Monday Variety

Amazed By A Maze

Nick Richardson is Technical Principal at transport consultancy Mott MacDonald, a Director of the UK Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (www.ciltuk.org.uk), Chair of CILT’s Bus and Coach Policy Group, Chair of PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd and a former Chair of the Transport Planning Society. In addition, he has held a PCV licence for over 30 years.

And Mott Macdonald?

Mott MacDonald was formed in 1989 through the merger of Mott, Hay and Anderson, and Sir M MacDonald & Partners. Mott, Hay and Anderson was a transportation engineering consultancy responsible for projects such as the London Underground while Sir M MacDonald & Partners was a water engineering consultancy with projects that included the Aswan Dam. The merger made Mott MacDonald one of the first international engineering, management, and development consultancies.

Lots of noble words used to describe the business ...

... so a B-I-G international consultancy!

Nick has recently penned an article for Passenger Transport, a magazine for the industry, not particularly for enthusiasts.

There is more to read than usual in an fbb blog - BUT IT IS IMPORTANT. If it is too much, please feel free to scroll down to some more digestible stuff below.

This illustration was at the head of the original article.

If bus operators want customers, then they need to provide the right information

If information is missing or wrong, no-one will use buses; user expectations are high but met with indifference, confusion and with some notable exceptions, mediocrity.

However, information for potential users is not provided in the way it should be, particularly if we want more people to transfer from car to bus, most of whom won’t have a clue where to start.

Let me explain by example. Our daughter is now at university and despite a jaundiced view of buses – She is familiar with some parts of the area but not others and has a number of destinations to get to such as hospitals and district health centres, some just once and others more regularly, interspersed with teaching sessions elsewhere.

fbb wrote blogs about his on-line efforts with Transport for Greater Manchester; a sample is (here).

There is a realisation that there are lots of operators which don’t mention anyone else’s   services. Overcoming this by finding a comprehensive view requires use of the Transport for Greater Manchester’s online journey planner. This is lacking because, as with other journey planners, it assumes you know where you are going in some detail before you start interrogating it.

To find out how to get from one area to another is something of a challenge because there is nothing useful such as a map of routes that relates to real life – in fact, finding an area map is impossible because there doesn’t appear to be one. How basic is this?

There is a range of area maps, but no simple index to help you find which area you need. Such maps, like the timetables, are very well hidden indeed.

If all this is a bit too much to read, you will have, by now grasped the fact the Nick is far from 'appy, neither is his daughter.

Pricing really is a secret because there is no mention of fares anywhere other than day tickets and season tickets of various sorts. The range is bewildering – some two dozen possibilities at least for Greater Manchester – depending on whether it is operator-specific, multi-operator or tram plus bus, peak but mainly off peak, excepting bus/train options which remain elusive.

He's got a point, you know - and that is just for adults between the ages of 26 and 60!

The only way of finding out how much single and return journeys cost is by waiting at the bus stop until the bus arrives then negotiating with the driver, hardly a 21st century sales experience.

In most European cities there is one simple fares structure that allows travel on all modes. Why not here? Even in London, with its "regulated" environment, fares are a mess, hidden behind the unfathomable-ness of Oyster.

All this is singularly unimpressive. It is incredible that for a product that really needs customers, there is such patchy information about what is on offer and how much it costs. If information about bus services is comprehensive, adopts a customer-led approach and is intelligible then everyone benefits – users, operators and society. The technology is in place but despite years of trying, agreements on ticketing still can’t be secured.

The problems that potential users face is not confined to one conurbation; while some areas get it right, others do not. New Year’s Day is an example where it could be expected that bus services are altered. One of our local providers, First, had a comment on its website to explain that due to technical difficulties, the information it provided could be wrong; in other words, the information available is entirely useless. A nearby bus stop which normally has a variety of services includes a real time display which announced that users should refer to timetables. A real time display of services a few feet away from the stop was carrying on as usual with its rolling list of possibilities, none of which were running. In fact it turned out that there weren’t any buses at all.

Bus services shouldn’t be a secret, the intimacies of which are only revealed to a dedicated minority of users. A reliable bus service is a good proposition provided that all its components are delivered effectively including the information available beforehand.

Well said, Nick! It ias nice when somebody agrees with fbb - especially as Nick is a professional!

Water Tower With People Power

Huddersfield Station was always splendid, but in mid life it accumulated lots of ugly clutter. Now it is a thing of beauty and a joy to behold ...

... and stands justly proud if its Northern heritage,

fbb has always felt that, once you enter the pillared magnificence, the boring train shed is something of a disappointment!

Even some of the peripheral buildings are splendid.

What is doubly appropriate is that the old water tower now provides offices for what we used to call Acorp, an organisation which has had a rebrand. Here is the Bard of Barnsley, poet Ian Macmillan, explaining something of what they do,

The 70 or so groups' corporate aim is to promote rail travel by improving the travel experience. That includes additional publicity, improving stations and running community events to promote "their" line.

So how appropriate, then, that they are based in a splendid chunk of redundant railway infrastructure.

Sadly, the tank is now covered, otherwise they would have had their own rooftop swimming pool!

Publicity Matters

New super coaches are deployed on the Go North East X9/X10 (Newcastle to Middlesbrough) from today.

In Oxford, the X3 to Abingdon has received a refresh ...

... although fbb thinks this livery is a bit "messy".

And, talking of "messy" ...

... we always knew that Stagecoach's new "white" livery was a mistake!

More encouraging is to see a growing trend of using buses to advertise ...

... buses as above in Tyne and Wear! Go North West's "refreshed" Cross City route in Manchester is doing likewise.

Maybe there is some hope for the likes of Nick Richardson (and fbb!) if operators and local authorities can sort out the mess of information provision and fares then begin to really really upgrade the Public Transport Experience!

And that needs to be for everybody, not just those fortunate to live on profitable routes.

Tomorrow we begin a closer look at stations, bus and rail, old and new.

P S - Couldn't resist this ...

... even if it might be a fake twittering!

 Next Station Investigation blog : Tuesday 16th February