BBC Panorama, Britain’s bus crisis.

[monkeyjoe]

I wonder if West Midlands will feature as a potential success story?

[Stevo]

I didn't see the programme, but the crisis now must be with coronavirus and people staying at home. Already the roads are less busy than usual. What are NXWM's plans to weather the crisis?

[2206]

but the crisis now must be with coronavirus and people staying at home. Already the roads are less busy than usual.

The buses I went on today were all completely full on AG 11 and YW 6, so still plenty of people using the buses and going out today.

[Stu]

Already the roads are less busy than usual. What are NXWM's plans to weather the crisis?

That is one positive that can be taken out of this, with fewer vehicles on the roads, buses seem to be running a lot more reliably, certainly the ones I use anyway, from my own observations.

The buses I went on today were all completely full on AG 11 and YW 6, so still plenty of people using the buses and going out today.

And that is the other positive aspect I have observed also; bus passengers seem to be carrying on as normal, and some loadings appear to be more 'balanced' especially where buses are not 'bunching together' due to unreliability caused by traffic congestion.

[don]

The reporter travelled from coast to coast - Yorkshire to Blackpool.

Points I picked up:-
1) Virtually non existent services in some areas
2) Patchy reliability - following individuals making journeys to work - and in some cases the required buses didn't show up (even though they deliberately went for the bus before to be sure)
3) Poor frequencies
4) Whoever runs buses in Preston got a lambasting for poor frequencies from people waiting in the bus station
5) OAPs given bus passes but no buses available to be used owing to cut backs in council subsidised/provided services.
6) In London the bus subsidy per person is £90 (albeit cross subsidised by the tube) - the rest of Uk is £30
7) Transdev provide an excellent product (Leeds to Ripon)
8 ) People using bus/tram/rail in Manchester have to buy separate tickets - the person followed on a work journey had to pay a total of nearly £12 as a result for an urban journey - almost didn't get there in time owing to a no show bus and was saved (just) by the train being late - it looked stressful.

In the last 10 yrs the grant for councils for bus services has reduced by 50-60%.

So it's portrayed as a broken, unintegrated, unreliable and expensive system. With glimmers of excellence (usually in urban areas where profit can be made). The First brand appeared quite a lot!!
I guess if the government had been a private company the shareholders would have insisted they were sacked for gross incompetence!!

[monkeyjoe]

The reporter travelled from coast to coast - Yorkshire to Blackpool.

Points I picked up:-
1) Virtually non existent services in some areas
2) Patchy reliability - following individuals making journeys to work - and in some cases the required buses didn't show up (even though they deliberately went for the bus before to be sure)
3) Poor frequencies
4) Whoever runs buses in Preston got a lambasting for poor frequencies from people waiting in the bus station
5) OAPs given bus passes but no buses available to be used owing to cut backs in council subsidised/provided services.
6) In Lomdon the bus subsidy per person is £90 (albeit cross subsided by the tube) - the rest of Uk is £30
7) Transdev provide an excellent product (Leeds to Ripon)
8) People using bus/tram/rail in Manchester have to buy separate tickets - the person followed on a work journey had to pay a total of nearly £12 as a result for an urban journey - almost didn't get there in time owing to a no show bus and was saved (just) by the train being late I- looked stressful.



In the last 10 yrs the grant for councils for bus services has reduced by 50-60%.

So it's portrayed as a broken, unintegrated, unreliable and expensive system. With glimmers of excellence (usually in urban areas where profit can be made). The First brand appeared quite a lot!!
I guess if the government had been a private company the shareholders would have insisted they were sacked for gross incompetence!!

I guess with the beeb was bound to be bias, so no real positives featured then? ,

[don]

You should watch it - V interesting. It looked pretty well unbiased to me. Just the reality outside of big urban areas. And it's pretty bad in some of them it seems. And in them buses obstructed by traffic congestion (eg Leeds).

There was an interesting juxtaposition in Preston - these waiting passengers moaning about poor frequencies, generally, whilst the reporter had a choice of three buses at once to Blackpool - presumably a lucrative corridor which companies compete on.

The CBT guy at the end said the £6 billion pledged by the Govt is welcomed but is unlikely to be enough to create the improvement required given the size of the problem.

[l.murphy123]

You could have an entire hour documentary just on the Staffordshire services (or lack of)

[2206]

That is one positive that can be taken out of this, with fewer vehicles on the roads, buses seem to be running a lot more reliably, certainly the ones I use anyway, from my own observations.

And that is the other positive aspect I have observed also; bus passengers seem to be carrying on as normal, and some loadings appear to be more 'balanced' especially where buses are not 'bunching together' due to unreliability caused by traffic congestion.

In regards to buses and the coronavirus.
I notice Stagecoach Manchester will be operating a Sunday service on all days of the week from the 23rd March.
https://tfgm.com/coronavirus/bus

Wander if similar things will eventually happen elsewhere.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Noticed just now that its change since I posted this. Now says a "special service" will be operating and not a Sunday service.

[monkeyjoe]

In regards to buses and the coronavirus.
I notice Stagecoach Manchester will be operating a Sunday service on all days of the week from the 23rd March.
https://tfgm.com/coronavirus/bus

Wander if similar things will eventually happen elsewhere.

I thought this thread was about Panorama, I know people often have issues when threads divert, just say like.

[IMarkeh]

4) Whoever runs buses in Preston got a lambasting for poor frequencies from people waiting in the bus station

In Preston, they wanted frequent buses but most buses aren't used enough. It's all free passes as you could probably tell who will never be happy. You could give them a free none stop bus from their house to their end destination and they would still find something to winge about.
One example was 'if you miss the bus, you have to sit around for an hour', Well, know the times of your bus then and get to the bus stop in time. You can't run buses just incase you can't be bothered to read your watch and get back to the bus in time.

5) OAPs given bus passes but no buses available to be used owing to cut backs in council subsidised/provided services.

An interesting point on this one is that it was said by the elderly woman in her house that she would rather pay half fare than have no service. This seems to be quite a popular stance when it comes to buses being cut. In which case, why aren't we looking at charging a vastly reduced rate to pass holders? Either per day rate (like dogs) or a per trip cost (more inconvenience trying to have smaller change). Could a small exception be put into law whereby if the bus is at risk of being withdrawn, the passengers can vote or petition to keep the service going on the basis of half fare for pass users instead of free. This can continue for upto 6 months on trial (before the council either keeps paying as there is lower cost per passenger or the route is dropped). It could help save a few routes, not loads but a few.

8 ) People using bus/tram/rail in Manchester have to buy separate tickets - the person followed on a work journey had to pay a total of nearly £12 as a result for an urban journey - almost didn't get there in time owing to a no show bus and was saved (just) by the train being late - it looked stressful.

I saw on another forum that the DFT are to blame for this as they do not want any sort of multi modal ticket valid in Manchester at peak times (which is normally defined as morning peak but then Northern added in their PM peak time). If you use buses and trams, it is £9 for an anytime System One.
It's amazing the amount of people in Manchester who do not know of the SystemOne ticket. As it's operator lead, TFGM and the mayor do not promote it and the ticket probably doesn't make enough for it to be advertised that much.

[markcf83]

It's amazing the amount of people in Manchester who do not know of the SystemOne ticket. As it's operator lead, TFGM and the mayor do not promote it and the ticket probably doesn't make enough for it to be advertised that much.
[/quote]

I know about them and I live about 150 miles from there.