Simon Finnie, general manager at Arriva buses on Wirral introduced himself to the forum and agreed to answer any questions in relation to this. The following questions / issues were raised:

1.  Councillor Keeley – has there been any progress on the provision of numbers on the back of the buses (this issue was raised at a previous forum meeting)?

A - all new buses have the number on the back, side and front and it is automatically updated. The capital expenditure being allocated will result in 60% of buses at Laird Street having the number on the back, side and front.

2.  Fr. Leon Ostaszewski – confirmed that he had raised the issue of the number on the back of the buses with Neil Scales and was told that the numbers should always be on the back of the buses as the drivers are responsible for changing the indicators.

A. the older buses have had so many destinations added that it can be difficult to find the correct destination. This is much easier on the new buses, and 15 new single decker buses are due to be introduced in March 2009.

3.  Ken Harrison and Stan Thompson – welcomed the new buses and congratulated Arriva. 

4.  Dave Hanlon – can anything be done about the following:

·  the chaos of the number of buses stopping at Sir Thomas Street between 4 - 6.30pm

·  provision of more buses from Wallasey to Liverpool in the evening (since the removal of the First Bus 32 /33 services buses are only every 20 minutes and sometimes the buses don’t stop at Scotland Road)

A –

• Since Liverpool One opened the bus stop has become more congested as the buses to Bootle also go form here. When Liverpool City Council deal with the issues in the City Centre there will be a stop just for Wirral services that will be nearer to Liverpool One, but this will not be in place until towards the end of the year.
• The competition from the introduction of the 32/33 service generated extra passengers. Now that First Bus has withdrawn the service we have been left with more passengers. We recognise that something needs to be done and the new vehicles are being introduced to generate more passengers and from the end of May 2009 we will be sending three buses back out during the evening peak from 3.30 – 6.30pm. It is not in our interest not to stop and collect passengers.

5.  Tony Ford

• The 413 route from Liscard to Seacombe is poor, I wanted to travel here by public transport, but at this time of the evening it can mean a wait of an hour between buses. This is an important route for those wishing to get places such as the Town Hall, Guinea Gap Baths, Seacombe Ferry and Liscard. Dave Hanlon added that he got the bus at 6.20pm and the next bus wasn’t due until 7.25pm so had to get on the 409 and walk down.
• The Government has been proposing to give more local control to bus services, but this has still not come into force. This forum should take up this issue with Central Government and put objections to the delays in writing.
• In past years when complaints have been made to Merseytravel the response has been that complaints could only be dealt with by the bus companies.

A –

• Simon Finnie - the new buses will be allocated to the 413 service so should resolve some of the issues by improving reliability. We are reviewing all service frequencies and demand for people wishing to travel to places such as Liverpool One and the Floral Hall in the evenings and on Sundays. The car is our biggest competition so we need to make buses more competitive.
• Councillor Knowles – the Local Transport Act 2008 gave local partnership arrangements, and this has led to Arriva, Stage Coach and First bus companies becoming more responsive to work in partnership with the authority to make buses work for the benefit of the public and make the service the best it can be. The Government wants local authorities to regulate buses not to re-nationalise them. The authority could take over the running of the buses, but this would be a last resort. In the last ten years Merseytravel have gone from putting £7m to £25m for subsidising services. A subsidised service should never cost more than £1 per journey. If the number of users of public transport increases then some of the subsidy could be given back to Merseytravel. Bus companies are doing their best to make their service work for older people and it is free for the over 60’s, and are working on a scheme to offer the same service for young people.
• Councillor Knowles – the Transport Act gives us more power and there is now a committee which includes the bus companies and Merseytravel where issues and problems can be dealt with, so please inform us / Merseytravel of problems so that we can build up evidence sheets and raise these at the committee meetings. He agreed to discuss this in more detail at the end of the meeting.
• Chair – the Older Peoples Parliament and the Youth Parliament wrote to Merseytravel and their views were taken on board.

6.  Carole Thomas – buses need to stop outside Lime Street Station if they are to compete with cars. If you have cases you have to get a taxi as the nearest bus stop is at Queens Square.

A. – this issue has been raised previously, the cross river service used to stop at Lime Street but this was stopped to improve punctuality. Some buses have a layover of 10-15 minutes in the city centre, so will look at the possibility of sending these on a loop system and report back on this at the next meeting.

7.  Carole Thomas – don’t all of the buses stopping in Lime Street have the same punctuality problem?

A. – many of the Liverpool buses go along Lime Street or the top end of Central Station, so the problem is more for Wirral routes with concerns re: hold ups knocking the bus timetable.

Chair thanked Simon Finnie for attending the meeting and apologised for the poor public attendance at the meeting. She invited Simon to come along to the next meeting.

Minute decision: Resolved that: 

(i)  Simon Finnie be thanked for attending and be invited to the next forum meeting.

(ii)  Simon Finnie to report back at the next meeting on the possibility of sending buses on a loop system to stop at Lime Street.