Evaluation of the Use and Non-Use Benefits of Public Transport: Report Number 2 – Application of the Method.

In this paper, we present results of a survey designed to discover the value people place on the retention of a bus service. The survey consisted of two parts; a travel diary, and a follow-up interview designed to explore respondents' reactions to removal of the bus services and the willingness to pay for its retention. The survey was undertaken in two contrasting areas: Hawksworth, in Leeds, a low income area of predominantly Council housing and Rainow, in Cheshire, a village with high car and home ownership. Most respondents in Hawksworth were regular bus users; the reverse was the case in Rainow.

Typically, it appeared that bus users enjoy a consumer surplus on their journeys of the order of 100% with a higher value for the small number of work journeys in Rainow. Non-use values appear to be very significant, with a higher valuation amongst non-users than users. On average, residents were willing to pay some 60 pence per week to preserve the route as a whole. In Hawksworth, the corresponding values were 50 pence for the specific route serving the estate, and 75 pence for the network as a whole. It was generally agreed that services to workplaces, shops, schools and medical facilities were the highest priority, with weekday peak and weekday busy time services taking priority over Saturdays, evening and Sundays. In terms of priority groups, pensioners were always ranked first; in general these were followed by the unemployed and children; non-users in Hawksworth however ranked the unemployed last.

The practical use of these results will be considered in a further project looking at actual and potential ways for ranking services for subsidy.