Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Naylor and Newcombe.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda, and/or indicate that Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Councillor Hall disclosed a non-prejudicial interest in Minute 7 as he was a holder of a First Leicester Season Ticket.

The officers outlined the Star Trak system and stated that the system had gone live in 2000 and had arisen from a proposal from the Quality Bus Partnership. The aim of the system was to try and encourage people to think of bus travel as a viable alternative to using a car.

In 2003 the local Star Trak system was expanded and Trent Barton joined the partnership and a partnership was established with Derby City Council. In 2004 an approach was made by Nottingham City Council to trial Star Trak on one route to allow them to make a comparison with their existing system, Star Trak was found to be the better system. Currently the local Star Trak partnership comprised 6 local authorities and 6 bus operators.

It was questioned whether the expansion of the system  had been at the expense of development in Leicester. Officers stated that no Local Transport Plan monies had been spent outside of Leicester or Leicestershire. Nottingham City Council had in effect funded the expansion of the central system whilst Derbyshire County Council had funded the GPRS transmitters and signs.

It was reported that there were a number of signs showing a dot rather than a time, and the scheduled wait times were constantly changing. Officers stated that these isues were often caused by equipment fitted to buses, or by buses allocated to certain routes that were not fitted with Star Trak equipment. A recovery strategy was put together in 2007 and locally First were working hard to clear faults on their buses. Arriva operate from a number of depots across the area and a number of electricians had been trained to deal with day to day faults, any hard to cure faults were dealt with by an area based electrician, the result being that Arriva had virtually cleared all faults.

The Task group were informed that with First Leicester some 80% of vehicles required for Star Trak routes were fitted with the necessary equipment, but because certain buses were not branded and could be used on any route it meant that certain buses without Star Trak equipment ended up on Star Trak routes. With Arriva, all vehicles required for Star Trak routes were fitted with the necessary equipment, with 95% of vehicles having equipment fitted and working. Kinch Bus at Loughborough had 100% of their vehicles required for Star Trak fitted with the equipment and working.

It was questioned how many Star Trak routes were operational locally and it was stated that there were 24 operated by Arriva and 12 by First.

Regarding faults with signs it was stated that signs were not able to report faults so that the Council relied on bus companies and the public to report these.

It was questioned what the effects were on bus usage as a result of the problems experienced with Star Trak in 2007. It was stated that bus usage was monitored as part of the Local Transport Plan and this information would be made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

It was agreed that the next meting of the Task group would be held at 1.00pm on Tuesday 18^th March 2008.

The Chair declared the meeting closed at 6.02pm.