Stagecoach Failed Local Residents
Sunday, November 22nd, 2015I’m disgusted with the way that local residents have (literally) been left out in the cold by Stagecoach - during this weekend especially - the bus services have been unsatisfactory.
With the city’s “Victorian Christmas Market” going on the Waterwells Park and Ride has been overrun. The service could not manage with the amount of people getting on there, some people having to wait over an hour and a lot just giving up and taking their cars into the city. This in turn had a big knock-on effect with local residents not being able to get on the service to get into town, with the return-trip being worse. A lot of the drivers not going around the normal route, just going straight to the Waterwells car park and not dropping off around Kingsway.
This has become very apparent on the local facebook “spotted” page (see this post) & The Citizen (see this article), where many comments have been left.
I’m sure this was spoken about and warned about at a previous meeting, but we were told it would not happen.
We can’t have this happening every time there is an event on in Gloucester. How can they get it so wrong?
We never used to have this when it was two companies (Bennett’s & Stagecoach do their own services).
Something needs to be done and I hope you agree it needs the backing of the Resident’s Association to raise these issues.
March 4, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Hi Sam,
I am very pleased to report that following discussions with QUVL, Stagecoach and Gloucester Quays Management, we were informed (at the recent KRA meeting on Feb’ 23rd) that for future events, Gloucester Quays Management will pay for extra buses, to avoid any further problems of this sort. (Meeting minutes will be available on the above link shortly).
Regards,
Clive
December 6, 2015 at 11:10 am
Hi Aston,
Thank you for your comments, many of which I agree with, and I am certainly not siding with Stagecoach who have clearly failed to provide the service they are supposed to.
I also agree that Stagecoach could reasonably be expected to proactively provide additional services where there is such an obvious need, but equally I think it is also for the organisers of these events to give a little prod in advance.
Several months ago there was a problem with the 12 service in Quedgeley. When this was originally discussed at Parish Council, I clearly remember County Councillor Barry Kirby say that there was no subsidy to Stagecoach any longer and as a result there was little influence that the County could bring to bear on Stagecoach to reverse their decision regarding the 12 service. Eventually Stagecoach were forced to reverse their decision because of massive complaints from several sources especially the Parish Council and local residents.
I have already asked the Parish Clerk to write to Stagecoach, representing concerned residents, regarding the 66 service failures in November so that Stagecoach are aware that we are watching them and therefore will be a little more proactive in future. Next weekend we have another event at the Quays. The day after that finishes we have the next Parish Council meeting. It will get on the agenda if the problem repeats itself.
Please let me know via this blog if you experience problems with the service next weekend.
November 29, 2015 at 10:53 am
Richard,
I can understand your comments, however a lot of this should be down to Stagecoach.
After all was there no planning for this event. It’s not like it’s the 1st one ever held.
These type of markets are held every few months and not forgetting that we have just had the world cup here, so they should be well versed in running it. They after all, are one of the largest passenger transport companies in the country.
You have to ask why was no planning for this even put in place. Maybe extra buses put on or a designated service put up for the park and ride.
They do get funding from the Council for the services (106 money I believe).
There used to be more buses put on when big events were held before.
There were no warnings or announcements made to say that the service was being changed. By doing this I have been informed by DVSA (vosa) and the Traffic Commission that they have breached the rules of their service provision.
Also the council Transport section were not happy that Stagecoach was blaming them for the problem.
November 25, 2015 at 8:01 pm
I also spoke to Barry Kirby about this problem and suggested he get the organisers of Quays events to sponsor dedicated Park and Ride services through Stagecoach, throughout these events so that Kingsway residents are not negatively affected by the buses getting full at Park and Ride and failing to pick up residents at downline stops. He agreed.
I understand that buses will run late when there is so much traffic congestion, but what happens to one bus will happen to most so the whole system ends up running late. Having some buses cutting parts of their route only means that you end up with buses that should run 15 minutes apart, running in convoy.
November 25, 2015 at 6:26 pm
This is the response I got from Stagecoach with regard to this:
"I am very sorry to hear about the difficulty your daughter had with our 66Q service recently, and would like to thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding this issue.
On the 21st November all of our Gloucester services were struggling to keep to time due to the extra traffic caused by the Victorian Market. Many of our buses were running half an hour to an hour late. In these circumstances our controllers work as hard as they can to keep services running to time, however sometimes this means missing out parts of a route. This is a last resort and only used if necessary, as we understand the frustration which it causes to our passengers."
So does this mean that whenever there is a problem with the services, the residents of Kingsway will always lose out as they will NOT go around the estate to get back on time? After all how would we know that the buses are missing us out for hours?
November 24, 2015 at 11:49 am
Hi Sam,
There were several discussions about Stagecoach during the meeting yesterday, but on this specific point I spoke to (County) Councillor Barry Kirby (baz_k) who said he will look into it.
I’ll let you know if I get any more feedback.
Regards,
Clive
November 22, 2015 at 11:01 pm
Hi Sam,
Thanks for posting.
I will ask about it at the KRA’s AGM (tomorrow).