All change on till Tyne and Wear busel
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Newcastle's new underground railway network has drastically altered the North east's commuter habits. Noel Millier explains how the area's buses are adaptiii to the change
'ME and Wear Passenger .ansport Executive's new Me) system has been under conruction for what seems an eterty and rising construction ists have often been its main aim to national fame.
But early last month the stem was officially opened by aMajesty the Queen. And iw the shiny trains are carrying -ge numbers of happy smiling )ordies who can avoid the aditional bottlenecks which ay encountered when crossing 3 River Tyne on one of the sy road bridges.
Does this mean that the fleet yellow buses that orginally rried these people is now run1g around empty or is no lger required?
lo find out just what is hapning I visited Tyne and Wear E in Newcastle and sampled delights of the new Metro d saw how the bus network is ng adapted to fill a new role. ntegration is the name of the game with the fixed route Metro being fed by buses from areas both within and without the Tyne and Wear County. Car users have realised the advantages of park and ride to such an extent that the car parks at the various outer Metro stations are filling early causing an over-flow of parking into nearby residential roads.
While this will undoubtedly anger local residents it will help the buses serving non-Metro corridors by reducing traffic congestion and allowing a more efficient and attractive service.
The day I visited the Metro I found passenger levels far in excess of expectations with most interchange station car parks completely full by mid morning. After living with Metro plans and Metro construction for the past ten years people have turned to the system with enthusiasm.
Although part of the system has still to be opened the vital Tyne Bridge link is operating and this has changed the bus services, travelling patterns and probably the way of life of many Gateshead people who can now reach the bright lights of Newcastle city centre in a matter of minutes.
The introduction of the Haymarket and Heworth section of Metro in November has given the PTE the opportunity to change bus services to integrate with Metro at a scale probably not carried out in Britain before. In total some 150 bus routes have been revised. In addition about 85 routes have been, or are to be equipped to issue Transfare tickets which allow bus/Metro/bus or any other combinations of travel on one ticket.
Tyne and Wear PTE has divided the metropolitan county into 33 fare zones and only nine individual adult fare values are needed to cover for all journeys. To avoid making short journeys too expensive and unattractive the first five kilometres of travel, whether it is by bus or Metro, is treated as five separate stages of one kilometre each even if it crosses a zone boundary.
The opening of Metro corridors means that County buses no longer cross the Tyne bric and services that did previou have been re-routed to sei Metro/bus interchange statio While some passengers v now have to change to compl( their journeys they will 01 have to buy one ticket and v almost certainly benefit from faster overall journey time.
Metro trains are running or three-minute headway whi ensures that interchanging p. sengers never have to w longer than three minutes foi connection and that bus servic do not have to be geared to in vidual Metro departures.
The system relies on the u of magnetically encoded tick( which can be issued by aui matic machines at Metro a tions or on Transfare equipp buses.
Passengers are also e couraged to make use discount travelcards — wee4 r four weekly passes valid over re whole county area or a .flectiort of zones — as these Deed up bus boarding times id lessen the need to queue at letro station ticket machines. When the Metro system is Dmplete I y operational the Tyne id Wear County bus fleet, 40 er cent of which is operated by le PTE with the remainder applied by National Bus Cornany subsidiaries Northern and nited, will be reduced by about 0 per cent, The PTE is anxious however at the bus should not be seen s the poor relation to Metro in te integrated system and has sed the Metro launch as an ocasion to launch an integrated ystern.
"Make the going easy, buses nd Metro" is the slogan on the ride range of publicity prouced for the occasion.
The PTE's own bus fleet has een made as attractive as posible to complement the Metro nage. The double-deck fleet is ne of the youngest in the coun-y and the familiar bright three olour yellow based livery cornlements that of the Metro -a ins,
A fleet of new Alexander bolied Leyland Atlantean double leckers and a number of United lritol VRTs fitted with coach eating are being used on mited stop semi-express routes vhere there is no Metro corrilor.
To coincide with the launch of he integrated transport system he PTE held a Transport Festival )etween November 6 and 30. :vents included a tour by a madie information centre, a reluced fares day with free cariage for accompanied children, he Royal opening of Metro and he Tyne Metro bridge, a irework display, a balloon race, I treasure trail involving enrants travelling on buses, ferries ind the Metro and a buses only educed fare Sunday as well as :ompetitions, exhibitions and a :avalcacie of historic buses.
The event was supported by a ange of Metro souvenirs includhg posters, badges and teethirts.
A major publicity campaign was also launched and involved he distribution of 340,000 area nformation leaflets (for eight ;eparate areas), a special issue if the Tyne and Wear PTE house )ewspaper interchange, which las been distributed to 299,000 iouseholds in Gateshead, South Tyneside, Newcastle, Washingon and North Tyneside.
Eight colour route maps have )een produced for four separate ireas and will be delivered to 2 00,00 0 homes and 25,000 households within half a mile of the Metro system have received a special full Metro information pack.
A 'bus and Metro' guide explaining the workings of the inte grated system and a leaflet describing Transfare and how it works are also freely available in County information outlets.
Special public transport supplements completed the PTE publicity effort and results in ridership levels appear to be initially in excess of expectations.
The central ingredient in the integrated transport system, which was originally mooted ten years and, despite sharply rising costs, has involved an invest ment of £280 million. This will result in an easy to use public transport infrastructure which should set up Tyne and Wear commuters for years to come.
Once the Metro is in full operation I was told that the transport system will probably meet 70 to 80 per cent of its day to day costs from the fare box as indeed the system does today. The whole system has been designed to be able to be maintained as simply as possible with the emphasis on cleaning. Bus, Metrocar and station interiors are designed to be as attractive as possible while not presenting too much of a target to graffiti artists.
Should anything attract such unwelcome attentions the executive has a policy which ensures that the results are re
moved as quickly as possible b. fore the idea catches on ar becomes the norm.
While the introduction of Metro is resulting in a reductic of the bus fleet the integrat( route network resulting shou result in a more efficient and z tractive future without. the sic spiral of declining passeng levels experienced in mar other British urban route n works.