BSIP Press: A Response

North Somerset Council have today released this press release regarding their Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) to create an Enhanced Partnership (EP) scheme they are enacting with the West of England Combined Authority. In response:Citistar have been forced to stop running bus services because our services were excluded from the scheme. This exclusion would give…

99 and out: The end of buses between Blagdon and Weston-super-Mare

Tuesday 12th April 2022 will see the end of bus services between Blagdon and Weston-super-Mare, which first began on 1st June 1923. Almost 99 years of continuous service in one form or another will conclude as Citistar service 134 is withdrawn primarily as a result of changes to concessionary fare reimbursements and the Enhanced Partnership…

The long and the short of it

We'll start with the short. Following an announcement on board my bus services this week, this accompanying notice explains my position. There are a lot of factors involved over and above those on the notice, so i'll go in to a little more detail here. The income squeezePrior to Covid coming along and making everything…

Time to stop the rot

This week, independent Hereford operator Yeomans have announced their intention to withdraw from a large part of the Hereford city service network they took over after First similarly retrenched around six years ago. Amidst all the chatter about Bus Service Improvement Plans (BSIPs), Bus Back Better (BBB) and Enhanced Partnerships (EPs), perhaps this is the…

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…

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…

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…

X5 Countdown

Saturday 13th June 2020 will see Stagecoach West depart from North Somerset for the final time of the current era as their stint operating the X5 service between Weston-super-Mare, Clevedon, Portishead and Cribbs Causeway will come to an end. The previously hourly service has been on a two-hourly schedule since the beginning of the Covid-19…

The Balancing Act

Apologies for this eventually being published after the event. A problem with some bus services is the act of balancing out the bits that work commercially with the less renumerative social and political demands. Sometimes a balance can be struck, sometimes it doesn't work. As an example, i'll point to our Friday shopper's bus diagram.…

Corona Chronicle

We live in peculiar times. Many people have been documenting the social aspects of this period, so i'll attempt to look at this from predominantly a business point of view. Closing Times The school which is the focus of our activities at the start and end of each day closed as part of the national…