Now if I was being lazy I'd use Suffolk Links both ways, which I'd have to do on a Wednesday or Saturday anyway, but since today was Tuesday I could patronise our local four times a week service bus to Saxmundham and continue to Wickham from there. Just one problem - since the latest round of First cuts it is now impossible to get from Saxmundham to Wickham Market (20 min journey) and back in the two and a half hour window available. So this is how my journey took shape.
I started off on the 196 to Saxmundham. Operated by Stowmarket Minibus & Coach Hire this has to be just about the smallest service bus going, a 14 seater Transit minibus - slide your own door open. However I have always enjoyed using it. We used to have a really good Romanian driver who you could time your watch by, would get out and help the old ladies with their shopping trolleys and stop wherever you wanted. However he has left to go trucking and been replaced by a Cypriot driver who is a character and a half, you can time your watch by him, he gets out to help old ladies with their trolleys and will stop anywhere for you. If all bus drivers were like him there would be no cars on the road. I took a picture on my return which Lachio (probably awful spelling but that is what he said his name was) was more than happy to wait for me to take.
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| Stowmarket Minibus & Coach Hire Ford Transit AF59 HRR on the 196 to Leiston |
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| PF Travel Mercedes Sprinter Y614 VOH at Framlingham |
So I got to Wickham Market ok to get my rescription but how to get back. No 64 back to Sax in time to connect with the 196 and no 62 either. Only one thing for it - Suffolk Links to the rescue. I had initially booked to go straight back to my village, but had second thoughts, changed it to Sax so I could both pop into Tesco and patronise the 196 home. I wasn't expecting a very round the houses journey to Sax though and had to do a trolley dash round Tesco Dale Winton in his Supermarket Sweep days would have been impressed by. But I got out of Tesco in the nick of time for Lachio to pick me up and so everything worked out ok. A bit of an expedition though just to get a prescription.
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| Suffolk Links Peugeot WA64 BYJ at Wickham Market |
Secondly I'm also fortunate in that I have a bus pass. not fortunate as to the reason why as my eyes are giving me serious grief again at the moment, but had I had to pay today I would have had three separate fares - a return from my village to Saxmundham on the 196, then a single to Wickham Market on the 62, then another single back to Saxmundham on Suffolk Links, yet all three services are sponsored by the Council. When I was in Stornoway in May, where all services are sponsored by the Western Isles Council, any ticket is valid on any bus, so you can get a return to somewhere with one company and use that return to get back on another. Why don't we have that here? Why isn't there a day ticket that is valid on all Council sponsored services including pre-booked Links services? Why isn't acceptance of that ticket a condition of tender? Might get a few more bums on seats then. As I see it right now there is no incentive provided anywhere by anyone to encourage people to use buses more not less. A shame as these little buses are worth their weight in gold, and the drivers are just brilliant.
If I remember didn't you once have a chance meeting with the head of Suffolk CCs PT unit and weren't you to interview and put these points to him/her? I suspect Suffolk abandoned a network approach (it was described as innovative and forward-looking, the test bed for deregulation) at the end of the 70s and decided to support only individual services (on the basis presumably no-one was supposed to want to go to more than a single destination on a single bus)? Actually because it cost them too much. But didn't Chris Speed suggest the 65 times could be adjusted to improve connections? It's not unusual elsewhere in response to passenger suggestions both on supported and commercial routes. What happened?
ReplyDeleteIt was a chance phonecall not meeting and once it seemed that all replies would have to be approved by the Council's spin doctors I decided it would be a rather pointless exercise.
ReplyDeleteYes I am still going to meet with Chris to sort the connections at Sax out, but he's been rather busy on a course the last few weeks so hopefully that will happen soon. My journey yesterday shows how badly it needs to be done.
Quite clearly the operators should talk to each other in order to make connections work. But, if they do, are they in danger of falling foul of allegations that they are behaving "anti-competitively" or as a "cartel"? Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteIt is a grey area, Andrew, which I'm sure won't be a great revelation to you!. I do know that companes operating on the same route cannot mutually arrange the even spacing of services, for example, as that indeed would be regarded as a cartel. However if the same applied to individual routes by different operators connecting with each other I'm not sure. You see train connecting times in bus timetables but that won't be a joint co-operation. Therefore if I sit down with Chris with a list of connections that will benefit the travelling public and First timetables are adjusted accordingly then only one operator is actually invloved so it's all good.
ReplyDeleteHowever was Chris to sit down with the Council and they were to arrange it together then although we end up with the same result the legitimacy of it may be called into question unless all the routes in question were Council subsidised. All very cloak and dagger isn't it, not to mention clear as mud!
Other companies elsewhere in the country do frequently respond to customer suggestions (even First) and to "requests" from Councils, to adjust services (and vice versa supported services are adjusted to requests/suggestions from operators). Obviously there's a line between an adjustment and a new timetable requiring retendering (but it's a flexible boundary). It's not collusion between operators, nor does it inhibit competition, since as you say only one operator is involved. Sensible operators too try to work to co-ordinate with their "competitors" timetables, which makes it easier and more likely for passengers to use their buses. It makes commercial sense and isn't unlawful, either. So yup, get on with it. Competition needs to be seen as an enabler not a prison cell.
Deleteis that the same lachio (laz) who used to drive for IB and the defunct Far East Travel? hes definately a character.i remember him singing for at least 25 mins on a 119 journey when he was with FET and was nothing i had ever heard of.... he certainly has opinions!! top bloke though.
ReplyDeleteI'll check when I see him next, Trevor. Unlikely there would be two of them though......
Deletejust a question for you. do you think First are looking to cut the 64 altogether because these latest cuts are amazingly similar to what they did on the 63 and look what happened there. i used to use the 64 from Sax nearly every Saturday when i spent weekends there and it was always busy.occasionally used it during the week and again, was always busy. i dnt understand the thinking behind it.
DeleteThey were my first impressions, and I told Chris Speed that. However I believe him when he says that is definitely not the case and the fact I'm sitting down with him this week to try and sort the connections at Sax out is proof of that.
DeletePerhaps after today's news the Chinese will come to the rescue [viz Sizewell x construction workers?] First may have some form as they're involved in a transport partnership for Hinckley Point, I believe. That's if they can hang around for that long, of course.
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