Demand responsive bus services

[AY1975]

How many examples of demand responsive bus services can you think of? Have you ever used them, and what are your experiences of using them? I believe that some local authorities are trialling or considering them to at least partly make up for the loss of supported conventional bus services.

 

[overthewater]

West Lothian council has 16 taxi bus service (would need to double check). In which you have to phone up. You would never know because the information is hidden in plain sight.


That should be the other Q ... How easy is it to find such information?

 

[pdsalford]

There are several LocalLink services funded by TfGM

 

[edwin_m]

I see these demand-responsive services as a prime target for Uber and similar, nibbling at the edges of the public transport network. This seems to be happening in the States, where Uber or Lyft offers to partner transit agencies to provide "last mile" and economically marginal services. There is speculation on transit blogs that they are cuckoos in the nest.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

SPT have the MyBus service where you can phone them up and book a bus.

 

[Westnat]

Newport Bus operate three DRT services which need to be booked at least a day in advance. They are: 31 St Brides/Marshfield/Castleton, 62 Bishton/Redwick/Llanwern Village, 63 Goldcliff/Whitson/Nash.

 

[ashworth]

In Lincolnshire it appears that most of the county has demand responsive bus services under the name of CallConnect. Outside of Lincoln itself and a few major routes labelled as Interconnect even quite large villages only have these CallConnect buses. Before you can book a journey you have to be registered. My sister has recently moved to Billinghay, a large and growing village between Sleadord and Conningsby, with a population of well over 2,000, and apart from a couple of peak time buses to/from Sleaford CallConnect is the only public transport for much of the day. On moving there she just dismissed it as sounding a bit complicated and uses her car.

If you have to register to use CallConnect, I suppose only locals use them and they do very little towards getting visitors out of their cars on to public transport.

 

[NorthernSpirit]

In West Yorkshire the only DRT services that I know of is the Sowerby Bridge Ring N Ride that was originally the 586 and is operated by DK Travel, basically some bloke with a Ford Transit and a PSV licence.

 

[Be3G]

A few years ago my mother and her sister used a ‘demand responsive bus’ to reach a remote village in Norfolk from the nearest railway station (Acle) and vice-versa for a funeral. It required pre-booking, and was notionally supposed to be a bus, but was actually just a taxi albeit one from a company that also apparently operated a few proper minibuses when needed. There was some kind of arrangement too whereby the ‘bus’ journey was free for passengers arriving by rail, so all told my mum was pretty impressed with what amounted to free taxi journeys there and back at the times she needed rather than an inconvenient bus timetable.

(That wasn't the only freebie that day, apparently the pub where they were waiting beforehand in the village – having planned to get there in plenty of time in case of travel delays – kindly kept them fuelled with hot drinks without wanting any money.)

 

[PeterC]

In Lincolnshire it appears that most of the county has demand responsive bus services under the name of CallConnect. Outside of Lincoln itself and a few major routes labelled as Interconnect even quite large villages only have these CallConnect buses. Before you can book a journey you have to be registered. My sister has recently moved to Billinghay, a large and growing village between Sleadord and Conningsby, with a population of well over 2,000, and apart from a couple of peak time buses to/from Sleaford CallConnect is the only public transport for much of the day. On moving there she just dismissed it as sounding a bit complicated and uses her car.

If you have to register to use CallConnect, I suppose only locals use them and they do very little towards getting visitors out of their cars on to public transport.

I was trying to remember which county ran CallConnect. The need to register and pre-book does make them a bit of a faff to use and discouraging for visitors.

 

[Wirewiper]

Hampshire County Council used to run "CanGo" services, which ran to a timetable but had a flexible route and could be booked by phone. I don't know if these services still operate.

Although Lincolnshire's CallConnect does require registration and pre-booking journeys and can be seen as something of a faff (especially to car owners used to simply jumping in and driving when they want to go anywhere), the County also has a comprehensive network of Interconnect bus routes connecting the main towns and villages as well as a handful of rail routes, and I suspect these cater adequately for the public transport needs of the vast majority of visitors.

 

[xydancer]

Northamptonshire has CountyConnect, which covers most of the south, west and north of the county with four 'service areas': Brackley/Towcester, Brackley/Banbury (includes a few villages in Oxfordshire), Daventry, and Welland Valley (service aimed at Market Harborough, actually in Leicestershire). The north-east of the county is tied in with Lincolnshire's CallConnect.

You have to register, and pre-book at least one hour in advance.

Having seen the minibuses in Daventry town centre, they seem well-used from there at least, although given the need to register etc., I suspect everyone is local and regular.

It's likely the service will be scrapped in September 2018 as part of the County Council removing all bus service subsidies (they have huge financial problems and have basically run out of cash).

 

[MedwayValiant]

I was trying to remember which county ran CallConnect. The need to register and pre-book does make them a bit of a faff to use and discouraging for visitors.

Are they even available to visitors, or are they open only to Lincolnshire residents (on the basis that it is Lincolnshire residents who pay for them via their council tax)?

The rather low key demand responsive service funded by Medway Council is only available to Medway residents.

 

[PeterC]

I haven't seen any restrictions (I think that it was the CountyConnect site I looked at) but unless you are a transport nerd or have contacts with a local user it is unlikely that you will even hear about it.

 

[Hophead]

Compass Bus 99 operates between Petworth & Chichester on Mondays to Fridays. It will divert into the villages en-route if given notice beforehand.

PDF timetable gives a few more details

 

[Mitch in Notts]

Lincolnshires call connect network (since 2001) is well advertised and has its own website: http://www.lincsinterconnect.com/ an 'outsider' would just 'register' when booking a one off journey - ie they need your details to enable pick up/contact if a problem etc.

It was years before I discovered Leicestershire has a demand responsive service, that actually might predate Lincolnshires, covering most unserved villages - it is buried in the depths of the council website and not on traveline: http://www.choosehowyoumove.co.uk/demand-responsive-transport/ - That covering the large village of Heather is 6 days a week, most others are a few days a week or less.

Derbyshires started more recently and covers the southern Peak District area: http://www.derbysbus.info/times/timetables/DCAC-180401.pdf , and is due to be expanded further.

Nottinghamshire had a short lived attempt in the Newark area a few years ago. There are currently a number of routes in the Newark/Retford area that will only call to pick up passengers by prebooking - but these are on a fixed timetable.

 

[SCH117X]

North Yorkshire County Council operate a number.
DR03 (actually described as dial a ride) operates Mon-Wed & Fri in Harrogate (Serving a different part of the town each day) and Knaresborough on Thur.
DR04 serves the villages to the south of Harrogate running to Wetherby on Thursdays, and Harrogate Mon, Tue & Fri and in doing so replaces the former regular local service to Pannal.
DR06 operates in the northern part of Craven District sort of centred on Ingleton Mon-Fri
DR07 operates in the southern part of Craven District largely south of Skipton Mon-Fri
DR08 operates between Ripon and Boroughbridge with potentially two return journeys Tue, Thur, Fri along the route of Transdev York service 23 which only operates once in each direction, albeit Mon-Sat.
DR10 operates in the Esk Valley/Whitby area on Thursdays
DR14 links village to the north west of Harrogate with the town on Wednesdays replacing former daily bar Sundays service.
DR15 links villages to the east of Bedale with Northallerton on Wednesdays
DR18 links Esk Valley villages to Guisborough on alternate Thursdays
DR19 links nearby villages to Stokesley on Fridays and is specifically stated as being available for passengers living locally and is unable to accept casual hikers or tourists.

 

[MedwayValiant]

How does this work, that some of the demand responsive services which exist are known to Traveline and the like, and some are not?

Where they are not, does this imply that they are non-registered and are construed as taxi services rather than bus services? The Arriva Click service in Sittingbourne appears to be non-registered, even though it is run by a bus company and uses a bus rather than a car.

 

[overthewater]

West Lothian council has 16 taxi bus service (would need to double check). In which you have to phone up. You would never know because the information is hidden in plain sight.
That should be the other Q ... How easy is it to find such information?

It seems West lothian has cut it to 8... https://www.travelinescotland.com/west-lothian-taxibus


You can see all scottish services here: https://www.travelinescotland.com/drt-ct-info

 

[Be3G]

I can't believe I forgot to mention this when replying previous: TfL are also considering demand-responsive buses for London.

(What the press release doesn't say is that, presumably, these are going to be used to replace holes in the bus network once the current cuts we're experiencing get worse…)