Public transport farce

This has to be driver error, and I would hope that one of the garage managers would have the driver in the office for some verbal intercourse (I know I would if I was in receipt of your complaint);

Yes, there is only room for one, unfolded buggy (sometimes you can get away with two of the stroller type if they are small) - but as the other one on board was already folded and your wife was willing to fold hers, I cannot see the issue.

Did the driver know that one of the buggies was already folded (there is surprisingly little view of the saloon from a drivers cab), and did your wife make him/her aware that she was wiling to fold her buggy?

As for the fares, that is something that we don't really suffer from around here as we are on the fringes of TfL services; different councils/areas subsidise travel differently, and it sounds like there is next to none (if any) in your area. Sadly, buses are costly beasts to run and the ever rising cost of diesel is one of the biggest factors, hence some of the silly fares.

Bear in mind that a taxi will most likely be a diesel Mondeo or similar, that will return approx 40-45 mpg even around town - 6 mpg is fairly typical from a modern bus, maybe 7.5 mpg if its a particularly efficient or small one.

 

We had a similar quote last weekend for a relative who was visiting us for a few drinks - 8 miles tops for her journey home, £32.

Even the cheaper one she got in the end was £18

 

If only it were that simple.

I have a fleet of 130 buses, 80 doubles, 50 singles. Each double costs approximately £200k to purchase, each single is approx £150k - if you start to fart about with Hybrid technology, then those prices get absolutely stupid. Makes that £15k for a nearly new Mondeo look pretty cheap?

Drivers hours are rigorously controlled (rightly enshrined in law), and as a rough guide cannot drive more than 4.5 hours in a single spell, and cannot drive more than 10 hours in a day; they must also have a minimum rest period (48hrs) at least once every 14 days; and further to this, they must have at least 10 hours between shifts (can be reduced to 8.5 hrs twice in a week) Mr Taxi driver can drive as much as he likes, whenever he likes.

Buses generally require 'servicing' on a more regular basis than you would a car/taxi - ours are done every 25-28 days, and to do so you need to employ heavy vehicle fitters (even 'easy' jobs on a car are a lot more difficult on a bus due to the weights involved); then there is the cost of spares - a DPF (exhaust filter trap) as fitted to a modern Euro 5 compliant vehicle costs approx £1800; you are looking at a couple of those a year. Every other part is similarly expensive - if an engine breathes its last, you are looking at £10-£12k for a new one.

And then there is the cost of vandalism - bricks through windows, seats slashed/burnt, windows etched, graffiti - it all costs to put right, and has to be done to keep the vehicle serviceable.

Then there is tyres and insurance - sure, insurance on a taxi will be a couple of grand a year, but the insurance bill for bus companies is often so high they are all-but self insured (there is often an insurance company that holds a large 'bond' that sits in the millions of pounds depending on the size of the company, and that bond has to be paid up front.

Believe me, running a bus service is not just as easy or as cheap as you might think.

 

The real root cause of the problems are exactly the same that plague many parts of our lives nowadays - privatisation and far too much red tape.

I'll start with the privatisation.

Everything has a cost attached to it, yet the minute you factor in a profit for a company and its shareholders, then the cost to the customer spirals. With some things (think iPods, computers, TV's and cars) this isn't an issue as you can either afford to buy what you want or you can't, and people are generally happy to pay the price you are asking.

However, public services are there (generally speaking) because they were brought about when there was a need for them - such a wide ranging need that it was deemed necessary as a society to have them.

These services started with things like clean water supplies and proper sewerage, and taxation was used to fund them, and this principle continued right through to gas, electricity, trains, buses and even the telephone - only, these latter examples had an additional 'point of use' charge to help cover the costs of supplying them. However, they were deemed as being 'inefficient' (because they cost the government money to run, and in many cases were very poorly managed), so they were farmed out to contractors. So, in addition to the cost of the service, we then had to start paying for the contractors profit as well - whereas our roads were once repaired by men employed directly by the council, now the council pays a company to employ those men and make a profit too;

In my view, there are many things that should never have been sold off or privatised - and most of those I have listed above - but, there are many who would argue that I am wrong and that privatisation has been a complete success (usually the same people that are making a bob or three from their dividend payouts).

Add onto all of that the fact that it has become increasingly difficult for any business to do anything nowadays - H&S legislation can tie you in knots (my company has had to employ people specifically trained in all matters H&S); recycling and environmental procedures seem to get more complicated and more costly on a regular basis (our bus wash recycles water as a simple example, which has to be maintained regularly to prevent legionella), and employment law isn't much better - DDA, European Working Time Directive etc (and that is before you get to the more industry specific rules governing those who drive heavy vehicles)

With regard to the routing of services, I agree that it is a royal pain in the rear at times - my better half has a two bus journey to work every single day, and in fairness that is probably less arduous than it would be for you as London services do tend to be a bit more thought out than the rest of the country.

But, in fairness to your local bus company, the decision for their routing may not be wholly of their making - they are unlikely to run a bus simply along a main road and give a fast journey into town because that would mean that they would see less passengers (it would be convenient for you if you live on or near the main road, but if you were a mile or so into a housing estate, would it still be a good idea?); the other consideration is where they are allowed to run a bus - in this country, you cannot simply pitch up and run a bus anywhere you feel like. You must submit detailed plans of your routing, frequency etc to your local Traffic Commissioner (usually positioned in the local police force).

The Traffic Commissioner (once satisfied that you are fit, proper and financially sound enough to operate services) issues you with a number of 'O' licences (Operator Licences); each vehicle you run MUST have a valid 'O' licence as well as a valid tax disc, and the Traffic Commissioner can just as easily take some of your 'O' licences away as they can give you more (this is normally a sanction if you are caught running unfit vehicles etc); the Traffic Commissioner can also dictate the routing that you must follow, so the final decision where the bus goes is very often not down to the bus company.

Just to make things more interesting, VOSA can pitch up anywhere they fancy (even the companies own premises) and inspect your vehicles at any time they like; any that are found to have a defect are issued with a PG9 for rectification, or if its a safety critical defect then it becomes a PG9 Immediate, which means that the vehicle must not be driven until repaired and retested.

I completely agree with you that the public transport in this country is farcical at best - London and Edinburgh have it better than most (Lothian Buses in Edinburgh are very good indeed - they are mostly owned by Edinburgh City Council, so that bears out my opinion above), but even then when compared with other countries it could be so much better.

The problem is funding - currently, a large chunk of the money you and I pay in taxation for these services is taken up with administrative bodies and contractors profits, rather than actually paying for the services themselves.

 

That is it in a nutshell clueless. The amount of admin created in our place is remarkable, and very little of it is for our benefit - the vast majority is to ensure that TfL are getting all the information they require, in the format they require it in; one particular report that gets sent on a daily basis required me to completely re-design a bespoke database to ensure that it supplied the report in the required format - they have openly admitted that these reports will be filed and not read (except on the very odd occasion when they want to use the information against us), and yet failing to submit the report will leave us open to fines come the time of an audit.

Instead of employing people to do the jobs required, they are now employing armies of auditors, solicitors and directors to oversee the contracts with companies that have their own internal directors, auditors and admin staff - whether we like it or not, that means that there isn't as much being spent on the front line service as there could be without all those layers.

No wonder this world is knackered.