Following on from my posts on the First thread about the sale of First Manchester where i stated my dislike for Go Ahead i thought i would start this thread.
What has always really surprised me is that the bus operators who keep getting all this praise and all these awards are the bus operators who i have found to be the worst bus operators i have travelled on.
In my personal opinion these are the worst bus operators i have used in the UK (and i have used all of them multiple times):
Just been reading this over the last few days and User1234 seems a bit confused about the state of the modern bus industry, so let's look at it.
Reading Bus's happen to have reversed the passenger loss in their area that be devilled both Thames Valley and Alder Valley, yes maybe you don't like their network or how they operate but here is the rub.
Their market is people in their operating area, if they back up that with adequate flag information that shows route numbers or branding, up to date timetables on their bus stop posts or shelters, a good website that if possible includes fare charts or zonal maps where flat fares or exact fares are in operation and good publicity for service revisions the rest is academic.
The fact they do exact fare suits them it brings benefits to the drivers as the print out at the end of each turn will enable them to complete a waybill faster and allows the company a greater insight into the cash/cashless fares breakdown.
The industry is out to make a profit, bottom line you do not run a bus service to make a loss, the exceptions are community or tendered services which are "de minimis" provisions by nature and for social necessity.
The fact that their policies do not suit you is not of concern to them, they have their market which judging by statistics for bus usage they are serving very well.
Route branding is designed to give a strong feel to a service or a group of services, the promotion of that group is based upon identification as service numbers can be awkward to people with visual impairment, I recall the change over from white on black blinds when they attempted to find alternative solutions so that the blinds which were always skew wift and dirty could be read with greater ease.
You use bright colours in order to make that bus easier to spot and yes the arguments over non branded vehicles on branded services has been going on as long as vehicles have displayed route branding, conversely you get branded vehicles on ordinary services where operational need over rides the normal "we don't use that vehicle on this service" criteria.
It is not a waste of money, it makes commercial sense because companies like Best Impressions charge a serious amount of cash for that style of route promotion and operators believe it works, but more importantly they pay for it because it does work as the branding creates an image that sells when backed by heavy promotion.
That leads me into the final point your complaints over the use of dateless marks, sorry but that is totally irrelevant, operators use them for 101 reasons from disguising the age of a vehicle used for private hire in a marketplace where people just on a vehicle's immediate age over it's condition, and believe me I've seen some dogs after heavy use when the vehicle is only several years old.
An operator who has immaculate vehicles may use a dateless mark for that reason, and has been pointed out some local operators have used them to signify pride as paying out for a new vehicle for a small operator is a big step thees days so why not make it special by applying a special registration. So when you think about the fact that it might be less than 0.5% of the vehicle's purchase price, it is a final step that makes it a statement to people, here we are and here we stay.
Truth is that enthusiast's sometimes get caught up in believing that the industry is created for their express enjoyment, no it is not, it is there to serve the public by providing a timetabled service that is affordable to it's users and which meets the standards laid down in law for the operation of PCV's. What we make thing or wish for is of no consequence to the managers or owners of such an operation and I can well understand why colleagues of mine did not discuss if they maintained an interest in bus preservation, etc for feat of being ridiculed by their workmates, a lot of whom had no time for part time know it all bus
enthusiast's with no actual experience of working within the industry.
