Bus or Tram?

Remember the recent post on rubber wheels playing Second Fiddle to steel? Remember the 50-plus comments it generated? Remember in particular the arguments for and against enforced bus/rail connections?

Hucknall Connect photo courtesy Derby Bus Depot
In Nottingham next weekend, Premiere starts a new service that not only parallels the tram rails, it obviates a bus-tram connection. So, is this duplication of effort or does it offer something that passengers want?

5th September is the date of the new half-hourly Red 8 that links the Hucknall estates with Hucknall and Nottingham. Passengers from the estates have hitherto relied upon Trent Barton’s Connect, called the “really good link to the tram” but also providing a connection with Trent Barton Rainbow 3.

The tram operates every 12 minutes from Hucknall and Rainbow 3 every 10. The problem is the connecting service through Hucknall. Yes, it too operates every 10 minutes over most of its length but passengers have apparently felt the withdrawal of the clockwise loop. The remaining anti-clockwise service means a longer journey time for some (though, of course, those who have the longer time to Hucknall benefit from the shorter time on the return). Red 8 goes clockwise.

On the face of it, a 10-minute connection into a 12-minute tram or 10-minute bus seems more than adequate. Will a through bus be better? The end-to-end journey time from the Ruffs Estate to Nottingham on Red 8 is 36 minutes with a through fare and no inconvenience of changing. By Connect and tram, this is also 36 minutes plus connection time at Hucknall of six, eight, zero, two or four minutes. And, in the reverse direction, because of the one-way loop, add five minutes to get back to Ruffs on Connect.

You wouldn’t expect Trent Barton to sit on its hands. It’s PR masquerades under the time-honoured “We’ve listened to our customers” approach (I’ve used it myself). Said its commercial director Alex Hornby, “We are about to rethink our services in Hucknall following appeals from our customers”. A nice touch of honesty, even humility, actually never hurt anyone. Expect the clockwise service to be reintroduced this autumn.

Continued Hornby, “It is only through listening to customers that we can develop sustainable services that meet the needs of local communities”. Never mind that Trent Barton’s actions have allowed a competitor to sneak in. Forget that the Connect reinstatement results from the Premiere incursion. And disregard the fact that the withdrawal of the clockwise Connect variant was designed to make the unviable Connect sustainable by reducing PVR 4 to 3. Indeed, the reinstated clock- & anti-clockwise pattern is understood to use but three vehicles.

But give Trent Barton its due, it’s customer focused and it does tend to listen. And it’s now introduced a lower-priced £10 weekly ticket from Hucknall estates, valid on Rainbow 3. Red 8’s *introductory* fares will be £5 per week (at, of course, a lower frequency).

And let’s not forget that the current 10-minute local service (Connect) connecting with a 10-minute trunk service (Rainbow 3) makes more sense than Connect running every 7½ combined clock- and anti-clockwise. I know what I’d prefer but passengers haven’t seen it like that.

Then there’s Red 8’s competition with the tram itself. Your Bus tried this (downstream, from Bulwell) but this proved unsustainable in the long term. Red 8 doesn’t make the mistake of paralleling the tram, though. Rather, it takes on Rainbow 3. But perhaps in linking the route to the Hucknall estates Premiere has come up with a formula that might prove more justifiable. It seems that here is a new test bed of through journeys at a lower frequency versus higher frequencies but with a need to change.