(15 Aug 2021, 10:05 am)RobinHood wrote What needs to happen is for every local authority in the region to actually put in place bus priority measures that make a significant dent into current journey times. A 100m stretch of bus lane here and there really isnt going to cut it. If the bus was reliable, fast and dependable - most people wouldn't really care about the Wifi/Next Stop/Livery etc. They would choose the bus due to speed and access.
Unfortunately, none of local authorities have a backbone to do this as they are too scared to lose the political vote that comes from the car owner. Lets hope the National Bus Strategy calls them out on it, as I understand it, the biggest and boldest ideas are most likely to be funded first (so they cannot claim money will be an issue).
Another issue for me are Clean Air Zones. Why do buses need to be Euro 6 but cars don't? Makes no sense. The bus operators should be incentivised to upgrade (better BSOG rates etc) but the car should be simply banned from core areas of the city (generally speaking, appreciate the numerous variables at play).
You can stick as many bus lanes and priority measures as you want. Unless the bus goes where the people are going, bus lanes are pretty much pointless.
Banning cars from city centres, isn't going to do anything other than encourage car users to go elsewhere.
(15 Aug 2021, 10:27 am)Driver9*** wrote That'll never happen again, the operator would have to run 50% more buses just to pick up 20% extra passengers.
When I started at Arriva they had numerous minibuses plowing through estates whilst the big buses that went past the outskirts of said estates were carrying fresh air, the penny finally dropped at the silliness of doing this around about 2010ish........
Were those minibuses taking the residents of the estates to places the residents needed to go? Or where the operators thought they wanted to be.
Having a minibus go from an estate to Whitley Bay, when residents are travelling to drop the kids off and then heading in the opposite direction, to get to work - was never the brightest idea.