4. Widespread on-board facilities such as audio visual information, phone charging and Wi-Fi
I think this point in the manifesto would financially cripple many council supported services. I've seen all of these on buses before, but not all three at the same time.
I didn't see it in the manifesto, but being able to know in advance how much your bus fare will be would be good. Some operators are better than others online. National Rail,
GWR▸ and other
TOCs▸ can tell you your train fare and offer to sell it to you, why not Traveline, Google etc with your bus fare?
I've been on a bus that has Wi-Fi, a next-stop information screen (with audio announcements) and 3-pin power sockets. I don't think the power sockets have worked for years though and if I recall correctly there are only 4 of them on the 40-seat bus. The legroom however (apart from a handful of seats, which I always aim for) is completely inadequate for the 1-2hr trips it tends to work, let alone the even longer run between Aberystwyth and Cardiff it was built for (it didn't have Wi-Fi in those days).
I think the next-stop system is non-functional almost is often as it is running, not helped by the fact the service is split-registered with the destination shown on the outside of the bus sometimes actually being the halfway point rather than the bus' true destination. When the halfway point is reached I think the driver changes the external display to show the final destination, which seems to reset the internal system (sometimes it comes on at this point having been silent and vice-versa). The system is however rather pointless since the bus is hail-and-ride and the driver will stop anywhere it is safe to stop (at least when not in a built-up-area), something I use to my advantage. Also, a few weeks ago one passenger, obviously unfamilar with the area and/or the system, heard their stop announced and got up to alight; the driver correctly pointed out that the stop was miles away yet, advising the passenger to return to their seat. In other words, these audio-visual systems are much-less suited to rural bus services than rail services which have a finite number of stops.
5. Better timetable coordination with schools, colleges and employment
The other day I saw that the National Assembly for Wales has received
a petition with 1,239 signatures calling for the Welsh Government to put an end to school traffic on public bus services. Apart from the fact school and college traffic tends to swamp buses, leaving them overcrowded, I have previously considered that perhaps the opposite action should be taken; making school buses available to all as normal public bus services. It could open up areas that currently have no public transport and in other cases could reduce the total subsidy requirements by running fewer buses (less need for duplication with public buses and dedicated learner transport running on similar routes). The petitioners are citing 'stranger danger' but, on your first day at a new school, wouldn't most of the other pupils at school also be strangers. Ok, children are generally less capable of doing harm to others than adults, but with
CCTV▸ on buses these days is the danger that much greater anyway?
On timetable coordination, it would be good if the schools could coordinate with the buses in some cases; one bus my brother might be using today has to hang around for fourty minutes, making the journey take much longer and disrupting what is normally a clockface timetable. This is especially true with long routes that coordinate with one school/college but have others on their route.
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