Local people who complain about there bus services

Lady escoted off bus for petition-wielding

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Stagecoach has defended its action to stop a woman from collecting a petition in protest that the number 54 bus will no longer serve West Swindon.

Suzanne Allen, from Godolphin Close, in Freshbrook has gathered more than 500 signatures from bus users unhappy at the route change which will see the service, from Wootton Bassett to the Swindon Bus Station, via the Designer Outlet, no longer stop at Freshbrook or the Link Centre.

She claimed she was escorted off a bus by Stagecoach staff after collecting signatures from passengers on board.

A spokesman for the company said that the company’s assistant operations manager and a colleague had politely asked Ms Allen to leave the bus because she was not allowed to gather petition on board.

He explained: “As a general policy, we do not permit any form of campaigning or canvassing on our bus services. In line with this policy, a member of our staff explained to the lady that she did not have permission to petition passengers on board the bus and politely asked her to leave the vehicle.”

Miss Allen said that passengers were unhappy with the route changes because those travelling from Wootton Bassett to the Asda supermarket in West Swindon would now have to change buses. She added that students travelling to Swindon College’s North Star campus would also be affected.

The spokesman pointed out that the new timetables have been available since April 23 detailing the changes, and have been displayed on buses for nearly two weeks.

The changes came into place on May 4, which include an enhanced Route 66 service running from Swindon to Oxford via Faringdon.

“Wootton Bassett estates and Woodshaw will soon be able to take advantage of a direct bus service to Swindon town centre,” added the spokesman.

“The current Route 54 will be re-branded as Direct 54 and will no longer serve West Swindon, thus cutting the journey time down by 15 minutes, which is ideal for commuters.

“Passengers who wish to travel to West Swindon will be able to transfer to Service 8 at Paddington Drive at no extra cost.

“These passengers should simply retain their Direct 54 ticket or pass and show it to the driver of Service 8. Transfer tickets will also be available on journeys in the opposite direction and a through facility will continue to be provided during evenings and on Sundays on Service 55A.”

Stagecoach have reintroduced Service 72 which will cover the Swindon to Wroughton section of the current Route 54 that is not served by Direct 54, running every 20 minutes during the day, though at slightly different times to the current Route 54.

Punctuality will be improved on Route 55 and Service 7 following minor revisions to their timetables and all Sunday journeys on Service 7 will now serve South Marston Park. The spokesman said: “There will be minor timetable changes to afternoon journeys on Services 6 and 8 to reflect changes in customer demand, including the reduction of the Sunday frequency on Service 8 to every hour. There will also be minor timetable changes to Route 65 as a result of the enhancement to Route 66.”

Think she would have been better of petitioning people at the bus stops rather than getting kicked off the buses!!

Boghall residents demand better bus service

RESIDENTS of Boghall have hit out at the level of bus service they receive writes Alistair Watson.

The area’s councillors held a public meeting in which residents were invited to quiz West Lothian Council’s public transport manager as well as representatives from travel companies.

While the turnout at the meeting wasn’t great the message they had was loud and clear – we want better service.

At the moment First Bus and SD Travel run routes in Boghall during the week while First Bus also provides a weekend service. However, those residents who attended the meeting had nothing but complaints about First Bus which they say regularly cancels services in the area. And they were furious a representative from the company failed to show up at the public meeting.

Philip Avenue resident Len Cowley, 62, told the Courier: “I want to see a better level of service for the people of Boghall.

“If you add everything up there is something seriously wrong with the First Bus service in Boghall. There are a lot of people moaning about it especially at weekends when it is only First Bus that is running on the route. It’s a shame more residents didn’t come here tonight to complain.

“They regularly cancel buses, they will miss out half the run and don’t stick to the timetable. It is not uncommon for them not to even run the bus up the hill in to Boghall meaning we have to go down to Edinburgh Road to catch a bus.

“At least I am fit enough to go down to the main road to get the bus but there are a lot of older people who can’t get down the hill.

“They also cancelled the bus run to Tesco which was a vital service for pensioners and people without cars in Boghall.”

However there was some good news for residents when SD Travel’s Sam Douglas announced they were planning to trial a weekend service and reinstate a service stopping at the supermarket.

He said: “We are running a couple of services out there just now but we’re looking to change our services to take on board some of the comments made at the meeting.

“We want to help the residents and do the right thing. It’s mostly the Saturday service that they seem to have a problem with. We ran one before and it just didn’t work out for us but we’re going to try it out again on a trial basis. We’re also looking to put on a service that will go via Tesco.

“These things cannot happen overnight. You can’t just change services as you like and you have to give the council 14 days notice and the traffic commissioner for Scotland needs 56 days notice of any change.”

Bathgate Councillor John McGinty added: “Many people in Boghall rely on the bus service and I was grateful that people took the time to come to the meeting and tell us first hand their concerns about the shortcomings of the bus service in Boghall.

“I hope that their views will be listened to by the powers that be and I will do all I can to make sure that the bus service is improved for local people.”

First Bus were unavailable for comment when the Courier went to press.

Here is some from Lincolnshire

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We had a woman who was complaining in the local paper about buses "speeding" along a narrow road on a housing scheme. The route came off the main road and did a circular tour of the housing scheme before rejoining the main road.

Well, I'm sure that she and her neighbours are delighted that her complaints were listened to and no buses speed round that road anymore. In fact that loop has now been taken off the route and no buses now go round that road at all.

Well done Madam.

I bet the people in the estate who needed the bus love her! I bet she is a NIMBY! And once she comes to need the bus, she will complain again that buses don't serve where she lives!

It wont last if they re-instate it, because it will only be used by non paying OAP's to pop to the shops. If a route doesn't pay its way, it has to go. No profits means no money to pay for the driver or the bus.

Warrington:
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Does it REALLY TAKE 45mins?

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'Rift' sparks fear over bus services

Some residents could be left without key bus services because of a lack of co-operation between councils, it is feared. A five-year plan is currently being hammered out between Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council to tackle congestion, improve bus routes and public transport and make the area's roads better.

It will be put in place in April next year and run until 2016.

But some councillors say that because the two council plans are unlikely to be combined and the costs shared, bus services and other transport improvements at the city and county boundaries could suffer.

County councillors say the city council is not fully co-operating with it. Labour councillor Max Hunt said: "If the strategies can be combined that would be so much better for the whole city and county.

"Most people don't know where the city ends and the county begins, and many bus routes, for example, cross over city boundaries. "It would be a shame if what appears to be a rift between two councils means transport across the city isn't as good as it could be. There's a desperate need to work together."

Senior Tory councillors on the county council have blamed the problems on the city council.

Lead member for transport Lesley Pendleton said: "We've been putting the case to the city councils for a single plan. I've had one or two meetings with (former city council transport lead) Patrick Kitterick, I didn't make any headway, but he's not there anymore. It is up to city council politicians now."

Council leader David Parsons said: "If you go down to city hall, or whatever they call it, and say 'this is what you're going to do' then city councillors will immediately tell you 'you know where to go'.

"Lesley's there every day, knocking on the door of the city council, trying to get co-operation.

"We just can't get agreement with the city council, it wants to be independent."

The city council's transport lead member, Abdul Osman, said: "The Labour group will approach this with an open-mind.

"However, it is my personal preference that we work together, but keep the plans and costs separate."

Over the past few months both councils have been working on the plan, called the Local Transport Plan.

They have looked at research, evidence and information from both councils and the Department for Transport.

There is a very simple solution to all this..OAP's pay half fare..Simple..Job done..Millions saved in subsidies each year which could be used to implement improvements.