Uninformed and Intolerant

The imminent arrival of Dorset’s first & solitary ex-London Mercedes Citaro articulated bus for use in the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation is provoking the selfish, uninformed and intolerant reaction you’d expect. Very few seem in favour. Very many don’t comprehend bus operations. At all.

At the W&D Citaro artic trial of September 2009

The bendy bus will from 11 January be introduced by the company that on Thursday won Bournemouth’s Transport Initiative of the Year 2009 award: Wilts & Dorset.

Honestly, it’s not as if the bus is designed to go regularly through the centre of Bournemouth or run in and out of Poole bus station. The intended route is orbital and the closest this gets to the town centre is Lansdowne.

Unilink U1 operates during term time and links Pokesdown, Boscombe, Lansdowne and Cranborne House with Bournemouth university’s Talbot campus (actually just in Poole borough). It runs half-hourly, with additional half-hourly shorts for the 10-minute journey from Cranborne House student residency. Under normal circumstances, it requires three buses, one of which will be a bendy. For the most part, we understand that the artic will operate on the shorts, to assist with loadings.

Generally, I haven’t the time to waste on reading pointed public comments on newspaper websites but in this case, I just couldn’t help myself. As expected, there were some ludicrous remarks, nearly all of which were prejudiced, opposing, ill conceived or, on occasion, badly written. Here’s a flavour, generally corrected for grammar, spelling & punctuation, where necessary:

“I can see the back end hitting loads of things, as they do in London.” They don’t, in London, or elsewhere.

“So, someone please explain the mentality of purchasing something that the only real existing user of is scrapping because it is a total disaster.” Bendies operate successfully in Cardiff, Manchester, Bury, Birmingham, Coventry...

“Considering that most of the buses only have a handful of passengers most of the time, why is a bigger one needed anyway.” Were this the case, why waste resources in providing more capacity? Even if for peak loadings, 36 weeks a year.

“They used to have a tendency to burst into flames.” Now rectified. Let’s hope no one realises that W&D already operates (rigid) Citaros.

“Couldn't they try something which won't result in more congestion/insurance payouts/court cases, like reintroducing conductors or an easy to understand flat fare for any journey?” Potty apart from flat fares, though there are commercial risks. W&D’s fares are certainly simpler than they were.

“Then they have to find some other gullible fools to take them. First stop, Bournemouth council.” This is a service under contract to Bournemouth University. OK, so up to 1992 as Dorset institute of higher education and as Bournemouth polytechnic, it was “controlled” by the local education authority, but no longer.

“Still, at least these buses may get a few of these pesky cyclists off the roads. They don't pay road tax you know.” Complete myth. Presumably, this commenter is referring to cyclists not paying “road tax” rather than bendies.

“If they can use bendy buses in Bath, where I spend a lot of my time, then I think Bournemouth should be OK.” Wow, sensible point.

“A bus driver turning on his indicator and just driving into traffic without looking in his mirrors like 99% do around here…” Load of nonsense but what do you expect?

One point that no one has mentioned, though: what happens when this one-off bendy is out of service for its safety check or MOT? Remember that these are designated as peak vehicles and therefore W&D will have plenty of opportunity for maintenance at other times.

And before we all think this is new to the region, Stagecoach Hampshire Bus operated a Leyland DAB articulated bus in Winchester (one of a pair, the second not lasting long), new to South Yorkshire PTE and from c.1989 finding its way mainly on what was then the 47 Winchester-Southampton. It lasted a little over a year before withdrawal.