Wednesday’s, yesterday’s and today’s trade rags get a chance to sing to the same tune when it comes to the Cambridgeshire busway. They are all enthusiastic and with good reason. Only today’s Passenger Transport indicates that the first week saw over 55,000 passengers. One was Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent. Here, Omnibuses NC goes beyond the trade press and ponders what is seemingly the imponderable. What might make the busway even better?
- It’s difficult for the ordinary punter to distinguish between a Whippet and a Stagecoach single deck. They both adopt the same busway livery but they are in competition with each other. They offer different fares, there’s no ticket interavialability and they operate at different frequencies. Mr & Mrs Average Cambridgeshire will not be impressed. The all-operator carnet-style ticket is not enough. Since access to the busway demands a partnership & operator payment, why can’t a QC be extended to fares?
- Between whole swathes of countryside are but a handful of “stations”. You approach these quite fast. That’s a good thing. But because there is little distinguishing geography on the route, an audible announcement might be useful to help locate your stop. Since the driver is hand free and operating on what is a private road, this needn’t be automatic, though linking audio to the RTI would be good.
- Timing points on the web timetable refer to the As and Bs serving “central Cambridge” with no real idea where this is. Can passengers find their stop? The printed version is clearer and precise and has maps with stops, too. It would be good if this were also on the web. Other than on a Sunday, in the eastbound direction, there’s no indication as to whether the Bs serve Drummer Street or not; and the Cs mention Drummer Street without reference to it being a bus station. You’ve got to be in the know.
- Some Stagecoach drivers seemed to be wearing baseball caps! Is this standard uniform? Even First seems to have dropped this dumbing down practice and such attire takes the shine off what are very customer focused drivers.
- Fares are high. I’m not suggesting that those charged are out of scale compared to general bus routes in the area. To attract impromptu parkers & riders, £10.80 for a couple just isn’t going to do it. Or £6 for an adult plus child (after 0930). Better to take the very A14 the busway tries to avoid to one of the regular Cambridge P&R sites and pay £2.40 return (via self-service machine; £2.70 on bus) and up to three children travel free.
- When compared to a weekday bus over the core section of every 10 minutes, evening & Sunday services are very poor. If the busway is to be a credible option in promoting modal shift, operators need to rethink services at these times. Access charges are waived on Sundays.
- In particular, the southern section (towards Addenbrooke Hospital & Trumpington P&R) is very well engineered but sees no Sunday or evening service; and only a 20 minute service on weekday daytimes. Might operators make more of this section?
- The C timetable also shows some journeys on the A. It doesn’t make it clear which operator does which. Indeed, no timetable refers to operators at all.
It might say Whippet on the front but not everyone will spot the difference on services liveried identically
22 comments:
I don't mind a timetable showing a minimal number of timing points, (provided they're the important ones), but I do feel very strongly against a timetable showing timing points so badly described as to be totally meaningless to a casual outsider travelling in the area.
At the very least say WHICH bus station for gods sake...
I predict it will be abandoned by Christmas.
Who is going to trim the weeds and undergrowth from between the tracks ? Apart from looking a bit third-world,if this area is for drainage, clogging it with vegetation won't help.
The busway to Trumpington has a single-track section, would a higher frequency actually be achievable without impacting upon reliability?
As for the ticketing it is a joke. I don't know why it wasn't tendered to one operator in the same way that railway routes are.
Agree with most of what's been said. I felt there could be more on vehicle information - Underground style route diagrams, etc. Also think the term "Central Cambridge" for destinations is a bit strange.
The lack of ticket interavailability is odd and doesn't look good to customers. It would be better to have it, but as Whippet have only 3 vehicles compared to Stagecoach's 20, it might not be that big a deal, really.
Baseball caps are available to any Stagecoach driver as part of the available uniform.
The timetable lists the town by the first stop in that town, in bold - so it is clearly St Ives bus station.
I still believe the busway will be a success - but also agree with most of the points in today's post. Service levels will rise if the demand is there, and a lot of that depends on the planned development of new housing along the line of the busway.
Maybe the blogger should take all these points and email Stagecoach directly over issues he raised, I dare say there would welcome the feedback. No point in feedback unless there some bad in it.
There nothing wrong with the Baseball caps!
"The timetable lists the town by the first stop in that town, in bold - so it is clearly St Ives bus station."
So is the casual brand new convert-to-the-bus passenger supposed to know that?
How?
Most passengers have enough problems with a timetable as it is without introducing further doubt...The white space is there so they might as well use it to TELL the poor bugger...
"I predict it will be abandoned by Christmas."
Yeah Yeah...they said that about World War l...and World War ll...oh and the National Health Service...
One would hope that the managers are doing their own snagging and making notes about any shortcomings. Isn't that what they are paid to do? There is nothing like reality to show what needs to be done.Perhaps they even read this blog !
Often well-intentioned feedback is deemed an annoyance, as silly passengers don't know the ins and outs of running buses.Well,perhaps they don't, but the end result of all that insider bus-knowledge is what they pay to use, so one hopes wisdom may prevail.
As for not detailing the town centre stop,one could always ask the driver perhaps ?
Could be right about the NHS!!
@ anonymous 2131
I am confused, if I cannot find a driver how do I know where to get on. This is Friday night and perhaps I have missed the point of your comment! Is Cambridge Town worth being Stranded in?
It seems tobe the latest in thing with bus companies to reduce the information in timetables to the point it is totally useless for most people. Like many things with public transport it is going backwards
I amnot sure what it is but there seems to be a deep routed cultural issue in the industry where they seem tothink low standards are ok. It does not seem to happen abroad much they seem to be a lot more customer foccussed
The actual full timetable includes route maps and maps indicating the stop locations. What I do not understand is that A and Bs are stated as being worked by Stagecoach and Cs by Go Whippet does the photo show both a Stagecoach and Whippet C
Anonymous said...
"... the photo show both a Stagecoach and Whippet C"
If you enlarge the photo, you will see that they are both Whippet vehicles.
I was lucky enough to have a preview trip on the busway some time ago and it is very impressive. The lack of joint ticketing, however, is a disgrace. Sort it out, Cambridgeshire - you've had long enough to do so.
@ Anon 2153: They're both Whippet buses, but you illustrate the point perfectly- all the different buses are in the same bloomin' colour.
@ Anon 1245: The fact that Whippet have such a low frequency service actually makes it more of an issue, not less. You have to pre-buy your ticket and the Whippet ticket is cheaper. If you're not paying attention you buy a Whippet ticket, thinking you're getting a bargain, and then have to wait an hour for a bus (two hours on a Sunday!)
Is use of the busway restricted to the two current operators,or could we see more competition in the future? At least overtaking and rushing to the next stop will not be an issue !
Does the realtime(assuming they have it fitted)at busway stops show the service operator to help passengers avoid boarding the 'wrong' operator's bus ? I guess the similar livery issue is some form of branding requirement.
@Anonymous 19 Aug 09:02. The 'weeds and undergrowth' were deliberately seeded to make the track look more attractive (the infill is ground up tyres). Think of it as similar to a grassed tramway reservation.
http://www.proaktiva.ch/tram/photo/strasbourg/060714_1069.jpg
I agree with the point about the lack of audio/visual on board next stop announcements. This is mandatory on rail, and should be on buses by now. The Busway is a showpiece for the bus industry to prove that it can offer comparable quality to rail service. Next stop announcements are essential on any form of service where passengers with hearing or site impairements need to request the vehicle to stop. They also reassure new users.
I also agree with ticketing fiasco. Two operators covered by the same access agreement , and operating as one brand should have ticket inter-availability between central Cambridge and St Ives. Fares paid at Busway ticket machines should be apportioned by formula or recorded as passes when shown to drivers on boarding, for re-imbursement by the council.
Oh dear.
Sunday train arrivals at Huntingdon are at 21 minutes past the hour between 09:21 and 00:21. Guided bus Route B departs Huntingdon at 19 minutes past the hour from 08:19 until 16:19.
During weekdays Guided bus frequency from Huntingdon drops to hourly from 18:35, just as the railway starts delivering trainloads of London commuters every 15 minutes from 18:46 to 20:02 according to Barry Doe in Rail Magazine.
At Cambridge Mon to Fri Guided bus departures at the railway station in the evening are at 12, 32, and 52 past the hour (A/B) and 17:40, 1840 (C) from 17:12 to 18:52. Train loads of commuters from London arrive at 15 minute intervals from 17:01 to 23:15!
Barry Doe comments in Rail magazine that if it was a tramway services would connect with trains and offer Huntingdon to St Ives in 15 minutes, whereas the guided bus goes round the houses and takes 40 minutes.
Should not the busway be a tramway emulator? I do not think that the Busway is attempting to provide Bus Rapid Transit at all; it is merely providing traditional bus service that just happen to use a guide way. The busway is ignoring the large market of rail commuters, and should consider introducing fast limited stop services superimposed over current all-stops services. This ‘BRT’ service should call at all busway stops, but only limited stop on the street running sections. Something along the lines of TrentBarton’s Spondon Flyer or Rapid 1.
Looks like my comment at 14:05 yesterday has become (part) reality. Stagecoach has introduced express busway services between Huntingdon and St Ives. But why do they start at the bus station and not the rail station?
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/guided_bus_gets_express_service_to_huntingdon_1_1114421
This shows the flexiblity of the privatised, deregulated bus industry. If it had been a railway they would just be starting to think about maybe having an exploratory meeting to think about perhaps looking at ways of amending the service to maybe meet demand.
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