Bête Noir

Why do people decide to hold long-distance Friday meetings before a bank holiday weekend? Whether by car or train, getting back on an average Friday ain’t easy. Add bank holiday traffic and I decided to take the public transport option. It’s usually my preference anyway, of course, though by no means always possible, depending upon where I need to be.

Simply by looking at the real time information, nearby roadworks and observing the general traffic around me, I could tell that my bus connection would be late. In the event, it turned up just over 21 minutes adrift. Those just arriving at the bus stop would have thought it was the next bus, or perhaps one arriving early. Others were solemn in their impatient waiting, glancing up at all the buses of the correct colour in the forlorn hope one would be theirs. Few bothered to check the RTI.

On the bus itself, a Standard Pointer Dart, I reflected upon the day before when I was advising a manager about what he should do regarding a driver whose speed regularly seemed to frighten passengers.

I wouldn’t say I was frightened during my own bus trip, more concerned and critical. There were, however, passenger murmurings all around me. The driver was nothing if bullish. The result was a journey punctuated by swift acceleration and sudden braking. The poor Dart body creaked and groaned, as it was starting to show its age. Along with the rattles and clatters, here was pretty much constant brake squeal.

The driver arrived at our destination just six minutes late, having made up exactly 15 minutes, even with a very healthy on-off load. Those waiting at the interchange for the next leg of the service probably therefore noticed nothing unusual for a Friday.

Some few years ago, this sort of corrective action would’ve been commended and encouraged, as a passenger service. These days, though, drivers are asked to be steady rather than speedy. It may be possible to right a few minutes’ delay but if you are late to the tune of 20 minutes and there’s a good reason for it, it’s best to be a little more relaxed about matters for, realistically, there is little you can safely do to make up time. Operators should no longer tolerate this style of driving and neither should passengers. There was one occasion when tolerances at an urban pinch-point were such that the driver nearly locked horns with the mirrors of an oncoming wagon. And, almost throughout the journey, was my bête noir, the now seemingly universal hand on the cash tray and not the steering wheel.

I can only assume there was no tracker or green driving technology on this particular vehicle and nothing to register harsh braking. Mind you, it only needed a sharp stroll from the bus and I caught my onward connection home. Sorry Drive, but I will nevertheless be telephoning someone senior at your company on Tuesday morning to register my disquiet.

Yet More

New Bus for London—just when you’ve lost count of the number of appearances in the press & online and you finally thought people had given up the “me too” reports of London’s soon-to-be new bus, there appears no abatement.

We still can’t really see the point of a bespoke London product but we still like that design. At its launch we said, “Whatever this bus is, it isn’t just another double deck”. Tucked away on page five of yesterday’s The Times Saturday Review was an interesting piece on the bus they incorrectly dub the Routemaster. Writer Stephen Bayley looked at NB4L from a single perspective, its design. Here are some quotes from him:

“Is Heatherwick’s new version iconic? Too early to say. Is it a very good piece of work? Certainly”

“The back end of a bus has become a design statement”

Scrapping the (original) Routemaster “was as if Big Ben had been turned into the Westminster Ikea”.

On the other hand, we have:

“There is really very little in design that is genuinely new. It’s always a question of survival or revival”.

One of Bayley’s quotes is crying out to be includes in an essay question for the chartership exams of the Chartered Institute of Transport (assuming they still charter people by examination).

‘ “The bus market is a very conservative one.” Discuss.’

Restrictions

In response to yesterday’s post on the deregulation oddities highlighted by the Campaign for Better Transport, commenter RC169 is, of course, right to state that such curiosities are not confined to the present day.

Often, when a country operator arrived at the city boundary, the old road service licence system would protect the urban operator by laying down conditions on the country provider. These tended either to be a setting down only restriction or the charging of a heavily weighted fare to discourage municipal abstraction.

“NOTE—The same passenger may not be both picked up and set down between (a) Southampton Bus Station and Tanners Brook, and (b) Bournemouth Bus Station and Longfield Drive, and a 1/- minimum fare will apply over the following sections (a) Southampton Bus Station to Totton, and (b) Bournemouth Bus Station to Ferndown, Penny’s Hill.”

I would argue that under that older system at least the passengers understood such rules, often in place for many years. Life was much simpler. It was obvious which were country buses and which were municipal. Invariably, the city provider operated at significantly higher frequencies and this would encourage municipal use and discourage short-distance journeys on the country service. Go back to the 1950s and there probably wouldn’t be room on the country bus in any case and the protection offered through the licensing system guarded against undue country service overcrowding.

And there tended to be only two suppliers, one country, one municipal. Demarcation was easy. Where there was a third, the country operators tended to co-operate, and they were often within the same group (e.g. National Bus Co and its predecessors).

Reading through the list of examples on the Campaign for Better Transport’s website, you get the impression that these days the competitive industry simply baffles passengers. Especially so where there are hourly buses competing just five minutes apart. In many areas frequencies have slimmed down yet operators *still* don't co-operate. Or, rather, operators couldn’t legitimately do so, perhaps till now.

(The example above from Hants & Dorset service 27 sounds horribly complicated but was actually easily understood on the ground. It isn’t the best example, as the 27 was limited stop with suitable restrictions thereon)

Your Comments Needed

Came across a whole page of competition oddities, yesterday, where passengers had outlined how crazy some of the bus industry practices seemed to them. The pressure group the Campaign for Better Transport (Transport 2000) claimed a victory in forcing through changes in competition law that could make many of them a thing of the past.

Take a look at the 20 or so accounts of local situations and you have to admit they don’t make much sense. We’d like to take issue, though, with one Ian Graham, regarding his view of competition in the south Dorset conurbation.

May be other readers can comment on their own particular local areas as to whether or not the campaign site is telling the truth, the whole truth, or just a part of it.

“In Bournemouth-Poole we have a ridiculous ‘bus wars’ situation. Two companies are competing with each other over the profitable routes, with absurd results”

That’s resulted in a level of competition second only to the ‘quality competition’ in Oxford. It’s raised the bar, driven up standards and resulted in significant ridership increases. This isn’t operators chasing each other then leaving large gaps, but each offering something different. There’s never been more choice or more buses. The region’s premier operator and the other decent one both offer a frequent service at special offer fares (but which is which?). Nothing absurd about it.

“There are now frequent services, totally beyond what is required, over a few routes (some having up to 17 buses an hour each way, which were previously quite adequately served by a 15-minute service)”

Facts, please. On the ‘traditional’ longstanding routes over the competitive sections (Poole-Bournemouth; and Bournemouth-Boscombe) rather than buses to this newfangled shopping mall Castlepoint, buses were always far more frequent that every 15 minutes, even before deregulation. And who’s to say that 22 buses per hour between Poole & Bournemouth’s “totally beyond what’s required”? If the market can bear such a frequency, that’s surely to everyone’s benefit.

“But at the same time, both companies have been cutting back elsewhere”

True, Wilts & Dorset’s longer distance network’s become unstitched but that would’ve happened regardless. W&D’s concentrated on other non-competitive urban services and invested, though critics do see a tendency towards core, strategic services. Outside the urban heart of Poole-Bournemouth & Salisbury, it certainly has less of a robust network. Transdev Yellow Buses has nevertheless maintained a positive growth strategy. What both have done—to their and the public’s benefit—is simplify. The former Hants & Dorset used to operate five distinct direct routes twixt Bournemouth & Poole. Now, that’s down to 1½.

“Certainly in Bournemouth, there are now large areas of the town without evening or Sunday services”

Really? Large areas?

I guess the flaw in the argument that Bournemouth is like Oxford is simply that Oxford is now showing some signs of collaborative working. Not so in Bournemouth. Not yet.

i Examples of disjointed services from the Campaign for Better Transport

More Foreign Control?

The sale of the first of the Bus Barons’ empires to Deutsche Bahn may set the scene for a new chapter in the history of the UK bus and transport industries. According to the Telegraph, more may follow.

It reports the rumour that following the failure of the Arriva/SNCF proposal, SNCF may seek a consolation. In January 2010, French state-backed SNCF held talks with Arriva over a potential merger with Keolis, jointly owned by SNCF. Those talks eventually broke down, allowing Germany's Deutsche Bahn to launch its £1.6bn Arriva bid.

Perhaps there’s no surprise that National Express is now said to be the most likely SNCF target, especially as the Cosmen family, the company's largest shareholder, is believed to be a willing seller. The relationship between the Cosmens and the NatEx board has been strained.
But there’s more. The group that likes to present and promote an independent face is also thought to be within the target of SCNF. That’s Go Ahead, in case you hadn’t guessed.

There are all sorts of jokes floating around about disgruntled Arriva passengers having now to write to German president Angela Merkel or Arriva bus drivers being German civil servants. There are some serious issues, though. Will foreign owners without experience of our free market regime prefer doing business the European way? Will they side with the likes of the P.T.E.G, the passenger transport executive group, in calling for re-regulation via franchises? Will such calls continue to fall on deaf Conservative ears? And at a time when the Cameron/Clegg administration wants to roll back the state, could we see further state control of our strategic transport operators, albeit not by our own government?

It’s probably stretching the imagination too far to speculate but what if SNCF took over Go Ahead and later began co-operating more or even merged with Parisian RATP, soon to be owners of Transdev Yellow Buses. Would this result in the two large Dorset players under if not common management then a collaborative one? Now *that* would be interesting… who knows what deals are yet to be done.

A Worrying Trend?

We could be in the midst of a second furore over what might amount to an extortion attempt on the part of a First Group passenger. This time, though, it’s serious.

Last night, the Leon Daniels Blog carried a piece on an alleged incident where a First Potteries East European driver allegedly threw off a child for sporting an England football shirt. You can imagine that such an affront to a national symbol sparked potentially dangerous recriminations, with much apparent ill will, hatred and xenophobia towards European immigrants.

Except the incident probably never happened.

• No Eastern European driver was working any of the journeys anywhere near the alleged incident



• Those who say they witnessed something cannot iron the kinks out of their stories.
  

Now, First’s buses aren’t white, blue and almost red for nothing and each of them (in England) carries a sticker supporting the world cup attempt.

The worrying thing here is that, just like false insurance claims, the industry is becoming a soft target for this sort of thing. Drivers remain vulnerable and largely unsupervised. Expect copycat “me too” incidents to spring up in the future.

And should this issue indeed be proven beyond reasonable doubt to be false, will the national media cover the apology?

i Leon Daniels Blog

Screaming

We’ve said before that the threatened cut in public spending, the first round of which was clarified after yesterday’s government statement, is likely to affect those operators who rely on the tendered bus market (though school transport will be m ore resilient). The pressure’s really on for local authorities that will no doubt place social services and education very much at the top of their protected list. Local bus budgets are relatively large and staff do not make up the main budget component. All this makes them a relatively soft target. And if this means early contract terminations, who will really scream at that?

But that’s not all. Capital schemes like the Hyndburn bus lane (£50mil) and Leeds trolleybus (£254mil) are just two recently considered as doubtful. Who will scream at schemes that haven’t yet started, no matter their promise?

The government wants to cut back on consultancy expenditure. A good job too, you might argue. Such cuts are also relatively painless. How many people will scream if the consultancy bill goes down? Few, if any. But local transport authorities tend to use consultants to build in capacity where there currently is none. Jobs that either simply wouldn’t get done or are beyond a LTA’s means or skills could fall by the wayside. Sometimes, bringing this work in house is not an option.

Every LTA throughout the land will have aspirations for commercial bus service (sic) improvements in their area. There’s pressure to establish more and more partnerships. Consultants can help in this regard. From operators’ perspectives, it’s easier to make capital expenditure decisions based on soundly argued consultants’ reports than it is to take the word of a LTA employee. That’s not to say operators trust all consultants, some having had bad experiences in the past. In general, though, consultants bring a level of independence and their reports are often far more believable than an otherwise purely local assessment.

Cap Ex issues man new runways at both Heathrow and Stanstead are now off the radar. It’s noticeable, instead, that Bristol Airport will see a £150mil expansion, catering for 10mil passengers p.a. There’s funding to enhance transport links and is a major boost for First’s airport express link Flyer A1, already providing a 10-minute service between Bristol Bus Station, Temple Meads rail station and the airport. To think 40 years ago Lulsgate Airport as it was then was served by an hourly-ish rural ramble from Bristol to Burnham-on-Sea using Bristol LSs and MWs, then every two hours from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, with LHs. All this before an on-off-very much on dedicated link was born, with the promise of more custom to come. Someone, somewhere in Bristol is screaming with joy.

Heavy Going

So, here’s another twist in the Stagecoach/Preston Bus saga, the one that has polarised Prestonians and some industry watchers. The Competition Appeals Tribunal has quashed some (not all) of the original Competition Commission’s decisions that would have forced Stagecoach to divest in Preston. In cock-a-hoop fashion, Stagecoach said the tribunal “vindicates our position” but, lads, it ain’t over yet.

The Compeition Commission had ruled Stagecoach’s purchase of Preston Bus resulted in a “substantial lessening of competition” and had directed Stagecoach to divest. Stagecoach gave undertakings that it would comply with the commission (inlcuding operatin Preston Bus under a separate management) but nevertheless appealed to the tribunal.

The 46-page tribunal report makes incredibly heavy reading. Its arguments appear more about competition law than what was happening on the streets of Preston. The report was therefore more about whether the commission applied the right tests and if not, whether the conclusions were unsound. It *appears* to suggest that the commission acted improperly by failing to consider all relevant issues.

What happens next? Normally, this would result in a referral back to the commission, for reconsideration. Yet, in appealing to the tribunal, Stagecoach had stated that it was minded to proceed with the Preston Bus sale regardless, should a buyer be found. Stagecoach did not seek to have the sale process suspended during the tribunal’s investigations. The tribunal therefore invites both parties to submit more evidence as to what might flow from the tribunal’s judgement.

Stagecoach is therefore pausing to come to terms with the ruling. If it doesn’t change its mind on a sale, why would Stagecoach go through the process of a tribunal hearing? We can speculate as to the answers.

• To ensure that when Stagecoach gets its chequebook out next time, it will be free to buy and will not be hindered by false arguments coming from the commission.
• To restore balance between Stagecoach and the commission. Stagecoach has traditionally enjoyed an unhappy history with the commision (and its predecessor, the Moopolies & Mergers Commission).
• To square up to a body that operators feel is unjustifiably inhibiting the development of the bus industry, in terms of pasenger benefits and operational economies.

The machinations that seem to have polarised Prestonians look certain to rumble on just a little longer. Meanwhile, Stagecoach has set itself a 4th June deadline for interested parties to come forward to buy New Preston Bus.

Not a Good Week

Last week wasn’t a particularly good one for reports of injuries and deaths. Two people were left dead and two more seriously injured near Warwick on Tuesday, after what appears to have been a head-on collision between a Johnson’s of Henley-in-Arden service bus (carrying pupils) and car. Among the dead was the Johnson’s bus driver, no doubt after the bus subsequently hit a tree.

And yesterday, one of Stagecoach Western’s X77 Neoplan Skyliners is thought to have hit another vehicle on the M77 motorway. Whatever the cause, the driver is said to have received head injuries.

Stagecoach Express X77 is the successful half-hourly Glasgow-Prestwick-Airport-Ayr service that increases at peak times to six per hour. It covers the 36-mile journey in just under an hour and, even ignoring parking your car, is incredibly competitive with private motoring, the more so given the apparent luxury of a double deck coach.

We understand that some though by no means all of the former Oxford Tube Skyliners appear on the X77, replacing earlier MAN/Jonckheere Monaco tri-axles.

Stagecoach yesterday was at pains to point out that its vehicle had not toppled. Said a spokesman, “The coach remained upright following the incident and passengers were able to leave the vehicle through the normal entrance.”

That’s quite telling, isn’t it? Why should someone say that? Almost the first words uttered were to assure the media that the vehicle had remained on its wheels, all six of them. Rare though toppling incidents are, Stagecoach immediately countered the perception about the potential problem of using a double deck on an express services.

National Express, of course, has abandoned double deck coaches on its inter-city services, in large part following the deaths and injuries at the M4/M25 interchange, on a Skyliner bound for Scotland. Though some years ago now, sensitivities in Scotland are no doubt still high, with nebulous thoughts of when this happened before. This was totally a driver-fault incident and the consequences of a driver error at speed involving a laden double deck were felt by NatEx to be indefensible.

Stagecoach, meanwhile, continues to use deckers on Megabus and Oxford Tube-type duties. The remainder of those once used on the Tube are still with the leasing company. Shrewdly, Stagecoach indeed chose to lease, not buy, its Neoplans. This leaves the problem of dealing with hard-worked vehicles to Dawson Rentals, whose adverts now adorn the rears of both Coach & Bus Week and especially Bus & Coach Buyer. Dawson seems to have an uphill task in shifting these particular vehicles.

Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased Johnson’s driver and, for a swift recovery, with the Stagecoach X77 driver.

Arriva goes Viral

If I’d only publicised this when I received it care of a regular reader, I could’ve been partly responsible for this Arriva advert going viral. The total who’ve watched Arriva Copenhagen’s “Mukhtar’s Birthday” video is now equivalent to one fifth of the population of Denmark.

Watch it for yourself. It’s stage-managed saved for the Arriva driver whose reaction, we are told, is genuine.

This is another idea from Kadaver who brought you the Arriva Copenhagen “love seats” or Kærlighedssæder. They warned us there’d be more! What makes this and the love seats idea work so well, apart from their novelty, is the emotion both generate. We could do with a few positive emotions among our passengers. Let’s face it, the only emotion that a bus usually produces are bad ones, such as anger, uneasiness, misery, resentment and even contempt.

Here are some observations on the video:

• You see a yellow Danish city bus several times but nowhere is there the word “Arriva”, anywhere. There’s something subliminal in that.


• Listen to it more than once and I defy you *not* to hum or whistle what appears to be the Danish equivalent of Happy Birthday.


• The driver has a pretty substantial seat. It’s interesting that unlike your typical English bus seat, his swivels. This no doubt helps in addressing passengers but is this totaly safe?


• Mukhtar seems to suffer from a loss of concentration. Again, perhaps not such a good thing. That’s unsurprising with a live cornet player on his bus, then a soloist, then a small choir, then everyday, regular passengers included, singing for him.


• Mukhtar shows his own emotions, from curiosity, to uncertainty, to surprise, to shock, to bewilderment, to being whelmed and uncomprehending delight. It rather reminded me of the 1960s TV programme Candid Camera.


• One thing seems to get lost in translation. One report refers to the cornet player as a “trumpist”.


• Do all Danish buses have an unfurled flag fluttering on their roofs?

Always one. Not everyone joined in. I suspect he wishes he had

We wonder just how the love seats are doing. And we wonder whether every bus driver in Denmark has his passengers sing to him on his birthday…

Where did the Bus Go?

She’s entitled to a free bus pass and is therefore a stakeholder in the bus service. At the time of her parliamentary big speech, will Her Majesty be as disappointed as me that there is so little on bus services within in the Conservative-Liberal programme for government? Here is the only clue we get:

“We… will encourage joint working between bus operators and local authorities.”

Let’s perform some exegesis of these sparse words. First, we have to assume that for “local authorities” read “local transport authorities”, including the ITAs.

Secondly, “joint working” can mean many things, from voluntary to statutory partnerships. Indeed, it’s rare to find a LTA that isn’t working jointly with its operators, in some way, even if that’s not recognised by the mayor’s signature on an accord or an agreement with photo-shoot. I am not aware of any authority actively working *against* its bus operators! Though some could do more. Might the 11 words in the programme document therefore be slightly meaningless?

“Encourage” does not mean the government will force local authorities to work in partnership. But it does indicate an expectation. Neither does it imply town halls seizing control. It seems that there will be no sanction should a local authority fail to work with operators.

My own interpretation is that, tough light on detail when compared to some rail issues, the government means there should be an emphasis on partnership working beyond the average. A kind of active partnership. Otherwise, why mention it? It would appear that when it came to the inevitable compromises between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, the latter had the upper hand so far as bus services are concerned. Liberal policies wanted an authoritarian approach, ceding control to transport authorities. That clearly won’t be the immediate future. We may therefore assume in this joint statement that the new government has put paid to the prospect of quality contracts, for which operator will no doubt be grateful. Perhaps it will even repeal those clauses within the Local Transport Act 2008 that refer to franchises, as the Conservatives hinted before election time.

Assuming voters get this far into the document and assuming that they understand or care about the subtleties of partnership, they may well feel saddened that there will henceforward be no overt public control. Ordinary passengers do seem to have an appetite for a change of regime. Even some local Conservative politicians can feel that way.

A surprise registration cancellation, today on the Dorset Bus Blog.

New Preston Bus?

Splitting and selling its Preston city services to former Preston Bus employees will no doubt be Stagecoach’s second favoured option. It’s not, however, the one Stagecoach prefers—this is not to sell at all. For Stagecoach is still appealing against the Competition Commission’s forced sale decision but we assume Stagecoach will be unsuccessful.

Reports locally suggest the setting up of New Preston Bus (aka Preston Transport Ltd) is possible. Why, for Stagecoach, might this be the next best thing? It poses fewer problems for Stagecoach, when compared to one of the large groups. New Transit suggests that Arriva & Go Ahead have expressed an interest. The issue, though, is whether either sees this as a good investment, given Preston Bus’ history of under-performance. Know doubt the price will reflect such concerns.

An employee-led operator would be less likely to go head-to-head with Stagecoach, whereas a group subsidiary just might, if only at the fringes. A locally-owned “independent” would probably not have the resources to do so, or the profitability, in any case.

Local politicians and the media seem to trumpet local control. This may yet be a good thing but what it will probably do, given that New Preston Bus will really be no different than it once was, is fragment the market such that there will be an immediate loss of network ticketing and benefits. Given a probable lack of competition, Preston will end up with two operators on two largely separate networks, with the smaller one unable to take advantage of back office and engineering economies of scale. Will New Preston Bus be any less fragile than then old one?

And is this segmentation—whether New Preston Bus, Arriva or Go Ahead—good for the passenger and the fares they have to pay, when compared to the current situation?

New Transit speculates that Stagecoach will close bids on 4 June 2010, with a decision expected soon afterwards. Get down to Ladbrokes now, and open a book as to the potential winner.

Conducting

With the fanfare of the Routemaster NB4L, conductors are from 2012 again about to feature on London’s buses. But First has already reintroduced conductors, on its FTRs. We take a look at the new generation of conductors with First, to see what London can look forward to.

When you comment to First’s managers that conductors are back, to a man they quickly remark, “but in a different guise”. For First appears to have reinvented the conductor. Their “customer hosts” are so much more than conductors. These hosts are appointed for their customer skills, their knowledge of their local area and its tourist features. But wasn’t that what the conductors of yore used to do, even if informally? As for being customer focused, older generation conductors were probably never trained in that department but most, nearly all in fact, were. They had little choice because if they didn’t engage with passengers, the passengers would engage with them.

First’s managers tend to pad around the subject of the reason for conductors by suggesting that the hosts speed up the service, add to the impression that FTR is different, and help in the overall quest of generating custom. Were these the real reasons behind the conductor, might we not see their revenue-raising potential on other strategic services? Of course not, as conductors come at cost, something First York has realised by replacing FTRs with conventional buses after dark.

The real reason for the conductors’ reintroduction is, of course, to combat passenger fraud. The mobile and on board ticketing proved either too ahead of its time or insufficiently robust. There’s no reason, however, why conductors can’t have a secondary, positive spin-off on service provision.

What the customer hosts do is provide a safe, secure environment, something that’s welcomed by travellers, especially older people. It has to be said: some people feel slightly vulnerable when travelling by bus. The presence of a reassuring conductor goes a long way—again at a cost, of course. But if you’re providing a superlative service with conductors, then they should perhaps even go *some* way to pay for themselves.

And there’s no doubting at all the fact that passengers welcome their conductors. Here at last is someone with whom they can have contact, someone who has time for them, someone who has the time to advise on connections. The poor driver certainly cannot. Older passengers liken the level of service to the 1960s. Younger ones who wish to engage find reassurance and help with buggies & luggage. Of course, it’s all a matter of perception. Whether conductors actually make a pretty safe journey safer is debatable. But they do brighten the day and they are appreciated by those who ride with them.

Their pending reintroduction in London is for all of these reasons and, o course, the fairly fundamental one: that you cannot operate an open platform rear loader without a conductor.

Valiant Effort or Mongrel?

When we wrote yesterday about the New Bus for London, we knew there was something afoot. We weren’t sure what to expect. Say what you like about TfL’s morning launch yesterday, it’s gotten people talking about buses. Surely a good thing. And say what you like about the politics behind the project, you have to admit that Wrightbus has come up with something strikingly different, brave, courageous even. Whatever this bus is, it isn’t just another double deck—though notwithstanding the large open platform, it’s still a large glass & metal box which means, without aircon or hopper/ventilators, it will certainly do what double decks tend to do: steam up in winter and boil passengers in summer.

The off-side looks more striking than the nearside. Indeed, the glazed stairwell is the most striking featue of all. Seen from the kerb, this could be any old bus, though it’s from this view that the remarkable features are found: two stairwells and an open rear platform
The first thing that struck me was that it looks a little like those beautiful Alexander J/AL type bodies on Bournemouth Atlanteans & Fleetlines from the 1960s. Plus it has something of that je ne sais quoi about it, perhaps an element of those strange, raked Dublin Metsec bodies used by CIE. Add a side profile of the Nottingham specials of the 1970s, with part glazed stairwells and the frontal asymmetry of a Gateshead hybrid single deck and you have quite a mongrel. In short, it wasn’t so long ago on this blog that we were discussing that curved designs make better buses. If that’s indeed true, here we have something very much in that mould (some might say “jelly mould”) that passengers will love and respect, though we suspect it will polarise opinion. Mind you, the rear curves & dome look just a little over cooked.

Video walkthroughs and paper designs as on display by TfL often show products off to best advantage. Things do change when you see a mock up or a production design. Good examples of where paper didn’t quite translate to reality include the Plaxton Elite and the Optare Rapta.

What’s left to say about it that the media haven’t? Not a lot. One thing is for sure, though, a new Routemaster it is not. For one thing, it’s wider and far larger and longer, and may have trouble weaving through London’s traffic. For another, there’s a considerable wheelbase there and overhangs front and especially rear. The RM had no such front overhand, of course. And it won’t have a rear platform with conductor at slacker times. Presumably this includes the evening, just when passengers might benefit from a second crew member. Ah well.

Whatever this bus is, it isn’t just another double deck. We stand by our comments yesterday about whether London really needs a bespoke design. If it’s to have one, though, this may as well be it. Better than the designed-principally-for-London Titan and DMS, that’s for sure. The New Bus for London has the appeal and gravitas that came with the RT and RM, only in an updated and modern package. Thankfully, it has shunned the TfL competition winners. Though, as we’ve said before more than once, the more outrageous the design, the quicker it dates.

By way of a trial, in the left hand column, are the ten most recent reader comments. Let me know whether this is useful or not, via Comments on this post. It follows a suggestion via the February 2010 Omnibuses survey.

A London Red Elephant?

First Group has announced that it was successful in its tender to continue the operation of one of London's two Routemaster RM heritage bus services. It shouldn't be long, though, before First begins winning contracts requiring Routemaster2.0, the New Bus for London...

Coming from the provinces but living close enough to London to be familiar with the Routemaster, I remain unconvinced that the capital needs a bespoke new version of what I’m kindly referring to as a classic. Not that the new version bears much resemblance to the old. It might be a rear loader but not all the time. It’s almost as if the bus can’t quite make up its mind.

We have yet to see the final new RM design. Doubt if it will be like this, though

I know I will be open to challenge but I’ve never seen anything on the ground that proves beyond question that London’s needs are different to any other large urban area. And why, till 2005, should London continue using a 1950s design long abandoned in the regions and one with a serious inherent risk to boot.

I wouldn’t go as far as some in criticising the costs, though. £7.8mil is a lot of money but why shouldn’t we develop our buses of the future properly, to the point where we can be confident that the product meets its brief and is attractive to passengers? If only we spent proportionately half the amount of money per unit, as does the car industry, we’d have some significant results. The Ford Mondeo was one of the most closely vehicles to design and engineer, at over £4bil.

Is TfL optimistic when it says that the final cost per unit makes the new RM comparable to a ‘standard’ hybrid double deck? Time will surely tell. Does the eventual cost per bus depend on orders from elsewhere? And, as hybrid vehicles gain orders through the government’s green bus fund, will there be a widening gap between the RM and other designs?

It seems to me that the three main attributes of the new RM.

• A contemporary, eye-catching design.

It was only recently that commenters and I emphasised the importance of good design. I wasn’t alone in saying that passengers just get on with travelling, too busy to notice or fret about what the bus looks like. It’s still a box on wheels. Yet, I also felt there was a correlation between design and quality purchases. I have no doubt that Wrightbus, the chosen bodybuilder, will do a good job, but they already build good looking vehicles on service in London, as does ADL. And the Optare Olympus is starkly attractive from the front. Remember, too, that modern and quirky designs are the ones that date quickest. Look no further than the Ford Anglia, Ford Ka and many a Citroën.

• Environmentally friendly.

The RM doesn’t have the monopoly on environmental friendliness. Might it actually be better to refit a hybrid within each of the remaining Citaro artics?

• Built for London’s needs.

As I say, are London’s needs that super-special? If conductors are perceived as a good thing in improving the perception of a more secure passenger journey, why aren’t they being reintroduced in London, right now? And elsewhere? (Rhetorical questions).

Going Ticketless

If you have children, grandchildren or young neighbours, you’ll know that young people really do have a passion for environmental issues. They see things with uncomplicated eyes and cannot understand the damage we are inflicting upon the world around us. They shame the rest of us. If only adults and political parties were so focused.

On 9th May, one such youngster began an online petition asking “Kent Stagecoach Bus” to stop issuing bus tickets. With the number paying fares and receiving tickets, she asks of Stagecoach, “Is the bus really that eco-friendly after all this?” She ponders, “If you're getting a single, do you really need a slip of paper to tell you that you've got the bus?”

In the light of the Swindon petition situation, which commenters generally felt was a foot-shooting exercise, it will be interesting to see how Stagecoach reacts. Currently, there are but 162 signatories out of a target of 1,000. Disappointingly for the petitioner, few are from the Garden of England and most from the States.

The immediate answer to the question about the need for tickets is, well, we *do* need them, for all sorts of reasons: audit purposes, proof of purchase, proof of travel. Anyone concerned about the number of tickets they receive may well be travelling often and should therefore consider a season-type ticket, renewed weekly or monthly.

In the grand scheme of things, tickets are still an insignificant environmental issue. They are(should be) biodegrade and (should be) recyclable, thiugh I am never sure about treated paper. As an alternative to the private car, we shouldn’t lose site of the fact that simply switching modes is a far greener choice than worrying about a slip of paper. Stagecoach itself recognises that diesel engines are “dirty” and last month reaffirmed its international £11mil carbon reduction programme. It will see the eco-driving and eco-management techniques and technology across it UK bus driver workforce and fleet. Two thirds of Stagecoach South East’s buses meet Euro III.

It’s right f the petitioner to dream of a ticketless system, although we’re some way off this. Operators who have smartcard systems are torn between issuing a ticket or not, each time someone touches in. It may not be strictly necessary but there are whispers that free travellers, for example, don’t *always* register properly. The issuing of an appropriate zero-value ticket ensures reimbursement.

I suppose the consolation is that, since the peak in bus travel in the early 1950s, the number of squares or oblongs of paper issued is now considerably fewer, even though this has increased a little, recently.

i Bus ticket petition

Look Back & Forward

No sooner had the ink dried on yesterday morning’s Omnibuses post than we heard confirmation from the new transport minister that “the era of easy public money is over”. This is a direct response to the new government’s policies on managing the deficit. I guess we can thank America’s sub-prime mortgage lenders, Northern Rock and Iceland for this change.

The last ten years have seen better economic times and transport has been a beneficiary. Though the expectations of the previous government’s 10-year plan 2000-2010 were never fully realised, particularly regarding light rail and road pricing, it was a good time for buses and bus services.

• Many bus networks saw increases in passenger ridership, some matching or exceeding the then government’s 10 per cent target.


• A great many inter-urban and rural bus routes were actually more frequent and stronger than they were 20-30 years ago.


• Rural bus grant, urban & rural bus challenge and kickstart saw improvements to frequency and vehicle quality, plus innovative solutions.


• Commercial operators had the confidence to invest substantially in new vehicles, providing a considerable boost for manufacturers.


• Free travel offered a fillip to passenger numbers, although some concerns remain about reimbursement levels.


• There was much investment in bus-related infrastructure projects across England.
  

The economic landscape is now so very different as the electorate has principally voted for a party that will see public spending reduced. In truth, this would’ve happened whatever the result, to some degree or another. Opportunities remain, however, as climate change isn’t going away and transport will still play a central role in recession recovery.

Cuts

It wasn’t the slippage in First UK Bus’ profits, down by seven per cent to £125mil, that was the shock. It was more that First called bus (and rail) services “resilient” and “robust” in the teeth of recession. The more so since First’s bus operations in the last 12 months had seen significant cuts. Would this be called “robust”?

What was more intriguing within its full-year preliminary results was where First placed the blame. You’d expect increased fuel prices (costing the group overall £90mil). But the other excuse was cutbacks in public spending.

This may refer to the United States. Here, though, we’re no expert on the rail industry but I wasn’t aware of any *unplanned* rail cuts over the past year. Franchise payments may go down but that would be planned for. This might leave a funding gap if there’s no or little expected growth but this isn’t a public spending cut, though like-for-like rail and bus revenues both rose by two percent. And we can’t recall any significant cuts in public expenditure on the buses. Indeed, First’s withdrawals has to date had the opposite effect in increasing subsidies.

May be First’s commentary on transport-related public spending (in the UK) is therefore a portent for the future. We have a new government which, over the next five years (if it lasts), is expected to take the axe to public spending. Forget Philip Hammond’s lack of shadow experience or his suggested centrist leaning. The appointment of an unknown secretary of state, outside Runnymede, gives a further indication that health, education and policing will do rather better than the likes of transport. Not that things would’ve been much different under a government of redder hue.

Specific cuts in transport may threaten large capital schemes, whether national or local. General cuts in public expenditure will weaken those operators who rely on bus subsidy, once viewed as a guaranteed income source. A number of operators have made a good living from local transport authorities. Often, it’s the smaller operator that has felt more at home in the tendered service market rather than being exposed to commercial on-street competition. What will the future hold for them if a giant like First struggles with cuts in public expenditure?

And, as fuel prices continue to increase and the likes of First UK Bus and others react in the time honoured way, there will be yet more of a call on the public purse at a time when it will have started to be emptied.

Illegitimate Protest?

I have sympathy with the Stagecoach West employees who asked a passenger to leave her bus for touting a petition against recent Swindon service changes. Always provided it’s done with tact and care. The newspaper report, of course, implied that said passenger was forced to leave by being “escorted off”. The issue, though, is whether it’s appropriate for a passenger to seek signatures while on board.

The particular revision affecting the petitioning passenger was the speeding up of the 54, now branded Direct 54, from commuter town Wootton Bassett to nearby central Swindon. From 4th May, by avoiding West Swindon centre and its Asda, Stagecoach had shaved a staggering 15 minutes off the journey time, now at 25 minutes. For those of us in the industry, how many times have we heard calls for direct rather than circuitous routes? Direct 54 must surely be of benefit to the majority of passengers and will have the potential to grow the business nicely. But this angered our petition-wielding friend.

I have no idea of the numbers travelling between Bassett and the Asda—the petitioner’s destination—but I am sure Stagecoach has and will have considered its options at quite some length. This is a bus not a taxi service, after all, and Stagecoach cannot cater for everyone’s individual needs and must consider as many of its regular passengers as possible, with one eye on future growth.

And unpleasant though it may be, there is now an opportunity to change onto Stagecoach’s frequent 8 to get from Bassett to Asda, at no additional cost. There are, of course, flaws:

• You will have heavy shopping


• The 10-minute 8 feeds into two-buses-an-hour 54, so passenger might have up to 29 minutes to wait, effectively in the middle of nowhere.

This rather unpleasant option may be enough to galvanise a woman into protesting by petition. To do so on board is unethical and uncalled for. No one’s wishing to stop the woman collecting names. A strong protest may result in Stagecoach reassessing matters, if there are indeed more people making the now more difficult journey than first thought. In other words, petitions can be a useful tool, even though we all know that people sign them whether they are directly affected or not.

But do it at the bus stop, lady, or the bus station, or outside Asda, or via Facebook. It’s rather like someone protesting that Asda is forcing village, town or suburban shops to close and seeking signatures against Asda from within its store. Can you imagine Asda allowing that?

Newspapers being newspapers, Stagecoach had to justify its actions. Stagecoach relied upon a “general policy” that does not permit any form of campaigning or canvassing on its buses, without *permission*. Permission was neither sought nor granted.

Here, Stagecoach’s standard conditions of carriage offer no specific help. Those pertaining to anti-social behaviour do not really apply. There’s the standard “conduct of passengers” clauses. One states passengers should “behave in a manner that is not abusive or threatening and does not cause offence to other customers or staff.” It’s possible that a petitioner might cause offence to a passenger or a driver but it’s tenuous. In this case, not all passengers might side with the petitioner, because they might see the benefit of a direct bus service.

Stagecoach may require a passenger to leave a bus at any time, should it “have reason to believe that your behaviour jeopardises the safety, security and comfort of others.” This has a little more meat to it. The petitioner would presumably be moving around the bus, putting herself (and others?) at risk.

Every Little Helps

Update on yesterday’s Megabus expansion post. Given Stagecoach is a NatEx contractor, we referred to the potential strain the new Megabus services might cause, though NatEx is realistic enough to realise that Megabus can never quite be the market leader either for London-focused or cross-country coach travel. Yesterday, Stagecoach nevertheless stole a slight march on NatEx by “clubbing” together with Tesco in an innovative offer that sees England’s favourite loyalty card accepted on Megabus. The business world has witnessed the power of Clubcard across a number of retail offers with significant results, so why not in coaching?

Oxford New Deal

A (displaced) Cumbrian tries to explain new Oxford and economics…

We assume that it will be late August when we shall see the cessation of on-road competition on four main corridors out of Oxford. These are the Banbury, Cowley, Iffley and London Roads. Here, the Thames Transit colour-coded minibuses of old have expanded to route-branded low floor Stagecoach single decks, competing with similarly route-branded red low floor Oxford Bus Company single decks.

Buses along the Cowley Road will henceforward be in partnership...

The operators currently compete along the four corridors, each running single deck buses every five or ten minutes. Under the plan, in come double decks every four or eight minutes (or so), alternating between Stagecoach and the Oxford Bus Co. There will be common branding and ticketing.

The deal was brokered in response to county council plans to pedestrianise large swathes of the city centre, moving the buses out. The two companies recognised the affect buses were having on the city and also the consequences should Oxfordshire’s plans be set in stone. Pragmatically, collaboration rather than competition was a solution and it offered the operators economies, too.

... and along the Banbury Road

Market economists might argue that such a partnership move would cause concern for passengers. The new Oxford regime moves from on-road competition to collusion. This would not normally be tolerated but is permissible as the council believes it to be in the interests of passengers.

Collusion brings fares concerns. Economists might argue that the industry offers a natural monopoly. This means that it might be at its most efficient when provided by a single supplier. The economies of scale of a single supplier can maximise the return. As an illustration, in simple terms, telephone networks costs less to operate per head the more subscribers there are, and the more customers there are the more attractive the service becomes. This natural monopoly is why we regulate the telephone industry. Translating this to a bus network, effectively the more buses operated *effectively* as a single supplier, the higher the price passengers are willing to pay. And here lies the problem: the increased frequency of bus services that one can use with one ticket should make the service more attractive, and increase that willingness to pay, therefore increasing the fares that are actually charged. And the buses cost less to run. Everyone wins! Except the people who can’t or won’t afford the new service...

Balancing this, collaboration might have other benefits. Take Risinghurst estate, adjacent to the competitively served Barton estate at the end of the two-every-eight-minutes Oxford Bus Co/Stagecoach competitive London Road corridor. The estate has only a 30-minute weekday daytime service. Under the partnership proposal, it is expected to gain at last an evening and Sunday service.

So much for the corridors. What about the rest of the network and other operators? This is unclear. Stagecoach run three buses an hour down the Banbury Road bound not for Kidlington like most of its buses and the Oxford Bus Co’s too, but for Bicester. Will the common tickets be good on these? Will the fare structure extend to buses like the Brookes ones, which provide certain peripheral networks? Will the residents of more diverse corridors, like the Botley Road with six Oxford Bus Co and five Stagecoach buses an hour to various destinations benefit, too? Will the sundry other operators, running to country destinations feature? Arriva run two buses down the London Road bound for Aylesbury...

Distant Relations

The announcement yesterday that Stagecoach is expanding Megabus—again—alters the balance just a little between Britain’s budget inter-city providers. I wonder how National Express feels about two of its contractors—Stagecoach & First—improving rival services Megabus & Greyhound.

The express coach market is quite a buoyant one at the moment, no doubt riding on the back of three the very different traffic sources: cheap flight air transfers; a peak in the student population; and the recession. Megabus’ 24th May 2010 UK changes add seven new destinations and a not inconsiderable focus on new cross-country links, including to Birmingham airport. Plus improvements to traditionally stronger coaching markets, between Glasgow & London and Manchester & London.

In spite of the usual razzmatazz of the usual press release, Megabus still operates limited numbers of departures and all budget carriers—Megabus, Greyhound and National Express—carry pitifully low numbers when you consider the *overall* market. They are perhaps niche rather than mainstream providers, or so the world views them. Not just that. When, for example, was the last time you saw a NatEx coach that was actually *full* or anywhere near? Likewise, whenever I see one of the Oxford Tubes on the motorway network, the same general observation seems to apply.

Yet there must be enough passengers to justify brand new Astromegas for theTube, Volvo/Panthers & others for Megabus, and under-seven-year old coaches for NatEx. There are no doubt profits to be had in the express inter-city market, even if NatEx is steady rather than sensational. In spite of a change of emphasis towards stronger inter-city movements away from operating the sort of rambling links of last resort that once seemed to connect every village in England, NatEx is still viewed as an under-performer.

Paraphrasing heavily, the keys to express service profitability are yield management on the one hand and a lower cost per mile associated with limited stop running, on the other. The economics of express services, while not removed from that of the humble bus, are a bit of a distant relation.

While focusing on the UK, we shouldn’t forget that last month Stagecoach announced expansion of its Stateside Megabus operation in the mid-west and north east. Just about this time last year, Megabus announced a Canadian operation, using the now familiar Van Hool Astromega type. This followed expansion in the USA in the spring and autumn of 2008 and the introduction of America’s first double deck express coaches, in 2007. Such a novelty were the new Megabus Astromegas that the PR company had to stress that they were closed top, lest the good people of the States felt that they were the more usual novelty sightseeing tour buses.

Those Nuisance Elections

Will we have a government, today? Undoubtedly not. Though we mentioned the election position on Saturday and the issues surrounding bus services should there be a Con-Lib Pact, with everyone else talking about the election, we thought we’d better not be left out. But, this is Omnibuses, so you’d expect something different. Rather than the negotiations for No. 10, we though we’d focus first on the 19 seats up for grabs on Plymouth council. Remember Plymouth?

Let’s be honest, as the mainstream and blogging media’s focused on the general election, we’ve heard and seen precious little of the local ones. Plymouth was a key council because those who opposed the Plymouth Citybus sell-off threatened and predicted a protest vote at the polls that would oust the Conservative administration and its leader. So, what happened?

The Conservative council leader at the heart of the sell off retained her seat. Of the remaining 11 Conservative seats, the party retained 10. One went Red. And Labour gained a second, from an independent Labour candidate. The Conservative Party comfortably remained in control. And this against a little reported backdrop of Labour winning over 400 extra seats councillors in local elections and gaining control of an additional 15 councils.

The Plymouth result was in spite of the Citybus sale being the one issue polarising Plymothians, at least according to the Herald newspaper (see graphic above). Unprecedented, over half the electorate felt this was an issue. In Plymouth, local transport was in theory a major electoral issue. I say in theory, as it looks as if no one cared enough either way, when it came down to it. Or, perhaps in spite of all the bluster, people see little difference (yet?) in the Plymouth Citybus under Go Ahead.

In the national elections, in spite of a 7.8 percent local swing, Labour held Plymouth Moor View. A similar swing in Plymouth Sutton & Devonport resulted in Labour losing to the Conservatives. The Citybus sale spilled over into the national election campaign in South West Devon, which includes the Plymouth commuter suburb of Plympton. The Labour candidate referred to forthcoming changes to Citybus services in Plympton as a symptom of privatisation, painting a very different picture to the 10 extra jobs said to be created for Plymton services by Citybus management. The Conservatives comfortably held the seat and, for whatever reason, the Lib Dem candidate overtook that of Labour.

As the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties cuddle up—and there’s even talk that the Lib Dems might forsake proportional representation—transport remains a bit of a gulf between the two. Arias (sic) of broad party agreement feature in bold, below.

LABOUR	LIBERAL DEMOCRAT	CONSERVATIVE
Content with Local Transport Act 2008 and giving more control over buses to local transport authorities	Effective end to deregulation, with control of local services to LTAs via franchising	Believed to want to repeal the Local Transport Act 2008. Emphasis on partnerships, not franchises
High speed rail lines initially in the shape of the "Y" proposals	Open up new rail stations and lines, seemingly in many places	In favour of an expansion of high speed rail lines
Support third Heathrow runway but nowhere else in the UK	Opposed to third Heathrow runway and expansion at Gatwick and Stanstead	Opposed to third Heathrow runway and expansion at Gatwick and Stansted
Road pricing ruled out this parliament	Committed to longer-term road pricing on main roads	Opposed to road pricing
Support for tram and light rail	Support for tram and light rail	Measured support for tram and light rail

Learning Fast

“We know about buses. Nothing will change. There are no plans to change the name or to cut routes. We’re not planning to put up prices and want to provide a reliable service to everyone.”

So said a RATP Dev spokesman on Friday, in the Bournemouth Echo, regarding RATP’s take-over of Transdev Yellow Buses. Indeed, it could easily be said that RATP Dev knows a great deal about buses. It operates the majority within Paris, with considerable other international interests.

The front page of the French RATP website features nothing less than a large London-liveried red bus. Whatever next? But this one is in Arriva London livery! Has RATP told DB?

While RATP’s statement is true of a familiar regulated environment such as London; while its new London United business gives it access to potential expansion within the important London franchised market (and on other London modes), it has to date no experience whatever of the peculiarly British deregulated provincial bus market. It might therefore be slightly disingenuous to claim that RATP knows about the cut-and-trust of the win-lose free market.

Something odd about this familiar East Lancs Bournemouth yellow open topper? Perhaps Yellow Buses will reintroduce these

Like NedRail before it and Deutsche Bahn, RATP obviously sees the UK market as significant and important, even a battle ground. Gaining a toehold is the name of the game. RATP will have to learn quickly about operating deregulated buses and what better a teacher than TYB, even if TYB has begun to lose its edge in the local market, owing to more recent flatter growth and the introduction this month of a couple of frolic services.

“We know about buses. Nothing will change. There are no plans to change the name or to cut routes. We’re not planning to put up prices and want to provide a reliable service to everyone.”

And there cannot be plans to change the name, because the term “Yellow Buses” is enshrined in the 2005 sale agreement between council and company. Though no doubt the name “Transdev” will at some point be painted out, and let’s hope we don’t see something as ridiculous as “RATP Dev Yellow Buses” or les mots Françaises “Les Autobus Jaunes RAPT Dev”.

Polling

We await the formation of a government. The heavyweight newspapers this morning devote nearly all their space to speculation as to the prospect of a Con-Lib pack. As in so many policy areas, this possibility has potentially interesting repercussions for pubic transport, though my guess is that neither Cameron nor Clegg have even uttered the words “bus services”. One has a declared intention to scrap deregulation, giving control to local authorities. The other wishes to free the market still further, within a partnership rather than franchise framework. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, most people turned up on polling on Thursday (assuming they did so in time) and cast their votes at a local school or community centre. That wasn’t the case everywhere. The BBC showed images of makeshift polling stations in a hairdresser, restaurant, pub, caravan… and even an Optare Solo bus, in Wales.

Probably more accessible than many an older community centre or village hall, this “bus” is owned by a small otherwise unheard of unitary authority in south Wales called Blaenau Gwent. The Dragons’ Den bus visits a number of towns across the council area, offering community support programmes including parenting, language and baby massage (baby massage?). So that’s completely the antithesis of the BBC TV programme Dragon’s Den, then.

Veolia: sad retrospective—part 2

Part 1 here...

12th and 19th April 2010 respectively saw Edwards’ Coaches launch its new 400E and 100E. Edwards hasn’t operated a bus service for 45 years and the deregulated era seems to have passed it by. So, why start now?

An odd way to presenting a public timetable. How, for example, does an Edwards 100E passenger know when his bus to RGH leaves Pontypridd?

According to Edwards, it’s in response to customer requests and the poor service offered by an unnamed competitor. Could this be none other than Veolia Cymru? It surely can.

Reports from the Valleys allege that even after some four years, Veolia has never quite gotten to grips with its eclectic mix of five former south Wales operators, six if you include the newer plant in southern Powys. It’s reported that services are still occasionally unreliable and that journeys booked as SLFs are often punctuated with step-entrance vehicles. The centralised garage and maintenance facility opened in 2009 at Treforest has yet to make its mark. Over recent years, Veolia has had to cut back the services it has inherited and the over-optimistic frequencies offered. In the public’s eyes, this adds a tinge of regret to the passing of well known names such as Bebb’s. Perhaps Veolia would have been better retaining the name (though there are clear reasons why Veolia should chose uniform brand—provided they can back it up). After all, look hard and you can still just about see the remaining former Bebb’s Solo in its former white livery.

On the other hand, Edwards’s Coaches is synonymous with quality, with a good reputation in high-end coaching. This I can back up first hand: there are often Edwards’s vehicles at Bournemouth’s mid-range hotels sector, on extended tours. All of Edwards’s newly acquired though second-hand Dennis Dart/Wrightbus and MCV Evolutions for the 100E and 400E were smartly repainted & prepared ahead of the launches, with destination equipment correct and working. A number of former Veolia drivers have apparently defected.

Veolia, however, isn’t sitting back. It has relaunched its own 400, at a higher frequency, and rebranded it as The Glider, in a grey and white livery, with a sort of Blackburn “Spot”, in purple. This is the first such Veolia service in the UK to operate intentionally in other than red and it may (or may not) be a forerunner for others. Perhaps deliberately, there’s very little on the vehicle to link the operation with Veolia, with but a tiny fleetname. The existing 2007 VDL SB200/Plaxton Centros have found their home on The Glider and this has reported as robbing other services of SLFs. But the VDLs look well turned out and it’s good to see some pride returning to the Veolia operation.

Edwards’ 400E sounds like a Ford Thames panel van of the early 1960s. In fact, it operates between Cardiff and Beddau every 30 minutes, with a vast array of peak commuter journeys, some presumably positioning workings, arriving in Cardiff Mondays to Fridays at 0702, 0712, 0722, 0737, 0742, 0757, 0833 and 0848. There are also commercial evenings and Sunday journeys, though the evening journeys are a confusing bewilderment of NF, NFS and FS timetable codes.

Veolia operates every 15 minutes, including during the morning peak.

Edwards’s 100E operates between Pontypridd and the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, at frequencies as high as every 10 minutes over the Beddau-Pontypridd section, extending half-hourly to RGH.

This parallels the Veolia 100, itself simplified from last autumn, with Edwards’s departures just five minutes ahead of Veolia from the RGH.

So, what happens next?

With journeys on top of each other on the 100/100E, could this be deregulation at its worst? That might be so, but there have in recent times been quality of service issues. The 100/100E route is nevertheless incredibly over-bussed, with 12 buses an hour in each direction. Is this really sustainable? It’s unlikely Edwards will easily cave in, following its investment. Veolia may be weakened but it won’t wish to capitulate. If anything’s going to blow, it will be on the 100/100E, though.

Musical Chairs

You can’t help wondering whether Transdev London United and Transdev Yellow Buses got the better deal in yesterday’s round of musical chairs. Time, of course, will tell.

As some predicted in the early new year, both TYB and London United (plus the NSL Services business formerly owned by NCP that transferred to London Sovereign) pass to Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP), the French state-owned company responsible for operating much of Paris’ public transport. This is a condition of the merger of Veolia and Transdev. RATP has given up its 25 per cent stake in Transdev in exchange for the outright acquisition of the two former Transdev assets (and others, in Europe).

One wonders, therefore, whether others have perhaps come off less well. The rump of London Sovereign and the former Blazefield companies continue within the new Transveolia combine, together with Veolia’s existing subsidiaries in south Wales and elsewhere. To a high degree, their futures now depend upon which management management style surfaces, whether this has a Transdev or, as suggested, a Veolia focus. On the other hand, it may be that poorer performing current Veolia subsidiaries could find a much-needed elping hand. Given Blazefield's perhaps at the opposite extreme to Veloia, the bolting together of these businesses does seem unnatural, with one arm potentially weighing down the other. And the split means a loss of current and future economies of scale.

In terms of scale, it seems short-sighted to split London United and London Sovereign into distinct operators. It might, however, have a marginally positive impact on competition for TfL contracts.

Also yesterday, of the possibility of consolidations involving National Express, new chief executive Dean Finch stated, “I don't see any compelling logic why there should be any other consolidation [than Arriva’s]. NatEx is not looking to buy rivals, we’re focused on the current business.” Hmmm. NatEx may have rebuffed both First & Stagecoach for the time being but I’m not sure I’d rule out further consolidations. As for being in a position to buy, has NatEx recovered sufficiently, anyway?

Underlying NatEx’s weakness was the revelation that a third of NatEx’s 1,900 buses are VORed for repairs each day, compared to a norm of nearer 10 than 20 per cent. Quite an overhead to carry. Finch stated he was to take direct control of his business to remedy such matters. More positively, NatEx reported that its coach & rail businesses have done well in repatriating people following the Icelandic volcano eruption, with an extra 12,000 journeys. He did not rule out further job cuts, though.

Open top service 12 sees a welcome return under *another* incarnation, today on the Dorset Bus Blog

A New Power of the Web

There might be hundreds of such sites out there but we only know of a couple. We’re talking non-enthusiast, independently run, operator or garage specific websites offering a cyber-presence written by others than the company itself.

Roles may vary but they tend to mix work specific issues with the social side of a garage or operation. In an age where we have mass communications via the web, fora, boards, text and email, why bother? It seems that such sites can offer:

• A useful repository of staff related company & union information, in one place


• Workforce cohesion at garage or operator level, often now more difficult by conventional channels, owing to a regional rather than garage management focus


• An open and frank discussion forum about staffing conditions, rotas, duties and so on that isn’t operated or moderated by management
  

Aylesbury Arriva i http://arriva-shires.co.uk/

This site started in 2005 specifically to remedy a lack of communications between management and staff. While this identifies an unaddressed management weakness, the site has evolved into a more general one, covering company and social issues.

Aylesbury—union site i http://arrivaaylesburyunionbranch.wordpress.com/

There's also a newcomer, from March, a blog that again aims to improve communications, this time between the branch and its members.

Transdev Yellow Buses i http://www.ybstaff.co.uk/

Set up in August 2007 but significantly improved from February 2010 is this site by a TYB driver who lives at Parkstone, Poole. Previously just a forum for TYB staff, it now encompasses company news and a page interestingly entitled “Omnibuses Blog” where you can find material from here plus from other media. From the site, TYB staff may view and download TYB’s duties and rotas, surely a boon, though these are obviously restricted to the private area therein. Since only TYB staff may join the forum, you’ll need to give your real name to register. The site is professionally laid out and even features a user font size increase/decease facility.

Arriva indretter Kærlighedssæder i Bussen

Had my late father not spoken to my late mother atop a green Hants & Dorset double deck, you wouldn’t be reading this blog (if you see what I mean). For my parents met on board and started dating. Both were regular passengers twixt Poole & Bournemouth. I have no idea whether Dad had to pluck up courage or whether, one day, Mum just found herself sitting next to him. I get the impression things were a little planned. Whatever, the result was dancing, engagement, marriage and me (in that order, as it invariably was, in those days).

And, I’ve already intimated that I met my future wife not on a bus but in a bus station. So, it can’t be that hard to find a mate on the buses, right? Wrong, if you believe Arriva.

First we had bus stops, then St Valentine’s Day bus stunts and now Arriva in Copenhagen has set aside a specific red double seat on each of 100 or so of its buses as a meeting place for singles. “Arriva indretter kærlighedssæder i bussen”. This translates as Arriva introduces ‘love seats’ on its buses.

Passengers who sit in the red ‘hot’ seats are indicating they are single and may be willing to change that status. Writing in Denmark’s MetroXpress newspaper, business development manager Marianne Færch stated Arriva wished to encourage more flirting and smiles. Sounds a little ghastly but as a commercial gimmick, plain and simple, it may generate revenue.

But, what if...

• There’s nowhere else to sit? Does a married person chance it? Or is the seat effectively sterilised for normal use? Thankfully, the continental way tends to favour high standee volumes.


• You’re tired, disabled, injured or otherwise can’t stand? Or the journey’s a long one?


• The whole bus has a bit of a laugh at someone who tries the red seat having found that no one wishes to join them?

I wonder whether this concept might be portable to English culture. I doubt it. For one thing, a higher proportion of travellers are older, here.

It’s said that the Danes show less reserve than the English (they are, after all, Scandinavian). Why then do they need an identifiable red seat on a bus in the first place? And, back to Hants & Dorset, would things have been different for my parents had there been a red seat on *their* bus?

Confused? You Will Be

How things change. It wasn’t so long ago that the Wilts & Dorset service between Poole and Kinson enjoyed a half-hourly service. This, the 161, extended hourly to Ferndown and West Moors and had been on this broad timetable since great change of 1978. Beforehand, though the service didn’t serve Kinson, the former Hants & Dorset 26 was very similar.

Even the thinning of June 2007 that saw the 161 renumbered as 11 had no real impact on the basic frequency. This lasted till January 2008, after which W&D cut the service to operate hourly between Poole and Kinson only.

As of tomorrow, the 11 passes to Go South Coast’s Damory, running as far a Bearwood estate only (no longer serving Bear Cross or Kinson) and on a timetable that sees no more than seven journeys each way, all but one of which is off-peak. The timetable is built around a school service and hence operates Mondays to Fridays only. Nowt at all on Saturdays. This is quite a savage cut, the more so when you consider that Sundays retain an hourly W&D service all the way to Bear Cross and Kinson. Then again, Sundays is under contract, whereas Damory’s is commercial.

Even though TYB wishes to avoid W&D competition by keeping out of Bearwood at times Damory operates (lilac background jorneys), buses from Poole run 10 minutes ahead of Damory’s Monday-Friday 11

Enter an expansionist Transdev Yellow Buses who, after recent developments, may with some justification claim for themselves the appellation, “the region’s premier bus operator”, a term much loved by W&D.

As of tomorrow, TYB will launch another new bus service, registered at short notice, the 27, from Poole to Kinson. It plugs the gap left by the new 11 in serving those areas beyond Bearwood, viz Bear Cross & Kinson. It’s a pity TYB already has a 26 (Boscombe-Winton-Poole, itself also dating back to 1978) as there would be a neat irony in numbering the Kinsons after the former Hants & Dorset 26 of old.

On Mondays to Fridays, the 27 is a white Your Bus stepped entrance commercial operation, with a pre-peak Poole arrival at 0804. At times when Damory doesn’t operate, the 27 will mirror the old 11. When Damory’s in action, the 27 does not penetrate Bearwood.

On Saturdays, the service operates eight departures in each direction, between Poole and Bear Cross/Kinson over the complete 11 of old. Saturdays see an accessible bus operated ‘normally’ by TYB in yellow. With Damory, TYB, Your Bus and W&D—buses in four different liveries—no one could argue that there’s no colour left in today’s local bus service. Confused? You will be.

TYB’s 27 is but one of four recent new routes launched. The risky new 29’s gotten riskier, with changes to W&D’s mostly parallel 13, from tomorrow (with W&D altering to run five minutes ahead of TYB from Bournemouth, with PVR+1). The 27 and the clever 20 (Poole-Lilliput-Penn Hill-Bournemouth-Castlepoint) start tomorrow.

The hourly 40 begins on 29th May 2010 and operates between Bournemouth, Eastcliff, Boscombe Pier, Southbourne, Hengistbury Head and Christchurch. This brings with it a welcome TYB return to Hengistbury Head. It also gives a half-hourly service between Bournemouth & Eastcliff, when combined with TYB’s 40. The 40 even sees a modest Sunday service.

Other changes from tomorrow:

• The W&D Bournemouth-Swanage service 50 is beefed up for the summer. This includes an asymmetric summer-weekends-plus-school-holidays service at broadly half-hourly intervals as against a broadly hourly schooldays service.


• The hourly W&D Poole-Sandbanks 52 no longer serves Ashley Cross. The new timetable saves one minute’s running time. This leaves Lilliputians travelling to Ashley Cross firmly in the hands of TYB new no. 20, which replaces W&D’s two-hourly 53. Since the 20 and 52 both run hourly between Poole and Lilliput, might it be too much to ask that they are co-ordinated? Indeed they are—phew.


• W&D’s Bournemouth-Salisbury X3 is re-routed between Boscombe and Royal Bournemouth Hospital via Pokesdown rather than the Wessex Way dual carriageway. Though the real reason is likely to be major traffic delays on the existing route, this is a nice little speculatively competitive ploy in re-introducing red buses in Pokesdown, though W&D has allowed no additional running time. This is somewhat optimistic as summer approaches, although the section of route is limited stop and will probably be quicker than the roundworks on the old route.

Meanwhile, Dorset Sprinter will shortly add to what is becoming a crowded corridor between Ringwood and Salisbury. Sprinter’s X4 will operate several times a day from June to add to W&D’s X3 and Thompson’s 238.