24 Feb 2021, 1:15 pm
#868
(24 Feb 2021, 8:16 am)omnicity4659 But for each time that a vehicle which doesn't meet modern standards for comforts and features, customers who switched from other modes, such as cars, will lose faith and trust in the service provided...and will consider switching back to the car. Not to mention those who are existing customers, too.
I think it's time to ditch the 10-year old perception that people don't care about what spec bus turns up.
Definitely agree.
Before they got the StreetDecks on the X21, I think I may have used it maybe once, it just wasn't a very pleasant place to spend the hour and a half up to Newcastle. Since then I've pretty much exclusively used the bus to get up to Newcastle.
If a 15 year old heap turns up instead, there's no way I'm getting it unless I have an appointment I need to get to. I'll wait the half an hour until the next one. When a service is advertised as having WiFi, USB, Tables and comfortable seats, I'd bloody hope a vehicle of that specification turns up. It's like booking an Uber Exec and a Vauxhall Astra turning up.
Tables might seem like a waste of money, but I use them for work every time I get the bus. There's no way I could work on my laptop sitting in a regular seat, there just isn't the space to open it up fully.
Fancy seats might seem like a waste of money, but when you're spending 4 hours a day on a bus, they really do make a difference.
USB ports and sockets might seem like a waste of money, but for those of us who spend the day getting emails and phone calls, they're basically essential when you also have mobile ticketing. If your battery runs out, you're stranded.
And sorry to burst everyone's bubble, buses weren't better 'back in the day', the services might have been, but the buses most certainly weren't. I genuinely don't understand why people think they were, is it the nostalgia?
Because I certainly wouldn't like to spend 2 hours sitting on what is no better than a slab of wood with no back support.
