Bus links fully integrated with rail

[RT4038]

Like you say, this would have to be determined on a case by case basis. If the majority of patronage is local and only heading to places directly served by the route, then it makes sense to keep the existing local service as an all-purpose bus route. If it’s people making onward travel whether via rail or another bus, a limited stop service would be beneficial, but this would come at the expense of those who use the stops that don’t warrant being served by an express route. With most able-bodied passengers walking slightly further to use the faster express route, expect the all-stops service to be drastically reduced or replaced with a taxishare.

Quite. The issues will depend on location, but in many areas express routes will run down bypasses which don't have any stops on them, or main roads away from settlements. We can see what is likely to happen by looking at those places with restored railways or services (such as Borders) or where express buses have been introduced already (such as X5 between Bedford and Oxford) and the withering away of stopping bus services. This can have profound effects on the services to those places not served by the railway or express 'railbus'. Sometimes this could be justified for the good of the majority, but other places will result in one commercial catch-all bus service being replaced by two subsidised services.

Central Government will of course be wary of the additional funding (esp. as doing one will result in a cry for doing it all over the country), and Local Transport Authorities will not have the funding to pick up the pieces left behind.

 

[Arch9enius]

Well ideally, the TOC would get hold of a bunch of buses/coaches from wherever, the drivers likewise, install a bunch of thoses large bulky bus shelters you see on railway platforms with a 'next bus' display and a ticketing machine nearby in every settlement left high and dry by Beeching/Marples, and run them under the understanding that the bus will be at the main entrance when the down train arives; tthe bus will run express or semifast;t he last bus to the railway will run and the train will say to meet it; the bus will always meet the last train, and Delay repay will include the bus. This last one would cause anomalies; if someones' car breaks in half or Dom Joly decides to dress as a snail and crawl down the road, they could end up paying everyones' taxi fare?

However, some of the bus routes that were supposed to replace trains originally have actually prospered, e.g. between Winchester and Alton, and I gather one follows the former Waverley route as well and they may well be keeping lesser bus routes afloat. In this case abstraction would be a backwards step and I suppose the above can be foisted on the bus company and they can continue to serve request stops etc in the meanwhile. On the other hand towns like Seaton are served by those firms that run out of a graveyard of old Darts and Solos, and I honestly think having the bus route as part of the rail network, showing on >Your UK Train Journey Planner - National Rail Enquiries< with announcements on trains such as "Change here for Weston Super Mare and Bus Services tto Minehead" will cause something akin to the spark effect. Infact if anyone is involved in one of These restoring your Railway bids, this might be a first step.

Incidentally, the statues of whatever they were in front of Weymouth station are gone, replaced by a bus turning circle, and the bus interchange outside Taunton station might actually get used sometime, rather than having to wait under the railway bridge getting shat on by pigeons. It only needs the First Group to speak to the First Group to sort something out... And the bus firm locally has lojacked all its' buses so that they show up on GPS. Great if you have one and the fact they are now the monopoly doesn't make them power senile..

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

Lots of talk here about the obvious need for integration but before that can happen the deregulation of buses (not applicable to London) needs to be abolished. Then cue the arguments about who should be responsible for the co-ordination and how they would be held accountable. The forthcoming franchising of bus services in GM is one way forward but so many people have known only the deregulated way that even this is causing much angst. And the point made up-thread about express "rail-network" buses being likely to undermine the existing local services is significant.

In short it will need a massive shift in political thinking, both among politicians and the electorate, before any of the apparently good ideas mentioned here can have any chance of being brought into reality.