Decision Time

The West of England Combined Authority is probably the most important body in the area where transport is concerned. The "Metro Mayor" as the leader of it is therefore a very important person in the lives of public transport passengers and providers as their policies will set the tone for the direction that WECA takes.…

One way or another, we’ll make you wait.

Today (Tuesday 6th April 2021) saw the launch of another four North Somerset Council supported bus services. Service 56 (Clevedon - Walton Bay) had been supposed to start last Thursday, but belatedly made it's debut today after somebody copied and pasted the wrong bit of supporting text to Facebook. Source: North Somerset Public Transport Facebook…

Secret Squirrels

Foreword: I apologise for breaking the promise to try and divert my attention elsewhere from the start of the last post on this blog. I am trying my hardest to move on, but the source material is too rich to pass up. Bus operators are expected to begin the registration process for bus services at…

Borders and Behaviour: How Not to Procure Bus Services.

I realise a lot of my recent ramblings have centred around North Somerset and the council that governs the place, but i'll try to divert my attention elsewhere after this post. North Somerset Council have recently undertaken a tendering round which sees every one of their existing four bus contracts replaced by a different service,…

FreeBus: A lot of publicity, but not much else

The start of the 2010 decade was a tumultuous time on Bristol's public transport. Rotala Wessex were keen to make their presence felt in the city. Bristol City Council's lead on Transport, Gary Hopkins was trying to entice other major group operators in to the city by mass tendering every supported service at once (spoiler,…

Empire!

It would appear that some of the structure for providing local transport after Covid is starting to take shape. It seems that Transport Authorities have been given some indications of the form which the long awaited National Bus Strategy will take. Regardless of any ongoing issues, attempting to discuss longer term issues is currently met…

We(ca) choose a Dictatorship

I have written extensively in the past regarding my frustrations with all operator ticketing in WECA. All operator ticketing would give operators other than First the opportunity to provide services which are complementary the greater network rather than combative (something which barely exists in WECAvon now anyway). First's local dominance of Mobile Ticketing and the…

The Big Crunch

As if we haven't spent the last six months thinking that we're living in strange times, the past month has seen things take an even more concerning turn. At the end of July, Stagecoach announced they were forming a new "Stagecoach Solutions" unit for corporate travel, education and contract services. This bears a striking resemblance…

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Scheduler

Quite by chance earlier this week, i met up with a friend of mine who i hadn't spoken to in a while. As neither of us were required for further labouring for a good half hour, we found a cafe and spent a while chattering. A thankless task My friend showed me a thread on…

Corona Chronicle 2: Marginalised

I concluded my first Corona Chronicle post by wondering when the message regarding public transport usage would change and now it appears that we might have eventually reached that juncture. Major operators are moving from quarter capacity to half capacity on vehicles which will reduce the likelihood of duplicate vehicles being needed and perhaps the…