They're going to have to, as there simply isn't the room at Adderley Green to take in all of Newcastle's work, in terms of both vehicle and driver car parking.
Perhaps bus company staff could travel to work by bus, freeing up space for more buses? Especially the management, then they would know just how 'good' their service is. No worries about early starts / late finishes as there is a staff bus already provided.
Failing that (IMHO) excellent suggestion, there are 2 significant plots of land available, virtually adjacent to the depot, which have remained undeveloped for decades so ought to be available at a reasonable price. Certainly suitable for overnight parking of vehicles following servicing (with some security fencing necessary).
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What I really don't understand is just how Arriva/Wardles, First and D&G can all seem to fail make a worthwhile return from what appears to be good bus operating territory. Can anyone explain what it is that's 'wrong' in the area ?
Poor quality management, taking customers for granted, assuming they had no alternative. Poor quality data on passenger usage leading to poor decisions on service changes i.e. drivers putting all passengers into the ticket machine as travelling to the final route destination - so no data on where passengers are actually travelling to (we have a flat fare in the potteries area).
Whilst passengers may have no bus alternative, once dumped by the operator making service reductions to the point where the frequency / times / days of operation make the service unattractive, there are other alternatives. Walk, bike, car, car share, change destination, stay at home or, best of all, thriving competition from Private Hire. If a couple of people share a taxi for their weekly shop it is comparable in price to the bus and you don't have to carry your bags 500m from the supposedly nearest stop. Obviously not cheaper for people with an ENCTS pass, who do seem to be a large proportion of the Potteries travelling public.
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I am going to hazard a guess but first of all I must state that I am not at all familiar with the Potteries Area (So making myself liable to be shot down!).
I am very familiar with places like London, Brighton & Edinburgh.
All three places suffer from traffic congestion and restricted parking, they also have thriving economies and plenty of employment opportunities.
The Bus companies who operate in those areas have a long and consistent history of Investment, Good Marketing, Decent frequencies & (Important this) a local culture where all sorts of people use the bus (not just pensioners, school kids etc with free/subsidised travel).
The Potteries from what I gather on this site has a 'Bus - Culture' of mostly cascaded hand me down vehicles because First Head Office can't justify new vehicles due to the Poor rate of return, buses are therefore seen as shabby and 'second best'.
Its a vicious circle that becomes a a self fulfilling prophecy "Bus service is Cxxp, Its only for pensioners & school-kids, so I use the car or car-share".
Ok I am sure there are other factors - high levels of unemployment for one.
I have no political axes to grind, bracing myself for the response.
No need to brace yourself, a pretty good description of what has happened since The PMT was sold to Badgerline for a substantial amount. It used to be very profitable. The golden goose has been bled dry. I would describe management behaviour in the potteries area as being those of a company who intend to close a company down. Get as much revenue as you can from the business, allowing the assets to run until they collapse, then close the business. Unfortunately it kills off the demand so no-one else can step in and pick up the pieces.
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That isn't for First to worry about. Supporting social necessary yet commercially unviable services is incumbent on the council(s), something both SoT and Staffs have conveniently forgotten about over recent years. For operators to continue to run unviable services without support just destabilises the remainder of the network, as we are now seeing in the Potteries.
Agreed. Stoke council cut all of its subsidsed services in one go, apart from a few supported by third parties i.e. Section 106 planning monies. A few have crept back since but support beyond ENCTS is minimal and always was low compared to similar areas elsewhere in the country.
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A peek at D&G's timetables page would suggest that all three of those assertions are incorrect.
I fear I already have taken more than a peek, and I stand by my assertion. Other than things ending their running day which just trip over the deadline. D & G have whole of 3 buses running into the evening. It depends on when you have tea of course.
10 buses still on the road after 1830.
5 after 1900.
3 after 1930.
Minimal work on Sundays, 3 buses worth?, all under contract.
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SoT City Council is so mind-bogglingly incompetent that it seems unable to work out that, if it keeps reducing the amount is pays operators for each passholder carried, there is going to come a point where services' viability is destroyed.
The same story as many other areas, really, but local authorities are unable to see it.
Or are they really clever and have an unpublished strategy to drive down the rate of reimbursement to the point where virtually all bus services are de-registered and they can spend the money on something else instead? The bus pass may be guaranteed by the government but no-one guaranteed there would be any bus service to actually use it on.
As an aside, is it actually
compulsory for operators to accept the ENCTS pass. If the recompense is so low that even busy services are no longer commercially viable, could a dominant / monopoly operator pull out and go back to charging fares to all the free-rider pass holders. Obviously there would be serious grief to suffer from user groups, politicians, press etc. The formula is supposed to be 'no better off/ no worse off', time for a legal challenge to a particularly tight fisted council perhaps?
