Bus Companies and Social Media

[LordCreed]

I'm a very regular user of buses, and I've noticed that the vast majority of bus companies are very poor at using social media, especially when it comes to posting about delays.

This week and next week my local route is on diversion and Stagecoach didn't tweet anything until after I tweeted to ask what the diversion was. Anyone waiting at the closed stops would have had a shock, as there was no information there either.

Today one of the buses was cancelled, and once again no tweet to acknowledge the cancellation. Of course the live tracker on the website is no help either, as it doesn't show cancellations.

This is also a running issue with a number of companies in the past, so I can't say that it's just Stagecoach to blame. To me the approach compared to some rail companies is very poor.

So a few questions for the wider audience: How do the companies where you live fare on social media? What information would you say is essential for companies to send out? I'd certainly expect diversions, cancellations and significant late running to be posted.

And a final question, as this is true in my case, would you be more sympathetic to delays if you were made aware in advance?

 

[Megafuss]

From memory, Stagecoach ops teams should be posting service updates for diversions etc if they happen in real time. Planned road closures are usually posted by the commercial/marketing bods.

Due to staff shortages etc I think most control rooms are extremely busy at the minute, so tweeting about a cancellation or diversion is the last thing they are thinking about when they are trying to put services back together.

On the other hand sometimes drivers don't help. I was on a bus yesterday, due to a badly parked car we could not serve an estate road. Driver waited to see if he could get through and decided to go on a diversion. He didn't contact control, he did tell a driver going the opposite way to go the diversion. So how is the customer supposed to know buses are going the other way?

That's not an excuses, but it is a reason why sometimes it's patchy.

I go agree though. Twitter etc is a free way of telling folk what is going on "in the wild" and should be used more openly

 

[goldisgood]

In my area Stagecoach aren't too great at posting minor issues such as a bus being cancelled, late or roadworks but if there is large disruption (such as a main arterial route being closed) will have great, regular coverage.
On the other hand Go Ahead are pretty good at posting minor issues such as the ones mentioned above, but post almost no coverage if there is large disruption.
Of course it's Go Ahead with the most cancellations, as had made news recently and should really go to the traffic commissioner...

 

[Eyersey468]

The company I work for posts delays etc in real time, I think it's someone in head office that does it. Planned closures/diversions etc are always publicised in advance. With regards to contacting control, sometimes you can't get through and outer depots generally let the supervisor know about any problems rather than the main control.

 

[alex397]

Stagecoach are a bit hit and miss. Its generally good here in East Kent, with the Twitter team based locally in Canterbury. They only work Mon-Fri though, so at the weekends there are no replies and its just the operations teams posting diversions/delays. They are generally good, but occasionally when I look at the threads there are a few 'facepalm' moments.
E.g. a customer asks 'can you tell me when the next bus from X will be?' and Stagecoach just post something like 'hi, please have a look at our journey planner' with a link to it. This is a pretty useless reply, because their journey planner is not very good, especially on a smart phone. It also doesn't take much for the customer services to quickly look it up (even using Google Maps, which has bus departures from stops) and tell them directly.

Stagecoach East Kent seem a lot better than Arriva Kent - whose customer service team are clearly not locally based (isn't it Luton or somewhere?), and most replies seem quite useless.

Out of all the Twitter accounts i've seen, Ensignbus is by far the best.

 

[Jordan Adam]

First have centrally based media teams which often leads to inaccurate information and funny replies to what would normally be simple questions.

Stagecoach East, West & North Scotland each have one person allocated posting updates and replying to quires through the day. Out of hours updates are often posed from the depot. But as many routes are operated by more than one depot you often get a number of duplicated posts, which on occasion each have their own side to the story!

I recall a little while back there was a crash in the late evening on a service which lead to a temporary diversion. 3 different depots ended up posting 3 different posts, with 3 different diversion routes!

 

[richw]

First have centrally based media teams which often leads to inaccurate information and funny replies to what would normally be simple questions.

!

Ours are managed locally here.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

It's quite funny to read the First Glasgow Twitter feed give out info regarding bus routes for when acceptance is in place for train tickets and they give our route numbers that go nowhere near where the train lines are disrupted. There was one that I saw where they have said that ticket acceptance was in place for service 18 for the Barrhead/Neilston line when in fact the 18 goes in the completely opposite direction.

I suppose that's one of the problems by having someone putting out information nowhere near to where the issues are. I doubt the folk who do the Glasgow feed don't even have a clue as to where places are in Glasgow and the surrounding area.

 

[overthewater]

If I was First I would look at getting a scottish Twitter team, At least then Manchester could deal with midland England. Surly there have some money spare to cover the three operations?

 

[Typhoon]

Stagecoach East Kent seem a lot better than Arriva Kent - whose customer service team are clearly not locally based (isn't it Luton or somewhere?), and most replies seem quite useless.

I think you are right. And not the 'Luton' that's just to the east of Chatham either. The problem I have found is that they don't seem to understand the geography of the area. I spent ages trying to explain to them that there was an obvious error with a timetable. It didn't matter to me, I'd used Traveline, which was right. All I got was a link to their incorrect on-line timetable with a statement that it was right, until I escalated things. The same team appears to cover all of the home counties up to MK, from their responses.

Its generally good here in East Kent, with the Twitter team based locally in Canterbury.

Do they cover Hastings and Eastbourne, too?

 

[CatfordCat]

Reading Buses are pretty good at it - looks as though control room staff post on there, not just a customer services person who works office hours.

Latest posts (as of 2052 Friday evening) are one posted about half an hour ago for some routes on temporary diversion following a road accident, and a few from the evening peak about individual journeys running 10 minutes late or more.

 

[MotCO]

Metrobus, before it became part of Go-Ahead, were very good with service updates and advice in the Bromley / Orpington area. Now the only informtion is on Go-Ahead London or TfL, and not so good.

The baton seems to have been picked up by Go-Coach and Southdown PSV - both have very good service updates.

 

[Buggleskelly]

TfL Bus Alerts and Ensign do a very good job on their Twitter feeds stating where problems are and what routes are affected, Ensign more so. First Essex on the other hand just don't seem to be that bothered and I rely on their services everyday to get to and from work. I'm constantly being let down with no shows/late runnings on a daily basis, it would be nice if they could at least let people know of any issues.

 

[Typhoon]

The baton seems to have been picked up by Go-Coach and Southdown PSV - both have very good service updates.

Seconded!

 

[CM]

If I was First I would look at getting a scottish Twitter team, At least then Manchester could deal with midland England. Surly there have some money spare to cover the three operations?

Since when was Manchester in the Midlands?

 

[noddingdonkey]

First Huddersfield are awful at updating either Twitter or the real time service with details of cancellations or significant delays.

 

[156478]

It's quite funny to read the First Glasgow Twitter feed give out info regarding bus routes for when acceptance is in place for train tickets and they give our route numbers that go nowhere near where the train lines are disrupted. There was one that I saw where they have said that ticket acceptance was in place for service 18 for the Barrhead/Neilston line when in fact the 18 goes in the completely opposite direction.

I suppose that's one of the problems by having someone putting out information nowhere near to where the issues are. I doubt the folk who do the Glasgow feed don't even have a clue as to where places are in Glasgow and the surrounding area.

That’s what happens when the twitter team for Scotland are based in Leeds 235 miles away! A lot of things were centralised in the name of cost cutting progress.
On similar lines it’s the Same phone number 0345 646 0707 for First Glasgow, First Scotland East, First Leeds, First York or First Southampton. Have never phoned it, I wonder if it’s automated multiple choice to speak to someone from a certain subsidiary or is one number fits all? Anyone tried it?

 

[GaryMcEwan]

That’s what happens when the twitter team for Scotland are based in Leeds 235 miles away! A lot of things were centralised in the name of cost cutting progress.
On similar lines it’s the Same phone number 0345 646 0707 for First Glasgow, First Scotland East, First Leeds, First York or First Southampton. Have never phoned it, I wonder if it’s automated multiple choice to speak to someone from a certain subsidiary or is one number fits all? Anyone tried it?

Whenever I've had to call Glasgow I've called their 0141 number. Didn't even know about an 0345 number.

 

[route101]

First Glasgo dont get much in the way from them . Only on them weather disruption days .

 

[jkkne]

Go North East are excellent.

They do the fluffy customer meme stuff on office hours and maintain it with ops updates out of hours. They even...engage...with customers outside of bus chatter. They tend to come into their own when there’s major disruption (the snow earlier this year or any matchday in Newcastle)

It helps that they are supported by an excellent website too.

 

[infobleep]

TfL Bus Alerts and Ensign do a very good job on their Twitter feeds stating where problems are and what routes are affected, Ensign more so. First Essex on the other hand just don't seem to be that bothered and I rely on their services everyday to get to and from work. I'm constantly being let down with no shows/late runnings on a daily basis, it would be nice if they could at least let people know of any issues.

I find TfL bus alerts to be hit and miss. This may be due to the bus companies.

The other day they reported delays of 25 minutes into Kingston and listed the bus routes. However other bus routes were also affected. I worked our these routes were operated by a different company.

I did point this out but I doubt they did much with my information as I never got a response.

I did also point out, in a separate tweet that the TfL travel bot said no disruption on the X26 when there was 25 minutes of disruption. They said thanks and would pass it on for someone to look at.

It did then make me wonder how the travel bit learns of disruption, it being based on artifical intelligence.

Information being provided online is also patchy. Multiple places to look and even then info not always provided.

One time last year there was a water mains repair in Esher cause big delays to the K3 route. I enquired and was told of the issues. Greta but for the next 4 days after that nothing was put online about the issue or at least nothing that fed through to the real time bus app I was using, and there was a further 4 days of disruption to K3 bus services.

If an individual bus service on a low frequency route is cancelled, the chances of finding out are rare. Your best bet is to try and piece it together yourself and then ask the bus drive of the next bus to turn up.

Info is definitely not as good as the rail companies.

 

[Simon75]

Trentbarton (Trentbarton Land), are good with Facebook. the main First Facebook page doesn't seem to be used the company now. Seem they just use Twitter