Replacement buses, why don't they call at the advertised stops at times shown?

[Bletchleyite]

Long term, the least used stations need a permanent stop with a BR sign on, installing on the main road, some distance away to avoid the bus losing time.

This is not unusual. Both Northern and WMT do it in places.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Long term, the least used stations need a permanent stop with a BR sign on, installing on the main road, some distance away to avoid the bus losing time.

This is not unusual. Both Northern and WMT do it in places.

I'm hoping that I'm pushing at an open door here - but there should also be a great big sign at the station pointing anyone there to the RRB stop on the main road...

 

[BazingaTribe]

As others have said in many rural areas the roads don't follow the path of the railways meaning they can take longer.

Also many stations are not suited to have rail replacement coaches as they are accessed via narrow roads. Prestbury and Adlington aren't too bad however other stations sometimes have to have a shuttle minibus to connect with the main replacement bus at another station.

Everyone I know outside Basingstoke is surprised when I tell them that there's no bus to Reading and the train is very efficient. They continually cluck about how there ought to be one -- but they haven't been on an RRB connecting Bramley and Mortimer with the two main towns. The only time I ever had to do it it took us two hours: the railway line cuts through a nest of small villages and even smaller roads and that's why there's no bus -- because it would take all day to get anywhere.

But yeah, totally, rail can run at quicker speeds than the corresponding road journey -- I'd have assumed it was pretty obvious.

It's sad that I'm posting that I think this is awesome when we've had the technology to do this for decades. But better late than never and I hope this successfully rolls out everywhere.

The only downside is that a lot of people today probably don't travel when there are rail replacement buses if they can, because it's often an unpleasant experience (and I mean more about reliability than passenger comfort as some coaches are very luxurious). This might inadvertently see bus patronage increase and then cause other issues!

It's taken a while to roll out in Reading. It's only these last few months when I can track the bus that goes out south of the M4 to my parents' village, while it's been possible to track town buses for ages at this point.

As a delivery administrator myself, albeit for the NHS, you don't jump on everything immediately when the tech becomes available. First of all, tech improves with age and you don't want to have a big bang with a prototype or beta version. You'd be introducing it carefully and noting how it works with your existing systems and focusing on the major arterial routes and then extending it over time to the less well-traveled routes.

Secondly, there's always the matter of budgets and balancing out what needs to be done with what would be a nice to have at some point. Case in point -- yes, we know the boilers at one site are end-of-life and are thus seeking funding. But we also know that some things, like refurbishment, are only possible if we have spare cash left at the end of the year. My department has a wish-list built up for stuff we want to do if we have the cash. There is always stuff we want 'for Christmas' but at some point the money won't be there to do it until, say, Easter.

 

[RichardAsh1981]

I work for arriva and we do the Merseyrail RRBs. Generally drivers will log in to the Ticketer and it shows up as RR1 on Bustimes.org when we're running

That is a really useful piece of information - of which Merseyrail customer services seemed to be completely unaware of during the recent Ledsham flooding (so unplanned) when the public advice to customers (at unstaffed stations) was to hang on and a bus should arrive some time in the next 40 minutes.

 

[BurtonM]

Do RRBs have ticket machines?

Not in my experience, you'd buy a ticket for the train as normal then it may or may not get checked as you board/leave the bus.
One morning a couple of years ago I arrived at Stalybridge, planning to travel to Whyteleafe (a rather long journey via Manchester Piccadilly, and the Underground). I found that the train into Manchester was RRBs, and while I was buying my ticket, the bus left, several minutes early. I asked the coordinator why, and he explained that they sent it on its way because it was full, and I'd have to wait for the next service some half an hour later. I didn't find this acceptable as I'd have missed all my connections and been subject to a significant delay, but thankfully myself and another equally annoyed passenger who could have been late for work managed to convince the coordinator to call us a taxi.

 

[Dougal2345]

Had some fun a few months ago when it appeared the drivers were selecting their own stop at Totton... don't know if this has been sorted since:

One notable thing was that the bus to Southampton stopped in Totton at the Commercial Road "Totton Station" stop, but the 'official' RRB stop for buses to Southampton is at the High Street-Station Road South junction - which was where I waited last weekend, when the bus didn't turn up

 

[BingMan]

As others have said in many rural areas the roads don't follow the path of the railways meaning they can take longer.

Also many stations are not suited to have rail replacement coaches as they are accessed via narrow roads. Prestbury and Adlington aren't too bad however other stations sometimes have to have a shuttle minibus to connect with the main replacement bus at another station.

RRBs never call at Chapel-en-le-Frith station which is a mile out of town up a very steep hill. A difficult walk for the less able

 

[BazingaTribe]

RRBs never call at Chapel-en-le-Frith station which is a mile out of town up a very steep hill. A difficult walk for the less able

There's the same problem at Mortimer (Berkshire) where a similar situation exists. The town itself isn't huge but the station is in the middle of nowhere. You can count me in as someone who would also find that annoying. I don't drive due to autism, and I have a gammy leg that rendered me lame, and sometimes my mum picks me up from Mortimer in her behemoth of a Skoda SUV (I'd call it a Chelsea Tractor but she actually does use it almost like a pick-up truck for various events and festivals that she manages) but it does totally suck when you're cut off from decent public transport services even at 45 like I am. It's why I live in a town rather than out in the country, although actually I'd find the country a bit quiet as well.

Then again, everyone using that station or CelF will have the same issue in terms of accessibility, RRB or no. And stations kind of have to be on the actual railway line, which makes for some awkward situations like Reading Green Park being at the other end of a very long housing estate road off a major ring road rather than being situated somewhere more walkable. I'm guessing it comes into its own on match days as it's near the stadium, but because the line was fixed 150+ years ago, we now have to work round it if we want new stations in good places. And the lines were built at a time where the needs of landowners were paramount rather than those of ordinary folk .

 

[Dr Hoo]

RRBs never call at Chapel-en-le-Frith station which is a mile out of town up a very steep hill. A difficult walk for the less able

There’s a fairly low arched bridge towards the bottom of the approach road.
Are RRBs at Chapel even advertised as running to/from the station?

 

[Flange Squeal]

Long term, the least used stations need a permanent stop with a BR sign on, installing on the main road, some distance away to avoid the bus losing time.

In addition to Northern and WMT mentioned above, I've noticed Southern do this for a number of stations as well, such as along on the Brighton to Portsmouth 'West Coastway' on main roads that parallel the railway line albeit sometimes a bit of a walk away from the station itself. Saves the bus having to deviate off the main road to reach each station. For example, here is a screenshot from Google Street View at the Salthill Road bus stop on the A259, around a third of a mile from Fishbourne station, showing a separate Southern rail replacement flag attached below the main bus service one. A similar set up exists along the same road for stations at Nutbourne, Southbourne, Emsworth and Warblington.

 

[darloscott]

The fun we have in our area with Northern especially in the more rural parts is buses cannot access the stations so tend to stop in the middle of the village. I happened to get a message from a friend who was coordinating on a recent line closure who was left stranded by a bus (one of mine!) not turning up at a station. He was most surprised when I told him the buses don’t go to the station…! Other operators clearly were ignoring the instructions and going up there… what chance have we got when it’s a) not made clear or b) operators just do what they want and c) even co-ordinating staff don’t know…

 

[Meole]

The then station agent at Newtown, Powys recounted that a RRB turned up unexpectedly as the service was normal, the bus had come from Llanelli calling at the HoW stations until Llandrindod when he thought the next stop was Newtown on the way to Shrewsbury whilst serving the temporary closed HoW, tough luck for Knighton etc.

 

[BingMan]

Then again, everyone using that station or CelF will have the same issue in terms of accessibility, RRB or no ordinary folk .

People i C-e-l-F normally drive to the station so that when the RRB dumped them at the \Town Hall they have to walk to the station to recover their car

There’s a fairly low arched bridge towards the bottom of the approach road.
Are RRBs at Chapel even advertised as running to/from the station?

Surely he clue is in the name Rail replacement bus.
The train goes to the station, not the town hall, so should the bus.
Use smaller buses if the bridge is a problem

 

[BazingaTribe]

People i C-e-l-F normally drive to the station so that when the RRB dumped them at the \Town Hall they have to walk to the station to recover their car

I see -- thanks for clarifying. That is a bit pants.

 

[73001]

That is a really useful piece of information - of which Merseyrail customer services seemed to be completely unaware of during the recent Ledsham flooding (so unplanned) when the public advice to customers (at unstaffed stations) was to hang on and a bus should arrive some time in the next 40 minutes.

I will have a word with the boss next time I see him to see if we can get every driver to do it. As you say, a handful of places don't have anyone to ask so it helps if you can see the bus coming (or not). I also find that communication between all parties is disjointed at times, which doesn't help anyone.

 

[RichardAsh1981]

I will have a word with the boss next time I see him to see if we can get every driver to do it. As you say, a handful of places don't have anyone to ask so it helps if you can see the bus coming (or not). I also find that communication between all parties is disjointed at times, which doesn't help anyone.

Thank you. As a fairly regular commuter to/from Capenhurst, the news that buses replace trains has been fairly frequent of late (mostly Network Rail) and in this weather the more information the better!

 

[spp]

Add on sometimes the uncertainty if you will be able to get onto the bus if it's busy. (I seem to recall a thread about the chaos at Crewe with replacement buses for Runcorn + Liverpool being massively long at times)

Was that October/November sometime? I remember getting off a southbound bus replacement at Crewe and the amount of people waiting to go in the opposite direction was that huge I couldn’t physically get through the tunnel (walked up the road and entered through the front of the station).

I find the organisation of rrbs at Crewe is often awful (not helped by there being at least two maybe 3 TOCs involved there seems to be no communication/joint planning between the TOC and the coach company/driver they are using let alone the others)

Have to say I had a decent enough journey on a RRB Sunday though due to the line problems (Wolverhampton to Stafford). Ran on time as stated on National Rail app, that was the cross country one mind, luckily I spotted the disruption early morning so was able to get to the station a good 30mins early.

 

[tramdan]

We had an interesting experience on 3rd November at Heysham Port, where Northern had provided a Rail Replacement coach for the cancelled 1304 to Lancaster. The rail replacement coach had been scheduled and entered into passenger information systems as the 1330 departure. However for reasons unknown, (seemingly a decision made by the coach driver and Isle of Man Steam Packet staff) the coach was dispatched some 23 minutes early at 1307, causing a number of us to miss it. Fortunately Northern recompensed us for the taxi we then had to take to Lancaster in place of the bus journey.

 

[zero]

Had a good experience with the RRBs between MK and Bedford on Christmas Eve. The ones I was on did the journey in under 30 minutes as opposed to the timetabled 40. This enabled me to catch earlier trains than the journey planner had suggested.

They ran every 5 minutes as scheduled meaning that one time I had the entire bus to myself. Drivers seemed to be using their personal phones as GPS.

 

[Kite159]

Had a good experience with the RRBs between MK and Bedford on Christmas Eve. The ones I was on did the journey in under 30 minutes as opposed to the timetabled 40. This enabled me to catch earlier trains than the journey planner had suggested.

They ran every 5 minutes as scheduled meaning that one time I had the entire bus to myself. Drivers seemed to be using their personal phones as GPS.

Until said driver forgets they are driving a tall bus and ends up wedged underneath a low bridge or is sent down narrow country roads unsuitable for buses.

 

[janb]

We had an interesting experience on 3rd November at Heysham Port, where Northern had provided a Rail Replacement coach for the cancelled 1304 to Lancaster. The rail replacement coach had been scheduled and entered into passenger information systems as the 1330 departure. However for reasons unknown, (seemingly a decision made by the coach driver and Isle of Man Steam Packet staff) the coach was dispatched some 23 minutes early at 1307, causing a number of us to miss it. Fortunately Northern recompensed us for the taxi we then had to take to Lancaster in place of the bus journey.

Two quite common scenarios with that bus,

a) the bus from the port is put into schedules with a much later departure than the train would have, yet the boat is on time or even early. The driver/passengers on bus get fed up of waiting for advertised time and leave early.
b) the bus from the port is put into schedules at the same/similar departure time as the train however the boat is running late. The bus is able to wait longer than the 10 minutes the train is limited to in that scenario, and so waits until boat arrives and passengers have transferred thus runs late.

Because of these scenarios a pro tip for anyone in Morecambe or Bare Lane, don't stake your life on catching this RRB. Make your plans around the train before or train after, or catch the Stagecoach bus, it will be much less stressful.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I’ve long since given up on that train, I walk to Combermere Road and get the 2X from there. It’s a 15-20 minute walk and the bus from there goes fast along the bypass into Lancaster.

 

[Goldfish62]

Had a good experience with the RRBs between MK and Bedford on Christmas Eve. The ones I was on did the journey in under 30 minutes as opposed to the timetabled 40. This enabled me to catch earlier trains than the journey planner had suggested.

They ran every 5 minutes as scheduled meaning that one time I had the entire bus to myself. Drivers seemed to be using their personal phones as GPS.

I suppose they might have a large vehicle Satnav installed on their mobiles, which is fine as long as the correct vehicle dimensions are programmed in. Otherwise it's downright unprofessional and potentially dangerous if just using Google Maps, for example.