BRISTOL - 4

[MerchantVenturer]

Public travel costs survey

I note that some interest has been created in another airport thread regarding a survey into the cost of getting to the UK’s ten busiest airports (measured by passenger numbers) by public transport that found BRS is the most expensive.

The Mail seems to have picked up this report from the local Bristol newspaper which ran the story first.

Based on the narrow parameters used (ie the cost of public transport from the nearest city centre to the various airports) that may be true. One of the contributory ‘facts’ was said to be the lack of a rail station at the airport but that also applies to EDI (it does now have a tram) and GLA, both of which fared better than BRS in this survey, in GLA’s case much better, so I question the importance of that ‘conclusion’.

The main bus connection is the Bristol Airport Flyer which has been running for nearly 20 years. It operates 24 hours a day, at 8-9 minute intervals for much of the time, between the airport and Bristol’s main railway station at Temple Meads and the country bus and coach station which is a mile further into the central area (like its airport Bristol’s main rail station is in the wrong place, but that’s another discussion).

Return Flyer fares are £11 with a single at £7. The Flyer is run by the airport without any public subsidy, which is not the case with every UK airport’s shuttle bus connection, and operated by a fleet of 12 large single decker First Bristol vehicles (in airport livery and adapted internally for the conveyance of luggage)) and drivers under contract to the airport. The airport allows holders of English concessionary travel cards (pensioners’ bus passes) to use the vehicles during the time the cards are valid, i.e. after 9am and all hours at weekends.

I’m a regular user of the Flyer and there is no doubt that the majority of travellers begin and end their journeys at Temple Meads station, with most possessing through rail tickets to/from the airport. The airport is shown as a ‘station’ on the GWR network with the last (or first) leg by bus, incidentally at a far greater frequency than any rail network could hope to achieve. The next busiest pick-up or drop-off point is the country bus and coach station where through tickets on local buses and National Express coaches linked to the Flyer are available.

Another (double decker) bus service from 0300 hours until midnight links Bath with the airport via two small en route towns and south Bristol. This runs half hourly for much of the time. There is no public subsidy with this service. There are also regular local bus services via the airport linking Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portishead and many local villages which are publicly subsidised but the raison d’etre is the linking of the villages with the towns. Some people access the airport via these local services but many (mainly pensioners with bus passes) use the airport as an interchange from Flyer or Bath Air Decker to one of the local services which the airport permits as part of its commitment to the local community.

The airport has put around £5 million into local transport and road schemes via its section 106 planning consent payments to the local authority for the expanded terminal and other infrastructure developments.

Finally there is a coach service to/from South Wales that operates 12 times a day and a long distance National Express that calls in the small hours.

The taxi provision is controversial with some people. Like a number of regional airports BRS grants a concession to one company to operate from the airport. That of course doesn’t stop passengers making their own prior arrangements with other companies or picking up a hackney off a rank in Bristol.

I’ve set out BRS’s public transport links in some detail to show they are comprehensive and it’s the market that dictates the fares. Bristol is an expensive city in which to live and its bus fares, by First’s (the major bus provider) own admission, are higher than the company charges in some other cities, although I suspect that the airport sets the Flyer fares.

The survey is interesting in that it provokes discussion but the narrow parameters tell only a small part of the overall story. The last CAA survey that involved BRS (in 2012) found that 18.1% of BRS passengers arrived at the airport by public transport. The other regional airports surveyed that year were BHX (19.2% of arrivals by public transport), MAN (15.5%), EMA (9.0%), CWL (8.9%) and EXT (4.8%).

On this evidence the expensive journey from city centre to airport doesn’t seemed to have put off travellers, but most would have travelled further than from/to the city centre. A more meaningful survey would have established total public travel costs to airports and not just the fairly limited city centre to airport.