Press Release

Stagecoach proposes Yellow Taxibus solution to boost social inclusion and cut congestion

16 September 2005

• Report highlights potential of rural and urban demand responsive services
  
• Scottish pilot project offers local authorities more cost-effective option

Stagecoach has called for investment in cost-effective Yellow Taxibus-style demand responsive services to boost social inclusion and cut congestion across the UK.

A new report by Stagecoach due to be published next week shows the Yellow Taxibus concept is extremely popular with customers, particularly women, and offers local authorities a value-for-money option to improve transport links in rural and urban areas.

The Stagecoach study, which follows a two-year experiment in Scotland, suggests that “phone and go” services can be delivered at significantly lower cost to the taxpayer than existing publicly-funded schemes.

Yellow Taxibus - launched in Fife, Scotland in August, 2003 – is a high-frequency demand responsive operation, running seven days a week, that combines a fixed bus route with flexible pre-booked taxi pick-ups.

Using nine upmarket Mercedes people carrier vehicles, the service runs up to every 15 minutes on a route from Fife, across the Forth Road Bridge, into Edinburgh – one of the most congested corridors in Scotland. As well as operating on a fixed route in and out of the Scottish capital, customers within a demand responsive area in Dunfermline can be collected at their door and taken to their destination.

While most demand responsive transport services in the UK are operated in rural locations, Yellow Taxibus focuses on a rapidly expanding urban area. The growing white-collar population in Dunfermline, many of whom commute to work in Edinburgh, live in new housing estates with cul-de-sac layouts unsuited to traditional bus services.

The service complements the Ferrytoll Park and Ride facility near Inverkeithing where Stagecoach runs buses across the Forth up to every five minutes.  Buses and Yellow Taxibus vehicles can both take advantage of extensive bus lanes on the route into Edinburgh.

Ticket prices on Yellow Taxibus – £5 single and £8 return – are set at a premium to the equivalent bus journey, but offer a competitive option compared to car/parking costs, and rail fares.

Since the launch, Yellow Taxibus has established a core commuter and leisure market of around 1,000 passengers a week, including people on weekend and evening trips to Edinburgh. Customer feedback has recorded high satisfaction ratings in terms of comfort, reliability, value-for-money, frequency of pick-ups and driver customer service. More than 50% of customers were women, with some attracted to Yellow Taxibus for personal safety reasons, and nearly 30% of passengers were in managerial or technical roles.

While the initiative has not achieved commercial viability, it has shown the potential of such services to widen travel options, boost social inclusion and create a new passenger base, particularly among former car users, with modest public funding support.

Significantly, the operating costs of Yellow Taxibus, which uses a manual booking system rather than a more expensive computer-based system, are relatively low at 80p per mile. The operating costs of many other equivalent DRT services, which tend to require a high per-passenger public subsidy, are twice as much or more.

Brian Souter, Stagecoach Group Chief Executive, said: “Yellow Taxibus has demonstrated that a core market and improved public transport services can be developed in a congested urban area. We also believe the Yellow Taxibus approach can be used to boost social inclusion in rural areas.

“Yellow Taxibus has had some of the best customer feedback of any new initiative we have launched. It is clearly a concept that is very attractive to passengers and the relatively low operating costs should make it an attractive option for local authorities. We believe there is real potential for a range of Yellow Taxibus-style ‘phone and go’ services across the country that can boost social inclusion in our communities, tackle congestion in our cities and improve the quality of life for thousands of people.”

The Yellow Taxibus pilot project ends on Sunday 13 November when the last services will run between Dunfermline and Edinburgh. Customers will continue to have access to high frequency bus services between Fife and Edinburgh. Stagecoach is currently in discussions with Fife Council about the potential for a partnership demand response transport project in the region.