New identity and liveries for First buses in Somerset.

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

I've had it confirmed by First that the First Day South West (^7 in Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset; ^7.40 in Devon; ^7.60 in Yeovil*) purchased in other areas served by First Buses in the west and south west continues to be valid on routes served by Bridgwater and Taunton depots.

However it cannot be purchased on 'the buses of Somerset' and their ^10 day ticket is not valid on services operated by First elsewhere in the west or south west.

So now, the good folk of Somerset have a day ticket that is up to 43% more expensive and has a greatly reduced area of validity. The cynic in me suspects that First are recouping revenue in an area with a less vocal bus usership to offset the fares reductions and price holds in Bristol.

Well done First. 


*Yeovil remains in Somerset but wasn't included in 'the Buses of Somerset'. Huh?

[Lee]

I've had it confirmed by First that the First Day South West (^7 in Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset; ^7.40 in Devon; ^7.60 in Yeovil*) purchased in other areas served by First Buses in the west and south west continues to be valid on routes served by Bridgwater and Taunton depots.

However it cannot be purchased on 'the buses of Somerset' and their ^10 day ticket is not valid on services operated by First elsewhere in the west or south west.

This is my fear regarding the current First West of England area bus fare consultation - that it might be used to isolate services & fares in Bath & North East Somerset,North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and surrounding area in the same manner. Currently, because my work requires me to travel right across the region, I use either the ^25 weekly South West ticket or the ^96 monthly South West ticket, which to be fair to First is very good value. However, if they do a 'the buses of Somerset' on us, then we could see something similar to their ^25 weekly ticket and ^100 monthly ticket valid over a far smaller operating area, which would screw me over big time.

The cynic in me suspects that First are recouping revenue in an area with a less vocal bus usership to offset the fares reductions and price holds in Bristol.

Well done First. 

Another example of this was experienced by my wife recently. She has a Bath area season ticket, which used to extend at the weekends to be valid over the entire South West area. This benefit was quietly removed by First as part of the Bristol fare changes, which means that the joint days out we used to enjoy are no longer as affordable as they were.

The point about Somerset having a less vocal bus usership is very well made too. In order to further illustrate this, I will return to the Burnham example:

This time last year, Burnham had evening bus services to Bridgwater and Taunton, Sunday services to Weston-Super-Mare, and direct bus services to Highbridge railway station. All of the above have since been withdrawn as a result of commercial decisions by First.

However, if you swallow the following examples of how some of this was spun, its almost as if First were doing us a favour:

Service 112 (Weston-super-Mare - Bridgwater): This service is being extended from September to provide a new, direct link between Weston-super-Mare and Bridgwater. At present Service 112 buses only run as far as Highbridge but from 1 September they will travel beyond this point on an hourly basis Monday - Saturday daytimes. In doing so they'll follow the same route as Service 21 en route to Bridgwater. The change means that people wishing to travel between Highbridge and Bridgwater will have more opportunities to do so, with four buses an hour running Monday - Friday daytime, and three buses an hour on Saturday daytimes.

Service 21 (Taunton to Burnham-on-Sea): On Mondays to Saturdays, almost all journeys to and from Taunton Bus Station will now be extended to serve Musgrove Park Hospital. At the other end of the route, also from Mondays to Saturdays, Service 21 will be extended once an hour to serve Berrow, Brean and Weston-super-Mare. This replaces service 112 which is being withdrawn.

[Lee]

I actually travelled on "the buses of Somerset" last Saturday, taking a return trip on the 21 from Weston-Super-Mare to Burnham. I didn't get to travel on a bus sporting the "stylish new look", but the drivers were friendly, accepted my South West ticket without question, and the buses were punctual in both directions.

The experience was only slightly marred by an elderly gentleman relieving himself on the back seat, sending a stream of urine down the nearly full bus. To be fair, this is not something "the buses of Somerset" could have readily anticipated, and it would be most unfair for anyone to use the incident as a metaphor for bus services going down the toilet in the area.

The change in name and livery and complete removal of the word "First" makes me wonder if they are preparing to sell off this bus company. Would it be more attractive to a potential buyer if they didn't have to repaint and remove all references to the previous owner? If so you could probably rule out Stagecoach and Arriva because they'd probably want the buses in their own corporate identity so perhaps a smaller operator might be interested.
First sold their London operations a few months back. Operating TfL^» (Transport for London - about) routes the new owner Metroline had to keep the existing red colour scheme so the only changes to those buses was the Metroline logo replacing First.
I understand that First have sold other bus fleets in recent years possibly to reduce their debt.

The same thought has occurred to me, most recently when flicking through their "bite-sized bus guide" booklet (a play on the buses of Somerset logo being apple-based).

You missed out one of the bus company big boys in your post though, Surrey 455, and if you compare "the buses of Somerset" website with websites of certain subsidiaries of said bus company big boy, then you would be forgiven for thinking that First had sold the operation to them:

the buses of Somerset

Southern Vectis

Salisbury Reds

Or indeed the email addresses:

talk2us@busesofsomerset.co.uk

talk2us@southernvectis.com

talk2us@salisburyreds.co.uk

However, one suspects that this has rather less to do with an impending sale, and rather more to do with the trademark branding of Best Impressions...

...whose email address is talk2us@best-impressions.co.uk

[JayMac]

Oh dear. Not the sort of advertising this 'new' operation would want:

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Somerset double-decker bus crashes into ditch

Nobody was seriously hurt in the crash in Somerset, police said

Sixteen passengers on a double-decker bus have escaped serious injury after the vehicle toppled on to its side in a drainage ditch.

The number 21 Taunton service crashed shortly before 13:00 GMT on Coast Road, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset.

First Somerset said the ditch collapsed under the weight of the bus.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said two people suffered minor injuries and one was taken for treatment at Weston General Hospital.

The other was taken to the minor injuries unit in Burnham.

The spokesman said it was too early to say what happened but that an investigation would take place.

The driver of the First Somerset bus was unhurt, the firm said. A spokesman said they were co-operating with police.

[Lee]

Oh dear indeed - What are the odds of one of the few buses painted in the new "Best Impressions" livery being involved in creating this particular photo-opportunity?

Also very telling that we appear to have a "First Somerset" spokesman being trotted out to explain what befell this "First Somerset" bus...

[trainer]

This road can be hazardous for buses and passengers.  I saw a lady alight along this road one lovely summers day and fall into the ditch backwards as she lost her footing. The bus had pulled in just a bit too close. Fortunately, the dry reeds broke her fall nicely and apart from embarrassment and a struggle to get out no harm seemed to have been done.  I'm sure that today, with the current conditions, the driver had the narrowest of margins to judge the safe edge of the carriageway.

[Lee]

Some good news at last - From 13 April, daytime Sunday buses are reinstated on route 21 from Burnham through to Weston-Super-Mare, running hourly.

Also, on Mondays to Saturdays daytimes, buses will now run every 30 minutes from Taunton right the way through to Weston-Super-Mare, although this is at the cost of losing the current Monday-Friday daytime every 20 minute frequency between Taunton-Burnham. The eagle-eyed among you will note that this means there has been a 50% drop in the Monday-Friday daytime frequency between Burnham-Bridgwater compared to September 2013.

The new service 21 timetable can be found here.

From the same date, route 1 serving the Bridgwater Estates will also serve Bridgwater Community Hospital - new timetable here.

Interestingly, this means that the much-vaunted (and currently still much-distributed) "bite-sized bus guide" booklet introduced on 26 January 2014 will be out of date less than 3 months later...

[grahame]

A follow up ... I found myself using the 21 yesterday from Weston-super-mare to Brean

I'm confused (as a non-native to the area) by the series of changes of late - and more to come next weekend - and it's not helped by the fact that local information at Weston station seems to reflect not only the current service, but also two other very different recent offerings.   Also rather shocked at the local fares ... and the valid fare reduction techniques I came to appreciate after.

http://www.wellho.net/mouth/4257_Over-a-pound-a-kilometre-my-bus-in-Weston-super-mare.html

Editing to add another link to our trip yesterday - I think this should be public readable - if not, let me know!
https://www.facebook.com/graham.ellis.5055/posts/10152364482577094

[JayMac]

I've been regularly using Buses of Somerset services this past week. In particular service 54 between Curry Rivel and Taunton.

Being used to services in Bristol I've been a little frustrated by a lack of 'live running' information, either at bus stops (many don't even have a bus stop sign, let alone a timetable) or via a website/app. Also disappointed that there is no service beyond 1830 from Taunton on the 54.

That's the negatives. A couple of positives now. An hourly Sunday service has been reinstated on the 54. The return fare between Taunton and Curry Rivel has reduced (no doubt as a result of competition from WebberBus), and those return tickets are now valid for 5 days. A period return bus ticket is quite a novel thing.

Finally, WebberBus. I've not bothered with them. Unreliable buses, terrible timekeeping, staff shortages leading to cancellations, byzantine fares structure. I do hope they can weather their current problems though. Competition is a good thing generally. If they pull out of providing scheduled commercial bus services in direct competition with First Buses of Somerset, I fear BoS will increase fares and reduce services.