Launch event, Monday, Trowbridge
Representatives of Trowbridge Town, Wiltshire Council, and First Bus pose for publicity pictures. Buses look quite nice too !
Written for elsewhere and shared ...
"Bus Wars" rear their head again.What does the public want for their public transport? May I suggest an an answer. A reasonably frequent, reasonably fast, safe, reliable, sensibly priced, comfortable and stable network of bus services on which they can travel where they want, when they want. And a system about which informaion is easily to hand - routes, timetables, operational changes on the day, and under which travel can be planned and amended at the last minute.
All those elements should be "no-brainers" - not only for the people who use public transport, but also for the people who drive it, the people who maintain it, the people who's communties and businesses it serves, and the environment and quality of life too - even for the people for whom a bus or train journey is never appropriate, as more people on public transport means less congestion on the roads. Problem is, though, that the long term goals on who's principles we can probably all agree get overshadowed by the shorter term josting for position and passnegers on the more lucrative routes as operators compete with each other rather than the private car, and look to maximise their income rather than their passenger numbers, while on the borderline parts of the network and at marginal times of day, services are trimmed back to - and sometimes beyond - what people will actually use.
First bus - and before them Badgerline, and Bristol Omnibus - have been running Bath - Melksham (and beyond) services for over 50 years. The 271 route number which ceases this Saturday night dates back to 1967, though there has been much change - see
http://bristol-re.co.uk/bvbg/routes.asp?opt=S&IL1=3100 . According to that page, Faresaver (an independent operator) ran some services in 1995-97, in 2006/7, and then from 2010 onwards. Whether the earlier dates were in the nature of competition with the incumbent operator, or timed to knit in with the First services to make a better complete service, I do not know - but certainly the services as they have grown back from 2010, and the two different fare regimes, have lead us to a situation where better use could be made of the resources to provide an overall service of the sort I decsibed at the top of this article.
How you aportion "blame" for the bus service not being ideal is up to you, dear reader. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, with a further couple of handfuls of blame on "the system" - the system is the main culprit for sure, as these issues of what I describe as "bus wars" not being unique to Wiltshire, or to these two companies.
So - what is the prognosis for the bus route from Melksham to Bath? With 4 vehicles per hour, we have an excellent service that for most of the day actually leaves at 15 minute intervals. Returning it's not quite so good, with Faresaver leaving 10 minutes in advance of First. Faversaver's final bus back is 17:40 ... First offer later journeys at 18:05, 18:45, 20:00, 21:30 and 23:20. If people use it and make the modal shift, I believe the corridor can support 4 vehicles per hour. Without the modal shift, I fear that we might see yet another line in that history line in the listed 47 services/operators that have run over the years! As a user of the evening bus to get back to Melksham when I'm working away, please forgive my preference - should we have a shakeout - for the operator with whom I can leave Bristol with up to 22:40, arther than the one I would have to be away by 17:06 for the last bus.
My real preference ... I can point you to further details elsewhere ... would be 3 rather than 4 services an hour, on somewhat varied routes to replace some spasmodic other services with a regular bus and (pie in the sky time!) people who buy a ticket to go into Bath with one operator able to return with the other.
My worst fear ... that the company running a daytime only, never-on-a-Sunday service will come out as victor, and the bus service from Melksham to Bath will be reduced to a service for pensioners, school traffic, and a few who work very near the centre of Bath only, just like happened when the same two companies competed on Melksham to Chippenham.
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