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Changes on buses are just the ticket

7:00am Wednesday 27th July 2011 in News By Rhianne Pope

COMMUTERS and bus companies in Oxford have hailed the first 48 hours of the new joint-ticketing system a “great success”.

The £10m scheme means return tickets can be now used on both Stagecoach and Oxford Bus Company services.

The new tickets, smartcards and streamlined timetables on the city’s five busiest routes were launched on Sunday and commuters spoken to by the Oxford Mail reported no problems.

Ellie Kennedy, 21, from Brize Norton, caught a bus at Frideswide Square on Monday.

She said: “I think it’s great. I used to work on the Oxford Brookes buses and I know the chaos tickets can cause.

“It’s really good, it seems quite old-fashioned to have all these different tickets.”

Imelda Spivey, 32, from Wallingford, added: “I think it has worked well, it’s a good idea. As long as they don’t start putting the prices up.”

A new SmartZone ticketing system will also allow passengers to buy week-long, monthly or annual passes on new smartcards.

Prices of single and return tickets have not increased.

The changes do not apply to night buses or routes including the 700 run by smaller companies.

Bus Users UK’s Oxford representative Hugh Jaeger said: “To the best of my knowledge, everything for the bus companies has been going well.

“I’m hoping we are blazing the trail for the rest of the country, we are the first to set this up.”

The firms have spent £7.4m on new double decker buses and more than £2m on new ticketing.

They have been working with Oxfordshire County Council for two years to introduce the changes.

Mr Jaeger added: “One thing I was really disappointed with though was the fact that the realtime updates at bus stops were not updated on Sunday.

“The county council knew about this change for 18 months, so I was disappointed to see they didn’t deliver and the signs just read ‘refer to timetable’.”

Council cabinet member for transport Rodney Rose said: “We will continue to work with the bus companies as the system beds in.”

Oxford Bus Company operations director Louisa Weeks said: “It looks as if the hard work and exhaustive testing has paid off.

“We knew the real test was always going to be the first working day of the week.

“The signs are encouraging and we are sure that as passengers fully understand the advantages the new joint ticketing system offers it will go from strength to strength.”

Stagecoach spokesman Chris Child added: “The first day of the new coordinated timetables and Oxford SmartZone ticket has proved to be a great success, with large numbers of people seeing the benefits of being able to get on the first bus that come along.”

Comments(16)

kibby says...
9:09am Wed 27 Jul 11

Though it was a shame that the Oxford Bus Company failed to inform anyone that the bus-stop for the Botley-bound 4 service had moved back round the corner from New Road!
There were still many left annoyed on Tuesday at the stop outside County Hall as buses sailed past.
There is (still) no mention of the change on the Oxford Bus Co. website, and the large posters at the stops have yet to be changed.

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Lord Peter Macvey says...
9:18am Wed 27 Jul 11

What was the point in asking the ladies from Brize and Wallingford about the changes. They only have one bus to choose from so it makes no difference to them.

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Esprit says...
9:25am Wed 27 Jul 11

I suspect that the bus companies have used joint ticketing as an excuse to reduce the number of buses they put on the roads. If this is true, it means that they can reduce their costs and even sack some of their drivers.

There certainly seems to have been an increase in overcrowded buses, with old people being left to stand and youngsters not giving up their seats (as we used to do in politer days). Has anyone else noticed this?

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Bart_Simpson1 says...
9:25am Wed 27 Jul 11

"Prices of single and return tickets have not increased" A word was missed of the end of this sentence..YET! Prices will soon go up once all the snags have been ironed out. What they have also failed to quote is that the weekly, monthly and annual passes HAVE RISEN.
The problem on the No1 & 5 buses to Blackbird Leys is the bus stop in St Aldates, the queue is twice as long now and your very lucky to get on the first bus that comes along, which means the service has got worse!

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Gunslinger says...
9:30am Wed 27 Jul 11

The bus stop changes were presumably the responsibility of the County Council, which seems totally to have failed either to publicise or to explain them.
If you heading to Abingdon or just along the Abingdon Road, stops are now spread across separate stops over a 200 metre stretch of St Aldates, with, inexplicably, the Redbridge Park and Ride stop stuck right in the middle of them.
And certainly on Sunday, the electronic displays had not been changed, adding further to the confusion.
Evidently increased convenience for users of these 5 city routes is partly at the expense of convenience for anybody going anywhere else.

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Roooney123 says...
12:11pm Wed 27 Jul 11

I think the jury is still out. The changes have made no difference to me in my journey from Kidlington to Oxford, however the bus is now crammed with people. The noise from all those headphones is really annoying. My homeward journey from Oxford was also on a packed bus. On Tuesday I was in a queue being controlled by I assume, a bus inspector in fact there was two of them making sure the bus left on time. I got to the front of the queue and the inspector told the driver to close the doors and get moving. I had to get on the following bus which had just arrived before the other left. There are obviously less buses on this route now which I believe is what the City Council had planned for.

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Headington mum says...
12:52pm Wed 27 Jul 11

From Headington the new combined service now seems to be less frequent than the old Oxford Bus Company service and the prices of tickets on the key have gone up by around 15%.

So we're paying more for a worse service!

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jacoxford says...
1:25pm Wed 27 Jul 11

Bart_Simpson1 wrote:
"Prices of single and return tickets have not increased" A word was missed of the end of this sentence..YET! Prices will soon go up once all the snags have been ironed out. What they have also failed to quote is that the weekly, monthly and annual passes HAVE RISEN.
The problem on the No1 & 5 buses to Blackbird Leys is the bus stop in St Aldates, the queue is twice as long now and your very lucky to get on the first bus that comes along, which means the service has got worse!
Yes the passes have risen but what you fail to mention is last year some went down. I paid less for my annual pass in June this year than last. They have just put it back up

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Lord Peter Macvey says...
4:47pm Wed 27 Jul 11

We haven't heard from WURZEL, I wonder if he was one of the sacked drivers.

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davyboy says...
5:47pm Wed 27 Jul 11

as far as i am aware, no drivers have been 'sacked', as you can only sack someone for doing something wrong. drivers have, however, been displaced from some routes, re-deployed filling gaps on other routes, or becoming 'spare' to fill in for sickness and holidays. that means that there should be less missing buses, and a better service will operate. yes, there are less buses than before, but the actual frequency remains the same, so you still get a bus every 4-5 mins on blackbird leys, for example, either stagecoach, or oxford bus, instead of a long line with no-one on. bus stop changes were made because previously the companies did not share stops. there were plenty of staff on hand to explain the changes. the idea is that each bus leaves the stop as the next arrives, you don't need to wait for a specific company in most cases. i agree that doesn't always work, as oxford bus don't accept stagecoach megariders, but that was explained before these changes took place.

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Esprit says...
6:08pm Wed 27 Jul 11

Bus drivers CAN be sacked by declaring them "redundant", which means there is supposedly no longer any need for them.

And if there are "less buses than before" (I think you mean "fewer"), there is the possibility of some becoming overcrowded, which can lead to insufficient seating room for the disabled and elderly.

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Lord Peter Macvey says...
7:35pm Wed 27 Jul 11

Sorry kiddies I was wrong. Less buses DO actually mean a better service. Less buses to the station from Cowley = a better service. Less buses from the various parts of Kidlington = better service. Increased Pass prices = better service. No OBC bus tickets allowed on night services = better service. And in a few months, increased prices for cash payers = better service. Bus users get ready for a serious attack on your pockets. It has started, and it will continue. See Headmum and her Key Pass.

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Pundit says...
7:10am Thu 28 Jul 11

What has happened to the No 7 service from town centre to Kidlington?
Only the No 2 service runs now. Is that what you call making things better for the public?

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BasilF says...
8:27am Thu 28 Jul 11

Since the Wood Farm service was altered to take in the Botley Road and beyond it has not got any better and since Sunday the buses seem to be even more crowded than before.Also people seem reluctant to give up their seats to the elderly and also don't queue properly any mopre.

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Roooney123 says...
1:49pm Thu 28 Jul 11

Why did the bus companies change the system when the schools are closed for the holidays? The traffic at the moment is reasonably light which means that buses can keep roughly to their timetable. It will be interesting to see what service we get when the children go back to school.

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Lord Peter Macvey says...
5:29pm Thu 28 Jul 11

Exactly.

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