Operating company staff presence at bus stations

[noddingdonkey]

The "On the Yorkshire Buses" series showed that East Yorkshire had a Supervisor role present at Hull Bus Station, to handle customer service issues and to be Control's eyes on the ground, helping to recover disruption by reallocating resource.

Is that common elsewhere? First don't seem to have an equivalent so Huddersfield for example. A modern day Blakey making sure drivers "get this bus out" rather than sitting on the back wall until their booked departure time and then taking 5 minutes to load wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Roilshead]

Citybus/Metro still have uniformed (complete with peaked cap) Inspectors [sic] on the ground in Belfast, usually to found around the stops in the Donegal Square area, and there'll also usually be a bus station Supervisor or uniformed Inspector in any Ulsterbus bus station (as well as somebody in the ticket office).

Transdev have a supervisor at Leeds bus station, looking after their information stand, selling tickets, and this summer supervising loading of the Coastliners (I've noticed them telephone control when a bus has left fully loaded).

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

The "On the Yorkshire Buses" series showed that East Yorkshire had a Supervisor role present at Hull Bus Station, to handle customer service issues and to be Control's eyes on the ground, helping to recover disruption by reallocating resource.

Is that common elsewhere? First don't seem to have an equivalent so Huddersfield for example. A modern day Blakey making sure drivers "get this bus out" rather than sitting on the back wall until their booked departure time and then taking 5 minutes to load wouldn't go amiss.

As I mentioned on another thread, definitely seen a senior driver/controller on the ground at Chelmsford bus station.

 

[Deerfold]

Citybus/Metro still have uniformed (complete with peaked cap) Inspectors [sic] on the ground in Belfast, usually to found around the stops in the Donegal Square area, and there'll also usually be a bus station Supervisor or uniformed Inspector in any Ulsterbus bus station (as well as somebody in the ticket office).

Transdev have a supervisor at Leeds bus station, looking after their information stand, selling tickets, and this summer supervising loading of the Coastliners (I've noticed them telephone control when a bus has left fully loaded).

Transdev have staff at Keighley - there's (at least) a supervisor and a cleaner who gives some of the buses a once over whilst they're between trips.

(That's on top of the typically 2 staff in the information office during office hours)

 

[dodecahedron67]

York’s park and rides are staffed - although no power to proactively regulate/manage buses day to day, merely just a human present

 

[Dai Corner]

I think Newport Transport have an inspector at Friars Walk bus station during the day (i.e. one shift).

 

[43055]

trentbarton has some sort of an office behind the shop at Derby bus station.

 

[py_megapixel]

During the day, there tend to be Stagecoach staff present at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. No idea what responsibilities they have - presumably directing passengers to the correct stop for their service, as there's no centralised place for information so short of walking around the whole thing looking at the signs on each stop, they have no chance of figuring it out for themselves. (Piccadilly Gardens is in general an awful bus station.)

 

[01d-and]

Diamond/Rotala West Midlands can often have a member of staff patrolling the bus station at Redditch.

 

[weepingwillowb]

I quite often see a supervisor walking round Lancaster bus station, but can't remember ever seeing one at Preston or Kendal

 

[Simon75]

First Potteries get the odd supervisor wandering around at ar Hanley (Stoke-on-Trent) bus station

 

[dpsilverba]

First have a very friendly Controller on duty at Fareham bus station during the day Monday to Saturday

 

[Surreyman]

The Friary bus station in Guildford seems to have a regular Stagecoach supervisor/controller.

 

[WibbleWobble]

During the day, there tend to be Stagecoach staff present at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. No idea what responsibilities they have - presumably directing passengers to the correct stop for their service, as there's no centralised place for information so short of walking around the whole thing looking at the signs on each stop, they have no chance of figuring it out for themselves. (Piccadilly Gardens is in general an awful bus station.)

Stagecoach also has staff present at most of their main hub bus stations in Greater Manchester. They are there to regulate service and assist drivers should they need help. It means that should a low frequency service otherwise be missing, they can pull a bus off a high frequency service to fill the gap (and even out the gaps in high frequency routes).

 

[markymark2000]

Stagecoach South has/did have most of their operations staff at the bus stations. Basingstoke and Andover for example, the depot offices are/were rarely used with the stuff being done from the bus station offices instead. In my experience, when bus companies have their staff at the bus stations, it makes reliability worse as drivers then sit around chatting to the staff and then end up sorting their bus out at the same time that the bus is due out.

 

[LUYMun]

Stagecoach South has/did have most of their operations staff at the bus stations. Basingstoke and Andover for example, the depot offices are/were rarely used with the stuff being done from the bus station offices instead. In my experience, when bus companies have their staff at the bus stations, it makes reliability worse as drivers then sit around chatting to the staff and then end up sorting their bus out at the same time that the bus is due out.

When Aldershot Bus Station was in operation, I had a firm belief that the depot manager (or similar in position) would occasionally assist passengers to which stand buses would depart from or, unusually, act as a banksman at times. The only time I saw this in demonstration was during a December a few years ago, the staff member still donning their Santa hat and beard!

 

[leedslad82]

First leeds had park n ride supervisors based at elland road, temple green and Stourton. They made them redundant earlier this year and replaced them with a first customer adviser who now basically just sells tickets.

 

[TheSmiths82]

As already mentioned there is usually Stagecoach staff at Piccadilly and usually at Stockport too although they might be drivers waiting for their bus to turn up but helping passengers in the meantime. There is much less competition now so I suppose they only need staff when necessary. It is not like there is 5 different companies running the same Wilmslow Road services anymore.

I remember when Stagecoach uses to have staff at bus stops during the evening night bus services too, that has long gone though.

 

[GatwickDepress]

While it's not a bus station, in the morning peaks, Stagecoach usually have two or three members of staff at the bus stop that serves the University of Manchester's Fallowfield campus to help regulate passenger flow and send off buses.

Hastings railway station serves as the town's de facto bus station and there's often a member of staff there during the daytime too.