West Yorkshire bus franchising

[61653 HTAFC]

No.

You can predict you can have traffic at peaks times but you cannot predict how long that traffic will disrupt the journey. Arriva has far too much padding in their timetables to the point where you are consistently waiting 5+ minutes at every timing point on routes like the 202/3 and 229. Yet, despite this, these services are still the most unpunctual services in the region and still end up running half an hour late. You cannot fix infrastructure issues with timetables.

You can't have it both ways though. The 229 was diverted away from Batley a few years ago because of congestion, were the timings on the modified route updated? If the timetable is too conservative in one place and too optimistic further along the route, then it isn't fit for purpose. Yes, sometimes traffic can be unpredictable but for the most part you know when and where the bottlenecks are likely to be. At least with modern tracking people will know whether their bus is delayed or if it's a no-show- which wasn't the case in the past. That's assuming things are tracking properly of course, which isn't always the case.

People will accept that their bus might be late because of traffic, particularly if they're able to track it and be reassured that it will turn up eventually- but would it not make more sense to publish timetables that bear at least some resemblance to reality? It isn't rocket science to acknowledge that the roads will be quieter at 9pm than they were at 5:30pm and to publish timetables that reflect this.

 

[Tetchytyke]

You can predict you can have traffic at peaks times but you cannot predict how long that traffic will disrupt the journey.

Nonsense.

Some congestion is unpredictable but most of it is entirely predictable. Anyone with local knowledge knows where the hotspots are and with modern tracking technology the operator can see where the delays occur. It’s also predictable based on the day- the roads on Mondays and Fridays are quieter and the roads during school holidays are deserted. The roads into a shopping park are busier on a Saturday.

I don’t think we should go down the First AI timetable route, but buses in the shoulder peaks take longer than buses in the off peak. How often does a timetable actually reflect that?

If a particular service is both waiting time and operating late then that’s a timetabling issue. Clearly they’ve not put the extra times in the right place.

I was wondering where these places are too?

I can think of a few examples in and around Bradford where bus improvement measures have been put in only to see the bus service decimated or removed entirely. There have also been a few examples in and around South Shields and Jarrow, not surprising given how much both operators there have cut back their network.