Are BUSES are a profit making business or a public service?

[Unitax]

Since Privatisation, Buses are considered by their operators as a profitable business supplying the public when that can be done with more income than cost. Cross funding of services is deemed to be not in line with market operations and is frowned upon.
The public must be flexible and change their travel needs to meet fixed timetables and fares set by the operator, or find an alternative.
The best alternative is the car, being flexible, no time table and lower fare but creates congestion problems for buses and other cars. Cars create pollution and danger for all and require huge public subsidy for roads, police, hospitals, lighting and regulation.
Bus companies should provide both 'mass movement' more or less as at present plus integrated flexible movement by means of 6 seat buses (taxis?) which can give 24/7 operation, door to door movement, use non polluting vehicles as soon as available, have professional drivers and use computer technology e.g. the PolyBus System, to have a productivity 3 to 4 times that of taxis. (note that a mathematician, Pascal, was the first to operate a bus system in the 17th Century, not much 'system' advance since!)
Will Private Bus operators take these steps?
The evidence is to the contrary.
Therefore a public service bus operator should be set up in every district to supply the innovative push which will provide a true alternative system to the private car.

[clivehinchcliffe]

I see someone has asked the right question. The UK has been the market leader in Europe for removing "Public Services" from a Public Service and changing them into a for profit business.

They did this with Water, Gas, Electric as well as Public Transport.

In all cases we have added the Share holders who need to make a buck on there investment.

In a number of European Countries they have private operators of Public Transport but they operate contracts controlled by Local Governments who set fares and service levels.

They use alternative fuels and Trolley buses lets hope the UK takes note.

Clive Hinchcliffe.

[Unitax]

The problem remains in Europe also. How can we introduce an incentive to make transport services better when the operators are doing well? The high investment, high development costs and institutional inertia of regulators prevent the intrduction of alternative forms of transport.
Even our hospitals depend on 'voluntary' drivers, using their own vehicles to carry patients to and from their appointments.
I know from pwersonal experience that Government initiatives like the 'Intelligent Transprt Systems' result in academic courses for students, expensive academic analyses, reports read by other academics, academics visiting conferences at home and abroad and not a single worthwhile improvement.
Taxi and Bus operators NEVER EVER READ ACADEMIC REPORTS!
The gap between academia and real life could not be wider, nor could the need to close that gap be more essential.
Taxi productivity is so low that fare prices are very high and protected by traditional local authority 'maximum' fares' which operators who value their businesses know are really minimum fares.
Is anyone out there, academic or otherwise, interested in final software development of a leading edge taxi despatching system which could increase taxi productivity by a factor of 2 or 3?
As in any business, there are real financial rewards for operators and users from such an improvement and the community would have a real alternative to the private car for maybe 25% or more of current car journeys.
It would still need an operating group to actually operate the system and that would probably be easier abroad than in UK. Anyone out there interested in a pretty daunting challenge?

[clivehinchcliffe]

At what stage is this system for taxi dispatch?

Could it be used for on demand bus services.

In some places transport operators are combining public transport with sheared taxi and car shearing.

How would this system assist in management of such systems?

Who have you spoken too about the use of this system.

Have you considered a demonstration project funded by the EU FP7. You need to be able to convince someone that your system can pay for its' self.


1990's thinking on competition in Public Transport is counter productive as it means that cross funding of services is not possible.

[Unitax]

Thanks for thoughtful set of questions.

At what stage is this system for taxi dispatch? Penultimate software. Real time software needs integration with standard type software, accounts for example, which is not real time. GPS is done. Voice recognition and text message handling for requests would be beneficial. Fare and other integration would be met by file transfer at intervals.

Could it be used for on demand bus services. YES but it eschews routes and time tables in favour of real time statistical control. i.e. the supply is modified in neo real time to balance statistically forecast short term future demand. It works most productively were demand is 'high and balanced' in relation to supply.

In some places transport operators are combining public transport with sheared taxi and car shearing.

The system can operate in 3 modes.
a) Normal Taxi mode with better response than conventional, higher productivity and better economy. Any to Any mode

b) Shared mode similar to mode a), similar resonse times but 20% higher productivity in return for slower travel to destination. 'Many to many' mode

c) Shared 'many to one' and 'one to many' suitable for hospital, commuter or school journeys. Higher productivity than a or b modes, especially for hospital journeys were delivery and return journeys (though with different people and destinations) are made throughout the working day.

How would this system assist in management of such systems? Designed for management and despatch. Management and Despatch are not traditional and real time operation is not believed.

Who have you spoken too about the use of this system. Many from Govt to taxi operators and software houses. Local authority provided £300K backing to a consortium including multi national companies but bus company withdrew after 2+ years of discussion.

Have you considered a demonstration project funded by the EU FP7. You need to be able to convince someone that your system can pay for its' self.
Demonstrations have been carried out to show validity of system but operation is not believed, like any new departure from traditional thinking.

1990's thinking on competition in Public Transport is counter productive as it means that cross funding of services is not possible. Already one can by ticket for rail and bus journey, but I don't see taxis and buses as competing any more than road and rail. They serve different markets which overlap and often support one another. However a referee such as the government could offer the initial 'level playing field' during which taxis would expand at the cost of private transport and perhaps buses but later the buses could pick up the increased ex car travel and be better informed as to routes and times from the information collected by the 'on demand' systems.


All the best,
Owen

[clivehinchcliffe]

I think you should take this to other countries such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland or Belgium.

Most of these countries continue to maintain a central authority who controls Public transport in a given region.

They would probably be interested in such a system.

[Unitax]

I agree that UK is very difficult. Have you any suggestions on bodies in the countries you mention who might be interested? Have you heard of ECOLANE in Finland? They produced a 'new' system in 2005-07, quoting big improvements by sharing but very low response times (from 1 to 24 hours) but seem to have stood still since then.
Anyway, thanks for your interest.
Owen Ephraim or am I UNITAX, I'm not sure of the protocol yet.

[clivehinchcliffe]

Have you contacted http://www.ecolane.com/index.html to see if there is a possibility for co-operation?

In the case of who to contact I would suggest that you write to the Transport Minsters in the countries that I listed.

If you can show them how your product can help them meet their commitments under international agreements, reduce costs, improve model shift etc.

Then you may gain their interest.

Best of Luck.

[admin]

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