Notification of Service Changes

[Andyh82]

In my area (it doesn’t matter where) there were Bus changes yesterday and yet again people are ranting and raving on social media about how the changes have been made without notification, or that buses have missed not realising it’s because there is no longer a bus at this time.

Of course there has been notification, on the operator website, on the Combined Authority website, posters on buses, scrolling messages on real time displays, mentions on Twitter...

People wouldn’t look on a website if they didn’t know about a change, and they wouldn’t know about a change if they didn’t look on the website.

So how can an operator effectively ensure everyone knows about a change?

 

[CM]

Well knowing what area the changes were in would allow people to give you a better answer.

 

[Darklord8899]

I guess it all comes down to the age old issue of money....

Assuming a company has the budget then on bus bill boards, metro (Or other free paper) local newspapers to the area, local radio adverts, local tv adverts even.
Then the usual website, social media channels, "roadshows" at key locations (shopping centres or major interchange for example)

That would probably reach the majority of users (I would say it is near impossible to make every passenger aware) however in the real world I'm sure not every company has the funds to do all of the above.

On board bus bills is probably the most effective, along with company website and social media channels.

 

[CD]

So many operators make changes every few months. If the were like the railways were changes are only twice a year, people would be better prepared.

 

[PeterC]

The ability of the Great British Public to fail to see notices that are right in front of them is astounding. You could burn the message into some people's eyeballs and they still wouldn't see it.

Actually advance notification is much better these days but you have to go looking for it.

 

[PeterC]

So many operators make changes every few months. If the were like the railways were changes are only twice a year, people would be better prepared.

I remember that, with the new timetable book being released a day or two before the start date and no information available before that.

 

[Darklord8899]

The ability of the Great British Public to fail to see notices that are right in front of them is astounding. You could burn the message into some people's eyeballs and they still wouldn't see it.

Actually, you have made a very valid point there

 

[AJW12]

London is generally very good for things like notifying passengers about planned diversions (with things like bright yellow covers for the bus stop flags and a big yellow notice on the stop information saying the stand is closed) - yet I have seen the number of people that just don't notice them whatsoever and have even waited for the next bus at the same stop.

 

[Andyh82]

I wonder if the only thing that would be noticed is audio announcements on buses or in the bus stations.

 

[Mwanesh]

I wonder if the only thing that would be noticed is audio announcements on buses or in the bus stations.

Most people dont even listen.The amount of times people i have seen people i have seen arguing with the driver when the bus announces this bus is terminating here.

 

[Teflon Lettuce]

what I've always found odd about service changes is the insistence by certain companies that they can't inform their customers until the last minute because of "commercial sensitivity" or "we can't let our competitors know our plans" whilst the general public may swallow this nonsense it IS nonsense... to change a service you have to give notice to the Traffic Commissioner 56 days notice.. and they then publish those changes... for all your competitors to see... I wonder if any bus company manager on here can give the REAL reason why passengers aren't told until the last minute? My guess is it's just out and out incompetence... or contempt!

 

[bussnapperwm]

If it's the Combined Authority thats Totally Furiously Wasting Money (WMCA) then even a full page advert in the Express and Star and the free weekly rags wouldn't be enough.

There again some of the changes by the main operator are totally illogical, irritating and irational

Having two routes numbered 14 operate within a mile of each other, two 17s within 2 miles of each other and numbering one 13 to 11A just to have a number 13 which has one varient on a 20/40 frequency and the other on a 60 frequency.

What's funny is the 2 17 services have tendered journeys operated by another operator and (unless it's changed) the evening tendered 17 service (Dudley to Stourbridge) uses the bus off the daytime tendered 17 service (merry hill to Halesowen) whilst buses off the daytime 17 In Stourbridge do either 15/16 Wolverhampton - Merry Hill/Stourbridge or run empty to Wolverhampton depot!

 

[Statto]

When the normal timetables resume after the summer holidays have always be a date when major changes happen, but it's whether passengers use the websites that list the changes is another thing, as you'll always get some that don't bother going on the websites then end up clueless over the changes.

 

[Smethwickian]

The September 2 changes to a large number of National Express West Midlands services across the Sandwell and Dudley boroughs of the WM county stemmed from a consultation exercise earlier in the year which was advertised by onboard notices, on the NXWM website and which received publicity in print and online from the region's daily newspaper the Express & Star.
When finalised, advance notice was given in July, by the same means, that changes would be taking place on September 2 and that full details would be available in August.
Early in August route-specific notices started appearing on every affected stop, firmly affixed to shelters or the timetable case, and by mid-August many of the new TfWM-produced timetable leaflets were already available along with a comprehensive booklet detailing all the changes. Staff at travel centres in West Bromwich and Dudley, far from hiding the info away, made a point of flagging up the display of September change leaflets. All the info was clearly flagged up and detailed on the NXWM website, too.
Finally, in the week before the changes, I myself saw NXWM staff out and about on numerous occasions, handing out the booklets at Dudley bus station and in Oldbury town centre.

Sooooo, to conclude, by far the best effort in years by NXWM and TfWM to publicise some major changes. And yet....

Travelling on some of the new routes this week I hear drivers still being asked questions which clearly demonstrate that some people remain blissfully unaware of any such changes. And even my own parents (aged 79 and 82, regular bus and train users, perfectly independent and normally quite savvy), to whom I'd supplied all the relevant info in advance, returned from a short holiday to ask: "What on earth is that new X7 bus we saw in Oldbury yesterday? And what's the difference between the 120 and the 12?". Sigh....

 

[Mal]

There is a whole load of issues here. In no particular order I'll list a few because some have been noted anyway.
1. BBC Radio Merseyside is pathetic. Every day, they give a 'Travel and Traffic News' bulletin mentioning Roads, Trains, Ferries and Planes, and then say that 'public transport is running to time.' Recently though, there were many timetable changes on Arriva and Stagecoach buses and this was never mentioned.
2. Bus companies (especially Arriva) are awful at publicising changes on buses, even those that are branded for particular routes don't have info on forthcoming changes.
3. Some bus company websites are very badly laid out with news of service changes hidden away.
4. County council websites are not much better. Last time I looked at Gloucestershire's site, it referred me to Traveline, which is not always up to date.
Let's see what others have to throw into the mix.

 

[Mal]

The September 2 changes to a large number of National Express West Midlands services across the Sandwell and Dudley boroughs of the WM county stemmed from a consultation exercise earlier in the year which was advertised by onboard notices, on the NXWM website and which received publicity in print and online from the region's daily newspaper the Express & Star.
When finalised, advance notice was given in July, by the same means, that changes would be taking place on September 2 and that full details would be available in August.
Early in August route-specific notices started appearing on every affected stop, firmly affixed to shelters or the timetable case, and by mid-August many of the new TfWM-produced timetable leaflets were already available along with a comprehensive booklet detailing all the changes. Staff at travel centres in West Bromwich and Dudley, far from hiding the info away, made a point of flagging up the display of September change leaflets. All the info was clearly flagged up and detailed on the NXWM website, too.
Finally, in the week before the changes, I myself saw NXWM staff out and about on numerous occasions, handing out the booklets at Dudley bus station and in Oldbury town centre.

Sooooo, to conclude, by far the best effort in years by NXWM and TfWM to publicise some major changes. And yet....

Travelling on some of the new routes this week I hear drivers still being asked questions which clearly demonstrate that some people remain blissfully unaware of any such changes. And even my own parents (aged 79 and 82, regular bus and train users, perfectly independent and normally quite savvy), to whom I'd supplied all the relevant info in advance, returned from a short holiday to ask: "What on earth is that new X7 bus we saw in Oldbury yesterday? And what's the difference between the 120 and the 12?". Sigh....

I think it all comes down to laziness, but as has been said before, you could tell 100 people about bus service changes and maybe 10 would take any notice.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There has to be some balance struck here. It is perhaps unreasonable to expect bus companies to be taking out TV and radio adverts etc and, even then, you'll probably get the wrong radio station etc.

There should be roadside publicity but this is fraught. Many timetable cases are LA owned - bus companies are not allowed to amend them yet LAs have insufficient funds to update them. Really, there should be clear guidance that, if LAs can't or won't update, then bus companies should be able to. That said, there are some bus companies who are good at their own roadside publicity (e.g. Stagecoach in many places like the Midlands) and some who just don't bother.

Websites should be better laid out. I personally find the Go Ahead ones better, but Arriva is terrible. Same with local authorities - ironically, Northamptonshire was quite good at it. However, how do you even get people to check online esp. the silver non-surfers? Just make it really easy to find out.

Good on-board publicity should also be employed. First West of England do this with notices saying - these routes are changing, showing a grid with the numbers of all affected services, and then some text that concisely summarises the changes. Similarly, timetable leaflets on the appropriate service in advance would help (not always achievable) and at local centres and company offices (for those that still have them).

It really should be a multi faceted approach.

Nonetheless, the reality is that some people will fail to see whatever you do, will blame anyone and everyone, and not see what is in front of them. An observation from about 6 months ago illustrates this..... I was waiting for the X5 Swindon to Salisbury route in Marlborough and a group of pass wielding pensioners wandered out. They wanted the Swindon bound bus that was due in about 5 mins (the Salisbury one being due 10 mins after that). They knew the time of their bus and there was a timetable case. The bus duly arrived on time with X5 Swindon on the front and side screens. They asked a fellow passenger if that was the bus to Swindon - they said it was. Yet they STILL felt the need to ask the driver and check! The moral - you can do so much for people yet for some, for whatever reason, it may not be enough!!!

 

[goldisgood]

Stagecoach (Oxford depot, unsure about Banbury or Witney) tend to be pretty good - they put stickers in the windscreen of buses when there are timetable and fare changes. There aren't a lot of major changes (the most recent ones probably being the S3/7 and the S8/S9), and they put up lots of posters at stops when the X30/31 became the S9/S8 in October last year. I think that posters should be put up at least at main stops that there are changes, with where they can find the main changes (ie the 0715 departure is now 0710, most daytime journeys retimed, the 2330 is now at 2340, etc - depends on how big the changes are). They could then give drivers the new timetables, but not in the timetable rack, and put on the posters 'for the new timetables please ask the driver', then a few days before the changes put them in the main timetable rack (or something like this). It can be done, and companies do it (although some better than others obviously).

 

[Typhoon]

They could then give drivers the new timetables, but not in the timetable rack, and put on the posters 'for the new timetables please ask the driver', then a few days before the changes put them in the main timetable rack (or something like this).

(My emphasis)
I would be interested in drivers' views on this.

 

[Robertj21a]

(My emphasis)
I would be interested in drivers' views on this.

Not much use if the Company doesn't produce paper timetables !

 

[Bantamzen]

In my area (it doesn’t matter where) there were Bus changes yesterday and yet again people are ranting and raving on social media about how the changes have been made without notification, or that buses have missed not realising it’s because there is no longer a bus at this time.

Of course there has been notification, on the operator website, on the Combined Authority website, posters on buses, scrolling messages on real time displays, mentions on Twitter...

People wouldn’t look on a website if they didn’t know about a change, and they wouldn’t know about a change if they didn’t look on the website.

So how can an operator effectively ensure everyone knows about a change?

My reaction to people ranting on social media would be, you have access to the company's social media feeds & websites, so if any change to your usual travel times would have an impact, use the resource in your hand / in front of you to keep yourself informed.

 

[Typhoon]

Not much use if the Company doesn't produce paper timetables !

True. I just think that a driver has better things to do like driving the bus/ avoiding idiot drivers in front and behind/ collecting fares/ checking passes and tickets/ having enough change and dealing with situations where you haven't/ trying to work out where people want to get off from vague descriptions/ keeping the bus clean/ dealing with mouthy whatsits who don't want to pay their fare and so resort to bashing the infrastructure/ deal with diversions that they did or didn't know about and a myriad of other duties rather than making sure they have enough of each timetable they are likely to cover in case a passenger wants one. Passengers can pick them up from the plastic containers provided on board or at local libraries or TICs. Ok, some are wasted. A minor problem comparatively.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

There should be roadside publicity but this is fraught. Many timetable cases are LA owned - bus companies are not allowed to amend them yet LAs have insufficient funds to update them. Really, there should be clear guidance that, if LAs can't or won't update, then bus companies should be able to. That said, there are some bus companies who are good at their own roadside publicity (e.g. Stagecoach in many places like the Midlands) and some who just don't bother.

Good on-board publicity should also be employed. First West of England do this with notices saying - these routes are changing, showing a grid with the numbers of all affected services, and then some text that concisely summarises the changes. Similarly, timetable leaflets on the appropriate service in advance would help (not always achievable) and at local centres and company offices (for those that still have them).

It really should be a multi faceted approach.

Some of the roadside publicity in West Yorkshire is out of date, burnt or are completely missing. I do have to say that the efforts made by both Transdev and First West Yorkshire in both Leeds and Huddersfield bus stations by them providing their own timetable cases shows what the other operators can do if they tried and would in the long term save WYCA some cash on not having to do it themselves.

Likewise with the printed publicity, WYCA scrapped the "Changing Times" book and replaced it with an online only version but I do recall at one point in the 90's that they also have a full page spread in the local papers stating what's changing. As with FWoE's approach on timetables changes, they did have (in 2016 at least) two books stating what's changing, FWY could do with adopting the same approach (along with printing their own timetables) since WYCA have done away with the aformentioned changing times book.

Independants usually have a single sheet of A4 stating which of they're services are changing - I know that Stotts Coaches did around ten years ago.

 

[Statto]

Merseytravel used to publish timetable/route changes in the local free weekly papers which were delivered to every household in the area, but no longer do, & some of the weekly papers aren't free anymore, i do remember my local weekly paper having a pull out supplement of the d-reg changes.

 

[40145 Panther]

Merseytravel used to publish timetable/route changes in the local free weekly papers which were delivered to every household in the area, but no longer do, & some of the weekly papers aren't free anymore, i do remember my local weekly paper having a pull out supplement of the d-reg changes.

Weeks in advance of bus deregulation, GMPTE published a booklet of the changes by Metropolitan Borough area which was mailed to households. These were also available from the bus station's information office, or GMPTE's office on Aytoun Street. Subsequent changes used to be printed in the Manchester Evening News till the late-1990s. This alongside details of roadworks took up an entire tabloid page, usually before the TV listings or next to the cartoons.

Today, Transport for Greater Manchester publish their service changes in print form in principal bus stations. Furthermore, the TfGM website remains a useful source for the latest service changes. What is lost in the present version of their website is their service changes archive - which went as far back as 2010! You can still download each service's Bus Guide from the TfGM website; sometimes with forthcoming timetables of bus routes affected by future changes. Even so, you still need to check more than one source for service changes, like the operator's website for your route.

 

[Mal]

Merseytravel used to publish timetable/route changes in the local free weekly papers which were delivered to every household in the area, but no longer do, & some of the weekly papers aren't free anymore, i do remember my local weekly paper having a pull out supplement of the d-reg changes.

Merseytravel website is good, comprehensive and up to date, so is always worth referring to. You mentioned free weekly papers; I remember Merseymart and Wirral Globe as two local ones, now both ceased I believe.

 

[randyrippley]

Most people expect to find timetables posted at bus stops. Lancashire County Council did a wonderful job of reducing bus journeys a few years back by stopping the posting of timetables at bus stops to save costs.

 

[Statto]

Merseytravel website is good, comprehensive and up to date, so is always worth referring to. You mentioned free weekly papers; I remember Merseymart and Wirral Globe as two local ones, now both ceased I believe.

Wirral Globe is still very much going, but no longer free, but Merseytravel site is good, although they can be slow publishing future bus service changes

 

[Mwanesh]

Chesterfield does have a route map for all routes radiating from there.It helps a lot i got mine from the coach station .They still give it for free.

 

[Mal]

Wirral Globe is still very much going, but no longer free, but Merseytravel site is good, although they can be slow publishing future bus service changes

Last time I saw Wirral Globe was when someone brought a copy in to work but mind, I retired 10years ago!