They come in pairs. Another operator web update, today on the Dorset Bus Blog.

The Journey—and the Wait

Plymouth City Bus passed from arms length municipal control to private ownership exactly one year ago today. In the journey it has now undertaken, what changes have there been?

Citybus has become more commercially minded. This has resulted in:

• A review of its network. Here alongside some fairly minor traffic changes have been other more fundamental & unpopular revisions, including to evening journeys. Citybus has nevertheless beefed up some of its daytime frequencies. There’ve been Sunday evening reductions to resource better Sunday daytime services, something appreciated by passengers.


• A number of early managerial, administrative & engineering redundancies.

Opponents used these changes to launch an “I told you so” attack. Nevertheless, front line driving staff have remained constant, in part owing to the continued competition with First on the 5 corridor (Plymstock), still keeping its head above water.

The engineering department now sees about one bus a week going through refurbishment, to assist the Go Ahead group. These vehicles are largely for London but not exclusively, and include some of Wilts & Dorset’s.

From October, the website’s been given a major makeover, under a new domain name and the buses themselves, of course, carry the obligatory nearside Go Ahead logo. The website itself features a new less homespun Citybus logo.

Otherwise, not much else to report, on the surface. What we eagerly await is Citybus’ new livery and brand, care of The Be-kilted One. We know that he will shortly reveal all. This will be in the form of a revision in red, and a stronger local brand. You either love or you hate Marmite. You either love or you hate school chemistry. But with the man with the kilt, it’s never so black & white. Regular readers will also recall that we included the original 1982 Citybus livery in our Top 7+1.

It’s taken far longer for Citybus to rebrand than it did Yellow Buses. Transdev Yellow Buses rebranded, purchased (second hand) SLFs and rewrote the network, all in seven months. At Plymouth, there’s already been the network changes without the major wholesale surgery of Bournemouth. Why so long for the rest?

The answer probably lies in just one word. First. At about the time of the changeover, Citybus has had to contend with a major onslaught from its once joint services partner. This resulted, for example, in Citybus taking the initiative in running to Plymstock for the first time, in the face of Ugobus impinging upon Citybus’ traditional areas of operation. The results, however, have been somewhat one-sided, with some retrenchment on the part of the new, competitive Ugobus services. Nothing ventured from First’s perspective but incredibly cheap season ticket prices and fares may have resulted in costs not being met. One example of the change is the withdrawing the 7s from Woolwell and sensible diversion of the Tavistock 84/6s within, but which has proven highly controversial.

Aside from taking the flack at service change time, passenger reaction and perceptions remain largely positive. Moving the new designer enquiry office from the Royal Parade into Debenham’s has proven particularly welcomed. With the prospect of 100 per cent low floor operation in the near future and a new brand for 2011, Citybus under Go Ahead can be confident of its future.

Wintry Outlook

A very wintry week to come in England, what with more snow and all. Frost even in the south, even here on the coast. On Wednesday, for example, it’s D-Day for free travel. Travel concession authorities need to re-publish their schemes on or before that date, in line with government targets for reductions in free travel reimbursements. It’s a tall order for them, given guidance itself could only be released in its final form after the comprehensive spending review.

Every facet of our economy needs to economise (save, no doubt, bankers who got us in this mess). It’s right and proper, therefore, that the bus industry shoulders its part. We already know that from April 2011 BSOG will see a 20 per cent cut. Reports of its demise at the hands of the aforesaid CSR were ill founded. Certainly, matters could have been a lot worse. But BOSG is one thing, free travel is quite another. Maybe the DfT mandarins were softening us all up when rumours of BSOG cuts came around, for the real issue remains free travel.

Let’s first remember that the government has assured the industry (and the electorate approaching 65 or over 60) that it intends to keep the national free travel scheme as introduced by the previous administration. It will eventually become an entitlement at 65 rather than 60. That will help the budget.

In terms of operator reimbursement, it’s widely reported that the government’s thinking will most affect rural and longer distance services across the nation (in England, that is). Reforms will have far more of an impact on the bus industry than BSOG. On average, about a third to 40 per cent of passengers carry a free travel pass. This rises significantly in some areas (so-called honeypots or areas with a large retired population base). It also rises even more on longer distance and rural services. Indeed, the deepest rural bus services might only ever carry free passholders. 100%.

Taking the average occupancy, the sort of cuts the government is expecting will lead to a reduction in total revenue of about eight to nine per cent. If you consider transport inflation is currently running at under four per cent—actually it’s lowest level since the CPT began compiling this information—then free travel changes mean a combined real terms cut of over 12 per cent.

Whereas dealing with BSOG will prove straightforward, this higher figure will be difficult to recoup, without steadfast action. Operators have little time in which to analyse their networks and make the necessary changes. The government expects such action and, truth be told, there are routes or journeys at times when cuts can be made. The problem always comes when this affects very real people who have no alternative; or the very people whose use of marginal services secures their journey on commercial journeys—and this comes back to the commercial network.

London Style

I’m no expert on London’s buses. I do, however, live near enough to travel up for work or pleasure. I’ve watched from the pavement and atop double decks the many changes here, from green buses to London Country; single decks; the conversion of crewed routes; privatisation & franchising; artics; and more.

Changes in livery have been small. Grey skirts emerged in the late 1980s. At the same time, London began tendering its bus services and newcomers thereon were able to blossom in non-red liveries. Interestingly, this included what I determine to be London’s earliest bus route, the 24, operated at one time by Grey Green.

TfL and its predecessor realised that it was beneficial to paint all its franchised buses back into the familiar. A decade after the introduction of colour came a return to red. This time, operators had to offer at least 80 per cent of their livery in red. The requirement, these day, is a return to 100 per cent red. Stark it may look but it’s uniform.

Occasionally, you see a throwback or two. Metroline has a deep blue skirt on some vehicles. Whether this sits comfortably with red is a matter of debate. Transdev still has vehicles with an attractive white roof (plus grey skirt). White sets its vehicles apart. This reminds me of two things: the sell off variations adopted post-1994; and the sort of conservative provincial liveries we all recall from the 1970s and early 1980s. Things have gone more wacky & adventurous in provincial England and it seems strange to see this traditional and conventional style today.

Top Jobs

In spite of the recession, there are still a number of plumb jobs out there. You no longer need to subscribe to a trade journal to see them. Indeed, with Transit no longer fortnightly (where the best industry jobs were once advertised), journal subscription isn’t essential at all. It’s all on the web under Jobs for Transport, itself part of Landor, which includes New Transit.

Here you will find an advert for TfL’s managing director—surface transport. This follows the departure next year of David Brown to Go Ahead. You have tomorrow to complete your TfL application. Unlike most public sector jobs, the salary’s negotiable and not published. The advert talks of red routes, coaches, river traffic and cycling. Not to mention the largest urban bus network in the British Isles. “Only in London do the functions required to achieve this exist within a single organisation.”

Now, that’s significantly different to elsewhere in Britain. It wasn’t always thus, of course. Between 1974 and 1986, this was the function of each of the metropolitan counties, when the PTEs and PTAs were part of each county council structure. The first four PTEs of 1968 reported to PTAs that were separate. The Mets were abolished in 1986 and, of course, the PTE operating companies became arms length six months later. The new Local Transport Act 2008 inspired integrated transport authorities have more power than the previous PTAs but in the provincial deregulated market they’re not integrated anything like in London though, no doubt, they aspire to be.

Considering the British Isles as a whole, it isn’t “only in London” that the functions come together in such a way. One such city is Dublin. Here is a second interesting position, as the director of public transport services for the south’s capital. Somewhat differently to the London job, as well as integrating transport in the greater Dublin area, the post has certain functions beyond the Dublin Met area to include all of the Irish republic. This would be like TfL’s MD having responsibility for regulating and contracting bus services over the whole of England. There’s a thought. And presumably within the remit would fall the need to modernise the bus service we associate with rural Ireland, a kind of time warped Ballykissangel-type 1970s operation exclusively using 1970s Leyland Leopards with Marshall bodywork.

Closing date is a week on Friday and the salary equates to a sumptuous £125,000 though payment is in Euros and that fact alone must surely be a bit of a disadvantage right now.

Other jobs include an interesting one as regional director for Rotala based in Bristol (closes a week on Friday) and a transport manager for East Cheshire council, a new unitary that has budded off from Cheshire. Reports of sweeping transport changes there will offer interesting challenges and will not dampen enthusiasm for a post attracting a salary of over £60,000. Closing date is on Friday. There’s also a network planning manager at Reading Buses at £40,000 plus, closing on the same day. It refers to Reading as in the “elite band of municipally owned bus service operators”. Rumours some while ago of Reading leaving that “elite band” were quashed.

Another Rural Crisis

A report this week suggests that the cost of living in rural areas is 20 per cent higher than in towns. Higher fuel and travel costs are cited.

You can’t take £180mil out of the bus industry from April 2011 and £240mil from 2012 without experiencing some considerable pain. The second figure relates to a 20 per cent reduction in BSOG of £60mil added to the first figure. The first is the possible saving outside London following the DfT’s new free travel reimbursement rates.

No surprises: the worst reductions in free travel will fall outside the large city regions. Here, routeONE suggests that this may be a reduction in rural areas by as much as 40 per cent. The CPT suggests the new rules will pay “so little for passengers on longer routes that it will be uneconomic...”. Will this inevitably lead to something of a rural crisis? Don’t expect local government to help: with its own cuts of 28 per cent, it will collectively look to reduce rather than increase its bus service funding.

This reminds me of the very real crisis in shire county bus services of exactly 40 years ago. Then, local government *did* help.

Back in 1970, Britain’s non-Metropolitan bus services were in the hands of the National Bus Company. For up to 50 years, core & urban surpluses had sustained deeper rural services. As the sixties elapsed, this was increasingly unsustainable. Inflation-busting fares increases and a better standard of living were eroding profitable passengers to the extent it was becoming impossible to rely on cross-subsidy. And, NBC subsidiaries needed to break even year on year.

Operators were already helping themselves: regular fares increases, accelerated OMO and a steady reduction in PVR. Yet, matters were worsening.

Recognising this, the government offered a 50:50 rural support package, jointly with councils. Though this wasn’t enough, it did mitigate the worst cuts.

Even so, cutting operators came under scrutiny and indeed considerable criticism. There was much contention, as communities accused their operator of issuing an ultimatum. Operators, on the other hand, argued that it was up to the whole community to support ailing rural services and not just urban passengers. They might’ve added, had they thought, it was socially unacceptable for the worst off urban users to pay higher fares to support people in the countryside.

Many in the community called for:

• Smaller operators to take over. The willingness to operate upto 18 hours a day on stage work was so unlikely that this was but a marginal solution. With a degree of condescension, NBC considered smaller operators well-intentioned amateurs.


• Minibuses and taxis, rather than larger buses. These could not cope with peak loadings, especially at school times (by then the only journeys that were full).

Local councils begrudgingly coughed up less than operators needed but more than councils wished to pay. We started the era of network support and a crisis was averted. The rural industry survived. Crisis averted.

But it wasn’t long before urban services also turned loss making. Therefore, in 1974, the government gave transport authorities powers to support the entire network. After that, well, we seemed to lurch from one crisis to the next, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. ’Twas ever thus.

Weather—it’s back

Remember the snows of 2010?

Either you’ve got it already or it’s probably due sometime soon, especially on the east coast. We all know the disruptive effect of snow. Costs escalate rapidly while revenue dies. This is revenue lost forever. But general weather, so beloved a conversation topic in this land, also has consequences for bus services.

Take rain. When this starts to fall at the start of the afternoon peak, urban operators experience two problems. The first is an increase in short-hop passengers who bus rather than cycle or walk. This can create short term overcrowding and delays. The second is an increase in congestion, as people take lifts (adding mileage) or bring out their cars to pick people up, each adding a double trip.

Rain can have a dampening effect on demand. Shoppers may put off a spending trip if their destination is wet, especially outside the summer. Buses will still operate (and town centre shops still open).

Alternatively, depending upon the area, summer rain in a holiday location may actually drive more people onto buses, as they choose a day’s shopping over a day on the beach, walking or other leisure activities.

Yet, it’s not unknown for free travellers simply to hop from bus to bus in the rain and alight nowhere in particular. Not in large numbers, of course, but getting out of the home in the wet can generate a little useful free travel revenue.

And, rain will reduce demand on seasonal services or those favoured by tourists. Conversely, a splash of sunshine and suddenly out they come. This means the operator has to plan for “peak” capacity in the event of good weather, while running the same capacity virtually empty during rain.

Rain can therefore have a marked affect on an operator’s commerciality. Its unpredictable nature can and does influence capacity and fares. The more weather dependent a route, the higher the fare there needs to be to capture income when the sun actually does decide to shine.

Operators—You Chose

We took the shortlisted operators as judged by the UK Bus Awards 2010 panel and asked Omnibuses’ readers to select which they thought deserved to win in each category.

Norfolk Green came top in the UK Bus Awards followed by runner up Epsom

After a shaky voting start, the survey proved to be the second most popular, ever, on here. Here’s the results. The graphs refer to your votes, not those of the Awards panel. They appear pretty clear cut. The only major upset was that Western Greyhound pipped Bus Oscar winning Transdev Yellow Buses in the Shire Operator section.

UK Bus Awards selected TYB. Western Greyhound was runner up

I wonder why Brighton & Hove should be so revered when compared to, say, Stagecoach Manchester or Stagecoach Yorkshire. What makes them really exceptional? Indeed, Stagecoach Yorkshire was runner up in the City Operator UK Bus Awards category but finished third in the Omnibuses' vote. Or why Western Greyhound over Stagecoach East. What is it that makes some of these names more valued than others?

Brighton & Hove scored top at the UK Bus Awards, followed by Stagecoach Yorkshire as runner up

And why no Arriva or First subsidiaries in the mix? Did they enter or were they simply not selected? What does this say about local branding, if anything?

And why isn’t the award-winning B&H approach replicated across the UK, I wonder? Part of that’s to do with a local civic partnership, of course, but even so, there’s much at B&H that’s standalone and could be copied elsewhere.

And would Brightonians concur?

Not for the Faint Hearted

Hybrid technology isn’t for the faint hearted and, to date, has been confined to London and the big groups, notably Stagecoach. Yet, two smaller operators are seizing the moment. Are they mad? Taking risks of this nature requires a steady nerve.

Click on the image to enlarge

But, with the cost of diesel unlikely ever to go down, spreading the risk has become the name of the game. With the help of the Green Bus Fund and supportive local transport authorities, hybrids are now coming into reach, even for smaller operators. Well, those with the bottle, that is. Added to which, manufacturers are offering guarantees and reassurances. And you’ve got to get experience of hybrids sometime.

One of the two smaller operators is Johnson’s of Henley in Arden, Warwickshire. Famous for its white, yellow and blue Bova Futura coaches, Johnson’s was a recent finalist at the UK Bus Oscar Awards in the independent bus operator category. It didn’t win or even come in as runner up but just getting onto the shortlist after such a relatively short time in local service work is surely worth celebrating, particularly given the credentials of other shortlisted operators. And, this month, it won the routeONE excellence awards in the large coach operator category.

Its choice of hybrid is the Optare Versa, for Stratford-on-Avon’s park & ride and for service 222. Johnson favours Optares in its 30-40-vehicle bus fleet. It’s similar to that on show for First, at EBE10.

The other is Thames Travel of Wallingford, Oxfordshire. Whereas Johnson operates wholly subsidised services, Thames Travel runs a mix of commercial and supported mileage. Like Johnson’s, Thames Travel is hemmed in by larger neighbours but has grown its niche to become Oxfordshire’s third largest, alongside Stagecoach and The Oxford Bus Company. Both its neighbours either operate hybrids or plan to. Indeed, Stagecoach Oxford operates near identical ADL Enviro400Hs with BAe Systems technology, technology itself a winner in the Environment category at the recent UK Bus Awards.

So, why Johnson’s and why Thames Travel? Though smaller operators, look behind the company and you’ll find people displaying energy and drive. Peter Johnson is one such, at Johnson’s. And so is the managing director of Thames Travel, John Wright. If I have it right, few will now recall that Wright couldn’t wait for the deregulation starting pistol, to compete with Crosville from Wright’s then North Wales base. That saga ended abruptly in 1994, having nevertheless dealt something of a serious wound to successor Crosville Wales. The story comes good, though, with the smart and modern Thames Travel, from 1998.

Perhaps new hybrid technology will catapult both operators to the Bus Oscars 2011.

What were they for, exactly, those early internet sites, today on the Dorset Bus Blog. Includes a nostalgic glance through some early site designs…

Coincidences, Counterpoints and Juxtapositions

I’ve generally admired the sort of things Trent Barton does. Going back donkey’s years, I remember the buzz at a very early post-deregulation conference as everyone was talking about then plain Trent’s new Rainbow routes. There was a palpable & genuine sense of excitement, even awe. Nothing like this had been tried. A number of operators followed but there were few imitators, though some learnt from at least part of what Trent was doing. No mass take-up reflected the emergence, no doubt, of the Big Three and the very different strategies they adopted to Trent’s.

Trent Barton’s gone from strength to strength. As ever, it just can’t keep out of the news but, more recently, this has not always been for positive reasons.

Poetry in motion: The Trent Barton Nines. Dressed to the nines.

Last week, Trent Barton won the “Winning New Customers” award at the UK Bus Awards 2010. Investment, simplification and rebranding brought with it an opportunity for a promotional campaign leading to nearly 100 per cent growth over parts of the 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3 routes to Derby. Phenomenal stuff.

Last week, Nottingham City Council won the “Transport Authority of the Year” award at the UK Bus Awards 2010. The panel made reference to the UK’s first city centre statutory quality partnership and its associated enforcement process. This reminds us that Wellglade, Trent Barton’s holding company, has now adopted other more traditional & time-honoured strategies in dealing with its emerging competition than brand investment. In so doing, it has managed to circumnavigate the Nottingham SQBP (lawfully, though). This was, for example, through Midland General’s 99pbus. Trent Barton’s commercial director’s press comment that he could not comment on Midland General because it was a different part of the company seemed interesting, odd, nonsensical and correct—all in one.

Last week, the only bus to feature on a Go Skills full-page advert in routeONE extolling the virtues of the driver CPC was one of Trent Barton’s. This was no coincidence as Trent Barton is also known for its high driving standards and sharp end customer service & focus. It involves its driving teams in decisions. Indeed, the advert made reference to what Trent Barton does in this important area. And, one of its drivers won the Top National Bus Driver of the Year at the UK Bus Awards 2010.

Last week, the Wellglade public inquiry report featured in routeONE. What *was* an unfortunate coincidence was that the report appeared opposite the Go Skills advert.

The PI followed a wheel loss and an unrelated incident of some collision damage. Wellglade was forced to give undertakings at the public inquiry: additional transport managers and never to work on a vehicle involved in a crash or incident till VOSA had arrived.

These were enough to persuade the traffic commissioner to take no further or more forthright action. No doubt she had in mind Trent Barton’s hitherto excellent record. Public inquiries are never comfortable places and Trent Barton will have no doubt adopted strategies by now (if not beforehand) that ensure no repetition.

It shows that there’s a propensity for all operators to slip a little. I still rate Trent Barton highly. In taking the rough with the smooch, Trent Barton needs to focus on what it’s done and does best, in meeting the challenges of the 21st century transport environment.

And, as they say, every path has its puddle.

Now Available to All

Getting hold of weekly industry news has never been easier. From last Thursday, established Coach & Bus Week is now available at selected W H Smith & independent newsagents. Competitor routeONE has been available on line free of charge for some time. With the two weekly news-led trade rags so widely available, how do they compare? We looked at the current editions.

CBW (as it used to be known) has this issue undergone a minor refresh. For the news stands, the masthead is now the full and unambiguous “Coach & Bus Week”. Inside, things are not substantially different to the redesign when CBW dumped some short-term quirkiness. CBW still has the design edge, if that is the most important factor in selecting a magazine to read. R1 editorial is interrupted by small display adverts on some of its pages and doesn’t use white space so effectively as CBW.

	CBW	routeONE
Available	Wednesday	Thursday
Subscription	£82	£79
Newsstand	£2.95	N/A
Website	N/A	Free full access
UK news items	40	34
International items	4	0
Business items	8	0
Regional items	12	0
Diary dates	Yes	No
Tourism items	10	0
Legal news (PIs)	1	2
Guest columnists	2	2
Features	4	1
Opinion	2	3
Letters	0	3
Operator features	1	1
Vehicle deliveries	4	9
Product/suppliers	6	16
Driver news items	6	0
Jobs news & recruitment pages	1	1½
Jobs ads	2	2
Pages of editorial	50½	32
Display adverts pages	11½	22
Ads for own publication	4	2
Classified pages	14	24

Unsurprisingly given the news, both feature the new bus for London on the current front page. CBW has ditched the piecemeal approach of highlighting its stories on the cover and it looks the better for it. R1 keeps to tradition. Older readers will recall the time when trade mag covers always featured a whole page advertisement.

Both use big hitter reporters on the London story: R1’s Mel Holly and CBW’s former Transit staffer Meera Rambissoon. Yet, both handle NB4L/NBfL in different ways. R1 sticks it in your face, with a two pager starting on page 4 under its usual “Big Story” feature. CBW tucks its coverage towards the middle, from page 36. It chooses five pages, three of which are for pictures. It also features a third of a page on the banishing of bendies from service 18. Both periodicals offer mixed verdicts.

Both the current editions have the same total number of pages, representing an increase over the usual CBW size. CBW offers more editorial, by far. CBW has that luxury, as a paid-for title. Nearly two thirds of CBW is dedicated to editorial, whereas this is only about 40 per cent at R1. CBW’s font pitch is slightly smaller so it actually manages to fit more in per column inch. But interestingly, there appear to be just seven news items that cross over both publications.

As a consequence, there are about double the pages of display and classified adverts in R1. Beyond the main news stories, a chunk of R1 editorial is actually what may be termed advertorial, for suppliers and products, thereby reducing the editorial to about one third of the mag.

In both, most of the general news is taken from press releases. While this may be considered lazy journalism, bringing them together is a positive service to the industry. The problem is that neither publication adequately challenges the news in quite the same way as, for example, Buses, the erstwhile fortnightly Transit or halcyon Bus Business.

Things are a little different in the opinion & features section. R1 tends to presents the challenging Westminster Watch and there’s usually half a page of incisive comment from an unknown insider, both of which CBW struggles to match. CBW often aims more at smaller family coaching units though, this week, a CBW page by P.T.E.G.’s Jonathan Bray made good reading, even if he could’ve concentrated more on free travel rather than BSOG. You nevertheless get the impression that CBW hasn’t quite recovered from the death of the highly popular Marksman and, in recent years, has tried unsuccessfully The Archer reincarnation.

This week’s CBW strikes gold, though, with its operator profile. It’s saved up Shearings for its news stand launch. R1 picks Grindles Coaches. That neither operator chooses to use an apostrophe reminds me that, being pedantic, both magazines occasionally make grammatical or punctuation errors and one writer doesn’t really now how to handle the word “however” in a sentence. Perhaps aiming at the professional/enthusiast crossover, CBW also featured Gavin Booth in its usual Face to Face interview.

If I were a betting man, I’d say that CBW will reintroduce the back page lighter content in future editions though, I trust, without Dilbert. These are trivial, of course, but you’d be surprised those who turn deliberately to this or R1’s Whisperer straightaway. E&OE.

Conclusion

R1 comes up with a reasonable amount of editorial for a model based on advertising revenue alone. Since it’s free to the industry or online to all, this may be acceptable. It just isn’t a match for CBW’s higher editorial volume but CBW costs about £150 p.a. if bought weekly off the stand. CBW has no formal tie-up with the CPT or the trade exhibitor Expo. CBW carries more news including a useful regional round up. Consistent comment in R1 at 1½ pages tends to be better, though. If looking for a vehicle or supplier, R1 has almost double the content.

Interestingly, news isn’t largely duplicated so to get a full flavour of the industry, you still need both.

In printing more pages and circulating to news stands, CBW is significantly increasing its cost base. It will be hoping for a larger readership base for itself, its subscriptions and its advertisers. Is this a risk worth taking?

Keeping it Simple

This is one of the best ideas to emerge from the bus industry in ages. And no, this time, I’m not being ironic. I’m referring to First’s Safe Journey Card featured on Thursday on Leon Daniels’s blog. And Daniels is far too modest and self-deprecating to mention that it was all his idea.

It’s simple, straightforward and practical. It could help thousands of older passengers and those with disabilities in ways many of use could not imagine. Free travel has removed a significant barrier for travel for older and disabled people. Many of them, therefore, no longer need to communicate with the driver by asking for a fare. This may seem insignificant but if you are frail or a disabled person, it’s a hurdle you no longer need to face.

We tend to assume that this is the only barrier to travel. But what if you cannot communicate well enough that you are unsure where to get off and are embarrassed to ask a question for fear the driver will misinterpret you. What happens if you are very unsteady on your pins but embarrassed to ask the driver to wait for you to sit, for fear he will become annoyed. Or is you have a learning disability, are partially sighted, etc, etc. What happens is that you tend to use the bus only when absolutely necessary.

Available now to download is First’s solution: a Safe Journey Card. Keep it with your free travel pass, season or day rover and show it to the driver discretely at the same time as your ticket. The driver nods his understanding without embarrassment in front of fellow travellers.

We hear all sorts of problems reported in the local media about drivers who seemingly don’t care. Much of this is down to miscommunication. Maybe drivers simply don’t understand, misinterpret or see someone who appears fit & well on the surface but who isn’t underneath. These days, we all try to celebrate diversity & individuality by respecting all in the community regardless of who they are—as long as we know. First has brought us a mechanism that remedies these problems.

It’s incredible no one’s thought of this before. And it deserves to win in its category at next year’s UK Bus Awards. It’d get my vote.

In applauding First, I wonder whether:

1. This could be extended beyond First’s current "Safety Month" to all year round.


2. Other operators might be encouraged to recognise the Safe Journey Card.


3. First through the CPT or DfT might encourage all operators to join a national, universally accepted scheme throughout the bus industry.

(And this is good for repeat business, too).

i Leon’s post
i First Safe Journey Card

BRT Coming of Age?

Centro PTE and Birmingham council aspire to a network of bus rapid transit routes centred on the city centre but that is nothing compared to the vision proposed in the United States.

Birmingham’s plan calls for a comprehensive BRT network within five years to underpin the city region’s economic regeneration and to transform the way people visit and move around the city. Trams remain at the heart of the proposals but these see a 20-year horizon. There must surely be a considerable question mark over tram funding when compared to BRT.

To date, other than here, British BRT has been based on either short sections or single routes. Together with the more long term plans for tram extensions plus conventional bus, cycling and walking routes, Birmingham’s a remarkable volte face for a city built on and expressly for the private car. A future based on BRT and the bus to secure its on-going prosperity? That’ll be Brum, then.

Pending the longer term trams, BRT comes in to its own under something called Birmingham Sprint. Likely to use Wrightbus Streetcars, expect junction improvements, priority measures, docking stations, interchanges and park & rides.

Meanwhile, the United States is looking towards the high speed bus to help spur on its own national recovery program.

US high speed bus under test

Birmingham’s BRT plans encompass businesses, Centro, National Express West Midlands and borough councils. It has chosen the bus alongside established tram because it is deliverable in the medium term and potentially fundable. Similarly, the US has chosen the bus service as it delivers within reduced cost budgets. Both Birmingham and the US benefit from priority measures to help speed up bus services. Indeed, President Obama’s proposed high-speed train system will be replaced with a fleet of buses that will rocket along highways at speeds up to 165 mph. As the US project director put it “Get out of the way, the high speed bus is here”. Only in the US of A.

i Vision for Movement—Birmingham
i US High Speed Bus

EBE10—Antiques

Euro Bus Expo 2010 Index

On day one and approaching the entrance to EBE10, I overheard a couple of delegates who chuckled at a sign that offered a free shuttle bus to an antiques’ fare, a throwback from the weekend before. They ruefully commented that they thought they were attending a trade show, not a bus rally.

I wonder what they made of the displayed Routemaster. It was a reminder, if any were needed, that the old RM refuses to lay down and die. And, since they make periodic appearances at the NEC’s bus shows, one can assume that they refuse to die in the minds of professionals, too.

This particular bus was on the Omnibus Systems Euro Bus Expo 2010 stand. Fresh from refurbishment via The Bus Works even I, having been brought up on a diet of Bristols, Daimlers and Leylands (not to mention trolleys), thought it looked acceptable. It’s just a shame that the model seems ever linked with the *modern* bus industry.

Leon Daniels has already mentioned that RM1152 was the lightest, cheapest, most fuel-efficient vehicle there present. I certainly wouldn’t disagree with that. He might also have stated that it was the only one that was inaccessible, required a conductor, has been through the workshop several times to keep it roadworthy and had a permanently open platform!

Never mind, though. There’s a new design in the offing and the wood and resin mock up is now available for people to see, in London, right now. They’ll be a short wait while a prototype comes along. Start forming an orderly queue now, please.

Image: Dave Root (sic) under creative commons

In spite of this RM dating back to 1962, it was there to focus our attention on Omnibus Systems’ 20th birthday. A much more appropriate bus might’ve been a Dennis Dart with a Carlyle body initially designed by Duple as the Dartline. For, 20 years ago, not only was the Dart the big delivery news of 1990, London Buses fell head over heals for it, including for use on emerging tendered routes. So much better than a minibus, the Dart offered passenger and driver comfort. They were good for business, too. The somewhat futuristic at the time concave-and-convex-in-one ripple-effect Carlyle bodies were in complete contrast to Wright’s square Handybus body, also seeing London service in 1990.

OK, so the Dart is probably not everybody’s idea of a classic. Perhaps Omnibus Systems should therefore have exhibited a Lynx II, new for 1990. This was the one with the extended frontal bolt-on protuberance, almost Lego-like in appearance, being the only exterior change.

Hmmm, OK then, Omnibus Systems actually made a wise decision in using RM1152. After all, it was withdrawn in 1990, though not in London (1986) but in Glasgow, Scotland, its operator being Clydeside.

If you really have a fondness for the RM, try The Bus Works’ blog. They have eight going through at the moment.

Recognised, Rewarded & Inspired

Many congratulations to all the winners at yesterday's Bus Oscars, the UK Bus Awards 2010. I know that these predictions below might've served better had they gone up beforehand but I nevertheless give you who I thought would win in each of 10 of the 24 categories at the Awards (plus my view of the UK Bus Operator of the Year, based on the three winners of the operator subsections).

Meanwhile, how would you have voted? The reader survey associated with this question has closed and results will follow shortly.

Municipal operators, Arriva and Stagecoach each appeared in 15 per cent of the shortlisted nominations. First, Go Ahead and independents each had 10 per cent.

Award	My Choice	How I Did	Winner
Winning new customers (5 shortlisted)	Trent Barton - The Nines	Trent Barton winner	Trent Barton
Bus in the Countryside (5)	Stagecoach South West for Go2	Stagecoach was runner up	Denbighshire Council, Wales
Express operation of the year (5)	Oxford Tube	Oxford Tube runners up	Stagecoach East X5 Oxford-Cambridge
Environmental (6)	BAe Systems Low Carbon Vehicle Programme	BAe Systems winner	BAe Systems
Innovation (5)	Arriva Tickets2urMobile	Arriva runners up	Stagecoach Merseyside credit/debit payments
Bus Marketing Campaign (7)	NCT Easyrider "Save a few Squid"	NCT runners up	The Arriva 110 Takes Off
Independent Operator of the Year (5)	Norfolk Green	Norfolk Green winner	Norfolk Green
Shire Operator of the Year (6)	Transdev Yellow Buses	Transdev Yellow Buses winner	Transdev Yellow Buses
City Operator of the Year (5)	Brighton & Hove	Brighton & Hove winner	Brighton & Hove
UK Bus Operator of the Year (3)	Brighton & Hove	Joint runner up withTYB	Norfolk Green

Information compiled with the help of yesterday's contributor. There were a further 12 categories

Rewarding

We welcome a self-confessed glory seeking industry insider who wishes to remain anonymous and who faces a big day ahead of him… We also welcome guest posts

If your editor publishes this on the suggested date, I’ll be off up to London this morning for the UK Bus Awards [Bus Oscars, surely—Ed]. There are those who pooh-pooh the whole affair as a meaningless charade that no one cares about. That’s not so.

There are three categories of people for whom the awards are important, passengers, the boss and other operators.

Winning an award at this level demonstrates that you’ve been independently recognised by your peers. This is important if for no other reason than you can gloat a little. Besides bragging, the real benefit is that others take a notice of what you do and how you’ve achieved something. For, the assessment process is reportedly very rigorous and it includes mystery shopping, for example. If the whole thing was a charade, how come there was a record entry last year and almost as many this?

The boss (whether the MD, chairman, or group head office) can also reflect on a job well done. This, in turn, reflects on each of the project's individuals who have delivered. Those part of the winning team have something valuable to add to their CVs.

Then there are the passengers. It gives the winner a badge, something to flaunt in front of a sometimes unappreciative home audience. I doubt this leads to any additional passengers but for those who are open minded about their bus service, it does tend to act as confirmation that you are doing something right.

Even if you don’t win, you receive one of the runner up awards of either highly commended or commended. This also can be useful for your reputation back home as passengers do not realise that everyone’s a winner to some extent.

The main problem I have with the awards is that they always appear at the end of the year. The winner of the 2010 awards actually lasts till the Friday before Christmas. That’s about six weeks. After that, it’s a new year and parading your trophy suddenly looks dated, like last year’s fashion. November’s award ceremony should actually pronounce a winner for the following year, 2011. Only then do you get to bask in glory for a whole 12 months.

Critics complain that it’s all a load of hype. To an extend, of course, it is but in a good way! That’s part of it, especially as the UK Bus Industry Awards comes with quite a publicity machine that is adept at wringing out the last drop of good news for the successful operator. That’s rather useful, of course.

Nevertheless, behind the well wishing that goes on when you discover at the declaration ceremony who you’re up against, when you wish your competitors luck but really don’t mean it, it’s also a very serious business.

Cardiff Experience—a bit iffy?

Is it me or are my eyes blinkered? Do I see things others don’t see? Is there such a disparity between how the industry views itself and the passengers we carry? Is perception and actual poles apart?

I’m talking Cardiff, Wales. Using delays in dispatching Cardiff Bus’ Iff smartcards has given a local journo the opportunity to have a “swipe” at the operator.

The Iff card is the unusual name given to Cardiff Bus’ smartcard rollout. Card-iff. Geddit? Cardiff has offered a free £3 travel credit bonanza per Iff card. That, perhaps, accounts for the large sign up of 30,000. None (or very few) has as yet gone out. Technical problems, you know. You can’t expect the public to understand (and why should they?) but these things come with technical problems built in to the package. Incredibly complicated things, smartcards, with potential to get themselves into knots on the bus and the back office. Expensive in technical and consultancy time, too. Witness Oxford recently.

Awaiting his Iff card, the journalist’s turned his anger towards Cardiff Bus itself.

“Our loathing of public transport isn’t going to be transformed overnight into a passionate love affair (it’d take a lot more than a £3 backhander… for that to happen).”

What’s to loathe in Cardiff? I regard Cardiff Bus as a good operator. It markets itself well, portrays a modern image, is innovative, operates an up-to-date fleet and above all offers decent frequencies. OK, there was the little issue of 2Travel, the OFT and the traffic commissioner. Not that the public will remember much about that. But, otherwise, a stable operation.

“And I’m sure that even Cardiff Bus must realise that sliding a smartcard through a machine, instead of handing over a pocket full of small change, isn’t all that’s needed to convince those who have the choice to abandon the car and take the bus.”

Leaving aside that this is contactless technology, it’s true, but it will help, significantly. Witness London and even Bournemouth. The government is encouraging smartcards for a number of reasons (though the rules differ in Wales). Smartcards bring multiple advantages for the passenger and operator. Fill up your car and there’s a certain amount of pain at the pump. After that, driving is perceived as “free”. Ditto a smartcard. It gives the customer that sense of freedom.

“I was on a bus in Cambridge recently and was amazed by how bright and cheerful the buses there were.”

Well, I was in Cardiff the other day and I was amazed by how bright and cheerful the buses were *there*. Stagecoach also operate in and out of Cardiff, BTW.

“Certainly, the poster in the Cambridge bus encouraging passengers to use a slip on their ticket to vote for their favourite driver may have concentrated his mind.”

I’m sure Stagecoach must realise that voting for your fave driver isn’t all that’s needed to convince those who have the choice to abandon the car and take the bus.

“And I want buses to be more frequent than every half hour; I want an integrated transport system, allowing me to travel from my local bus stop to, say, Llandaff North or Pontypridd, on one ticket.”

And you’ve got ’em. Most frequencies are high. And there’s a regional ticket, too. Yes, not cheap, but it includes other operators. And £3 for the immediate Cardiff region’s one of the cheapest day tickets available, given Cardiff’s size of 330,000 souls. Smartcards bring with them the potential for interavailability though perhaps not just yet between Cardiff and Newport.

“I suspect Cardiff Bus has to change the whole bus experience before people will give up the safety, warmth and privacy of the car for the communal torture that can be the daily commute.”

Profit unwelcome in his own land sort of stuff, this. We all recognise Brighton & Hove as an exemplar, a beacon. Yet, how many do so in the city itself? It’s a blend of everything, from attention to detail, customer focus, the frequency offer… everything. Cardiff Bus’s doing pretty well. It’s changed a lot. But that’s easy for an outsider to see, knowing as he does how bus services range across the cities of Britain.

i Wales Online Iff card article

Скопје—Three at Once

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

Even with Thursday’s unveiling of the new bus for London mock-up, we doubt whether we’re on the cusp of a revolution that means any city, anywhere can demand or afford a bespoke bus body design.

Even so, London isn’t the only city to expect its own bus. London looks certain to be beaten by somewhere called Скопје aka Skopje, a city the size of Glasgow Scotland, or Leeds but apparently twinned with Bradford.

In comes a bespoke Chinese built double deck, specifically for the Macedonian capital, the first of an initial 68 of 200 (plus two open tops) being due this month. The NB4S/NBfS actually steels a march on Mayor Johnson’s London equivalent. The bus seems more like a London bus than a London bus. You get the impression that Skopje’s is a little more sympathetic to 1950s London than Wrightbus’. China is, of course, renown for its knock-off products and the deckers are under build by manufacturer Yutong.

A Chinese designed Mini, the Lifan 320

The really interesting thing in Skopje is that the Yutongs are coming to a city that doesn’t currently operate double decks. Indeed, Skopje uses articulated vehicles. We don’t know whether Skopje’s Yutongs will replace bendies. Since bendies have been part of the former Yugoslavian city’s transport for a long while, I doubt that there’s much of a campaign to rid them. It’s nevertheless reported that there are those in political opposition in Skopje who feel that the city streets cannot cope with double decks.

When compared to bendies, I guess the Yutongs are longer, rigid and somewhat less flexible. The opposition’s also adverse to the retro design. I wonder, in five year’s time, whether there will be a campaign to ride the Skopje streets of these monsters and whether opposing prospective mayors will make this a showdown issue.

You have to admit that the startling looking buses seem all too familiar. At £151,000, they also seem a bit of a bargain. Perhaps we could acutely see more bespoke buses on our streets. With prices like that, what about a retro look return of the Lodekka to Bristol’s city centre. It was, after all, England’s first bus with a completely flat floor. Since from certain angles the Yutong also has just a hint of Midland Red’s own built BMMO buses, what about the retro return of one of those, too?

Coming to Terms

These days, at the event of the publication each year of the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, we always get a press release detailing some of the new words within. Will next summer’s include a expression that has recently entered the vocabulary at TfL… “debendification”.

This six-syllable noun and its associated verb “to debendify” mean the act of converting a bus route from an articulated to any form of rigid operation.

Indeed, “debendify” found its way into the mayoral press release on Thursday’s launch of the NB4L/NBfL mock-up. Where a route is sufficiently supported to convert to double decks, I would call this “to decker” as in, “Increases in ridership on the 1B/C mean that we now need to decker it”. In London, though, the debendified routes to Waterloo cannot be deckered at all, owing to low clearances. They’ve just been “unbent”, “straightened”, “shortened” and “beefed up” in frequency.

Today, it’s the turn of First’s 18 to debendify, hot on the heals of the debendified 149 on 16th October 2010. On the 18s, along will come double decks every 3-4 minute on Monday to Friday daytimes and every 4 minutes on Saturdays. This compares to frequencies of every five minutes NSu, as of yesterday. This, of course, means quite no reduction in frequency at all to recognise a greater cost or seating capacity. I would suggest that the resultant PVR increases by six (E&OE) and the seating capacity per hour more than doubles. Since the night bus N18 equivalent is already double decked, the only possible “savings” will be from increased revenue from fare evaders. This, of course, assumes that all those who currently travel on bendies for free will henceforward actually travel at all. With the widespread use of Oysters, bendy evasion at about eight per cent and rigid evasion at two, in pure economic terms, it might be acceptable to take the additional six per cent on the chin in order to keep costs at he current levels. Except that isn’t politically acceptable.

Thursday’s mayoral press release seems to imply that the NB4L/NBfL will hasten debendification. Actually, the two aren’t directly linked, as all routes will be debendified ahead of the arrival of NB4L/NBfL, other than possibly up to five prototypes. Both full debendification and the prototypes will meet mayoral deadlines ahead of the May 2012 election date. Four routes will fall in 2011 (29, 73, 25, 12). No doubt at a premium, the conversion of the last two, 436 and 453, are hastened for spring 2012. In the same way that London’s electorate understands exactly what the word “debendification” means, it now needs to come to terms with paying for that decision. In a democracy, if that’s the priority it has set itself, there should be no problem with that.

Could Famous Roundel ever Womble Free?

What more is there to say regarding the New Bus for London, the second generation Routemaster unveiled yesterday as a wood ’n resin mock-up at the LT museum’s Acton premises?

In addition to the posts on the subject here (especially), here and here, the most obvious thing to mention is that a mock up such as this brings the project a whole lot closer to reality. But don’t expect a working prototype anytime soon. Please start forming an orderly queue…

The other thing is that in the history of bus manufacturing, such media interest in a pre-production example is unprecedented. It’s also very healthy, as it puts the (regulated) bus industry even more on the map. People are taking it seriously.

Whatever you views on this project—valuable or vanity—you’ll certainly notice that the bus looks very, well, red. Stark, in fact. London buses always are but on this one, there’s no logo of any description, yet. Wouldn’t it be nice to see the return of the LT roundel, amidships, beneath the lower deck windows?

Yes it would. Nothing else is necessary. If the people who walk the corridors of power at 55 Broadway are reading this, may I make a simple suggestion: bring back the roundel on bus sides.

Guys, you use it elsewhere (stops, interchanges & on publicity). You use the roundel on other modes. Why not on the bus?

There can be no more recognisable a logo as a symbol of corporate identity in the transport world than the LT roundel. It started life in 1908 on the underground, in a rather ornate form. It’s evolved into the familiar bar-and-circle but, essentially, hasn’t departed much from the original. It’s certainly enduring and has become the familiar symbol of the capital’s transport ever since, though by no means always on the buses. Indeed, the roundel as we know it first appeared on buses in the 1960s, preceded by its use on trolleybuses in the 1930s. By the 1970s, the plain white roundel had become the only marker on London’s bus fleet. What more was there to say or add?

Today in England, we have Arriva’s concentric circles, First’s “F” and Stagecoach’s beach ball. They vie for attention. Each logo says something about the organisation it represents. It helps recognition. More than that, it’s part of what they are, what they represent, what they try to portray, the essence of the brands each protects and grows. Effective logos today are somewhat abstract but they also say something about the organisations in promoting them and this is true of all the above named. Yet, none delineates transport as does the roundel. The only thing that comes close is the British Rail symbol, never now seen on trains but nonetheless familiar. Those of us with fond memories of the National “Double N” must concede defeat at the hands of the roundel.

As London’s transport has evolved, so has the roundel’s use. This was particularly important as London’s buses were first privatised and subject to tender. London Transport Buses of the time needed a sense of unity that would knit the various colours and contractors together. The white roundel on red square was the choice (with the words London Transport Service to its right).

With the advent of TfL and its responsibility for all public modes of transport came a so-called family of roundels that identified each constituent part separately yet firmly establishing the continuity of London’s transport (e.g. DLR, left). The TfL roundel at stops and interchanges became red with the word “BUSES” across the bar.

This has never appeared on the vehicles themselves. But here is the plea. TfL has allowed the proliferation of a dozen meaningless operator logos on its bus sides. In London, these are superfluous, add no value and are probably not even recognised by the passengers who use them (yes, it’s very different in the provinces). Yet TfL neglects its own. Given that the roundel, in its various guises, now appears on the Underground, Overground and Wombles Freely just about everywhere, it’s logical to see this simple yet affective logo appear on TfL’s buses as they cross Wimbledon Common and beyond. It would make a nice addition to NB4L/NBfL, too.

Over to you TfL...

The roundel already appears on the red London dial-a-ride fleet

Going Local?

Some good reaction to yesterday’s post on New First potentially holding a moratorium on future cuts.

It did occur to me, as one commenter speculated, that New First under Tim O’Toole might consider reinventing regional identities. This would be a very visible way of reversing local fortunes, where needed. This need not totally dilute the worth of the group—witness Go Ahead—or weaken recently won back office economies.

We’ve said it here before, one of the drawbacks of a strong corporate image is where things go wrong in one location (or where things are perceived to do so, equally as bad), they tarnish and weaken the brand elsewhere, everywhere in fact.

Prevention of brand assassination is a very negative reason for adopting local identities. There are at least three major positive reasons:

1. Irrespective of whether one operation can affect the national brand, a local identity can begin to steer an operator perceived less well into a more positive direction (though there’s more to it than a lick of paint and a new, stylised logo).


2. Unlike the homogeneity of today’s high street retail offer, bus services are local in nature. They sport local destinations on the front of each bus, for example. They become inter-woven into an area’s fabric. Even corporately liveried vehicles may try to emphasise local route branding and for very good reason. Indeed, they are not seen as national brands at all but local public assets. This idea of a public assets is a very strong argument for localism. Unlike express services, there’s nothing particularly national about the local bus.


3. And remember that transport brands are not truly national in the same way as Marks & Spencer and Tesco. Go to any town over a certain size and there you will find a Marks. This is not true of First or Arriva or Stagecoach, none of which is truly national.

Some operators have made a virtue and very good business out of local identities, whether geographic (e.g. Wilts & Dorset, Southern Vectis) or generic (e.g. Bluestar). Of course, there’s more to it than that. But by identifying strongly with their local market, they aim to re-engage with their community. Rampant corporatism has tended to kill not kindle the once strong relationship or affinity between community and its bus service.

It has also to be said that others, e.g. Stagecoach, have achieved much with a strong national brand. And, even those who perceive First as poor in this department must concede that, more than any transport organisation, it has managed to beguile City financiers. Let’s face it, First is a modern capitalist success. Fragmentation of its bus businesses might begin to unravel corporate perceptions. One of the reasons why W&D was unsuccessful in its bid for Bournemouth Transport t/a Yellow Buses was that no one seemed to understand the organisation that backed it, Go Ahead, or its standing & reputation. In terms of its financial and operational muscle, W&D was seen as just *too* local, the corporate centre too distant and hidden. A strong bid on paper was rejected in favour of an organisation with some obvious though French clout behind it. Go Ahead also has a new chief executive, upon the retirement of Keith Ludeman. In comes TfL's David Brown, someone who knows about both local devolution and a strong corporate image.

The $64,000 question is, will New First ever go local and if so, will it make any difference? May be it’s worth an experiment to see. Where should O'Toole try?

Old First/New First

There will be a palpable sense of relief among passengers who rely on First’s buses: First intends to reverse some of the recessionary cuts in service, cuts that averaged a six per cent withdrawal in mileage last year.

Recognising that service cuts drive passengers away, First’s new boss Tim O’Toole is now on record as challenging the long-held First mantra that cuts are the answer to poor financial performance. They’re *one* answer, of course, and O’Toole’s new approach doesn’t mean a uniform change of direction, rather a rational one applied where the environment is right. But it also suggests a moratorium on future cuts and this is equally important, if not more so. Local managers can have more confidence in their business.

Stagecoach’s philosophy has always been somewhat different to Moir Lockhead’s First’s, to Old First’s. It’s paid off for Stagecoach, though there are routes and, indeed, networks where Stagecoach has had to make painful decisions. Stagecoach nevertheless would rather find ways of growing itself out of recession than aiding and abetting the downward spiral. Better not to cheese off the vary people on whom the industry relies—customers.

When First published its half-yearlies, much of the industry was focusing on the last day of Euro Bus Expo 2010 to take full notice. Interestingly, First’s slash and burn policy has been good for its bus profits. A 2½% fall in revenues admittedly but a 10% growth in profits. On this basis, wholesale cuts reversals would be foolhardy. In any case, some of the lost patronage will never return. But a measured, clearly thought out approach along the Stagecoach lines might add still more profit.

As if First needed an example of what Stagecoach could do, they need look no further than Sheffield where upstart Stagecoach has in recent years built on its tram concession and the purchase of somewhat chaotic Traction Group, both at the expense of First. OK, so it’s always easier for the newcomer rather than incumbent especially without the need to cover the whole network but how many newcomers last? And how many expand? This week in Sheffield, Stagecoach is reportedly doing just that, again.

It can be nothing other than heartening that during O’Toole’s first week there is a new and clear message coming from HQ. Now all New First has to do is tackle those fares...

The end of a Dorset dream? Today on the Dorset Bus Blog.

Of ITSO and Awards

ITSO Issues Expensive to join? Difficult to implement? Frustrations in a continually changing software environment? Promises yet to be fully completely fulfilled?

Western Greyhound doesn’t always get its own way, when it comes to bus awards. For, last Wednesday, it was Transdev Yellow Buses and not Western Greyhound that became the 2010 large bus operator of the year in the routeONE operator excellence awards. Western Greyhound made it to the shortlist, along with Stagecoach West, Diamond Bus and Arriva Buses Wales.

This is the second major award for TYB in as any years. Last year, it was awarded shire operator of the year at the Bus Oscars™, the UK bus awards. TYB will be having a go at the top honours, the Oscars™, again this year, in exactly one week. Could it possibly make it to the top, again?

We know that some operators are serial applicants: witness Western Greyhound (who also are serial winners). No reason, therefore, to stop TYB doing the same next week. It’s not a “me too” application, this year. What’s changed for TYB has been its successful introduction of smartcard technology. Where many others have feared to tread, TYB has waded in. Most who use the Glo Card prefer the security and longevity of it compared to the flimsiness of the former magnetic stripped suck-and-spit Yellow Cards.

ITSO has its problems, and don’t we as an industry know it. But there are again promises of change at ITSO, a listening to its customers. Mobile phone-type technology may yet supplant ITSO and smartcards, as may the next generation of debit cards but both these newcomers also have their problems. ITSO smartcards are the nearest thing to the nirvana of modern, cashless technology we currently have and perusing other options only diverts attention away from the one working product that’s likely to bring immediate industry-wide benefits. Or so it seems.

Much of TYB’s market-driven service changes are now historic in nature. Other than marginal change—and some service expansion into unlikely territory—we’re probably not going to see any major recast, not in the immediate future, anyway. TYB has therefore spent much of its recent energy in endeavouring to buddy up to its customer base in a way that would’ve seemed unthinkable, even in the previously innovative Ken Baily days of the 1980s.

The four routeONE judges were very positive about TYB at Birmingham’s awards, last week. One thing that no longer gets a mention at TYB, though, is the 40 per cent growth it once trumpeted. Innovative it might be, with one in four front line buses of a Café Nero standard, but keeping up that pace of growth in recessionary Bournemouth seems even beyond its brighter ideas.

Honeycomb Middle

There can be few examples of such a step change in public transport. Over the weekend, the Maltese government announced what its residents can expect from July 2011 when the Arriva consortium takes over.

And although there will be a tinge of regret from those who read this blog or who visit Malta and like to see former British buses in service, it has to be said that operating a system with buses whose average age is 35 years can never attract new customers, do itself justice or play a proper part in the economy.

Adorned and a little altered, this vehicle is still recognisable as an ECW-bodied 40-ish seat Bristol LH, the sort once beloved of Hants & Dorset, apparently new in 1976 and almost therefore representative of the average age of buses on the island. New 12m buses have the same capacity. Photo attribution: Rashunda under creative commons

Nowhere more so than England have we seen the benefits of new stock with SLFs operating on market-driven networks, to the benefit of all. This has been but an incremental process. Imagine what you can do if you tackle this in one go:

• A wholesale vehicle replacement, with 70 per cent of vehicles (185) being new (yes, I know that there are already some new vehicles on the islands and the import of redundant British buses was halted last year).


• A new network that focuses not simply on Valletta, the capital, but other centres, including more park & rides.


• Smartcards


• New bus shelters & infrastructure


• Better information


• Longer operation with appropriate night services


• Air conditioning and CCTV on all buses


• Major improvements for the island of Gozo, to Malta’s north west.

Quite an opportunity, then, and certainly an exciting one. One that proponents of franchising might actually seize upon, perhaps, as the Maltese way is effectively a quality contract.

The cost of such a contract? £5.4mil per annum. This gives about £2½mil in change over the current system. It’s interesting that the consortium originally bid about £1mil *above* the current £8mil subsidy. All credit to the Maltese government for settling at a lower rate though this, no doubt, reflects Arriva’s desire to step in. Arriva sees the very real benefits here. The symbiotic availability of quanties of “cheap” bendies has no doubt helped the pricing.

The transport sector is reportedly the most polluting on the island and within that, the buses are the single most polluting of all. That’ll change. The new network almost halves the number of buses required, from 508 to 264. More, all non-new stock will be converted to the same Euro V specification as new vehicles (when the government unambitiously specified a Euro III minimum).

Interestingly, the Maltese government is stating that there will be an increase in capacity on fewer buses: from 13,900 bus seats to 20,500. I can’t square this equation, as this means an average seating capacity of 78 per bus. I know the island’s getting former London artics but even these goliaths can’t *seat* this many.

The Maltese government are rightly pushing hard the benefits of the new Arriva consortium. But there will inevitably be some issues, including:

1. One is the lightweight, cheaper buses Arriva will be mainly using. We considered the King Long XMQ61275 we saw during Euro Expo 2010. Like Maltesers to chocolate, it’s the lighter way to enjoy bus travel. It’s the honeycomb middle that weighs so little, as they used to say. Internally, the XMQ61275 didn’t impress but the benchmark was the Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse. Do we really need such heavyweights in the UK let alone Malta? Malta is different and new & existing passengers will welcome the King Long as a major improvement.


2. What affect will the change have on the industry on which Malta depends more than any other—tourism? To what extent is the tourist economy reliant upon people choosing Malta not because of its culture or climate but the vehicles on its roads? Or, put another way, with a wide choice of sunny Mediterranean destinations, is the chaotic nature of current public transport a unique selling point?


3. What will the island’s reaction be to artics? Common in Europe, it seems wherever they are introduced for the first time, there’s a perception problem. London will nevertheless be pleased to see the back of them and Arriva delighted to see them in use. Significant numbers are due off TfL service between January and July 2011 include Arriva’s 29 and 73 (and with an acceleration of tendering, the remainder will go ahead of the end of Mayor Johnson’s term, in May 2012).


4. The Bristol LH above demonstrates well the the conundrum about conventional vehicle lengths. Generally to 43 seat configuration, capacity on this 9m bus equates broadly to that on the 12m XMQ61275. Arriva promises smaller buses in village settings but not everyone will appreciate buses a third bigger in length. Same problem in the UK but this has been gradual, not overnight.


5. Will there be a pang of nostalgia among the islanders themselves? My guess is that there will be, especially from those who will continue to drive their cars. Bus usage is reported to have declined by half in the 30 years since 1979. The number of commuters has halved in 20 years. It won’t be long before residents appreciate the new, especially users. There will be a substantial reversal in fortunes.


6. Emissions will undoubtedly improve but to do so Euro V engines will burn more fuel than a vehicle of the same weight and size with a non-compliant engine. But with such a reduction in the overall quantum of vehicles, does this really matter?