When we asked Phil Stockley whether he could ever foresee a time when his Velvet Bus would work more closely under the Local Transport Act 2008 with neighbour Bluestar, he stated he had no reservations whatsoever.
Let’s face it, the relationship between Velvet and Bluestar has been somewhat frosty. Witness the furore over Velvet’s B & Bluestar’s Beep Bus, and the Fair Oak Flyer, together the most commented upon posts on this blog. Things settled and there was even a moderate thaw during a recent one day cricket international.
Things have further moved on. Bluestar chooses February as its main timetable change date. This year, it’s next week. Bluestar’s strengthening its successful services while adjusting poorer performers. As a result, off-peak service 3 Botley-Hedge End-Southampton is reduced from every half hour to hourly.
And it’s here that Velvet steps in, not in a threatening way, but in co-operation, with help from Eastleigh (but seemingly not Hampshire) council. By adjusting it’s service A by seven minutes, the A and 3 will seamlessly offer passengers a half hourly service between Botley and Hedge End (where Velvet & Bluestar bifurcate, respectively for Eastleigh & Southampton). Not only that, henceforward return tickets issued over common sections will be inter-available.
This common-sense approach is in the best interests of passengers. Those who witnessed the shenanigans at the height of the B/Fair Oak Flyer wars—and you don’t need a clear memory of them, just the perception—will wonder why this took place at all. Try as hard as the industry may to explain deregulation, and in spite of the likes of the OFT, passengers see co-operation not conflict as the way forward. When they see First, the evening contractor on the A to date accepted Velvet’s passes & returns; when they see all three operators acting together on Thursdays in 209 to invest in the Eastleigh carbon free fund, passengers wonder why partnerships aren’t universal.
22nd February’s changes do introduce a penalty for Velvet. In adjusting its times, passengers will have to get used to the A running seven minutes *earlier*. This is never a pleasant prospect and no matter the number of fliers, notices or drivers warning passengers, some will inevitably miss the bus.
As for the off-peak reduction in Bluestar’s 3, call me old fashioned but cutting off-peak mileage saves nothing other than marginal costs.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Peace Breaks Out
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6 comments:
"...call me old fashioned but cutting off-peak mileage saves nothing other than marginal costs."
I'm not sure that's always the case. One depot of an operator that I worked for had a lunchtime peak for some factory workers and schoolchildren who went home for lunch. When agreement to convert these workings to OPO was reached, the operator had only a few spare vehicles of the appropriate type; and several of those vehicles had been banished to flatter territory due to poor reliability in the hilly areas. These had to be returned to their original depot for the conversion, but the engineers had concerns that there would not be enough spare vehicles, and inadequate time to work on defects between the three peaks.
The between-peaks time can be used for engineering work that would otherwise have to be carried out at more expensive times of the day (or night), so Bluestar's savings might be more than marginal costs.
We are indeed saving more than just marginal costs. RC169 covers some ground above, but we have cut a complete peak vehicle and many hours wage costs through utilising Barton Peveril College workings (amongst other tricks) to supplement the service at rush hours. Officially, Bluestar 3 is now a "2-bus working" rather than a "3-bus working". So, it's not just a case of having buses and drivers sitting around between the peaks, and saving on a bit of fuel and wear & tear! We are creating real savings, that will hopefully give the route some stability and certainty going forward, whilst offering more running and relief time to improve reliability.
Alex, you still need three buses for the morning run out:
0622, 0657, 0727.
The 0622 then returns to do the 0752.
@anon at 1549 - You're not looking at the same vehicle graph I am!! I can assure you its 2 PVR, with addditional resources borrowed from other routes's current PVR commitment to help bolster frequencies at rush hours when needed.
"with addditional resources borrowed from other routes's current PVR commitment to help bolster frequencies at rush hours when needed."
well, no I don't have the benefit of your car graphs but you still need THREE buses across the morning peak, IMHO. The best you can say is that it's 2 point something PVR.
Hello again anon (feel a bit silly talking to a person with no name!) ... Maybe I'm not articulating myself correctly, so let's put it like this - I can assure you that we are able to shed a complete, whole vehicle from the current commitment due to the Bluestar 3 changes, so we are able to offer up genuine savings. Hope that clears it up!
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