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Buses will ‘inevitably end up becoming more subsidised again’ says the man currently responsible for Preston Bus as he says running a ‘city centre focused bus network’ in Preston is becoming increasingly difficult.
Commercial director Thomas Calderbank gave a wide-ranging interview to Blog Preston at the city bus firms’ depot in Deepdale Road.
Sat aboard a stationary Preston Bus vehicle we quizzed him on the future of city bus routes, whether they were profiteering on children’s school routes and crucially why two buses often seem to turn up at once.
Read more: New government means Preston can explore local version of Manchester’s Bee Network
Mr Calderbank, who oversees Preston as part of his role with parent-firm Rotala, has been involved with Preston’s buses for many years.
Previously living in Longridge he used to drive bus services in the city’s fleet before moving into a managerial role.
Rapid route changes in recent months
The bus firm has been making a raft of changes to its services in recent months as it grapples with falling passenger numbers, changing passenger habits, the withdrawal of post-Covid subsidies and rampant inflation and cost rises across its pay and maintenance.
Mr Calderbank said: “We have been consulting on a number of changes to our services recently, and this is because we have agreed to do that as part of our arrangement with Lancashire County Council.
“Previously we could just make a change, as a commercial operator, but we have what’s called an enhanced partnership with County Hall and this means where we’re going to be making a substantial change to a service we’ll run a consultation period.
“The reason we’ve been making these changes is because we have to keep our services competitive and, frankly, we’re a business. So if we’re seeing falling passenger numbers on a service then we have to look at whether that bus route is viable anymore. If there’s not enough patronage, we can’t afford to run it.”
A difficult city centre to service
Preston Bus back in April announced it would be cutting back many evening bus services to and from the city centre and its most recent set of timetable changes, due in September, will see a number of routes changed, new ones brought in and some stopped altogether.
Mr Calderbank said: “We’re seeing the habits of people who use buses change. There isn’t that pull of the city centre that there once was. The shopping offer isn’t the same and the reasons for going into the city, when there’s big retail parks like Deepdale but also the smaller ones popping up in Cottam, Fulwood and the like, means that traditional Saturday trip to the city shops isn’t a thing for a lot of people.
“And the use of cars, which was already increasing anyway, has increased further during Covid. People have got used to that convenience.
“As a bus network then we were traditionally set up to support that city centre in and out route, but we now need to adapt where our buses go so that there is more cross-city routes and people can get around differently.”
Asked whether there had been discussions with Preston City Council about the upcoming Animate scheme, the partial re-opening of the Guild Hall as a venue with The Guild Lounge, the Harris re-opening and more in 2025, Mr Calderbank said discussions had been had.
He said: “We will always take onboard the views of the councillors and the city council, although they are not the highways authority, and you can see Preston in the future is going to have more of a city centre offering.
“Of course, we’ll look to adapt our services to take account of that. You can see with Bury, with the opening of The Rock shopping centre and the strength of the Market there, it’s viable to have lots of routes coming into the town centre.
“We will, especially with the cinema, look to re-evaluate our services when the time comes because what you wouldn’t want is lots of late showings finishing and then there’s no buses to get home.
“But, it is a bit chicken and egg for us – as you need these developments to have opened so there are the passengers to use the services. We’re not going to run a load of empty buses.”
Mr Calderbank also laid into the swathes of ‘cheap surface level car parks’ in the city centre.
He said: “A big factor in not using the bus is how cheap it is to park in Preston.
“As a planning authority then the city council should be doing more to encourage building on those sites.
“You can park your car for a couple of quid for a whole day on the old Tokyo Jo’s site and you’re right there in town.
“Compare that to many places in Manchester and you’re looking at twenty, thirty pounds, to park for a whole day so of course it’s economical to get the bus.”
Read more: Preston City Council fire back over Yousuf Bhailok’s city regeneration criticism
When County Hall steps in…
A recent Preston Bus change saw it threaten to cut-back the number 6 service, going to Red Scar and Brookfield, with substantial reductions in the evening service.
Lancashire County Council chose to step in and keep the service, which in the latest round of proposals may see a route extension to the Bluebell Way service station, and Mr Calderbank said operating parts of services under ‘direct contract’ from the county council may become more commonplace.
He said: “The number 6 was losing money, so we had to do something different. We’d already reduced that timetable a bit and so when we put the latest changes out there it generated a lot of response from councillors, passengers, businesses.
“Ultimately that’s a political decision by the county council to choose to subsidise an evening service which goes along that route. We accepted a contract from the county council for those evening buses, that means we know we can run those services.
“Lancashire does not have bus franchising in the way Greater Manchester now does with the Bee Network.
“In my role I also oversee what we as Rotala do in Greater Manchester. Initially we were against franchising, because we believe in free-market competition for buses, but I think over the last few years with the economic pressures then I think more direct subsidy and an element of franchising will become more commonplace.
“When your labour and maintenance costs have grown at the rate they have in the last two years then you will have dozens of bus services being scrapped if nothing is done because as operators it would make no sense for the bus to leave the depot that day – you’d never make the money back.
“Having said that we know one of the major factors on people choosing to use the bus is punctuality and frequency of service. If you reduce frequency, you see a drop in passenger numbers, and then a further drop because it becomes too infrequent and people just opt to use cars, taxis or walk.
“At the moment there isn’t a way for Lancashire to have a bus franchise – like the Bee Network – because it doesn’t have the kind of Combined Authority powers that Greater Manchester has. I know there’s the Devolution deal to potentially secure this, but we’ll have to wait and see what this brings.”
Mr Calderbank said the county council – as it has done with the number 6 route – can directly subsidise bus routes if it wishes by placing them under contract with a provider like Preston Bus.
The county council recently announced a number of routes between Preston and Blackburn were going to see increased and extended services with this process.
Mr Calderbank said: “Hopefully we’ll see this become more commonplace because it gives us as a provider the security of income and for the passengers it gives a reliable service.
“We’ve seen this budget start to increase again, under the county council’s Bus Improvement Service Plan, but for context the budget used to be about £13million for this say ten years ago and it’s now about £2million.
“And it is also making buses much more of a political hot potato, both locally and nationally.
“It’s been interesting how much Labour have already had to say about buses, but it’s worth remembering about 95 per cent of the Department For Transport are focused on rail. The bus people are tucked away somewhere in the basement.
“And the DfT insist on a say over every decision made, so the whole process of making changes that involve the county council can then take months instead of weeks.”
Bus gates and bus lanes
A number of changes to road layouts, such as the infamous Corporation Street bus gate, a controversial new bus lane for New Hall Lane and other changes coming are being driven by bus providers.
Mr Calderbank said they are working closely with the county council to identify problem spots on their route networks and then lobby for changes to be made.
He said: “Congestion just sucks the life out of bus routes, so we do need bus lanes and changes so we can give priority to buses.
“This means we have a more punctual and reliable service.
“So I welcome all the changes LCC have been making, even if they aren’t always popular. People, drivers, seem to think they have a right to just drive their car wherever they like. We’re trying to run a service, which benefits very many people – rather than one person in a car – so I hope the politicians continue to take difficult decisions and help give buses priority.
“Some of the technology advances are quite something now, like the way the upgraded traffic light junctions can detect when a bus is approaching, and is running behind its schedule, then the traffic lights will sync to give the bus priority. I’ve seen it in action, it’s really good and a great use of technology.”
Read more: Preston’s tenth bus lane planned for Ribbleton Lane
School bus frustrations
Away from bus lanes, bus fares have been the subject of both political gimmicks but also frustration particularly around the cost of school buses.
We asked if Preston Bus was profiteering with the percentage increases it had applied to bus fares for getting a school bus to schools in Fulwood – which led to a campaign against it by concerned parents.
Mr Calderbank said: “We’ve operated those services for a long time now and unfortunately the cost of securing those buses and drivers – specifically to do the school runs – had become untenable for us.
“We approached the schools and the county council to see if there was anything they could contribute to help offset any fare rises. Unfortunately they were not in a position to.
“So we had no choice but to pass that increasing cost onto parents. I appreciate that’s difficult.
“Around half of the parents using the service qualify, through means testing, for reduced or free bus travel for their children. Where I understand the anger and concern is where people sit just above that threshold – so they don’t qualify for that and therefore that price increase really does affect them. Unfortunately, we as a bus company, we can’t do anything about that.
“Personally, I think we’re providing a good service – almost direct from the door to school and back for a couple of quid each day.
“Yes, if they travelled on the open bus network then it would be cheaper, but to operate that bespoke service we do then it will always come at a cost because once we put a driver and a bus onto that school service then they can’t be out there on other routes during those very busy times.”
Mr Calderbank said they had not seen any evidence of people boycotting the school services and the number of children using them had remained broadly steady following the price changes.
Extended cheap evening fare deals
On bus fares themselves, there’s currently subsidising of fares going on both locally and nationally.
The government has a £2 single fare cap in place which is until the end of this year, while Lancashire County Council has chosen to subsidise all evening fares as being £1 each way after 7pm and has brought this into all Sunday journeys too, and extended it throughout all of 2025.
Mr Calderbank said: “We’ve seen these deals help passenger numbers. In real terms, it means we’re getting that additional funding each time someone chooses to get the bus. The evening bus fare cap from the county council running all the way into 2025 is good – as it gives us stability but also makes it simple for passengers too.
“It doesn’t cover the true cost of a trip, in reality then bus fares would need to probably be around £3.50 to £4.50 based on the passenger numbers we have at the moment.
“But we know if we put our prices up to that level then people just wouldn’t use the bus. It’s a delicate balance, as we you need to remember we’re competing with using your car, getting a taxi, cycling, all the other ways you can get around.”
Are Preston Bus services safe?
Preston Bus has recently seen a number of buses break down – causing major delays in the city centre – and a crash involving a bus took place at the Broughton roundabout with a bus becoming stuck in a field after crashing off James Towers Way.
Mr Calderbank rejected any suggestion the buses were not safe to use.
He said: “Like any vehicles, there will be reliability issues. At our depot, here, in Deepdale Road then we have a 28-day check, like an MOT, we apply to every bus.
“As well as this we have regular driver training and monitoring – and this takes place by external monitors as well as ourselves.
“Naturally our fleet is ageing, and we have to consider the replacement of buses carefully as they are not cheap, against the repair of buses.
“Regarding the incident in Broughton. This happened fairly early in the morning and was caused by a drunk-driver who hit the bus with their car and sent it off the road.
“Thankfully there were very few passengers on the bus at the time and the driver himself only received minor injuries. He’s now had treatment and is back driving again on the network.”
Asked whether the bus firm had been tempted to ‘skimp on services’ to try and save money, Mr Calderbank said it would be a ‘false economy’.
He said: “I understand the suggestion and yes in the short-term you would save, but all you do is store up a very costly repair.
“So you can not replace the fan belt when it does need replacing and then find you need a whole new engine instead. Plus you take the buses out of action for longer. But no, we do not take that approach, if repairs need doing we do them – even if that means it is costly upfront.”
Upgrading to electric buses
He said the firm were exploring moving to more electric vehicles in the coming years – as it would give a significant saving when operating their fleet – but they would need government support with the cost of purchasing.
A fully-electric bus was around £200,000 more expensive to buy than a standard diesel or hybrid bus.
Mr Calderbank said: “We were part of a bid to central government, from LCC, with ourselves and a number of bus operators to purchase some fully-electric buses.
“Unfortunately it wasn’t successful. What it would have done is given a grant to cover a large chunk of that additional cost of buying an electric vehicle.
“It’s not straightforward though. At the moment we have say 90 buses parked up here overnight and before you go home they are all filled up with fuel and ready to go first-thing.
“But with an electric bus we have to think about putting in the charging points, making sure the electricity supply can handle that – no one would want the floodlights at North End dimming when we plugged all our buses in to charge when there’s a game on – and then you’ve got to think about moving those buses from the charge points, and putting the others in, when you don’t traditionally have staff on at those times to be able to charge buses overnight.”
Why do two buses turn up at once?
Tackling the thorny issue of why two buses always seem to appear at once, Mr Calderbank chuckled, but said it’s not a straightforward answer to a problem.
He said: “This happens mostly on where we have high frequency services, so we used to get a lot of reports of this for the 23, or the 35, for example.
“If you say bus one is coming along and it gets stuck in a bit of traffic, or it has to let a wheelchair user on, which takes a bit more time. It starts to get delayed against its route.
“The bus behind is coming along and there’s no one to pick up, so it’s gaining speed, and so then it ends up stuck behind the other bus.
“With the technology we have now then we will start to pick this up and we’ll get a message to the second bus to ask it to regulate at a stop to try and make sure it gives a bit of breathing space.
“Sometimes when there’s that much roadworks and congestion then there’s not much we can do – even with all the technology.”
Should you say thank you to the bus driver?
And finally, we asked Mr Calderbank, whether saying ‘thank you’ to the bus driver was important.
He said: “Absolutely, and I’d say most people still do it – even with advances in technology.
“We encourage our drivers to greet people as they get on and for many people that interaction is really important.
“Yes a lot more people just tap on or show a pass so there isn’t that same time where the driver and passenger speak but I know it means a lot to bus drivers when people do take the time to say a simple thanks.”
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