Agenda item

With reference to article 26 of the minute of the meeting of the Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure Committee of 23 February, 2010, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure which advised of discussions with First Aberdeen, Stagecoach Bluebird, Bains Coaches and Aberdeenshire Council in relation to a voluntary Multi-Operator Travelcard for bus services within Aberdeen City and sought approval to introduce the scheme.

The report provided a detailed overview of the discussion held to date regarding the introduction of a multi-operator travelcard and the decisions made by the Committee in this regard.

Further to the discussions held and the previous decision of the Committee, a secret vote regarding the prices of the Travelcard was held in June, 2010, and this had initially resulted in a tie. Following negotiations to resolve the tied vote, it was agreed by the operators to sell adult day tickets at £5.00. Under the terms of the agreement, ticket prices were subject to review after three months operation. The vote resulted in the following prices being set:

• Adult Weekly - £20.00 (not to be introduced initially)
• Child Weekly - £10.00 (not to be introduced initially)
• Adult Day - £5.00
• Child Day - £3.50

First Aberdeen at this stage advised of their unwillingness to sell weekly tickets at the introduction of the scheme, noting that this position would be reviewed at a later date.  Officers from Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and Nestrans all noted their disappointment at these arrangements, highlighting that the proposed £5.00 fare and the omission of weekly tickets was not in line with what had been discussed and agreed previously. Aberdeen City Council made strong representations that support for the scheme from the Council might not be forthcoming as it would be extremely difficult to market a product of £5.00.

Council officers had since made numerous attempts to negotiate on the adult day ticket fare, however First Aberdeen had indicated that they were not prepared to take the commercial risk of selling the ticket at a lower price and indeed, on 2 August 2010 the company increased the cost of their own adult day tickets to £4.20 (all-day) and £3.50 (off-peak).

In conclusion, the report advised that it considered that the proposed multi-operator adult day ticket was priced too high to have any real benefit to the travelling public and was therefore unlikely to be popular. This negated the possibility to test the market, with a view to introducing similar products on cross-boundary corridors into Aberdeenshire. In addition, Aberdeen City Council had withdrawn the offer to administer the Travelcard from 16 August, 2010 pending Committee consideration of this report and had notified all operators that continued involvement would be subject to Committee approval.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee:-

(a)               introduce the Multi-Operator Travelcard with an adult day ticket fare of £5.00; and

(b)               that the scheme be reviewed after 3 months and the results reported back to the Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to reject implementation of the Multi-Operator Travelcard with an adult day fare of £5.00 at this stage, on the basis that the £5.00 was prohibitive and the absence of any weekly ticket provision was unacceptable, and

(ii)        to request officers to hold further discussions with First Bus to negotiate the introduction of the travelcard on the basis of a reduced fare and the introduction of a weekly ticket, and to report back to the Committee in this regard, in due course.