Bus companies without websites or published fares information

[LUYMun]

A lot of small operators only run tenders, so they probably think it’s the tendering authority’s place to run a website with timetables, which most will do, to some degree.

Reminds me of a former company called Dickson's Travel of Frimley Green, who ran routes 48 and 500 from Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. No website or contact available, so you'd have to dig deep. They lost the tender back in 2018, so the new (and current) operator White Bus of Winkfield has publicised the services on their website. Funny thing is I've always seen a Dickson's bus with either one or no passenger whenever I spotted one, but there is a handful more now with White Bus. A difference the Internet makes!

 

[Flange Squeal]

Reminds me of a former company called Dickson's Travel of Frimley Green, who ran routes 48 and 500 from Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey. No website or contact available, so you'd have to dig deep. They lost the tender back in 2018, so the new (and current) operator White Bus of Winkfield has publicised the services on their website. Funny thing is I've always seen a Dickson's bus with either one or no passenger whenever I spotted one, but there is a handful more now with White Bus. A difference the Internet makes!

The 500 under Dickson typically carried a flow at the western end Windlesham to Camberley/Frimley Park Hospital, and indeed at one time there were talks of reducing the number of journeys to/from Staines to offer a more frequent service over the western section. This was when the 500 used two buses all day rather than just one between 9am and 4pm (when the 48 was cut back) from an all-day service) though, so had more journeys over the course of a day.

The 48 may have gained additional custom with White Bus thanks to the daytime short journeys being extended west of Brookwood to/from Pirbright Camp, where it slotted into some lengthy gaps in Buses Excetera’s 28. More recently, the 28 - now operated by Falcon - was diverted away from Pirbright Camp to reduce journey times to enable a reliable hourly service to be introduced. This means White Bus’ 48 is now the only daytime bus service serving Pirbright Camp, so might have gained passengers in comparison to Dickson thanks to that. I did observe some Dickson drivers skipping the last trip before lunchtime on a semi-regular basis though, often seen parked up by the WWF centre on Brewery Road. That certainly wouldn’t have helped matters.

Certainly a big improvement to have them operated by a company who publishes timetables, fare charts, tracking, maps etc. Brand new buses for little tendered routes too (although admittedly Dickson’s pair of Solos were brand new when acquired). While it was a bit of a shame to see a fairly long-standing local independent lose their work, they sadly hadn’t really seemed to keep up with progress.