Council check: Bournemouth Borough Council

Each Sunday, we take a look at how one of our local councils provides information on the buses operating on their patch. Today, we look at Bournemouth Borough Council.

Where do the buses go?

Bournemouth Council mentions a bus map, but you have to e-mail them and then they will post one out to you. It isn't available online. There's a link to Getting About, the transport site that is shared with Poole next door, but that also doesn't have the map available to view online.

Both sites give a list of bus services that are subsidised by the council and Bournemouth links to the timetables on the operators' websites, while Getting About merely lists them. Commercial routes aren't listed but both sites list the operators that run commercial bus routes and link to their websites. They both also link to Traveline South West, where you can view a list of all bus routes in Bournemouth and see individual route maps and timetables.

So the information from the council is patchy, but Traveline South West saves Bournemouth from a big fat zero in this category. 1 out of 5.

Timetables

Only provided by Bournemouth Council for subsidised routes. For anything else, you need to go to the operators' websites or Traveline South West, which is linked to.

It isn't immediately obvious from either of the council's websites that Traveline is the place to go for comprehensive timetable information. 2 out of 5.

Fares

No information on single fares. The council also ignores the operators' own tickets. Bournemouth Council mentions the any-operator Getting About ticket which is valid throughout the boroughs of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch, but confusingly the Getting About site does not mention the ticket of the same name.

A Plusbus ticket is available, but neither the council nor Getting About mention it.

The information available here is incomplete and confusing. 2 out of 5.

Summary

So there's a map, but you can't see it online. Traveline is relied upon heavily (but not linked to clearly enough) for a comprehensive local route list and timetables. Fares information is either non-existent or patchy and confusing. Bournemouth Borough Council scores a total of 5 out of 15.