Translink said in their annual report that they had 77 million passenger journeys.
I’m sending an FOI request into Translink to ask some questions that I think need answering.
Dear Translink,
I would appreciate some information about the operation of your services.
According to your 2010/11 Annual Report, on page 59, it seems to say that you have 1,469 buses and 34 trains.
- can you clarify if this is correct and whether I have interpreted the figures correctly?
- can you clarify the breakdown of vehicles between Metro, Ulsterbus, Enterprise and other services?
Can you clarify how many seats you have across all of your services:
- how many of these buses are single decker and how many are double decker?
- how many seats are there on each of these bus types?
According to your 2010/11 Annual Report, you claim 77 million passenger journeys. Can you clarify the following:
- can you provide a breakdown of the time of day for these journeys?
- What percentage were before 9 am?
- What percentage were between 9 am and 5 pm?
- What percentage were between 9 am and 7 pm?
- What percentage were after 7 pm?
- can you provide a customer profile for these journeys?
- What percentage of these journeys were subsidised fares due to the traveller being pensioned, possessing an ELB pass other concessions due to low income, disability or unemployment?
- What percentage of these journeys used monthly or annual ticket arrangements to reduce costs?
- What percentage of these journeys paid full price?
- can you provide a regional profile for these journeys?
- by county, how many of these journeys originated in each of the counties of Northern Ireland?
- by county, what percentage of their journeys attracted a concessionary or subsidised fare (see above)?
- by county, what was the approximate revenue obtained from each county?
- And with special reference to Derry~Londonderry, can you provide the following information?
- by timetable, how many individual buses and trains service Derry~Londonderry?
- by timetable, how many inbound and outbound journeys are there servicing Derry~Londonderry?
- how many of the 77 million passenger journeys were attributed to the Derry~Londonderry region?
- by occupancy, can you define the percentage usage of the buses and trains servicing Derry~Londonderry?
Many thanks for your patience.
As I said earlier, my aim is to piece information to create a business case for the following pilot –
- free buses and train transport in the North West from 1st Jan – 31st December 2013
- free buses and train transport for anyone outside the North West travelling TO Derry/Londonderry from 1st Jan – 31st December 2013
All of this in support of UK City of Culture 2013.
You have to start somewhere.
Did you ever get a reply?
Yup.
ULSTERBUS
Total vehicles = 1,172 (includes 45 not in service – Reserve Fleet)
Single deck = 1,017
Double deck = 155
METRO
Total vehicles = 297 (includes 15 not in service – Reserve Fleet)
Single deck = 150
Double deck = 147
In relation to seating capacity, this varies depending on the vehicle make and specification, of which we have many permutations. However I can provide some representative statistics, i.e.
ULSTERBUS
Single deck total seating available = 47,227, total standing = 13,318 (based on average capacity for single deck vehicle of 46 seated, 13 standing).
Double deck total seating available = 11,562, total standing = 900 (based on average capacity for double deck vehicle of 75 seated, 6 standing).
Single and double deck combined total seating available = 58,789, total standing = 14,218 (based on average capacity for single and double deck vehicles combined = 50 seated, 12 standing).
METRO
Single deck total seating available = 6,576, total standing = 4,032 (based on average capacity for single deck vehicle of 44 seated, 27 standing).
Double deck total seating available =11,127, total standing = 1,504 (based on average capacity for double deck vehicle of 76 seated, 10 standing).
Single and double deck combined total seating available = 17,703, total standing = 5,536 (based on average capacity for single and double deck combined of 60 seated, 19 standing).
NIR
NI Railways’ operational rolling stock of 34 is made up of:
23 Class 3000
9 Class 450/80
2 Enterprise loco haul trains
Your query does not specifically mention seats available on trains, however for completeness I have included this information.
Enterprise: 363 (including 2 tip-up seats per train), totalling 726 seats
Class 3000: 200 (including 15 tip-up seats per train), totalling 4,600 seats
Class 450: 184 per train, totalling 1,656 seats
The foregoing represents a total number of 6,982 seats across the various vehicles identified.
We do not record passenger journey statistics by time of day, however, I can offer the following breakdown of passenger journeys (‘000’s) during 2010/11:
Local rail = 9,604
Cross-border rail = 747
Ulsterbus = 40,778
Metro = 25,843
In relation to the customer profile for the journeys made during 2010/11, we can advise that:
Local rail = 19.6% of passengers in possession of a concessionary pass (including child concessions)
Cross-border rail = 14.7% of passengers in possession of a concessionary pass (excluding child concessions)
Ulsterbus = 27.53% of passengers in possession of a concessionary pass (including child concessions)
Metro = 23.33% of passengers in possession of a concessionary pass (including child concessions)
A more detailed overview of the ticketing arrangements used by passengers shows:
Local rail = Annual 5.6%
= Monthly 15.2%
= Weekly 12.1%
= Return 30.4%
= Single 13.4%
= Other* 23.3%
*Includes, amongst others, Day Tracker
Free Smartcards (Senior, 60+, Disabled, etc.)
Local 50% off Smartcards (Blind, DLA, War Pensioner, etc.)
iLink
mLink (3 day flexi)
Ulsterbus = Annual 0.44%
= Return 18.70%
= Singles 34.26%
= Smartlink/ilink 14.82%
= Other* 31.78%
Metro = Annual 0.24%
= Return 0.22%
= Singles 27.87%
= Smartlink/ilink 21.39%
= Other* 50.28%
*Includes, amongst others, Day Tickets
Free Smartcards (Senior, 60+, Disabled, etc.)
Local 50% off Smartcards (Blind, DLA, War Pensioner, etc.)
The foregoing analysis of passenger profiles excludes Education & Library Board pupils’ passes.
Unfortunately we would not have the wherewithal to provide a regional profile of this patronage.
Dealing with your query regarding bus and rail services to Londonderry~Derry, there are currently 116 rail services accessing Waterside station weekly, i.e. 58 in each direction. There were also 385 bus services to/from the Maiden City, 196 to Derry and 189 from Derry.
Up-to-date timetable information is readily available on Translink’s website http://www.translink.co.uk.
Of the 77m passenger journeys quoted for 2010/11, 1,476,930 were rail passenger journeys made on the Londonderry line. Ulsterbus passengers making the journey to/from Derry totalled 2,512,794.
Again, we would not be in a position to analyse percentage usage of buses and trains servicing Derry~Londonderry.
Thanks. Interesting data, not sure what it means just yet! 🙂