Buses and the coronavirus

[Darklord8899]

..... not UK related but found this interesting.....

The IVB (Insbrucker Verkehrsbetriebe) in Innsbruck, Austria have introduced disinfection and cleaning of all trams and buses at their end terminii (been in force for a couple of weeks now ) in addition all on vehicle ticket purchases suspended and front doors of all vehicles are not in use.

 

[PeterC]

Red Eagle just announced all day acceptance. Nothing on Twitter from Bucks CC about Arriva or other operators.

In the last 10 minutes Bucks CC announced that they have asked all operators to accept ENCTS before 9AM. Arriva, Red Rose ,Star Travel and Redline confirmed as well as those already announced.

 

[SCH117X]

North Yorkshire County Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority have removed restrictions on concessionary passes. Connexions are also running a Saturday service from next week which means no service at all on local routes X6A and X12 in Harrogate, the former is largely a competing route to Transdevs 6 which will still operates.

 

[43055]

trentbarton have listed some changes to the following routes from Monday:
royal derby, rapid one - no service
indigo, skylink Nottingham - Sunday service (still 24/7)
skylink express - Saturday service
X38 - Sunday service starting at 7am and until 7pm

all other routes are as normal

 

[overthewater]

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/servi...npgcUg0ddrpcwWjr60YL95jZieCI5xH-BjwQLQyY1Na-A

Changes to services from Monday 23rd March
19 Mar 2020
Temporary changes to bus services in Aberdeenshire and Moray are being introduced from Monday 23rd March following new government advice around social contact and non-essential travel to help combat the coronavirus.

A reduced timetable will operate across the region until further notice. The timetables have been carefully created to ensure that critical routes are maintained wherever possible.

The majority of bus services in Aberdeenshire and Moray will operate to a Sunday timetable with additional journeys in the mornings to allow those continuing to commute by bus to work can do so, 7 days a week. Discounted bus travel continues to be available for NHS staff commuting with Aberdeen zone 2 (zone 2 covers services in the city centre and to Balmedie, Westhill and Portlethen). The discounted 7-day bus ticket is available to purchase direct from any Stagecoach bus driver.


Peter Knight, Managing Director for Stagecoach Bluebird said: : “Along with other bus operators and key sectors, we are working hard to support the national effort to tackle the current challenging situation.

"The safety of our customers and our employees is at the heart of everything we do. We also know that our bus services play a vital role in keeping the country running and ensuring key sector personnel get to work.

“Following the latest government advice, we have reviewed our timetables and made temporary changes which reflect the reduced level of travel. Our objective has been to focus resources on where we know they are needed most at this time.

“We are working hard to best maintain essential services, safeguard jobs and ensure the long-term sustainability of a sector which is central to our economy and communities.

“We will continue to monitor the position, liaise closely with government and other authorities, and respond as appropriate to what is a dynamic situation.”

Since the impact of the coronavirus in the UK, Stagecoach has implemented additional hygiene measures to protect passengers, frontline bus workers and office-based staff.



In addition to well-established and rigorous cleaning regimes, there has been more frequent cleaning of main customer touch-points on buses, such as hand poles and grab rails.



Travel shops in Aberdeen, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Elgin and Inverness will also close until further notice.



Customers can stay up to date with all the latest news from Stagecoach on Twitter @StagecoachBBird.

 

[overthewater]

Lothian changes are not saying Saturday tt but reduced:

 

[175mph]

Stagecoach East Midlands has announced changes to services:

Our services will be temporarily changing from Monday 23 March until further notice.

Please bear with us as we work hard to get these timetables out to you.

Come back on Monday for your temporary revised timetables.

Thank you for your continued patience during this time.

Source: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/servi...rticle?SituationId=ID-13/03/2020-11:40:32:573

 

[extendedpaul]

Megabus are cancelling some services and refunding booked customers.

Not going down well with people who have booked a there and back trip and have to apply for a refund on the other journey, but I can't see an alternative as all tickets are sold as singles.

 

[dvboy]

NX West Midlands will reduce service frequencies from Wednesday but have pointed out all routes will still run from existing first to last services.

Transport for West Midlands are allowing people to pause their season tickets.

 

[telstarbox]

Greater Manchester accepting passes all day from tomorrow.

 

[alex397]

Ensignbus have released a statement today and it really sounds like they are struggling. They have said they are devastated and are urging government support. Their service from next week won't even be a Sunday service, but a skeleton service. I hope an excellent company such as Ensign get through this (and all other bus companies too).

https://www.ensignbus.com/

IMPORTANT NOTICE from

The Directors of Ensignbus

regarding

COVID-19 (Corona Virus)

To all our loyal passengers,

This is without doubt the toughest message we have ever had to issue. Yesterday (Wednesday 18th March) we wrote a timetable that maintained most services, by yesterday evening it was out of date as schools were closed and the government advised against using public transport and we lost more and more staff to isolation.

We had also hoped for government support to help maintain services but at the time of writing none has been forthcoming. Indeed, unlike the retail or restaurant sector there is not even business rates or tax holidays available to us.

Therefore, the choice we are facing is either a complete closure or an even more heavily cut timetable. We have chosen the latter, to try and keep our loyal staff in work and to help get those, who still need to travel, to get where they need to be and also in the hope that government will step in and offer something more than loans and interest rate cuts to banks. Clearly some people are going to be upset by the loss of certain services and we feel for you and regret the cuts are as deep as they are but hope you will understand we really don't have any other choice.

Clearly operating even a reduced timetable with 90% less passengers is not sustainable in the long term and without some Immediate assistance the next change will be the final withdrawal of even this skeletal timetable.

To say we are devastated is an understatement. We are a local family run business and our staff are both employees, colleagues and friends and that we cannot shield them from this global pandemic is heartbreaking.

Once again sorry to those of you we are now leaving without a service and please in these tough times take care of yourself and each other.

Peter, Ross and Steve Newman
The directors of Ensignbus Limited.

Our normal service schedule will remain in force until close of service on Sunday 22nd March 2020. Our Covid-19 Emergency Timetable will come into force on Monday 23rd March 2020 and will be operated for as long as necessary or possible.

Please follow the links below or in the navigation plane for updates and information

Stagecoach South East will be running a Mon-Fri school holiday timetable from Monday, and Kent County Council are allowing concessionary pass holders to travel pre-0930 (aswell as Nu-Venture, Arriva Kent, Go-Coach)

 

[Busaholic]

Ensignbus have released a statement today and it really sounds like they are struggling. They have said they are devastated and are urging government support. Their service from next week won't even be a Sunday service, but a skeleton service. I hope an excellent company such as Ensign get through this (and all other bus companies too).

https://www.ensignbus.com/


Stagecoach South East will be running a Mon-Fri school holiday timetable from Monday, and Kent County Council are allowing concessionary pass holders to travel pre-0930 (aswell as Nu-Venture, Arriva Kent, Go-Coach)

That statement certainly brings home the problems facing almost all companies, not just public transport providers, in these exceedingly challenged days and weeks, perhaps months, ahead. Let's hope they come out the other side: I was going to write unscathed, but I fear that's unlikely.

 

[Dai Corner]

Stagecoach South Wales

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/south-wales/urgent-service-changes-march-2020

Urgent Service Changes March 2020
Information for services over the next few days can be seen below.
Timetables will be added as soon as we possibly can for Wednesday onwards. Please bear with us during this time.

• Sunday - Normal Service
• Monday and Tuesday - Saturday Service
• Wednesday onward - Enhanced Sunday Service
• Sundays - No service from 29th March (On Sundays)

 

[Robertj21a]

Terribly difficult for all operators, but particularly bad for the smaller independents like Ensignbus.

 

[Andyh82]

Arriva Yorkshire and Yorkshire Tiger will be running a special service from Monday, it goes further than First and is a hybrid between Sunday and Saturday times, but with some element of peak hour weekday buses

https://www.wymetro.com/corporate/news/releases/bus-and-train-service-updates/

 

[Hophead]

Southdown Bus (Surrey / Redhill, Oxted area) are moving to a less than Saturday service, with some routes not running.

Brighton and Hove are going to a Saturday University vacation service.

Metrobus will be principally Saturday service, with weekday timetables on some country routes; Fastway routes 10, 20 & 100 have a Sunday service (these are still pretty frequent and run 24 hours, but do all serve Gatwick Airport).

Despite what the politicians might claim, the funds will not be unlimited. So who's going to do best in the transport business? The airlines? The large groups? Or the independents?

 

[PG]

Terribly difficult for all operators, but particularly bad for the smaller independents like Ensignbus.

Do ensign still do vehicle sales? Not that thats likely to be in demand for a while either...

They've been around in one form or another for a long time with a wealth of experience and I do sympathise with them, and indeed the other smaller firms that are still involved in the industry.

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere, probably BBC News, that temporary nationalisation was one measure under consideration for both rail and bus - has there been any more information on this?

 

[carlberry]

Southdown Bus (Surrey / Redhill, Oxted area) are moving to a less than Saturday service, with some routes not running.

Brighton and Hove are going to a Saturday University vacation service.

Metrobus will be principally Saturday service, with weekday timetables on some country routes; Fastway routes 10, 20 & 100 have a Sunday service (these are still pretty frequent and run 24 hours, but do all serve Gatwick Airport).

Despite what the politicians might claim, the funds will not be unlimited. So who's going to do best in the transport business? The airlines? The large groups? Or the independents?

Politicians love airlines, followed by railways. They usually assume buses are red and most don't really understand what they do, other than getting in the way and being red.

 

[carlberry]

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere, probably BBC News, that temporary nationalisation was one measure under consideration for both rail and bus - has there been any more information on this?

It would be fairly easy on the railways (the present government had already started!) however buses would be more difficult and, if it was temporary, it sounds more like the government covering the costs whilst also being able to dictate what ran and where.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Metrobus Crawley have started to reduce its timetables too. Fastway routes currently running on a Sunday timetable, most routes operating Saturday timetables with the except of some such as the 23 and 84 which will use the usual Monday-Friday timetable however with Non Schoolday timetables.

 

[Flange Squeal]

Do ensign still do vehicle sales? Not that thats likely to be in demand for a while either...

Yes - they are still a very active trader, with often dozens of vehicles passing in and out shown on their monthly lists that get posted on various bus forums. As you point out though, I expect sales have dropped off this month so probably not much income there either!

 

[Robertj21a]

Yes - they are still a very active trader, with often dozens of vehicles passing in and out shown on their monthly lists that get posted on various bus forums. As you point out though, I expect sales have dropped off this month so probably not much income there either!

At least they no longer own City Sightseeing, where they'd have yet another set of problems.
I wonder how this will affect their rail replacement work.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Ensignbus have released a statement today and it really sounds like they are struggling. They have said they are devastated and are urging government support. Their service from next week won't even be a Sunday service, but a skeleton service. I hope an excellent company such as Ensign get through this (and all other bus companies too).

https://www.ensignbus.com/


Stagecoach South East will be running a Mon-Fri school holiday timetable from Monday, and Kent County Council are allowing concessionary pass holders to travel pre-0930 (aswell as Nu-Venture, Arriva Kent, Go-Coach)

I feel that they should emphasise that 90% drop in passenger numbers. You cannot simply press the "big red stop button" on a modern economy without drastic consequences.

Yet again another decision made by those who do not rely on public transport - I refer to the decision to say 'don't use public transport' not the sensible decision by the company.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

So who's going to do best in the transport business? The airlines? The large groups? Or the independents?

The receivers and administrators.

 

[mjc]

NX West Midlands will reduce service frequencies from Wednesday but have pointed out all routes will still run from existing first to last services.

Transport for West Midlands are allowing people to pause their season tickets.

@dvboy do you have a link for details on pausing season tickets, I know colleagues who will be affected but can only find info about ENCTS restrictions being lifted... Thanks

 

[Dai Corner]

The Bus Archive have posted the following on Facebook

Help us to record history - today!

In the coming weeks there are likely to be drastic reductions in bus services. We want to be able to capture as many of these changes as possible, so that the history of the impact on bus services is not lost.

You can help by capturing any online emergency timetables, traffic notices or service changes you find, preferably as pdfs or Word documents. Send them to [email protected].

Thanks!

Posters here may wish to email any relevant documents to them too.

 

[PG]

The receivers and administrators.

Probably some lawyers too.

 

[PG]

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere, probably BBC News, that temporary nationalisation was one measure under consideration for both rail and bus - has there been any more information on this?

Found it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51969981

Mr Shapps told MPs on Tuesday that rail companies, bus firms and airlines could be temporarily nationalised to help them through the outbreak.

Sounds like it is just an idea being floated about rather than an actual plan, I guess all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

 

[CD]

Both Devon CC and Somerset CC ENCTS restrictions suspended.
https://www.firstgroup.com/wessex-d...dXcNFXBrG782zuy8RL5N9qDglI42HKZSwZg2pYYLD0PGo

 

[Smethwickian]

National Express coach network reduced from Tuesday 24 March to service level similar to Christmas Day. Timetables now on website at https://www.nationalexpress.com/en/help/live-service-updates