Euro VI, whereas the emissions specifications of Cambridgeshire County Council contracted services were that any bus which does not come into Cambridge only has to meet Euro III emissions standards, whilst anything that enters Cambridge only has to meet Euro IV. Improving on that specification could give a ‘quick win’ for air quality.
    
    Will you insist that all operators comply with the very latest Euro VI emissions standards? And on what timescale?

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Response from Dr Nik Johnson (Labour)

You and your organisation, Cambridgeshire Area Bus Users, absolutely deserve a response, if not for the work you already do but also because I see you as an important part of the collaborative process that a Combined Authority of Greater Cambridgeshire, with myself as the Mayor, would be working towards as a part of a fully franchised BUS network taken back into control in the same way that Andy Burnam has proposed and succeeded in Great Manchester and in the way Transport for London succeeds in our capital.

Throughout my campaign, when asked, I have always highlighted taking responsibility for the Bus network in our county as my number one transport priority with expected benefits of properly coordinated frequent services in rural areas and metropolitan areas, with innovative pricing strategies, using digital technology and green, no or low carbon modern technology in a new bus fleet.

I am not supporting the CAM metro proposals.

In summary, I believe much of what you have asked questions about and  the concerns you have raised are shared by myself as a Mayoral candidate.

I am committed to see the BUS network in Greater Cambridgeshire getting the investment and the attention that it has been missing over decades.

In all of my campaigning literature, I have always highlighted the core values of the 3 Cs of compassion, co-operation and community at the heart of all policy. This pledge will be just as important in considering how to improve the bus network across our county .

Compassion in the form of listening and  recognising the real challenges for those using bus services, no longer adequate for our day to day lives, co-operation by working with users, bus companies county and district councils to design the networks that will work for all in the building of the 3rd C – a real community – connected and more productive.

Thank you for your interest in my campaign and I hope I will get a chance to meet in person and work with you in the future. 

Yours sincerely

Dr Nik Johnson,

Labour Candidate for Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority