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Would you pay an extra 25% to bring back bus conductors?

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GodAtum

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I'm watching That's Britain on BBC 1 atm and they had a section of bringing back bus collectors. Would you pay an extra 25% to bring back bus conductors?
 
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WestCoast

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I wouldn't. I don't see the point of a conductor on a quiet bus route!

It would push by regular bus journey up from £3.50 to £4.38.
 

ivanhoe

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So after 40 years of one man operation, conductors are our saviours and we have to pay a 25% increase in our fares? If it knocked off 50% off the journey time, I'd sign up. They won't so I'm out!
 

SS4

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25% on a day ticket (which is what virtually everyone without a pass gets here) is an extra 90p so you'd be paying £4.50 for a NXWM day ticket and £4.75 for a nbus day ticket.
As I understand it WMPTE is quite cheap for buses outside London.

Many routes do not warrant conductors with concessionary passes. Existing conductors/inspectors could be concentrated although I'm not privy to any of the bus companies' tactics so they may already be doing so.
Yet surely the point is that if revenue protection is hitting profits then these private companies would see it's in their best interests to introduce them?
 

TheEscapist_

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On Lothian Buses they sometimes have a persom come on and check tickets, it would be nice to have them all the time, but I don't really want to pay an extra 25%!
 

ajdunlop

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Would have liked them to also ask these people if they actually use the busses. I suspect that most of the people answering are in London and have been brainwashed by Boris or have never used a bus. Suppose it's to be expected from the audience of a program which is one big rant.
 
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"That's Britain" did indeed seem a little lightweight.

Quite a bit of cheap point scoring about councils wasting money. We weren't given any information on a bridge that had been built over a motorway, other than because only a few people used it whilst the camera crew were present it therefore MUST be a waste of funds. Who knows, but considering it replaced a previous bridge I'd guess there would be an equal chance to score points about mean tight-fisted councillors isoltaing communities, denying folk the right to cross the motorway etc etc.

All a tad Daily Mail.
 

martinsh

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My local route is served by 2 operators - a 25% fare increase on the cheaper one wopuld still make it cheaper than the dearer one ! (Arriva)

I might baulk at 25% but 10% definitely if it made services quicker.
 

Ivo

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I'd never even heard of this programme until tonight :shock:

Before I got my pass, I used to hate how the fares back home had gone up so sharply since the late 90s. I used to baulk at the idea of having to pay 30p - yes, 30p - to travel two stops! (This was under Child fare rules, but the cost was negated by the only intermediate stop being a fare stage which meant it was 30p and not 15p!).

Now, it is something like £1.00 for that samne journey, which is an enormous increase. Thus, on this evidence alone, I am in favour of the idea.

Then you get to just about every other argument in existence, including even journey time because that can be offset by convenience (especially where passes are involved), and as such I have to mimic most of you, and say no.

To give one quick idea, the 265 route from here to Trowbridge is very well loaded most of the time, but is a poor money maker because the majority of journeys are done with ENCTS passes (like mine obviously). By contrast, beyond Trowbridge, to Warminster, it requires a subsidy! What would happen on this route?
 

Greenback

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I don't really think it's a well thought out or feasible proposition. In fact, I made sure I avoided the programme because it looked like a dumbed down waste of time. We have many problems in the UK, none of which can be analysed properly in such a show.

We have had conductors put on the bendy buses in Swansea though, and without a 25% fare increase. Though they are called customer hosts, or soemthing like that.
 

newbie babs

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No, it just would not work, there are more customers with attitudes that catch buses these days.
Violence on the buses would be back
 

SS4

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"That's Britain" did indeed seem a little lightweight.

Quite a bit of cheap point scoring about councils wasting money. We weren't given any information on a bridge that had been built over a motorway, other than because only a few people used it whilst the camera crew were present it therefore MUST be a waste of funds. Who knows, but considering it replaced a previous bridge I'd guess there would be an equal chance to score points about mean tight-fisted councillors isoltaing communities, denying folk the right to cross the motorway etc etc.

All a tad Daily Mail.

Did you expect anything else? It is very likely that the production team had this goal in mind even before the idea got off of the drawing board. From there it is easy enough to find people who will say what you want them to say. If they didn't want to travel outside the local area then loaded questions and misquoting are potent weapons in their arsenal.
I'm also guessing that no mention was made of local councils having their budgets cut either.

One has to be careful with media since you only see what they want you to see and what they want you to see often depends on their, or their paymaster's, agenda.

I'll get my [tinfoil] hat and coat <D
 
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Instead, I support London style flat bus fares for other UK cities. For instance (say) in Birmingham £2.00 flat fare or £1.00 with a smart card.
 

Mojo

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Given the fact that slower buses = more cost to bus operator, does this 25% include the time saved by waiting around at stops? In my experience many urban buses spend more time stationary than moving.
 

Mutant Lemming

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Why would it have to be added to bus fares ?
They have announced a £1 billion spend on some kind of scheme to reduce youth unemployment, they spend vast somes incarcerating non-violent offenders in open prisons, there are millions of capable people sitting around doing nothing on benefit....

The role of bus conductor wasn't just revenue 'protection' but of assisting passengers and ensuring a safer travelling environment. Not every bus needs a conductor but if you are going to spend/waste money on 'job creation/training' schemes then why not do so on something that has a potential useful purpose such as bringing conductors back on buses ?
 

SS4

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Why would it have to be added to bus fares ?
They have announced a £1 billion spend on some kind of scheme to reduce youth unemployment, they spend vast somes incarcerating non-violent offenders in open prisons, there are millions of capable people sitting around doing nothing on benefit....

The role of bus conductor wasn't just revenue 'protection' but of assisting passengers and ensuring a safer travelling environment. Not every bus needs a conductor but if you are going to spend/waste money on 'job creation/training' schemes then why not do so on something that has a potential useful purpose such as bringing conductors back on buses ?

I suspect it's because the going rate is more than benefits so the government pays less. Hence the massive public sector layoffs

Yes, the government would end up paying since all the companies would do is demand subsidy
 

Aictos

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Yes, but with a freeze on ticket prices and also introducing inspectors to ensure buses run to time.

There's fines for late running on the railways so why not the buses?
 

ChrisCooper

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Yes, but with a freeze on ticket prices and also introducing inspectors to ensure buses run to time.

There's fines for late running on the railways so why not the buses?

Firstly buses are in an uncontrolled environment so can often suffer delays that are out of their control, infact the majority of delays to buses are outside of their control (conjestion, accidents, roadworks, other road closures). Secondly, monitoring buses is far harder than trains. Other than in London where TfL does it using GPS on the buses, it's all manual with a person on the street recording the passing times of buses. The modern day Blakey might have an iPad or similar, but it's not changed much. If bus companies fail to run to time without reasonable excuse (allowing 5mins late and 1min early) then they can be fined or even loose their licence. VOSA is underfunded, and with cuts is likely to be able to employ even less monitoring staff than now. Many in the industry wish there was better monitoring as it would help seperate the good companies from those who are not so good (which often includes the bigger groups).
On the whole though bus reliablity is good. Like railways they often suffer most when companies reduce turnaround to cut costs (one of the least reliable services in my area is a long distance run that gets about 15mins at each end, but most of that is compulsory break for the driver, ironically run by a company that are very far up their own backsides when it comes to how good they claim to be).
 

Mojo

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There's fines for late running on the railways so why not the buses?
There are. Subsidised bus routes are answerable to the local authority or PTE depending on the nature of the contract. For commercial services, the Traffic Commissioner undertakes inspection and monitoring and has the power to levy penalties as appropriate.

One such example, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-12249432
 
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