| Re: Stagecoach timetable changes - some information |
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Group: cam.transport · Group Profile
Author: nmm1nmm1 Date: Jan 29, 2010 12:13
In article jaka.demon.co.uk>,
John Burnham jaka.demon.co.uk> wrote:>On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:07:59 +0000, Patrick Gosling wrote:
>
>> I think you probably wind up trying to produce something that's halfway
>> between shareable taxis and an on-demand bus service.
>
>I remember reading about some service like this, trialed back in, oh, the
>70's, I think. There was a minibus you could phone up. The article I read
>this in was taking the piss out of it for the simple reason that it was
>trialled in an area that was chosen because it had the highest percentage
>of homes with phones. Now this was in the days when phones weren't quite
>as ubiquitous as they are now, so this criteria had selected for a fairly
>affluent area whose residents as a rule already had their own transport
>and so the trial failed because nobody used it.
That figures!
>An on demand bus service sounds like a good idea but how would it be
>implemented ? We have some intelligent people hanging around here - anyone
>have any ideas ?
As Brian Souter correctly observed, the Blessed Margaret's objective in
'deregulating' the bus services was to give free rein to unbridled greed
and monopolistic practices. She succeeded. To get such a scheme off
the ground, one would have to ensure that it got a chance to start, and
that always needs a more favourable environment than just to continue.
All that would technically be needed would be an appropriate contract
to provide some kind of shared minibus service, with a number to call
and some constraints on pickup delay and where delivery is to. My
understanding is that would (at present) fall foul of both the hire car
and bus bureaucracy, and would be extremely susceptible to undercutting
by unscrupulous companies that would provide the same service, but only
during peak hours.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
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