Social Travel

[Steveminor]

@Bryan the 11 is doing OK but as has been said before we are coming off solely to try & provide a service for Brocton & Walton on the hill
We consider that a priority now over a route that is already well served.
Yeah it's a risk but we're doing it for all the right reasons.

[Tony]

With all due respect Tony how would you know if we have any customer loyalty or not. As it happens we do have some passengers who will wait for us.

You are having a laugh aren't you?
I sit there watching the 11 all day on CCTV almost every day as part of my job along with lots of other CCTV

I know both companies buses get stuck in traffic and can regularly be 30-40 minutes late. This is not a knock at the operation, just a fact of life. Nobody is going to wait for a bus that may or may not be there on time through no fault of the operator when others, which they can always catch as no-one can have a return/day ticket etc arrive at the stop.
Your buses also do not show real time, so when there are delays no-one would even know how long they had to wait.
I have never seen anybody wait for a Social bus

[Kevin]

..... An hourly service is very frequent and convient - passengers just have to make sure that they check the timetables before they travel....

Wait.... whut?
Hourly might be frequent and convenient in the countryside, but mate this is the second city we're talking about
Also, contradiction much? If it were frequent then people won't have to check a timetable first

[countryliner]

@Tony - I am sure that there are definetly some passengers who will wait for the Social Travel buses as @Steveminor has confirmed - and for example i am one of the passengers who will happily wait - whenever i have had to use the service i have always planned it and waited for the Social Travel 11C instead of the National Express 11A / 11C routes. As i mentioned in my previous posts the Social Travel service has many advantages over the National Express service - the only disadvantage is that it does not run as frequently - but other than that there are far more advantages. So Social Travel do actually have quite a few loyal customers (including myself).

@Stu @Kevin - An hourly frequency is not really that inconvient - whilst you will probably not be able to turn up at a bus stop without knowing the times - you can easily and simply look at a timetable and find out the times of the service. As i have mentioned before the Social Travel service has many advantages so this will encourage people to wait for the service.

I will always happily wait for a service provided by a locsl small independent bus operator and i realise that whilst not everyone will want to wait there are quite a few people that will be more than happy to wait.

Also as @Steveminor has said the 11C is finishing so that Social Travel can provide their new enhanced services on the 74 / 74A / S74 routes not because the 11C has been unsuccessful.

[MW]

Literally never seen someone let the NXWM buses go past, unless full to the brim or there's another NXWM 11 behind.

[Tony]

@Tony - I am sure that there are definetly some passengers who will wait for the Social Travel buses as @Steveminor has confirmed - and for example i am one of the passengers who will happily wait - whenever i have had to use the service i have always planned it and waited for the Social Travel 11C instead of the National Express 11A / 11C routes. As i mentioned in my previous posts the Social Travel service has many advantages over the National Express service - the only disadvantage is that it does not run as frequently - but other than that there are far more advantages. So Social Travel do actually have quite a few loyal customers (including myself).

@Stu @Kevin - An hourly frequency is not really that inconvient - whilst you will probably not be able to turn up at a bus stop without knowing the times - you can easily and simply look at a timetable and find out the times of the service. As i have mentioned before the Social Travel service has many advantages so this will encourage people to wait for the service.

Apart from your statement that you would wait for a Social Travel bus, the rest of your post is complete rubbish. It is clear from your comments that you don't actually know anything about the 11.

I am not saying Social or any other operator that ran on there wouldn't neccessarily do well on there, but the nature of the routes means even an operator with the best intentions in the world struggles to run to a timetable on there unless they timed their buses so slow that they could cover all eventualities. As Social haven't got real time equipment fitted no prospective passenger will know where their buses are unless they could see them and people who actually want to get somewhere, as opposed to bus nuts, would not, and do not wait for them.

The only other way to get any loyalty is to offer multi journey tickets, but when you are only running in one direction you cannot even offer returns.

I do not dispute that small operators can get brand loyalty, Claribels have it on the 94, and I have no doubt Social's sister company may have some on the 71 or 966.

As I type this the 11C is actually having a reasonable morning peak with the latest running being 16 minutes most buses only about 4 minutes late, so Social are no doubt running on time, but today is the exception

[LG]

@Bryan the 11 is doing OK but as has been said before we are coming off solely to try & provide a service for Brocton & Walton on the hill
We consider that a priority now over a route that is already well served.
Yeah it's a risk but we're doing it for all the right reasons.

Brocton and walton on the hill where passengers are few and far between

[barry619]

As i mentioned in my previous posts the Social Travel service has many advantages over the National Express service...

Please tell is what they are, because I'm not seeing any.

[countryliner]

@Tony - Yes i do see your point however what i am saying is that i am sure that there are a few other passengers other than myself that will wait for the Social Travel 11C service - there might not be very many - but i am sure that there are a few. I believe that @Steveminor confirmed this in one of his previous posts. As for the real time and tracking - there is still a very large amount of bus operators in the UK that do not yet have any real time or tracking and most passengers manage fine - so i do not think that this is much of a problem.

@MW - The 11C is a very long and busy route so whilst you might have never seen any passengers wait for the Social Travel 11C - it does not mean that there are not any people who do.

@LG - Well i think that it is good that Social Travel are trying to provide a service for Brocton and for Walton On The Hill. You never know - the service may turn out to be very successful - and if you never try then you will never know.

@barry619 - The advantages of the Social Travel 11C service are cheaper fares / gives change / better customer service / freindly drivers / etc. I am sure that many passengers will apreciate these advantages.

[Dom]

@barry619 - The advantages of the Social Travel 11C service are cheaper fares / gives change / better customer service / freindly drivers / etc. I am sure that many passengers will apreciate these advantages.

Half of those are either not true or aren't really an advantage

[countryliner]

@WN - Well personally in my opinion i see all of these things as advantages. I know that some people on this forum might not agree but this is just my own opinion.

[ntw456]

Only one bus on the 74 today

[Trident 4194]

Only one bus on the 74 today

That's a bit bad! How many should there be?

[ntw456]

That's a bit bad! How many should there be?

Two as its an hourly service

[ntw456]

Only one again today after a breakdown the driver seemed a bit embarrassed so he went and parked up by kwik fit on the walsall road