About Stagecoach South West

Key facts May 2016 – April 2017

• 32.3 million passenger journeys 
• 21.8 million miles operated 
• 968 employees 
• 340 vehicles 
• 99.2% reliability 
• 95.5% punctuality 

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Our passengers

We carried a total of 32.3 million passengers over the year, an increase of 0.7% over the previous year, largely due to the introduction of our new services in Plymouth and the South West Falcon part way through the previous year. Like-for-like passengers were however down by 4.77%.

We received a total of 4297 passenger complaints about our services. That equates to one complaint per 7534 passengers. We always meet our industry's code of practice, and investigate every complaint we get. These complaints are always fixed and logged to prevent them happening again.

Our staff

We're a major local employer and currently have: 

• 797 drivers 
• 113 engineers and cleaners 
• 58 supervisors managers and administration staff 
• 9 apprentices 

 We heavily invest in our staff's training. Our drivers have all completed the first five stages of their Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC). 

 Our supervisors and managers have all completed their necessary training courses.

Our services

We operated a total of 21.8 million miles over the year, an increase of 19.5% over the previous year, largely due to the introduction of our new services in Plymouth and the South West Falcon part way through the previous year. Like-for-like mileage had reduced by 5.36%.

Our key measure of performance is the reliability and punctuality of our services. In the past year, we operated 99.2% of our scheduled services, with 0.68% failure due to internal reasons and 0.17% due to external reasons such as congestion or diversions.

We monitor our services for punctuality and 95.5% of our services operated within 5 minutes of their scheduled time, traffic congestion again being the main reason for delay. We continue to seek improvements both through rescheduling services and in discussions with our local highway authorities.

The year saw further investment to raise the profile of our Hop branded routes, which connect some of the key tourist destinations along the South Devon coast. Newer buses were cascaded and allocated to routes 2 and 22, and were repainted in bespoke liveries featuring stunning photographic imagery of the sights to be found along the each route on the rears.

Our fares

We offer value for money bus fares and bus ticket options including standard single and return fares and unlimited travel zone tickets.

We also have a range of special tickets for Exeter University students, young people and jobseekers.

We increased fares once during the year, by an average of 6.2%. The increase reflects rising costs in pay, fuel and insurance and reduced public sector investment. It also

helps us to provide further investment in new vehicles, plant and equipment. This was the first increase to many fares in two years and, in some cases, in four years.

We have also simplified the North Devon and Torbay ticket structures to a small number of single fares plus day and season tickets.

Our fleet

We operate a fleet of 340 buses and coaches. Following our investment of £13m in new vehicles across the previous financial year, this year we invested £2.5m in 10 new double
deckers for route 1 connecting Exeter with Cullompton and Tiverton, complete with leather-style high back seats and free passenger WiFi.

Initiatives with our existing fleet included:

• Allocating newer buses to our Hop2 and Hop22 routes, complete with bespoke liveries
• Converting six double deckers to open tops for our new Hop122 summer service in Torbay

All of our fleet is low floor to provide easy access for the elderly, disabled and buggies.  

Servicing our buses 

The safety of our customers is paramount. Our vehicles are inspected at least once every three weeks, and maintained to much higher standards than the law requires. 

Every vehicle is cleaned daily and the average age of our vehicles is 6.9 years old. 

Free Wi-Fi

We have free WiFi on the following services:

• South West Falcon
• Gold bus routes
• E/F1/F2 (Exeter)
• Red Park & Ride (Exeter)
• Hop12 (Torbay - Newton Abbot)
• Service 1 (Exeter - Tiverton)
• Majority of our Plymouth network.

USB charging is also available on our Gold 57, Hop12 and Falcon routes.

Our environment

We used 12.4 million gallons of diesel last year, at an average of 7.79 miles per gallon. 

We are working to improve fuel consumption through technical measures, and all our drivers have completed a safe and fuel-efficient driving course. 

Our Ecodriver system is installed on all of our vehicles and provides drivers with real-time feedback on their driving style, reducing accidents and improving fuel consumption. 

Our buses also have an Automatic Vehicle Location  (AVL) system on board which allows us to manage our services more effectively on a day-to-day basis.

An annual bonus scheme rewards drivers for consistent ‘green’ driving and, if required, additional training and support is provided. 

All our fleet runs on low sulphur diesel, with a high-tech additive Envirox to reduce pollution and improve fuel consumption. 

Vehicle engines must meet increasingly higher Euro standards of exhaust emissions. 100% of our fleet meets at least the Euro 3 standard  and, out of that, 63% is Euro5 or above.

We recycle most of our waste, such as litter, used oils, filters, batteries, parts, etc. We also recycle the water we use to wash our vehicles every night.

This year was another busy time for the South West, including the relocation of our largest depot in Exeter from the City Centre to Matford Park.

This took place in September 2016 and not only delivered brand new, purpose built facilities but also an innovative dual use scheme – the first of its kind in the UK – with a section of the site operating as park and ride car park during the day and parking for buses overnight. This allows two completely different operations to work seamlessly alongside each other. In partnership with Devon County Council the scheme won the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) Award for Innovation.

Spring 2017 saw the extension of the Hop brand onto a new open top bus service, the Golden Hop. The six buses serve the English Riviera, one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations, augmenting the local network from Easter to October.

As well as linking destinations and attractions, the service is an attraction in itself: it provides a unique sightseeing experience and each bus features a distinct livery with its very own ‘Bus Hopper’ animal character.

It also builds on the strong relationship Stagecoach has with local tourism businesses. Passengers are given free ‘passports’ to help them find the characters which are hosted at attractions along the route. Once found, they can collect a free sticker and the attraction benefits from increased footfall.

As well as new initiatives, work continued on building and promoting the Falcon with brand recognition and patronage growing month on month. A significant milestone was reached in January 2017 with the service carrying its 150,000th passenger, less than a year after launch.

The year also saw the South West continue in its digital transformation with the launch of a journey planning app in September and mobile ticketing for day and week tickets in January and April 2017 respectively.