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ITEM TIC13E

TRANSPORT IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE -
6 MAY 2004

REVIEW OF BICESTER NORTH TAXIBUS

Report by Head of Transport

1. This report deals with the future of the Bicester North Taxibus service which is jointly funded by Oxfordshire County Council and Chiltern Railways (CR). A tendering exercise has been undertaken to obtain prices for various levels of service to come into operation on 1 June 2004 and these will be contained in a Supplementary Exempt Annex, to be circulated later. A decision is needed from the Committee as to the level of the County Council's financial contribution in the light of the tender prices obtained.

Reasons for Exempt Annexes

2. This item should be considered in exempt session because its discussion in public might lead to the disclosure to members of the public present of:
   
   

1. the amount of any expenditure proposed to be incurred by the Oxfordshire County Council and other local authorities and organisations under any particular contract for the acquisition of property or the supply of goods or services; and
2. information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (other than the authority).
   
   
3. The operational costs must be treated as strictly confidential since they relate to the financial and business affairs of the operator. All prices and specifications must be treated as strictly confidential until such time as the Committee decides to whom the contract should be awarded. Revealing operators’ prices and specifications before then would prejudice Oxfordshire County Council’s position if propositions have to be sought again for this service.

Background

4. On 4 march 2004 the Committee considered a report outlining the origins of the Bicester Taxibus services (set up as a joint project with CR as a result of a successful Rural Bus Challenge bid) and resolved to:
   
   

1. agree that the high financial costs of the Bicester North Taxibus meant that continuation of the current level of service could not be afforded;
2. requested the Director for Environment & Economy in consultation with the Executive Members for Transport and Sustainable Development to identify a practical level of future service based on a substantial reduction of costs but which managed to meet as many of the existing needs as could be afforded;
3. ask Chiltern Railways to explore the possibility of enhancing the current Bicester North Urban Taxibus service; and
4. authorise the Director for Environment & Economy to liaise with Chiltern Railways in carrying out a tendering exercise to obtain prices for the new service proposals and to note that the results together with recommendations for decision would be reported to the May meeting of the Transport Implementation Committee.




Current Situation

5. My officers have liaised with CR and have agreed a common approach to the future of the Bicester Taxibus service, based on the ideas reported to the 4 March meeting.
6. The core Taxibus service will be based on the current Bicester Urban Taxibus service which is operated with a substantial subsidy funded entirely by CR. As previously reported to Committee, CR has indicated that it will no longer fund any part of the Rural Taxibus operation.
7. In the meantime CR decided to commission Babtie consultants to carry out a study on the future level of the Urban Taxibus service, including its enhancement. My officers consider that it would therefore be opportune to request Babtie to identify those areas of the current Rural Taxibus operation which, in the light of the CR study, could best form an additional part of the new Taxibus operation (in line with paragraph (b) of the Committee's resolution).
8. In response Babtie has produced a report which has been circulated to local members for comment as well as to the members of this Committee. A copy has also been placed in the Members' Resource Centre. It assesses the demand to and from the villages served by the Rural Taxibus operation, both peak-time and off-peak. I have used this information to produce the daily average number of users.

Peak loadings - am and pm (total number of passengers carried in an average week (Monday-Friday), single journeys shown).

Ambrosden	15 (average 3 per day)
Ardley	27 (average 5.4 per day)
Arncott	3 (average 0.6 per day)
Blackthorn	0
Bucknell	0
Bullingdon	6 (average 1.2 per day)
Caversfield	0
Chesterton	11 (average 2.2. per day)
Fringford	14 (average 2.8 per day)
Hethe	2 (average 0.4 per day)
Middleton Stoney	4 (average 0.8 per day)
Stratton Audley	16 (average 3.2 per day)




Off-Peak loadings (total number of passengers carried in an average week (Monday-Friday), single journeys shown).

Ambrosden	9 (average 1.8 per day)
Ardley	6 (average 1.2 per day)
Arncott	4 (average 0.8 per day)
Blackthorn	1 (average 0.2 per day)
Bucknell	5 (average 1 per day)
Bullingdon	27 (average 5.4 per day)
Chesterton	12 (average 2.4 per day)
Fringford	6 (average 1.2 per day)
Hethe	8 (average 1.6 per day)
Middleton Stoney	3 (average 0.6 per day)
Stratton Audley	12 (average 2.4 per day)




9. From this analysis, Babtie has concluded that there are various possible options for the County Council to explore as add-ons to the specifications for which CR wishes to invite tenders. In summary, these are:
   
   

1. to extend the Urban Taxibus operation which runs to Langford Village to serve Ambrosden (7 morning peak journeys, 4 evening peak journeys).
2. to extend the Urban Taxibus operation which runs to Greenwood Estate to serve Chesterton (7 morning peak journeys, 4 evening peak journeys).
3. an off-peak only bus operation serving Stratton Audley, Ambrosden/Arncott/ Bullingdon, Chesterton and Bucknell (a minimum of approximately hourly frequency, if requested) .
4. a service, peak and off-peak, between Fringford, Stratton Audley and Bicester (4 morning peak journeys, 5 evening peak journeys).
5. a service, peak and off-peak, between Ardley, Middleton Stoney, Chesterton and Bicester (3 morning peak journeys, 5 evening peak journeys).
   
   

No immediate comments have been received from local members and officers have therefore arranged for tender specifications to include the various options which Babtie has proposed.

10. Tender documentation has now been despatched by CR. The specifications include various timetable options to include not only the County Council's options (shown above) but also CR's options for its level of core service. Tender prices obtained for these options will be contained in a Supplementary Exempt Annex, to be circulated later.
11. The programme for tendering for this new contract has been determined by the requirements of CR, and the closing date for receipt of tenders has had to be fixed as Friday 30 April. This leaves only two clear working days before the date of the committee meeting for consideration of tenders, formulation of recommendations and preparation and circulation of the supplementary Exempt Annex 2. For this reason it will not be possible for officers to carry out the customary consultation with local members concerning the recommendations to Committee.

Vehicles

12. The original Rural Bus Challenge bid included provision for the purchase of vehicles. The County Council was able to purchase five vehicles (one of which is wheel-chair accessible) using this funding, all of which were for use on the Rural Taxibus service and therefore passed over to Walters Limousines, the successful tenderer for this Rural Taxibus service. Ownership was transferred via a legal agreement to CR, but with provision for a reducing level of payback over a period by CR to the County Council, should the service be discontinued. CR also has purchased and owns a set of vehicles which is currently used on the Bicester Urban Taxibus operation (operated by Union Cars).
13. It is clear that, when the new contract for the Bicester Taxibus is awarded, there will be no discrete Rural Taxibus operation and the amount of service provided to the rural communities outside Bicester will depend on how many of the options shown above are chosen. This will affect the number of vehicles which need to be used for the Taxibus operation. Furthermore, the level of the new CR core service may require the use of vehicles additional to those used on the current Bicester Urban Taxibus operation. It would therefore make sense for vehicles redundant from the current Rural Taxibus service to be transferred for use on the new contract, should this be necessary, even though the services would be primarily based on Bicester Town. The Committee is therefore asked to agree that any such vehicles may be used for the new service if required.
14. The Committee will also be asked at its June meeting to make decisions concerning the new Lewknor Taxibus service which is due to commence operation on 27 September 2004. This service will require the procurement of two vehicles, at least one of which must be wheel-chair accessible. Since CR already has the use of a wheel-chair accessible vehicle for its current Urban Taxibus service, there is no requirement for the Walters' wheel-chair accessible vehicle to be transferred for the new Bicester Taxibus operation. Transfer of this and other surplus vehicles for use on the Lewknor service would therefore generate significant revenue savings to the County Council, as well as obviating the need for CR to reimburse the County Council for them.
15. I am therefore requesting the Committee to support this action by granting me authority to determine which vehicles, if any, can be transferred for use on the new Lewknor Taxibus service.

Financial Implications

16. Within the County Council's overall revenue budget, £150,000 is specifically ring-fenced for Rural Bus Taxibus schemes, of which the Bicester Taxibus is one of four (the others being Charlbury, Cherwell Valley and Lewknor). The current rate of spend for the 2004/5 financial year fully utilises this amount, but this Bicester North Taxibus review and the forthcoming review of the Charlbury Taxibus in the autumn could lead to a reduction in this rate of spend. However the launch of the Lewknor Taxibus to be considered on 17 June will require additional financial expenditure, and which is likely to outweigh any savings in the Bicester North Taxibus service and result in this budget remaining fully committed.
17. On an annual basis, Oxfordshire County Council currently contributes £60,004 to the Bicester Rural Taxibus service (increased from £32,855 in June 2003). Should the committee decide to increase the level of contribution to this service (despite its earlier decision), this will need to be taken out of the main Public Transport revenue budget. Conversely any reduction in contribution will result in a saving in this budget.

RECOMMENDATIONS

18. The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

1. make its decision on Oxfordshire County Council's financial contribution towards a contract for the provision of a Bicester North Taxibus service to operate as from 1 June 2004, to be awarded in liaison with Chiltern Railways on the basis of the tender prices, service specifications and length of contract as set out in the Exempt Annex, to be reported subsequently;
2. agree that vehicles in the County Council's ownership and supplied for use for operation on Bicester Rural Taxibus services may be used on any service of the new Bicester Taxibus contract; and
3. authorise the Head of Transport to transfer for use on the new Lewknor Taxibus service any vehicles which were purchased by the County Council for use on Bicester Taxibus services and which are no longer required for that purpose.

DAVID McKIBBIN
Head of Transport

Background papers: Correspondence with operators and funding partners (refer to contact officer)

Contact Officer: Alan Pope Tel: Oxford 815585

April 2004

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