At times when passenger numbers are running at about half their normal level and despite significant financial help from central and local government, bus companies are having to make economies to make ends meet.
Stagecoach has already announced the permanent closure of its travel shop on Lancaster Bus Station and now comes news that the company is to discontinue the free wifi service offered on many of its buses.
Important update
From 26 October, we are temporarily switching off Wi-Fi on many of our buses. Like many organisations, we’re reviewing all aspects of our operation as we continue through the Covid-19 pandemic with a focus to make sure we can continue running safe and reliable services for you. We’ve found that many customers are not using the bus Wi-Fi, especially on shorter local bus journeys.
This appears to be a decision taken at Group level and applies to all the company's services throughout the country. Some services appear to have been granted an exemption, including the X2 between Preston, Southport and Liverpool but otherwise free wifi will be a thing of the past from Monday.
Locally, Stagecoach has already switched off the Next Stop Audio introduced with geat fanfare when new buses were introduced on services 2X and 100 last year.
Of course, with many smartphone packages now including huge amounts of mobile data it could be said that the days of on-bus wifi, with its requirement to log-on (and confirm you are still over 13 years old as you were last time) were numbered in any case, but the BUG wonders how many more of the extra frills and "nice-to-haves" of bus travel will have to disappear as the pandemic drags on.
