Errors in bus service registrations

[northwichcat]

I've noticed that a lot of bus service registrations have errors in them. For instance, just looking for ones that mention Northwich:
* Swans Travel applied to cancel a Northwich to Altringcham (instead of Altrincham) bus service
* Dobsons Buses applied to cancel a Northwich to Lack Dennis (instead of Lach Dennis) bus service
* Birtles Mini Coaches applied to cancel a 300 Northwich-Knutsford service when the 300 service they ran was the evening Knutsford town circular that didn't go near Northwich.
* Ian Tomlinson applied to run a Northwhich (instead of Northwich) to Holmes Chapel service.

How do the registrations get accepted or cancelled with mistakes in them or are they just inputted wrongly after being accepted/cancelled?

In all the above it's obvious that they are mistakes but if, for instance, the same operator ran the 289 Northwich-Knutsford-Altrincham service and 300 Knutsford circular service and applied to cancel the 300 Northwich-Knutsford service it wouldn't be so obvious which one it was supposed to be. Then some place names are very similar in name so if there was a new application for a Chester to Hof Green service, would it be Hough Green or Hoo Green?

 

[Deerfold]

I think it's whoever type them into the system. They're riddled with errors in the form of spelling mistakes, mainly of places and it seems to apply across all operators.

On the other hand sometimes the name of the place is a remnant of when a service was first registered rather than where it goes now.

Each service has a reference allocated to it, so the right one should be withdrawn.

 

[northwichcat]

On the other hand sometimes the name of the place is a remnant of when a service was first registered rather than where it goes now.

The 300 service I mentioned above has never gone to Northwich but the former operator of the evening service, Birtles Mini Coaches, were based in the Northwich area.

 

[CatfordCat]

I've noticed that a lot of bus service registrations have errors in them...

Bear in mind that the bit of VOSA that handles bus service registrations is now centralised (I believe in Leeds) so the staff are unlikely to have local knowledge of all parts of the country (even when it was done at the regional traffic commissioners offices, the distance between office and the edge of the area was fairly great)

And also bear in mind that "public sector efficiency" tends to mean in practice fewer and lower paid / temporary staff doing the work.

And in some cases they will be reading forms hand-written by small operators who (I'm putting this politely) may have greater engineering than literacy skills.

The 300 above could, I guess have been a Northwich - Knutsford service when it was first registered, thus it would probably stay on the system as such, even if a subsequent variation removed one end of the route.

You say that the operator used to be based at one end of the route - it's by no means unknown for the 'garage journey' on a remote service to be included in the commercial registration.

That having been said, I have seen 'Altrincham' spelt incorrectly perhaps more often than most towns. 'Altringham' seems quite common - I don't really know that part of the world well - is the latter an archaic spelling, or just plain wrong?

 

[northwichcat]

The 300 above could, I guess have been a Northwich - Knutsford service when it was first registered, thus it would probably stay on the system as such, even if a subsequent variation removed one end of the route

I can confirm that wouldn't be the case. Starline Travel ran the full 300 (daytime and evening) service in the early 1990s which passed to North Western and then Arriva. Arriva's registration showed it as Knutsford-Knutsford. Arriva stopped running the evening service and it was registered initially by Birtles Mini Coaches as a like for like replacement for the service Arriva used to provide but with a smaller bus.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

That having been said, I have seen 'Altrincham' spelt incorrectly perhaps more often than most towns. 'Altringham' seems quite common - I don't really know that part of the world well - is the latter an archaic spelling, or just plain wrong?

Altrincham doesn't seem to have an archaic spelling. It's a newer town than most - no reference to it in the Domesday Book.

 

[34D]

And in some cases they will be reading forms hand-written by small operators who (I'm putting this politely) may have greater engineering than literacy skills.

Indeed. Some operators send paper forms, and some submit electronic registrations - either way potential for errors.

 

[Ivo]

We (the people in the FSW thread) found a rather serious error which has since been corrected in January - a new hourly route being shown as every six minutes (instead of every sixty minutes) hock: