Cardiff Bus

Cardiff Bus (Bws Caerdydd) is the dominant operator of bus services in Cardiff, Wales and the surrounding area, including Barry and Penarth. Its hub is Cardiff central bus station. The company is wholly owned by Cardiff Council and is one of the few municipal bus companies to survive the effects of UK bus deregulation in the late 1980s.

History


While horse buses (and later horse trams) had run in the city since 1845, Cardiff Bus can trace its history back to 1902, when the borough council took over and electrified a tram line between Roath and the city centre. It had been previously run by the Cardiff Tramway Company. The resultant Cardiff Corporation Tramways spent the next 3 decades extending its electric tram network, and at its peak in 1927 ran 141 electric trams over 18 miles of line. On Christmas Eve 1920, the corporation introduced its first motor buses, although the first motor bus route was operated by the Tramway Company from 1907.

The first Cardiff trolleybuses were introduced in 1942, their introduction having been delayed by the outbreak of World War II. The intention was to convert the remaining tramway system to trolleybus operation, then to extend the network. While the first stage was completed in 1950, the only extension made to the system was to Ely which took place in 1955. Although powers had been obtained to considerably expand the network, a policy U-turn occurred in 1961 when the decision was made to replace all the trolleybuses with motor buses. This task was completed in 1970, bringing to an end 68 years of electric traction on the streets of Cardiff.



The Transport Act of 1985 deregulated bus services outside London and required all Local Authorities to establish private "arm's length" bus companies. In October 1986 the council established its own wholly owned company - 'Cardiff City Transport Services Limited', trading as 'Cardiff Bus'. In 1992, the closure of the National Welsh bus company led Cardiff Bus to extend and intensify its network in the areas and towns surrounding Cardiff, including Barry, the Vale of Glamorgan and Caerphilly. The Caerphilly local network of services including links between Cardiff, Caerphilly, Blackwood and Tredegar were discontinued in 2001 and are now provided by Stagecoach in South Wales.



Some loss-making services have been withdrawn and are operated under local authority tender by other companies, including Bebb Travel and the former Shamrock group. Several operate entirely within the City of Cardiff, while some in the Vale of Glamorgan are operated by ESTbus.

In September 2007, Council chief executive Byron Davies unveiled plans aimed at massive efficiency improvements and bringing in additional funding, which would include selling County Hall, the Cardiff Heliport and up to 40% of Cardiff Bus. This did not happen and the company remains in council ownership

Operations


Cardiff Bus has a turnover of £27million, employs around 720 people, on an average weekday carries around 100,000 passengers. The company uses software systems supplied by UK based software supplier Omnibus Systems, for timetabling, scheduling and publicity purposes. Services are managed using software from VIX ACIS which is also used by Cardiff Council to provide the real-time digital information displays positioned at many stops around the city, used to inform people when the next bus is due and alerting waiting passengers of any delays. Raised kerbs have been installed at the majority of stops.In 2009 the company started to operate the park and ride service from Cardiff City Stadium to the city centre.

Fares
Cardiff Bus operates an exact fare policy and no change is given. The city used to be divided into four fare zones for the purpose of fare calculation, but on 5 April 2009, Cardiff Bus introduced a flat fare of £1.60 for a one-way journey or £3.20 for all-day travel in Cardiff and Penarth, or £1.40/£2.80 for travel within Barry. Special fares apply for travel between Cardiff and Barry, Newport, the Airport and Llantwit Major.

Iff card
Iff card is a contactless smart card introduced by Cardiff Bus in October 2010, allowing customers to travel on its services after having pre-paid. The first 30,000 cards were issued free of charge and preloaded with £3 of credit, after which the cards will be charged at £5.

An amount of money is electronically loaded onto the card, either upon boarding a bus or at the Cardiff Bus customer service centre. A passenger then chooses a ticket type. The card can also be used as a season ticket. The card should be topped-up when the balance is low, however the card allows the customer to acquire a negative balance up to £3.

The card can be topped-up in units of £5, £10 or £20, up to maximum amount of £50. The card may be used by persons aged between 6 and 60. The Iff card cannot be used to pay a partial amount. The card is cancelled if not used for a continuous period of one year.

Fleet
The current fleet is composed of 232 buses, all low-floor buses.

In May 2006, Cardiff Bus invested 4.5m in 19 new Scania OmniCity articulated bendy buses to provide much needed extra capacity on the busiest routes, and at 235,000 each show the high specification. Thirteen operate exclusively on the 17/18 Ely route, branded Capital City Red, and four buses operate on the Bay and City Centre link service known as Baycar.

On 8 October 2007, Cardiff Bus received 15 Scania OmniCitys and 13 Scania N230UD/East Lancs Olympus in late November, with the final delivered in early 2008. These replaced the Leyland Lynxs, the Optare MetroRiders, Volvo Ailsa B55 and the N-registration Dennis Darts. Six Scania Omnicity buses will operate exclusively on the 27 route, branded Capital City Green, from the city centre to Llanishen and Thornhill, with the remainder principally operating on services 28, 29, 29B, 30 as well as the Christmas park & ride services. On the Capital City Green routes, there are 6 buses, all with a person from Cardiff on the back of them. Bus 721 is Elaine Petersen, bus 722 is Michael Simmons, bus 723 is Jenny Hemingway, bus 724 is Pauline De Rochha, bus 725 is Daniel Bois and bus 726 is Stephen Bailey.



On 15 December 2007 Cardiff Bus held a final running day as a farewell gesture to the Volvo Ailsa, to commemorate 25 years of service to the city starting in March 1982. Cardiff Bus scheduled two Ailsas, 408 (NDW408X) and 436 (A436VNY) to run a number of duplicate services on a large variety of routes. All Volvos with the exception of three, have now passed onto new owners with: 407 and 436 with the Cardiff Transport Preservation group; 404 and 419 with members of the Rhymney Valley Transport Preservation Society that were both sold to and scrapped by Edwards Coaches

Controversy
Cardiff Bus's dominant position has sometimes come in for criticism and investigation. In 2004, 2Travel, a company operating significant numbers of school contract services in South Wales, launched low-cost services in Cardiff and Swansea to utilise its stock between the school runs. In both cases, the low fares were achieved by omitting the major bus stations, thereby avoiding hefty access fees. While the services were mostly ignored by First Cymru, Cardiff Bus launched a basic service in competition with 2Travel, using white buses bearing no livery (displaying only the operator address as required) also stopping short of the bus station. The Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation in 2007 into claims of "predatory behaviour" 18 months after 2Travel had ceased the service and gone into liquidation.

In July 2010, Cardiff Bus' Managing Director, David Brown had to resign after a damning report from three tribunal judges into the driving out of business of 2Travel. In the ruling, the judges said "The report said: “We reject as untruthful Mr Brown’s evidence that he was not involved in the preparations for the Cardiff Bus White Service. We find that he was fully involved, together with (former MD) Mr (Alan) Kreppel and others, and that this involvement did not begin with his appointment as managing director or even managing director designate – he was in from the beginning. ”

The judgement concluded: “We find that Cardiff Bus’ behaviour is only consistent with that of an organisation that had deliberately decided to disregard the law and that this conduct was in cynical disregard of 2Travel’s rights.

“Inevitably, this involves rejecting much of the evidence given by Mr Brown as untrue.

“This is a case where Cardiff Bus’ conduct has been outrageous and where, absent of an award of exemplary damages, a compensatory award would be insufficient. "