Behind the scenes of buses in the West.
No, don't click away. I know what you're thinking. Another rant about community transport, but you'd be wrong. These minibuses are a symptom of a demographic change which few are talking about. Both of our school services (one bus, one closed door contract) serve Chew Valley school and they also have something else in common… Continue reading Minibus Armageddon
I wrote a post a couple of years ago bemoaning people who seem to think they can plan a bus service without any knowledge of the industry. Things haven't changed. Aside from Twitter being full of people who think that public ownership will solve everything, recent press activity from the Chew Valley Chamber of Commerce… Continue reading We’ve never used a bus, but we know best!
First's North Somerset Excel network, previously the Express Yourself network will be undergoing changes from the end of April 2019, which (whilst being referred to in their press release as improvements) will see the loss of: - one direct bus per hour between Weston-super-Mare and Bristol (Currently 4, becomes 3) - one bus per hour… Continue reading Less Expression
Since Metrobus m1 started, there have been a number of moans on the First Bus Bristol: Have Your Say Facebook group regarding broken links since the withdrawal of services 50 and 90 from various parts of Inns Court and Hengrove. Since the splitting of service 36 at Brislington, there is now an extra vehicle working… Continue reading Solving a failure of The Big Project
Competence is a big word in transport these days. Passenger and Freight service operators have to prove they are competent in order to gain an operators' licence. Drivers must carry a card of their professional competence to prove they are capable of delivering the service they are employed to do. Yet Bristol City Council apparently… Continue reading Competence
This was something i started writing back in early November having had the seed of the idea planted by Graham Ellis' post on Option247. In tidying things up at the end of the year, i decided to finish it off and merge it with another stub of a post about ticketing, but hopefully it still… Continue reading Connections & Commerces
This is a companion piece to Sold Down The River, my own experiences of providing a bus service serving Timsbury and the surrounding area from 2014-2016. A bit of background From the 28th October, First made changes to their service 179 between Writhlington, Midsomer Norton, Paulton, Timsbury and Bath. Although it isn't the main service… Continue reading The Blame Game: Timsbury Chronicles 2/2
This is a companion piece to "The Blame Game". Both concern a similar georgraphical area and the two tales are linked with many recurrent experiences. I've never felt much inclined to write about our tenure of operating service 768, but the resurfacing of considerable ire from the residents of Timsbury regarding their bus services is… Continue reading Sold Down the River: Timsbury Chronicles 1/2
I know i've moaned about Weston Community Transport before, but they're not getting any better. I thought it might be a reasonable time to illustrate the ways in which this community transport operator is failing where a professional operator would not be able to do so: Step entrance vehicle. In an age where low-floor, accessible… Continue reading This isn’t good enough
"Jeremy Corbyn takes the bus route to victory" bellows the headline of The Guardian in response to the Labour leader's somewhat unexpected raising of the issue of the decline of bus services at Prime Minister's Questions. (I say decline, you should read this as crisis if you read any of the material shared on Facebook… Continue reading Control, Control, Control
