Council check: Southampton City Council

Let's take a look at how Southampton City Council promotes the buses in its area.

Where do the buses go?

A full public transport map is provided, which includes all routes of all operators. It also has an enlargement of the city centre and all of the main district centres in the city. The only downside is that it is only updated once or twice a year and Southampton's bus routes change more often than that, so the map is rarely fully up-to-date. All of the major local operators also produce good maps, but they don't give you the overview that that the council does. 5 out of 5 in this category.

Timetables

The council doesn't provide timetables themselves, but they do have links to most of the operators in the city, who of course do provide timetables on their websites. The only notable absences are Stagecoach, whose 46 runs from the General Hospital to Winchester, and Wheelers, who have recently launched three routes in the city. There is a link to Traveline South West, where you can find all of the city's bus timetables in one place. 2 out of 5 for Southampton.

Fares

As is often the case, there is no information on single fares at all. There are links to most of the operators' sites (see above) where you can find out about their own tickets. A ticket does exist that can be used on any bus - the Solent Travelcard - but shamefully Southampton City Council doesn't tell you about it. They also ignore the Southampton Plusbus ticket. So while the city has a good range of bus tickets to choose from, the council provides no help in deciding which is the best to buy. 0 out of 5.

Summary

So we have a good map, while timetables can be found on Traveline or the operators' websites, but no fares info at all (although you can find it elsewhere but you have to already know where to look). Southampton City Council scores a total of 7 out of 15.

Full information on all of Southampton's buses can be found on our sister blog, Southampton Bus Update.

Archway extricates / Airport express at risk / Reekie rovers

Lancashire villagers can breathe a sigh of relief as the 80 between Preston and Fleetwood will be revived from Monday. The Blackpool Gazette reports that Archway Travel are stepping in to run the service, which last ran on 20th December after Classic Bus North West collapsed. The timetable has not yet been published, but the service will be run commercially for initially three months. The service will finish at 2030 on weekdays, 1700 on Saturdays and there will be no Sunday service.

Cardiff's city to airport express bus is being reviewed, just months after it was launched. Wales Online reports that passenger numbers are far lower than expected, while the service is being subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of £470,000 a year. Wales's transport minister, Edwina Hart, has commissioned a report to gauge whether the T9 service is performing as well as it should.

Two friends from Edinburgh are doing the city's equivalent of the Tube Challenge today to raise money for charity. The Edinburgh Evening News describes how they plan to use all but three of Edinburgh's bus routes in one day. You can follow their progress live on Twitter.

Announcements / Smith smash / Classic in court?

Go Ahead's Bluestar has announced that all of its buses will now feature audio next stop announcements as standard. The Daily Echo reports how it will help the visually impaired and anyone not familiar with the area they are travelling through. Buses in London and on the continent have had this as standard for years, so it is great to see one of our major operators taking it seriously and rolling it out across all routes. One of the fears car addicts have of using buses is that they won't know where to get off - they will now!

In the recent disruption at understaffed National Express Dundee, drivers declined to do overtime and managers had to take to the wheels in order to keep services running. While this was all going on, managing director Phil Smith crashed a bus into the back of a car. Full details in the Evening Telegraph.

Classic Bus North West, which collapsed last month leaving villages between Preston and Fleetwood cut off from public transport, could face legal action from Lancashire County Council. The Garstang Courier reports that the council will also make a complaint to the traffic commissioner.

Northampton newbies / Lessening in Lancs

New buses are coming to Northampton courtesy of Stagecoach. After years of decline and aging buses with First, which has now withdrawn from the town completely, Stagecoach are showing their commitment to the region. More in the Northampton Herald & Post.

The Lancashire villages isolated by the collapse of Classic Bus North West have a temporary solution, thanks to three parish councils. The Blackpool Gazette says they've funded a partial replacement for two weeks, after which it will be up to the County Council to step in. The County meanwhile is looking to cut evening and Sunday services across Lancashire and a local transport expert has detailed the damage that they will cause in an interview with virtual-lancaster. My own view is that running buses only at times that are convenient for pensioners will mean no-one but pensioners uses them. When that generation are no longer with us people won't be in the habit of using buses and our industry will be crippled. Evening and Sunday services are essential to make a bus service viable, especially where it provides a key link between towns.

Council check: Bedford Borough Council

Let's see how Bedford Borough Council performs in telling people about bus services on its patch.

Where do the buses go?

Comprehensive schematic maps are provided of all routes in Bedford Borough and Bedford Town, as well as a detailed map of Bedford Town Centre.

Bedford have gone out of their way to make life easier for passengers and bus companies by making it easier for all to see which bus goes where. They get 5 out of 5 in this category.

Timetables

Timetables for all routes in the borough can be found here. They could have made you go trawling through the operators' sites or Traveline, but again have done the hard work for you. 5 out of 5.

Fares

This is Bedford's stumbling block. No information on single fares. Nothing about day tickets. No multi-operator ticket. You need to check with the individual operators for any info on tickets, such as Stagecoach  who provide information and Grant Palmer who do not. Plusbus gets a passing mention. The cheapest adult rail ticket with which you can buy a Bedford Plusbus is an Anytime single between Bedford and Kempston Hardwick at £2.50, meaning a spend of £5.40 gets you a ticket to use on any bus in the Bedford Plusbus zone.

This category really lets Bedford down. Just 1 point out of a possible 5.

Summary

Good, comprehensive bus network maps and timetables all in one place. Let down by the lack of a multi-operator ticket or any information on the tickets that are available.

Bedford scores a total of 11 out of 15.

Fares aren't all going up, but what are they?

'Tis the season for bus fares to go up. In much of the country they are, but not on First in Llanelli, as that town's Star reports. What a shame then, that the Star gives prices for day tickets without making it clear that they are day tickets! Many readers who are bus novices will read that and think that's the flat single fare and be put off.

Which brings me to one of my pet topics: single fares and finding out what they are. So many bus companies don't want their potential customers to know how much it costs to use their services. Really. How on Earth are they still in business?

Demographics are in the bus's favour. Fewer young people are learning to drive and that bodes well for bus passenger numbers in the long term. But only if we can get them on board in the first place. When people consider using the bus they have three key questions:

• Where does the bus go?
• When does it run?
• How much will it cost to use?

If they can't get an answer to any one of those three questions, the bus company will have lost business. It really is as simple as that. The first two are usually easy enough to find out if you know where to look, but the third is a major problem.

Not enough bus companies have a section like this on their site. This is from Trent Barton.

There are a few honourable exceptions in the bus industry. Companies that are happy for people to know how much they will need to pay include Trent Barton, Brighton & Hove, Stagecoach Manchester, Blackpool Transport and Velvet. If you know of any more, please leave a comment and give them a well-deserved free plug.

Warnings of woeful withdrawals

More cuts are to come all round the country.

In the West, the Bath Chronicle reports of more communities to be cut off in Wiltshire, Dorset and Gloucestershire. The Chron then ruins its doom-ridden story by mentioning the closure of Salisbury bus station as though that were somehow down to the council cuts. It isn't. The bus station is owned by Go Ahead and they are selling it. Buses will run from on-street stops, just as they do a ride on the X7 away in Southampton and you know what? Sotonians cope, so I'm sure that residents and vistors to Salisbury will survive too.

Talking of Southampton, there's a bit of fuss about a route that is being cut there this weekend. First route 10 is the only link between Southampton General Hospital and Totton, just outside the city and near to the edge of the New Forest. That route has been served since at least 1988 but runs for the last time tomorrow, Friday 3rd January 2014. The Southern Daily Echo reports on residents' worries and a very slim chance that Totton Town Council could help fund a replacement. Southampton City Council are understandably reluctant to fund a service that benefits residents outside the city. No-one's cut off by the cutting of the 10 though. You can still get between Totton and the General by bus. You just need to change buses at Southampton Central Station. You do now need to use two bus companies, so it will cost you more if you are of fare-paying age. Many people are averse to changing buses though, so it does mean that employees at the General are now less likely to move to Totton (possibly affecting house prices) and people in Totton are less likely to visit the shops in Shirley. The economic effects will affect more than just those that used the 10 themselves.

More doom from Lancashire, where people waiting for a replacement bus service following the collapse of Classic Bus North West have been told it might not happen. The Blackpool Gazette quotes John Fillis, head of Highways and Transport at Lancashire County Council, as saying that there is no money to support what he refers to as "failed bus services". Presumably he thinks that the communities now isolated have "failed" too and need to be punished for the fact that Classic Bus North West is no longer in business. Maybe Lancashire isn't "Where Everyone Matters", as the sign at Chorley Interchange exclaims, after all.