Decision details

Since COVID bus passenger numbers on some routes have remained below pre-COVID levels.

As a result of this and increased operating costs, Connexions Buses, the commercial operator of service 13 (Copmanthorpe to Haxby West Nooks) announced their intention to reduce the weekday bus resource on this route from 4 buses to 3 from Oct 2023.
Council officers were advised that the service would remain half-hourly but no longer serve Flaxman Croft (Copmanthorpe) or West Nooks (Haxby). To delay the change, in order to allow sufficient time to complete a review of its tendered network, the Council began funding the service at a cost of £450/day.

At Executive on 20th Feb 2024, a decision was made to withdraw this funding at the end of May and to seek a lower-cost alternative to maintain a service to West Nooks. It was decided that there were no affordable alternatives to maintain a service to Flaxman Croft. Arrangements have subsequently been put in place with First York to operate an approximately hourly variation to service 1 (numbered 1A), at a cost of £270/day from BSIP to service West Nooks

The operator (Connexions), has approached the Council and advised that their new 3-bus half-hourly timetable is proving to be extremely unreliable and that attempting to continue with it would carry a high risk of the entire service 13 ceasing to operate in the coming weeks. In order to avoid a repeat scenario of introducing an unreliable timetable, Connexions have advised that it will take some time to properly draw up a workable 3-bus schedule.

As part of this request, the operator has asked CYC for a continuation of financial support until the timetable change date at the end of the summer school term on 21st July. At a cost of £450/day, this equates to approximately £16k, which is currently affordable from BSIP revenue but would reduce the financial headroom should upcoming tenders prove to be more expensive than projected.

Whilst CYC could be accused of rewarding a bus operator for poor planning, the alternatives would have an immediate negative impact on residents in the affected areas.

The operator has stated that there are a number of pupils using service 13 to travel to places of education along the route- eg. Joseph Rowntree, Huntington, All Saints and York College. It will take some time to quantify that figure- either by analysing the ticket machine data or manually surveying buses.

Only a small number of residents in West Nooks and Flaxman Croft would have been affected by the 2nd June change, whereas this issue now potentially affects the entire route.

Other than the withdrawal of the aforementioned sections, the 20th Feb Executive report (para. 52) simply committed that “The majority of the route currently taken by the number 13 will remain the same.” The operator is now telling the Council this is now not the case.

Extending the financial support for service 13 until 21st July would result in a delay to the implementation of the Executive decision, however the decision to remove weekday financial support from service 13 would still ultimately be implemented, just seven weeks later than originally agreed.

The situation that has arisen is an operational based problem that affects the entire route and could not be foreseen by the matters considered in the 20th February Executive report. In order to protect the interests of passengers across the entire route, but particularly the majority of Copmanthorpe village which would otherwise be left with no bus service, a quick decision is essential. It is not possible to convene an Executive Member Decision Session to consider this matter due to both the pre- election period and only having a day to confirm arrangements with the operator.

Implications - Legal:
1. The awarding of the additional temporary subsidy is within the delegated powers of the Director of Environment, Transport and Planning
2. The bus service contract must be extended and/or modified in accordance with the contractual terms and conditions and in accordance with CYC’s Contract Procedure Rules and the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.

Comments/Observations:
The service 13 has historically been a commercial service operated with four busses, with no funding from the Council. In late 2023 the operator declared that the service was no longer financially viable and wished to reduce the length of the service by no longer servicing Flaxman Croft and West Nooks which would allow the operator to deliver the service with three busses.
The Council made a decision to inject short term funding to the operator to continue the extent of the service so it could be properly considered by the Council.
At Executive in February 2024, it was determined that to allow the operator of the 13 to reduce the service and move to a three bus operation, but that alternative arrangements would be made for West Nooks, which has been implemented.
The new three bus operation of the service has proven unreliable and is a poor customer experience. The operator has said they may withdraw the whole service 13 in response.
The impact of that would be significant on the users of the service and therefore it is in the Council’s interests to work with the operator and find a better solution by working with the operator to deliver the Executives intent from February 2024 by reviewing the timetabling.

Decision: To extend the implementation date of the Exec Decision, by continuing the current short-term arrangement with Connexions until 21st July 2024 in order to allow sufficient time to plan a workable commercial alternative. Therefore the council will fund the Flaxman Court and West Nooks elements of the service until the 21st of July

a) Recommended option - To extend the implementation date of the Exec Decision, by continuing the current short-term arrangement with Connexions until 21st July 2024 in order to allow sufficient time to plan a workable commercial alternative. Therefore the council will fund the Flaxman Court and West Nooks elements of the service until the 21st of July.
b) To agree a shorter extension to the above. This would reduce the overall cost to the council, but would result in the change taking place before the school holidays with limited time to properly plan and communicate the changes. As an earlier change would take place outside of an agreed Enhanced Partnership change date it would create additional staff workload in producing timetable posters, a number of which would need to be changed again on the actual change date (where the 13 intersects with other services).

c) To decline any further funding to the operator and advise them to proceed at their own risk. The operator has indicated that thiswould likely result in an immediate reduction in frequency or complete withdrawal of service 13 without any realistic opportunity to consult with or inform residents. Recommissioning the service from another operator would likely be unaffordable at current budget levels.

d) Use other existing bus services or investigate the creation of new services to provide a service to Copmanthorpe village and the southern end of Huntington Road; the areas exclusively covered by service 13. This option would take too long to address the short term situation and would, in all likelihood, cost more than any of the considered options.