There is a mixed picture here in Chippenham.
Most services are more or less back to normal. The two major exceptions are on routes 33 (Chippenham-Devizes) and 44 Chippenham town service.
The 33, probably for operational convenience, has seen its frequency doubled from 2-hourly to hourly. Previously there was a 2-hourly service via Sandy Lane and another 2-hourly service running between Calne and Devizes only. This latter service is now extended to and from Chippenham via Studley.
On a rather less positive note, the 44 continues to operate a Saturday service every day except Sunday when it doesn’t run anyway. This has the effect of there only being one bus after 1200 (at 1355) when the normal timetable provides for 5 (1205, 1305, 1405, 1450 and 1550. As this is the service I use most regularly Faresaver, suffice to say, were given the benefit of my observations in an email last Tuesday...
The reply I got (from a more senior individual at the company than the last time I contacted them) was well-reasoned and cited a lack of passengers on this route compared to the others that the company runs. From personal observation I have to agree with that but I do wonder whether the service currently being provided is part of that problem, especially that lack of afternoon buses.
The normal timetable has a first bus at 0935, then hourly from 1005 to 1405, then 1450 and 1550. The “emergency” timetable runs at 0845, 0925, 1025, 1145 and 1355. Having spent plenty enough years getting up at daft ‘o clock in the morning I have no intention of doing it now in retirement, so as far as I am concerned this precludes the use of the 0845 and usually the 0925. I doubt that I am alone, because not all pensioners employ themselves waking up the sparrows in the morning.
However, I am also old enough to remember the pre-Beeching service reductions on the railways, and the way that Bristol Omnibus Company reduced its lesser used services in the 1960s. In both cases there was a strong element of diminishing returns; whilst it is all very well, for example, withdrawing late evening services because too few people use them, this also has the effect of reducing demand earlier in the day as those “too few” passengers don’t travel outbound either. I therefore wonder whether the lack of afternoon services is not in itself contributing to poor passenger loadings.
Anyway I got the usual “we are monitoring the situation” thrust of a reply, with a suggestion that it might be possible for a service improvement after the schools break up as that would not require additional staffing.
We shall see. And I will be watching...
Click on the map to explore geographics
