Buses and the coronavirus

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Bletchleyite said:
It's a shame the UK doesn't generally do dual door as closing off the front door seems a reasonable measure. If demand drops in London I wonder if companies will move spare buses elsewhere so they can?

That's what they have exactly done in Italy, and I even created a thread about this!

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SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Baxenden Bank said:
It's very common in the far east. You get a bug, your wear a mask to prevent you spreading it.

Yeah, especially in Japan. Lol

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Andyh82 said:
The first step would be to change to run a Saturday service through the week. Maybe with early morning extras if there isn’t such a service on a particular route on a Saturday.

Similar to the sort of service that runs 27-30 December

Or instead, in my opinion, have a normal non-schoolday timetable, as if it was Christmas, Easter, Summer Holidays or half term. That's what they are doing in Italy currently.

mmh · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
Or instead, in my opinion, have a normal non-schoolday timetable, as if it was Christmas, Easter, Summer Holidays or half term. That's what they are doing in Italy currently.

Are there areas where the schoolday timetable is significantly different? Here it just means a couple of buses do a small detour to a secondary school for the start and the end of the day, and one is extended to a further education college (but strangely only in the afternoon, not in the morning it seems.)

Megafuss · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
Or instead, in my opinion, have a normal non-schoolday timetable, as if it was Christmas, Easter, Summer Holidays or half term. That's what they are doing in Italy currently.

Schools staying open is really going to hamper the maximising of what will be a dwindling resource as more drivers start to self isolate. Wouldn't surprise me to see Sunday level of services introduced with schools and shift worker services at the top and tail of the day....

henairs · 16 Mar 2020

Megafuss said:
Schools staying open is really going to hamper the maximising of what will be a dwindling resource as more drivers start to self isolate. Wouldn't surprise me to see Sunday level of services introduced with schools and shift worker services at the top and tail of the day....

What happens in the many places of all sizes with no Sunday services then?

Bletchleyite · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
That's what they have exactly done in Italy, and I even created a thread about this!

I know. I was pointing out that it's feasible in London but not elsewhere in the UK, though if London services are cut big groups could move dual door buses elsewhere to allow it there too.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Megafuss said:
Schools staying open is really going to hamper the maximising of what will be a dwindling resource as more drivers start to self isolate. Wouldn't surprise me to see Sunday level of services introduced with schools and shift worker services at the top and tail of the day....

Yeah. The UK government seriously needs to close schools in the UK and I mean now.

Sunday level of service is possible, yeah. Here, in Horsham (West Sussex, South East of England just about an hour away from London) our Sunday services is very good. Not only because of our main town service, the 98, running quite frequent on Sunday (every 45 mins seems pretty good for a Sunday!), but also because you can go to Worthing, Crawley, Gatwick Airport, Dorking and Brighton without having to do any massive detours or rely on a car. Every 2 hours to Crawley and Worhting on the 23, every hour to Gatwick Airport on the 200 (which btw runs 24/7) too, every 2 hours to Dorking on the 93, and three journeys a day (one in the morning, one at lunch time, and one in the late afternoon) to Brighton on the 17 is amazing for a small town like Horsham! The issue, of course, would be for isolated communities that have no sunday service at all: such as, nearby, Slinfold, where people, especially the elderly, would want to rely on buses to go to Horsham and other towns nearby for essential shopping. Hence why I suggested if possible to use a Non-Schoolday Monday to Friday timetable. Although the Saturday timetable isn't a bad either either.

Bletchleyite · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
Yeah. The UK government seriously needs to close schools in the UK and I mean now.

No, it seriously doesn't.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Bletchleyite said:
I know. I was pointing out that it's feasible in London but not elsewhere in the UK, though if London services are cut big groups could move dual door buses elsewhere to allow it there too.

True, although don't forget there are quite a few cities outside London that do have dual door buses. Such as Brighton (with its Streetdecks on the 1/1A, 7, 49 and E400 ER MMCs on the 5/5A/5B), Crawley (with its OmniCities single decker on the 1 and Volvo Wright Eclipse on the Fastway 10/20), Reading (with its Scania E400 Cities on the 17), Oxford (with its Citaros on the 4/4A/4B/4C/6) etc.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Bletchleyite said:
No, it seriously doesn't.

I respect your opinion as always, but I think if we want to reduce the number of coronavirus cases, then we should follow the examples that other European Countries, including my other one on my dual nationality (Italy) by closing schools and maybe even think about imposing a lockdown. We really should follow the Continental European model, especially the Italian one, if we want to reduce Coronavirus cases.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

P.S. Yes I'm half British and half Italian (sorry for being off topic)

Alexbus12 · 16 Mar 2020

An interesting article https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...xpects-500m-loss-of-passenger-income-11958265

Transport for London says the coronavirus outbreak could result in a £500m loss of passenger income, adding that it will ask the government for financial support.

The firm said it had seen a reduction in demand and passenger revenue since October last year due to economic uncertainty.

But this worsened during February due to bad weather and in March when the initial impact of coronavirus in the UK became clear.

TfL said since 2 March, it had seen "further reductions in ridership, coinciding with growing public awareness of the COVID-19 virus, starting with modest reductions in ridership of around 2% compared to the same days the previous year.

"Since then, a growing number of firms and individuals have changed their travel behaviour, with greater numbers of people working from home.

"This has led to an acceleration in the reduction in passenger numbers in the last week to around 19 per cent on the Tube and 10% on buses compared to the same week the previous year.

"This is made up roughly equally of fewer people travelling and those travelling making fewer journeys."

Simon Kilonback, TfL's chief finance officer, said: "Our best forecast, based on government scenarios, is that the financial impact of the coronavirus could be up to £500m.

"We manage our finances prudently, and have reduced our deficit hugely in recent years. This means that we can manage the impacts on our passenger numbers and finances that are currently envisaged. But, given the nature of the situation, we will be looking to the government to provide appropriate financial support.

He added: "We continue to follow and communicate Public Health England advice, including that there is no specific risk on public transport.

"We've also stepped up our cleaning regime from the already very high standards to give our customers and staff further reassurance."

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Alexbus12 said:
An interesting article https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...xpects-500m-loss-of-passenger-income-11958265

I can perfectly understand that there is an issue of loss of money, but, our lives are much more important and come first before anything else.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

Also, about the lockdown, if there was to be one (which looking at the increasing number of cases it's very likely), it would most likely start on London (which has the highest number of cases in the UK), to then expand to my region (the South East of England, second highest number of cases) and eventually cover the whole of the UK including Northern Ireland.

We could be in a situation exactly like Italy anytime soon.

PG · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
I can perfectly understand that there is an issue of loss of money, but, our lives are much more important and come first before anything else.

Indeed nothing has more value than life itself.

If we can take a moment to consider that a majority of the population will survive then it is prudent for businesses (bus companies in the case of this thread and TfL in the case of the article linked to) to plan for the aftermath otherwise they won't exist so many transport providers will (just like TfL) be asking the government to assist them to survive.

carlberry · 16 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
I respect your opinion as always, but I think if we want to reduce the number of coronavirus cases, then we should follow the examples that other European Countries, including my other one on my dual nationality (Italy) by closing schools and maybe even think about imposing a lockdown. We really should follow the Continental European model, especially the Italian one, if we want to reduce Coronavirus cases.

The world currently has no evidence based methods of dealing with the current Coronavirus outbreak. China MAY have contained using it's ability to control people, Italy so far has not. There will be lots of experts defending one method or another however it'll be many months before it'll really be possible to say that one method 'worked' and one didn't.

SouthEastBuses · 16 Mar 2020

carlberry said:
The world currently has no evidence based methods of dealing with the current Coronavirus outbreak. China MAY have contained using it's ability to control people, Italy so far has not. There will be lots of experts defending one method or another however it'll be many months before it'll really be possible to say that one method 'worked' and one didn't.

That's true, to be honest. Don't forget that with Italy the whole was country only since last week hence why we don't know yet if it's really worked or not. Whilst China, being the epicentre of the virus, has been in lockdown since January (well at least Wuhan has, the city where the whole virus originated, not sure about other places

ChrisC · 17 Mar 2020

SouthEastBuses said:
Yeah. The UK government seriously needs to close schools in the UK and I mean now.

Sunday level of service is possible, yeah. Here, in Horsham (West Sussex, South East of England just about an hour away from London) our Sunday services is very good. Not only because of our main town service, the 98, running quite frequent on Sunday (every 45 mins seems pretty good for a Sunday!), but also because you can go to Worthing, Crawley, Gatwick Airport, Dorking and Brighton without having to do any massive detours or rely on a car. Every 2 hours to Crawley and Worhting on the 23, every hour to Gatwick Airport on the 200 (which btw runs 24/7) too, every 2 hours to Dorking on the 93, and three journeys a day (one in the morning, one at lunch time, and one in the late afternoon) to Brighton on the 17 is amazing for a small town like Horsham! The issue, of course, would be for isolated communities that have no sunday service at all: such as, nearby, Slinfold, where people, especially the elderly, would want to rely on buses to go to Horsham and other towns nearby for essential shopping. Hence why I suggested if possible to use a Non-Schoolday Monday to Friday timetable. Although the Saturday timetable isn't a bad either either.

It may be only small isolated places that don’t have a Sunday service in the Horsham area of Sussex but that is certainly not the case elsewhere. There are many parts of the country where even quite sizeable towns have no bus services on Sundays or after 6pm in the evenings throughout the week.

overthewater · 17 Mar 2020

The first of the cuts?

https://www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/yellow-buses-coronavirus

YELLOW Buses has announced it will be operating a Saturday timetable throughout the whole week starting on Monday 23rd March due to the worsening coronavirus situation.

With passenger numbers down and the likelihood that some staff will be self-isolating, the company says it wants customers to have reliable bus times.

By taking this action, the management hopes to create a timetable robust enough to withstand any further disruption.

The bus cleaning regime has also been intensified with all poles, hand rails, seats and other key areas of its vehicles disinfected regularly.

Details of the revised timetable are available on the Yellow Buses’ website as well as on its app and at most bus stops.

Managing director David Squire said: “We will continue to provide a safe, reliable service for those travelling to work and making other journeys.

“By making these changes now we are hope to ensure a sustainable service as the pandemic develops.

“The situation with Covid-19 continues to change by the hour and we will keep customers up to date with the latest information through our usual channels.

“Our staff have reacted brilliantly to the situation and are pulling together in order to keep the buses running.”

School services remain unaffected by the changes, but there are certain other timetable tweaks beyond the regular Saturday service.

For example, there will be additional trips on the 737 service to the business park by Bournemouth Airport and on the 21 Burton service.

Service 8, which operates Monday to Friday, will now only operate three return journeys at the peak times.

Service 21, which operates from Monday to Friday, will be unchanged.

Routes N1 and N5 will not operate until further notice.

There will also be some changes to the open top summer services and these will be announced later.

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/coronavirus-first-bus-schedule-timetable-3957726
Coronavirus: Big changes announced for bus timetables as First Bus services reduced

Big changes have been announced for local bus timetables as First Bus services are reduced due to the ongoing effects of the spread of novel coronavirus COVID-19.

First West of England is making plans to run a Saturday service during the working week from next Monday (March 23) in an attempt to sustain services for those needing to travel across the region.

The announcement comes as the government has advised against non-essential travel and contact as it introduces new measures to deal with the rising number of coronavirus cases.

A spokesman for First Bus said: "Recent days have seen bus passenger numbers continue to reduce as people choose to stay at home or walk and cycle to their destinations.

"This is reflected in other transport and customer-facing sectors worldwide, including commercial aviation, rail and tourism, all of which have had to review and reduce their operations in view of the fast-moving coronavirus outbreak.

"First has written to the local traffic commissioner about its intentions as well as West of England Combined Authority mayor Tim Bowles and Bristol mayor Marvin Rees.

James Freeman, managing director of First West of England, said: “The government has made it clear that it now wants people, wherever possible, to work from home and avoid any non-essential travel and contact.

“The number of people travelling has reduced significantly and is continuing to diminish, making this an extremely dynamic situation which is changing day to day, hour to hour.

“By way of bringing some order to the situation we are looking to reduce our Monday to Friday services to a Saturday timetable. This will mean that about 10% of our fleet will be stood down.

“Where we can, we will add extra buses into the morning rush hour to ensure that workers are catered for.

“It’s important to emphasise that this is a fast-moving and unprecedented challenge and we are monitoring new developments as they happen and will respond accordingly and keep all of our customers informed of any further changes.”

Mr Freeman added: "This is not a decision we take lightly.

“However, with more and more people choosing to stay at home, this is our best option to ensure services continue running and are as close to ‘business as usual’ as we can possibly make them.

“In addition, we are working closely with our trade union leaders and will do everything possible to deploy staff across our operations with a view to minimising the impacts for everybody.

“One way or another, we will endeavor to keep services running through this unprecedented time of uncertainty.”

SouthEastBuses · 17 Mar 2020

Metrobus (my local company) are still running its services normally, for now...

Megafuss · 17 Mar 2020

A problem coming down the line is that a large number of Full Time stagecarriage drivers are usually on gauranteed hours. Big operators stand to lose 6 or 7 figure sums each week, no matter what service they run. They'll need help before long too

Tim33160 · 17 Mar 2020

Coronavirus: Bus information and advice | Transport for Greater Manchester

Reductions in services

Stagecoach Manchester will operate Sunday times on every day of the week from Sunday 23rd

Others listed at https://tfgm.com/coronavirus/bus

Information on this page will continue to be updated as received by bus operators. Please check with individual operators ahead of your journey.

Stagecoach
From Sunday 22 March, services will operate to a Sunday timetable. This means that on Monday 23 March, services will operate to Sunday's schedule. Full timetable information will be published in due course.

Diamond
The following services will change to from a 10-minute frequency to a 12-minute frequency: Diamond high frequency (10 minute intervals or greater) services are:

8/X8 Bolton to Manchester via Pendlebury

36/37/X39 Bolton/Farnworth to Manchester via Swinton

163 Bury to Manchester via Heywood

471 Bolton to Rochdale via Bury

524 Bolton to Bury via Radcliffe

582 Bolton to Leigh via Atherton

Further timetable information will be available in due course.

Go North West
We are awaiting full schedule information but services will operate on a lower frequency on Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road.

TransDev
From Saturday 21 March, services will operate to a Saturday timetable except Sunday, where they will operate to a Sunday timetable. This means that on Monday 23 March, services will operate to Saturday's schedule.

Local Link
Due to driver availability the Ramsbottom vehicle will no longer be in operation from Wednesday 18 March.
TfGM will move as many Ramsbottom trips as possible over to the Bolton vehicle for the coming week.
Ramsbottom customers will be able to book onto the Bolton vehicle where there is availability.

Expect further reductions

Trams and trains next??

Alexbus12 · 17 Mar 2020

Tim33160 said:
Coronavirus: Bus information and advice | Transport for Greater Manchester

Reductions in services

Stagecoach Manchester will operate Sunday times on every day of the week from Sunday 23rd

Others listed at https://tfgm.com/coronavirus/bus

Expect further reductions

Trams and trains next??

It's now been updated and Stagecoach will be running a special service as opposed to a sunday service. I guess someone at TFGM got their wires crossed. Special service I'm guessing is a Saturday service with few additional peak journeys.

overthewater · 17 Mar 2020

Could be a mix between weekday/ Saturday and sunday service?

I remember years ago up in Scotland we used to have special timetables for public holidays, where it was mix of all three so a 7/8 min service would be every 15mins but start 5am and finish at 1am etc

PG · 18 Mar 2020

Megafuss said:
A problem coming down the line is that a large number of Full Time stagecarriage drivers are usually on gauranteed hours. Big operators stand to lose 6 or 7 figure sums each week, no matter what service they run. They'll need help before long too

TBH I predict that some operators may have to reduce the number of hours they guarantee, though initially they may decide to use drivers as spares to cover rota gaps.

As reguards help, all sizes of operators are going to be needing help. I'd imagine that Confederation of Passenger Transport UK (CPT) will be in discussions with the government on assistance for operators.

DunsBus · 18 Mar 2020

City Sightseeing have cancelled their their Glasgow city tour with effect from today until further notice.

CN04NRJ · 18 Mar 2020

Megafuss said:
A problem coming down the line is that a large number of Full Time stagecarriage drivers are usually on gauranteed hours. Big operators stand to lose 6 or 7 figure sums each week, no matter what service they run. They'll need help before long too

I know of one medium sized (200+ vehicles) that only has cash to sustain 4 weeks operations if passenger numbers continue to decline.

scotrail158713 · 18 Mar 2020

DunsBus said:
City Sightseeing have cancelled their their Glasgow city tour with effect from today until further notice.

I suspect that’ll be the first of many

MedwayValiant · 18 Mar 2020

Would it make sense for ENCTS (I'm mostly thinking of the Senior version, maybe not the Disability version) to be suspended for the duration of the National Emergency?

Most who hold ENCTS are being advised against travelling in any case, and having to pay fares would dissuade holders from making unnecessary journeys. Yes of course they still need to eat as does everyone else, but there are rather few who really can't afford to pay for one trip a week to the supermarket. In any case, the supermarket cafe will probably be closed, so what they lose on the bus fare they get back by not having a cup of tea and a bun.

The advantages are two. From one end, it would put people off making journeys they don't need to be making. From the other end, the fares income just might help an operator to stay afloat. The downside is possible political fall-out, but party politics is mostly on hold for the time being, and the Senior population would probably actually understand the thinking better than the working age population.

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