With the recent expansion of this blog to cover more than just Southampton's immediate surroundings, we'll be looking to profile some of the major bus routes in the other main towns and cities of our region, particularly concentrating on those that are 'turn up & go'. That is, they run at such a high frequency that you don't need to check a timetable before going to catch the bus.
But how frequent is 'turn up & go'?
Opinion varies, but I think most people would agree that a 10 minute frequency is enough to not need to check the timetable. This definition rightly puts all of First's City Reds network in Southampton firmly in the 'turn up & go' category for most of the day.
But how about frequencies that are just that little bit less? Every 12 minutes is probably still often enough to not need a timetable. Manchester's trams generally run every 12 minutes on all lines (double that on some) and that is considered often enough to not even publish timetables for passengers to check.
How about every 15 minutes? It's that little bit longer, but still just about a tolerable wait should you just miss one bus, as long as the route is fairly reliable. This would make Bluestar 1 'turn up & go'. I spent some time living near Bristol on a First route that was supposedly every 15 minutes. After a few waits of more than 30 minutes I ended up buying a car, but that's Bristol - a city that is now notorious for traffic jams and poor reliability of its buses - far worse than Southampton.
Every 20 minutes would leave enough of a gap that it would be worth checking the timetable.
So where do you draw the line and why? Every 10, 12 or 15 minutes?
Anything more frequent than every 10 minutes, I would say. Considering they say you should be at the bus stop up to 5 minutes before it's due, I would happy to wait no more than double, so anything more than that and I would want to check the time and be there when necessary.
ReplyDeleteIn my student days in Birmingham in the 1960's - and, yes, I do realise that Birmingham City Transport was 'different' - I was on the 14 and 55 routes. Between them, if we had to wait for more than 5 minutes, it was considered a bad day.
ReplyDeleteIn London, "high-frequency" is a service every 12 minutes or less; every 15 minutes or more is "low-frequency".
ReplyDeleteTime-keeping standards are different for each type . . . . high-frequency requires a bus every n minutes plus an excess waiting time indicator, measured over an hour, so a service every 8 minutes with an EWT of 1.2 minutes means that, over the hour, the gap between buses must not be more than 9.2 minutes on the average. So, a 12 minute gap might well pass if, in the rest of the hour, the expected number of buses operated. Monitoring is carried out along the route.
Low-frequency routes are monitored within a 2:29 early <> 5:00 late window, so a bus within these tolerances is on time, again, monitored along the route.
The Traffic Commissioners work on an 1:00 early <> 5:00 late window.
A service registration must include a full timetable (all journeys) with timing points around 10 minutes apart (unless there are no possible timing points available) if the service is timetabled at more than a 10 minute frequency; if less than a 10 minute frequency, the timetable does not need to show all journeys.
So, in the UK turn-up-and-go is where a service runs every 10 minutes or less; in London it's where the service runs every 12 minutes or less. It is accepted that early and late buses may be at a lower frequency, but id the bulk of the day is high frequency then the whole service is high frequency.
Hope everyone has stayed awake so far . . . . . !!
Every 15 in winter and every 20 in the summer.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand it depends on the weather...
Every 10-mins or better is definitely, every 12-mins probably from a passengers view if you are talking marketing purposes. As a passenger my local route was, until recently when it stepped up to 12, every 15-mins and once full-frequency was hit in the morning I didn't generally bother to check the timetable as a bus was either due or I would have made it if I hadn't stopped to check the time.
ReplyDeleteEvery 20-mins or half-hourly is frequent enough that returning passengers probably don't bother to learn their exact return times as their wait for a bus won't be too bad but they will check their times when leaving home to avoid standing too long at the bus stop. Hourly or less then passengers will need to learn/check their times in both directions to avoid long/annoying waits by missing a bus by a little bit.
Our local operaters Bluestar,First and Stagecoach to have contactless installed over the spring and summer,according to Wave105!
ReplyDeleteGreat news!
DeleteAccording to a random First driver (the one with only one arm, I bet he hates being known by that), the first ticket machines indeed already have a module to take card payments.
DeleteIf this is true, it will be a game changer for many. One of my biggest problems is either not haven't enough money on me (or in most cases, no money) or the cash machine only gave me a £20 note. To be able to use contactless will make life a whole last earier.
DeleteIt is indeed true: https://www.hants.gov.uk/news/feb07buscontactlesspayments
DeleteBut does only include buses operating into Hampshire (i.e. no Isle of Wight etc): https://twitter.com/AndrewWickhamGo/status/829705958960029696
Until completely rolled to all operators to every bus that is remotely likely to be in service in Hamts, I'd be wary of having only that £20 note.
ReplyDelete£1.6 million wasted plus more already spent on wi-fi,usb points etc. Should have been spent providing buses in areas cut off and heavily reduced. Bus companies can pay for their own technology.
ReplyDeleteVery true!They say there`s no cash to subsidise bus services and then waste cash on this rubbish.It`s time heads rolled for whoever came up with this nonsense.
Delete£1.6m includes operator funding as is a one off payment. To keep bus services going which are used by few people will cost X amount every year, year after year which the councils don't have !
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