(06 Feb 2022, 2:04 pm)omnicity4659 wrote I agree that the bus turning up (and on time) is the most important aspect for all passengers.

A sizeable amount of passengers have switched from the car to bus over the past decade through the provision of phone chargers, tables (places to socialise with friends/family on board, or to catch up on work through tablets/laptops). The provision of next stop audio-visual also increases confidence in those unfamiliar with bus travel, or the area, as well as those who are visually impaired or hard-of-hearing. So when a bus turns up that doesn't have these features, it is disappointing or detrimental to people who have switched because they've been offered those services.

In my opinion, from an on-board offering point of view, companies need to focus on getting these basics right first inside the bus, so regardless of what age or colour the bus, you know what you're getting - instead we've ended up with a mish-mash of different coloured buses with different things inside depending on where you live or which direction you're travelling in and it's that consistency, as well as cleanliness, that passengers would actually appreciate. Then when they have that sorted, then they can look into marketing what they have as a whole (and be proud of it) and not just on a route-by-route basis whenever they've painted something or had a handful of new buses.

From talking to those across various departments and companies, more (and a hell of a lot of) time, effort and money needs to be spent on bringing maintenance and punctuality up to standard again. Arriva and Go North East are running their engineering departments on a shoestring budget, whilst all companies are struggling to recognise problem points with punctuality with their services (especially over the last couple of years)... then they point the fingers at ex- and potential customers for holding their ever-deteriorating ingbus service up.


And that's the view of an "enthusiast", who is also an ex-bus commuter and frequent leisure travel customer, who since took the plunge and got a car - where I don't have to worry about the random roulette of having an infotainment system, comfortable seating, air con, USB chargers (or an actual vehicle!) or not.....amongst other problems. But funnily enough, bus companies seem to think they know better than those telling them how they could attract them back, so these points are never really addressed properly (despite the endless surveys from local authorities and Arriva!).

Sizable?  Really?   I’m a bus driver, I can count on one hand the amount of passengers who have asked about charging points, never been asked about tables or branding and the only comments I’ve had about NSA have been from regular commuters complaining about them.  

I do, however, get both negative and positive comments about reliability, cost and general cleanliness on a fairly regular basis, which suggests to me what is really important to the travelling public.

I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be charging points or internet connection or NSA. But maybe we need a bit of perspective on where limited budgets are spent