The fourth Goldline service from Stagecoach launches later today, in Cheltenham. Stagecoach likes to innovate and it's perhaps surprising that it has taken so long for it to extend the Goldline pilot, the most previous being in February this year with the original two in 2007. In fact, the whole Goldline concept’s now been rebranded Stagecoach Gold. The addition sees double decks for the first time where otherwise there are single decks and Solo minibuses.
The new timetable is living proof that congestion costs bus operators dearly. Stagecoach West as taken the unusual step of providing two separate Monday to Friday timetables for the 10-minute Gold 94 service from Cheltenham to Gloucester. One’s for term time and the other for school holidays. The latter saves two peak vehicles while the former sees peak journey times between the two towns increase by up to 10 minutes, lengthening the amount of time passengers will be indulging themselves in Golden on-board leather by about a quarter. Apart from the revenue costs associated with a higher than necessary peak vehicle requirement, there’s the capital cost in excess of £300,000, for two extra Scania/ADLs that could otherwise be saved.
... and afterwards, Stagecoach Gold, complete with help from the airbrush
The longer journey times are probably not such a good advertisement for a top-flight bus service but at least Stagecoach is being honest about something well outside its control. Frequency is maintained and departures from the termini are constant but running time between the two timetables is differential, which may lead to a little confusion.
7 comments:
Separate timetables for school and non-school times - a sensible move.
In my opinion, the single most important thing that puts people off travelling by bus is unreliability.
If the bus always turned up and got to the destination at the timetabled time , they would be happy - never mind low floors, garish branding, leather seats etc etc.
I can't believe elementary market research doesn't show this.
So any moves to tackle basic reliability should be applauded and encouraged.
The stagecoachgoldline.com site is still the same as it was, and doesn't show the Cheltenham 94.
Only stagecoachgold.com does.
How hard is it for a huge company to redirect a website adress?
Anon - Why would the Goldline site show the 94 - it's not a Goldline service ?
Will the S2 Oxford to Witney/Carterton service be shown on the Gold website, as it is utilising the 5 Scanias originally ordered for the 94U but moved away following withdrawal of funding by the University.
Because it is clear that Stagecoach have changed the brand name from "Goldline" to "Stagecoach Gold", as the blog post says.
Both sites are exactly the same, except the Stagecoach Gold one includes the 94. The Stagecoach Gold site includes all of the other original "Goldine" services.
So it must be a mistake, surely?
Maybe you're right Anon - anyone looking for one of the three Goldline routes should just be re-directed to the StagecoachGold website; however I don't see anything wrong with leaving the original site live until the actual vehicles and printed publicity on the ground is rebranded.
Stagecoach have really excelled themselves with vehicle interiors of late - although Gold vehicles rightly receive a lot of attention, the high backed seats used on some other recent double deck deliveries (such as the Trident Enviro 400s at Fife and the Scania Enviro 400s on the Liverpool to Preston X2)really are extremely comfortable, absolutely spot on for longer inter-urban journeys in my opinion.
Yesterday's launch of Gold 94 provided an interesting reaction from the public. Intermixed with the new vehicles were services run by preserved vehicles with Class VI MOT. A former Cheltenham District FSF and Bath Services LD were two which were last seen in service in the area on another Stagecoach operating day some years ago. Ordinary passengers seemed happy to be able to ride on these vehicles but jokingly commenting as to whether they were what were meant by new buses. There was certainly awareness that an upgraded service was about to arrive, and every stop had been branded in advance.
The question of different timetables for term and holiday times does seem sensible as there is such a difference in traffic. This is something that would be recognised by most people living in the area and using the services. However, what to me is a major omission, there is nowhere in the timetable that defines when the term dates are, and if half-term holidays are included or not. The same situation applies to the sister timetable for 94U/94X, except that they differ according to university term dates which may well be different. It is presumably known within Stagecoach when these dates will be so why not tell the passengers?
Dennis Dash (13Sep 1930)comments about the comfort of the seats. A number of separate comments that I heard were that they were too high and, particularly towards the back of the upper deck, made a forward view very difficult. The 94 is a nine mile route with frequent stops and a fair amount of intermediate traffic so it remains to be seen if they are the most appropriate type of seating or not.
The MANs at Aldershot are terrible to see out of. The seats are high so you can't see in front of you, which is escpeically a problem as the Enviro300 has a large area at the back where all the seats are at the same height. Also, the back seats are really high, the windows lower down so you can't see out the side either!
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