Reports:

Bus subsidy simulation study

Appendix B: Interview Topic Guide for Local Authorities/PTEs

Interview topic guide

The purpose of this guide is to act as an aide-memoire for the researcher so they can guide the discussion and make sure all relevant topics are covered. The researcher may not need to ask all the questions or ask them in the order shown. Underneath each question there are a series of prompts which can be used by the researcher to expand the discussion on each question if required.

1. Introduction

Introduce study team.

Context of the study (more detail can be provided at later stages in the interview)

• Government targets:
1. to encourage bus patronage growth
2. accessibility targets for rural areas (less than 13 min walk to an hourly or better bus service)
3. social inclusion
• LEK recommendations:
1. move from FDR to per passenger subsidy
2. half fare concession for under 16s, socially disadvantaged on forms of income benefit and over 16s in full-time education
3. secured routes in 3,000-25,000 population rural areas to meet Government accessibility targets

Explain purpose of interview

• early stages of the study
• general discussion to understand your views on change to incentive per passenger and on likely impact on Local Authorities expenditure and more general info on bus operations in your area.

2. Current situation

Please describe the nature of bus operations in your area:

• Number and mix of operators (big, small);
• Extent to which there is head-to-head competition between operators on commercial routes, if so on what routes at what time of the day;
• Commercial and tendered services (entirely commercial routes, routes tendered during evenings and Sundays, entirely tendered routes);
• Any current trends in operators deregistering commercial services;
• Total passenger numbers in your area, general trends in demand growth during the last five years;
• Details on the concessionary fare scheme in operation;
• Quality Bus Partnership (details of the partnership, who pays for what, etc);
• Social exclusion in their area, their policy in general.

More specifically about tendered services:

• How they assess criteria for tendered services (e.g. minimum revenue/cost ratio or maximum subsidy per passenger);
• Type of contract: minimum cost (Local Authority gets revenues) or minimum subsidy (the operator gets the revenue);
• Duration of contract;
• Extent by which Local Authority specifies fare level for tendered services;
• Expenditure on tendered services;
• Trend in expenditure;
• Extent of competition for tendered services (number of bids typically received), and trends herein;
• Approximately, how many tendered services are in place within the Authority / PTE;
• Are tendered services operated by dominant/large operators or are they, on the main, operated by the smaller operators.

On Fuel Duty Rebate

To what extent do you experience administrative or other difficulties with the current fuel duty rebate?

Explain how it will work - introduce incentive level per passenger of 10p

3. Initial reactions to incentive per passenger subsidy

Explain how it will work

What are your views in general on the idea of moving from FDR to per passenger subsidy?

4. Impact of per passenger incentive for local authority

What are your views on the impact of a switch from FDR to per passenger subsidy?

• First about tendered services:
1. pressure on expenditure by local authorities;
2. extent to which routes no longer meet assessment criteria

What would you do about this?

• Then about commercial services
1. Extent to which operators would deregister commercial services (if no longer profitable)
2. If a service is no longer profitable, would the local authority subsidise it?
3. Views about operational impacts, if any:
• Fare changes
• Peak/off peak adjustment
• Improvement to quality of service
• New vehicles/ alternative fuel
• Change in frequency
• Route changes
• What is your view on the impact:
1. on social inclusion (low income areas, excluded social groups, accessibility targets)
2. on possible pressure on concessionary fare budget

What would you do about this?

5. Implementation process

The proposal to introduce a per-passenger subsidy would imply the abolishment of fuel duty rebate.

How feasible do you think it would be to move to per passenger subsidy?

• Timescale (when could it be introduced);
• Administrative and auditing difficulties and costs (who would pay for it?);
• Perverse incentives on the operators (splitting, shortening a route, etc);
• Fraudulent abuse of such a system.

6. Data request

County-wide timetable and fare information - if possible in electronic/computer file format (not pdf)

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