Great Western Coffee Shop

Wiltshire Council is currently consulting on the future of subsidised bus services in the county, under the title "Review of Public Transport".    "This review is being undertaken to help identify savings from passenger transport budgets" they say in the pre-amble, and they ask the public to comment on whether they support:

Option 1 - Withdraw funding for all supported evening services
Option 2 - Withdraw funding for all supported Sunday and Bank Holiday services
Option 3 - Reduce the hourly services on Mon-Fri to two hourly on the strategic bus network
Option 4 - Reduce rural bus  services to 2-3 buses a day on regular routes and withdraw most of the infrequent services.
Option 5 - Reduce town bus services to 2-3 buses a day (buses used by school pupils within some town retained)
Option 6 - Withdraw all funding from all council subsidised services

I believe that the review is too limited - it looks only at the existing subsidised services each in isolations and not at the bus (or indeed) public transport network as a whole.  And yet on some public transport services in Wiltshire, up to 80% of passengers interchange at one or both ends to another piece of wheeled transport.  A network-wide approach is needed, where people's total journey requirements are taken into account - not only will that help the people who are making the journeys, but it will also help the local economy, grow service utilisation and help reduce (or even remove) the need for council subsidy. We are calling the network-wide approach, and the practical suggestion and mechanisms to implement it, Option 247 (http://option247.uk)

Such a network-wide approach has widespread support, and a proven track record in growing bus use in London - just take a look at this Department for Transport graph comparing London growth (where a scheme such as we are proposing is already in use)  to "growth" or lack of it in the rest of England, and note that just 2 extra fare paying passengers somewhere along the route of a subsided Wiltshire bus would provide the 60% savings sought,  and three passengers would remove the need for subsidy from most routes completely.

(http://option247.uk/franchdiff.jpg)

Option 247 service specification takes as a starting point "Where are people travelling from and to - total journey - when, and with what flexibility of timing" and it goes on to ask "how can that best be provided as a total transport solution - providing an efficient system that meets existing customer needs and encourages additional customers".

Mechanisms such as those used in London have been hard to apply for legal framework reasons in the rest of England, but consultation work last autumn and a new bus bill in February are aware of and address the issues. So Wiltshire Council's options 1 through 6 - which have been in preparation and pre-consultation since spring of last year (2015) were limited (to, it has to be said, frustration all around) to a "cut, cut, cut" policy - a decaying spiral where the choice being offered in the consultation is - in essence - about how the ongoing decay is to be managed.

The intent of this initial post is to make you aware of option 247 and not to answer all your questions - we have a dedicate site at http://option247.uk which contains a great deal more background.    Please take a look there - and look too at our Frequenly Asked Questions (http://option247.uk/faq.html) there - and if you don't find answer there please ask here, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/option247 , or on Twitter via @option247 ... registered members here (please register - it's free) are welcome to send me personal messages too.

If you already know enough about the survey to complete the council's consultation, it may be found at:
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/subsidised-bus-services-consultation.htm

I recommend that you complete questions as follows:
Question 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 - select NO (to reject options 1 through 6)
Question 25 - please WRITE IN "Option 247 preferred - www . option247 . uk" (to support option 247)

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Small print on the survey:

Within the "Option 6" section, opinions are sought on "In order to keep as many of the existing subsidised services running as possible Wiltshire Council is investigating if other organisations, individuals and communities might be able to fund, or even operate elements of some bus routes. This might for example include paying for services in villages on routes or helping to fund extra journeys."

They also ask about Community schemes: "There are 15 community minibus groups providing services in their area for those who are unable to use ordinary bus services and also over 40 Link schemes which covers 98% of rural households, providing transport in the volunteers' own car."

Our website at http://option247.uk now much more fully populated.

It sets out the option for a quality, integrated, network alongside the six options offered by Wiltshire Council, all of which take what they themselves admit is a short-term view.

Please do take a look ... please do pass on the link to friends, family, colleagues in Wiltshire ... comments very welcome here or on Facebook page.

The Coffee Shop forum differs from typical rail forums in being much more about the passenger experience than about the 'hardware' of particular trains - and you'll see my pictures being much more of people using trains and passenger facilities than the trains themselves.   In the same way, the option 24/7 bus approach is all about people who use - or want to be able to use the buses, and not the individual bus vehicles.

So ... why do we want good bus travel opportunities ....

Mrs A can no longer drive. She relies on the bus to get her from her home into the town centre where she meets friends and does her shopping.

Mr B works in X. He's unable to drive for medical reasons, and commutes by bus every day; sometimes he has to work late and catch a bus back in the early evening.

The C family send their daughter to school in X - a journey of about 6 miles. It's not their nearest school, but it's the right one for her and she gets there by bus.

Miss D and her college friends want to meet up for a 'social' at the weekend or an evening; due to high insurance premiums none of them can afford a car, and in any case they want to be able to enjoy the eveing without having to be awake (and sober) enough to drive safely home afterwards.

Mr E will be retiring in about 7 years - he's getting on a bit shakey on his legs and can no longer walk to the local railway station without it leaving him so tired he can't do his job properly

Mrs F no longer has a bus to get to her doctors, so now she requires home visits

Ms G had planned to go to college this September with a view to getting qualified and back into employment, but she's had to put these plans on hold because the bus that would get her home at the end of the college day doesn't run any more

Mr H doesn't use the bus at all. But he can't get a car parking space in town / at work any longer as all the spaces are filled with people who used to use public transport, so the gets very frustrated and parks in residential streets to the annoyance of those residents

Ms I is a health service / social services administrator, and she notices a severe strain on her 'customer transport' budget because she's now spending a lot of money (and organisation time) or arranging and paying for customers who used to use the bus.

To be featured on Points West tomorrow (Friday 15th January 2016) / BBC1 Bristol area.   Points West is a current affairs / news program with multiple stories and starts at 13:30, 18:30 and 22:25 on Friday.  Also BBC Radio Wiltshire on Saturday and possibly the BBC1 politics show over the weekend. I may briefly appear - you have been warned!

It sounds like Wiltshire residents will be doing quite well for subsidised bus services. Here in Oxfordshire it looks likely that all subsidised bus services will be removed starting after 1 April 2016

Sorry folks - Bristol City have sacked their manager and the succession is more interesting that buses ...

I hear Pep Guardiola may be available. Or Luis van Gaal...

Surely Mourinho is a shoe in?

Buus Hiddink?

Anyway ... top of the news on BBC Wilts at 7 a.m.  ;D

Many Wiltshire bus services - both subsidised and commercial - make special runs and cease their normal routes to cater for school journeys, contracted and paid for by Wiltshire Council and something they legally must do.   On subsidised services, the capital cost / depreciation of the vehicle is split between the school contract and the subsidised service.   

Question: If the subsidised service is withdrawn, how much extra would the operator need to charge the council for the mandated school service?

It strikes me that making a saving on the public bus subsidy budget could lead directly to a significant increase in the school bus budget, but I have never seen any figure on this ... does anyone know?  Has it been worked out / estimated?

Myself and MrsF have returned our consultations supporting option 24/7  :)

My own situation is that any funding withdrawal on the 231 means an evening out meeting friends in Bath or Chippenham becomes taxis both ways if I want to enjoy a beer or two.
My friend who lives in Melksham now has to rely on his wife to pick him up this coming Saturday evening from Chippenham as the 234 has already gone.

Playing Devils Advocate, could any reduction in Wiltshire's Bus Services be used as leverage for improved rail services in the county, particularly those proposed by Trans Wilts CRP? (hourly Trans Wilts, Corsham, RWB, Wilton Parkway etc)

Short - answer - THANK YOU!  ;D


The loss of the three evening subsidised runs on the 234 last summer, and of the commuter-busy 18:35 which was commercial but with a vehicle that mixed commercial and subsidised runs, has had a severe impact on me too. London to Melksham in the evening was 20:45 off London, change at Chippenham to bus, 22:47 into Melksham.   

I recall being told on radio 4, by then minister at the DfT Derek Twigg, that "we cannot run a train just for Mr Ellis" and I agreed with him on that.  Problem was that lots and lots and lots of other people wanted the train, as numbers have proven.  Problem now is that lots of people want that bus ... I got to Chippenham last week and forked out just over ^20 for a taxi. "Melksham please" I ask the driver ... "Just come back from another run to Melksham" says he ....


We are looking public transport network wide ... journeys from door to door and that may / will often involve bus and train - so option 24/7 very much works for trains as well as buses - indeed the strengths of rail (lots of people, faster journey) collecting people into groups for transportation by train is an element of it (yes, involves connections at stations) and other elements of rail (through ticketing between operators, franchises, some information practises, etc) provide good lessons and perhaps a platform.

Other options could certainly result in rail solutions for people's journeys - or at least that part to a railhead, and (yes) the new environment of a vestigial and still-uncoordinated set of individual routes would improve the business cases as written, even if it didn't reflect into the consultant's models.

Much new material on our option247 web site - http://option247.uk

And a video of what people think at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1fvRqe6Go

And a Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/option247/

A further video - Cate Le Grice-Mack's  "Just a minute" presentation from TravelWatch SouthWest yesterday, with images added by my wife Lisa.

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/johnsstory.jpg) (https://youtu.be/j5X_-1-7f5g)

Consultation said to have had some 8000+ responses so far - runs until 4th April.   See http://option247.uk for our suggestion as to response and direction buses should take.

Now over 10,000 responses, I understand.   We had an opportunity to discuss the rather wider issue of public transport as a whole with Wiltshire Council yesterday - not only "supported buses" which is what the consultation's about - but other public transport too (commercial buses and trains too) which form part of the network as a whole.  Frankly, most bus passengers don't know / care if they're on a supported or commercial bus, after all!

(http://option247.uk/o247_2.jpg)

Full presentation at http://option247.uk/o247_2.pdf ... please see the main option 247 site at http://option247.uk if you've not yet completed the survey, or if you're on Facebook look at our group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/option247/

More text - from a Facebook post ....