To receive the above presentation.

The Chairman explained to Members that First Group had eight depots and over 1,000 staff and that Mr Reddy had worked in the industry for many years and had won awards for his work. The work Mr Reddy had carried out had shifted the use from cars to buses by 20% and he had even driven a bus from time to time when the need arose. The Chairman stated the transport industry had gone through some radical changes in recent years; and went on to provide Members with a brief history of public bus services.

Mr Reddy of First Group gave a presentation to Panel on the bus services provided to the Royal Borough. Members noted the following key points of the presentation:

Ø  First Group were based in Slough and ran 59 buses.

Ø  First Group employed 150 local people.

Ø  Customers made 12,850 journeys in a typical day.

Ø  First Group were UK based but also operated in the US, Canada, Panama and Ireland.

Ø  First Group ran school bus contracts in America

Ø  Bus services were deregulated outside London in 1985

Ø  Firs Bus had 1.6m passenger journeys daily

Ø  The bus service had to give 70 days’ notice to make any changes to routes

Ø  The company did not receive subsidies for any routes

Ø  They received rebates on tax paid for fuel but, that rebate was not as large as that received by rail or aviation sectors

Ø  First Group had 90% punctuality since April 2018 due to contending with road works in Windsor and disruption in Staines.

Ø  Challenges included traffic levels and unpredictability, Slough bus station costs and issues with access, costs of fuel, insurance and traffic air quality pressure on buses.

Ø  The positives for buses are the expansion at Heathrow, Crossrail and joint working with rail partners including SWR.

Ø  Changes to networks – networks had not changed in decades, there were complex cross-Slough routes, poor reliability due to knock on effects. First Group have resolved all those issues that with a simpler network.

Ø  First Group withdrew a number of routes due to significant losses. The Green line went to Reading buses.

Ø  First Bus consulted with officers from the Royal Borough, Slough Borough Council and Heathrow and delayed the withdrawal of Route 2.

Ø  First Bus were launching a Fast 9 Service which started on 2 June 2018. It would fill in the Slough to Terminal 5 gap in Route 8 and would be a direct route via the A4. The service would go to Windsor and Heathrow and it would start at 4.29am to help airport workers get to work on time.

Ø  First Group had launched new ticket machines to allow contactless payments

Ø  There was a system that provided real-time information to the Borough for timetable screens

Ø  The new ticket machines were able to read QR codes.

Ø  First Bus were improving ticketing by introducing M-Tickets which were 5% cheaper.

Ø  Simpler fares were introduced in November 2017

Ø  The company had introduced a direct debit scheme which made journeys 10% cheaper

Ø  Over £7m had been invested in the fleet with the average fleet age well below government targets

Ø  A journey planning app had been produced

Ø  New vehicle branding

Ø  Up to date driver training

Ø  New radio system for the driver to talk to the control room

Ø  Improved roadside publicity

Ø  First Bus were trialling innovative pilot schemes such as First Mile (short hop service connections), and also a 30 month trial of passenger carrying autonomous vehicles

Ø  All buses met the TfL Low Emissions Zones standards

Ø  40% of buses were hybrid vehicles

Ø  The fleet took 1,700 school movements a day off the road using the school bus unit in Surrey.

Ø  First Bus were providing drivers with driving performance information to improve driving standards which meant routes were producing less emissions.

Ø  First Bus believed bus services were best delivered in partnership with Local Authorities

Ø  Congestion was the key challenge which needed to be tackled

Ø  First Bus wished to develop further opportunities in the area.

The Chairman stated he had attended a meeting in London and found a range of new technology which was challenging bus companies such as Uber. Customers expected an up to date service ability and to be able to compare prices, have WiFi and phone charging. He added UCL had invented software to obtain real-time information with new technology monitoring data to improve services and customer experience. Councillor Bicknell said he would be interested to know if bus usage was in decline. Mr Reddy stated routes had not changed and there had been no decrease in the area but, that varied by region. The figures on journeys were stronger in London but not so strong in the North of the country. He added footfall was decreasing on high streets which was making an impact. The Christmas shopping rush did not happen like it used to with Click and Collect services making up for the decrease in footfall.

Councillor Bicknell stated the M-Ticketing technology was interesting and wanted to know if there was a way to find out who was travelling and how. He stated that the bus company did not need discounted tickets as they knew where passengers were going on individual data. Therefore, if they were a frequent traveller, the bus company would know. Bus companies could offer a scheme such as pay for nine journeys and get the 10^th free. Mr Reddy responded if someone paid by cash, the company would not know where they were heading. If the passenger used contactless, the company would know where the passenger got onto the bus, but they would not know when they got off. Councillor Bicknell suggested a ‘tap off’ point at bus stops that would tell the company where passengers alighted. Mr Reddy stated that could only be done if infrastructure was upgraded. He added that most passengers made the same journeys; they were not able to identify individual users but, could track and individual ticket.

The Chairman stated bus journeys had not changed for decades but, mobility and technology were changing rapidly such as autonomous vehicles. He felt that by removing the human element and using driverless vehicles, it would reduce accidents and that was the way forward. Mr Reddy explained to the Panel he had a vision where he did not need to buy a ticket as the bus stop would recognise his smart phone. The bus would connect to his smart phone and would welcome him. He felt that was the right direction to go. He had held focus groups and following that, there were improvements to the service and since then, they had increased passengers by 65%.

The Chairman thanked Mr Reddy and his team for attending the Panel and for taking the time to answer questions.