Rich Middleton, Growth Manager, Great Western Railway

How better integrating bus and train services is helping to grow patronage which is critical to the viability of the local bus and rail network

Great Western Railway, Rich explained, is working in partnership with local authorities, who have the transport powers and provide the subsidy for the local bus network, and working with bus operators to deliver for the wider community, including community bus networks. A critical factor for success, he said, is building collaborations with people who want to do this stuff.

Delivery, Rich explained, starts with a timetable – making sure we can find a pragmatic solution that works for and with everyone. GWR uses the Rail Link brand, which is already being used on around 20 bus routes across the UK, giving branding and consistency for bus services that serve the train station. It’s important to be able to retail through journey planning products which can be through GWR digitally and third parties. Marketing and awareness is key too – GWR promotes regional leisure and tourism and it’s important that infrequent users are aware that we’re offering convenient joined up end to end journeys.

The purpose is to grow patronage which is critical to the viability of the local bus and rail network. In Devon we’ve done this through supported services, but we’ve also had great success on the commercial network. Whether we’re operating in a contracted or subsidised environment, we all want to grow the revenue because that helps reduce the call on public funds and helps expand services and develop more opportunities.

In the places where we’ve done it, we’ve achieved both passenger growth and revenue growth. We’re not perfect. We’re not doing things that are expensive and complicated, we’re just trying to get the basics right by collaborating with the people who are willing and also want and need delivery on this.