Dear editor,
The comments about Grant Palmer’s reliability echo my experience.
Read: Grant Palmer blames “low custom” for withdrawal of Brickhill bus service
Read: Letters: “Sporadic service” led to low custom on 21 bus
Three times this week I have waited at Bedford bus station for the Grant Palmer 68 bus to Ampthill at 1.20pm. It has not turned up even 15 minutes after that time. Luckily I have an alternative, but I feel sorry for those on the route who have a long walk to the nearest bus stop.
This bus serves areas that other buses don’t, and if this situation continues, then perhaps the 68 will also be withdrawn because of ‘low custom’, the same as Brickhill 21. It is a shame that many people would love to support the buses, but reliability is the key.
Yours sincerely,
John Eyre,
Kempston.
Dear editor,
Further to discussions on Facebook about Grant Palmer recently, I would like to highlight how unhelpful they are.
Bus companies are there to provide a service to the public, i.e. be where and when they say they will be so that the public can plan their day around these times and utilise the service they provide.
By nature of a bus service, they are most likely to be used by the more vulnerable people in our society, e.g. elderly, teens/students, young mums, and those commuting to work on lower incomes. Let’s be honest, if your income is sufficient, you’re likely to have your own car.
However, there are currently several major issues with Grant Palmer.
They have for whatever reason, not got on board with the current £2 per journey campaign – why ever not? Have they not considered who their target audience is? Grant Palmer serves all the furthest away villages from the town centre – but charges an extortionate amount for it! They currently charge £8+ for a day return to/from Carlton and £5+ for a single journey.
This is outrageous – how the hell are teens/students supposed to afford the fare to get to college/uni or employment? Oh, I know, rely on parents/carers to either give them the money (not sustainable) or drive them into town twice a day, therefore adding to the traffic on the roads that wouldn’t need to be there if the service was affordable!
Have they also considered that GP may be missing out on attracting new customers that wouldn’t normally use the service? If they took part in the campaign? What really grates is that you can currently travel to Oxford on the X5 for £2, but it costs a fortune just to get to Bedford from the surrounding villages.
Secondly, the current timetable may as well be thrown in the bin! They consistently cancel buses at short notice due to “driver shortages” well, have they considered why they are not attracting new drivers, experienced or otherwise? Brings the phrase “speculate to accumulate” to mind.
So the upshot is, how can anybody rely on a service to get to important appointments, when there is a high probability that the bus won’t turn up?! So, people make other arrangements and don’t bother about the bus at all. Lost customers that they did have, oh dear!
Also, the narrow scope of the timetable is a major flaw too (Stagecoach could take note here too). Why does nobody provide a regular evening service to the villages? People socialise and would like to go to town and have a drink with friends after work and not worry about driving.
Young people like to go to meet their friends in town, but don’t yet drive or don’t want to rely on, again, being picked up by parents/carers. Why is it not possible to keep buses going up to around 11pm? I definitely remember getting the last bus home to Bromham when I was a teen, at around 11pm. Is this not a an extra revenue stream that could be tapped into?
I recently went to Jersey and travelled around the island completely by bus (small shuttlebuses) on a family weekly ticket – fabulous! We could go anywhere on the island, eat out in the evenings and come back on the last bus around midnight – with standing room only on the bus! Every bus we got on, day or night, was busy, over half full at least. It seems such a simple idea.
So the point I’m making is, if the service is there – frequent, reliable and serves the public (not the bus company), then you have a better chance of the service being used, less cars on the road, more people around town in the evenings, therefore creating a buzz, rather than it becoming a no-go zone where only the gangs go.
This in turn helps the hospitality business from struggling and closing its doors. All in all, a better town to live in/near. I’m sorry for the long rant, but I’m sure this will resonate with many of your readers.
With kind regards,
Alison Lloyd
Carlton
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