In the early and middle years of the 20th century, the reason the motor bus beat the tram was the bus’ flexibility. As early tram systems came to the point where they required significant capital investment to replace tired assets & infrastructure; and as cities and towns expanded into the suburbs beyond traditional tram termini, buses seemed the natural successor and substitute.
Do they really say this in Nottingham?
Everything turned on its head as the congestion caused by the very flexibility of the road system played against bus operation. There followed the reinvention of the tram: Manchester Metrolink in 1991, Sheffield Supertram (1994), Midland Metro (1999) and Croydon Tramlink (2000).
And, of course, there’s the Nottingham Express Transit which, after five years of operation, will from 1 June face motor bus competition from Dunn Motor Traction t/a Your Bus. Just like in the olden days, YourBus makes a virtue of flexibility. Its publicity states, “As we don't run on tracks, we can stop at any bus stop along our routes, making it more convenient for you”. The service is also cheaper than the tram (and other buses). And, when compared to Nottingham City Transport buses, Your Bus offers the flexibility of giving change. But, them again, so did Nottingham & District.All this is not to say Your Bus will find it an easy ride. Over Your Bus’ 10-minute core, it runs from Bulwell to Nottingham via Basford & Hyson Green. This compares to a tram at 5-6 minutes intervals and NCT buses 68-71 combined at every five. Your Bus also serves Phoenix Park park & ride but at every 20 minutes compared to the tram’s 10-12.
But Your Bus doesn’t follow the 68-71 Nottingham Road/Sherwood Rise arterial into Nottingham. Instead, Your Bus travels along roads served far less frequently, also part served by NET. It’s here, no doubt, that NET passengers struggle to find a seat, for Your Bus makes a virtue of offering room for struggling tram passengers.i Your Bus website
9 comments:
Do they really say "ey up me duck" in Nottingham.
Well, they certainly do in Chesterfield (Derbys).
And they sort of do in Stoke.
Yes, they do say "ey up me duck" in Nottingham. It's quite a popular term in the North, it's you Southerners that talk funny...
I think feelings about NET are still very mixed in Nottingham, and Yourbus are certainly exploiting this. Bring it on, I say - I like having the choice.
Well they've certainly made an impressive effort with the website. It will be very interesting to see how this goes.
Two things do strike me though.
1) That the fares look very low indeed. To make things stack up at those prices they will surely need to do a roaring trade. Will people desert the established bus routes and, particularly, the tram in sufficent numbers?
2) I'm very surprised at just how early the service winds down and finishes in the evening, especially in light of the comprehensive all day service provided by the competition.
We shall see...
The main weekday PVR appears to be 6 - three on the 81 and three on the 82, with around a mere 4 mins recovery time at their northernmost termini. Will this be enough I wonder? Will they have a 7th vehicle and driver on hand to drop in, should congestion be such that buses run more than 4 minutes late?
They've certainly got the transport blogging fraternity talking about their new venture, so they're doing something right in terms of publicity. Any we know what this blog thinks about operators who are prepared to have blogs and Facebook profiles for their businesses....
lol, yeah, i presume the elusive mr/mrs (u never know!) busing will be out with his/her camera on 29 may!
One issue is that when there has been substantial public sector investment in public transport, such as NET, there is always the possibility that some certain sorts of operator will come along and try to compete on price, creaming off at busy times. Whilst in free market terms this may be desirable, it does little for the image of public transport in the eyes of the general public.
As has been mentioned above, this appears to be a lower-quality operation (in terms of the lack of recovery time and operating hours), but using the web to provide slick publicity.
It will be interesting to see if this service is still there in 2 years' time. I am sure the tram will be.
ey up me duck,, im a lancashire lad and im sure that would go well with a wigan lunch,, a pie on a barm,, definatley not nottingham language
yourbus are doing quite well at moment,in particular as there are none of the usual nct/council bullyboy tactics that are normally employed towards a private operator in nottingham,no blocking of stops,buses supposed broken down in bulwell for 6 hours or so,no so called extras flooding the road but there again nct will only harrass such operators as bellamy on the routemaster service,who only had three buses running mon-fri,and two on saturdays and nct flooded the arnold road with extra 58s..nct will not take on a operator who will not be intididated such as trent,or in the case of yourbus whose parent company owns bus companies all over the country,no its about time the council owned nct has to accept other bus operators in nottingham. for example manchester where the big and small operators work well along side each other,its about time nottingham was the same as the rest of the uk,and stopped this protected attitude that no one is allowed to operate local bus services in nottingham except nottingham city transport anonymous
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