Public Transport and how we use it, its problems and issues 

Question 1 

We first asked where our respondents lived:

Stressing that our capture was not across any scientific demographic, other than allowing free choice, the majority return has come from Boothstown and Moorside areas, by political ward the returns are: 

Outside these areas our survey papers were returned from Tyldesley, Eccles, Swinton and Walkden. 

Question 18 gave some correlation of these results by analysis of the 85 bus stops used by respondents. The list appears in Appendix Three.

Question 2 asked respondents their approximate age:

The level of returns from young people was very disappointing because it shows that whilst schoolchildren and students need secure and safe travel, recipients of the survey have not encouraged its trickle down to the younger age groups or thought that their views should be presented. We encouraged those in contact with youth groups and schools etc to provide the contact. This is such a disappointing result as it could so easily have been distributed down to youngsters in schools and through peer groups.

Questions 3, 4 and 5 were positioned near the top of the survey to capture car owners and drivers into the survey and ensure that there was some likelihood that we would get a response to the congestion charging questions positioned at questions 14, 16 and 17.

Question 3 demonstrates that the survey is capturing the usual mode of travel for both car drivers and public transport users.

Questions 4, 5 and 11 give a correlation of the likelihood of 50% of the survey being car owners or users using a car on a regular journey as a driver. It also gives a strong correlation of 40% of the survey being passengers either on a bus or in a car.

The understanding that virtually everyone is a pedestrian at some point on most journeys has not been captured; it would have required specific questions to tease this form of understanding.

A further question could have been included to gauge how far local people are walking to their bus or train departure point and at their destination how far they are then walking. This is a matter we may explore within Boothstown to build a case to demonstrate a need for route changes or more bus stops.

Question 6 and 9 seek the frequency of bus travel:

Question 6 and 9 give very clear indications that a significant number of respondents are regular users of buses.

Question 7 asks about train travel:

Question 7 recognises that without a rail station in our predominant survey area, Boothstown and Ellenbrook and Worsley, train use would not dominate. We are thus encouraged to see that 20% of respondents had made a train journey in the month before they completed the survey form.

Train use through Walkden Station is viable if people live within half of mile of the station or there is a regular connecting bus service. Worsley Village has connections but there is no viable bus service for those living in Boothstown. Parts of Ellenbrook could be considered to be within walking distance. Besides trains to Salford Crescent and Manchester Victoria, journeys to Wigan provide a much better, hassle free, interchange onto services to the South West and Midlands, London and Scotland.

Questions 8 and 10 asked about taxi use:

Each journey for each respondent is important and we place equal weight to everyone’s regular journey, be it an “economic issue” – going to work, or a “social issue” – a shopping trip or visit to friends or relative.

Question 12 asked for information about the regular journey that respondents made. These are captured in Appendix Three. 

Question 13 was to capture the journey corridor respondents used on their journeys.

The eventual destination was not significant because we will use this information to understand how we might seek to improve bus services in these directions. We can look at the data for regular bus users and, from their answers to question 13, we can see which bus service they are using.

We are interested in looking at usage of the Boothstown to Bolton service, which is wholly currently wholly subsidised by GMPTE and without having asked we can calculate a snap shot usage for Summer 2007. 

In Questions 19 and 20 we then asked about the journey experience:

The results of these two questions are encouraging, assuming that the answers are honestly written. Significant numbers skipped these two questions which may indicate the general response has come from public transport users. We can verify this by further analysis of the responses and filter the responses to produce a public transport only chart for this question. The use of the phrase “less reliable” is a leading response, but less severe than using the term “unreliable”. In our analysis it would be unreasonable to quantify the result. So we would qualify this result by saying that: there was a trend to suggest that some respondents had reason to considered their service less reliable.

Passengers will know most about their regular journey and so they will be very aware of the timing and “hold ups” along the route so the general shape of the two graphs is the important aspect.

Networks, such as bus networks or train networks need to run efficiently and to timetable. It is far easier to have a train service running to time than a bus network which has to cater for all the likely hold ups and congestion along the routes. To some a bus service which arrives a few minutes late and arrives at a distant destination to time, may be interpreted as “less reliable” if the user has anxiety about being late for work while watching the few minutes tick by.

Car users do not usually talk in terms of “journey reliability” but it is the essential aim of those who plan and update our road networks to provide better congestion management.

Question 22 tested awareness of reduced ticket prices:

Our area is served mostly by First Group and their day saver price last summer was £3-50. For a single journey into Manchester City centre the fare was £3-50 so most fare sales were for day savers.

We tested awareness of bus fares and about one third of respondents expressed some interest in this fact. Again we could look at the filtered response to see if the “nos” were more likely to be car users.

There are weekly and monthly tickets available through the operators on their services and there is a cross ticketing system called “System One Travelcards”. For example in January 2008 the daysaver (between 9.30am and midnight) allowing travel anywhere in Greater Manchester on bus train and tram costs £7 for adults.

The ticket price referred to in the question has risen to £3-70 (January 2008). 

Question 21 asked about Ring and Ride, Local Link and Community Transport:

We asked about these services to test whether repsondents knew of their existence or had used them. Ring and Ride provides services throughout Greater Manchester but there are limitations on the services provided locally. We hope to improve this. Two other possible providers, Local Link and Community Transport, will be asked to consider extending a service to Worsley, Boothstown and Ellenbrook. 

Questions 23 and 24 asked for freely written comments on issues and problems as a selection of the answers appear in Appendix Four and Appendix Five.

INTRODUCTION   PUBLIC TRANSPORT   ROAD PRICING   CONCLUSIONS   APPENDIX

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