The man who runs the buses in Bristol has told Bristol Live he’s ‘not interested in buses’ - on the first anniversary of taking on the job.
But Doug Claringbold’s apparently startling admission was said in the context of the future of public transport in Bristol - and the two big debates in the city, around a mass transit system, and who should be running public transport. A year exactly into the job, and with a rollercoaster of driver shortages and Covid, Mr Claringbold spoke to Bristol Live about his vision for the future of public transport in the city, and how it might differ from the politicians.
On Tuesday, Bristol Live reported Mr Claringbold outlining the extent of the driver shortage that had hit First Bus West of England and left them unable to run enough buses to keep to the timetable in wide parts of the city. Back in the autumn, with HGV driver agencies recruiting bus drivers from outside depots and the city’s main bus station, First Bus’s existing driver shortage - caused by Brexit and the pandemic - suddenly got rapidly worse.
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Mr Claringbold explained how they were on a huge recruitment drive, but also voiced fears that the funding gap in recovering from Covid could hit that, and cause more cuts to services. Within hours, the Government announced an extension to the Covid support for bus companies. In Bristol, First are running 90 per cent of the services they ran pre-Covid, but with still only 70 per cent of the passengers.
That, said Mr Claringbold, was unsustainable, but the Government extended the support grants to bus companies until the autumn - and that could mean some of the controversial bus cuts in Bristol could be reversed or softened. In the final part of the interview to mark Mr Claringbold’s first year in the job of running First West of England, he told Bristol Live that adapting to the post-pandemic world - where people may well still work from home - was key for First Bus.
He announced that ‘Tap On Tap Off’ systems similar to the Oyster card or bank card systems on buses and trains in London, would be coming within months in Bristol. “Tap on tap off will be coming to Bristol’s buses later this year, hopefully in the summer,” he said. “This is where we’ve got to understand where and how people will be using the buses, going forward after the pandemic.
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“We may lose the people who work from home two days a week, and on the one hand it’s bad news, but we need to make it the attractive option for people to go by bus when they are not going to work too. They might be working from home two days a week, or have dropped to a four day week, so we need to be the best option for when they go into town on that day, or go out in the evening to socialise,” he said.
The question of how people move around the city, and how to get them to do that in the most environmentally-friendly way, is the key question for the new boss of First Bus. Unlike his predecessor James Freeman, he’s not from Bristol and not had decades on the buses. So, in that sense, buses themselves are not the only focus.
“I’m new to Bristol, but it’s a very engaging city, environmentally conscious, and we need to build on that - I want to create the moral imperative for people to use the bus, for environmental reasons, to help the city get towards a zero carbon future. “I’m not interested in buses - my priority, my passion is about how to move people, to create mobility. If the best answer in a particular situation is a train, or an Uber or a scooter or a tram, then we need to work with that.
We’re part of an ecosystem of people moving around a city, and what we have got to do is make sure that it all links up and compliments each other. “I started my career in the railways, and they are great of course, but the thing about railways is that change and improvement takes an awful lot of investment and an incredibly long time - as the people of Pill, who have been waiting for a passenger service for decades will tell you.
“The great thing about buses is that we can do a lot, very quickly with buses. We can quickly make improvements, step things up and be really flexible. “I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a mass transit system in Bristol, I don’t think it is for me to say, but what I see is that we’ve got to get people out of their private cars, and I’m interested in how to do that, in the best way.
We have to create the ecosystem that’s complimentary, that means we don’t have to drive to a station, or can’t do something without getting in the car. “First as a group has a programme to be zero carbon by 2025, but I think in Bristol we should be looking to be better, and have it that by 2030, all our buses are zero carbon.
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But while the joined-up, seamless public transport system has long been the dream for transport planners, politicians and, most of all, passengers, many in Bristol say that’s only achievable if public transport is run by the local authority - as it is in London, under a ‘franchise’ system.
Mr Claringbold is, like his predecessor James Freeman, not a huge fan of a Transport for London-style franchising system, which would see local authorities - almost certainly the West of England Combined Authority - take over the responsibility of running all public transport, and effectively hiring the buses and trains to run it. In essence, the money paid by passengers in fares would go to the authority-run franchise, who would then pay First to put on buses, instead of the situation now, where the vast majority of buses in Bristol are run by First, First takes the money for itself, and tries to make a profit.
A franchise system is something that has long been called for in Bristol, with campaigns being started and politicians pledging to bring it in for most of the 2010s. Since the pandemic, that campaign has continued, especially with Greater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham taking steps to create one in the north west.
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But Mr Claringbold does not think it’s the answer for Bristol or the West of England, even though it would be almost certain to mean First continues to run almost the buses in Bristol, with the added security that they’d all be hired for an agreed fee by the franchise. “The key thing for me is the bureaucracy it takes to create that franchise,” he said. “Just look at the length of time and the absolutely huge amount of effort it is taking Andy Burnham to do it in Manchester.
“It’s not our decision to take, obviously, but personally, for me, what it’s about is what can we achieve together between us as operators and the local authorities without having to go down that route, without needing to do that. “I think an awful lot can be achieved with better ways of working together to create a joined up transport system, so we don’t need to do that - for me it’s a last resort.
“People say ‘yes, but what about the profits that First make’. And yes, while that is true, what they don’t perhaps consider is the amount of extra cost and bureaucracy it would take to create and then run that franchise system. And the other thing is that, for First as a company, a profit is needed to be able to have the ability to invest in new technology, new environmentally-friendly buses.
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“We have 550 buses in the West of England, and to replace all of those with electric buses, would be around £165 million. No one wants to write out that cheque. We have to be able to invest in the business as well, and there’s an awful lot of money needed to invest in buses,” he added.
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