I look back wistfully at the days of my youth when the family used to spend time together doing the traditional thing on Boxing Day: watching The Box (on 405 lines, in black & white and on a tiny screen). For this is whence Boxing Day gets its name, from the TV.
That’s all changed. It’s now a time when families participate in a public day of sporting activities, known as Boxing, as they jostle and elbow through the crowds, knocking out competitors after that special bargain, during England’s public shopping holiday.
If you are an operator:
- What are you doing this year on Boxing Day?
- Will you be running again or for the first time?
- Will you be able to offer families a solution to the usual car congested chaos?
If you are a customer, would you rather travel to town on the bus, avoiding long parking queues?
Boxing Day is likely to be the busiest since it became a day of shopping sport:
- The usual bargain hunters will be out, early birds for the best bargains.
- The sales will have a new resonance this year, as we start the Age of Austerity. Expect poorer sales before Christmas, as families put off some or all Christmas expenditure till Boxing Day.
- VAT is set to rise by 2½% about a fortnight thereafter, so there’s a small window of opportunity to bag a bargain for so-called big-ticket purchases.
This year, Boxing Day falls awkwardly on a Sunday. That (probably?) won’t worry the stores. They’ll (probably?) be open as usual. To register your Boxing Day network, information will have needed to be in Leeds by no later than Friday 29th October. Too late now.
One operator newly entering the Boxing Day fray is Transdev Yellow Buses. It will offer Boxing Day services to outer termini of Bearwood, Castlepoint, Christchurch, Kinson and RBH (via Castlepoint) on the 1A, 2C, 3, 4A, 5A and 6. Interestingly, nothing is registered for the 1B/C to Poole. TYB is leaving this to Wilts & Dorset.
Indeed, W&D is a second newcomer, following a highly successful Go South Coast operation on the Isle of Wight for two years, plus an inovative Christmas Day commercial network in 2009. It was only a matter of time for the Boxing Day services to spread to the mainland. W&D will operate More buses from Poole to Boscombe via Bournemouth and to Tower Park via Canford Heath; and between Poole & Bournemouth on the 16, to Broadstone and to Turlin Moor. W&D details have yet to appear on the VOSA system so have no yet been accepted. TYB Boxing Day services appeared as accepted on 1st November.
Mark Morgan Huws on Christmas & Boxing Day and other things
Boxing Day in the Busing Household and other things
Transdev Yellow Buses won Wednesday’s “Best Large Operator” in the routeONE Operator Excellence Awards. This is its second major award in as many years. TYB will also be hoping for a repeat win at the UK Bus Awards a week on Tuesday
Updated: 1015
20 comments:
And good on them for giving it a go - nothing ventured and all that! Hopefully the timetables will be available soon to give them a fighting chance of making it a success, no point in going to the effort of running Boxing Day services and telling everybody on Christmas Eve is there?
Well done to Stagecoach Oxford for getting their information out in good time.
Gareth.
On the other hand there is likely to be a fair bit of spread onto 27th and 28th December this year as they're bank holidays. Further, retailers (outwith Scotland) with decent square foot-age will be limited to six hours' trading as it is a Sunday.
More biased reporting from omnibuses. W&D are also running on Boxing Day so says their facebook page, but yet again your favourite operator Yellow Buses get all the glory. There are many other operators running too, if you only take a look around. Objectivity? Not here.
When did Boxing Day buses stop though? All English operators used to run on both Boxing Day and New Years Day, but somewhere along the line most got dropped. I drove a bus on many a Boxing Day (and on Christmas Day too when I went coach driving)!
Objectivity? Not here.
Who says the commentator has to be objective all the time?
For info: Wilts may be running on Boxing Day but the announcement has only just been made within the last 24 hours or so and the Yellow Buses routes have been registered with the Commissioner for over a week!
Oh dear and au contraire, Anonymous at 0954, I was aware of a Wilts & Dorset possbility but had not seen them via the VOSA system as confirmation (yes, TYB’s have come through, a while ago, as Quatredingpont has mentioned. Where are W&D’s, though?).
My reputation messed up simply because I’m the last person in England not to join Facebook! : )
I’ll amend this post by the early afternoon, though I’ve run out of time, for now, I think…
As a passenger, I won't be wanting to get a bus on Boxing Day ... it's a day for sitting around feeling bloated after eating too much the day before, playing lots of silly games, and going out for a walk ... there's far too much shopping in the world as it is, without adding more!
@ Stevie D
Hear hear! I know the bus industry is only the tail to the retail industry's dog but do we really need all this shopping on a day that used to be for t'extended family?
Busing, stay put with your brother in law, mate!
@ Anonymous 0954
Busing, don't worry about "biased reporting". Just say it like it is, as you always do.
The comments so far seem to suggest that people only go shopping on Boxing Day. Creative operators could use the opportunity to promote the bus as a (safer) way of celebrating the festive season without the car. Given that the period in between Christmas and New Year has, for many, become a general holiday there is much that could be done in conjunction with all sorts of places of interest, urban or rural.
"For this is whence Boxing Day gets its name, from the TV."
LOL Best comical explanation I ever saw.
No buses in Jersey on Boxing Day. But then our shops will be firmly shut.
The masochists will be out on their bikes (in Santa suits) or swimming...
Registrations can be varied at 21 days notice for weeks that include Christmas Day, New Years day or any bank holiday when a different service to that contained in the registration is to be operated. TYB stuck to the 56 day period.
Anon at 2028 wrote "Registrations can be varied at 21 days notice for weeks that include Christmas Day, New Years day or any bank holiday when a different service to that contained in the registration is to be operated. TYB stuck to the 56 day period."
I was just going to say that - it's a loophole that we've mentioned before on this blog, which could give you the advantage if starting a new competitive service.
I looked on TYB's website and facebook page to see what they were running on Boxing Day after I'd seen on the W&D Facebook page that they were running on several Poole area routes (they say every 15 minutes to Bournemouth), only to find TYB still on about fireworks!
I'd say that W&D have stolen the march on TYB in this instance.
Eastern National stopped running on Boxing Day in 1971 (in my first year 1970 I copped one of the two duties in the garage at Kelvedon) BUT what a sad commerical society it is today, where people have forgotten how to just relax and not go shopping [even worse in the USA where Christmas lasts just one day].
I think we should make our mind up over Boxing Day. If it's a shopping day like a Sunday, a Sunday service should operate. If it's something special, shops should not be permitted to open.
Southern Vectis are one step ahead, Neal. A full Sunday service on Boxing Day. How many operators are offering that?
Seeing as how the services running largely compliment each other, maybe for one day only the two operators could accept each others tickets? Tis the season for peace!
My understanding of the 21 day rule is that it only applies to a service already running on Boxing Day. If the route has not run on Boxing Day before then the full 56 days notice would be required by VOSA. Therefore if W&D have not registered yet then they have missed the boat and will be operating illegally.
The 21 day notice period for the weeks of Christmas, New Year or any bank holiday allow the REGISTRATION to be varied. If the registration contains a statement that no service will operate on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day then the operator can vary that part of the registration to delete the "no service" wording and replace it with a "special service as attached" wording.
What is important surely is the fact that Boxing Day services will be provided, not the interpretation of the wording on the PSV350A form
So what you are saying is... that it's more important to just run buses rather than operate correctly within the official requirements?
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