What’s the difference between Stagecoach Gold and First Gold Service?
Last week, First Midlands (or whatever they’re called at present) launched its Gold Service on Potteries’ routes 25 (Hanley - Stoke - Newcastle-under-Lyme - Keele) and 26/26A (Handley - Longton - Stoke - Newcastle).
Whereas Stagecoach introduced new vehicles in a distinguished, stately livery with leather seating & wi-fi, First has retained its existing stock & livery. Though, somewhat unusually, First has painted one vehicle per route in the immediate pre-Barbie PMT livery of yellow and red, a particularly bright privatisation style. Like Stagecoach, First has added higher customer standards and a charter.
Passengers who care to read First’s customer charter for the 25 & 26/26A this will conclude that First and, indeed, all operators should be offering such a commitment as a matter of course. Why, for example, should a couple of routes be singled out for special treatment when the charter seems to state nothing less than a passenger feels he deserves across the entire network?
Such a reaction, though understandable, would be to denigrate First. Stagecoach’s charter, for example, is very similar. Generally, the industry has missed a trick regarding published standards. Had it done this widely 15 plus years ago (when the railways did it), charters would be seen as an acceptable part of good practice. Now, they just appear to lag behind current standards and thinking.
So, promises such as “we will eliminate early running” and doing “everything in our control to operate to our advertised times” could be misconstrued as meaning First doesn’t really care about every other Potteries route. That notion is clearly nonsense.
What we like about the charter is that First will sweep out the bus and clear litter, at “key locations”. It’s an innovation, again, that the railway adopted years ago. In First’s case, it would be good if this happened when people were still on board—so they could witness the effort. But such cleaning between 1000 and 1300 misses the morning peak and after schools finish in the late afternoon, two periods when buses are prone to litter. Many, though, will welcome the spraying of vehicles with a fragrant deodoriser. This is going to be more popular in the future and will become automatic.
Then there’s the dedicated team of drivers for the 25 & 26/26A. This is a positive step for the routes concerned… but dedicated rosters actually can mean that those below average find themselves concentrated on other services. This might have a disproportionate effect on the remainder of the network. It’s a difficult one and any operator with such a dedicated roster must weigh up the pros and cons.
Finally, what happens when things (within an operator’s control) go wrong? In specific circumstances, Stagecoach puts its money firmly where its mouth is by offering journey vouchers. First will investigate “with a view to taking whatever action is required to put things right”. That will certainly stop any malicious complaints. It may even be enough to satisfy many passengers but we suspect that customers who have the benefit of a charter also want a method of recompense.
i Gold Service Charter
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Going for Gold?
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26 comments:
"twitter"
"roadwork’s"
"10;00 & 13;00"
Come on First, that took me 30 seconds. Lack of proof reading alone makes that look *incredibly* sloppy.
Interestingly, First toyed with "Gold Service" before, with performance guarantees and the likes. I remember seeing them around Wigan in the late 90s.
"It may even be enough to satisfy many passengers but we suspect that customers who have the benefit of a charter also want a method of recompense."
It's worth pointing out that the newer railway compensation schemes (Delay Repay) pay *regardless* of the cause of the delay, i.e. even when it is out of the operator's control.
That would be a brave move with buses affected by traffic etc, but would make a very big statement indeed.
A charter means nothing without a way of claiming recompense when things go wrong. They aim to eliminate early running and they aim to get buses back on track when there are "roadwork's" (sic). Whoop-de-doo, they should be doing that anyway. And what happens if they don't do that, how do I get my money back?
Most railway companies (although- notably- not First) offer Delay Repay- you get your money back regardless of why a delay happened. That's the only way you're going to get people on to the buses- guarantee a service and then, if it's not provided, compensate people for their inconvenience.
It's something the bus industry as a whole needs to get to grips with. On my local Stagecoach route buses are supposed to run every ten minutes, but due to Stagecoach cutting corners on the timetable to reduce PVR, bunching is common. It's not unusual to wait 30 minutes for a bus. The response to any complaints? "It's not our fault, it's the fault of traffic, roadworks, Newcastle City Council, aliens [delete as appropriate], you're not getting your money back". Fine, OK, I'll just drive next time then. At least then if I'm delayed for 30 minutes I'm in the comfort of my own car, not left stranded at a windy bus stop with no idea of when a bus might finally make an appearance.
It's worth noting that Delay Repay is statutory, i.e. the TOCs are required to give it as part of their contract. They wouldn't do it out of the kindness of their hearts.
But if bus oprators were penalised (by having to offer compensation to passengers) if affected by things like road delays, that would encourage them to do things like plan and publish timetables that actually work, and to have enough vehicles on a route and enough on standby to ensure some semblance of reliability in any case.
In other words, yes, sometimes traffic congestion is unpredictable. But sometimes it is inherently *predictable*. Where it is, there's no excuse for not planning timetables accordingly.
I think you're missing a vital difference between rail and bus when it comes to compensation. In rail thanks to the complex set of agreements someone somewhere is ALWAYS at fault and is almost always financially liable for the delays attributed to their actions.
I'm all for bus passengers getting compensation when their journey is delayed if the mechanism existed to pass on that cost to the sloppy road works contractors, sloppy traffic managers, other plebs on the road (delete as appropriate) that cause many of the delays.
It angers me greatly a road work contractor can rock up having obtained their TRO dig up a road, cause mayhem and many thousands of minutes of delay to all road users but have no financial incentive to complete the job in a timely manner. It is a British joke that road work cones will be out 24/7 but the contractor will rock up at 9am and usually be gone by 4pm so during the peak traffic periods all the road user sees is cones restricting road capacity with little evidence of why it is necessary to delay their journey.
Isn't this post an early/late April fool? Painting a bus into PMT livery and calling it 'Gold Service' - I've heard it all now!
Typical First - good intentions, yes, but no doubt it will be quietly dropped and forgotten as so often appears to be the case. It does, however, highlight the difference between First's and Stagecoach's approaches, in my experience, at least. This seems to be half a job, the easier and cheaper half. Had First introduced *new* buses and/or painted all of those on these services into red/yellow, one would have been more impressed and sensed a greater commitment to marketing the services and making the vehicles stand out. A route full of buses in red/yellow would turn heads, the odd one will just look out of place and inconsequential.
Am I the only person that's noticed the majority of points mentioned are supposedly (and should be) true for all services? They claim to do most of this for regular services too, e.g. keeping buses clean, keeping to time, not running early, dealing with complaints swiftly etc. From reading this document, there really is very little apparent to be different from standard services theoretically. They've just thrown in all these points to make it sound fantastic whereas in truth it largely won't be any different from others.
"Am I the only person that's noticed the majority of points mentioned are supposedly (and should be) true for all services?"
Will given Busing mentioned the very same thing in his blog post, you'd hope not!
@ Neil:
It's worth noting that Delay Repay is statutory, i.e. the TOCs are required to give it as part of their contract. They wouldn't do it out of the kindness of their hearts.
They don't have to offer Delay Repay though- First don't on their Transpennine franchise.
@ Anon 1128
But it depends how you look at it.
It is very rare that a bus operator gets no advance warning of roadworks. They get warning of it and they can timetable accordingly. And even if they don't, if the gas company rocks up at 9am you'd have thought that control would have known about it by 10am and put steps in place to resolve it- increasing PVR or even just telling people about it on Twitter.
What annoys me more than anything is bunching and the operator allowing it to continue all day. On my Stagecoach route I've seen bunching by 7.30am (rarely because of traffic that early, either) and seen the exact same buses still bunched together on my commute home at 4.30pm.
Most traffic problems are inherently predictable and happen at the same places every day. In Newcastle the hot spots are the Byker Bridge and Neville Street. So why do the bus companies not timetable accordingly? Heavy traffic in rush hour isn't exactly a shock.
"It is very rare that a bus operator gets no advance warning of roadworks."
Yeah right!
Metrobus have said on their Facebook page plenty of times that roadworks have started without being told about them.
Once, the end of my road was closed so no traffic (including buses) could get through. I (as a resident) didn't know about it in advance, neither did Countryliner so all the buses got stuck in the morning and then had to start diverting. The Surrey CC bus stops missed out by the diversion did not carry any notices while the road was closed.
David said...
"...if the gas company rocks up at 9am you'd have thought that control would have known about it by 10am and put steps in place to resolve it- increasing PVR..."
I suspect that increasing PVR in the space of an hour would be a fairly tall order these days!
I think the point that Anon @ 11:28 is making is that if a rail operator has to pay compensation to passengers for a delay that was not their fault, then the operator can reclaim the cost from the party responsible for the delay. That is frequently not possible for bus operators; and I'm not really sure that it is practicable for bus operators to rewrite their timetables for short term roadworks, etc. Notification through the appropriate media should obviously be possible, though, as you say.
If you journey on the 700 between worthing and littlehampton you have to contend with 2 level crossings.With a ten minute frequency buses often pass my house in convoys of 5 or 6.My question is should the railway compensate the bus operator?
"They don't have to offer Delay Repay though- First don't on their Transpennine franchise."
1. Yes they do - I've claimed it and got a full refund of the nearly £80 ticket price for a 2.5 hour delay caused by them cancelling the last train to Barrow and putting on a bus (because of the road layout, a bus can't do anywhere near the train timings).
2. Some TOCs don't offer it because their franchise agreements pre-date it.
Neil
Go North East have had a 'gold standard' charter for a while on some the routes http://www.simplygo.com/Gold-Standard
If these moderate improvements constitute a Gold Service, what is the average like in the Potteries?
I hope First keeps to the charter, though. I'd like to know how the 25 and 26/A are doing in 6 months' time.
"It is very rare that a bus operator gets no advance warning of roadworks."
Really? Not my experience at all, even with notification contractors often don't stick to the plan - starting works late and over estimating how long it will take to complete are frequent problems.
"They get warning of it and they can timetable accordingly."
You can only 'timetable accordingly' if you can accurately predict how the other road users will behave confronted with the road works. Often first couple of days are chaos until the other traffic sorts themselves out and either divert away or adjust their travel arrangements.
"And even if they don't, if the gas company rocks up at 9am you'd have thought that control would have known about it by 10am and put steps in place to resolve it- increasing PVR.."
Tell me which operator has the resource to drop in extra pvr just like that! A PVR typically costs £100-150k per annum. Who will pay for this? Unfair to lump it onto the paying customer so goes back to the idea of reclaiming additional cost from the third parties causing the disruption and additional cost, similar to the railways.
"What annoys me more than anything is bunching and the operator allowing it to continue all day. On my Stagecoach route I've seen bunching by 7.30am (rarely because of traffic that early, either) and seen the exact same buses still bunched together on my commute home at 4.30pm."
That doesn't sound like good regulation, I guess it is done to minimise lost mileage but with little thought of providing a reliable service.
"Most traffic problems are inherently predictable and happen at the same places every day. In Newcastle the hot spots are the Byker Bridge and Neville Street. So why do the bus companies not timetable accordingly? Heavy traffic in rush hour isn't exactly a shock."
A good bus company does timetable for peak time traffic, certainly most bus routes my way to cater for the additional traffic, to the extent that some bus routes actually drop frequency in the peak time to avoid increased pvr costs but provide a realistic timetable.
I however diagree with the notion that most traffic problems are predictable, my experience are they are definately not - if they were they wouldn't be a problem surely?
Anon @ 12:08 - not quite the same thing unless I've missed something; Busing mentioned that people might think other services aren't up to par or are inferior, whereas what I'm trying to say is that there's not much there different/above what standard services supposedly have & do.
I too use the 700 mentioned earlier...in June Stagecoach rerouted and retimed the service for reliability...throughout the summer there were pavement conductors - on Worthing seafront at least - plus a guy who appeared to be solely employed supervising the service...and still it ran late - according to the drivers thanks to roadworks (which in Brighton are continuous and in West Sussex seem to spring up/disappear just like that) plus sheer weight of people turning up en masse, (one day I actually saw a tourist coach unload a full load of wrinklies who promptly ALL made for the bus...where they came from I have no idea)...
I think there's 40 odd buses on the route and I gather they're drawn from three depots...not the sort of thing you want to try to re-timetable (reschedule?) on the fly...
I don't know what they can realistically do with it...on the face of it a lot of the running times are already ridiculously generous almost to the point of detering non-pensioner trade ...even my missus who actually has a concessionary pass refuses to use the 700 because "it takes so long"...
I suspect they'll end up breaking it up into more manageable pieces - which'll be a shame as I've watched with interest as it's been gradually built up over the years....
@David 09.17 Spot on.
@ Anon 1433:
With level crossings, generally the same trains pass the crossing at the same time every day. Stagecoach should be given access to the rail working timetable (if they don't already) to timetable the buses that will meet the trains to take longer.
@ Neil 1505:
I'm perhaps being slightly pedantic but it's not Delay Repay, it's a less generous offering- they don't pay out if it's not their fault.
Also Delay Repay pays out when there isn't an identifiable cause, or when the TOC can't recover the money from that cause (e.g. inclement weather or suicide).
@ Anon 2015:
I'm not unrealistic in that I know delays will inevitably happen on bus routes, sometimes down to the bus operator and sometimes not. I know that my local Stagecoach operator does have reserve drivers and reserve buses so there's no reason why they can't be deployed. My local operator suffers a lot because all the main routes are cross-city rather than terminating in the city centre. It makes sense from an operational point of view (reduced PVR) but reliability does suffer.
Here we go again, from Metrobus facebook:
"METROBUS
Routes 430 and 435 - Due to roadworks which are obstructing the road, buses are unable to serve Woodlands Road in Earlswood. Unfortunately we were not advised of this in advance and have been working with with the contractors as a matter of urgency to improve access and return buses to the normal route. At this stage we expect temporary traffic lights to be in place later today at which point we will be able to access the road again, but unfortunately can not commit to a time at this point. Meanwhile, apologies for any inconvenience."
"With level crossings, generally the same trains pass the crossing at the same time every day. Stagecoach should be given access to the rail working timetable (if they don't already) to timetable the buses that will meet the trains to take longer"
It's a ten minute frequency service and the train is very frequent too...there's NO chance of missing with all of them...there ain't the gaps...and these gates can be down a LONG time...
As it said in another posting, some of the timings (especially round the crossings) are already embarassingly slow - catch the gates open and you're waitimg four or five minutes at the next timing point...catch them shut and...well let's just say it's far from unusual with a late train to get them held down for ten minutes...
Just out of interest, how many minutes delay should justify the payment of some form of compensation? The German railways offer compensation if a train is delayed by an hour or more.
Of course, if one journey is half an hour late, and misses an hourly connecting service, then the passenger may be delayed by an hour, but won't qualify for compensation as the delayed train was less than one hour late!
Trent Barton continues to offer, and promote on every bus, its 'no quibble money back guarantee' - your fare refunded on the spot by the driver for whatever reason. Not surprisingly, the main reason for refund allegedly is lateness, a situation which can be outwith the operator's control. Is this the only public transport example of a No Quibble on-the-spot MBG in the world?
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