Sunday 3 August 2014

Council check: Nottinghamshire County Council

Each Sunday we take a look at how one of our local transport authorities publicises the bus services on its patch. Today, Nottinghamshire County Council.



Where do the buses go?

There is a county-wide map, which can also be downloaded as a pdf. There are also some town enlargements, but they can only be chosen from the drop-down menu and then viewed and scrolled one square at a time. Local maps are available in pdf format as part of the Area Guides. 5 out of 5.

Timetables

We are referred over to Traveline East Midlands, where you can search for timetables by route number or location. While Traveline is good in the Midlands, it's no substitute for direct links to the timetables. 2 out of 5.

Fares

You could be forgiven for thinking it costs nothing to use the buses in Nottinghamshire, as there is no information on fares and tickets provided whatsoever. All we get is a list of bus operators. Presumably no multi-operator ticket exists. Plusbus, available in Newark, Mansfield, Worksop and Retford, is ignored completely. Poor show: 0 out of 5.

Summary

Good, comprehensive maps are let down by referring potential passengers to third parties for timetables and the total omission of any ticketing information. It was a good start, but Nottinghamshire County Council only manages to score a total of 7 out of 15.

1 comment:

  1. A point to consider is that Nottingham City are a separate transport authority. When I last visited their own printed publicity was excellent and easily available at several main locations.

    Items produced by the County Council could be obtained from the two bus stations but tended to be in racks BEHIND the counter and not readily given out unless you knew which route you wanted a timetable for etc.

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