A study of using public transport for someone newly arriving in Wiltshire

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I found myself at Chippenham Railway Station at midday (12:00) yesterday, looking to get home by public transport to Melksham.  And I put on my "newcomer" green tinted spectacles to see how I would get on. . Chippenham is on the main London to Bristol railway line, trains every 30 minutes.  My destination was / is Melksham, a town of 25,000 that's six miles to the south and served by trains, and buses, from Chippenham.



* I walked into the station's main entrance / ticket office, and it's an hour and a half wait for the next train.  (Oh for an appropriate hourly service!)



* There's an onward travel poster in the ticket office saying that Melksham has a train service and that there's a bus from the station stop or from the bus station. (Oh why is the "onward travel" poster in the departure hall, far away from where people arriving at the station by train and requiring onward travel will find it! and mixed in with the queue to buy train tickets!)



* The bus stop sign does give times - first bus of the day at 14:46 which is even longer to wait for than the train.  It does direct you to the bus station for additional Journeys. (Oh for a note of the times of those to tell you if it is worth transferring, and advising whether the bus station or Gladstone Road is best).



* The onward journey poster back in the departure hall did have a map of the town from where you could pick out the bus station (Oh for a map at the bus stop, and perhaps advice that it's at the other side of town and you can catch a bus to transfer across)



* There's a fingerboard at the station gate pointing your walking route towards the bus station, but then when the next waymarking point is reached - a recent standing sign - it does not include a pointer towards the bus station (Oh for a signposted route to carry the major destinations all the way through) ... if you know (as I did) my next move there, the signage does pick up again at the Town Bridge.









* And so to the bus station ... (Oh for an electronic display of the next buses - where they go and which bay they run from.)

* Information at the bus station for me as a newcomer in "I want to get to Melksham' mode.  I find Melksham on the "destinations served from this bus station poster which greets me as I walk into the bus station (Oh why does it not tell me which bay it runs from, nor the times)



* I go round that back of the board and find a list of bays, under each of which I find the services that use that bay (Oh why is there not a list by service number or by town - I have to search the poster to find it's bay 6)



* I then walk up to bay 6 and find the timetable and here - for the first time as newcomer - I am told that there's a bus at a suitable time - 12:30. (Oh why did it take all these steps to find something on public display to tell me about whether there was a bus alternative to Melksham rather than waiting at the station for an hour and a half)



* Oh why do the buses from Chippenham (via Lacock and Beanacre to Melksham and on to server Semington and Hilperton too) only call at the railway station from quarter to three until half past five on Monday to Friday, even shorter hours on Saturday but then all through the running hours on Sunday?

* And so onto the bus. One of the gentlemen in front of me spoke poor english and the driver was rightly checking with him that he was catching the right bus. but. Oh why did she have to do so in a raised voice that seemed to shout "frustration" to all around.

* We reversed out at 12:30, closely after two other buses which I presume were also 12:30 buses to other destinations. And hit what I can only describe as gridlock. Not until 13:10 (that's right - 40 minutes) did we go under the railway bridge at Thingley Junction that would have been about 3 minutes by train. Oh why does the traffic layout in Chippenham make it so awkward for buses?



* Could the driver have not let people on the bus at least feel informed to the degree that she was? Oh why was no information nor interaction / message of regret not given for the 30 minute delay?

* Now - I knew where I was going, and as I wanted to take a look at the Subway under the A350 ... and I got off the bus at 13:25; it had been due there at 12:51 and was over half an hour late.  My normal "thank you" to be bus driver, no "sorry we're late" or anything - just a grunt; I suppose they get very used to it, and I can't say I blame them.  I knew my stop - but oh why do we not have on board bus tracking telling us of the next stop so we know where we are?

* The bus stop, proudly labelled "Melksham Town Council" has clearly seen cleaner days, and the bin beside it is overflowing. I don't know who I should contact about the bin - I did (when I got home) email the council and they'll have someone on to the shelter at least - though I've been warned to manage my expectations as the amenities team was all out getting ready for Remembrance and probably won't be on to it until after they're back to work after than event. Oh why aren't the rubbish bins (at least) clearly marked with who they're emptied by?   We have at least 3 different organisation with bins in Melksham.





And so - a walk to home. I took the pictures I wanted of the subway (that's another story) and pictures of the Avon and Town Centre war memorials, and wandered home - there at 14:06.   That's two hours from Chippenham Station to home. I could have done it in an hour and a half if I stayed on the bus to Melksham Town Centre, or in an hour if we had an appropriate train service, even if I'd had to wait half an hour for the train.   20 minutes by car / taxi ...

[Hafren]

It seems to be that bus travel has a long way to go to be genuinely user-friendly. We bemoan issues with trains, and in some ways buses have an easier time as they don't rely on fixed infrastructure to the same degree (there's usually another road...) and the driver can't hide away so there's always a visible staff presence, but equally I often feel that the bus networks are really designed for people with local knowledge, and the customers are left to fend to themselves when there are problems.

Some things I've seen around here, with a lot of overlap with the OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter)'s points:

• Delays and cancellations are effectively 'not our problem' – true, heavy traffic is an external factor, but it's predictable that it would affect the performance of the product from time to time, and there are paying customers affected.
• No Delay Repay or assistance with missed connections, cancelled last services etc – as much as the railways have their problems, they have these things in place. Cancel a last bus in a rural area and the user has to fork out for a taxi. Given the demographics that use buses most, this could be a problem! I feel I can rely on trains for regular commuting and long-distance travel as I know there is at least some info and some help if a journey involving a last or infrequent train fails, but I don't feel I could with buses.
• Even where apps provide information, they don't really account for delays, cancellations and diversions. If they've posted in social media that there will be xyz diversion, the planners still show the buses stopping as normal. It's often unclear if they will make stops on the diversionary route. A non-local isn't going to follow the operator's news reports or social media, and won't have local knowledge of things that might snarl things up, and therefore won't know there's an issue when they plan their journey.
• Similarly, if a bus isn't showing on the tracker, is it cancelled or just not tracking? (Or still on a previous journey, in fact – regular users may be able to check hte tracker more intelligently, but shouldn't have to.) Wait and see if it turns up, or walk to another stop while there's still time for the alternative?
• Passenger who doesn't speak much English or is hard of hearing? Driver will probably make some effort but will often show irritation.
• No PA^▸ (Public Address), so if there is information to impart, a driver mumbling it at the front won't be heard properly at the back. Confused looks as people try to work out if it affects them, and maybe irritation when several people then ask for more information. (But I could say the same about the PA quality on a Sprinter when changes to stopping patterns are announced...!)
• A current trend is for operators to advise passengers to hold up their phone so they're visible at stops at night. From a personal safety perspective, does everyone want to wave their phone around for easy taking when alone in the dark? Shouldn't the driver be vigilant when approaching stops if visibility is poor?
• Lack of proper info on the bus. Cardiff Bus is quite good at this and has for a long time used auto-announcements and displays to announce next stop. The main operators in Swansea have the TV screens fitted but they either are switched off or occasionally show a static branding screen.
• Poor info on stops. Near me there are a couple of locations (on quite touristy routes) where there are multiple stops that could be used depending on the exact route taken through the area. Even the same route number has different variant routes on the peripheral part of the journey, that follow a different pattern of stops, or even run through in the opposite direction on the evening pattern (or did before recent cuts). But timetables aren't clear, showing the same name for multiple stops, and also using multiple names for the same stop on different routes! A local might be able to work it out from the overall direction of the route, but should someone have to study the route if the timetable says the bus stops at X?

[Chris from Nailsea]

Google Maps shows Chippenham to Melksham as 7.3 miles, so a walk of 2 hours 41 minutes. 

[CyclingSid]

Beware of finger posts, and similar signs, a current "enjoyment" seems to be turning them so they point in different direction.

The passenger information screens at stops for Reading Buses (run and maintained by a contractor via the council) now appear to show departure times at time stops. All used to show arrival time which wasn't a lot of use at the station when you had three buses and you didn't know which one would leave first, needless to say I used to sit on the one that left last!