Bus Top 2

Passengers dislike changing buses needlessly. That’s why Oxford planners should be applauded for their common-sense approach in conceding the idea of decanting arriving passengers near Magdalen Bridge is not a good one. The idea was to transfer onto shuttles for the city centre. The fact that the shuttles would’ve been articulated buses probably didn’t do any favours, either.

It’s always been typical of some (road?) planners in some areas that they have been content with the notion that buses should be kept away from where passengers actually want to go, that passengers are somehow expendable. The two prime examples are pre-deregulation Merseyside and Tyne & Wear. To complete a cross Tyne journeys, buses used to feed Tyne & Wear’s Metro. This made sense in theory but the practice, after deregulation, was something different. The market has subsequently provided door-to-door buses without the need to change.

And again in pre-deregulation Liverpool. The only direct buses from the Wirral to central Liverpool were those heading from areas unserved by rail. To complete their journey, other passengers had to leave at Woodside and catch either a ferry or train to complete their journey. The post-1986 market soon sorted that one out, too.

The Oxford plan, meanwhile, was designed to find ways of reducing the number of buses in Oxford’s High Street. The public seems behind that concept, which is itself interesting in a city that relies less on cars in its central area than many others. The possible new remedy may see the council turn to the Local Transport Act 2008. That may see an equally radical solution in a city where two competing bus operators appear to be working well in increasing passenger numbers.

Is it Me?

Is it me or are the hopes of a painless passage through the recession diminishing? In spite of (or in some areas because of) the rise in free travel, and notwithstanding increases in ridership resulting from the unprecedented recent investment in quality and marketing, the bus operating industry seems poised for a downturn. We did wonder whether this would be so. The signs are present among us. The buoyancy has gone out of many markets. There’s the slow death of the high street. There’s a new unwillingness to invest till some sort of economic certainty returns. There’s also a sense that we could be on the cusp of new hybrid technology but, as operators consider whether or not to try older technology, they don’t wish to take a step of faith. Operators appear to be looking at margins and chipping away at PVRs with renewed vigour. There are examples of cuts on easy target routes where frequencies are highest as well as marginal services and journeys where passengers are lowest. It’s starting to sound a little like the 1970s.

Yet, operators have always said that the market can and always will provide. But at a time of phenomenally poor economic prospects, there is no less a need for the country’s bus operating industry, intact. The changes now in motion seem to play nicely into the hands of the integrated transport authorities, with their calls for quality contracts. Is now an opportunity for the ITAs and their PTEs to take a stabilising role, a lead? Is now the time to ask ourselves as a country what we want to see in and from our bus networks and how they should be financed? ITAs might forget that 85 per cent of the market is commercially provided. Or is the reality that they can’t afford to pay the QC price? Only in London do we see high public investment and how long will it be before we are forced to see cutback on TfL routes, too?

Prioritising

Just when the dust—and the secondary legislation—is starting to settle surrounding the Local Transport Act comes news that the government may (or may not, if course) consider requiring bus operators to prioritise services in socially excluded areas at the expense of other districts.

Recent comments from the deputy leader suggest that the government could endeavour to prioritise service delivery—including bus services—where the social need is greatest rather than spreading services thinly across the board.

Some might argue that it’s not for the government to tell the bus industry where to run. Others might take a more pragmatic view that the Local Transport Act skews things, anyway. Yet, in general terms, should the bus industry be too troubled by any such a new requirement? One measure of exclusion is having limited access to a car. In essence, the market place already prioritises. It’s a general norm that communities with fewer cars can sustain a better bus service and they often do. If commercial services and future partnerships based around commercial principles continue, it would then be up to transport authorities to invest existing budgets in tackling exclusion through subsidy. Integrated transport authorities’ polices lean in this direction in any case.

And, if accessibility planning can identify and cater proportionately for rural social exclusion as well, it’s potentially a win-win situation for the bus service.

Shock Announcement

There are (or were) strong indications that the bus manufacturing industry is (or was) buoyant (especially when compared to the coach side of things). Orders are (or were) holding up, in spite of the recession. And the bus operating industry is (or was) relatively recession bomb-proof, unlike the railway. We haven’t heard the last of rail’s problems—only National Express & Stagecoach have so far come clean.

So it is that news from Ballymena-based Wrightbus is something of a shock. As of yesterday, about one quarter of Wright’s 1,000 workforce was placed under 90-day redundancy terms. Wright’s is a highly-skilled workforce that, till 2008, was a rapidly expanding one. And one that is (or was) extremely well cared for by its employer.

Wrightbus is reported to blame a sudden cancellation of a “substantial order” from one of its largest customers. Since Arriva London announced an £11mil order on 5 February for 57 Gemini 2 double decks on top of orders at Euro Bus Expo 2008 from Arriva to the tune of 268 vehicles for 2009 delivery, there’s speculation as to who cancelled.

One possibility is Lothian Buses, with planned frequency cuts on up to 16 routes in a bid to save £300,000 to right its balance sheet. But the scale of Wrightbus possible redundancies means it must be more than that. Dublin Bus is shedding ten per cent of its fleet, or 120 buses.

Could the most likely large customer be First Group? There is concern that a destabilised rail-side recession will affect bus-side capital expenditure. Add to this issues at Greyhound in America and share price drops and, for First at least, the future isn’t perhaps so rosily Barbie as first thought. This could indicate possible bus service cuts in the future.

There are concerns that the rate of investment in new stock is insufficient to ensure the industry becomes fully accessible by the due date of 2017.

Wrightbus is the UK’s second biggest body manufacturer, concentrating exclusively on crisp bus designs manufactured to what are arguably the best build standards in the business. It leads the pack in terms of hybrid designs with its series hybrids launched in London in December 2008. It produced the first British low floor bus body and, although not entirely welcome in UK cities, has pioneered the Streetcar concept. Success is far from confined to England, the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

Young Man’s Dream?

An element of mystery surrounds a supposedly new express service provider based in Scotland but serving England and Wales. In fact, there’s something odd about the well-meaning operation calling itself UK Express Coaches.

Following what is said to be two years of planning, there was an advanced launched earlier this month in Newport, Wales by none other than the town’s mayor. It’s said that two services will be available to the public later this month but, to date, there appears no confirmation or hard evidence of either.

Services purport to operate as follows:

• Edinburgh-Manchester-Manchester Airport-London; and


• Edinburgh-Manchester-Manchester Airport-Birmingham Airport-Newport.

National Express does not directly link Newport or South Wales with either Manchester or Birmingham airports. Though NatEx operates a direct Newport-Edinburgh service, that promised by UK Express is quicker. Though we would question whether Cardiff might be a more suitable terminus, at least the planning suggests an attempt to offer something that doesn’t compete directly with existing services.

The fact that the venture’s website is a ‘free’ one gives little added confidence. Free websites are notorious for their reliability or lack of longevity. The use of google ads at the top lends an air of unprofessionalism, especially since, when we looked, one of them was for National Express itself. And a few basic spelling howlers don’t help.

Rumours suggest that the undertaking relies on either hired coaches or self-employed drivers. This presents a number of problems in terms of cost and resource control.

Is this a young man’s dream or a serious business venture designed to exploit a gap in the market? The likes of Stagecoach began from similarly high-minded ideals...

i UK Express Coaches

Seconds Away...

...round three. Ding ding.

27 boxing terms used within. Sorry

The bout continues. In the blue corner, we have the light-heavyweight Go South Coast subsidiary calling itself Bluestar (with Wilts & Dorset as its corner man). In the red corner (well, purple really) is the bantam weight Black Velvet Travel, whose experienced ‘coach’ aims high and can still punch above his weight.

To date, we’ve seen nothing but pitty-patty punches. Now, the gloves come off in earnest, as the match goes bear knuckle. Forget Queensberry rules. From today, Bluestar leads with its chin by altering its long-running service 2 (Fair Oak-Eastleigh-Southampton) to provide a more resilient response to Velvet’s recent Eastleigh-Fair Oak, named by Velvet as the Fair Oak Flyer.

Velvet’s Flyer started life on 12th January 2009. The Flyer ran at the same frequency as established Bluestar service 2 but Velvet’s USP was direct operation along the B3037/Fair Oak Rd by cutting out the (actually sensible) two-sides-of-a-triangle Bishopstoke diversion, as favoured by Bluestar. Even before the Flyer took off, Bluestar had announced a ‘January Sale’ in which it reduced the Eastleigh-Fair Oak fare.

The Flyer followed and responded to the Velvet B/Beep Bus B counterpunch fiasco, when first Velvet then Bluestar withdrew, as opponents accused each other of blows below the belt. Who was wrong? Who was right? It all went very public in the Southampton Echo. Said Velvet’s Phil Stockley, “We will stand on their toes and won’t worry about taking their customers. We believe our services are as good as or better than Bluestar”. Bluestar’s Alex Hornby retorted, “We are not worried about Black Velvet and we think we run a better, more comprehensive service than them.”

So, today’s Bluestar service 2 changes may best be described as a haymaker aimed squarely at Velvet. On the pretext of punctuality improvements, Bluestar is cutting its through Eastleigh-Southamptons from every 15 to every 20 minutes. Bluestar is then supplementing the Eastleigh-Fair Oak section with shorts, giving in total a bus every 10 minutes between Eastleigh, Bishopstoke and Fair Oak—to Velvet’s every 15 direct. This is reported as PVR neutral. Everyone knows that a 10-minute service is pretty much the promised land, the mother of all frequencies, the one the punters remember and the minimum required before a passenger will discard the printed timetable & just turn up.


It’s true, of course, that service 2 suffers a number of arresting breadbaskets and bottlenecks on some journeys, not least in Southampton city centre and its grind through Portswood and Swaythling. Yet, if I am reading the timetables correctly, layover at Southampton is no different today, Monday, than it was on Saturday.

We’re not sure whether Bluestar through passengers are so naïve as to believe that the changes result less from punctuality issues and more from a need to protect Bluestar’s market (something Bluestar would be foolish to neglect). In consolation, Bluestar’s reported as promising a consistent low floor service. So long as they're double decks, this might assuage those who to date sometimes face a bursting MPD ride home, as Bluestar has seemingly been unable to allocate double decks consistently to the 2. All this presupposes Bluestar’s fitters ready enough of them.

Meanwhile, February now seems a favoured date during which time Bluestar likes to make its changes. This year also sees the Baby Bluestar C1 & C2 hitting the canvas, whose route is a rather complex ball of wool through Chandler’s Ford. Ironically, the holding pattern put in place by Hampshire council goes to Velvet, albeit on an interim basis.

The Solent Shuttle X27 is finally down for the count, having already hit the ropes following Portsmouth & Southampton councils withdrawing subsidy. Bluestar tried to save the X27 by the bell but has admitted defeat. To think once this operated hourly jointly by Hants & Dorset & Southdown as the X71 Solenteer.

Bluestar therefore continues to concentrate on going the distance on its core network. This includes a substantial upgrade to service 1 from 9th February (Winchester-Chandler’s Ford-Southampton), with brand new Scania double decks arriving. If they’ll do for the 1 what they’re doing on W&D’s X3 (Salisbury-Ringwood-Bournemouth), then Bluestar won’t be complaining. In fact, they'll hit a purple patch.

And that just leaves Sundays. As of yesterday, in something of a Sunday punch, Bluestar’s 2 is halved from every 30 to every 60 minutes, bucking the general trend that sees core route Sunday expansion. Had Velvet operated on Sundays, would this have halved?

Additional information by Mystery Contributor

i Visit the commendable Bluestar website for more images of the new Scanias and the service 1 launch party of old buses

The Dialectics of Bus Information

A Cumbrian writes…

After visiting a museum, you've been standing at a bus stop for 25 minutes. You know the buses only run every hour but aren’t sure when. You’re not too worried because the weather's not that bad and you've got some friends to chat to.

You decide to adopt the American so-call “bus-wait formula” that suggests unless your walk is a mile or less *and* the bus might arrive in less than 30 minutes, you’re better off staying put, rather than being caught between bus stops.

Then, suddenly, this guy appears clutching his mobile phone and two minutes later, the bus arrives. What does he know that you don't?

OK, the guy is me (A Cumbrian—Ed) and as you may have guessed I looked up the bus stop numbers before I came, entered them into a WAP page and sat in the café until the bus was three minutes away. How many people would think of that? Few, probably, because it’s possibly poorly marketed.

As GPS enabled mobile phones (and smartphones and whatever) become increasingly available, it should be possible to say with certainty where the nearest stop is and then to predict when a bus is due. As long as you've the flexibility to find a provider who knows how to do it—with the right systems and on-bus technology.

Will this see off ‘traditional’ real time information as we know it? The stop side scrolling display?

A quick attempt at consolidating the real-time information available by WAP is available by pointing your mobile phone browser at the address below. I (that's A Cumbrian again—Ed) would appreciate any reader comments (or suggestions regarding gaps) via the comments link, if the blog owner is amenable (yes—Ed). There is also convenient links to rail real time information that nomadic readers might also appreciate.

http://tinyurl.com/ob20mob

Starting Up

In spite of the large number of small operators who have left the industry over the last four or five years, low start up costs and easy entry still make the bus industry an attractive option for those who have a mind to give it a go. And there are enough operators who’ve made it to the semi-big time to testify to the rewards, even if there are more who have been taken over or simply gone to the wall.

A redundant National Express West Midlands manager Mick Singh and his son-in-law Mel Kang have between them established 12-vehicle AMPM Travel of Acocks Green, strategically placed between Birmingham & Solihull. From next week, they plan to operate new six-day-a-week commercial service 6 (Birmingham-Hall Green-Solihull).

What seems relatively unusual about AM-PM is, first, the uniformity of its Pointer Dart fleet (all of which are SLFs and all of which AM PM can crow are London LEZ compliant, being ex-Metroline). Being P-, R- and V-reg, they’re not new by any means but, usually, start-ups have an eclectic mix of types, sizes and shapes (and even liveries).

AMPM also has an attractive livery. Though this won’t be to everyone’s taste, it uses modern colours to good effect and, importantly, it stands out from the NXWM crowd. In many respects, it’s more innovative than either the old Travel West Midlands or new NXWM liveries.

The decent branding’s completed by a well thought out contemporary logo and even a strapline.

AMPM’s spent some time in getting the preliminaries right. Will it find matters harder when on the road? After improvements from 25 January 2009, NXWM operates its 6 at about double the proposed AMPM frequency. NXWM’s 37 (also Birmingham-Solihull), which touches AMPM’s 6 at Sparbrook, now operates at every five.

i Picture courtesy West Midlands Buses in Photographs (used with permission)

c Meanwhile, following news that National Express may not only sell its London bus operation to Comfort DelGro and has recently sold its Dot2Dot airport transfer business, comes speculation in yesterday's Transit magazine that NatEx may be forced to sell what Transit called "non-core businesses" Travel Dundee and The King's Ferry. This follows a bidding war in 2007 for Spain's Continental Auto resulting in a high bid price. There's even a suggestion that Spaniards at Continental & Alsa may take a controlling interest.

Celebrating an Institution

With the mass adoption of the internet now over ten years on, up-to-date information on the world of transport has never been easier to find. With Yahoo Groups and other fora (or should that read forums?), it’s little wonder that associations such as the Omnibus Society fails to attract younger members. What’s in it for them, when they can have instant access to all the information they need at the touch of a button.

And the same could be true of Buses Magazine. Buses celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. This month’s Buses features 20 pages packed with fleet news minutiae. That’s exactly one third of its editorial space. With the internet awash with on-tap information, who needs this Fleet News?

The short answer is that the internet cannot entirely replace short, succinctly written synopses and summaries. Neither can the spaghetti-like threads of a Yahoo or Google Group reasonably provide the detail on which to refer in months or years to come. Yahoo has been known to lose old information or make it inaccessible. And neither can you reasonably read the internet anywhere (not quite yet, at any rate). Fleet News may no longer provide the only source of information on operators’ vehicle movements. Instead, it can have a role as a collecting point and repository.

Buses has certainly changed with the times and continues to find ways to evolve. It’s bigger, brighter, glossier, content-rich and over the years its writing style’s become progressively more modern and less stuffy. Using contemporary layout techniques, Buses continues to attract younger as well as loyal readers—some of whom have purchased each month, man and boy.

Over the years, Buses Magazine has continued to hold its own and it remains the biggest circulation and most widely read of any bus-related journal. And if you think Buses is the preserve of enthusiasts, think again. Industry leaders take the views of its various commentators, letter writers and the lead article very seriously. Copy continues to be well regarded and crafted under the editorship of Alan Millar whose watch is 10 years’ old this year. In the space of Buses’ 60 year history, it’s seen just six editors.

Pictures of Liverpool

Now that Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year is officially over, Omnibuses2.0’s Northern Correspondent felt it safe to return, to find a thriving city...

(Hover over each picture for more information. Pictures by Northern Correspondent)

Recession? What recession? Liverpool city centre’s still teeming with shoppers and there are remarkably few casualties in the shape of empty shops.

For the hub of a city region of 1.3mil people, it has to be said that the centre was once mediocre in terms of shopping capacity & choice. The hugely colourful and brand new 125-strong Liverpool One development’s remedied that. Since over 60 per cent of shoppers are reported to arrive in central Liverpool by bus, this central shopping bolt-on will do no harm for the local bus service, especially as Liverpool One is advertised to stay open till 2000hrs. The once marginalised new Paradise Street bus station is now within feet of Liverpool One but, strangely, the terminus still has something of a deserted feel about it, even more so than the slightly more northerly old one that languished darkly beneath a now vanished multi-storey car park.

The parallel land reserved for the doubtful tram interchange has temporarily been taken over by fencing while Liverpool One’s Hilton is finished off. The tram was never much liked by bus operators neither Arriva nor Glenvale’s successor, Stagecoach, with scathing accusations of public money wasted that could otherwise be invested.

Arriva North West has wasted no money in its continued fleet upgrade, as part of a £45mil commitment to ensure 100 per cent low floor accessibility by 2011. Thirty 55- and 06-reg Volvo B7TL/Alexander Dennis ALX400 double decks worth £4.5mil joined from January 2006, initially for the 82 and 86As. Double decks had previously been ruled out on the grounds of anti-social behavioural, but loadings above 44 were such that Arriva felt it had no option, though it trialed an articulated Citaro in 2004. An interesting experiment in what might have been—but concerns over revenue losses and major infrastructure upgrades held sway.

The B7TLs were followed in the spring that year by some 34 VDL SB200/Wright Commander 44 seat single decks.

Representing a £1.8mil investment, new 44-seat VDL SB200/Wrght Pulsars for the famed 18A (Liverpool-Croxteth Park) arrived from November 2008, replacing England’s first super low floor buses, the former Merseytravel ‘Smart’ Neoplans once cascaded to the 18A. There followed further Pulsars this month, for the 52/52A Liverpool-Netherton.

The most exciting arrivals have been 23 all-Alexander Dennis 80-seat Enviro400s for the Wirral-Liverpool cross-river 432/3/7s. To semi-dual purpose standards with medium-backed seats and the first in the north west to carry Arriva inter-urban livery, they update the established Crossriver Express brand and largely replace the 1996 batch of Leyland Olympian/North Counties Palatine IIs also specifically delivered (for MTL as Silver Service) for the same suite of services. In spite of their length and wheelbase, they offer no problems in the old Birkenhead tunnel. Upper deck vision is excellent, through the wide panoramic window.

Of interest to the north are the four Alexander Dennis Enviro300s in service from July 2008 on Sefton Council's Southport park & ride service. Cream is rare on buses but just like the pre-1974 erstwhile days of the Southport Corporation, red goes well with it. Someone at Sefton has a sense of history.

To be continued...

Rationalisations

Rationalisation within the bus industry continues apace and not just in terms of predators gobbling up minnows for lunch. First Group announced yesterday that it is likely to merge First in Essex (Eastern National) with Eastern Counties.

This follows a similar move in Yorkshire announced before Christmas where all but South Yorkshire merged five into one West Yorkshire conglomerate. Other than those retiring, all the former managing directors found jobs within First.

The very real benefit of such mergers is in the removal of duplicative back and head office functions. In the Eastern National/Eastern Counties case, this agglomerates some 355 vehicles at one with 325 at the other, creating a combined operatiom of some 680 vehicles and 2,000 staff.

Following the Yorkshire and eastern mergers, there will remain 14 bus divisions. To achieve First Bus’ desired goal of improving efficiencies, the scope for further rationalisation seems likely, indeed inevitable. There is, for example, a relatively small subsidiary based at First’s Aberdeen HQ, employing 500 staff. Merging with First’s Edinburgh operation formerly SMT, Borders & Midland Bluebird seems sensible—until you realise that it’s three hours by road for the 130 miles between main operating centres, with National Express Dundee in-between.

First has rationalised and reorganised a fair amount along the way. First’s Alder Valley rump is managed with its London operations. Its west & east midlands operations are similarly as one, as are Porstmouth, Southampton, Gosport & Weymouth; and Potteries, Chester & Wirral. And the phenomenon isn’t confined to First, of course, and never have been, though the pace has hotted up in recent years. Witness Go South Coast, Arriva Midlands and Arriva North West & Wales, though the last of these, like Stagecoach West & Wales, has de-merged.

There’s speculation that National Express may pass its London operations to Comfort DelGro in a deal estimated at £50mil. It’s understood that talks were initially inconclusive but then restarted. Comfort DelGro operates about a sixth of the London bus market through its Metroline subsidiary. If true, the monopolies authorities are less likely to be interested in this one. Stagecoach sold its London operations to the Macquarrie Bank in July 2006.

Return of New Bus Grant?

Sort of.

In something that might be akin to the bus grant of the 1970s, the European Investment Bank is understood to be developing a financing package that will fund up to 75 per cent of costs to help cities improve their energy efficiency and buy cleaner, hydrogen fuel cell or hybrid bus fleets. It foresees an initial €15mil to assist cities in developing projects but this could jump to billions, it is believed. The facility awaits official approval.

Funding will target projects that can deliver on the EU's 20-20-20 policy: reducing greenhouse gases by 20 per cent and covering 20 per cent of its energy needs with renewables, by 2020.

The EIB proposals are said to be flexible enough to deliver not just to the public transport authorities common in western Europe but the new landscapes of recently joined eastern states and deregulated England.

Bus Grant was a feature of the 1968 Transport Act. It offered a 50 per cent grant to speed up the modernisation of UK bus fleets and lasted in that form till 1980 when the then government began reducing it, till its demise in 1985.

Law in Action

Even without the nasal, slightly pinched tones of longstanding and now retired presenter Marcel Berlins, Law in Action is without doubt one of the programmes that defines Radio 4 as at the very pinnacle of broadcasting. Shame its left its once regular slot but it is available on iPlayer or as a podcast. In last week’s edition, the programme ‘focused’ among other things on photography in public places, something of great interest to the bus enthusiast. And enthusiasts do make up a high proportion of people reading this industry-standard blog.

I confess I am about as good at composing a photo as I am an orchestral symphony, though I do regret not taking more when I could’ve, to have an historic record. And, I prefer not to snap in my own back yard, so to speak. But plenty do and long may they have that freedom.

Interviewing professional photographer-turned-solicitor Rupert Gray, Law in Action starting point was, “when can or can’t you take a photograph in public?” The answer was clear: you just can, but there were some recent restrictions.

A statement from the association of chief police officers said, “Police officers may not prevent someone from taking a photograph in a public place unless they suspect criminal or terrorist intent. Powers to stop & search are strictly regulated by law and once an image has been recorded, the police have no powers to delete or confiscate it without a court order”.

That might be reassuring were there no evidence of problems with the police. Constables have the right under s.44 of the TA 2000 (Terrorism, not Transport Act) to stop and search, even without the suspicion of any terrorism intent, though Gray said that permission was required (without saying how this might be granted) and this permission was limited to a time and a place. If the constable then wished to go further, there needs to be intent. Abuses have resulted in arrests even, for example, for taking a wedding photograph (or so the programme said). Even in civil disorder situations, where the police might want to control events, there was evidence of their being too restrictive.

Privacy

The programme then turned to the circumstances in which photographers in a public place might take pictures specifically of people (the parallel here is bus drivers who, on a picture of a bus, are usually are ill defined).

Gray stated that there was complete freedom in the *taking* of photographs always provided there was no harassment.

The ‘developing’ issue was in the civil law of publication where there *could* be claims for damages owing to the invasion of privacy (though the programme got no further than royals and supermodels).

Fuss about Nothing?

Gray felt that there were too many incidences of improper police behaviour to go unnoticed, that the police were taking advantage of (and exceeding) general legislation outside truly genuine cases. This, the interviewee felt, was the beginnings of a move towards State interference in private lives and the right of us all to take, record and bear witness to the lives of ordinary citizens (and by inference, its buses).

i You have till 1600 on Tuesday to hear or to download as a podcast the Law in Action programme with its segment on photography. It starts after about 9mins 45secs and lasts of 7mins 26secs.

PR Disasters

One of the strengths of big transport groups is the way in which they have the capacity to handle the media. When you have thousands of unsupervised drivers and millions of passengers every day, there’s always the potential for media involvement. There will occasionally be problems that can to an extent be managed, such as yesterday's non-story of the couple travelling on National Express’ 035 between Ringwood & Bournemouth, who found their driver refused what was their cold chicken meal.

But even Arriva would’ve been caught on the back foot by the story of the Northumbrian nine-year-old who was refused travel to school for the sake of 5p, after Arriva put up the fare.

The media love this sort of thing. It’s got local appeal and national potential. Someone can get a kicking. Local journalists will know that they will have readers who use the bus service, a proportion of whom will already be discontented. And it has human interest: Friday’s Telegraph described the young lad as “tearful” and the local newspaper started its piece, “Little E.E. was reduced to tears and had to walk…”

Whether the incident happened near its Sunderland bus HQ home turf or not, Arriva’s response to a story such this would be instant, robust and unreservedly apologetic. This is because, whether local or national, bad news stories can do immense damage to a brand and instantly unravel all the training and other good work operators put in place. And it potentially harms the reputation of all the other drivers who successfully handle issues such as this, day in, day out. In this case, the driver was suspended pending a disciplinary procedure that will see a well-oiled operational management machine at work.

Arriva head office will be displeased. The local area and garage management will need to report and learn, and the incident will afford the opportunity to ensure that drivers are in no doubt about the procedures in place should a situation such as this arise again, as it probably will, quite soon.

A Myth

“If people will live half way up a mountain in an isolated rural valley, they shouldn’t expect a bus service”.

Leaving aside the incongruity of whether someone could actually live half way up a mountain *and* in a valley at the same time, I recall a conference speaker using this sentence, or something very like it, as a means of justifying the withdrawal of subsidy for bus services in deep rural areas. He was instead in favour of concentration on routes likely to result in a lower subsidy per passenger—in urban areas.

That was in 1986. 23 years later, the argument may still apply though the same deep rural area is more likely to see a cheaper demand responsive taxi rather than a bus itself.

Often, people in rural areas will say that they pay the same council tax as everyone else, so they should at least benefit from *some* bus services. They ask, what else do they get for their council tax? (Aside, that is, from the education of their children, their rubbish collected, winter gritting, street lighting, etc, etc…).

Probably not wise to tell them that their urban neighbours’ commercial bus services are funded without the help of urban council taxes, that in a sense it’s the town dwellers who see less of their council tax spend per head on the buses, thanks to the way in which the market provides bus services. It’s just that 20 years after deregulation no one—rural or urban—really believes that a bus *can* operate without some sort of direct subsidy.

Transdev Comparisons

New contributor ‘Dorset Exile’ takes a personal look north and south at two different Transdev approaches...

While it is perhaps unfair to compare the networks of two very different towns, a comparison between approaches and results is valid.

Transdev Yellow Buses has delivered a high frequency, simple route network consolidated into a handful of service numbers and the passengers have voted with their feet—with one of the fastest growing bus networks in recent years, helped by slick marketing and an injection of modern, low floor stock.

Compare this to Transdev Lancashire, which it appears is struggling to reverse the long-term decline in bus passengers despite initiatives such as Spot-On, Burnley Starships and now new buses for the Burnley Mainline. But obviously new colours and new buses are not the only ingredients required to deliver increases in ridership—as TYB knows only too well.

As a complete contrast to the simple Bournemouth network, Burnley’s remains complicated for a town of its size, with seven routes (101/102, 106, 109, 110, 111/112) providing local town services plus two unique services (121/122) that only operate during the evenings and on Sundays. In spite of a grand relaunch, the town services retained the route numbering agreed with Ribble many decades previously but less relevant now than they were even then.

Added to this is the Burnley Mainline. Some would say this is a bus timetable nightmare managing to cram a simple high frequency service along the main drag between Padiham, Burnley and Colne into seven further combinations (services 21/23/25/26/27/28/29). Are you confused dot com? Will new buses for the Mainline bring in extra passengers?

Now, Transdev Lancashire is attempting to reverse the fortunes of the ailing Blackburn and Accrington network and, from 22 February, they are introducing three route combinations onto the currently simple Darwen-Blackburn-Accrington route 1—becoming 1/1A/1B; and new routings on the Hyndburn circular.

We wish them every success in unlocking the growth potential inherent in most urban bus networks but one does wonder whether the team at TYB could teach their Lancashire cousins a thing or two about the simple bus networks that have reversed decline in many areas of the UK. These seem still lacking in Lancashire, in spite of its Blazefield heritage.

April Fool Come Early?

The following may stretch the recently vested Merseytravel ITA’s new ‘wellbeing’ powers in a totally unexpected direction…

As if the bus driver’s job isn’t hard enough already. What’s up with Liverpool council that it’s now banning Arriva North West drivers from using the lavatories within its town hall? It blames the sheer volume of Arriva drivers caught short. This follows complaints from other cross-legged users—council employees and members of the general public.

We’re unsure which buses terminate where in Liverpool. We do know that what is said to be the busiest bus station in England outside London—Queen’s Square—is basically a through bus street, without any possibility of layover (and therefore no opportunities for driver comfort breaks).

We also know that some journeys are long, that Liverpool's geography means elongated suburbs that stretch far from the city centre’s focus near the Mersey and that, since Liverpool has seen the highest increase in traffic congestion of any metropolitan area, long journey times might be made even longer. We can also presume the problem’s massive, hence the council’s decision.

It was in the autumn that Liverpool was condemned by a House of Commons’ select committee for not being ‘flush’ with public lavatories. Then, the council argued there were a number of ‘vacant’ alternatives open to the public, citing its own municipal buildings as an example. Now, though, will this new ruling drive Arriva employees round the ‘s-bend’?

Take the 10A. The frequent St Helen’s-Liverpool bus terminates at Mann Island and passes the Dale Street municipal offices. If there are no hold ups, the running time is usually 1hr 11mins. Only after 2000 do departures leave from the equipped Paradise Street bus station. In an uncomfortable ‘chain’ of events, drivers might have a wait of over 2½ hours. Perhaps Ribble, who jointly used to operate the 10A’s predecessor, should bring back toilet-equipped Atlanteans, then known as ‘Gay Hostesses’.

It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase that busmen in some parts of the country use: being down the pan.

c Another April fool? For a small fee, Plymouth bus drivers will get an opportunity to throw wet sponges at Plymouth Citybus managers, at the Village Fête Fun Day next August. Now, that’ll be worth spending a penny or two. Is that what they call “tempting fête”? See Plymothian Transit for the full story.

Just so long as this sort of thing doesn't catch on elsewhere...

Companion Site Launched Today

One of the comments during the recent Omnibuses' survey was that a respondent disliked multi-part posts. He has a valid point. Today, we launch a website that when fully populated will amalgamate the longer Omnibuses Blog posts in one place and also hold a number of popular articles.

If you wondered what happened to the final part of the series "One or Two Doors" by RC169, it's the first article uploaded to the new site, The Omnibuses Repository. Here, you can see all six One or Two Door parts, including the new sections Comparisons and Conclusions at the foot of the page.

Phoning In

With the closure of its Salisbury call centre, one of Dorset and Wiltshire’s premier bus operators no longer handles most of its customer communications. Instead, letters, emails and phonecalls regarding complaints, suggestions and non-timetable information pass to sister Go South Coast Southern Vectis in Newport, IoW. The same is true of Solent Blueline (Bluestar).

Such collaboration can lead to improved customer care and satisfaction. It can concentrate limited resources in one place. It can create a centre of excellence. It can free staff elsewhere from some of the mundane. And it’s what’s happening across greater industry. But it can also generate work as support staff pass complaints to operational teams for comment. I suppose we should be merciful the calls aren’t handled in Bangalore or Bombay, not that I have any issue with out-sourced call centres far afield—other than in bus industry terms matters are very local in nature and need a local response from someone familiar with streets, suburbs and local short cuts.

What will the staff at Newport face? Having a central clearing system enables target and performance management. Time was when bus fares might’ve been in the top three. Free travel has had a marked impact on the number of fares complaints. That weekly and longer seasons are rising at a slower rate than single & return fares is another reason why I would be surprised if fares issues top 10 or even five per cent of the total. While all other complaints might well languish down the percentage table, I’d hazard a guess that the top three complaints that surfaced would be the following, (in my order):

1. Punctuality and reliability (running on time or not running at all)

2. Driver attitude (rude, curt, blunt, ignorant, uninformed, thoughtless, neglectful)

3. Internal and external vehicle condition (cleanliness, litter, appearance, smoke inside and out, lack of low floor, perceived mechanical defects, seating issues).

The key question is, what do operators do about these issues; issues that have a knack of repeating themselves…

While all around them has changed quite markedly, the passenger transport authorities & executives have remained largely intact, having stood the test of time. The government created the first four 40 years ago this year. Yet, today, 9 February 2009, we witness changes.

1969 and All That—Part 2

I say ‘remained largely intact’ above because in 2006, Strathclyde (Scotland) PTA/E changed into an organisation responsible for all transport planning, not just for public transport.

Today’s developments in England don’t go that far but the governing PTAs that oversee their PTEs morph from being familiar passenger transport authorities to integrated transport authorities or ITAs, thanks to the Local Transport Act 2008 and its extended powers. The ITAs still have nominated councillors from their constituent metropolitan boroughs. See our fantasy PTA, posted in May 2007.

The change reflects the ITAs’ wider transport role, including a strategic responsibility for planning and delivering transport. More changes and powers are to come, as the regulations underpinning the Act are published.

In our six largest urban areas outside London, there’s been deregulation, arms length operation and subsequently privatisation of the PTE bus fleets. The Big Five have become dominant. As the private sector has grown, so has the PTA/PTE structure, in stature. They have been a remarkable stabilising force for good in the turbulent times of deregulation within the city regions, overseeing large- and small-scale infrastructure projects, successful urban railways, publicity, integrated ticketing, concessionary & free travel, even trams. And introducing best practice. Critics might argue that passenger decline was greatest in the PTA/E area; the PTAs might counter that with a lack of regulatory powers.

The PTA/Es have remained intact through the many hues of government. Created under socialist Labour transport secretary Barbara Castle, you might expect successive conservative governments to have abolished them as monoliths. Instead, PTA/Es became partners in the successful delivery of a privatised, Conservative railway.

And under New Labour and the 2008 Act, there’s the prospect of expansion, as consenting local authorities in England can band together to create new ones, subject to checks & balances, including at Whitehall & Westminster. See our spoof, fantasy ITA, first posted in May 2007.

A Brief History of PTA/Es

There was much opposition, indeed hostility, during the run up to the Transport Act 1968. None were in favour of PTAs and PTEs. This in spite of some existing joint working and co-operation.

1969 saw the emergence of the first four PTAs in the West Midlands, south east Lancashire/north east Cheshire (SELNEC, to become Greater Manchester), Merseyside and Tyneside. The PTAs had oversight of the newly created executives and local municipal corporations ceded their operations to these PTEs. The executives began integrating buses and rail.

Upon the creation of metropolitan county councils in 1974, the PTA function transferred intact to the counties. The PTEs continued and expanded, where county boundary changes enlarged their operating areas. There emerged an additional two PTEs, upon the creation of South & West Yorkshire counties.

Upon the abolition of the metropolitan county councils in 1986, the PTAs were recreated as a separate entity. These, along with fire and police authorities, were the only remnant of the old county regional authorities. PTA/Es often saw themselves as successors to the old regime. PTA/E staff would tend to continue to refer to their area as “the county” and perhaps contemptuously refer to the metropolitan borough constituents as “the districts”.

From 1986, PTEs lost their direct operational responsibilities, as operations first became arms length and them privatised, leaving the PTA/Es as enablers and tendering authorities. PTEs retained and then strengthened their rail powers. Unlike local authorities, PTEs were unable to own and operate fleet though this is remedied by the 2008 Act.

Quote of the Week

Said Stephen Morgan is this week’s Bus & Coach Buyer, “The fact remains that bus priorities are too often seen by those responsible for ensuring they happen as political suicide.”

10 Years of Rural Bus Funding

A Cumbrian continues with PART 2 of 2—RURAL BUS CHALLENGE ~ see part 1 here

Launched at the same time as the rural bus grant, but with less fanfare, the rural bus challenge scheme provided specific investment (including capital funding) for specific schemes, subject to local authority bids. They tended to include an element of innovation. Specific innovations in the two areas I know best are:

Cumbria Year & Funding Starting Point Current Position 1999-2003 £1.45mil Cumbrian Connexion - infrastructure enhancements, including increase of Penrith-Keswick to half-hourly with new X50, with new buses, and X4/X5 minor improvements X50 withdrawn - Penrith-Keswick down to hourly - though little change to X4/X5 service 2002 £806K Increase Kendal-Barrow X35 to every hour (was every 90 minutes) X35 remains hourly. Low floor double deckers were delivered late, but seem successful West Yorkshire 1998-9 £574K Denby Dale station interchange plus 930 VillageLink service in the area 930 has been withdrawn. Denby Dale Interchange still present but one bus (435/6 Wakefield-Holmfirth) no longer calls in to reduce journey time. Seems to be minimal modal interchange 2000 £917K Hebden Bridger - Optare Solos (initially with some Aleros) and slight service enhancements (especially eves & suns) in Hebden Bridge area including new late evening 'flexibus' DRT fusion type thing Optare Solos still running. Retendering withdrew services from 3 areas, reducing PVR from 4 to 3 - though the main daytime service enhancement of the scheme remained. Flexibus remains but with reduced DRT element 2002 £872K Pennine Taxibus - four new accessible 8-seat minibuses for scheduled routes with DRT elements - 2 buses each for Ryburn (incorporating a peak time rail feeding element) and Colne Valleys (with all day rail connections) Ryburn Valley completely withdrawn, without replacement. Colne Valley service withdrawn and incorporated into a revised tendered bus network - but taxibus service swiftly reinstated on strange circular route (incorporating some small hamlets and serving some non-statutory scholars with hills to climb) with a conventional vehicle 2003 £756K Todmorden local buses - Optare Solos for local, hilly, tendered bus routes; plus evening and rail connectivity enhancements No real change - but the main evening frequency enhancement threatened due to low usage but retained due to interworking with busier routes

Somewhat ironically, the innovative elements seem to have been the least successful; and conventional services, like those funded by rural bus grant. The capital funding has no doubt helped increase ridership, but with better buses come increased costs. The most interesting development that has survived is the late evening Hebden Bridge flexibuses (departing around 2330): two Solos connecting with late evening trains from Leeds and Manchester, which are doubtless fairly expensive to run and what have been an easy candidate to cut, and are unlikely to be well loaded with free travellers. Perhaps rural DRT has a role, not in penetrating new places, but in linking communities at times when conventional buses would be too expensive to run. Think of an extra late evening bus running along the route only where there is demand. Also notable is that the flexibuses charge normal fares.

From 2004 the rural (and urban) bus challenge scheme was incorporate into the Kickstart, focused more on commercially realistic enhancements and capital funding. Good on 'em. Probably.

The DfT's guide to successful rural services makes some good points and is worth a read. However, image five within shows a service that... doesn't run any more, and it mentions the Denby Dale interchange (see above) and the Micklefield StationLink services, which have suffered the same fate. Images four and eight, meanwhile, show better used routes: the former now has a (bigger) optare Solo, the latter has got a bigger Solo and had its subsidy reduced (albeit probably helped by free bus travel?).

Battle Ground Hotting Up

If you haven’t taken a look at the valuable and interesting comments received following Pseudonymous’s article on third-party bus advertising, now might be a good time to do so. Because the battle of the buses for souls has hotted up with three Christian organisations now placing renewed advertising on the sides of buses.

As one of the first to report in October last year, we stated that it all started in London with agnostic bus advertising. At the time, even a Christian organisation was supporting the campaign financially, because the agnostic message was reportedly so poor, and because it would fuel a debate. Well, it’s certainly done that. The atheist campaign was said to respond to bus-side messages of ‘hell and damnation’, so it’s interesting that the three Christian campaigns ratchet things up by rebutting the rebuttal, so to speak.

Parodying the atheist message, Christians are hitting back with three slogans such as the one in the image above and another, “There IS a God, BELIEVE. Don't worry and enjoy your life.”

Is this good for the bus industry’s coffers in these recessionary times? How does it affect the industry’s brands (presumably little in all-over-red London)? Is it good for free speech? An embarrassment? Propaganda on one or both sides? Can science *really* explain everything around us? And, judging b y the venom against the recent three adverts, why have we become so anti-Christian anyway—what happened to respect and free speech?

An Unusual Blog

Here’s another blog that’s worth a look. Launched in October was the Bath Bus Station Customer Service Centre blog. It’s well laid out and certainly looks official, even though there’s no apparent mention of it on the official First Bristol & Bath sub-site. It’s registered to someone at First based at the bus station.

We’ve long held the view that bus operators could employ blogs to great advantage. The BathCSC’s is a little different to the way in which Southern Vectis uses theirs to explain (among other things) the finer points of bus operation. No, the BathCSC focuses on solving problems, explaining tickets and publicising service issues.

As an example, on 26 January, the blogmaster said, “Badly parked car obstructed buses in Edward Street, Bath yesterday (Sunday) between 14:30 and 15:15. Three of our university services were stuck in the resulting congestion whilst we awaited the police, who eventually had to bounce the car out of the way so that traffic could flow.” How good is that? Here, ordinary passengers can suddenly understand why their bus didn’t come, turning their anger away from First and onto the stupidity of parked motorists.

As yet, there appear few participants’ comments… but here we know from experience how difficult it is to attract them!

BathCSC also employs Facebook and a Twitter service. We tried Twitter here once in August 2007 but at the time no one seemed overly impressed, least of all us. Now, though, Twitter’s gone mainstream, thanks mostly to Stephen Fry and other celebs. BathCSC has a few exchanges regarding service issues. It talks about accidents at the appropriately west country named and idyllic sounding Farrington Gurney and Peasedown St John!!

I note from the blog that First still charges 20p for its Bath timetable. The last time I picked up one of these—again probably in 2007—I marvelled at its sheer simplicity and lack of the frills we usually come to expect. It was a timetable, not a glossy, overt marketing tool, and was quite refreshing for it. It reminded me of the Tilling standard timetables of the mid-late sixties and early seventies, as issued by First's predecessor, the old Bristol Omnibus and others such as Hants & Dorset. Except the paper quality was much the superior. H&D were charging 2/- back then (two shillings, equivalent to 10p). That's worth over £1 at today's prices. Makes 20p seem cheap (the equivalent of about 2d (tuppence) back in 1970).

i Bath Bus Station Customer Services blog

Let the world know of other active customer focused bus blogging good practice in the Comments box

Snow & Buses

As parts of the country struggled under Monday’s snow and others can look forward to a repeat tomorrow, we consider bus operation in the inclementest of weather: sustained, heavy snowfall...

The best time for a sustained, heavy snowfall is probably overnight on Christmas Eve. We can then all wake up on Christmas Morn to an idealised, Victorian White Christmas without actually having to travel that far. OK, so there are isolated Christmas Day bus networks but provided a warm front clears the snow by the end of Boxing Day, business can return to normal.

The worst time for a sustained, heavy snowfall is probably a weekday mid-morning. We all knew we were in for it but our employer wouldn’t be happy unless we’d made the effort to get to work. After lunch, schools start to panic and want some of their buses early—easier said than done it the rotaed driver is miles away on service—and motorists decide to get home while they can. They know highways authorities are generally good at keeping strategic and distributor routes open, so they flood them, abandoning rat running, and traffic crawls along the very routes over which buses need to operate.

The timetable then goes to pieces as buses are forced to crawl with the traffic. Even where buses have sole use of road-space—perhaps suburban estate roads—conditions are now so dire that the driver can only inch along, otherwise they have a choice of taking out a bus shelter on one side or a row of parked cars on the other. It’s not amazing how soon it takes a driver to be in the right place at very much the wrong time and the knock-on effect ‘snowballs’. Frozen passengers get increasingly exasperated as they have no idea when—if—their bus will turn up. Passing neighbours or other benevolents may start to offer lifts, reducing revenue. As roads become increasingly impassable, buses no longer penetrate parts of the network and customers must walk to complete their journey.

The second worst time for sustained, heavy snowfall is in the morning peak. There will be plenty—passengers and motorists—who’ve drawn back the curtains and decided to spend the day building snowmen with the children. Yet, the bus service is expected to operate as normal but for fewer passengers. Bus drivers may not all be able to get in, given that plenty of them are up and about before the gritting gangs or before any traffic’s had a chance to churn some of the snow. Revenue’s non-existent but costs increase, owing to delays or even silly things like stranded buses at the foot of a hill, thanks to the motorist who decides to stop just where a heavy vehicle with low adhesion needs a run at it.

New Language & New Idiom

Unprecedented in London, certainly as the result of the weather. No bus ventured out yesterday morning, owing to the unrelenting snow. This was because road salt was immediately covered by snow on snow. Whether the strategic bus routes were cleared or whether the problem was a local garage-by-garage one, who knows. The winter gritters got almost as bad press as the buses.

So it was that yesterday afternoon London’s mayor Johnson had to defend both buses and gritters. His choice of language was interesting, as he appeared to reinvent the past tense of the verb to grit. “We gritted, we grut, we grat”. Interesting conjugation from one who studied Greats at Oxford. Ah, but English is nothing if not a living language.

And so it was on Friday, too. The latter part of BBC Radio 4’s PM broadcast a comment from a hard-pressed woman who had sadly lost her job. She referred to her situation “as one of those already hit by the recession bus”.

Could she have coined a new idiom for something unpleasantly unstoppable?

Is it just in England where we have such negative idiosyncratic colloquialisms referring to the bus? “Run over by a bus” refers to some sort of misadventure. “You wait hours/days/weeks and three come along at once” is borrowed from the London bus to mean anything that exacerbates (though it doesn’t apply in the snow these days). Another is the slightly tautological “a face like the back end of a bus”. Though it can refer to objects, it’s usually reserved for women who veer somewhere from plain towards ugly.

Whereas the back end of a bus is often functional rather than practical, it does offer a canvas for creativity, as used by an increasing number of operators. We have to add Roadliner to this list. The space on the rear of service 8’s Solo is currently reserved for a bikini-clad beauty who definitely doesn’t look like the proverbial back end. Reads the slogan, “If this advert affects your driving then get off the road and jump on the Rossmore Flyer… it’s the ride of your life”. Perhaps this actually refers to the road humps along which the bus traverses.

Most people seem to view the advert with good humour, even the more elderly people who tend to use this very local of services. I wonder, though, how appropriate this is on a service supported by the borough of Poole. Better, perhaps, on an intensive, high frequency commercial service. Still, all publicity is good publicity. So long as no one runs into the back end of the bus. Whatever the road conditions were like yesterday and whether the roads were grat.

i The highly recommended Countrybus website has a superb historic piece on the Rossmore Flyer and other bygone rural and urban operators

g As some of us awoke yesterday to slightly unpleasant weather, thank heavens for the www. Wilts & Dorset was able to update passengers as far as it could, and W&D refreshed its information at least three times. You’d be surprised at the number of passengers who expect a good service even when circumstances mean it’s obvious to everyone else that such things are impossible. Unless they’re in London and they didn’t get any service, in spite of the grut.

On Bus Advertising

New contributor Pseudonymous wonders in what circumstances an operator might consider an advert on the side of a bus...

It’s a subject that created some vigorous exchange of views between the advertising men and bus design gurus.

Representing the “don’ts” is Ray Stenning of Best Impressions, telling the industry that it should sell itself on its buses, rather than agnosticism, VW cars or films like 'Knocked Up'.

For the “do’s”, the chaps at Viacom, now CBS Outdoor, extol the financial virtues of letting them plaster adverts across the nation’s bus sides and backs.

Big groups can tot-up the sheer volume of advertising revenue across their UK operations, and it must be hard to resist. London operators, denied any individual livery in any case, and unaffected by their lack of reliance on revenue, are understandably lured by the highest rates paid for advertising space on their fleets.

To some of the smaller operators and municipals, perhaps hovering just into the black, it would be a brave MD who sent the ad men packing, with their guaranteed payments for advertising.

The Go Ahead group is a keen employer of Mr Stenning though, and many of his lateral thoughts and ideas seem to manifest themselves in the groups business units. Unlike the other big groups, the individual units have less central direction and on-bus advertising is clearly an area where local decisions hold sway.

Some years ago, Brighton & Hove ditched third party advertising, instead turning its vehicles into undoubtedly its greatest advertisement of its own business and products.

But what is the real argument from among the busmen who spurn the financial advances of the ad men? It’s impossible to quantify the value of using the exterior of the bus, which is why it’s difficult to persuade many in the industry that there is a negative value in carrying third party advertising. But in simple terms, which upmarket brands would allow someone else to cover their shop front with posters telling people how to get tested for chlamydia, or urging them to buy their biggest competitors’ products instead? (In our case, a car!).

To a great extent, it’s related to the company’s own brand development—positioning, promotion and value. Operators who have carefully thought out, well-positioned brands, geared to entice people onto their buses, are those who most lose out in carrying advertising. If you are spending cash and lots of time and energy promoting a high quality brand, you can't afford to compromise it with advertising, or indeed the sticky mess that no advertising brings. Most in the industry agrees that high quality is the road to attracting new passengers and higher revenue and profits.

On the other hand, if you run a business model which takes the cash for running buses in no particular brand, and your emphasis is on cost minimisation, then advertising revenues are a no-brainer.

So, which way is the industry heading in potentially tough times? For those who believe that they will be beholden to reduced travel to work and shopping or leisure, holding onto advertising revenue is going to score highly.

Yet for those who see the recession as an opportunity to sell already attractive bus travel to a greater number of people seeking to reduce or avoid their motoring costs, then the benefits of effective marketing are even greater in order to seize the opportunity.

So we see Stagecoach clearly spurning advertising on its Goldline product, and Southern Vectis heading rapidly into Brighton & Hove's camp, with new buses arriving in full company branding, and repaints being similarly treated, leaving a rapidly declining number of buses carrying adverts.

Omnibuses Survey 2009

Here’s the results of the Omnibuses Survey we ran on 26 & 27 January, with thanks to all participants. It looks like about a quarter of regular readers responded. That lies respectably within the expected online response range of between ten and 35 per cent. Here’s feedback on both the qualitative responses and quantitative data.

Quantitative Data

Over 85 per cent of responding readers rated Omnibuses as either Excellent or Very Good. No one felt that the blog was OK or Poor.

Considering other transport blogs respondents might read, around a third felt that Omnibuses was their favourite and 40 per cent believed that Omnibuses was better than other transport blogs. Fewer than 20 per cent felt that Omnibuses was about the same and, thankfully for us, no one said that they preferred other transport blogs.

Just over three-quarters of respondents stated that they read Omnibuses daily. More or less a fifth do so at least two or three times a week with the remainder (fewer than two per cent) viewing weekly (it’s difficult to capture the weekly or occasional audience without extending the survey).

Taking the responses to the question on readers’ interests, it’s possible to deduce that a third of readers work within the bus industry (whether enthusiasts or not) and more than three-quarters are enthusiasts (whether working in the industry or not). Curiously, fewer than 10 per cent felt they were neither employed by the industry nor enthusiasts.

Close to 50 per cent of respondents first came here from a link from another blog or website. Some 20 per cent of readers stumbled upon the site via a search engine. 15 per cent of people arrived by recommendation.

Nearly 40 per cent of visitors have been reading for a year or so. A similar number have done so for less than a year. 20 per cent are longer term.

Generally, half of all readers or so live in southern England (however they define it—we left that option open). Circa 40 per cent are from other parts of the UK and 10 per cent read from overseas. Age ranges are reasonably equally split between 18-35s, 36-49s and 50+s. Some were younger. Only about 15 per cent of respondents write their own blog.

We were surprised to learn that roughly a third of readers would tolerate adverting and a quarter had no problem with it at all. That’s nearly 90 per cent.

Qualitative Responses

Among the 15 questions, four asked for specific written comments. This was optional. We were delighted that a third responded. There were some definite trends but also some diversity, which made this part of the analysis trickier. And qualitative information is likely to be the driver for change on this blog. So, here we go.

One of the responses was “I would prefer not to have articles split into...”

TO BE CONTINUED ; ) Sorry, just couldn't resist that one...