Rail tickets should be valid on buses ...

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

My apologies. By 'series of bus hops' I thought you were suggesting there wasn't a direct bus service.

[swrural]

It's me that's confused BNM.  I started the posting thinking about 'legs', and then had the brainwave(??) that Yeovil to Bristol was a better example as it was a long way on one bus and not National Express, on which of course you cannot use the bus pass.  Thanks, once again. 

This make me wonder, what is the longest west country journey you can do on a OAP bus pass?

I offer Poole to Exeter (X53) Jurassic Coast.  We use the service occasionally.  Getting out of the little lanes at Beer is sometimes quite exciting with the double decker, especially when meeting the dustcart half way.

But the main point is 'what is local transport'?  The GLA is self defining, although I understand the TfL^» (Transport for London - about) wants to take over half the home counties.

[thetrout]

It's me that's confused BNM.  I started the posting thinking about 'legs', and then had the brainwave(??) that Yeovil to Bristol was a better example as it was a long way on one bus and not National Express, on which of course you cannot use the bus pass.  Thanks, once again. 

Sorry swrural, Can I just ask you to clarify if I may. Are you saying that Bus Passes are not valid on National Express? Or not valid on the journey from Yeovil - Bristol with First Bus?

Ta.

[JayMac]

This make me wonder, what is the longest west country journey you can do on a OAP bus pass?

I offer Poole to Exeter (X53) Jurassic Coast. 

You've picked the winner! Not only the longest in the West Country, but the longest, by duration, in England, coming in at 4h35mins.

http://leytr.blogspot.co.uk/2009/02/englands-longest-bus-routes.html

Second longest is, I believe, Stagecoach South's 700 Coastliner service from Southsea to Brighton at 4h14min.

I've travelled both, end to end.

[grahame]

This make me wonder, what is the longest west country journey you can do on a OAP bus pass?

Bus passes are also valid off peak on registered sections of National Express routes.

http://www.buspassheaven.co.uk/nereg.pdf

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/money-matters/consumer-advice/publictransport-and-concessions/

"Older and disabled people are entitled to a free bus and a minimum concession of free off-peak travel on a local bus anywhere in England.  Off-peak times are between 9.30 am and 11 pm on working days and all day at weekends and public holidays. "

So Newbury to Frome on the 402 is a possible journey daily.  Frome to Newbury is only covered on Saturday, Sunday and bank holiday.  And as I read it, you can't book free places ahead, so if today's coach turns up full at Newbury, your next opportunity will be tomorrow ... if there's space.

[swrural]

Grahame - yes and dare one try it seems to be the message!

These restrictions apply (thanks for the link):

' Free passes are accepted on a "standby" basis only. Priority will always be given to farepaying and pre-booked passengers i.e. if you will only be able to travel if there are spare
seats available.
It is not possible to book seats using free passes, therefore there is no guarantee that you
will be able to travel when you wish, or that there will be a place on the coach to take you
back!
Please bear in mind time restrictions when travelling in other counties. If you change
onto a coach / or return from outside your county, if you travel outside the time
restriction of other counties, your pass may not be valid for travel on Mondays - Fridays.'

 - make it almost impossible for anyone to gamble, especially an elderly person.

I suspect that it would be necessary for the ordinary routes and services to be spelt out, if such an initiative were to be introduced.  I presume that, at the moment, we are all in the SW essentially subsidising GLA residents.  I knew we were subsidising rail commuters into London anyway.   


 

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

Just a small correction to Grahame's blog senior bus pass validity. The start time of 09.30 is the latest start time. It can be earlier ifthe LA is prepared to pay thecost entirely. In Oxfordshire the pass is valid from 09.00.

[Rhydgaled]

Shouldn't First Great Western ticket holders between X and Y routinely be able to use First bus services between X and Y?

Graham you should know better!

Tickets available on both bus and Trains (plus trams and ferries) is a nasty European integrated public transport concept.

Can't have that. Bus must compete with rail and you certainly and you can't have First train passengers using their tickets on First Buses as that would be anti competitive.

Between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth, Arriva Buses Wales (X32 bus), Arriva Trains Wales and Lloyds Coaches (X28 bus) have/had interavailable ticketing. I've never tried to use it myself, but I believe a rail ticket's return portion was available on either operator's bus while a ticket bought on the bus was valid return by rail but not by the other operator's bus. Not sure if this inititive is still operational though, Arriva's X32 bus certainly isn't.

Additionally, in Wales we have Cymru Connect. However, this is only available from rail stations I believe, and when I asked my grandmother to investigate at Aberystwyth the responce was confused, so maybe the staff don't know about the tickets in order to sell them.

A number of towns in Wales without rail links have been shown on the East Coast journey planner for some time (and the new FirstGW journey planner, which uses the same system), and are now complete with their own 3-letter station codes. Of course if you try searching for services to/from these places it will fail, now making CymruConnect tickets available through that system would be a great step forward.

[grahame]

In searching for something completely different (an Edinburgh Tram thread, as that's due to open on 31st May according to http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/edinburgh-trams-to-launch-on-31-may-1-3396033 ), I came across this.

It's a small step ... but ... train tickets are now valid on the final 234 bus from Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge; a very sensible step which allows the traveller who's normal route is the train to have the re-assurance that he can still get home if the misses the 20:12 off Swindon (and with that reassurance to regularly use the train with a know safety net).  It also helps - in a little way - generate a bit of extra traffic on that 234 bus which usually has quite a few spare seats available.

When this came in a couple of months back, there was some concern as to whether the 234 bus drivers would be aware of the new facility as it's so specific and not exactly commonplace for things like this to happen.  So far, those fears have been completely groundless, but if anyone hears otherwise please let me know.  We have mechanisms in place just in case ...

[FremlinsMan]

In Thames Trains days, rail returns from Oxford to London were valid on the overnight X90 coaches. Supposedly this continued some time into the FGWL era - I presume it's no longer the case but haven't been able to find any documentation anywhere!

This ended around 2008-2009 and was very useful.

[grahame]

It's a small step ... but ... train tickets are now valid on the final 234 bus from Chippenham to Melksham and Trowbridge; a very sensible step which allows the traveller who's normal route is the train to have the re-assurance that he can still get home if the misses the 20:12 off Swindon (and with that reassurance to regularly use the train with a know safety net).  It also helps - in a little way - generate a bit of extra traffic on that 234 bus which usually has quite a few spare seats available.

When this came in a couple of months back, there was some concern as to whether the 234 bus drivers would be aware of the new facility as it's so specific and not exactly commonplace for things like this to happen.  So far, those fears have been completely groundless, but if anyone hears otherwise please let me know.  We have mechanisms in place just in case ...

Used it again tonight ... and ticket was accepted without question.  A second passenger using it was on his way from Bristol to Melksham, have travelled Melksham to Bristol all the way by train earlier in the day.   And he was extolling the virtues of the new service ... a non-driver who's found it makes such a difference to Brighton and Bristol.