Local buses.

Since Arriva sold the rights to run all the local area buses to a new company in our area, everything has gone to pot.

When we first moved here, our local bus stop at the end of our road was ideal (~50yrs from our front door) and the buses were ½ hourly. Fantastic, the timings were absolutely perfect for us.

Now, the new company has seen fit to take 1 bus of the route, leaving only 1, so it's every hour now at a time that's totally inconvenient. This means either walking to another bus stop on another route (½mile away) or using the car (car park charge £1.20/2 hrs).

We used the car this morning as it was raining and sod the effects on climate change.

Re: Local buses.

Aye. As you well know, companies are run by accountants Percy. Presumably they concluded that the existing service was too expensive as a loss leader.

You make an excellent point about just how committed "we" need to be as a country if we are to reduce car usage. I suppose one could argue that the emissions caused by more people being forced onto the road due to a depleted bus service is less than that produced by sending an empty bus around a route.

Re: Local buses.

They keep telling us to use public transport, but they don't make it very enticing,

Re: Local buses.

The bus timetable round here has been changed to inconvenience people it seems, with buses taken out at busy times so the next is overcrowded. Double deckers used when not needed.

Dial-a-bus scheme (minibus) only once a week and limited numbers and time in town but does door to door. £3 book in advance.

Re: Local buses.

I'm not sure how popular the buses are in your area Percy but in my area, most of the buses run almost empty. I think they are every hour and the morning ones have a few people on them but the rest are a waste. I am surprised the company still runs the service sometimes. I reckon 99% use their cars to get around but I'm sure the bus service would be missed by the 1%.

Re: Local buses.

I think it depends on the route TBH. Ours was popular-ish because it runs past a large Tesco and there's a bus stop outside.

Re: Local buses.

when we had the kennels in the west midlands we should have had a mobile library service. When I asked about it they didn't even know we came under their area we were so far out in the country. Surely that was the idea of having a mobile one?

Local buses your joking of course where we were

Re: Local buses.

They can't be any worse than Stagecoach! When Stagecoach took over in my area of West Sussex, the whole setup went to pot. When any competition came up against them, Stagecoach ran their services at half the intervals and much lower fares, so of course, the opposition could not compete.