Hello Max : Goodbye Sapphire?

Another Super-Bus Service?

MAX – new inter-urban express

services from Arriva

We’re investing in success, taking it to the MAX,

with some new-look services

in the North East of England and Yorkshire.

MAX services will provide quicker connections

on key selected inter-urban express routes

and will offer customers all the benefits

of our new MAX pack

Free on-board WiFi and Arriva Bus App links

for MAXimum connectivity

Enhanced driver training for MAXimum service

No-quibble money-back guarantee for MAXimum value

New interiors and e-leahter seating for MAXimum comfort

New livery for MAXimum impact

It was a huge launch in the North-East; complete with bright lights, new livery and even a robot to scare the children away from buses! Arriva's X10 and X11 are one of the first services to get this treatment.

Although the bus illustrated isn't new.

It has carried X10/X11 branding for some time, possibly since purchase; as seen here on the X13.Such is the power of route branded vehicles! Arriva's current web site was coy about revealing the times for the X13.

there weren't any!

So what do your get for your new MAX money?

"Quicker connections"? Has the X10/X11 timetable changed? Comfy "leather" seats? WiFi? Customer Care? Top notch information? The on-line presence looks remarkably like any other Arriva timetable. Clicking on "Arriva North east" fbb found an index of timetables for ...

Bletchley, Wrexham, High Eycombe, Runcorn and Uttoxeter. Well, Arriva is now a German Company ...

... so perhaps their UK geographical knowledge is a bit on the thin side!  Welche dieser Städte im Nordosten ist?

Good information? Once upon a very recent time, Arriva provided PDF versions of maps and timetables (as per their excellent leaflets) for the user to download. fbb could not find any of this when he search for the X10/X11.

The latest scrollable timetable in bits was all that was obviously available ...

... plus a dotty route map!

As well as the X10/X11 and X15 in the North-East ...

... the 268 in West Yorkshire has had the treatment.

Anyway, it all looks impressive, but two questions remain.

1. Shouldn't these improvements be part of every bus route?

2. Whatever happened to Sapphire?

Has it lost its sparkle - already?

Aha! A third question.

What IS the difference between Sapphire and Max?

Answers, please, together with a £10 note, to the usual address.

Hmmm. Wonder where they got the Max idea from?

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Parkway Publicity Progress - NOT

Our Bristol correspondent has kept us up to date with the leaflet racks at Bristol Parkway station. The contents have usually been a selection of  leaflets for bus services available outside the booking hall with some being out-of-date and some being very out-of-date. Occasionally there has been a supply of correct literature.

Dedicated readers of this blog will know that First has rejigged and improved its services to the University of the West of England, just across the former verdant pastures of Filton from Parkway. One change has been the introduction of the X74 service. A new leaflet has been produces complete with map etc. Jolly good.

So guess what the racks at Parkway held a couple of days ago?

New and old together. Well done, yet again, First.

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 Next bus blog : Sunday 7th September 

The Hidden Agenda ...

... but not very!

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Looks very "brown" to me!

see yesterday's blog and comments (here)

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As Sir Humphrey will have told Jim Hacker (Yes Prime Minister tv show) ...

... the easiest means of getting your own (usually unpopular) way in Government is to set up a Public Enquiry. Then, as Humpey would opine, the public will be so confused that you can do exactly what you wanted in the first place.

The Local Authority low-cost version of a public enquiry is an "opinion survey"

So what is SYPTE up to?

The arm of the PTE that deals mostly with the public is ...

... which runs internet, printed information and travel centre enquiry services.

So dropping into the in-boxes of all those on PTE mailing lists has been details of a survey ...

... although quite how the little "printer" logo helps is unclear.

The survey will ask people about the journeys they take on public transport, what tickets they buy and how they buy them and how they like their public transport information to be delivered. It will also ask what people think about transport interchanges, bus stops and the customer services that SYPTE delivers.

The easiest way for people to take part is online at sypte.co.uk/haveyoursay. Paper copies will also be available at Interchanges from the Travel Information Centre shops and there will be roadshows at Barnsley, Doncaster, Meadowhall, Rotherham and Sheffield interchanges to help and encourage customers to take part.

Before deciding what the PTE's actual agenda is, it is worth remembering that some months back ALL LEAFLETS were withdrawn from the Meadwhell TSY enquiry office, as an experiment.

Now let's look at some of the survey's questions.

Of course, the vast majority buy their tickets on the bus - ergo; you don't need a Travel Shop.

Our timetables are freely available at bus stops, so that's all right. Except that the PTE does not display a single timetable at any bus stop anywhere. Even at bus stations and certainly at bus stops all that is on offer is a computer generated list of departures, and they are often VERY misleading.

There are loads and loads of sources of information other than printed leaflets, so that's all right then.

And even if we didn't produce any printed timetables you could easily find out, couldn't you?

And some specific "leading" questions.

5.4 If the number of staff available at Interchanges was to be reduced, on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), how much of an impact would it have on you?
Only a small percentage of passengers visit an interchange for enquries. Most are regular users and just pass through; except, of course, if things change!

5.6 If availability of information at Interchanges was** to be reduced, on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), how much of an impact would it have on you?
See answer above!

6.7 On a scale of 0 to 10 (0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), if the Travel Information Centres were to close how much of an impact would it have on you?
See answer above!

7.5 Travel Information Centres provide customers with journey planning advice, but did you know that there are other journey planning tools available?
Yes of course I did! 

Would you use any of the following to assist with your journey?

I'd have to if there was nothing else - or use the car.

What is missing are the real questions?

Would you find an area timetable book, distributed free door to door, helpful and would it encourage you to use the bus more frequently?

Would you use the web site more if it were not cluttered up with lots of twiddly guff?

Would you be happier if the leaflet racks at the Travel Offices were always fully stocked?

Would you like useful maps on your timetable leaflets?

(click on map to enlarge) The current maps are incomprehensible; in particular they show no road names and an illogical collection of stop "labels"...

Would you like timetables that were easy to understand and gave correct information?

(click on timetable to enlarge) Only two buses to Hallamshire Road? No, all of them go that way!

It does not take much of a brain cell to see where the PTE is going. And by using the technique of an already-skewed survey, they will, statistically, be able to make a supposedly valid case. What do the bus companies think? What has happened to the Sheffield and Rotherham bus partnerships?

There might be an up-side to the PTE's intended UTS policy (Ultimate Timetable Secrecy). It might actually force the main operators to get off their corporate backsides and start telling people where and when their buses go, rather than hiding behind a poor quality and ludicrously expensive PTE service.

Time (and a return to decline of passenger numbers) will tell.

** bad grammar. "If" takes the subjuctive; "If information were to be reduced"  is correct.

Oh yes, and talking of partnership; we were promised easily available joint ticketing. Optio Orange and Optio Red (valid on both Stagecoach and First buses along "partnership" corridors) have both been withdrawn. One question in the survey asked people what tickets they buy. Here are the choices (click on the panel to enlarge):-

Presumably Stagecoach products cannot be bought at the Travel Centres as there are none on the list!

 Next bus blog : Saturday 6th September 

Livery Delivery : Confusion Profusion [2]

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Blog postponed from 29th August

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What about naming a bus route after the colours on a map?

Surely it makes sense to do it the other way? Choose the map colours to match the branding.

Not for First Aberdeen. It has allocated its latest batch of new Streetlites to two routes, 3 and 23.

The 3 to Matsrick is a purply colour on the current map, so the bus route is named "Thistle".

Map-wise, the 23 is a nice golden yellow colour. So it's obvious ...

... Sunshine Line! The two brands were launched together with appropriate flora.

Why not Sunflower Line? fbb is looking at his map extract. Theres 12, the Nettle Line; and 11, the Butterscotch Line; 13 the Winestain Line and that leaves X40 which has to be the Heliotrope Line; the world desperately needs a Heliotrope Line. And there's more map colours to come. What fun.

But in the deep south of Wales things have become a little confusing of late.

Remember these:-

Pictures of this pallid paint scheme appeared on-line for delivery to First Cymru but never made it into service. Then whatever happened to ...

... Welsh Gold?

Then came the X2 blue bus rebranding.

Incomprehensible and nearly illegible Welsh on one side ...

... which always seemed easier to read in English on the other side.

But then someone at Swansea had a jackpot idea. "Let's create a brand for the whole of South Wales, a brand which will set the tone for a flash new look for a whole bunch of limited stop services."

"And we'll call them ..."

Welsh Gold? No. Vale Clipper? No. Fflach glas brenhinol? No. "And we'll call them Cymru Clipper in Welglish," on one side ...

"... or Clipiwr Cymru in all Welsh on the other.

Clipiwr? Hang on a bit? When fbb was nobbut a lad (1970s and 80s actually) lots of Croswille Cymru buses  used a Clipper sort of brand or route name. But they spelled it ...

... Clipa! Even double decks carried blinds for Clipa ...

... although the jocular on-line caption for this one suggested it might be going to Cuba!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Swansea, First have just created two new X routes. The new X7 (unbranded as Clipiwr on the leaflet) ...

... has been created from one of the combined 20 minutes frequency on service 32 and 36 ...

... by extending it to Cardiff and making it limited stop in the Bridgend area.

The other new X appears to be brand new service ...

... Clipiwr branded between Swansea and Carmarthen.

Of course it isn't totally new, it's a sort-of speeded-up version of an ancient service seen here in the 1995 Great Britain Bus Timetable when it was X11 and X30.

The X11 is now half hourly but (daftly?) shown as two connecting journeys. Of course it runs "through"!

The X12 doesn't call at Llanelli etc and saves 35 minutes on the end to end running time. But in the same edition of GBBTT we have service 100/302. This took only 45 minutes for three out of the four trips!

So not entirely new.

Hopefully the company has now sorted itself out and the Clipiwr name (not Clipa) will be stable for a while. And those buses which remain unbranded blue will soon be properly labelled ...

... and kept on Clipper (Clipiwr) routes. In fact YJ07 WFU was once a Welsh Gold brand; and before that a lurid orange for Swansea Park and Ride.

Ah; it was so much simpler when buses were all red or green.

Or blue, or yellow or brown.

Or silver!

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A Maidstone PS

The Mall, formerly the Chequers had another "formerly". It was once known as "The Stoneborough Centre".

And, for the nostalgia freaks, fbb could not resist a picture of a Maidstone Corporation bus - painted brown. Thanks to oir Northampton correspondent for both "snippets".

A very youthful Giles Fearnley turned down an offer of the General Managership of Maidstone Corporation Transport at the age of about 12. At the time he told fbb-to-be that there were better career opportunities within the National Bus Company. How true - and the boy done good,

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 Next bus blog : Friday 5th September