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.…

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…

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…

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…

WECA’s Final Solution: A Response

As promised in Ask a Stupid Question, here is our full response to the WECA Bus Strategy Consultation. The consultation (open until Sunday 15/03/20) is still available at TravelWest. Just in case it disappears, the consultation document can also be found here: West-of-England-Bus-Strategy FYI: Consultation headings in bold, direct quotations in italics, responses in plain…

Ask a stupid question

The West of England Combined Authority is currently consulting on a Bus Strategy which is intended to form a grand solution to all of Bristol... sorry, Avon... sorry, the West of England's passenger travel issues over the next two decades. I have major concerns over this document and the accompanying questionnaire. WECA staff have already admitted…

Connections & Commerces

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…