Why does the bus industry find it so difficult?

 

Service 89 to Knott End - or is it Service 88?

Why does the bus industry (and in this instance, the county council) find it so difficult to advertise and promote its services, or even to inform its passengers of what is going on?

From today, Sunday, 27th August, Lancashire County Council, working with Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, has amended and improved the bus service between Lancaster and Knott End-on-Sea, increasing the the number of journeys, changing the route to provide new services to a number of villages and re-introducing a Sunday service after a seven year gap; all of this being paid for out of a pot of over £34m Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.

You would think that the council and the bus company would be falling over themselves to promote the new timetables, especially given that one of the aims of the Bus Service Improvement Plan is to increase the use of buses over that of other modes of transport,

But what do we find and how might passengers find out about the new service?

Try the Bus Company

Most passengers, or would-be passengers, seeking information on a bus service would naturally turn to the bus company's website, where they might expect to find a copy of the new timetable, perhaps with some promotional material explaining the benefits of the new service and how it might be of use to them.

The service between Lancaster and Knott End is numbered 89 and this has a new timetable, whereas the extra journeys to places such as Winmarleigh, Garstang, and Nateby are numbered 88. Nevertheless, the two routes have a lot in common and many, if not most, passengers could make use of either route.

 So what would such a passenger have found today on the website of Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire?

The 89 is there (third row from the top) but there is no mention of new service 88 (which started today) and clicking on the link to the 89 brings up the old timetable that finished yesterday! No point in looking any further.

Try the Council

People in the know, which is by no means everyone, might realise that the services are operated under contract to Lancashire County Council and might therefore turn to that body's website for information.

Should they eventually navigate their way through that necessarily huge website to the public transport pages they would find a section headed "Bus Timetables" and a search box to find the service they need.

IF our would-be passenger is already aware of new service 88, perhaps by reading the local press or, indeed, this website, they might enter "88" into the search box, only to get the following result.

Four services to choose from, none of them the 88

If our passenger doesn't give up at this stage they might notice that there is a "search by location" facility, but should they be wishing to travel to or from Cockerham for example, just one of the communities served by the 88 and 89, they would find:

Cockerham, apparently, doesn't exist! But it's not just Cockerham. Searches for "Glasson", "Garstang" "Knott End on Sea" and even "Lancaster" throw up the same result!

Clearly something seriously amiss with LCC's website there.

Success (sort of)

After much searching, the Bus Users' Group eventually tracked down an online timetable for the 88. It's actually quite simple>  After finding your way to "Roads, Parking and Travel", then "Public Transport" then "Bus Timetables" you just need to go to "Interchanges and Bus Stations" then click on "Lancaster Bus Station" where you will find a link to the new 88 timetable!  

SIMPLES!

(although we don't seem to hear much from Sergei the (Russian?) meerkat these days for some reason).

But even then your troubles are not over. The county's inflexible system insists on showing the 88 and the 89 as completely separate services with no cross-referencing between them on its site, so to get the full picture of buses between Lancaster and Knott End, or even Lancaster and Glasson or Lancaster and Cockerham you have to know that there are two separate services and then make two separate enquiries!

Paper Timetables?

But not everyone relies on the internet, so how might those who still prefer the traditional ways of finding bus information be getting on?

Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire appears to have given up producing paper timetables. All its passengers are obviously completely tech-savvy and wouldn't dream of reading anything the company might produce on paper. (They obviously don't read newspapers, TV listing magazines, tourist brochures, or any of the promotional literature from supermarkets, fast-food outlets and charities that regularly drops through their letterboxes either).

The county council, to its credit, does still produce information on printed leaflets, albeit only for services operated under contract to it. We understand there is a new leaflet for the 88/89, but there were no copies to be had in Lancaster library by Saturday afternoon (usually a reliable source for county council leaflets), whilst  passengers on two of the first journeys on the 88 this morning reported that none were available on the buses either. They are, however, available at the Visitor Information Centre at The Storey in Lancaster, at least until it closes the week after next!

They also reported that despite the Sunday journeys being numbered "88" the buses were showing "89"! It sometimes seems that the bus industry deliberately sets out to confuse its customers!

Some Praise!

The Bus Users' Group is quick to criticise (we take it as part of our role), but we will also give credit where credit is due, so "well done" to the County Council for at least updating the roadside departure lists along the route in advance of the change, even if the addition of an "88" to the bus stop flag in Common Garden Street will apparently have to wait until all the other timetable changes in the county have been dealt with.

Plenty of Notice

In case you were thinking that the change was brought in at short notice and that that might be the reason for the lack of information, the Bus Users' Group obtained a copy of the new timetables in mid-July, over a month before they came into effect and they have been on our website since then - still, apparently, the only place on the web where one can find the full service between Lancaster and Knott End on one single page. If you haven't already found them,  Click here

Bus Service Improvement Plans and the so-called "Enhanced Partnerships" between bus companies and local councils are supposed to usher in a new era of public transport, making it more attractive and helping to entice motorists out of their cars and on the buses. Sadly, it's hard to see how that will happen whilst it is still so difficult to find out when and where the buses run.