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Campaign for an appropriate TransWilts train service
Just two trains a day currently link the five major population centres of Wiltshire
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Strong arm tactics in the bus industry? Poor result for the customer!
It's sometimes frustrating - really frustrating - to start to see something clearly only after the event. Looking back to the bus service changes from Bath through Melksham to Devizes and Easterton of a month ago, I think I'm now seeing more clearly what I think has happened. • A couple of months ago, First were the incumbent operator on the route - an hourly service from Bath through all those other places to Easterton, which loaded more heavily out of Bath than along other sections of the route. Faresaver were offering a competing service, Monday to Friday only, Bath to Melksham only, daytime only ... to "cherry pick" revenue from the most lucrative section of the route. • In an effort to increase their income from the route, First said they would cease to run the services on the Melksham to Easterton section on a commercial basis - that they would require a subsidy if the service was to continue. They probably felt confident that these tactics would result in a quick decision by Wiltshire Council to subsidise what is a strategically important service • When they heard what First were going to do, Faresaver made a decision to extend their Monday to Friday daytime service from Bath to Melksham through to Devizes, and also to run a daytime service on Saturdays. The total service as now provided is degraded from what it was previously. In particular, there is a gap in service from Melksham to Bath of two hours in the evening commute-home-from-work time, and there are missing buses in what was a regular hourly service from Devizes to Bath and vice versa. Faresaver have improved the quality of their buses on the Bath to Melksham (extended to Devizes) route, but they're still not up to the quality of the best of First's buses. And the competing buses during the day on the Melksham to Bath section continue to run within a couple of minutes of each other, then there's a gap of nearly an hour, and crossticketing is only very slightly improved on what it was - I hear of people being turned away from a First bus and wait for the next one (as the next one is subsidised) when presenting a Faresaver ticket. Observing First's bus passing Well House Manor during the day, it's gone from being well loaded to being virtually empty, and I do wonder if the company's strong arm (but legal) tactic of threatening to withdraw part of the service unless given a subsidy has backfired on them. If the Bath end of the route was making enough of a profit to keep First's bosses in Aberdeen happy, I doubt that it's doing so any longer, given the total loss to them of the through traffic from Bath to Devizes and beyond that probably made it viable. And I find myself wondering if in a few months time we'll find that the remaining commercial buses run by First are withdrawn ... which when you think about it might be no great loss. After all, they're now just duplicating the Faresaver offering, aren't they? And once First are gone, a single operator in the form of Faresaver would be well positioned to adjust his service to maximise the utility and passengers carried without having to keep one eye over his shoulder looking at the competition. (written 2010-10-03) Associated topics are indexed under Z511 - Public Transport - Road[4032] Easier public transport from Melksham to Bristol Airport - (2013-03-06) [4023] Melksham to Chippenham (Station) bus services - times and routes - (2013-03-01) [4022] A request for all of Melksham transport groups to work integrated - (2013-03-01) [3951] Christmas Bus Schedule for Melksham - First Bus - (2012-12-14) [3938] A long overdue meeting - a steeping stone towards coordinate transport user inputs - (2012-12-02) [3937] Agenda for Wiltshire Link Travel groups meeting, Saturday 1st December 2012 - (2012-11-27) [3929] Melksham Bus Issues - to be raised at First Bus Customer Panel - (2012-11-21) [3904] Want to help us improve transport in Wiltshire? Here is how! - (2012-10-26) [3893] Public Transport across Wiltshire - a new map - (2012-10-13) [3879] Mixed mode travel - Information systems - (2012-10-03) [3877] Public Transport Services - from and to Melksham - (2012-10-01) [3866] Celebrate! Buses from Meksham to Bath - (2012-09-18) [3850] Bus times - Chippenham Station to Melksham, with London connections - (2012-08-25) [3849] New bus times - Melksham to Bath - (2012-08-25) [3699] Bristol 50? Bristol 25? - (2012-04-17) [3631] Getting around Dublin by public transport - some observations - (2012-03-01) [3580] Melksham Area - buses, trains, cycles, and roads. Meeting, 17.1.2012 - (2012-01-15) [3579] Transport in Cambridgeshire - seen by an outside observer. What can Wiltshire learn? - (2012-01-15) [3564] I wish I was not a special case - (2011-12-29) [3523] When competition is not a good idea - Melksham Bus Absurdity - (2011-11-16) [3504] Coaches from Trowbridge and Melksham to London - (2011-11-01) [3487] Public transport - road and rail - (2011-10-19) [3486] How important is public transport to people in the Melksham area? - (2011-10-19) [3471] Vintage Bus Running Day in Warminster. An example of good bus practise. - (2011-10-09) [3404] Buses on the Cambridge Guided Busway - (2011-08-24) [3301] Using public transport - USA style - (2011-05-25) [3290] Changes (and no changes) at Melksham bus stops - (2011-05-15) [3194] Buses - what they cost and their future direction in the SW and in Wiltshire - (2011-03-06) [3126] Car Parking in Melksham - thoughts on the proposed scheme, and wider thoughts too - (2011-01-09) [2982] Travel, Transport and Tourism - A vision for Melksham, 2026 - (2010-10-03) [2958] What do these road markings mean? Could Confusion Kill? - (2010-09-17) [2933] Bath - Melksham - Devizes buses from September - (2010-08-23) [2919] London to Calne, Corsham, Melksham, Bradford-on-Avon, Chippenham by public Transport - (2010-08-13) [2903] Bath to Devizes bus via Melksham - changing again in September - (2010-08-04) [2857] Park and Ride at Batheaston - will it solve Wiltshires Ills? - (2010-07-06) [2791] Bath to Melksham buses - times - (2010-06-03) [2789] Melksham to London (Heathrow, and Central London) - (2010-06-02) [2771] Melksham to Calne by public transport - (2010-05-20) [2672] Dear Planners, please provide viable alternatives - (2010-03-11) [2662] Is Melksham public transport actually used? - (2010-03-05) [2533] Five guests, three groups, one car - (2009-12-11) [2522] Integrated public Transport - what could be done for Melksham - (2009-12-01) [2515] Why we have two buses an hour - but not a half hourly service - (2009-11-28) [2431] Moving busstop! - (2009-09-30) [2372] Public Transport from (and to) Melksham on Sundays - (2009-08-23) [2328] Melksham - no trains, no southbound buses through the town - (2009-08-08) [2268] Westbury Bypass Refused - looking forward - (2009-07-04) [2083] Do you support a decent train service? Please sign up! - (2009-03-15) [2075] Supporting Parkinsons and Trains - (2009-03-11) [1777] The Rise and Rise of First Bus Fares - (2008-08-29) [1723] Bath - Melksham - Devizes. Bus route changes, new timetable - (2008-07-26) [1668] Talk on TransWilts train service to Green Party - (2008-06-07) [1567] Melksham - Swindon. Train v Bus v Car - (2008-03-07) [1560] HST Power Car TravelWatch SouthWest - (2008-03-01) [1511] Buses from Well House Manor, Melksham, to Bath - (2008-01-18) [1428] Travel Across Wiltshire - the game - (2007-11-11) [1315] Two years of campaigning for a train service - (2007-08-22) [1254] Comparing bus stops - (2007-07-01) [1125] Train service - petititon reply - (2007-03-31) [1085] Lawrence Webb's Melksham Taxi service - (2007-02-18) [818] Heard, yes. Considered, no. The case for the train. - (2006-07-30) [764] Journey planning - Xephos v Transport Direct - (2006-06-16) [474] Vintage Bus Day - (2005-10-23) [459] Kiss and Ride - (2005-10-09) [187] a popular bus number - (2005-01-23) [119] PHP course. Come by train. - (2004-11-15) 52a8
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