Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

[Metroline1511]

RE: Liverpool City Region Bus Franchising

(29/06/2023 21:03)iMarkeh Wrote:  I am yet to see what difference the Metro Card makes over the Walrus!

Merseytravel will happily find funding though for Moreton Circulars. I'd also invite you to look at the disastrous new St Helens timetable if you want to see examples of Merseytravels excellent work. Completely different timetables Monday-Saturday evenings compared to Sundays, often resulting in later buses on Sundays than Monday-Saturdays. Absolutely zero care from Merseytravel about the incompetent t**t who created these timetables.
Or perhaps we could look at the 3/3A which start at Fazakerley in the mornings and run at the same time as commercial alternatives.

If we move onto ticketing. Merseytravel are still stuck in the stone ages. The only ticket which is available for a day of multi modal travel, it can only be bought at staffed rail stations, paypoint (if you have a smartcard already and if the shopkeeper knows how to issue the thing) and Merseytravel Centres (Which are shut half of the time now as the staff are too busy running around trying to give bus drivers trying to give them fines for stopping on the wrong stand (which would only ever be done to avoid delays). There is no way to buy a Saveaway on the bus. No paper ticket available, smartcard only. Not very good for tourists is it?
Maybe the zonal system which no one understands and given the way tickets are issued, would make sense to remove most of the zones and make it into the 5 council zones or abandon the zoning system completely.
Or perhaps we could look at the MyTicket which is rife with fraud, led 1 bus company ceasing and contributed to another one having significant financial difficulties. Where else could we look? Maybe look at the Ferries website which makes no reference to any multi modal tickets and focusses on parking (parking which is free for season ticket holders!) That's not very integrated is it? Certainly does nothing to promote getting people onto buses either side of the ferry.

I think now is probably a good time to point you towards Halton Council who refuse to pay the transport precept as they want to continue running down the buses within the borough. They messed up Halton Transport and don't want anyone to thrive in what should be prime bus territory. No multi operator scheme in Halton except for under 18s. Halton Hopper was a thing but was a waste of time and made intentionally difficult to get. Bus stops in a dire state of repair, generally not repaired. No or limited bus stop timetables. Maps in Runcorn East were 10 years out of date.
These people will be in charge of the bus network and you think this is a good idea?

To play devils advocate a little bit here, Arriva are quite good at smart accounting. If they don't want a route for whatever reason, they will make the accounting in such a way that they don't run it. I also believe that Arriva only counts revenue for their service as revenue taken on the bus there and then per trip so returns, day, weeklies etc aren't really counted for. That is how it ended up that Arriva run so few evening buses as it's everyone coming back on returns and day tickets etc. That's how routes like the X1 got cut. They cut it back so that everyone had to use another route to connect into the X1 (making it more inconvenient for people to use the X1 but also boosted revenue on other routes as it saved overbussing the busway). The X1 then made no money and despite being regularly busy, didn't make much money on the bus as everyone used day tickets. If Arriva don't want a route, they will try to run it down. Death by 1000 cuts as it's well known.

Could we perhaps look at Christmas Day buses. £20k is what Merseytravel pay for Christmas Day buses. No charging of fares so no potential to earn back some revenue. On routes which have no or very limited service every other day of the year. Some routes carrying single figures in the whole day yet the routes are kept going because people in Merseytravel haven't the braincells to update the network. According to Liam Robinson, he said at the transport committee that these buses which carry single numbers of passengers in a day of operation are 'good value for money'.
Another good one would be the fact the city region charges buses to go through the tunnel which in turn makes more routes unviable because buses have to be busier or charge passengers a premium to go through the tunnel to make up for the cost. Why would anyone who supported public transport, charge buses to go through the tunnel and yet give local residents a large discount?

All of this is before we get onto the fact that Merseytravel have got the Hydrogen buses but forgot to find anywhere for them to fuel up. They brought in an Enviro 400EV to 'showcase to the public' to tease people because they knew that people had lost hope so they brought false hope using a bus which was nothing to do with the hydrogen buses just to try and win some election votes. They put the hydrogen buses into service for a few days during Eurovision. Where are they now? Gone back to the manufacturer or not in service. Again, teasing the public with eurovision to look good to the world while actually being a local failure and throwing away taxpayers money.
Or do we look at the new trains which were tested for a long time and are now full of faults and not fit for purpose. Again, brought in on the Ormskirk line for Aintree to try and look good to the world. Kirkby I don't think has ever had a worse train service than now these new trains are in service. No one holds Merseytravel and the elected officials accountable, they are just full of self promotion. They couldn't care about the everyday people who want better public transport. As the new trains and new buses are proving, they will do anything, including pushing unsuitable, untested trains and vehicles into service long before they are ready, all so that they can keep their popularity going. Buses won't get better with the egotistical twerps in charge of it. I've made my voice very well known on Stagecoach and Arriva locally but even I know that the grass is not going to be greener with franchising.

There is 1 worry in having Arriva as the main operator. They have tended to prioritise more modern and higher value buses on more profitable routes. As the industry has lost money since Covid and most or all routes lost money, they have just let the buses get older and rarely replaced them. They have even given up in some areas such as Guildford and East Cheshire rather than modernise the fleet in a stronger operation and cascade midlife buses to weaker areas.