Social Travel

[ntw456]

Well what you want us to do continue sitting in ridiculous traffic & receiving bol&&$ing from the tc for running late whilst another operator  continues to run unregistered services unchallenged it's an absolute joke

The traffic is only on for another two weeks @Steveminor

[Steveminor]

Latest information from staffs council indicates there will be various roadworks until September of varying degrees. The latest roadworks were not schedule till 22nd January and based on previous roadworks these have caused a much worse delay.
I'm not prepared to comment any further as I do not have to explain any commercial decisions to people that just want to scoff at any action a company makes. If you don't use the service you really have no place to comment.

[countryliner]

That is a shame that Social Travel are coming off the 74 / 74A / S74 but it is great to hear that they are coming back on to the 11C service. I think that @Steveminor and everyone at Social Travel has done a good job trying out their new services but if it does not work out then it would not make sense to continue operating the service. It will be interesting to see if the timetable for the 11C is the same as before (2 vehicles) or if they will increase the frequency and use 4 vehicles. Also i dont think that everyone should be criticising Social Travel (especially as @Steveminor has said many people who are criticising it have probably never used the service) as they have done a good job trying out the service and you are never going to know if a service will work out and be successful unless you try it.

[MW]

That is a shame that Social Travel are coming off the 74 / 74A / S74 but it is great to hear that they are coming back on to the 11C service. I think that @Steveminor and everyone at Social Travel has done a good job trying out their new services but if it does not work out then it would not make sense to continue operating the service. It will be interesting to see if the timetable for the 11C is the same as before (2 vehicles) or if they will increase the frequency and use 4 vehicles. Also i dont think that everyone should be criticising Social Travel (especially as @Steveminor has said many people who are criticising it have probably never used the service) as they have done a good job trying out the service and you are never going to know if a service will work out and be successful unless you try it.

And they give change

[646]

That is a shame that Social Travel are coming off the 74 / 74A / S74 but it is great to hear that they are coming back on to the 11C service. I think that @Steveminor and everyone at Social Travel has done a good job trying out their new services but if it does not work out then it would not make sense to continue operating the service. It will be interesting to see if the timetable for the 11C is the same as before (2 vehicles) or if they will increase the frequency and use 4 vehicles. Also i dont think that everyone should be criticising Social Travel (especially as @Steveminor has said many people who are criticising it have probably never used the service) as they have done a good job trying out the service and you are never going to know if a service will work out and be successful unless you try it.

For five days?

[Steveminor]

It will be running for another 2 months & there are options to keep it running should it prove itself. But I have to look after the business & drivers in my care.

[Solo1]

Keep the 74/a on cannock arriva should be able to keep changing the timetable due social changing g there's

[Bob]

To take on arriva and win I'd imagine you'd have to be a bigger operator. To be fair what will most likely happen now is the 74 will be cut back by arriva and "we've listened" fb posts up when the 75 goes back to the hospital. .....

[barry619]

Well what you want us to do continue sitting in ridiculous traffic & receiving bol&&$ing from the tc for running late whilst another operator  continues to run unregistered services unchallenged it's an absolute joke

So you are telling us that in the five minutes you have been running to Stafford, the TC's office has received a sufficient number of complaints to dispatch the bus service monitoring people, that they have reported their findings and the TC has acted upon them?

I think not. The only 'joke' is that ill-hidden and brazen attempts at poaching passengers are allowed to continue. Blaming everyone bar yourselves and making some pretty heavy accusations against Arriva hardly does you any favours too.

That said, maybe the bus service monitors turned out on the several occasions reported on here that you were only running half your services?

[2206]

Will they use 2 buses or, 4 on the 11C this time?

[fleetline6477]

I cannot believe that an operator considers delays caused by roadworks as a valid reason for cancelling a service. If all operators did this many bus routes would have been cancelled. I can understand a new timetable with extended running times or additional layover times or a revised routes. Let's hope Arriva don't follow! Steve, on behalf of Social Travel, has made much of restoring links by revising their 74 service and putting passenger needs first which they are entitled to do and is a move they should be proud of. What a huge disappointment and let down to those passengers who finally thought an operator was taking their needs seriously. Then, within a matter of days, all that goes out of the window when at the first sign of factors causing operational challenges they cancel the service. You make decisions like this and then wonder why people criticise the company and have difficulty taking them seriously.

So, back to the 11C, to a route they cancelled because it obviously wasn't working. Let's hope there's no major long-term roadworks on this route. How long will this latest back track last? Surely any customer loyalty you built up on the 11C has gone, back to square one.

If every time a challenge, beyond your controls, causes operational difficulty and challenges on a route you give up cease trading now, it goes with the territory!

[646]

Will they use 2 buses or, 4 on the 11C this time?

Perhaps if the whole fleet is used, buses could operate in both directions and actually provide a half-credible service that might be useful to somebody rather than a clear cherry-picking effort which wasn't important and now miraculously is again?

[Bryan]

That is a shame that Social Travel are coming off the 74 / 74A / S74 but it is great to hear that they are coming back on to the 11C service. I think that @Steveminor and everyone at Social Travel has done a good job trying out their new services but if it does not work out then it would not make sense to continue operating the service. It will be interesting to see if the timetable for the 11C is the same as before (2 vehicles) or if they will increase the frequency and use 4 vehicles. Also i dont think that everyone should be criticising Social Travel (especially as @Steveminor has said many people who are criticising it have probably never used the service) as they have done a good job trying out the service and you are never going to know if a service will work out and be successful unless you try it.

@countryliner A couple of points to mention:

Hardly anyone had chance to try the services before notice was given to withdraw them! On what basis can you say the company did a good job in such a small period? (Did you try them?)

As for the 11C, how can any company be considered to be providing a good service working a route for a few months, then give it up, and then aim to start again a few months later. (And that is a route that Social Travel is going on yet again in one direction only, with no return journey available from the operator)

Please stop flooding the forum with comments about operators/routes you know little or nothing about.



 

[j789]

That is a shame that Social Travel are coming off the 74 / 74A / S74 but it is great to hear that they are coming back on to the 11C service. I think that @Steveminor and everyone at Social Travel has done a good job trying out their new services but if it does not work out then it would not make sense to continue operating the service. It will be interesting to see if the timetable for the 11C is the same as before (2 vehicles) or if they will increase the frequency and use 4 vehicles. Also i dont think that everyone should be criticising Social Travel (especially as @Steveminor has said many people who are criticising it have probably never used the service) as they have done a good job trying out the service and you are never going to know if a service will work out and be successful unless you try it.

I don't get involved in the tit for tat stuff that goes on here but this is just crazy!!! Countryliner you have spent the last few weeks telling everyone how much this Cannock route was going to benefit passengers. Now you say it is ok to stop it after such a short time???? Do you actually work in the industry countryliner because I am very surprised with your comments if you do? Do you have any understanding of what a passenger actually expects of a bus service?  How has this benefitted passengers in any way? Like wise even 4 buses on the 11C is still NOT a benefit for passengers, no one will wait for a bus that is every half an hour when an NXWM will be there in 10 mins.

[Kevin]

As a (now suddenly relevant again) aside....
Has anyone tried competing on the 11 with am end to end "11E" service? Say Erdington to Acocks Green or something?