(31 Aug 2021, 1:19 pm)Adrian wrote I think frequency can be a major part, but I don't think it can be the be-all and end-all, as it has often been marketed in the past. For me, it's just as important to make sure that proper thought goes into connections (in both directions) with less frequent services, but perhaps the ones that are used to get people to the high frequency service that takes them from A to B. When high frequency isn't appropriate, then the timing of terminus departures are key to me. Because when you're trying to attract people from the convenience of a car, you have to remember that they don't turn up to a car park and stand around for 25 minutes before their car is ready to depart.
If I use the 50 as an example from Durham, from 4pm onwards (which is generally the earliest daytime workers will leave work), you've just missed the 15.57, you've got the 16.32, 17.09, 17.39 and then 18.06 is the last one. So you end up in the situation where it's just far too tight for people finishing work on the hour/half past the hour (as shifts usually do) to catch any of those, and quite a long time for people be stood around waiting for the next one that is due.
You of course can split the journey at Chester-le-Street, but the X21 doesn't connect with the 50 (apart from the 17.16 out of Durham) nor the 8. The 8's Sunderland-bound departures from CLS are timetabled very close to the 50, rather than planning it so that it creates more of a clock-face frequency. Problems that still exist post 5th September.
This is one of the main reasons why I decided to learn how to drive. On a summer evening, it might be nice to go for stroll to pass the time whilst waiting for a bus, but in the winter, the prospect of a stroll or waiting around in a cold bus station for half-an-hour isn't exactly appealing.
While timings have improved in the Derwent Valley over the past twenty years or so, I used to hate travelling home by bus on an evening when I used to work in the Metrocentre in the late 90s. I think there was the choice between the 611, the 745 and, perhaps the M21 (not too sure about the latter), however they all used to be timed to come within 15 minutes of each other (55, 00 and 10, IIRC - I'll check when I'm at home later!). For someone finishing at either 8pm or 9pm, it is certainly not ideal to have another 45 minute wait on top of your day.
In some ways I was lucky as I only had one bus to catch. I know that some people I worked with lived in Washington and Birtley so imagine their experience might have been as bad as mine.
But this point makes you wonder how much of a factor bad timetabling or inadequate connections are when someone makes the decision to switch from bus to car.