Transport
Free travel
Free travel passes are provided to 400,000 senior citizens of eligible age and 36,000 disabled passes were issued in the West Midlands as part of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme. All permanent residents of the West Midlands who are of the age of entitlement or disabled people who meet the application criteria are entitled to a free pass. The travel pass entitles holders to free travel on bus, rail and tram services in the West Midlands and free national bus travel across certain times of the day.
Children under 16 and those aged 16-18 in full time education who hold a disabled pass are also entitled to a free bus travel before 9.30 Monday to Friday.
Reduced fare travel is also provided to young people under 16 years old and 16-18 year olds
in full time education or an apprenticeship and reside within the West Midlands. Around 34,000 16-18 photo cards were issued in 2020-21.
Demand responsive services
Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) commissions National Express Accessible Transport (NEAT)
to operate the West Midlands Ring & Ride Service. The service covers the majority of the West Midlands area and provides an accessible door-to door transport service for people who find it difficult or impossible to use conventional public transport. All Ring and Ride vehicles are fully accessible, and the drivers have received disability and equality awareness training and customer care training which enables them to give a greater level of customer care and assistance to passengers using the service. The service continues to see a significant reduction in passengers as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The increase in passengers has been far slower than other public transport services due to the nature of the destinations being served and the more vulnerable client group. The service is now operating 7 days a week, between 8am and 11pm Monday to Saturday and 8am and 3.30pm on Sunday.
The first pilot mainstream Demand Response Transport (DRT) scheme in the West Midlands was launched successfully in April 2021 under the brand of West Midlands Bus On-Demand, with operating hours of Monday to Friday from 7am until 8pm. The service is centred on the University of Warwick campuses and links into the wider South and West of Coventry. Whilst the majority of customers choose to use the app for bookings and managing their account, there is also the opportunity to contact the team by email and telephone, helping ensuring access to all user groups including those who don’t have access to mobile technology. Agreement has been reached for the acceptance of concessionary passes for 50% of the standard fare.
Walsall Community Transport provide a service for older residents in the north and east of the borough who are no longer able to use public transport. It is a door-to-door shopping bus, running 15 journeys weekly into their local town centre and supermarket. This service enables users to retain independence and dignity, reducing the burden upon social care provision; as well promoting social interaction between users. This social contact is further encouraged with the provision of additional trips out during the summer months and at Christmas time to other local shopping destinations.
Safety and security
The Safer Travel Partnership is responsible for delivering the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioners ‘Local Transport Policing Plan’. The key objectives of this plan for 2021/24 continue to be to reduce crime and improve passenger perception of personal safety. This
is especially important from an equality and inclusion perspective as perceptions of safety are lower amongst a number of groups, e.g., women, young people, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and disabled people.
The West Midlands public transport network continues to be one of the safest in the UK with over 20 million bus journeys alone taken each year.
Achievement and activities
Since July 2021 a specific objective from the policing plan has been to reduce violence against women and girls using the transport network mainly taking the form of unwanted sexual behaviour. This is championed and supported by the DfT under their own strategy. Actions the Safer Travel Partnership are taking to address
this include educational input raising awareness to increase reporting and positive action against identified offenders. Sexual offending on the train network has reduced by 36% since the start
of 2022.
The Partnership has had a clear focus on tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) in recent years and this has yielded good feedback. Surveys from the independent watchdog, “Transport Focus” show that passenger feeling of personal safety on bus continues to increase and concerns over ASB continue to reduce. Bus user surveys undertaken by TfWM between March and August 2022 show overall ratings of 87% satisfaction with personal safety.
Services
The work of the “Safer Travel Partnership”, a collaboration of Police, Transport for West Midlands and Bus and train Operators contributes to these figures through a mix of targeted high visibility Police patrols and responses to reports of anti-social behaviour (ASB).
Safer Travel Police team
The Safer Travel Police Team is a group of Police Constables and Police Community Support Officers from West Midlands Police and British Transport Police who work on the bus, rail and Metro network and associated corridors of the West Midlands, focusing on crime reduction and community safety. This ‘cross mode’ policing team is the only team of its type in the country bringing together two police forces, working together on a daily basis, to make transport safer. Special Constables have also been recruited by both forces which has subsequently increased the Police team’s numbers. All operations and visibility patrols are coordinated by the Safer Travel Tasking process and delivered by Police Inspector, Sergeants and dedicated Intelligence team.
ASB (Anti-Social Behaviour) Team
Aided by a seconded member of staff from National Express the team have now managed thousands of cases since their inception in 2013. The Partnership also has a dedicated Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) team dealing with reports of incidents from the public and operators, using a range of civil based interventions including warnings, acceptable behaviour contracts and leading ultimately through to criminal behaviour orders (CBOs) in a few instances to tackle inappropriate behaviour on the transport network. The team receive reports from the public through the ‘See Something Say Something’ campaign which allowed passengers to text the Partnership, via mobile phone, details of any incident of concern that they might witness on the bus, rail, or Metro to a dedicated text number. This scheme has now been redesigned and rebranded with the introduction of a new dedicated number 81018 launched in the Spring of 2021 as ‘See Say’ and with a broader remit to include roads in general. Safer Travel receive approx. 100 messages a month on this dedicated text number.
Safer Travel has welcomed three new team members into brand new roles created to tackle antisocial behaviour on the public transport network.
Three Transport Safety Officers (TSOs) are the first of their kind in the UK to operate across all three modes of public transport. These officers have all achieved Community Safety Accreditation (CSAS) to use the 9 powers granted by the West Midlands Police Chief Constable.
They have received further training on traffic control powers to assist the RTCC in keeping traffic moving in the future and there are currently plans to appoint further Officers. This will further expand an already well received service from the travelling public. A recent review and public survey around the work of TSO’s showed 62% of public transport users already feel safer thanks to their presence.
Since they started patrols of the West Midlands network last year on average each month, they interact with over 6,500 passengers and staff, engage over 800 passengers and issue 70 verbal warnings for antisocial behaviour. Average patrol hours each month are 390. The team utilise a three E’s approach to dealing with antisocial behaviour: engage, educate and enforce. Passengers behaving inappropriately will be engaged with by the officers and enforcement will be used if the behaviour continues, such as issuing a fixed penalty notice, directions to leave or surrendering alcohol.
CCTV Control Room
There continues to be a high level of CCTV coverage across the whole public transport network. Well over 1500 cameras monitor bus, rail and Metro stations and bus stops across the West Midlands, with further cameras onboard buses, trams and trains. The state of art Safer Travel Command Centre provides monitoring of the digitally recorded images, on HD monitors, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Achievements
Huge uptake in use of public transport up to and during the Birmingham ’22 Commonwealth Games led to no corresponding increase in crime on the network over this period thanks to the work of Police, extended police family including TSO’s and Commonwealth Games staff and volunteers
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The TfWM CCTV Control Centre received its annual external and independent audit in December 2021 retaining its accreditation against relevant British Standards confirming the service is well managed and operates effectively within all legal requirements.
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Retention of “Safer Tram Stop award” covering all 26 metro stations on the line.
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Following negotiation with Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government,7 Bus Byelaws were made in February 2022 and TfWM are going through the final stages with West midlands Police to make them fully enforceable
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For the school year 2021/22 the Educational Officer for the Safer Travel Partnership has delivered inputs to 27,711 students at 74 educational establishments across the whole of the West Midlands, as well as Lichfield and Worcestershire. The aims of sessions are to reduce ASB on bus, train and tram and instil confidence to travel. The various sessions have included assemblies, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) sessions, classroom lessons and full day mini school activities to encourage young people to travel safely and responsibly while using the public transport network and to follow the rules of our Passenger Code of Conduct. Many schools and colleges have incorporated the student contract version of the Passenger Code of Conduct into their new Year 7 student induction pack. At a higher age the Partnership continues to work successfully with Sandwell College promoting and encouraging responsibly behaved travel on Metro and buses serving the college. This level of interaction has been achieved during the Covid pandemic which has meant virtual assemblies and other ways of engaging.
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The highly regarded restorative justice project addressing anti-social and low-level criminal behaviour from young people on the network continues to work successfully across the West Midlands. 25 restorative justice sessions have been held over the last year with no repeat offending on the public transport network following attendance to these sessions. A further 30 Partnership staff and Officers have been fully trained since January 2022 to help undertake future sessions and increase capacity to deliver the restorative justice project in the years to come.
West Midlands Bus Alliance
We continue to work in partnership with bus operators and other stakeholders to improve the quality of all aspects of bus travel and to make travel easier for everyone. Features such as low floor buses, accessible well-lit passenger shelters, easy access kerbing, improved passenger information and audio and visual Real Time Information are helping to make bus travel more attractive for everybody with drivers trained in customer care and disability awareness. All operators in the West Midlands Bus Alliance have committed to ensuring that any new buses are fitted with on-board next stop announcements to assist blind and partially sighted passengers. Nearly 400 buses in the region are now fitted with the equipment with more to follow in the coming months. The West Midlands Bus Alliance has continued to oversee and influence the bus network response and recovery to the Covid-19 pandemic and has sought to ensure that operators and wider stakeholders are fully aligned on issues affecting passengers and future aspirations through the BSIP. This has included developing a consistent approach to passenger communication at the various stages to the release from covid measures including changes to social distancing on-bus and the evolution of the expectations around passengers to continue to wear a face covering.
Metro
Metro is fully accessible with every tram designed to enable easy access. All new trams have improved access arrangements by the use of four double and two single doors each side of the tram. There is level access between the tram and the platform edge. Trams have bright colour contrasting doors and handrails, automatic opening and closing doors, priority seats for disabled people and two easily accessible spaces for wheelchair users. Trams are also equipped with “next stop” visual information screens and audio announcements, emergency intercom and Customer Service Representatives on board.
All 31 stops across the Metro route have also been designed to be fully accessible, with level, ramped or lift access to all platforms. Real Time Information and audio announcements are provided at shelters, emergency intercom which includes Braille for the visually impaired at the end of shelters, seating in shelters and tactile paving along platform edges, stairs and crossing points.
Real Time Information
Real Time Information displays continue to be maintained across key transport corridors. We continue to maintain, upgrade and replace (where necessary and funding permits) information systems in city centres (Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry), at bus stations, transport interchanges (such as Stourbridge, Cradley Heath, West Bromwich and Walsall) and bus stops.
The electronic information displays provide details of the next buses to call at the stop or interchange including the service number, destination and, for the majority of journeys, the actual time when the bus will arrive/depart. For people with visual impairments we provide a key fob device used to activate an audio message, providing the same information as displayed on the Real Time Information screens. We continue to work with suppliers to improve the service offered to people with visual impairments. We continue to trial alternate solutions to traditional key fobs, such as Bluetooth (for those customers who have an enabled smartphone) for real time information. For navigation & way finding within bus station and interchange buildings, in conjunction with one of our suppliers, we are testing the use of the solution provided by NaviLens (www. navilens.com), with full backing from RNIB. This is expected to be trialled at Wolverhampton Bus Station in late 2022.
Across Birmingham City Centre Interchange (BCCI) 60 bus stop totems are currently installed with RNIB React 3 capabilities. These totems incorporate both LED and static media panels, with a font designed for improved legibility across both print and digital media. RNIB React
3 capabilities are also available in all shelters installed as part of the Sprint bus priority network. We are also in continuing partnership with bus operators, primarily National Express West Midlands who support on-board electronic display equipment on some routes. These displays provide corresponding audio messages.