Which bus goes where?
No map or even route list from the council. There's a link to council-owned Blackpool Transport, who provide excellent maps of their own routes, but to the exclusion of those routes that are served by anyone else, which leaves quite a few gaps. The appalling Traveline North West, which Blackpool don't link to anyway, makes it impossible to see a list of all bus routes serving Blackpool.
Shockingly bad. 0 out of 5.
Timetables
None are provided by the council. They can be found on the operators' websites, but if you don't know who runs the route you need, you have no way of finding out.
Appalling. 0 out of 5.
Fares
After their performance in the last two categories, you didn't really expect Blackpool to have any information on how much it costs to use public transport, did you? Blackpool Transport is one of the few operators to publish all of their single fares, but the council doesn't bother telling you that. They don't mention Blackpool Plusbus either. There is no ticket available that is valid on all operators' buses.
Woeful. 0 out of 5.
Summary
They really haven't bothered at all. Congratulations Blackpool, you're the first in our survey to hit rock bottom! 0 out of 15.
In my experience on the trams (the old ones, mind you, so a couple of years ago)... The service is poor and the staff have a bad attitude..... Huge gaps in service, and half empty trams would quite happily sail past long queues of passengers waiting, because there was only ONE conductor on the tram, and you need umpteen conductors to open the upper deck too! Then, when the system shut down for the great conversion, a 10 minute tram service was replaced by... Well nothing! .... A 20minute bus service which ran before anyway!! Single deckers only...? .... Well of course, so again huge caps, exasperated staff and massive overcrowding were the result.... Blackpool transport haven't a scooby doo.... And guess who it's all run/owned by..... Yep, that'll be Blackpool council.
ReplyDeleteWell for what is suppose to be a major british tourist destination, it can't get any worse than this.
ReplyDeleteBlackpool council doesn't provide any information for other operators services in its bus stop displays. It does contribute data to Traveline but its database describes "Blackpool" as "Town Centre" so, for example, a bus leaving Lancaster on service 42 to Blackpool (25 miles away) shows up on Nextbus as. destination "Town Centre, Abingdon Road" with no mention of Blackpool at all Only the usual lethargy of bus operators when it comes to helping passengers find out about their services let's them get away with this.
ReplyDeleteJim Davies
Obviously there is no one at Blackpool Council interested in public transport or if there is they are thin on the ground. What an advert for a famous holiday resort.
ReplyDeleteunfortunately it is typical of the very poor information available on public transport all over the UK, If you have to change buses and its two different t companies it gets far worse. If it is a flat fare bus with no change given you do not know nor do you know what the fare is, Are you supposed to walk around with several pounds of small change? It is the normal lake of any kind of customer service from the companies. It is little wonder people choose to go by car, It is far easierr
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