A Little Clarity

Could it be that there’s emerged a little clarity on the vexed issue of bus services over 50km?

The industry’s held its collective breath to see how VOSA might enforce the 50km EU rule that means bus operators need a tachograph and separately-rostered drivers to undertake longer bus routes. We’ve argued here and here and here that there was little sense in loading the industry with the additional cost burdens of a less favourable drivers’ hours regime and the administration associated with checking and keeping tachograph records. The result was that a number of operators (notably it has to be said Wilts & Dorset ) simply withdraw virtually all their longer distance services, usually by chopping them up.

In June, VOSA published an article in its ‘Moving On’ newsletter that gave some sort of clarification. The main clarification from VOSA concerns connecting ‘through’ services. VOSA will consider a connecting yet ‘through’ service when the same vehicle is subsequently used on another route with the same driver but the two routes must not be advertised as a through service (although they may be advertised as connecting services, and therefore passengers wishing to continue may do so without leaving the vehicle and through tickets may be issued).

One wonders why everyone had to get hot under the collar about this in the first place. Such clarification might’ve been useful at the time the rules changed.

But, can the first journey from A to B show what is effectively a final destination of C if it carries directly on from B to C, so that passengers at A understand it operates through? That is, can a bus from Salisbury to Pewsey and Pewsey to Swindon show Swindon as a connection to passengers boarding at Salisbury bus station? This still remains unclear.