On the Arriva website it appears there are no longer any references to the 724 on the Green Line pages, and vice versa. If indeed the 724 is now officially a 'regular' Arriva route that doesn't surprise me; in my experience it's felt like one for some time anyway.
Were it not for the 757 coach service - boosted by Luton Airport getting pretty close to pre-COVID passenger throughput - I wonder if the Green Line brand would have been consigned to history already. Here's hoping the brand stays with it.
Whilst today's Greenline network is far different from what it was historically, the prestige of the brand has evolved to epitomise the 757; an identity that we're proud to carry, and will carry into the future.
That’s true to a degree but if you look at the fleet in Wycombe it’s all bad. It doesn’t look like a respectable fleet of buses and one that is cared for by the company operating it. Neighbouring carousel do not suffer with this. Their fleet is clean both inside and out. Some of the Arriva buses still have the previous night’s litter on them.
The people of Wycombe have no faith in Arriva and the only way to restore this is to get a new fleet of vehicles or a completely new company come in with a new name.
Not to mention that people are now paying £4 for a journey that would normally cost £2, as they have split the 2 and 3 into two services. I get the commercial sense in this as it drives people to get day tickets but with the state of the buses in Wycombe and their unreliability, lack of customer service, buses breaking down etc. the list could go on and none of it is an exaggeration. It’s not fair on the working class people of Wycombe to have to put up with a company like this. I will be putting up a video and few more pictures too of the state of the fleet that I have taken over the past few months. It’s so awful I’ve never seen anything like this.
I’d much rather Stagecoach had come to Wycombe. Arriva and their management do not seem up for the job. Running the place from Leicester is just ridiculous and while I understand data can be transmitted electronically it doesn’t give a true reflection of what’s actually happening on the ground.
Many of the people in this town would rather Carousel; it’s just Arriva have most of the town services that people have to unfortunately rely on. Many of the staff here are demotivated and fed up. Buses are cold, criminally slow and uncomfortable to be on...
...I really do hope that once Isquared come in that things do change because if not then there’s no hope for Arriva. I’d much rather they be broken up and garages sold to others. Reading Buses is a company that would be most welcome here. They have a lovely fleet of buses many of which are older than Wycombe’s fleet and they seem to take some pride in their operations.
The fleet in High Wycombe needs some love, but our fleet plan is in progress. The Optare Versas that were injected into the fleet a little while ago have been well received by our team and our customers.
The network has enjoyed double-digit customer growth since the introduction of the new routes and frequencies, all delivered in a more efficient package - I'd argue that this is a vote in confidence, not a lack of faith. It doesn't mean that everything's perfect, and I've been fully transparent about our service delivery challenges, which are not unique to just Arriva. Appreciate that this point is repeated - we cannot simply
"get a new fleet of vehicles". To replace the fleet at High Wycombe would cost somewhere in the region of £10m. Who is paying for that? Do we increase our fares significantly to pay for this, or do we cut the PVR requirement to have a handful of new buses? Simple economics mean that we must use the full fleet strength in the most efficient way possible. Mid-life and fully depreciated vehicles have their place in the fleet mix. We're progressing with injecting better buses, but these are part of a wider cascade that are enabled by other new vehicles coming live, which hasn't happened yet.
A change of owner doesn't mean that the issues articulated go away. It's also very frustrating to hear
the place is run from Leicester. This couldn't be further from the truth. It's locally managed by a dedicated team who help feed into the network strategy as well as strive to deliver the best possible service, every day - I can't exaggerate the efforts they make to keep buses moving. The back-office elements of technical input are managed in the same way as Stagecoach, First, Go Ahead and other big groups do; why wouldn't you centralise non-localised activities that would otherwise cause inefficiency at a depot level?
This is by no means a slight at Carousel - but they've injected some ex-London vehicles that aren't in the local livery to help prop-up fleet availability after winning a handful of contracts. This absolutely makes sense; and I'm sure they too have a plan for their local fleet which'll take time to implement.
The very small number of customers who travelled across town on the previous 32/33 were majoritarily season ticket holders, which was a rationale behind the decision. Splitting the routes enabled frequencies to go up, which is a known catalyst for patronage growth, of which we have realised the benefit.
It appears that the Olympus will now not be arriving at Wycombe.
Why? No cascades can happen until Leicester's electric vehicles are in service. The plan remains fluid.
4210,4211 and 4212 have been in the workshop since early this week getting the last bits of work for their new roles almost exclusively on the Reading routes. They are sterling buses but could probably do with a repaint and return.
Why would we paint these vehicles? Your other specific points about fleet have been raised with the local team.
The new numbers look ridiculous especially as the former 300 isn’t an express route. I get the method of thinking, a sort of interurban route lining two major towns but that’s what the X30 does.
Patronage on the X20 seems to be picking up probably because of the nice warm Volvos in comparison to the rattly cold Citaros which are now a regular feat on the X7 (280). Sublime.
I really question the direction of this company, nobody in Wycombe is buying any of these mooted changes. What the place needs is better buses, not leaflets outlining enhanced services with unreliable buses and with that said there’s not even enough drivers to cover this all.
The decline of this company and the rise of Redline amazes me honestly. It’s like watching someone put on their shoes first and then attempting to put on their trousers.
You've noted that you understand the method of thinking. The X9/X90 makes more sense than the X30 when it ran in tandem with the 30, which ran to Downley. Sorry that you feel that
"the new numbers look ridiculous" - our rationale is to make the
network attractive to
new bus customers by making it simple, joined up and logical. All of us can be guilty of being nostalgic or reminiscent of what was, but we need to innovate in ways that have proven to support customer growth - that's the most important ambition for us to realise.
We operate in a competitive market between the X7 and X20 - our role is to make our product attractive to the current market and to non-bus customers, as I'm sure the other operator strives towards. Implementing a simpler, fresher network that gets the foundations right in order for us to proactively promote should contribute to that endeavour.
The costs of leaflets are far less than purchase price of new vehicles.
I've noted that paper timetables of Arriva's upcoming X-prefixed routes in January were available at High Wycombe bus station yesterday, plenty distributed throughout the concourse. Nice to see paper timetables make a slight comeback.
Indeed, and I was able to pick up one at Oxford Rail station this morning; Well done Arriva for distributing them so widely.
Thanks both. We've had an impressive uptake of this literature - reaffirming that there is definitely still a demand for print!
The 800/850/X80 affected by flooding in Henley this morning not helping. The depot is still a few vehicles short of being able to provide a full service, missing boards on 2/12 and 10/13.
Not convinced about the service changes. The 11/800/850 seem to need an extra vehicle due to extended journey times, but it was only a handful of peak journeys which normally got regularly late. There will be an awful lot of hanging around now. And baffled by the 850 starting its day at 7.40 in Reading- surely there is demand for an inbound journey at that time when it’s coming in anyway, even if only from Twyford!
Hopefully the flooding in Henley (and Wargrave) will subside relatively quickly. The depot have managed this well over the past few days; disruption has been kept to a minimum.
I'd be keen to understand why you're not convinced regarding the service changes, a judgement reached before lunchtime on the first full day of service - we've added additional time where it is required as a direct result of customer feedback, punctuality tracking and increased dwell through additional patronage; the route has grown substantially. Buses haven't been hanging around or running early; journeys are progressing well to ensure prompt departures on 800/850. I understand from your previous posts that you've raised concerns with the 11 running late. Interworking the service with the 800/850 is a necessary endeavour for duty efficiency so won't change - so please could you detail what issues we should look into.
It's more cost efficient to dead-run the 07:40 from Reading as this is the primary with-flow movement, and there haven't (as proved historically) been enough customers to support the commercial viability of running a journey to Reading. Happy to revisit this if you feel that this is required - all feedback should be channelled through Arriva's customer services.
