No Pain, No Gain

What has non-deregulated Northern Ireland and competitive Bournemouth have in common? Read on…

With less than 40 days to the launch of Wilts & Dorset’s revised network along its south coast, management will be holding its collective nerve. Major changes always come with minor problems. Such problems shouldn’t be an obstacle to change, when you know that change is right.

But you know that trouble's around the corner with statements from W&D such, as planners "regret and have to accept that the changes will not benefit everyone" and "an airline or ferry company would not be expected to provide scheduled services that were more or less empty." A hint that not everyone will be happy.

And neither will the media. They will pick up only the negatives – witness W&D's Pulseline and TWM in Coventry.

There’s plenty of evidence, however, to suggest that positive changes such as W&D’s will lead to significant growth. We rarely mention Northern Ireland here, but Belfast’s changes are a prime example, following Translink’s Metro operation.

If anyone feels that the British bus industry should revert to a regulated network similar to that before 1986, Northern Ireland may make them think twice. Northern Ireland was never deregulated, still refers to its bus services as “stage carriage”, and has a history of decline and lack of innovation – until now.

When in 1973 the Belfast Corporation Transport transferred to the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company as Citybus (and from 1995 as Translink), the network was deeply affected by the height of the troubles in the province. Even though the security situation eased after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, a lack of both investment and innovation saw to it that the network withered on a spectacular scale.

The rebranding of Citybus as Metro a year ago plus a simplified 12 key arterial route all low floor network with different routes, times and termini, saw passenger increases of over six per cent in the first three months alone. Growth continued. Passengers liked what they saw. And they used it more.

So that was the gain. But the pain? In spite of its success, there was a doubling of complaints. Said a spokesman even before the 2005 launch, “We acknowledge that with any major change it will take time for our passengers to gain confidence in the new system.” Translink also held its nerve.