Friday 9 August 2013

Buses: A User Guide

A Bus at Brewood, Shropshire Union Canal

Following my post on buying rail tickets to Scotland requests have flooded in, from Kath and John, for me to share my knowledge of the bus system and how to use it. Like many people, they are reasonably happy when it comes to using trains and John says that he's even got the hang of how to split tickets so as to save money on fares. I dare say that they'd be equally happy to get on a plane and fly to the other end of the planet - so why do people find it so difficult to use the bus to go a few miles?

Fundamentally, it's because buses are local - in concept and in organisation. The railways, despite fragmentation of ownership of the trains, still operate as a national network. You can still buy a ticket from anywhere to anywhere else that you can use on any train (although this may not be the cheapest option). There is one single telephone number and one website that can tell you all you need to know about where the trains go and what it will cost you.

The motorist has the benefit of a single national system of road numbering, even though he or she may not realise it, and maps produced by different publishers all follow the same basic approach and presentation of the network. If road numbers and maps are not enough there is a standard national system of signposting and road marking - all of which is provided at no cost at the point of use.

The bus user however, has none of this. Buses are still organised on a local basis and each bus operator produces information in it's own unique way. There are even some bus companies that still insist on using the 12-hour clock, nearly 50 years after the 24-hour system was supposedly adopted as standard!  Because of deregulation and competiton, bus companies would rather not tell you about other operators' services, even when they complement - rather than compete with - their own. Services are marketed on an individual rather than a network basis, which makes it difficult even for regular users to find out about buses they wouldn't normally use and there is a perception that the network is unstable, with frequent changes to routes and times, much more so than is really the case. I sometimes refer to buses as "the secret service" : they go about their job - doing it well in most cases - and catering for their regular passengers' needs but exist in  a closed world where outsiders are unwelcome.  But if you can actually break through the information barrier you'll find that for the sort of journeys buses cater for they are actually very good. On the whole they are reliable, much more so than trains, and once you've got the knack, quite easy to use. I realise that for some there is a stigma about bus use. Margaret Thatcher is alleged to have said that any man over the age of 30 seen on a bus is a failure in life, although there is no evidence she ever did so and a similar quote was attributed to the Duchess of Westminster fifty years earlier! Yes, most people on the bus are only using it because they have no alternative and that means they are predominantly old, young or poor. But don't worry - they won't hold your position in society against you and they'll happily share their knowledge with you and help you out if you get into difficulty along the way.

And I've decided to try and help as well. I intend to start a short series of posts on how to get the best from the bus network. I'll cover subjects such as how to find out where the buses go, where they stop, how much they cost and how to pay and how to use them generally. As I go along, I'll collate the posts into a "page" on the blog for future reference (and updating) or you could always cut and paste them somewhere yourselves.  If there is any particular aspect of bus travel that puzzles you and you'd like me to explain, just leave a comment on this post.
Ting! Ting!


3 comments:

nb Carmel said...

Two useful websites to help you -

1. finding out the next bus(es) from stops wherever you are -
www.nextbuses.mobi/

2. Journey planner using both trains and buses -
www.transportdirect.info

Got bus/train/train/bus from Ellesmere to Marple earlier this week - worked a treat! And a fellow passenger on the bus was only too happy to tell me when I was approaching the stop I needed.

Dave on Carmel

Nb Duxllandyn said...

We regularly use a couple of iphone apps that give accurate information about bus and train services. They are:

NEXTBUS - dispays location of the nearest bustops on google maps together with real time information about bus services at each stop.

TRAVELINE S&E - plans bus, rail and coach journeys in most parts of England. I used this recently to plan a journey from Market Drayton to Great Haywood to recover our parked car. The app gave me the routes and timings of three buses that linked up brilliantly:

- Arriva Midlands 164 Market Drayton to Newcastle
- First Potteries 101 Newcastle to Stafford
- Arriva Midlands 841 Stafford to Great Haywood

All journeys free courtesy of my bus pass!

Mike
Nb Duxllandyn

Halfie said...

Yes! Yes! Yes! Jim, thanks for promising to help. And if you could bear in mind that not everyone owns a "smart" phone that would be good.