select bus

[Jamie A]

3 MX53FEH has now gone for scrap 

12 KX06LNU-Withdrawn 

[Jamie A]

Answer to both is 25. If it was any company which was half reputable or cared about it's perception to passengers, the bus wouldn't have ever gone out again until it was fixed.
Quoting what a driver was bragging about with passengers. Not my personal experience.

It's very interesting to also note that the driver didn't want to take people to Goal Square on the 875 either. I jumped off a few stops earlier because it worked out quicker but they announced it was terminating at Shrewsbury Hotel. Checking tracking, this shows as correct and then sat there for a short time before running onto a 9. from my observations and from overhearing drivers, it's clear to see that drivers are just left to do what they want and something is only done when a complaint comes in (though I doubt emails even get read)

Apologies for the delayed reply 


I have passed on your comments to the MD and the garage manager 

Your comments about the prison being served "when drivers feel like it"

The driver in question was actually spoken to about this, it was a simple error on the drivers part as he is new to the company and not familiar with the area, a very easy mistake to make which I myself have done in the past on that service 

Having checked bus 25, the 1 seat with tape on has now been replaced, the whole of the bus isn't completely threadbare 


As for drivers "not wanting to take passengers round to Gail Sq." Pitcherbank is where driver changeovers take place, passengers don't have to exit the vehicle here, the 875 isn't due at Gaol Sq. till 55 the hour before going onto a 9, if the bus has got to Stafford a few minutes earlier then it will wait it's time at Pitcher bank/Shrewsbury Arms 

[IMarkeh]

Your comments about the prison being served "when drivers feel like it"

The driver in question was actually spoken to about this, it was a simple error on the drivers part as he is new to the company and not familiar with the area, a very easy mistake to make which I myself have done in the past on that service 

Shouldn't the driver have been route learning though which would have solved that? One or two off makes I have a lot more understanding for and I agree it could be a mistake but it was happening far too often.

As for drivers "not wanting to take passengers round to Gail Sq." Pitcherbank is where driver changeovers take place, passengers don't have to exit the vehicle here, the 875 isn't due at Gaol Sq. till 55 the hour before going onto a 9, if the bus has got to Stafford a few minutes earlier then it will wait it's time at Pitcher bank/Shrewsbury Arms

The bus was only running early because the driver went through 4 timing points early. Not bad for a route which only has 5 intermediate timing points. Even so, as if the buses aren't confusing enough around the town centre with many starting and finishing in completely different places, you then choose to have the driver changeover two stops before the terminus (and given the comradery between staff, which is good to see but it has it's down falls like this, you can be sure that the driver changeover will not be quick and that it will be quicker for passengers to walk). That's not the most passenger friendly. I know that you aren't exactly blessed with the infrastructure in Stafford for layovers and proper driver changeovers but passengers should not have to suffer driver changeovers so close to the terminus. Anyway, that wasn't the issue. The issue was a driver announcing the bus not serving the last stops. It'd be interesting to see what results would come back if someone monitored departures from Shrewsbury Arms as I think that they would find a number of buses missing between there and Gaol Square.

[Jamie A]

Shouldn't the driver have been route learning though which would have solved that? One or two off makes I have a lot more understanding for and I agree it could be a mistake but it was happening far too often.
The bus was only running early because the driver went through 4 timing points early. Not bad for a route which only has 5 intermediate timing points. Even so, as if the buses aren't confusing enough around the town centre with many starting and finishing in completely different places, you then choose to have the driver changeover two stops before the terminus (and given the comradery between staff, which is good to see but it has it's down falls like this, you can be sure that the driver changeover will not be quick and that it will be quicker for passengers to walk). That's not the most passenger friendly. I know that you aren't exactly blessed with the infrastructure in Stafford for layovers and proper driver changeovers but passengers should not have to suffer driver changeovers so close to the terminus. Anyway, that wasn't the issue. The issue was a driver announcing the bus not serving the last stops. It'd be interesting to see what results would come back if someone monitored departures from Shrewsbury Arms as I think that they would find a number of buses missing between there and Gaol Square.

The driver has been route learned on this service, the driver is not local to that area so as I said previously it's an easy mistake to make and the driver was spoken to about this

You say it "was happening far too often" therefore you are implying that several drivers do this? My advice if this happens would be to contact the office by either phone or email and this can be looked into


You say the bus went through 4 timing points early, have you raised this with the company so they can find out who the driver was and speak to them?


As for a driver shouting "they've missed part of the route out"
For a driver to do this, they would have to contact the traffic office, explain how late they are and why they are so late then the staff in the traffic office will advise the driver what to do, I do know a few Fridays ago, Stafford was grid locked and we had an 875 running an hour late, it arrived at Cannock 5 minutes before the next 1 was due so in that situation it would make sense to tell the late driver to run "direct" rather than have 2 875's running to get her?  

[Jamie A]

Current fleet

1 SR13BOF
2 MX55WDJ
3 YJ08PKY
4 FJ56YBV
5 FX04TJY
6 MX53FEG
7 YN07EYD
8 BD14KXU
9 WA09FHK
10 MIG8170
11 SV60CCX
12 KX06LNU-Withdrawn
14 NK56EPO
15 YX13BNU
16 YJ54BTV
17 LX06AHA
18 YJ07JWD
19 LK04NNB
20 LK04NNH
21 KX55UDD
22 GX06DXA
23 FJ06ZTG
24 YN63BYO
25 YJ56JXX
26 FJ06ZTH
27 SV60CCO
28 KX58GTF
29 KX09CHZ
30 FJ06ZTL
31 FJ06ZTM
32 KX08HMD
33 YJ57BOH
34 YJ05WCV
35 YJ64DZL
36 SGZ3534
37 YJ08PKX
38 YX65RHJ
40 GW65GSW
41 JW65GSW

[IMarkeh]

The driver has been route learned on this service, the driver is not local to that area so as I said previously it's an easy mistake to make and the driver was spoken to about this

You say it "was happening far too often" therefore you are implying that several drivers do this? My advice if this happens would be to contact the office by either phone or email and this can be looked into


You say the bus went through 4 timing points early, have you raised this with the company so they can find out who the driver was and speak to them?


As for a driver shouting "they've missed part of the route out"
For a driver to do this, they would have to contact the traffic office, explain how late they are and why they are so late then the staff in the traffic office will advise the driver what to do, I do know a few Fridays ago, Stafford was grid locked and we had an 875 running an hour late, it arrived at Cannock 5 minutes before the next 1 was due so in that situation it would make sense to tell the late driver to run "direct" rather than have 2 875's running to get her? 

Theres no point contacting the office, nothing gets done. I know someone who is still waiting for a reply from 2021 and I am awaiting a reply from nearly 3 weeks ago so evidently it's a waste of time.

With regards to your last point, I agree that it was better to send one of the buses fast to catch up time, that is the bit I have no issue with. It was reported though by one of the drivers that this had to be sorted amongst themselves though and further bragging that on numerous occasions they have managed to not get caught up in traffic by using 'shortcuts that not everyone is comfortable using'. 

This could go on forever. The salient facts are these though. Drivers don't like following the correct route and running at the correct times. That much is clear and I would love for the traffic commissioner to turn up as I highly doubt Select would have a licence left by the time punctuality checks were done and that the focus is quite clearly not on passengers and trying to provide the best bus network and service for passengers. The networks a mess, the drivers don't want to run to the board and the buses, at times, aren't in the best condition for passengers.

[Jamie A]

Theres no point contacting the office, nothing gets done. I know someone who is still waiting for a reply from 2021 and I am awaiting a reply from nearly 3 weeks ago so evidently it's a waste of time.

With regards to your last point, I agree that it was better to send one of the buses fast to catch up time, that is the bit I have no issue with. It was reported though by one of the drivers that this had to be sorted amongst themselves though and further bragging that on numerous occasions they have managed to not get caught up in traffic by using 'shortcuts that not everyone is comfortable using'.

This could go on forever. The salient facts are these though. Drivers don't like following the correct route and running at the correct times. That much is clear and I would love for the traffic commissioner to turn up as I highly doubt Select would have a licence left by the time punctuality checks were done and that the focus is quite clearly not on passengers and trying to provide the best bus network and service for passengers. The networks a mess, the drivers don't want to run to the board and the buses, at times, aren't in the best condition for passengers.

You say there's no point in contacting the office, the person you claim is waiting for a response from 2021, what steps have they taken to find out what's happening? Have they made contact with the company? 

What have you done about waiting for a response from 3 weeks ago as you claim?


If you can provide dates and times of drivers not running the correct route and not running the correct times then please email your evidence of this to the company so it can be looked into and if the driver is found to be at fault, then action will be taken against the driver following the company's procedure

I'm interested to know why you think the network is a "mess"? 

Final point is which vehicles do you refer to are not in the best condition for passengers? We are currently in the process of renewing the fleet with newer vehicles?

In the past year we have had 11 newer vehicles join the fleet to replace ageing vehicles, a further 4 vehicles are expected in the next few weeks which will replace another 4 vehicles 

You just appear to of come on this forum to slate the company which is not what this forum is for? 

I'm also interested to know how well your bus company is doing because you're giving the impression you are some sort of expert? 

I look forward to your response, have a lovely evening 

[IMarkeh]

You say there's no point in contacting the office, the person you claim is waiting for a response from 2021, what steps have they taken to find out what's happening? Have they made contact with the company? 

What have you done about waiting for a response from 3 weeks ago as you claim?

People shouldn't need to spam the office to get replies. One contact should be enough. If you gave a stuff about your passengers, you'd get a reply. Even Arriva and their highly slated customer service team can manage to give replies to people! It's not on the passenger to spam emails to get replies, it's on the operator to read and respond to the emails.

I'm interested to know why you think the network is a "mess"? 

7 has quite a different timetable on Mon-Fri versus Sat. Plus somehow manages to run 2 trips a completely different way to the normal 7 but keeps the same route number
8A should be split so Parkside-Stafford AM and Stafford - Parkside PM are numbered route 8, this is to reduce confusion as the 8A runs completely different routes AM and PM.
9 is seemingly about 4-5 different variations all under a single route number. Timetables have so few timing points that no one can differentiate between them and there seems to be no contact with the council or whomever your Traveline agent is to sort the data properly as well.
875 very strange variation on the 19:05 which should definitely be renumbered. 8xx series of route number makes no sense, up and down the country operators are reducing route numbers to make it simpler for passengers, what was wrong with the 75? Wednesday diversion via Rodbaston College doesn't have any proper timings, how can the bus arrive into Cannock at the same time as other days when it's got a 5-10 minute diversion to make?
875A, a route number which is daft as it has little no relevance to the 875 route (different stops in Stafford Town Centre, only runs a few trips Mon-Fri, completely different outbound route, should be numbered appropriately)
877/878 significantly different timetable Mon-Fri versus Saturday. Far too many different route variations under a single route number.

The network mess situation isn't helped by either yourselves or the council uploading poor data to Traveline which is completely different to the timetables on your website, which again is completely different to the actual bus tracking (over long periods). Complete lack of consistency everywhere, how anyone uses your services outside of 9-2 I really don't know as there is so much missing or wrong information between all of the information sources. If it's not your data going to Traveline (as I know Traveline now populates itself using operators data more now than it used to), you need to get in touch urgently with the various councils and sort out the information.

In the past year we have had 11 newer vehicles join the fleet to replace ageing vehicles, a further 4 vehicles are expected in the next few weeks which will replace another 4 vehicles 

Yes there has been some investment in newer vehicles but the PVR has also increased significantly with new contracts so it's not really a fair comparison of your current fleet versus last year.

You just appear to of come on this forum to slate the company which is not what this forum is for? 

I'm also interested to know how well your bus company is doing because you're giving the impression you are some sort of expert?

This is an enthusiasts forum and like many others do with other operators, they state their experiences. I can't help that you have gotten all touchy about it and want to defend the indefensible. As for your last point, I love that question. When companies can't take criticism so they deflect. My comments come from a passengers perspective and a perspective of wanting to grow bus patronage across the country. Sadly it's got a long way to go in Staffordshire (and some surrounding areas) with the low quality of yourselves and Chaserider. It takes a lot to be worse than Arriva, and yet somehow, you prove day in, day out that it is possible.

[Straightlines]

People shouldn't need to spam the office to get replies. One contact should be enough. If you gave a stuff about your passengers, you'd get a reply. Even Arriva and their highly slated customer service team can manage to give replies to people! It's not on the passenger to spam emails to get replies, it's on the operator to read and respond to the emails.
7 has quite a different timetable on Mon-Fri versus Sat. Plus somehow manages to run 2 trips a completely different way to the normal 7 but keeps the same route number
8A should be split so Parkside-Stafford AM and Stafford - Parkside PM are numbered route 8, this is to reduce confusion as the 8A runs completely different routes AM and PM.
9 is seemingly about 4-5 different variations all under a single route number. Timetables have so few timing points that no one can differentiate between them and there seems to be no contact with the council or whomever your Traveline agent is to sort the data properly as well.
875 very strange variation on the 19:05 which should definitely be renumbered. 8xx series of route number makes no sense, up and down the country operators are reducing route numbers to make it simpler for passengers, what was wrong with the 75? Wednesday diversion via Rodbaston College doesn't have any proper timings, how can the bus arrive into Cannock at the same time as other days when it's got a 5-10 minute diversion to make?
875A, a route number which is daft as it has little no relevance to the 875 route (different stops in Stafford Town Centre, only runs a few trips Mon-Fri, completely different outbound route, should be numbered appropriately)
877/878 significantly different timetable Mon-Fri versus Saturday. Far too many different route variations under a single route number.

The network mess situation isn't helped by either yourselves or the council uploading poor data to Traveline which is completely different to the timetables on your website, which again is completely different to the actual bus tracking (over long periods). Complete lack of consistency everywhere, how anyone uses your services outside of 9-2 I really don't know as there is so much missing or wrong information between all of the information sources. If it's not your data going to Traveline (as I know Traveline now populates itself using operators data more now than it used to), you need to get in touch urgently with the various councils and sort out the information.

Yes there has been some investment in newer vehicles but the PVR has also increased significantly with new contracts so it's not really a fair comparison of your current fleet versus last year.
This is an enthusiasts forum and like many others do with other operators, they state their experiences. I can't help that you have gotten all touchy about it and want to defend the indefensible. As for your last point, I love that question. When companies can't take criticism so they deflect. My comments come from a passengers perspective and a perspective of wanting to grow bus patronage across the country. Sadly it's got a long way to go in Staffordshire (and some surrounding areas) with the low quality of yourselves and Chaserider. It takes a lot to be worse than Arriva, and yet somehow, you prove day in, day out that it is possible.

Unfortunately operators like these are a by-product of the 'race to the bottom' mentality that inhibits so many parts of this industry.

[Wumpty]

Unfortunately operators like these are a by-product of the 'race to the bottom' mentality that inhibits so many parts of this industry.

Not quite sure what you mean by that @Straightlines ?

[IMarkeh]

Unfortunately operators like these are a by-product of the 'race to the bottom' mentality that inhibits so many parts of this industry.

Very true. It was always the case that birmingham had all of the poor bus operators, now that has moved slightly further north into Staffordshire. Suppose it's easy to get away with being a poor operator in Staffordshire because the council don't care whereas in the West Mids, theres more partnerships and stuff going on so it's getting increasingly harder to be a cowboy operator.

[Jamie A]

Optare Metrocity YJ15AAU is now here  

[solonightrider]

Optare Metrocity YJ15AAU is now here 

why is there no select logo on it ...... lol asking for a friend on facebook group lol ....  looks smart btw :-)

[Jamie A]

12 KX06LNU - Scrap

[ntw456]

I did think there was something wrong with the machines the other day when I boarded the 875 in Cannock I scanned my Chaserider Staff Pass on the machine and I think it came up on the machine with BARCODE DENIED I just showed my pass to the driver I knew it wasn't my pass because it worked perfectly fine on a 74 in Stafford

there's nothing wrong, they just aren't set up to accept Chaserider staff passes