The Omnibuses team road-tested three recent initiatives to find Britain’s sexiest bus service: Liverpool’s "Le Bus", Harrogate’s "Route 36" and Bournemouth’s more.
Vivez la Légende
"Le Bus" is a suite of branded routes focusing on Liverpool and operated by Arriva North West & Wales. First routes were launched November 2003.
What we liked…
- Arriva promises to make no major timetable changes to these services for the five years to Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year, in 2008
- Continental feel – inkeeping with Capital of Culture. Drivers being trained to greet passengers in various foreign languages
- Good range of multi-modal network tickets (available to all operator via MPTE).
- A passenger commitment
- Usual bells & whistles… SLF, CCTV, good frequencies
And the downside?
- Could this product stand out from the crowd a little more?
__________
Into Leather?
Blazefield’s subsidiary Harrogate & District has upgraded and rebranded Service 36 between Harrogate and Leeds. Launched in spring 2004.
What we liked…
- Wow! factor buses – striking Eclipse Gemini deckers with equally stunning livery
- Business class" standards for all
- Double decks with leather seating upstairs, generous legroom throughout, and arm rests
- Good publicity.
And the downside?
- Why no return fares?
- Will the upper deck leather seating be durable in the long term?
- Sorry but one of the drivers had an attitude
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Want more?
Go-Ahead’s Wilts & Dorset has upgraded services 102-105 between Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch as more m1 and m2, and also between Poole and Canford Heath (m5, m6, m7). Luanched in December 2004.
What we liked…
- Bigger buses with better passenger environment
- Spacious and generous seat spacing and some single seating
- Decent seats and fabric – with the area’s towns and places of interest interwoven
- Air con
- Full scrolling digital destinations/route numbers front, side and back
- Excellent frequency
- Innovative branding
- Passengers able to see CCTV in operation.
And the downside?
- No ticket integration with competing Yellow Buses
__________
And Britain’s Sexiest? The winner is…
It was close. The pure cool of Harrogate & District’s Service 36 was hard to beat but more from Wilts & Dorset did it... just – by dint of the sheer scale of W&D's investment in the number of buses and the frequency of services.
