The Confederation of Passenger Transport UK (CPT) commissioned report The Role of the Coach in the Economy estimated coach-based tourism is worth £262m per annum to the London economy and supports the full-time equivalent of 5,090 jobs.
When it comes to coaches taking groups to the theatre, it was found in a MORI survey in 1997 that 8 % travelled by private-hire coach, 8 % by taxi, and only 6% by London bus. So what makes me think that London, through all sections of its management, has an anti-coach mentality?
Off-street coach parking
If you go back to the now-defunct Greater London Council, which was responsible for making it possible for London local authorities to impose a ban on coaches, you find one of its conditions was that the local authority had, as part of the agreement, to provide off-street parking.
Almost every London authority did this and there were coach/lorry parks all over London. What the GLC did not do was insist that this condition must continue after legislation was brought in.
The result has been a gradual decline in offstreet coach parks to the point where in the next few years there will be only two left (accommodating about 30 coaches in total). When one London borough chief executive was recently questioned on the subject, his response was that a coach park could be provided only if it paid for itself.
if the twenty-four hour price for parking a coach was £200, it would not pay for itself, because of land values in London. The long-term view has to be taken, with its benefits to employment and the local economy.
Parking at new hotels/ tourist attractions
Although the majority of London hotels rely on coach groups, particularly at off-peak times, and tourist attractions are only too happy to have 50 people paying to enter, when it comes to consideration of the vehicle that brings them they put their heads in the sand. CPT is regularly opposing planning permission, on the grounds that, contrary to the comments made, coach groups will be an essential part of the customer base and must be accommodated. However, local authorities show little enthusiasm to force the issue and then complain about the coaches causing a nuisance a few years later.
Setting down/picking up
Coaches, because of their moderate cost and their advantage in keeping groups together, carry a high proportion of vulnerable groups, such as: 1) Schoolchildren, who need close supervision 2) The elderly, who can no longer drive
3) The less mobile, who may not qualify for the Blue (formerly Orange) Badge but who cannot walk more than 100 metres
4) Tourists from England and abroad, who come
Welcome to westminster says the sign...
The Confederation of Passenger Transport's Coaching Consultant Bob Pilbeam analyses the crisis facing operators who seek coach parking places in the capital
to London only because they can tour the city under supervision
5) Women's groups, the members of which believe there is security in being with other
likeminded people
6 People who would not visit London if they had to use trains or buses
The luxury coach is also being used more and more by companies from around the world for
conferences and conventions, where company identity and team building are essential
features.
But where are the facilities or legislation to allow these coaches to meet the groups at
hotels or venues? It is true that the Cromwell Road, Euston Road, London Eye and North
Southwark have twenty-minute bays, but what about the majority of hotels which have space
for the cab rank but not the coach?
It is not the coach driver's fault that the hotel is where it is. Local bylaws allow for
coaches to "set down and pick up, taking as long as is necessary to do so".
These bylaws do not allow for early coach arrivals because traffic was lighter than
expected, or delayed departure because a 75 year-old tourist from Texas has taken a long
time visiting the toilets and is late.
Therefore, drivers are running their engines unnecessarily to prove to parking attendants
that they are about to leave, or are driving round the block, causing more congestion and
fumes but breaking no laws.
Recent examples of where the coach is positively discriminated against:
1) CPT has been lobbying Westminster Council for kerb space near Aldwych for coaches to
setdown/pick-up theatre groups. Little headway has been made but, when a new central
London bus called ECO bus was commissioned, three bus stand bays were provided with no
difficulty
3) When a hotel near Victoria was surrounded by Red Routes, no provision was made for coaches serving the hotels, despite representation, but a cab rank was provided even though cab drivers only use it for parking while they go for refresh-' ments
4) When the pedestrianisation of the North side of Trafalgar Square was proposed it was acknowledged in the early report that tourist coaches would have to be accommodated. After a few years and much debate coaches have been reluctantly squeezed in after local buses, taxis, cyclists and open-top tours have been considered
5) The Pool of London which includes The London Dungeon, HMS Belfast, Hayes Galleria, Britain at War, Southwark Cathedral, Tower Bridge and the viewing gallery from Ken Livingstone's new offices will have just three setdown/pick-up bays plus a proposal to close the coach park
Integrated transport
As part of the move towards encouraging people to use public transport more, the Government is encouraging "seamless" transport. However, this does not appear to apply to groups which travel by train from, for example, Paris or Edinburgh.
1) Waterloo Station has excellent bus and taxi facilities but the coach has to fight for space with cars and see passengers go through something like an assault course to reach the coach and pay for the privilege, while taxis and buses do not
2) Euston has excellent bus and taxi facilities but Rail Track and London Buses refuse to let them use their premises, hence the coach driver has to hope the group finds him when he parks on the highway
3) Victoria and Paddington are not as busy, but also have no facilities
The driver's dilemma
1) He is only going where the tourist group wants him to go
2) He is strictly bound by drivers' hours regulations but has nowhere to stop other than at coach meter bays, which are normally full of foreign coaches that have nowhere else to go, or a coach park that often charges a day rate rather than an hourly rate
The future
Being an optimist I believe that Transport for London is keen to improve the lot of coaches and their passengers within the limited powers it has. First signs are good in that they are to pay for a new London Coach Park Map which CPT will prepare and, with London Buses which is part of TfL overseeing coach issues, things could improve but 1 personally won't get excited until any projects are up and working.