Great Western Coffee Shop

From the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-51791445)


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Despite high fares, very few bus opcos are making 5% pre tax profit at best, many more making losses. High fares are a necessity to mKe thing viable, unless local authority’s are going to support bus services more.

Or unless there is some other way of funding them (e.g. central government).
Or unless we have a systemic change in their use/operation such that load factors rocket.
Or unless some of the elements which make vehicles expensive to buy and run are changed.

Reading Buses are sounding more rattly and with more problems on the road, which has been a sign of lower maintenance before a price rise in the past?

One important factor is the ongoing increase in congestion in most areas, which increases bus journey times.  As well as discouraging people from travelling by bus, reducing revenues, it means the operator requires more buses to run the same service, so costs increase and vehicle utilisation gets worse. Congestion also increases fuel consumption.  So more subsidy by itself won't resolve the underlying problems- we need investment in bus priority. Improving bus journey times would create a virtuous cycle of reduced costs,  improved competitiveness and increased patronage.

If load factors rocket, many bus companies will not be able to handle it. Many routes running times are based on passing stops. Consider how many bus stops there are on a bus route and then allow a minute for each stop, not counting rolling time. Reading Transport's number 16 has 33 stops from the outer terminus to the town centre terminus, and is a notoriously difficult route to keep on time even off peak with no road traffic. One minute loading at each stop (some of which are ludicrously close together) would only leave 7 minutes of rolling time along the actual route, and this is before you add in other factors like whether you arrived at the outer terminus on time to begin with, or whether some people got bored of waiting and joined the route on the outbound journey (a continual problem on the 16). It's a popular route but the loadings at the outer end don't match the population density at all. The company could add another bus into the loop and raise the frequency, but you end up carrying fresh air again that's all too easy to trim away next time profits tumble. Really we have to face facts and admit there is no profit in standard type bus routes.

If anybody wants to revolutionise bus travel, then they need to figure out a way of the fares being collected without being validated by the driver.

Have a conductor?

This very serious discussion reminds me of the old joke "Never run for a bus in London or Bristol. In London, there will be another one along in a few minutes. In Bristol, he'll still be collecting fares when you get to the bus stop".

I've seen systems outside the UK where people get on at the front and there are ticket gates a little behind the driver.  Bus journey continues while they pay / swipe through the gates; bus exit from middle doors. I think it has typically been bendy buses but perhaps could work with double deckers?

1. Conductor
2. Barriers just behind driver
3. Tap-in TfL style but with multiple points at each door and inside bus
4. Pre-paid paper tickets with on-board stamping
5. Free transport
6. Fares paid at barriers at stops

3 and 4 require roving enforcement teams, probably with on the spot fines.
6 requires new infrastructure.
5 requires a new mindset.
1 requires staff and wages.
2 might be the easiest to implement in terms of equipment and personnel but still has a bottleneck in the form of the barriers.

Edit: 3 and 4, probably 2 and 6, also really need a simple – even flat – fare system.

On Hong Kong trams the fare is paid/ticket validated when you leave the tram through a turnstile beside the driver at the front.

I would say as little as 20% of passengers (if not less)  require ticket selling interaction from me these days. My employer offers discounts on weekly/monthly if bought through the app as an M ticket,
My companies also bucking the national trend on passenger numbers despite perceived high fares. Currently around 15-20% passenger increase against national average of -1.5%! Weve gone from worst performing First opco to 3rd best and still improving!
I could carry in a shift 200-300 passengers and only take less than £50 in fares!
Perhaps my opco would be a good case study!

Do the pass holders need to show their weekly/monthly ticket to you as they board?

I found cash fares greatly reduced but boarding still slow while each ticket is validated electronically. Using the contactless card to purchase a paper ticket even slower. Barcode reading was also slower than just looking and registering a ticket, many people way too swift and not allowing the machine to register their ticket. A year and 2 months as passed since I last drove a bus mind but, as a passenger now, I find the journey to town taking even longer. When I was a driver for Reading Transport I estimated that half of late running at all times of day was down to loading and not traffic, it's all too easy to put the blame all on traffic, and whoever comes up with a different system to load the vehicles, such as those above, is onto a winner.

In Reading, every single ticket has to be validated by the machine, OAP/Access passes included. Loading stats are vital.

Scan it on the Barcode reader. Takes maybe 1-2 seconds a passenger if they do it right

Ticketer could do with reading cards more quickly (English!).
A long queue seems to take ages to board whilst reading cards; yes, far quicker than the old Almex machine, but still not as quick as it could be.
Maybe I'm too impatient........  Time to retire (again).

They’re all fully online transactions now. Used to be offline. Mean they don’t seem to work in mobile black spots.