TravelWatch SouthWest launches campaign for ‘free’ Bristol bus service

Free Metroshuttle bus services have operated in Manchester city centre for several years, linking the railway stations and large car parks with the main retail and commercial destinations – the three services, which operate at least every ten minutes on Monday to Saturday daytime, now carry over two million, three hundred thousand passengers a year. Passenger numbers on Sheffield’s free city centre bus service passed the first year target of as quarter of a million passenger journeys within just nine months – FreeBee operates every seven minutes on Monday to Saturday daytime linking the city’s major shopping centres with the bus and railway stations.

TravelWatch SouthWest has launched a campaign for a free bus service to link the central area of Bristol, including the Broadmead and Cabot Circus shopping centres, with Temple Meads railway station.

CrossCountry advert banned

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a media advertisement by CrossCountry (XC) offering single tickets between Sheffield and Edinburgh for eleven pounds and fifty pence, as it was misleading to customers. The complaint arose from a XC customer attempting to purchase an advance single from Sheffield to Edinburgh at the advertised price of eleven pounds and fifty pence, but the company's website did not offer a single fare of less than eighty pounds over several consecutive days. XC claimed that eleven per cent of all seats from Sheffield to Edinburgh were available at eleven pounds and fifty pence, but were 'unable/unwilling' to provide the ASA with a 'day-by-day, train-by-train' breakdown! The ASA adjudication against XC states that in all future advertisements for 'cheap fares', the train operating company must make available ten per cent of seats at the advertised price at the start of the booking period and there must be a 'reasonable' spread of availability over the 'travel period'.

Coroner demands bus safety improvements

The Coroner for Avon, Paul Forrest, has recommended safety improvements for buses after an inquest into the death of a man who fell down the stairwell of a double-decker, whilst undertaking a journey from Weston-super-Mare to Bristol on First Somerset and Avon service X1. The inquest heard that the driver was able to view both decks of the bus, but not the connecting stairwell. The coroner has recommended that double-decker buses should be fitted with an additional ‘device’ to give the driver ‘a full view’ of the stairwell.

Devon competition for young people

Devon County Council is running a ‘Buses are cool’ competition, where participants have the opportunity to come up with ideas on how to make travelling on public transport more appealing to young people.

Speakers for TravelWatch SouthWest meeting

Confirmed speakers for the TravelWatch SouthWest general meeting in Taunton on Saturday 4 October include Dave Ward (Route Director, Great Western zone, Network Rail) and Anthony Smith (Chief Executive, Passenger Focus).

And finally,

When is ‘Off-Peak’? – the renamed CrossCountry Off-Peak Return between Plymouth and Newcastle is valid on any train on Monday to Friday after 0500hrs, which actually means ‘any train’, so why not designate it an ‘Anytime’ ticket?