Bus operators decide to have additional Bank Holiday

[neilmc]

Some of the villages in Cumbria only get a Friday service. That means, this year, they will have no bus for three weeks. Our bus runs Tuesday, so we're OK for a year or two.

 

[northwichcat]

Some of the villages in Cumbria only get a Friday service. That means, this year, they will have no bus for three weeks. Our bus runs Tuesday, so we're OK for a year or two.

Next year (which is a leap year) there's a substitute Bank Holiday on Tuesday 27th December due to the 25th December being on a Sunday.

 

[Tom B]

What level of service a route gets tends to depend on the operator an area... in Scotland for example a Saturday service tends to run on public holidays, certainly from LRT. London seem to vary, sometimes running a Saturday service, sometimes running a Sunday service. First Mainline operate a Sunday service, following their traditional ethic of 'do as little as possible'.

 

[TUC]

By the OPs logic next year he will be expecting buses on Christmas Day as that falls over a weekend?

Well, is having buses to be able to visit family and friends on Christmas Day that unreasonable an expectation?

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Well, is having buses to be able to visit family and friends on Christmas Day that unreasonable an expectation?

Well the OP in This thread would hate any kind of transport that gets him close to his family

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Next year (which is a leap year) there's a substitute Bank Holiday on Tuesday 27th December due to the 25th December being on a Sunday.

Being a leap year has nothing to do with substitute bank holidays. Whichever you carve it, between Xmas and New Year, there are three working days.
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Well, is having buses to be able to visit family and friends on Christmas Day that unreasonable an expectation?

Is there really such a demand in the UK? And, in truth, should Christmas Day just be another day?

 

[northwichcat]

What I was getting at is the leap year means a Tuesday BH occurs as soon as next year.

One question worth considering is would religious people who aren't Christian prefer to work on Christian holidays and have days for their own religious festivals off instead?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

What I was getting at is the leap year means a Tuesday BH occurs as soon as next year.

One question worth considering is would religious people who aren't Christian prefer to work on Christian holidays and have days for their own religious festivals off instead?

I know what you mean but don't think it has much relevance. We still have Public holidays that are dictated by Christian observance and this country is still overwhelmingly Christian (60%) against the next largest religious group (5%).

 

[radamfi]

There is a lot of travel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It just doesn't happen by bus. You can look at traffic counts on different classes of road for statistical proof, but simply walking alongside a main road on those days should give you enough evidence.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There is a lot of travel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It just doesn't happen by bus. You can look at traffic counts on different classes of road for statistical proof, but simply walking alongside a main road on those days should give you enough evidence.

Yes and the flows and times are completely different from any other day

 

[radamfi]

Yes and the flows and times are completely different from any other day

Have a look at the stats and you will find Christmas Day traffic flow patterns not that different to Easter Sunday and Boxing Day quite similar to a Sunday.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Have a look at the stats and you will find Christmas Day traffic flow patterns not that different to Easter Sunday and Boxing Day quite similar to a Sunday.

What stats are these?

 

[radamfi]

What stats are these?

You can download count data for trunk roads/motorways from the DfT (they have become available to the general public in the last year or so) and for local roads you can request the counts from the local council or TfL. There is also the TRADS site for main road data before they became available from the DfT site, and that data is a nice format for manipulation, although you have to request a password for that. Some councils may have data on their website, although I haven't looked myself. In previous jobs I have had access to a lot of traffic counts when building traffic models so I've actually done my own graphs to compare Christmas traffic flows to the rest of the year to satisfy my own curiosity.

 

[carlberry]

What I was getting at is the leap year means a Tuesday BH occurs as soon as next year.

One question worth considering is would religious people who aren't Christian prefer to work on Christian holidays and have days for their own religious festivals off instead?

Going vastly off topic, most of the Bank Holidays are not actually Christian. The Christmas ones are decended from a Pagan mid winter festival. Still not much call for buses at the time however!

 

[HMS Ark Royal]

Going vastly off topic, most of the Bank Holidays are not actually Christian. The Christmas ones are decended from a Pagan mid winter festival. Still not much call for buses at the time however!

And some of us worship the FSM

 

[PermitToTravel]

Stagecoach Manchester ran services on two routes on Christmas Day this year

 

[overthewater]

I do like the fact people complain about the lack of service, but you try and get the drivers to work theses three ( four in Scotland ) days off with out lining their pockets full of gold. By which time you have to think will there be enough passengers to cover £30 an hour for the drivers wage plus fuel? Short answer on many routes is no.

 

[Westnat]

Newport Transport ran a mainly Saturday service on their commercial network on both 26th and 28th December with a Sunday service on 27th December. From my observations the loadings were poor, despite the City Centre being busy. If people want bus services over the festive period they really need to use them.

 

[carlberry]

I do like the fact people complain about the lack of service, but you try and get the drivers to work theses three ( four in Scotland ) days off with out lining their pockets full of gold. By which time you have to think will there be enough passengers to cover £30 an hour for the drivers wage plus fuel? Short answer on many routes is no.

I presume you've already offered to cover all of these days for the standard rate then? Where are drivers being paid £30 an hour?

 

[BestWestern]

Well, is having buses to be able to visit family and friends on Christmas Day that unreasonable an expectation?

Do you want to go to work on Christmas Day?

Nobody should need public transport on Dec 25th; nothing happens, everywhere is closed, if you really must travel somewhere then use a taxi - who will charge you a fortune because, yup, it's Christmas.

Public transport workers are just as entitled to Christmas Day as everyone else!

 

[90019]

Lothian have buses running 365 days a year.



Just saying...

 

[TheEscapist_]

Thank god for Lothian buses! Have to admit, we're lucky in Edinburgh to have such a good bus service compared with other places though.

 

[pitdiver]

Just to add my contribution, where I live in Bedfordshire we have no services on Sundays or bank holidays. Therefore our last buses were at about 1630hrs on Christmas Eve. The next ones were Tuesday morning. There will be of course no buses on New Year's Day and the services will again finish early on Thursday.

 

[northwichcat]

Going vastly off topic, most of the Bank Holidays are not actually Christian. The Christmas ones are decended from a Pagan mid winter festival. Still not much call for buses at the time however!

The conversion of people from Pagan to Christian didn't happen overnight so some of the Pagan traditions got merged with the Christian ones.

However, the exact dates of half our Bank Holidays relate to Christian festivals:

• Good Friday (crucifixion of Jesus)
• Easter Monday (resurrection of Jesus - on a Monday due to the fact Sunday can't be a Bank Holiday)
• Christmas Day (birth of Jesus)
• Boxing Day (feast of St Stephen)

 

[overthewater]

I presume you've already offered to cover all of these days for the standard rate then? Where are drivers being paid £30 an hour?

What a stupid comment, Where did I say that. The drivers are allowed the time off, end off. Many will also so no to £30 an hour no matter what.

 

[brompton rail]

The conversion of people from Pagan to Christian didn't happen overnight so some of the Pagan traditions got merged with the Christian ones.

However, the exact dates of half our Bank Holidays relate to Christian festivals:

• Good Friday (crucifixion of Jesus)
• Easter Monday (resurrection of Jesus - on a Monday due to the fact Sunday can't be a Bank Holiday)
• Christmas Day (birth of Jesus)
• Boxing Day (feast of St Stephen)

Isn't the clue in the name - Bank Holidays. Here in pagan South Yorkshire little other than Banks and Public Offices (local & national government) closes on Good Friday, so at a minimum buses operate at Saturday times. And of course, the train services on Good Friday, Easter Monday, and most other Bank Holidays operate to normal Monday schedules here in Yorkshire.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Have a look at the stats and you will find Christmas Day traffic flow patterns not that different to Easter Sunday and Boxing Day quite similar to a Sunday.

Not being funny but you're quoting stats. You provide them.

What little research I can be bothered to do suggests 2015 Easter Sunday 4.5m journeys vs. Christmas Day (est'd) 3.5m journeys so more than a 20% variance

Lastly, even if the number of journeys were the same (and they're not) then the composition is different. Christmas Day is heavily weighted towards 0900 - 1200 whilst Easter Sunday has more sunlight and a longer spread as a consequence. Easter Sunday is also heavily influenced by the weather AND that influences where traffic flows are. I might be wrong but I suggest there's less of a rush to head to the coast on Christmas Day...

However, I'm sure they do it different in Utrecht....
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Isn't the clue in the name - Bank Holidays. Here in pagan South Yorkshire little other than Banks and Public Offices (local & national government) closes on Good Friday, so at a minimum buses operate at Saturday times. And of course, the train services on Good Friday, Easter Monday, and most other Bank Holidays operate to normal Monday schedules here in Yorkshire.

The People's Republic of South Yorkshire has long been secular....

Much of North Yorkshire doesn't see a bus on a Sunday nor a Bank Holiday.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The conversion of people from Pagan to Christian didn't happen overnight so some of the Pagan traditions got merged with the Christian ones.

However, the exact dates of half our Bank Holidays relate to Christian festivals:

• Good Friday (crucifixion of Jesus)
• Easter Monday (resurrection of Jesus - on a Monday due to the fact Sunday can't be a Bank Holiday)
• Christmas Day (birth of Jesus)
• Boxing Day (feast of St Stephen)

As Carl says, the winter ones do pre-date but yes, they do fit in with Christian beliefs as does the late Spring bank holiday.

May Day is descended from a pagan festival but is also revered in socialist and communist circles; I'm sure it will have greater prominence when Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister...................

 

[Antman]

Do you want to go to work on Christmas Day?

Nobody should need public transport on Dec 25th; nothing happens, everywhere is closed, if you really must travel somewhere then use a taxi - who will charge you a fortune because, yup, it's Christmas.

Public transport workers are just as entitled to Christmas Day as everyone else!

Well clearly there is plenty of demand, certainly in London. People may want to visit relatives and why should those unfortunate enough to be hospitalised on Christmas Day be denied visitors because they can't get there? So there should be some sort of service running and yes I used to be a bus driver and yes I would have been prepared to work Christmas Day.

 

[Mitch in Notts]

Despite what an earlier poster has put there are NO bus services operating in Nottingham on New Years Day.

The prize has to go to Brylaine of Boston, who run an extensive network including to Lincoln, Skegness, Spalding etc., They are not running on Saturday the 2nd January either!!

 

[Robertj21a]

Despite what an earlier poster has put there are NO bus services operating in Nottingham on New Years Day.

Not quite correct, though I know what you mean.

NCT are still running many services until their final night departures at 03.15 on New Year's Day.