Giving Change

It’s an utter pain for drivers having to give change on bus services. It really is. The driver in the morning peak faced with a twenty and a nominal float is in difficulties. The note-wielding passenger for a £2 fare or even a £5 fare if this is with a large note slows everyone down and there are also many examples of Monday morning services arriving consistently late because of the sale of weekly tickets with high denomination notes—and the change issues they bring. It’s even been suggested (by passengers) that certain Monday peak trips need retiming!

But giving change is far preferable to exact fare systems. I admit I dislike them; it’s not in my culture and I’ve never been used to them. Had I lived in, say, Preston, well may be I would see the benefit more. If I worked in Birmingham, the same, too. There are cities where the exact fare hopper’s been maintained for years, though there are examples where it’s been dropped at or after deregulation.

It seems to me that those passengers who regularly use exact fare systems at best feel resentful at occasionally having to over-pay. It’s more than a minor inconvenience. It hardly encourages irregular users onto the bus, either. Visitors can feel bewildered as they struggle to find the necessary coinage and, let’s face it, they feel ripped off in the same way as motorists do when faced with a no-change car parking ticket system.

In almost every particular, the industry is far more customer focused than ever it was—except in the slavish continuation of drop vault fare systems. It’s as well that in some areas up to 40 per cent ridership is by way of an over-60s free pass. Roll on smartcards as a solution to exact fare systems but, as we said in May 2008, these are far from ready to launch.

Major Incident Planning

Bus operators will now be considering just what the possible swine flu pandemic might mean to them. It's now certain to reach Britain and things could move fast. Operators will be reviewing their plans for business continuity.

We knew there’d be a pandemic flu outbreak at some point, though conventional wisdom suggested this might be bird not swine flu. If the worst happens, what might the pattern of demand be like in the short term?

Experience as far back as a 1957 pandemic seems to suggest that 50 per cent of school children suffered. I wonder, then, how likely it is that pupils will go to school, even if schools are open in the first place. If schools aren’t open, it’s similarly likely that parents will need to take time off and won’t be travelling. Getting to work will probably not be a high priority. Neither will shopping, even for food (in the short term).

In any case, it’s likely that government advice will be to avoid social contact in large groups. The need for travel is therefore likely to diminish (in the short term). That’s all supposing there are fuel deliveries for operators. And it also supposes that driving and maintenance staff are able to turn in, in the first place. Absenteeism may be high through ill health.

It’s impossible to plan fully for a potential major incident such as this but there are steps that an operator might reasonably consider. Fuel contingency is one. Identifying emergency levels of service is another. Monitoring and reviewing staff in terms of vulnerable groups to attack is another. Being ready to work with emergency planners at the local authorities and police is a fourth. Planning for the personal safety of those behind the cab is certainly not least.

Never say Never

It may end up with “the perverse result that you reduce mileage on some [bus] routes”, as spoken yesterday by Go Ahead chief executive Keith Ludeman. It may even be that, as one industry insider is reported to have said to the Grauniad (sic), “everyone knows that the concessionary fares scheme as it currently operates is unsustainable”. But as for the possibility of limiting free travel in some way, well, it just ain’t gonna happen.

Ludeman was speaking about the seemingly perverse situation where you begin to see cuts because free travel reimbursement doesn’t compensate the operator for the increased numbers now travelling. The Guardian took up Ludeman’s statement that Oyster-style smart cards could act as a regulator to free travel, as a way of placing an electronic limit on the number of journeys taken or exacting some modest contribution from older people of, say 10p in the pound.

I well remember a conversation ten years ago with a senior manager operating in a PTE area. The PTE in question already offered free travel, at least for the bulk of the day. The manager said that PTE officers would’ve loved to cut the free travel budget, even abandon it altogether, but for one simple fact: it would be politically inexpedient.

In spite of some of the scheme’s flaws (in so-called honeypot areas, in places where operators are reimbursed less than half the fare foregone, etc), neither is it in the industry’s best interests to say “no” to free travel or see it limited. It does, however, need proper and sustainable funding, especially in the light of Help the Aged’s comment, also yesterday, that free travel is a significant tool in tackling isolation. That makes it more a social than a transport policy, as we already knew.

Surely a Good Thing

Saturday’s post on bus fares begat an interesting and considered crop of comments. Check them out if you haven’t taken a look yet.

• The relationship of fares to the weather in those areas relying on tourists or occasional travel
• The lack of fares incentives to capture occasional travel
• Motorists benefiting from a subsidy not available to bus passengers
• The perception that fares should only be marginally higher than the last time someone caught a bus, say, 20 years ago.

Setting fares is a complex issue and one that requires considerable business skill. From the outside, it’s often seen as just an easy source of revenue maximisation and profiteering. Yet, by pitching the rise too steeply or not high enough, how many times over the years have increases failed to bring in the expected revenue growth? How often have elasticities taken practitioners by surprise? How many times have disproportionate increases in popular short hop tickets resulted in a greater than expected transfer from bus to walking?

Get it wrong and there’s nowhere else to go, no other source of revenue, not in these deregulated days. In economic theory terms, the bus industry is a mature market, which means there is a limited ability to grow that market without considerable hard work. Make a mistake at fares revision time and you really threaten your business. There’s no cushion of latent demand on which to fall back.

The bus industry has traditionally “revised” fares (as it still euphemistically puts it) rather than withdraw service or make redundancies. On balance, this surely is a Good Thing. Those passengers who therefore complain about higher fares need to remember that this might well be preferable to facing a reduced service (or no service at all).

This means fare increases exceed inflation and have done so since Adam was a lad (since the mid-fifties, anyway). This also means that medium distance fares nationally have been moving towards their day ticket counterparts for quite some time (or in some cases day tickets have deliberately been priced marginally ahead of returns). For some return fares, the day ticket acts as a cap. Perhaps I shouldn’t’ve been so surprised as I was when I was a Stranger in a Strange Town.

The economic theory of fares was somewhat turned on its head by national free travel. But that’s another story...

Could the red and yellow buses of Poole & Bournemouth ever have merged? (If literally, into a sort of orange, I suppose). The answer is ‘almost’ before and immediately prior to Transdev...

Missed Opportunity?

Those of us who remember the February 1978 south east Dorset bus reorganisation will recall that it wasn’t just about cuts. In fact, there was quite some expansion (though some of it was short-lived). What happened at the time was a more co-ordinated service in Poole & Bournemouth. Hants & Dorset and Bournemouth Transport shared and co-ordinated mileage to fill network gaps (e.g. 68/9 & 168/9). This recognised employment, leisure, education and shopping no longer respected political boundaries. At that time, BT operated to Poole for the first time (ser 30), extended its open tops from Christchurch over H&D’s route to Sandbanks, H&D extended considerable Poole-Bournemouths to Lansdowne while renumbering its buses into the 100s, thereby avoiding confusion with BT.

1978 was viewed as the first phase of ever-greater co-operation not seen since Bournemouth trams worked through to Poole up to 1935 though idle speculation of a full operational merger was just that: Bournemouth’s city fathers would never have conceded. Phase two of co-operation got nowhere, as H&D embarked on its Market Analysis Project. Along came deregulation and co-operation was no longer on the agendum. The co-existence that followed turned to enmity in 1987 as Yellow Buses began housing Badger Vectis, a move not forgotten and barely forgiven to this day. From late 2004 Morebus services and subsequently other competition from H&D’s successor Wilts & Dorset damaged a paralysed and out-manoeuvred Yellow Buses.

At the time in 2005 when Bournemouth council put its arms length Yellow Buses on the open market, W&D made a defensible and logical play. Instead, Transdev was successful. At their purchase, Transdev grandees privately expressed some surprise that W&D hadn’t succeeded. Transdev acknowledged the logic behind one unified network and the opportunity missed.

But that has never tainted their mood for increasing ridership to the extent that, while W&D has needed to cut (and will do so again next month), TYB has gone the other way.

The transformation in Bournemouth was perhaps made easier because services were at a lower base. Nevertheless, Transdev has proved itself wrong in suggesting one network. It’s demonstrated that quality competition in the sub-region is in fact the better course and not amalgamation. Till the issue of co-ordination is perhaps raised again under the terms of the Local Transport Act 2008.

Stranger in a Strange Town

I don’t know why I was so shocked. I understand fully the economics of bus operations, elasticities, distance decay, the effect of free travel on fares polices, and so on. But because this was an area with which I wasn’t altogether familiar, it struck me that ordinary single & return bus fares have increased to the extent that they can now be somewhat off-putting.

The journey in question was about eight miles in length and the return bus fare amounted to six quid. For only about an extra £1.50 on that bus, I could’ve enjoyed travel anywhere for the day over a significant slice of regional England. Since my bus was reasonably well loaded (at the shoulder of the peak), it’s easy to conclude that the fares charged were what the market would bear. Significant numbers were flashing pre-paid period tickets or education passes. But even weekly tickets weren’t especially cheap. As the journey neared its destination, it was inevitable that the post-0930 free travellers started to emerge.

That morning, I’d chosen the bus over the car. How many people would’ve simply driven the eight miles and parked? It’s true that a long stay parking space was only marginally cheaper than the bus fare but that’s not how motorists think. Had there been two of me, rather than one, you can understand why the car would become the obvious choice.

And had I driven for about 6½ of those eight miles, the fare on the park & ride service would’ve been about 40 per cent cheaper. For the casual user, where’s the incentive to leave the car on the drive and travel by bus?

Symbiosis

Using Best Impressions for cutting edge design and Netescape for up-to-date back office configuration, Southern Vectis is now almost ready to launch Local Web 3.0 on the Isle of Wight.

This goes well beyond the recent website spruce-up. By far.

Online sales screen from the forthcoming SVOC site revamp

The SVOC, Best Impressions & Netescape triumvirate are specifically working together on online shopping, a full network stop-to-stop fare checker, security encoded secure staff area plus an intranet-type internal news update facility. The project nears completion.

Current web offering is crisp and clear

The online shop goes further. SVOC will henceforward manage this functionality for all of Go South Coast from the existing GSC Newport customer relationship activities. Expect other GSC website updates accordingly. And why stop at GSC?

Web makeover from April 2006

Meanwhile, the SVOC website will see a tidier navigation by potentially reducing the number of initial menu choices. This will involve a second tier of pages. Along will come more public additions such as an accommodation section, more attractions, some nostalgia, and probably more. You can already see the weather and things to do.

Initial web presence from 2001 skipped flat and boring screens seen on some other sites

The website then becomes both a travel and general portal that not only sells SVOC but the island as well (and not just to purvey information for those who’re already there).

Symbiotic, you might say.

i Islandbuses.info

In Range?

A £2,000 scrappage grant for motorists with older cars, announced in the Budget yesterday.

An announcement a week ago that from 2011 prospective private electric car buyers might each be grant-aided to the tune of up to £5,000. What’s in it for buses?

Well, operators who can demonstrate at least a six per cent fuel efficiency gain will from April 2010 be eligible for a three per cent increase in BSOG. This may well hasten the purchase of hybrids and concentrate manufacturing minds in making vehicles lighter but we wonder whether now is the time for the (temporary) reintroduction of some sort of New Bus Grant—or something like it.

Whereas the 1970s version was to hasten the fleet conversion to driver-only status, now could be a time to help secure UK bus manufacturing jobs in the face of a medium term decline while accelerating the pace of accessible buses and reducing emissions.

While it’s ironic that bus deliveries are currently holding up (reflecting order lead times), the number of redundancies proposed at manufacturers is an indication of things to come, as the slowdown bites operators’ forward orders.


Meanwhile, one vehicle that isn't eligible for BSOG (because it doesn't use diesel fuel) but could count towards the six per cent fuel efficiency total is Optare’s Solo EV, an all-electric version of this proven and popular minibus. A huge capital expenditure requirement adds £70,000 to the asking price which, with depreciation, puts it outside the realm of most operators, other than perhaps on demonstration routes and projects (or airport-type work, perhaps).

While it’s said that lower running costs will save about £56,000 over the expected seven year battery life, the real issue for operators is still the bus’ projected range. Current battery technology means such a vehicle would be able to operate less than three return trips on Poole to Somerford via Bournemouth, Boscombe and Christchurch Transdev Yellow Buses 1B/C. But without service trials, how are manufacturers likely to make improvements and develop a better product? And why shouldn’t existing hybrid bus technology quality for a government helping hand? Or is increasing BSOG likely to be adequate to do that?

Consolidation not Cataclysm

It’s not just Wilts & Dorset making changes on the Dorset coast next month. So is Transdev Yellow Buses. Unlike last year, the change dates don’t coincide.

TYB’s 3 May 2009 changes are more about consolidation than cataclysm. They build nicely upon the network that’s seen phenomenal growth of up to 40 per cent sine July 2006. I don’t recall TYB seeing any major national awards for reversing the decline of some three per cent per annum at the old Yellow Buses. Shame. (They recieved a local one, though.)

What’s new from 3 May?

The 1a Bournemouth-Boscombe-Jumpers Corner-Christchurch-Somerford Rd-Somerford is increased from every 10 to every 7½ minutes.

A considerable improvement in that Somerford Road currently sees an unco-ordinated nine buses per hour that will in future be eight per hour evenly spread. No direct service to Poole, though.

The 1b & 1c through Poole-Bournemouth-Christchurch/Somerfords are retimed throughout, still operate every 10 minutes.

Since the withdrawal of the m2 east of Boscombe, this remains the region’s only through service across the entire conurbation, from Poole to Somerford.

TYB now offers 14 buses per hour along the Christchurch Road to Boscombe to W&D’s eight on m2 (plus two per hour on the X3).

The 1b will henceforward terminate at Christchurch, not Somerford.

The 1c will operate through Somerford estate (Hunt Rd) rather than the 1b.

To think that 30 years ago, Somerford estate saw just four return Bournemouth Transport trips per day! Immediately prior to TYB the estate saw two buses per hour

With the increased 1a via Somerford Road, this tidies things up in Somerford, with the 1c via Hunt Rd and only the 1a via Somerford Road.

There are minor timing changes to the 2, 4 and 6.

The 3 is unchanged on weekdays but is increased from every half-hour to every 20 minutes on Sundays.

This matches W&D’s three per hour via Charminster to Castlepoint on the m1.

The 18 from Broadstone & Canford Heath sees an amended route in Bournemouth town centre and some retimings, especially at peak.

The 49 is a new service that follows requests for a link from Lytchett Minster to Poole & Bournemouth and actually runs off the back of Your Bus* no. 19 (Creekmoor-Lytchett Minister School). It has one return trip on schooldays.

This reintroduces a yellow-liveried bus (UPDATE: well, white actually) along Penn Hill, once a marketing coup. The 49 competes marginally with W&D’s 40 & 9 but extends to Bournemouth. We like the choice of the number 49. Perhaps an extension to garage (for Castelpoint) might prove useful.

* not to be confused with Dunn Motor Traction

Your Bus

Up-to-date on Your Bus here

When we reported briefly on the formation of Dunn Motor Traction recently, we also wondered to ourselves how long it would be before the owners of the former Dunn Line would make a spectacular re-entry into the bus industry.

Speculation is now growing that Dunn Motor Traction trading as Your Bus will “launch shortly” and that for the people of Nottingham it will be “well worth the wait”. It already promotes itself through an as yet one-page website that portrays a modern image and is a tool for recruiting drivers. The site is registered to Scott Dunn but interestingly he declares himself as a non-trading individual who has opted to have his address omitted from the UK Nominet database. And the mysteries of Facebook have already given Your Bus over 60 “friends”. How can that be when there’s no actual service yet?

Incidentally, Velvet's Facebook has now reached over 237.

i Yourbus

The Fab Four?

We’re sure that Brian Souter would like nothing more than to merge Stagecoach with National Express as a prelude to a possible break up of the Nat Ex group. Outside London, Nat Ex’s bus businesses fit well with Stagecoach’s. Travel Dundee & Strathtay. Warwickshire & Travel West Midlands/Coventry. And then there’s the jewel of the National Express coach network itself, with possible operational synergies with Stagecoach.

Rumours of such a merger were reported a week ago in the Daily Telegraph. The paper linked Stagecoach with Spaniards the Cosmen family. Jorge Cosmen sold Spain’s Alsa to Nat Ex in 2005 receiving Nat Ex shares that he now has increased to just shy of 20 per cent.

City analysts were nevertheless quick to denounce the rumour. Friday’s Transit added that a merger “doesn’t seem very likely” because the core financial issues at troubled Nat Ex would remain, affecting Stagecoach.

Yet, Nat Ex is exposed. Its 18-month old East Coast rail operation is a burden that’s expected to derail Nat Ex’s rail division. Even this week, Nat Ex will again make a new plea for government help in meeting premium payments. Speculation in February that Nat Ex might hand in its East Coast rail token, though dismissed, brought interest from Virgin’s Richard Branson. Virgin’s West Coast is, of course, half owned by Stagecoach.

The consolidation within the industry has affected the so-called Big Five only insofar as they are gobbling smaller operators or rationalising among themselves. To date, there are no real indications that the Big Five might become the Fab Four. There’s occasional speculation. Remember 2006? The departure of then Nat Ex chief exec Phillip White linked Nat Ex with First Group. Also that year, Brian Souter himself felt that Stagecoach and the Go Ahead Group were a “good fit”. Naught came of either.

In spite of work on the benefits of the corporate National Express brand, it’s hard to view the bus, rail and express divisions as anything other than separate. In spite of impressive bus operators in Birmingham & Dundee, there’s little opportunity for Nat Ex to do what Stagecoach, First or Arriva buses have done in marketing terms. Maybe Stagecoach could help with that, given a chance...

Pictures of Liverpool—3 of 3

Omnibuses2.0’s Northern Correspondent finished his second of three posts on the Pictures of Liverpool by looking at how a Stagecoach accessible fleet has swept aside the Glenvale legacy and the introduction of new but inaccessible Magic Bus services. On the other hand, the least accessible passenger carrying vehicles working in Liverpool make Glenvale’s former ageing fleet of unreliable double decks seem positively callow.

Part three of three Pictures of Liverpool is now all up on the Omnibuses Repository, as one single article. Arriva, Stagecoach, others, and some surprising passenger carrying vehicles...

Power

You have to ask where we’re heading as a country when two police officers force a 69 year old Austrian tourist to delete his digital photographs of London buses and bus stations. This under the misapprehension that photographing anything in Britain to do with transport is strictly forbidden, or so the constables felt.

This latest escapade in transport photography is thanks to the perceived threat of terrorism. The police’s actions were clearly out of order—they cannot force deletion without a court order and they are plain wrong to suggest that transport photography is forbidden but then again, is an Austrian to know this? But the constables should, and that’s worrying. It all smacks of an increasingly repressive control in which the police, almost without our noticing, have gained through our consent as much “power” as you have expected expect behind the Iron Curtain. The only thing worse for the Austrian would’ve been to take a picture openly of the two police constables. Who knows where that might have led.

That hoodie looks a little suspicious. Perhaps he's a threat (not). May be he's just cold

We’ve mentioned issues surrounding bus photography here before (and it's affected me, too). We can rightly be outraged at the constables’ completely disproportionate response and the erosion of liberties, even if the incident occurred somewhat off the tourist beaten track. Actually, especially because it was off the tourist beaten track, for that’s where most innocent transport photography takes place. Before we become too indignant about the abuse of police powers, we also need to remember the general public too—and some bus drivers—is now becoming increasingly concerned about photography in public.

In the light of all this, if you take photos of buses, it’s easy to give up. Yet none of this should ever prevent the lawful use of a camera in a public space, always provided due care is taken. Once we *do* give up, surely the totalitarians have won.

7+1 Bus Blogs (sort of)

Omnibuses2.0 last published its seven-plus-one quick guide to the top bus-related UK blogs in July 2007. So far as we knew, this is the first ever review of top UK bus blogs.

Blogging life moves on so, in reloading this feature, what blogs would Omnibuses2.0 include today? The quality’s gone up several notches and at least one of the original bloggers we featured no longer blog (or not on buses). Which means the original 7+1 has changed completely and now become 6+1… so we need your help in finding a further bus blog to fill the gap, via the Comments box, please.

In arriving at our 7(6)+1, we have now discounted those appealing simply to enthusiasts. Enthusiasts may read the listed blogs but they must also appeal to professionals and or the public.

“Updates” refer to the frequency of posting. Hence 1.0 equals something usually every day; 0.5 would refer to a post roughly every other day. Blogs are in alphabetical order save for the Plus One.

Bath Bus Station Info
Since October 2008 ~ Updates 0.4 ~ New
Of more local significance, this innovative site is an exemplar of how modern technology can actually help passengers day to day. An official First Bristol Bath & the West site, it highlights delays and other operational issues specific to Bath. It came into its own during February’s highly inclement weather. Why aren’t more operators using this sort of thing? See our review here

Britain by Bus
Since 2/2009 ~ Updates 0.4 ~ New
The inspiration behind this well-written blog is a six-day sponsored odyssey from somewhere in the wilds of Scotland to Brighton, only via Stagecoach buses. In preparing for the trip, the author posts some eclectic and erudite bus-related articles such as the nationalised industry, the future of the bus as seen through the pages of a 1960s I-spy book, bus journeys and Birmingham’s Outer Circle 11/11A. Support the blog and support the author’s charity.

Busworld Photography
Since 12/2006 ~ Updates 1.0 ~ Featured on the original 7+1
We continue to like this blog-meets-Flickr flashback. The author chooses pictures that express life rather than the usual, flatter ‘record shots’. There’s a satisfying amount of welcome explanatory text that make this blog so much more bountiful than Fotopic. You never know from one day to the next what might appear.

Driving Seat, from the
Since 9/2008 ~ Updates 0.2 ~ New
Unusual in that this blog is openly written by a senior member of staff at a bus operator—in this case, at Southern Vectis. We’ve oft said how operators should consider this blog thing to their advantage. This one sets out in easily understood layman’s terms some of the issues facing a modern operator. See our review here

Manchester Buses
Since July 2008 ~ Updates 0.4 ~ New
A well laid out and often breathlessly enthusiastic sit about buses in the Greater Manchester ITA, with a nice dash of good humour. Always positive and deceivingly the winner of the ‘Best Community Blog’ category in the Manchester Blog Awards 2008.


Velvet Bus
Since March 2008 ~ Updates 0.1 ~ New
A candid and honest account of life running a small, lower cost operation in Hampshire. Realism with a twist of humour but not updated nearly often enough.

Blog Number 7
We’ve struggled to find no.7. So it’s over to you. What would you suggest? Please complete the comments box below.

And, for the record and SEO, here's the "Plus One"...

Omnibuses
Since 9/2003 ~ Updates 1.0 ~ Featured on the original 7+1
Forgive us for adding Omnibuses2.0 as we did last time, for we do so for search engine optimisation. It would be unfair of us to comment on ourselves, so we leave it up to Jimmy Mac, who says, "It’s fair to say that Omnibuses blog is the leading UK blog devoted to all things buses, with regular postings for the past four and a half years. Written by a mystery editor based somewhere near Bournemouth, it takes a look at the whole spectrum of topics—from industry news and thoughts on marketing to more specialised topics such as bus photography and south coast goings-on."

Ready for Take-off

Excel’s Airport by Coach service X2 between Manchester and Liverpool John Lennon Airport is preparing for take-off. You can now book tickets online for the official start date of Friday 1st May 2009.

X2 will operate hourly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and, unlike 0400-2300 Arriva North West’s 700 which it replaces, is extended to Liverpool city centre and also serves Manchester airport and Warrington. Local journeys are available and the X2 will offer an alternative to rail & the two return National Express coach journeys between Warrington and Liverpool. It’s possible that the early hours of Saturday and Sunday mornings may well prove popular in both directions for club-related city to city travel.

Suburb to airport travel has recently proved a rich seam ripe for bus exploitation, whether commercially or under contract. Witness the increase in service associated with Bournemouth International. Liverpool John Lennon’s growth, however, has in recent years been phenomenal, outstripping most other provincial airports. This is so much so that when the Selwyn’s operated Merseytravel PTE limited stop Flightlink 500 from Liverpool city centre fell due in 2005, Arriva chose to take it over commercially. There are apparently no plans to withdraw the 500 in the light of the X2.

At about the same time, Arriva benefited from a Kickstart-like bid to increase the 89 from St Helens to John Lennon to every 20 minutes, with new vehicles complete with extra onboard luggage stowage.

Since then, of course, we are in deep recession. The 700 was never as popular as the 500. What the X2 offers that the 700 bus service doesn’t is a higher profile, the luxury of a coach, plus online booking. Nevertheless, the number of international trips and holidays is predicted to fall further this summer. This will affect bus operations. As evidence of this, there’s the York air link service 787. Launched in February 2007 from York to Leeds Bradford International, First’s service will finish after last operation on 25 April 2009.

The X2 is perhaps on safer ground, with its huge Manchester/Warrington/Widnes catchment. Let's hope no continental coves mistakes it for Stagecoach's X2, recently the beneficiary of Enviro 400s, or else they'll end up in Preston...

Arriva acquired Excel & Manchester sister Flight Delay Services in April 2008, ceding them to Tellings Golden Miller, itself purchased by Arriva five months beforehand.

Additional information by Northern Correspondent

Do Overs

The painters & decorators are in. It seems to be open season for web makeovers (try here and here and here and here). Here’s a couple of new examples from the south coast.

Last week, Traveline South West underwent a most welcome change. Gone is the creamy, staid, flat, old-fashioned image adopted since the site went live in 2002. Instead, we see a modern, largely white home screen that’s inviting & simple to use and has a flavour of some of what the south west has to offer. The route maps are excellent, zoomable and allow you to select an origin or destination graphically when planning a journey.

There are a number of issues, though. 1. While I am not a fan of the dreaded Adobe, TravelineSW does not offer PDFs for printing. Timetable lookups just show a small selection of journeys and like many a Traveline site this is frustratingly and limiting. 2. TravelineSW works fine with the major browser (Firefox) plus Internet Explorer but it still does not support minority browsers. 3. The site still doesn’t really like Bournemouth Square or Gervis Place. If you select "Bournemouth", it has a knack of showing journeys starting and finishing at the "bus station" (rail station travel interchange). If you don’t know Bournemouth, this isn’t the town centre terminus.

While TravelineSW is streets better than last week, we still prefer Traveline-Wales as the leader in the Traveline genre.

Black Velvet Travel (henceforward just known as Velvet) is another site that’s gone white, instead of the sombre black of the past year. The difference here is that Velvet’s always had a very modern feel to it. As befits Velvet, the authors manage some rather interesting humour throughout (though whether all passengers appreciate it, who can tell).

“But have no fear, you have arrived safely in purple paradise where our friendly, helpful drivers wait to whisk you to such exotic destinations as Hedge End and Chandler's Ford!”

Velvet is one of the small but growing number of operators to have its own Facebook social networking page, the link to which appeared on the Velvet webiste yesterday and it already has some pretty unexpected friends. There were exactly 100 fans as at 0659 this morning.

Finally, we turn again to the south coast—of Wales. Another significant refurb’s been done by Newport Transport which, till last week, was probably one of Britain’s least well laid out bus websites. The company’s nicely reversed this situation by creating something that’s attractive to use, graphical, functional and clutter-free—and now one of the best. Oh, and it’s white.

i Traveline South West
i Traveline Wales
i Velvet
i Newport Transport

Gone for a Burton

Dr Who Planet of the Dead Looking for Doctor Who’s so-called red London “Routemaster” bus RUA 461W that’s less romantically an ex-Wakefield Bristol VR? Try here and here

Conclusion to the Burton bus service withdrawal is here

Here’s an example of where we are at the moment with poorer performing bus services...

Show me a loss-making bus service and I’ll show you a bulging petition. These are inevitably signed by those who require their bus for no other reason than an insurance policy should their lift fail when they need to collect their 4x4 from its annual service. OK, that’s slightly sceptical. But if I had a seven-day ticket’s worth of revenue every week for every name on every petition I’ve ever seem, there’d be no such thing as a council supported bus service.

“Rather than blame the operator, perhaps the community should blame itself for not supporting its bus service”

Regular readers will recall that Wilts & Dorset’s X12 is just one phrase that generates quite a number of blog hits here. In just over a month’s time, the X12 Burton leg’s to finish and those who are upset about it have, through their web searches, seemingly gravitated here. There’s been a minor explosion since the story broke.

Of the X12’s Burton extinction, someone at the parish council said to the press, “The bus company may say that the route does not carry enough people but the petition we have… just goes to show that they are wrong”.

Yet, rather than blame the operator, perhaps the community should blame itself for not supporting its bus service. For I just wonder who’s best to judge who actually travels on the X12 Burton leg, the parish council or the bus operator. Bus petitions are often somewhat optimistic and hardly ever reflect totally those who actually *travel* (regularly).

So it is that W&D retorted in the same Echo article, “If all these people who have signed the petition used the buses then we would not be in this situation… we cannot go on indefinitely running [it] at a loss”.

And there’s the rub. Even Burton’s expansion over the last 30-40 years hasn’t provided enough chimney pots of the right sort to sustain its bus service commercially. 88 per cent of households have a car which, by Christchurch’s standards, is pretty affluent. Even Sandbanks & Canford Cliffs can’t boast that level of car ownership.

Those in Burton who point to the success of the m1 and m2 Poole-Bournemouth-Castlepoint/Boscombe or the recent Go Ahead Group trading figures that all might somehow cross-subsidise the X12 miss the point. Lest we forget, bus operations are commercial businesses. Running buses that don’t cover their costs ultimately results in bankruptcy. Getting the m2 back into shape was one reason why in May 2008 it found itself cut back from Burton to Boscombe (though there were quite clearly other reasons). There’s only two ways to sustain a bus service: fares (or reimbursements) or direct financial support. We should perhaps be grateful that so many of south east Dorset’s routes run commercially, without increasing unduly our council tax.

And all this gnashing of Burton’s collective teeth presupposes no one else is interested in buses to this 5,000-strong community—or indeed whether W&D may yet receive some form of subsidy to run something. We’ve yet, for example, to hear Dorset council’s response and it is to them that the community should turn as its first port of call in this particular storm.

Laughable Decision?

If I was a company saying such things publicly about a traffic commissioner’s judgement such as a “laughable decision” and “excess officialdom and bullying” I must admit I’d feel very uncomfortable. Particularly if I was planning on a Transport Tribunal appeal.

Though not sure whether there is such an appeal for a stay against what amounts to a revocation from 2359 15 April 2009, these terms are exactly what Bankfoot Buses of Perth, Scotland uses on its website, following a decision by the Scottish traffic commissioner at public inquiry.

Bankfoot Buses stands accused of a number of allegations. These were passing off as Stagecoach, with similar livery and uniforms; the little matter of a forged O-licence disc; a failure to display discs; failures to operate without reasonable cause; and interference with bus stopping arrangements in Perth to the detriment of road safety and traffic management.

Serious accusations indeed. If true, all strike at the very heart of safe, legal and professional PSV operations. Hence the traffic commissioner’s view that this was “as bad as it gets”. Interestingly, it would appear that Bankfoot’s owners are a company said to be “the UK’s foremost public transport and training consultancy” whose transport training includes “successful service delivery”.

Not surprisingly, Stagecoach was delighted at the removal of a competitor. Said a spokesman, “Bankfoot Buses have been involved in a shameful catalogue of serious offences… which threatened the good reputation of our industry.”

Remember, though, that Stagecoach itself has been accused of sharp practice even though at its nadir, in Darlington, Stagecoach acted within the law. All that’s in the past, though, isn't it (Preston?). And until the Traction Group bought Strathtay Scottish, there’d been competition between Strathtay & Stagecoach in Perth which, if nothing else, would have tested loyalties to breaking point.

From Bankfoot’s website:

“We especially had a good chuckle at the bit of the report that said Bankfoot Buses had tried to manipulate public opinion by offering free services, charity donations and mulled wine on board—as if it were somehow wrong to maintain good public relations and thank our customers...you...the very people who have supported us. Rest assured, Bankfoot Buses will continue to provide the same safe, reliable bus service that it has always done—and it will take more than excessive officialdom and bullying from others to stop us. Please support us in any way you can.”

Doctor What?

Hmmm, wouldn’t call last night’s Doctor Who an absolute classic. What did you think of it? Slightly thin, especially when you compare it to some of the Dr Who greats of the Tennant era, such as Weeping Angels.

No, Planet of the Dead simply wasn’t memorable, not even with that “Routemaster” bus. What, for example, happened to the usual threat to the Doctor’s life? Those interesting-looking jumpsuited bug-eyed insect things seemed rather too passive.

And a flying Bristol VR bus? That was a little too convenient, too Harry Potter and just a little juvenile. How come the bus that travelled from London through a wormhole to an alien planet sustained such damage, yet the flying alien metal manta ray things travelling the opposite direction didn’t?

And why does each film or TV driver always fail to look in his (or her) offside let alone near side mirror before pulling off, giving themselves away as actors? The drill is both mirrors in sequence and failure to do so on a test means a “major”.

Nice touch when the Doctor used his psychic paper as an Oyster card. Even nicer when one of the passengers said the bus had run out of “petrol”, as your average passenger always seems to think that’s what fuels a bus. But what operator lets his bus run out of diesel even towards the end of a day's shift?

Consequences

The issue about the infamously failed-after-two-years Sheffield bus partnership between First Group, South Yorkshire PTE and the city council is not why it failed but the consequences thereof, one of which may be a South Yorkshire quality contract.

First has backed away. I’ll let others go into the minutiæ concerning the reasons for the failure*. What’s resulted is a return to the uneasy relationship between operator and devolved or local government, restoring the school playground “yes you did, no you didn’t” Houses of Parliament adversarial approach. This has featured more on than off since deregulation freed operators to register what they liked, when they liked; and since privatisation saw first arms-length and then privatised operations where once PTEs had complete control.

Optimists cite the Local Transport Act 2008 as amelioration. I’m an optimist but not with this. You can see the respective solicitors lining up against each other trying to prove one way or another on the basis of the failure if this partnership.

When the dust settles, it’s not about partnerships or quality contracts. It’s about premium roadspace and priority. With adequate roadspace, operators can simply deliver what they do best, whatever the legal framework may be. Priority is at least 40 years old in Britain yet it’s proved notoriously difficult to deliver. Newport Wales and Birmingham have recently reneged. These cities won’t be the last. Now there are issues in Sheffield. Meanwhile, Brighton has managed this process in a fully deregulated environment. Will that, too, unravel in time?

* Was it, for example, to enable First can reduce service in the teeth of recession? Or a failure of SYPTE through its city council agents to honour & grow bus priority rather than reduce and not enforce it?

Simplicity still the Key?

A Cumbrian contributes…

No surprises really when Arriva blamed its latest round of service cuts in the heavy woollen area of Yorkshire on the economy. More surprising, though, is that for the most part the frequency reductions are in the off-peak. This probably fits with the current economic situation—most people still have jobs and so still need to commute to and from work, but everyone is being told that they’re less well off so are scrimping on discretionary trips to & from town.

Nevertheless, bus operation orthodoxy would tell us that off-peak buses only need to cover their marginal costs and so running the same frequency as in the peak is a no-brainer. By retaining a high PVR but operating less mileage off-peak, you’re left with assets that aren’t thoroughly sweated. It’s rather like Tesco closing at five or not opening on Sundays.

So, there’s something strange about this. It looks like the peak-heavy 1970s. Why is the woollen district network so different? It’s local geography, perhaps? A resistance to change? Or what?

One reason might be that perhaps the network isn’t yet simplified enough. In spite of reductions in frequencies on many routes there will actually be one more service number at the end of the month than there was at the start. Yet, the new mantra appears to be straightforward, frequent and memorable bus routes. It’s worked well elsewhere (e.g. Bournemouth, where it’s worked very well).

An operator’s peak traffic will probably realise that alternative modes are so unpleasant that passengers won't mind a slightly longer walk to a different road if it increases choice. Even if they catch the same bus at the same time every day, there’s something psychological about a better service. By saying they won't mind, I really mean they won't switch modes.

And off peak users are encouraged to make more trips in general (and more shorter hops that might otherwise be on foot) with a less complicated network that’s clearly understood and benefits from a concentration of services along a corridor.

But sometimes, the fall out from straightening a network just isn’t worth brazening it out. Sometimes, passenger resentment is such that simple networks just aren’t worth it. May be Arriva senses that there’s too much of the traditionalist in the good people of Yorkshire. After all, the Big Five operators never do anything just for the sake of it.

Not What it Seems

More on RUA 461W here

When is a red London bus not a London bus? When it’s on Dr Who.

The stars of Saturday’s Dr Who Easter special feature not one but two buses, though they apparently purport to be one and the same, as the BBC used identical models, one in Cardiff Wales and the other on location in Dubai.

Of the Easter special, the Radio Times declares, “It all began with a red London bus”. And this London icon to which they refer? 1981 Bristol VR RUA 461W...

Perhaps in another Dr Who reality this Red Wakefield Bus might be of London

Correct me if I’m wrong, but no operator in London actually ever bought a Bristol VR new and certainly not London Transport. London Country had 15 interesting looking ECW highbridge versions but they don’t count, as LC was split from London Transport in 1969, well ahead of the LC’s 1977 VR batch (all of which lasted less than four years). And LC’s were green in any case.

No, buses as classic, graceful and proportioned as the ECW bodied Bristol VR never graced London’s Routemaster-, DMS-, Metrobus- and Titan-filled streets.

I’m not suggesting that Bristol VRs didn’t operate in London as I’m sure the odd one or two made their way there from the home counties (and on express services, especially Standerwick’s 30 from the north west of England). Surely not in anything approaching huge numbers. And it may be that some early privatised tendered operations used them but, again, these would’ve been few.

So, what is it with the Red London Bus (RLB)? Why is the BBC describing a Yorkshire bus as from London?

Would the programme makers have evoked the same response had it been a Red Wakefield Bus (as RUA 461W originally was)? Or a Yellow Bournemouth Bus? Or a White Birmingham Bus?

Labelling a bus as an RLB immediately raises it from the ordinary. An RLB is instantly distinguishable and the population can visualise it. They somehow have a stake in it. Among the multitude of body styles and seemingly ever-changing liveries, the RLB is a certainty, a constant, an example of continuity. It’s internationally known. How, for example, did international Ipcress File cinema goers know that Michael Caine had escaped not from an Albanian prison but a London dungeon? The first shot after his freedom panned to a RLB.

And, since red liveries seem to have gone the way of blues and greens, red is very much now equated with London alone. Recognisable, then, even if in this particular instance it has nothing whatever to do with half-cab Routemasters or London.

i Dr Who Easter Special

Dr Who Factfile Bus type: Bristol VR Original Owner: West Riding Automobile Co Ltd Registration: RUA 461W Location: Dubai (damaged in transit) Current Value before damage: £20,000 according to the Daily Telegraph (really??!!) Service: 200 Destination indicator set to: Victoria (even though the actual 200 is Raynes Park-Ridgway-Wimbledon-Colliers Wood- Mitcham) Original livery: Poppy red as new and even returned to red working for Hedingham.

Terminology

Each industry has its own language and terminology that’s designed to make life easier for practitioners. It’s a kind of shorthand. Various bus types used to have their own quirky regional names and in some cases still do—the Solo, for example. Duties, workloads and even some bus routes find their own abbreviations. And there are some terms that ensure that those who aren’t in the know don’t join the party. It’s almost a rite of passage. Here’s two of my favourite examples of bus jargon that’s sensible but stupid all at the same time.

Can anyone come up with more?

Extend Back—you can extend forward; or go back and retreat. But extending back? It’s something of a tautology. It’s perfectly rational in the bus industry, though. It’s where a journey to B starts at A but for whatever reason needs to begin further out from B at Z and hence is extended back.

Flat Peak—every busman’s dream and another tautology. This is where the peak vehicle requirement is equal to the number of buses required at off peak. The fleet is in equilibrium and there’s no excess required for rush hour peak, when more buses are needed. To the layman, a peak’s a spike. How can it ever be flat?

Anyone got any more?

Another interesting term is “down the pan”. This in some areas is bus speak for extremely late to the point where it’s hardly worth carrying on. A term that lingers in some areas well past the age of conductors is the “five bell load”. If the bus was so full it couldn’t accommodate any more, the conductor would sound five bells to signal to the driver, who would then pass waiting passengers. The thought of a double decker struggling under the weight of a five bell load is something of a rarity these days. “Ghost buses” are rare but can still apply to those not in the timetable (by design or accident). And I always liked the idea of a road inspector being called a “jumper”.

Any contributors out there wish to add anything?

The Oxford Solution

Is there a hint of treachery in Stagecoach & Go Ahead’s proposals to relinquish their right to compete against each other? Are they setting a dangerous precedent that flies in the face of operators’ recent affirmations that the free market should be retained at all costs?

Or are Stagecoach and Go Ahead adapting their philosophy in the light of a greater threat? Is there a recognition that there’s more to gain by co-operation than competition? Is this simple expediency?

I’m referring to the Oxford Solution.

Readers may recall that in February, A Cumbrian reported on threats to Oxford city centre bus running, with moves to clear buses out of the main city streets and even the possibility that some passengers may have to change buses on to a shuttle just outside the city area to reach their final destination.

This is because Oxfordshire council wishes to reduce the number of buses in parts of the city centre (and ultimately rid some streets of buses altogether). With 44 per cent of arrivals said to be by bus (presumably including park & ride), this could be disastrous for both the city centre and operators. So it is that Stagecoach and Go Ahead’s Oxford Bus Company are proposing counter measures, because buses simply cannot be brushed under the tarmac.

The joint counter measures take advantage of the Local Transport Act 2008 and are in essence a statutory quality partnership, to reduce the number of buses by co-operating & co-ordinating with each other and in accepting each other’s tickets. Both operators argue that two competing 10-minute services could, for example, be reduced to a joint service at every 7½ minutes, thereby reducing the number of buses per hour in this case by a third, while effectively increasing the number available to passengers by the same amount.

Oxford is rightly held up as an example of a good working model of dereg, where quality competition has raised the game and increased ridership. Now, though, operators are saying that there’s actually more to gain in working collaboratively than competitively.

While such an argument in a high profile competitive situation such as Oxford’s could easily send shock waves throughout the industry, there’s a certain pragmatism about it. And, in the difficult times in which we live, there’s the opportunity for economies while actually growing revenue for both businesses. Interesting indeed, given that patronage in Oxford is known to have stabilised.

It would appear that the Oxford Bus Company & Stagecoach both realise that public opinion on pedestrianisation is not on their side. And, passengers will see the sense in the operators’ coaction for a common good. Passengers have never understood deregulation and like we’ve said so many times they view the bus service as a public asset.

More Twists than Oliver?

It ain’t easy being a start up operator and in truth it never has been. It’s more likely you’ll go the way of Charlie’s Cars* than Brian Souter. To become successful means finding a niche but searching for a new one is increasingly difficult—if you can find one at all. If there’s something that can reasonably be exploited, it probably already has been.

So it is, over one year on, that the latest changes proposed at Eastleigh’s Black Velvet Travel see another volte-face. Buses on the Fair Oak Flyer are now marking time and will end after last operation on 23 May 2009. This after only 132 days. News was given at a Velvet staff meeting about ten days ago. As was some other unpleasant information...

Ser 200 Fair Oak Flyer, direct to Fair Oak

The decision follows both a drop in fares and an increase in frequency on Solent Blue Line/Bluestar’s competitive service 2 on the Eastleigh-Fair Oak section. Free travel payments are apparently contributory. In truth, with 10 buses total an hour, the corridor seems to have become over bussed, with too many journeys carrying too few passengers. In spite of the direct Flyer route and Velvet’s noted customer service, frequency on an indirect but established route (service 2) is perhaps more important over such a relatively short distance.

Velvet's fairoakflyer.co.uk website used to transform from blue to purple

On the positive side, Velvet is man enough to accept when things don’t always go to plan. The company has a willingness to try new ideas and no one should ever knock them for having a go (when many in the industry are totally risk averse). There are, after all, plenty of examples of high stakes products brought to the general market that’ve failed. New Coca Cola. Polaroid. Apple III and Apple Lisa. Windows M.E. Why should the bus industry be any different?

One of four East Lancs Myllenium-bodied DAF SB220s at Vevlet

The interesting thing here, though, is that following the B/BeepBus fiasco, Velvet’s managing director Phil Stockley in discussing the Fair Oak Flyer has openly used challenging language in the media against his former employer SBL/Bluestar. Understandably, the press seems very interested in this sort of thing and when they realise the latest developments will no doubt portray this as a victory for the aggressive big boy (rather than what it is, SBL defending its market against a predatory operator).

If you look at Velvet’s turbulent history, you see somewhat mixed fortunes:

• 25 February 2008 sees Velvet service A start, initially at a half-hourly frequency, following SBL’s withdrawal. This is soon halved to hourly.


• 27 May 2008 and Velvet wins the Hampshire contract for the former X35 from Ringwood to Southampton.


• 8 September 2008 is when Velvet B takes to the road commercially, between Eastleigh & Southampton, where possible astutely avoiding SBL workings, partly replacing SBL’s B, providing a through service from Velmore Estate to Southampton and enabling crew changes to and from the Ringwoods.


• On the same date, SBL operates BeepBus B, mirroring Velvet by three minutes throughout, operating free of charge for the first week to circumnavigate the registration rules.


• 10 January 2009 sees the last operation of the Southampton-Ringwood services, together with the B, into which it connected.


• 12 January 2009 and Velvet commences its optimistic direct 15-minute Fair Oak Flyer between Eastleigh & Fair Oak. SBL cuts fares locally on the 2. Velvet also commences broadly hourly Eastleigh-Swaythling-Portswood-Southampton service 500; and evening services under contract on the E8 between Eastleigh & Boyatt Wood.


• 23 February 2009 and SBL cuts the through Eastleigh-Fair Oak-Southampton service on the 2 to every 20 minutes while increasing instead to every 10 minutes between Eastleigh & Fair Oak.


• 23 February 2009 also sees Velvet win a short-term tender to the end of August 2009 to operate the former SBL C1/2 between Eastleigh, Chandlers Ford, Hiltingbury/Valley Park.


• 18 April 2009 is the last day of the 500, lasting 97 days and its withdrawal is consequent upon not only disappointing loadings but mainly owing to winning the C1/2s earlier.


• 23 May 2009 and the Fair Oak Flyer is withdrawn.

So, the question is, what’s next for Velvet? Velvet certainly pays well compared to its neighbours but offers no staff pension scheme. Those who look on might wonder whether there is the prospect of long term employment for all drivers. This is especially so given reports that Velvet has asked its drivers to take a 10 per cent pay cut to sustain the company’s future.

Added to which, Velvet is vulnerable should the substantive tender for the C1/2 fall elsewhere. But there’s no doubt that Velvet might usefully concentrate on the tendered market more in future, as a lower cost operator. It might stand more of a chance of winning the battle on paper for a tender than commercially on the streets. Now that Go South Coast has largely straightened out SBL/Bluestar, will there be any such tenders available any time soon?

And, finally, what of SBL/Bluestar on the 2s? Will this go back to the pre-Flyer every 15 minutes between Eastleigh & Southampton, abandoning the shorts but concentrating on important Swaythling? Or would passengers find another destabilising change frustrating?

i Photos by Southdown PD3 and Southern England Bus Photographs (both used with permission)

* At dereg, Charlie’s Cars exploited a niche by initially operating a network focused on the Hampshire Centre (now Castlepoint) on Castle Lane West

Re-opening

Poole bus station is due to reopen fully tomorrow. It’s been part-closed since 11 January 2009 for a partial refurb. Like all such remodelling, sometimes it’s difficult to see what you get for your money (in this case, £300,000).

Detail of the underside of Poole Bus Station's canopy artwork

What will be most visible to passengers is the transformation of the underside of the passenger canopy—with a mural that’s said to represent images of hot-air balloons, water-skiers and divers. Onlookers from the Arndale Centre’s library will continue to see the flat, grey canopy roof with its ponding water, though.

Pastel green columns and red reflected on the roof. Plus raised kerbs

The red that looks fine on buses but gaudy on the bus station pillars is replaced by a gentler non-Tilling green that’s reminiscent of Hants & Dorset’s timetables of the mid-1960s. Improved lighting will add to the overall brightness of the bus station, including uplights to the mural. Importantly, the transformation’s added kerbs to assist disabled people join their buses.

During the works, Transdev Yellow Buses were sent to Kingland Rd itself

During the works, a number of buses have been relegated to Seldown Road car park which, beforehand, received a much-needed proper surface. Passengers for Transdev Yellow Buses, on the other hand, found themselves through the Kingland Road underpass and opposite the bus station for the duration. Not the best location for casual users when Wilts & Dorset More-branded competitive Bournemouth services continue every 3 to 4 minutes from within the bus station itself. Better than Seldown Road, though.

Won’t Feel the Benefit

The recent rather pleasant temperatures (at least in this part of the country) have seen customers opening passenger windows for the first time this year.

Have you noticed some interesting phenomena about passengers and their windows?

People who open windows tend to be those who sit directly beneath them. This is because it’s slightly awkward for someone behind to reach & lean over the person in front to open the window. It invades personal space. It does happen, but rarely.

But the person beneath doesn’t get the benefit. It’s the passengers behind who see the advantage. Or not. Unless it’s scorching hot, one person’s ventilation is another’s draft. Open a window in spring or autumn and there’ll be mutters from some passengers aft of the window. Most will put up with it but someone might move forward. Rarely will anyone complain & ask to close the window.

But the most interesting facet is that the passenger who opened the window will almost without exception leave it open when he or she alights.

Changes in bus design mean that these days there are more hoppers than (rattling) ventilators and this, in itself, at least reduces the gusty airflow necessary on baking days but unwelcome at other times. Air conditioning might be the answer if it weren’t so environmentally unfriendly (assuming it’s used). Even here, passengers can feel too chilled.

Exit Stage Left

It wasn’t so long ago that Transit magazine predicted that smaller groups such as Veolia might find in 2009 some rich pickings, being in the right place at the right time and of the right size to develop. Yet, for the once rapidly expanding Veolia Transport UK, it certainly seems like tough times. Last week, the group announced that it had made a further retrenchment—its nine-vehicle Kingston upon Hull operation.

The buyer is East Yorkshire Motor Services. The proposed sale, yet to be formally concluded, follows the closure of Veolia’s Lincoln garage and its incorporation at nearby Tuxford; and the sale last year of Veolia’s York business to Transdev. Then there was retrenchment and reports of poor performance in South Wales.

In fact, such were the reported issues at Veolia Transport Cymru that it was only last autumn that the former Shamrock (Wales) operator Clayton Jones who sold to Veolia remarked, “I can’t walk through the streets of Pontypridd without people asking me to start up again. If I go to the bus station I’m like a pop star. You would think I’m Paul McCartney. All I need is the guitar.”

Although the operation comes with a rather eclectic mix of stock, EYMS trumpeted the acquisition as a “good fit”. There are, however, reports that a Veolia-operated park & ride contract may be due to finish.

The Hull operation was originally Alpha Coaches, acquired by Dunn-line in February 2006 immediately before Dunn-line passed to Veolia the following April for £9.7mil.

g Meanwhile, former Dunn-line’s Bob and Scott Dunn have a new 10-vehicle O-licence as Dunn Motor Traction Ltd t/a Your Bus, based at Hucknall, near Nottingham.

Finding your Timetable

Within months of each other, both First Group and Stagecoach have revised their respective websites along very similar lines…

The first record I have of First Group transforming its website into something that resembles what we see today was eight years ago this month.

Between 1999 and then, its web presence had majored on corporate information only. Back then, if you drilled down deep enough, you could find the address of your nearest First subsidiary plus its fleet strength and a list of depots but that was all. It showed no timetable information. Not especially helpful to the passenger.

So, April 2001 and First went all web-corporate. Though there are those who bemoan the loss of local identities or those who yearn for their reintroduction, coporatisation brought the benefit of gathering all timetable information in one place, in one style.

Similarly, Stagecoach’s initial presence from 2001 under Stagecoachbus.com was a very spartan affair. By April 2002, Stagecoachbus.com was offering timetable information. As for Stagecoach.com itself, this was initially in the hands of a cyber squatter (up to about mid-2004).

Both First and Stagecoach sites therefore have paralleled each other, including recent developments that see very similar sites and foci, even down to each showing slides on their front page and splitting into three main options into bus, rail and North America.

But, does this make it easier to find timetables?

Both have good lookup facilities that enable a reader to enter an origin and destination. There seems to be no major impediment in reaching the respective timetable page from the lookup. First's benefit from being on the front page. For Stagecoach Bus, you must try UK Bus Quick Links (unless you have a pop-up blocker—it then requires five clicks).

First’s timetables download quickly in a format we’ve come to expect, which loads quickly as a web page (and optionally as the dreaded PDFs if you need to print). Stagecoach only offers PDFs.

If you want to see the regional spread of services available, you need to find the regional bus home page. This is not immediately accessible at First but emerges once you select any timetable. For both operators, there’s no index. You are presented with an array of pages and thereafter have to use guesswork. Take First Hampshire. Here, First tells you that there are 83 individual services. Page 1 of the Hampshire timetable page shows 10 route timetables. There are a further eight pages. I happen to know the number of the bus for the Thursday only service from Windhover to Eastleigh but I still have to guess that it’s on page 6. If I don’t know the number, I need to wade through.

Likewise, for Stagecoach South, there are 11 pages of timetables from which to chose. At least Stagecoach has a scrollable pick list of numbers and destinations.

Usefully at First, there is a Maps/Routes option that helps you chose the facility isn’t readily available from the front page. You only get this link when you actually find the timetable you want (which then opens regional page). To benefit from maps, it therefore presupposes that (a) you land on the regional home page in the first place and (b) are able to cope with maps—not everyone is confident in reading them (like bus timetables).

All slightly confusing. Perfection is therefore all but a little tweak away. Till then, First’s and Stagecoach’s offerings are still pretty honourable in their attempts at giving timetable information.