We can be so judgmental. You’ll no doubt remember the First driver who allegedly threw a breast-feeding mother off his Bristol bus. You’ll also have read the opprobrium about his actions. He and First were instantly condemned. The nation sided with the mother. Well, not everything is what it seems. Read Leon Daniels’ blog entry this morning and see why.

The Omnibuses 2010 Survey

We were truly flabbergasted by the response to the Omnibuses 2010 survey, so thank you to all who contributed. Aside from the multiple choices, there were nearly 250 written comments, suggestions or observations to consider. Of these, 80 per cent were positive, with the remainder neutral or less so. Analysis of these will necessarily take longer than I anticipated. To start things off, here are the easy bits:

1. How do you rate the Omnibuses?

92 per cent of respondents felt the OB was either “excellent” or “very good”. Indeed, almost half of you rated it “excellent”. When compared to 2009, the percentage of people who felt we were “excellent” increased by 10 per cent. No one felt Omnibuses was “poor” or “OK”.

2. How do you compare Omnibuses with other blogs?

A third of respondents felt Omnibuses was their favourite. Just over a third rated Omnibuses as better than other transport blogs. When compared to 2009, there was a four per cent increase in those who rated Omnibuses as their favourite. One person in 2010 stated that they preferred another transport blog.

3. What best describes you?

When comparing 2010 with 2009, more people who read Omnibuses work in the bus industry. Proportionately fewer people were enthusiasts. Enthusiast nevertheless make up the highest overall proportion when you added them to those who worked in the bus industry who declared they were also enthusiasts (some 80 per cent in total). Those who work in the industry (whether enthusiasts or not) made up some 45 per cent, an increase over 2009 of about 12 per cent.

4. How often do you read Omnibuses?

72 per cent of respondents read Omnibuses every day. The remainder visit at least two or three times a week. One respondent stated that they visited weekly. No one stated that they read Omnibuses at less frequent intervals. This mirrors 2009 almost exactly.

5. How often should we post?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, virtually everyone felt we should post daily. This compares with last year’s survey.

6. Do you feel that Omnibuses posts are too long or short?

This was a new question for 2010. Everyone felt the length was about right except two respondents who felt that they were too short, one who said they were too long and two who didn’t know.

7. Do you write a blog?

The vast majority of those responding don’t write a blog. 15 respondents stated they did, seven of whom compiled their own transport-related blogs. Of these seven, four felt Omnibuses was better than other transport blogs; two declared Omnibuses to be their favourite; and one felt that Omnibuses was about the same as other transport blogs.

Now for the difficult bit: compiling and summarising the text comments you have written (to be continued).

Of Olympic Proportions

In a move that will probably see the largest span of control for any single English operational managing director ever, Marc Reddy prepares to take over the reigns at First Hampshire & Dorset... in addition to his current managing directorship at First Devon & Cornwall. This is no merger, though, but a secondment. And Reddy’s return to First Hampshire & Dorset is exactly four years after he departed westbound along the A35.

Excluding outstations, the distance between his furthest garages (Penzance & Barnstaple) used to be a mere 107 miles. Now, from Penzance to Portsmouth, it becomes 241 miles. Truly of Olympic proportions. Even the former Stagecoach South garage extremities of Winchester and Dover and the former Arriva North West & Wales boundary garages of Bolton and Aberystwyth, Wales fail to impress.

Team work will be everything. Otherwise, managing such far-flung (and not to mention diverse) operations will bring challenges that will only lead to the doctor’s door. Reddy scores in that he knows both areas well and the stakeholders therein. But at least Reddy can spent just that little more time at home. Reddy still lives in Bournemouth (and, let’s face it, who can blame him).

And the move, which takes place a week on Monday, results from First Hampshire & Dorset’s MD Richard Soper moving to First Manchester to cover a vacancy created by the secondment of MD Andrew Scholey. Scholey moves to First UK Bus to cover two projects aslo of Olympic proportions, both of which are of vital interest to First: leading on the Competition Commission enquiry—fundamental to First’s business interests—and assisting in planning for the Olympic Delivery Authority contract for spectator transport. The latter will finish in 2012 while the former will probably finish in 2011. With some relief after their completion, expect Scholey to throw a couple of huge parties when both these projects come to fruition.

Frivolity aside, work for the CC inquiry is expected to require an olympiad. It will be long, hard, detailed, time consuming and, frankly, an utter pain that diverts from running buses in a challenging economic environment. For Scholey, imagine trying to corral each operating subsidiary to supply information promptly ahead of CC deadlines. The CC has already called for information with some pretty unrealistic timescales.

Returning to Reddy, those who scoured Tuesday’s Notices & Proceedings will have come across an application for a new operator’s licence with, you guessed it, Marc Reddy as an authorised transport manager. Currently, the O licence is under the Truronian name, with Reddy’s Plymouth operating address. Note the other transport manager, engineering director Phil Pannel. Always felt Pannel was an interesting name for a mechanical engineer.

Destigmatise

Better get used to the word “destigmatise” for we’re about to hear it more often. So far as buses are concerned, it’s going to become a maxim for the changes the industry needs to make to encourage car-owning middle classes aboard.

For, in spite of our recent post on Ethel Austin, it seems that the preconception that the bus is exclusively for those who are socially excluded or cannot afford a car is now wrong. Well, not wrong, but less accurate. Buses are becoming destigmatised.

In support of this, we have statistics from TAS. The consultancy concludes that the stereotypical view of the bus use needs to change. The scale of the London market may help. For in London buses are truly destigmatised, thanks principally to roadspace given over to the bus at the expense of the car.

A week ago, Stagecoach’s Brian Souter said, “We’ve destigmatised the buses and got the middle classes to us them—intelligently, along with their cars.” Indeed, outside London, Stagecoach has probably done more to destigmatise buses than any other. We’d content that in spite of Stagecoach growing its provincial market in the last five years by nearly nine times the 0.4 per cent average, this phenomenon is confined to certain routes or certain networks, such as Stagecoach Gold. Here, the Gold product continues to expand and see impressive results.

Others are using marketing flair, quality products and image to offer the sort of product that appeals to a broader socio-economic range. Relaunched, revamped, restocked and rebranded networks such as at Transdev Blazefield, Transdev Yellow Buses and Trent Barton help, as do routes such as Wilts & Dorset’s More Bus and First’s FTR.

In this destigmatisation, the industry’s had a few helping hands. Fuel increases from May 2008 drove considerable numbers of car users temporarily to the bus. Discretionary passengers chose a more sensible option for some of their journeys. Looking back over this short period, it really was an optimistic time.

Similarly, green issues have resulted in conscious decisions to travel by bus rather than by car if not for all journeys then at least for some.

Free travel has been a leveller that has been of as much benefit to the wealthier retired as it has others. Selective use of the bus rather than car has brought out the well heeled over 60s.

When Souter was speaking of destigmatisation, he did so in the Financial Times. Attitudinal changes are one thing but just don’t expect too many of the FT’s 76,000 readers to leave their BMWs and Mercedes behind. It’s one thing the middle classes trying the bus occasionally but quite another to expect the average FT reader to do so. One has to draw the line somewhere.

Free Travel Changes—April 2010

We’re celebrating our 1,601st post today with a look well beyond our usual home turf...

We always think that national free travel is a relatively new initiative. Yet, regional schemes in both Scotland and Wales pre-date the national (English) scheme by as much as six years. Wales was first, as far back as 2002. Scotland followed, in 2006. Both are different to the national scheme because:

• Residents in the two regions can travel free of charge at any time of day, 24/7/365 (including up to 0930 and after 2300)


• Though administered locally, the schemes cover the whole of each devolved administrative area. It’s the regional assemblies that govern the reimbursement rates, rather than individual local transport authorities (though, legally, participation has to be through the LTAs).

Had England learnt from the Scotland or Wales, matters might’ve been different. It’s all a little less messy north and west of the borders.

This hasn’t prevented budget issues, of course, and both administrations are “suffering” from the success of their schemes. Both have worked with their respective CPTs to find a solution. Both have re-issued participatory notices to operators advising of scheme changes, from 1st April 2010. It’s understood that both very briefly though without enthusiasm considered varying eligibility rules.

The Scottish government has instead “revised” (its wording) the reimbursement rate from 73.6 per cent to 67 per cent. This is estimated to save around £18mil. At the same time, Scotland is increasing BSOG by £6mil plus further incentives for lower-carbon vehicle technology. Wales is believed to have left its 73.6 per cent reimbursement rate alone but instead we understand it’s pegged the average adult single fares component of its reimbursement calculation.

Wales’ solution is interesting. The number of passenger journeys can still be volatile but Wales has at least attempted to plan and budget for free travel by introducing one area of certainty, fares.

Both solutions will doubtless cut what are likely to be rampant free travel budgets (rampant, if England is anything to go by). Both will introduce some sustainability but in Scotland will this simply lead to deregistering of marginal bus services or an increase in fares? There’s less incentive for Welsh operators to raise them, though.

It’s Back

Again. Even if it won’t cause so much chaos as initially predicted during yesterday lunchtime. We’re talking overnight snow across much of the north and across Wales. The Radio 4 forecaster predicted “accumulations” of up to 3⁹/₁₀ inches (he actually used 10 cm, but that amounts to exactly the same thing).

It remains to be seen what disruption if any the current snow will cause. It is, after all, March on Monday and many of us in the industry as elsewhere will be glad to see the back of a cold, miserable February. Memories of the ferocity and intensity of this season’s weather that caught the country on the hop will live for a generation.

As spring now slowly emerges—we trust—we have a new snow and frost related problem: potholes. Water in cracks gets beneath the road surface, expands when frozen, causing the crack in which it freezes to enlarge. As the ice melts, the resultant void collapses.

If you’ve ever run a survey about passenger attitudes, you will know that there will probably be some concern over fares but little else. Punctuality & reliability are usually fine, drivers' attitudes generally good and the vehicles themselves are also perceived well. Responses are not usually outstanding, but there you go. It’s the bus service after all and no one seems able to be superlative even when they receive an excellent service.

But, one issue seems to be consistent. Well, two, actually, both of which are outside the operators’ control. One is the state of bus shelters. Here, I always tend to feel such comments are unjust, given the considerable sums invested in new shelters and in keeping them in good condition (whether advertising ones or not). I guess this is down to passengers not relishing the one aspect of their journey that is the least inviting: the wait.

The other is the state of the roads. You’d think that passengers would be ambivalent towards the condition of the highway but they tend to be just as critical, perhaps even more so, than motorists. Here again, judging by the attitude surveys I’ve seen and in comparing them with the actual state of the roads, passenger criticism seems unfair, at least generally on bus routes in my part of the world. But unless treated (and this is the $64,000 question for cash-strapped councils), potholes may really give passengers something to moan about, as the cavity sends judders down the bus.

Finally, here is the current position regarding social media followers in south central England, following both the winter number boost and our last update on 9 January:

Followers or Fans	On Twitter	On Facebook
Bluestar	104 to 147 to 186 to 222	1,002 to 1,591 to 1,930 to 2,328
Southern Vectis	171 to 242 to 402 to 498	N/A
Transdev Yellow Buses	NEW 0 to 16 to 49 to 574	279 to 379 to 431 to 575
Velvet	108 to 125 to 132 to 150	707 to 733 to 743 to 854
Wilts & Dorset	N/A	316 to 650 to 833 to 1,490

Metrobus now has over 4,560 5,675 on Facebook!

Not Always a Good Idea

You’ve no doubt noticed that since deregulation—and especially in the last 15 years—smaller, niche operators have done pretty well out of local transport authority contracts. We’ve already explored the reasons for this.

Many though not all have grown out of coaching and or school bus operations and have had to “learn” how to operate local bus services as they’ve gone along. Not for them the expertise that comes with time served and trained managers.

Common among those smaller operators with a handful of routes seems to be the principle of the same driver doing the same shift every single day. This has one huge advantage: passengers get to know and trust their regular driver. This is good for repeat business. The relationship that strikes up can be so strong that passenger loyalties often overlook some of the minor problems associated with bus operation.

But there are problems with this approach. Here are those that spring immediately to mind:

• It masks revenue protection issues. An operator may have no idea whether a driver's takings are short or over. Without a spread of drivers on each duty, it’s difficult to see whether one is paying in consistently less for the same shift.


• Once you get beyond a mere handful of routes, simple crew scheduling can bring acute inflexibility and inefficiencies. Ultimately, operators may be carrying more driver overhead than they realistically need. This even extends to meal breaks where managers, supervisors or fitters cover, rather than a driver schedule that effectively covers itself.


• Where the passenger-driver relationship is strong, here may be a lack of feedback, as passengers tolerate problems rather than report them.


• Problem duties (e.g. evenings) become difficult to cover.


• There’s a general lack of variety for the drivers themselves. They may welcome this inflexibility but drivers tend to appreciate a good spread of work.

Admittedly, the smaller the operator, the more difficult it is to gain from the sort of efficiencies provided by a larger pool of drivers.

Since transport authorities are getting cute with their scheduling, it’s often the case that an all-day bus contract will allow a school working each day. Parents and schools appreciate the same driver. Schools in particular will look on this more favourably than a larger operator with a different driver each day or week. Though by no means always, the same driver can *occasionally* come with the sort of problems familiarity can bring...

SQBP: One of the First

Nottingham operators will no doubt welcome the council’s pragmatic stance on partnerships when compared to its P.T.E.G. sister West Yorkshire.

Among other things, expect minimum vehicle and punctuality standards in one of England’s first statutory quality bus partnerships. In this, Nottingham wishes to support:

• Its significant investment in transport infrastructure.
• One of the highest levels of accessibility outside London.

Moreover, there must surely be two sub-texts:

• Safeguard its controlling interest in the Nottingham City Transport fleet, now that NCT has rectified some of its ‘courageous’ decisions; and that its fleet is of a similar standard to doyen Trent Barton.
• Protect its tram from unscrupulous competition.

Your Bus 81 parallels the tram route. Your Bus suggests that it manages to offer something other bus routes do not...

One operator remains unimpressed and that’s eight-month old Your Bus. Its business uses older SLFs, buses outside the scope of the proposed SQBP. YourBus sees any SQBP as anti-competitive and fears being somewhat marginalised.

The council may see Your Bus as a bit of a problem. Not only is its 81 competing head-on with the tram, as of today Your Bus starts the 36. This mirrors exactly NCT’s 36 to Chilwell, though at half the frequency. Unlike its current 81, there’s not even the pretence that the 36 is anything other than a “me too”, six-day, daylight-only service. And that’s without mentioning best practice operator Trent Barton’s 9/hr Indigo; or Premiere’s 17.

Since its launch in June 2009, many though not all fares have increased and Your Bus has withdrawn the 82 variant, though the core 10 minute service continues by way of the 81

As for the 81 to Bulwell, Your Bus maintains that this offers an alternative, as it navigates a tram-hugging path between NCT’s Bulwell buses on the 15-17 and 68-72.

Casting some doubt on the 81’s credentials is the way in which it calls at not one but two of four adjacent city centre Bulwell-bound stops, no doubt to get two bites at the Bulwell cherry. Again, there’s no evening or Sunday operation.

Comparison of Urban Bus Systems data shows that greater Nottingham, circled red, is at the top of the heap (click graph to enlarge)

The OFT would welcome Your Bus. How will the Competition Commission investigation balance competition in Nottingham with the potential for a SQBP, though? Nottingham is almost unique in that the OFT cannot accuse the Big Five of a carve-up, though it’s an accident of Trent Barton history that the Big Five aren’t major players. Nottingham is either equal to or usually ahead of all its neighbours in terms of all day high frequency services. It’s difficult to see where anyone else can make substantial improvements, other than with the benefits of a SQBP.

No FT. No Comment

From Thursday’s Financial Times. On the Competition Commission’s bus industry investigation, said Brian Souter, “We just don’t understand it. It’s a completely open market. If one bus company doesn’t turn up on time, another one can.” As in Preston, perhaps?

The FT reminded readers that the Monopolies & Mergers Commission had once dubbed Stagecoach as “predatory, deplorable and against the public interest.” This, Souter claimed, was during Stagecoach’s early days. Stagecoach was “much better behaved now”. Ah, would that be Preston again, then?

Bye Bye, Ethel

Check out the rears of buses and the insides of timetables. Increasingly thereon, you’ll see images of real people. These tend to be young, attractive twenty-something women carrying a collection of bags from anywhere but Tesco. All smiles after a successful day’s designer shopping. It would be nice to think that our passengers can often afford this luxury. Or that the wealthier demographic of ladies who lunch frequently chose the bus to shop, though we know from this week’s FT that Brian Souter dreams of this day.

The reality is sometimes different. Our bread and butter customers probably tend to shop in places that are a more prosaic and a little less highbrow. It’s difficult, for example, to see Ray Stenning building a campaign around Ethel Austin. Yet it’s Ethel’s that would tend to appeal to bus users, rather Howie’s or Muji.

Ethel Austin’s Boscombe branch

And herein lies the problem. Those 300 Ethel Austin stores having survived administration in 2008 are due to close in 2010. Ethel’s immediate problem was the Big Freeze when no one went shopping (and imagine the effect this had on *our* industry).

Ethel Austin’s closures bring with it yet another decline in our town centres. We’re seeing market forces at work that have a considerable impact on the bus industry. In truth, many of our town central business districts (CBDs) have been declining for 40 years. It’s only recently that the pace has quickened.

Buses best serve town centres. True, operators have long realised they must serve out of centre locations as well. Good examples are Cribbs Causeway near Bristol and Castlepoint near Bournemouth. But buses tend to radiate to all points from a town centre. Each suburb and dormitory village usually has direct access to its CBD. You can’t say the same for out of town facilities.

High profile closures such as Ethel’s and Woolworth’s before it not only weaken our town centres, they weaken our bus services. Lower paid shop workers are more likely to commute to such shops, by bus. The lack of ordinary CBD shopping becomes a deterrent to bus use. One problem reinforces another. Conversely, shoppers and workers tend to travel by car to out of town locations. What other choice is there, so they perceive. Lower paid shop workers who perhaps can ill afford a car have no option. Once they have their mobility, they use it even where the bus offers a better alternative.

And then there’s the closure along with Woolworth’s of Our Price, Virgin Records/Zavvi, Borders and MVC. If you want DVDs or CDs, you’re now limited to HMV or larger branches of W H Smith. Such a lack of choice reinforces what young people already do—buying entertainment online. No need to hop on a bus for that. Those twenty something, designer bag carrying girls may be disappearing, fast.

Record Breakers

With the introduction of five of its six new double decks in England’s latest university bus brand, we’re wondering whether Wilts & Dorset’s going for the 2010 record for the most diverse double deck bus fleet in the shortest time possible.

Since 2008, W&D’s new standard decker is the Scania N230UD—now with five different body types or styles. The latest are Alexander Dennis Enviro400s, reflecting the bodybuilder giving the shortest lead time at the point of order, following the re-award of Bournemouth university contracts.

W&D’s 35 Scania N230UD fleet comprises:

• 17 OmniCity vehicles with Scania bodywork, seven delivered in 2008, the remainder in 2009.


• 12 in 2009 with Optare bodywork, all for Purbeck Breezer services, three of which are permanent open top Visionnaires; six convertible Visionnaires; and three are conventional Olympuses.


• Five in February 2010 with ADL bodywork for university services, plus one further example due.

The E400 cohort joins a solitary Scania K230UD/Wrightbus Solar single deck in university 2010 livery, itself at odds with the modern Volvo/Citaro rigid single deck fleet. And there’s the single ex-London articulated Citaro, similarly branded. Readers may recall that the artic currently has a permanent destination that reverses the W&D norm. Also, to date, it has a misspelled destination of Cranborne House (adding an erroneous “u”).

New UniLinx timetables and branding started last month, following a new contract in 2009. The last significant change was in 2004 when W&D picked the work up from the former Bournemouth Transport.

Since the UniLinx services are orbitals, those travelling from the town centre still use TYB, with its 4/hour service 6.

A Jersey Solution

English subjects throughout the land may be reeling at the thought of articulated buses turning up unbidden in their urban environments. As someone commented on this blog yesterday, bendies are an unprecedented PR disaster for the bus industry. Connex’s Jersey Mybus operation, on the other hand, is said to be considering an alternative to the peak loading conundrum—the return after some 40 years of that most radical of designs, the double deck.

Peak loadings on the St Helier-Airport service 15 mean a stark choice for Connex, a trading name of Veolia: bigger buses or more buses, the later with the associated overhead, especially driver costs.

Like all unfamiliar designs, whether articulated or not, Connex plans to test a decker first, for clearances. There would follow “extra training” for drivers.

Connex began operating buses on Jersey in 2002, following the award of what amounts to a quality contract or franchise. This was initially for a seven-year term. Almost immediately, Connex revolutionised the island’s bus services by introducing new light blue-liveried low floor Dennis Darts with the Slimbus narrower variant of Caetano's Nimbus, specifically developed for Jersey’s narrower lanes. These became moderately popular with smaller English operators. The Connex operation hasn’t always been free of criticism, including its more recent school bus operation, though the contract is now within a mutually agreed three-year extension period, after which the States will retender.

Before Connex, there was Jersey Motor Transport, owned at one point by a holding company also running, among others, Trimdon Motor Services. It latterly operating under the Jersey Bus brand name, with a white livery and blue skirt though, as in times past, many vehicles were in all over advert liveries. The mainstay of the Jersey Bus fleet was the step entrance Dart, supplemented by Metroriders, Leyland Swifts and the remnant of the former JMT fleet of Wadham Stringer-bodied Ford R1014s. Before that, the operation was totally Ford operated, including the R192, two of which are seen above. They are of 1972 and 1973, with 44-seat Willowbrook bodies with attractive BET-style fronts, at the St Helier Weighbridge bus terminus in 1982.

In spite of what the BBC is saying on its Channel Islands website, double decks last operated local buses in Jersey in the 1960s, not 1970s. Operating them on the 15 would require six on a not particularly efficient timetable, with 27 minutes layover every 90. Whereas the current 15s may presumably be inter-worked to avoid such inefficiencies, double decks would render this impossible.

Given the narrow roads and the 40 mph maximum speed limit for all traffic, one wonders what the reaction on the island would be to Connex buying ex-London articulated Citaros instead. We understand some are available.

i BBC Chanel Islands news

Brighton Q & A—Honest John

Why is there such a gap between how the industry sees Brighton’s bus service and how the public there perceives it? Surely here, more than anywhere, Brighton’s subjects must appreciate what they have.

Not exactly. Brighton’s the latest town with the prospect of ex-London articulated Citaro buses. Just four are coming to assist student crush loadings on the 25 to the universities. They’re causing the usual apoplectic reaction. It’s an excuse to fling as much dirt in Brighton & Hove’s direction as possible. Misconceptions abound.

In the style of the Saturday Telegraph’s Honest John, Honest Busing answers the Brighton bendy & bus critics.

“Surely these buses would be more welcome on the coastal route no 12 where all the older bus pass holders can't get up the stairs of a normal double decker”

Ah, but you are rewarded with a lovely grandstand view on the 12. But, good idea, that way we can recycle about 15 Citaros rather than four.

“[Bendies] are not as spacious or comfortable as running more buses at busy times, like a decent, public-service bus company would do”

More buses at peak times mean fares need to cover additional costs—vehicles, the drivers, and more. Do ordinary passengers really want to pay for extra buses to carry students?

“What doesn't help on this route is that the service (along with many others) is, in my opinion, often unreliable, with late running and cancelled buses a regular feature”

Running bendies rather than extra buses will help, then.

“Get rid of single deckers, get more double deckers”

B&H has plenty of double decks, and new ones, too. Only young people who run riot upstairs really like them.

“Why not just run more normal buses along that stretch in peak times? Buses that do not need adapting, painting and rigging out”

OK, I’ll just nip down the back of the garage and de-cobweb some spare £180K OmniDekkas. And use the drivers who’re paid to sit on their hands all day.

“Bendy buses are only suitable for the wide, straight avenues and easy corners of Europe and the US”

Bendy buses go any place an ordinary 12m rigid can go. Indeed, artics are that bit more manoeuvrable.

“B&H buses are a complete and utter rip-off”

If you offer a quality service then you shouldn’t give your services away.

“Why can’t we have more competition?”

No doubt the market can bear competition but for the fact that B&H offers an all round quality service from early morning to late evening, at decent frequencies. B&H hasn’t left any gaps to fill. Where’s the scope for challengers other than those who might just cream off or hoover up during daylight?

“We need more of the Big Lemon type to come in”

See answer above. Wasn’t Lemon offering a “Me Too” sort of service? Even now, Lemon says it’s “strange but true” that its buses don’t terminate at Churchill Square between 1502 and 2130.

“We need more... who run on sustainable energy”

B&H’s newer, leaner buses run on low sulphur bio-diesel and carry more passengers per bus mile than Lemon.

“London got rid of [bendies] as they are a danger to other road users”

Where’s the real evidence?

“More left-overs for Brighton. Why can’t we have the new Routemaster too”

B&H has invested in new vehicles at least as much and probably more than any other English provincial bus operator. Why would Brighton want new Routemasters when its fleet of modern double decks is more than capable and safer? And will London get ’em?

“One wonders what Dr Lucas and Ms Mitchell [politicians] will say the first time a cyclist is squashed by one of these giants”

This is a commercial not political decision. It’s a fallacy to suggest bendies squash bikers. Where’s the evidence?

“Oh the joys of having so much control over the Council”

What’s it got to do with the council?

“Most of the buses on our roads are already too heavy and doing a fine job of breaking up the surface but then we have just had snow and frost and rain which will get the blame before anyone thinks it was the buses”

Heavy vehicles cause exponential damage to their axle weight but less than the number of cars they save. What about the considerably more trucks?

“Someone has to do something to stop this company from getting their own way. I think the most frequent bus should run every 15 minutes and the least frequent runs every 30 minutes”

As stated by a true motorist. Don’t expect the passengers to support this. Would you be happy with even longer jams as passengers revert to cars?

“Most of the time they are empty”

But not all of the time. Especially the 25, it seems. A bus will be emptier against the flow, between the peaks, at the far suburbs and in the evening. Tell you what, running duplicates on the 25 really would mean empty buses, though.

Peace Breaks Out

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.

Transforming the Olympics

This post updates the article published earlier this morning.

If anyone was wondering why First Group UK Bus director Leon Daniels was driving a bus through London early on Wednesday morning with Sir Moir Lockhead as passenger, he was heading to the Olympic Park for a press photo shoot. They were in a brand new Volvo B7RLE for First Avon & Somerset.

The Olympic Development Authority has this morning ago announced that First Group’s been awarded preferred bidder status for the entire contract for spectator transport for the 2012 London Olympics.

This will involve over 800 buses & coaches both on short distance park & ride support—provided from First’s bus subsidiaries—and longer distance work, to be sourced via First’s Rail Support business, the bus subsidiary that digs trains out of engineering holes.

This is a particularly highly prized contract, one that First will relish and one others were keen to have. Given its profile, anything short of a 100 per cent delivery will be considered a failure, something First cannot possibly countenance. First comes with a sound record in dealing with such events: the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 will be a good parallel though, for the Olympics, the scale is exponential.

In detail, First is expected to provide:

• Around 500 buses and coaches for venue shuttle services and venue park and ride


• Around 90 buses and coaches for park and ride services, aimed to connect parking sites on the periphery of the M25 with the Olympic Park and Ebbsfleet


• Around 300 coaches (sub contracted from fleets up and down the country) to operate a network of express coach services to the Olympic Park and Weymouth and Portland


• Management of the Direct Coach operations


• A bus and coach services reservations and ticketing system


• Operational support staff at all bus and coach locations to manage the fleet.

Yesterday’s Sunday Express reported the pending decision, speculating that only the Big Five would have the resources to move this many vehicles and people.

The Olympic Delivery Authority aims to get everyone to London 2012 by public transport, cycling or walking. Without public transport, East London’s Olympics will literally grind to a halt. Transport needs to work like clockwork so that passengers hardly notice it. After all, the Olympics are about sport, not transport.
TfL and the delivery authority has already sunk much capital expenditure into the DLR extension and in strengthening units; plus improvements to Stratford rail station. The Olympic Delivery Authority nevertheless expects around 10 per cent of spectators to arrive by bus and coach. 10 per cent sounds insignificant but that’s equivalent to about 2mil single spectator journeys for both the Olympics and paralympics (plus direct and indirect workers also requiring transport). Although this pales into insignificant compared to the 240,000 expected by rail at Stratford every hour, failure for whomsoever is chosen to co-ordinate and shift busloads of spectators will cost them a considerable loss of reputation.

And yesterday’s Sunday Express suggests that the authority will soon announce the organisation who’s been chosen to manage and deliver this mammoth road transport project. The paper suggests that there are 50 bidders but also suggests it’s realistically likely to go to one of the Big Five. This is because of the quantity of vehicles required.

The authority suggests that bus and coach services will add flexibility to existing public transport options. These services will run to the heart of the games at the Olympic Park. They will also serve venues outside London, such as Weymouth and Portland where athletes will compete in the sailing events.

As well as direct coach options across the UK, spectators will use buses and coaches at various park-and-ride sites. To help spectators around the sites, each venue’s main transport link will be by shuttle bus where distances are too far to walk.

Three at Once

You wait ages for a decent London bus map and then three come along (almost) at once.

So it is that we just wonder whether TfL’s been shamed into improving its online mapping, owing to what others offer.

Last week, TfL’s undertaken a major bus map upgrade. Gone are static PDFs (hurrah!). In are Google Maps-based functional ones that enable you to zoom in & out across an entire route or down to stop level.

You can click on a stop to find what other services are nearby, all of which are clickable to reveal frequencies. They’re clear and precise. Added to which, they feature the usual familiar mapping, terrain or satellite images. And they’re slideable. And you can plan a journey from or to a given stop.

Onabus launched in 2008. TfL’s mapping now renders Onabus largely redundant. Then, last summer, came Whatbus?! TfL’s mapping’s far more precise but Whatbus?! Scores as you can map more than one route.

Mind you, we still prefer the London intersectional printed map of old.

i TfL Bus Maps

Ælfred’s Bazaar

If you’re reading this, you’ll know that I can’t get to a PC right now, to write a post. So, this is one of my reserve posts that I have set in place in case of an emergency...

Or should that read "Bizarre"? I’ve put up some of the "bazaar" shots I took at 1st January Friends of King Alfred Winchester running days in 2009 & 2010—having previously posted controversially on the subject. It struck me that with few exceptions, the buses there present were the same as in previous years, so why bother taking record shots when something out-of-the-ordinary might suffice...

Long live the King! King Ælfred rides again, literally it seems, on the back of one of his Panthers, while surveying his kingdom.

The beading on King Alfred’s Leyland Panthers were specially interrupted to display the firm’s fine logo. Were the firm still to operate, I wonder what modern logo and livery they would use. Anyway, such trimming is now no longer relevant and only interrupts modern vehicle and livery designs.

I suppose this tiny 1931 Dennis 18 seater might be considered an example of the industry’s first minibuses. Originally started by crank handle, life was much tougher in those days. The behatted and scarfed enthusiast to its left might’ve felt cold on the day—it was cold—but temperatures seemed balmy compared to the following week.

An example of Hants & Dorset’s passion for specifying non-standard windscreen hoods as sun visors, on generations of half-cab double decks and some single decks as well.

So, that’s how you spell it... V-E-C-T-I-S. Unusual in preservation is this Duple Northern bodied Bristol RESH (at least I *think* it’s a RESH). H&D had similar vehicles as RESHs and RELHs.

Where did I drop that? First there were three...

... and then a few more. Funny how things such as this draw the crowds.

Imagine travelling regularly on—or conducting—open platform rear loaders with January 2010’s weather. Both these are ex-Southampton City, the one on the left a Park Royal bodied Guy Arab and the other an AEC Regent which I think had a body by some obscure builder. New in 1967, it was already behind the times.

Whatever happened to the Southampton Citybus livery...and to drivers’ and inspectors’ caps?

The digital watch gives this away as a recent shot. Otherwise, changing destinations and route numbers required much effort, back then; though perhaps less so for King Alfred, as it was a "municipal" operator with short linens.

Let’s assume this advertisement is the same age as the bus it’s on—the 1960s. If you’d bought a "wonderful" house in Teg Down for £2,250 when new, you’d be pretty well off today. The cheapest I could find for sale was £300,000. If you’d kept the same money in a bank earning interest at the rate of inflation, you’d have just about a tenth of the house value today.

Boys with their toys? Getting dressed up for the occasion, in as close to King Alfred uniform as possible, is taken very seriously but perhaps not seriously enough, considering the baseball cap on the left. Here we have someone famous in Ælfred, NBC and post-deregulation circles...

Driving older vehicles, without their power steering, often takes some concentration...

... as a suitable attired Friend looks on, rather worried. Note the tie.

Spot the familiar ECW rears. Here we have two former Hants & Dorset Bristol VRs flanking an older Lodekka. The family resemblance is striking. Some say Lodekkas looked better from the rear.

Remember when service door controls were something like this?

Though Yellow Buses operated something similarly shaped, this King Alfred Commer Karrier/Rootes FoKAB information unit was once a St John Ambulance (so we’re told).

Plenty of colour at Winchester’s Park & Ride site, where you could see mainly more modern vehicles on display, some of which operated the frequent park & ride shuttle. Here we have Bluestar, Velvet, Dorset Sprinter, a preserved RM and a First Student school bus operated by First Hampshire...

... while there was plenty of variety back in the town centre. Here we have the Joseph Wood Mirfield Roe-bodied Crossley, ex-Eastbourne AEC Regent and ex-Portsmouth Atlantean PDR1.

Wot, no electronic departure information? Whatever next. Such technology—by 2010 now starting to get somewhat dated—was not even a dream in 1973, when King Alfred last rode out.

King Ælfred the Great wasn’t a Crusader. In fact, he predated the first of the Crusades by almost exactly 200 years.

This refers to the number of passengers, not the vehicle’s speed. Wonder whether it could sustain 40 mph anyway.

Trying Doggedly

Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent reports…

Talking of Cardiff, as we were this week, it was with some rueful amusement that I read about Cardiff Bus offering one of its Scania OmniCity bendy buses as a decoy vehicle to catch those regularly bricking the regional capital’s buses. A case of another risky strategy in South Wales?

What seems to have happened is that plain-clothes police including dog handlers masqueraded as passengers on an Ely-bound service. Had this last ditched stand failed, the route would’ve been under threat.

This is not the first time that police have acted in this way. Regular brickings in Kirby, Merseyside, had left evening services and bus windows in tatters. Here, the police resorted to the use of a Glenvale two-door double deck loaded with police “passengers”. The risk of damage to a veteran Glenvale double deck was somewhat lower than what might’ve happened to one of Cardiff’s three-year-old bendies.

The best police Kirby story, though, involved a taxi and not a bus. Two plain clothes police officers including a dog handler toured the streets of Kirby and whenever some projectile was aimed at the black cab, out would open the suicide door and out would bound the dog…

Seamlessness

Ironic that the private sector should come to the rescue after a public body, Strathclyde Passenger Transport, abandoned its Renfrew-Yoker ferry, in Scotland. In spite of Stagecoach’s gallantry, its two-day trial promises to be nothing more than, well, one day only (and of course, the thing litterally floundered).

It’s an interesting concept nonetheless. And, am I alone in thinking this Dutch amphibious thing looks a little like a Wrightbus at the front and an ADL towards the rear?

What Amfibus does is remove the barrier of changing modes. This is where passenger transport is at its most frustrating. Changing involves passenger time and cost. With Amfibus, there’s the possibility of a seamless journey.

Is the Amfibus a serious player in public transport? Don’t hold your breath for a new Southampton-Newport IOW service via the Solent, to compete with the ferries. Indeed, at £700K apiece or £14,000 a passenger seat, it’s five times as expensive as a 12m single deck bus so its opportunities are limited as much by cost as by suitable locations. That’s without the expense of modifying the landings.

It might have more of an application across short river crossings such as Portsmouth Harbour. Here, a mass of buses having served the Gosport & Fareham suburbs converge on Gosport Ferry bus station and a stream of hopeful commuters hurry towards the ferry to Portsmouth. It’s a short crossing with a wait and queue and one that usually requires another bus trip on the other side. All this adds to the cost an inconvenience. Could water-born help be at hand?

Liverpool’s Duckmarine is the closest we get to an amphibious bus, outside London. The Duckmarine does its best trade during the summer and school half terms and this indicates that it’s in aimed at a completely different market than Amfibus.

Finally, I was heartened by Stagecoach’s press release that reassuring states, “On the road, the vehicle operates like a standard coach with an accelerator and brake”. There was me thinking the captain would have to drop the anchor at the first set of traffic signals...