Agenda and minutes

To note apologies for absence and confirm the quorum of 11 members is met.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Firth, Ferguson, Finnigan and Bates, with Councillor Carol Thirkill substituting for Cllr Firth.

The meeting was confirmed as quorate, with 13 members present out of 11 needed for quorum.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

There were no items requiring the exclusion of the press and public.

The Committee considered a report of the Scrutiny Support Officer outlining governance arrangements, terms of reference, Scrutiny Standing Orders, quorum, and substitute rules agreed by the Combined Authority at its annual meeting in June 2022. 

The Chair welcomed the 12 new members to the committee and outlined the main change to the committee remits which has ensured that Transport Scrutiny covers more of the environmental and place related topics that coincide with transport.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2022 be approved.

The Committee received a verbal update from the Chair which covered her activities over the summer meeting with Cllr Hinchcliffe, the Chair of the Transport Committee, and her meetings with key people regarding the real time bus information system which will be discussed in the next item.

Resolved:  That the Chair’s verbal update be noted.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Transport and Property Services providing an update on the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) which covered funding for West Yorkshire’s BSIP, delivery of the ‘Mayor’s Fares’ proposals and continued development of a bus network plan. The Director also provided a verbal update on the £70m awarded through BSIP; half of which must be used on fares, and the other half on network improvements not related to fixing COVID-related issues.

The Chair brought the committee’s attention to a referral made by two WY councillors (Cllrs Mike Barnes and Stewart Golton) for the committee to look at reported issues with the accuracy of the Real Time Information System (RTI) highlighted in local media over the summer. Scrutiny Standing Orders oblige the committee to consider all referrals made and decide whether to look into them further, but due to the time constraints and it occurring between meetings, the Chair took the initiative and met with and invited Dr Ben Hanson from Leeds University, who conducted some research into the accuracy of RTI, and Graham Davies, the CA’s Travel Systems Manager responsible for the system, to discuss this issue further with the committee for this item.

Discussion took place around the following topic areas:

1.    RTI as an important BSIP priority: RTI is a key part of BSIP and a key element of having a reliable and customer focused bus network. This is highlighted in BSIP as part of a ‘whole journey approach’, of which RTI was one aspect of which RTI was one aspect as part of a wider overarching vision. It was also necessary to ensure that information systems such as RTI are in good working order ahead of the Mayor’s £2 fare journey cap to ensure that, under principles of ‘behaviour change’ considered by this committee in the past, new users are not turned away from becoming long term patrons by any unreliability in the system. This is also an area of the bus network the CA is directly responsible for, so a good topic for scrutiny and monitoring.

2.    RTI system used by the CA: the RTI system used by the CA is one of the biggest in the country and in use across greater Yorkshire area, covering over 36,000 stops and 3,000 vehicles, to supply data to 2,500 stop displays (and apps) in West Yorkshire. Objectively, it is claimed that the RTI system in Yorkshire is one of the most efficient as almost 99% of the data incoming is scrutinised for accuracy, for instance against timetable and bus stop information, at a level that is not comparable to other areas. It is funded by the CA and local authorities jointly, costing around £180,000 a year. The current system and its operation cost a significant amount of money to design, and any suggestions for major changes would likely be very expensive and be balanced by the proportionality of any outcomes. Fundamentally, the system works in three stages, data coming  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee considered the Work programme for 2022/23 and discussed adding additional workshops on recently announced bus service cuts and the addition of decarbonisation and net zero on the next meeting agenda.

Resolved: 

i)               That the appended work programme be noted and approved.

ii)              That, following a referral by members and campaign groups, decarbonisation be added to the next meeting’s agenda and an invite extended to appropriate external visitors if possible.

iii)            That a workshop be arranged for interested members on the recently announced bus service cuts and future implication of this on the bus network, BSIP achievement and the mayor’s bus patronage aspirations.