Agenda and minutes

Councillor Kevin Greaves – non Council business

None

Last meeting held on 10 June 2014 (for confirmation)

The Committee confirmed the minutes of the meeting held on 10 June 2014 as a correct record and they were signed by the Chair.

Report of Director of Nottingham Express Transit

Phil Hewitt, from Tramlink Nottingham, presented the report, updating the Committee of NET Line One performance, up to 20 August 2014, highlighting the following:

(a)  during the three month period from May to the end of July 2014, the average reliability achieved by the tram service was 99% with 97% punctuality achieved. The overall operational performance of Line One is good with the service now back to delivering 6 trams per hour with no cancellations;

(b)  since its introduction, the off-tram ticketing system is performing well overcoming initial problems associated with out of date County concessionary cards and non-smart Kangeroo cards. Both issues for concern were dealt with within one month of the system going live. It appears that season ticket smart card holders were not adequately notified of the change to the requirements to validate their cards. This initial oversight has since been rectified by the system administrators and efforts were made to contact users via all options available. Concessionary tickets should be validated every time a journey is made and the analysis of current statistics show that the vast majority of users now understand what they are required to do in order to travel on the system;

(c)  following a period where NET revenue protection staff issued warning notices to passengers without tickets, penalty fares were introduced on 23 June 2014 and since then 1050 notices have been issued out of 1,100,000 journeys made. Fare evasion by detection is currently being reported between 1% and 2%;

(d)  figures show that since the introduction of penalty fares the average rate of issue of Penalty Fare Notices has fallen from around 32 per day to around 12 per day, highlighting passengers’ increasing awareness of the change in requirements;

(e)  of the 1050 penalty fares issued 200 have appealed and been upheld. An independent appeals process has been put in place which gives a robust assessment of the system. It is important to note that not every ticket is checked however, the percentage of tickets checked represents a significant number therefore it is safe to make a robust judgement upon these figures. Statistics show that there is 99% awareness amongst tram users of the ticketing requirements which represents both a great achievement and a great level of understanding;

(f)  the Revenue Protection Staff work across the whole day across the network and utilise intelligence to locate those without a fare, there is no set pattern to when the system is targeted;

Following comments and question from the Committee, the following information was highlighted:

(g)  the overall off-tram ticketing has been successful in that new users to the system have managed adequately. It is often the case that citizens travelling to a city for the first time will establish the rules before arriving. Nottingham and Sheffield aside, the general perception of tram travel is that you would not expect to see conductors on board but fully operational ticket machines and anecdotal evidence has demonstrated this;

(h)  Tramlink will attend universities fresher’s fares to raise awareness of the scheme and the requirements for ticketing. Liaising with students at this stage is considered the most appropriate most cost effective for them;

(i)  Line One upgrades include the implementation of a new radio system which will be fully operational on both Citadis and Incentro trams. The new Automatic Vehicle Location System has now been commissioned for use on Line One and is progressively being activated on the Incentro trams. New passenger displays are being rolled out across Line One and work is currently taking place to upgrade the Wilkinson Street depot with a switchover to the new SCADA power management system due to take place week commencing 25 August;

(j)  following the successful verification of all safety requirements, the delivery of the new Citadis trams has now resumed following a break over the summer. The final tram is due to be delivered on 6 October 2014;

(k)  the new tram lift to be installed at the Station site will provide access to all floors of the Station via a lift to the concourse. This will provide disabled access to all platforms of the Station;

(l)  if sufficient feedback is received around perceived discrepancies in the timetable and frequency of trams, Tramlink will endeavour to investigate. For example, members of the public can be assured that the new service to the Queen’s Medical Centre will match shift patterns to meet and satisfy service demands;

RESOLVED to note the contents of the report.

Report of Director of Nottingham Express Transit

Andrew Holdstock, Senior Project Engineer at Nottingham City Council, presented the report informing the Committee that since the last meeting three letters from members of the public, all of which relate to the receipt of penalty fare notices, had

been received. The following information was highlighted during the discussion:

(a)  the penalty fare is £50 however, anybody issued with such notice has the right of appeal under a three stage process. Given that the system is relatively new and still bedding in, the operator will review any penalty fares that are appealed to ensure that, where passengers have demonstrated a reasonable explanation for not having a valid ticket or a pass, the penalty is waived;

(b)  correspondent A was issued with a penalty fare notice on 23 June for not having validated her card before boarding the tram. Having appealed against the notice and, following rejection of the appeal at the first stage, she appealed again and was successful. She has subsequently raised a procedural concern that she had not received instructions on how to validate her card before boarding;

(c)  correspondent B was issued with a penalty fare as she was found not to have a valid ticket. She was an irregular user who had previously purchased a ticket directly from a conductor on board. Two letters of appeal have been submitted by the correspondent, both of which have been rejected;

(d)  correspondent C was unable to produce a ticket when requested to do so by staff because he was unaware that a new ticketing policy had been introduced and was expecting to buy a ticket from a conductor. Correspondent C appealed claiming that there was insufficient signage at the tram stop, however this has been rejected.

Following questions and comments from the Committee, the following information was provided:

(e)  a careful balance is to be struck when showing discretion to passengers who may have already purchased a valid card but failed to validate it prior to their journey. The three stage appeals process is in place in recognition of the fact that the process can be stressful for passengers and this eradicates inconsistencies;

(f)  the Committee can be assured that Revenue Protection Staff are directed to deal with cases sensitively and politely and cases to the contrary will be investigated fully;

(g)  the Committee need to be satisfied that appropriate customer care is being taken when dealing with the issue of penalty notices. In response to the letters, the Committee might agree to review undertaking and assure members of the public that they are confident in the robustness of the systems in place.

RESOLVED to respond to correspondent A, B and C with the following:

The Committee has noted the robustness of the appeals process and is confident in its principles but recognises that improvements can be made in relaying information to service users, particularly regarding validating tickets and the importance of having compassionate staff. The Committee has asked Tramlink and the operators to look at these areas but is confident that these areas will be picked up by a robust appeals process.