Bus Tickets, Timetable Tweaks & The Great Roof Rerouting Caper

Once Stagecoach in Swindon introduce their smartcards, let's hope Swindon's fashionistas make the way you carry your card the next big-thing for this autumn's season.

For those residents of Okus, your bus service is being changed again, but just by tweaking. The number 22 will now run to the very end of Okus Road and turn round at St. Helen's View. This change may be a result of feedback from passengers after the changes necessary due to funding cuts, small but may be significant for those passengers living at the far western end of Okus.

Any further possible changes to the bus service to Okus will have to wait to see how heavily debated the issue is at the next full council meeting.

Anyone who may have caught a Stagecoach bus since the beginning of the month will have noticed the new ticket machines they've fitted, which, most interestingly, have a 'touch in' facility for smartcards.

Due to the 'raising the roof' of the Mechanic's Institute, the usual route for services 1, 1A, 8, 13, 14, 19, 19A, 27, 29, 53, 54, 55 and 55A will change to be via Faringdon Road and Park Lane, rather than via Emlyn Square. That diversion starts from tomorrow (Monday 13th) and will be until further notice.

Swindon Centric Says ; Will Stagecoach soon be launching a smartcard ticket range in the town and will it be compatible and complimentary to that Network Card-branded system that's been in use for a while on Thamesdown?

Bus Cuts & Improvements

Today marks changes for several bus routes around Swindon, with Thamesdown's effected the most by subsidy cuts by Swindon Borough Council. The company has made great efforts to merge routes to lessen the difficulty for passengers.

One quiet and welcomed change is that from today also, Stagecoach in Swindon have returned their number 8 service to a half-hour frequency, according to notices on bus stops, due to 'customer feedback'.

Swindon Centric Says ; If services you use have been effected, please comment on how the changes have impacted on you, good or bad, after a couple of weeks, as, for Stagecoach passengers, it can have an effect.

Thamesdown 1, Council 0 In Bus Changes

Thamesdown Transport have released the details of the service changes to happen from the 25th of July after the cutting and withdrawing of funding by house builders and Swindon Borough Council.

A hero and a villain have clearly emerged from this news, through the combination of their respective actions and words.

Thamesdown Transport have pulled out the best of a bad bunch, with no total withdrawal of routes but merging and lengthening of those lacking subsidy plus frequency cuts.

Swindon Borough Council's clear favouritism for people to drive into the town centre was made public with the recent cut in town centre car parking charges, but has now been cemented by the comments made in the Swindon Advertiser story on the bus service cuts. In reference to the concessionary fare scheme for OAPs, this was said, "Swindon Council now has to spend between £300,000 and £400,000 a year to meet the cost of the scheme, which is money that could otherwise be used to fund other transport services."

Swindon Centric Says ; Is the £100,000 now not being given to Thamesdown Transport (among other operators) now to be used to prop-up the car-park charges cuts? The Council will happily cut those charges, but will not lobby to counteract the underfunding it admits it has suffered under the concessionary fares scheme.

This Council favours car drivers over bus passengers and this is now abundantly clear. We need to be thankful for Thamesdown Transport, which, ironically is a wholly-owned Swindon Borough Council company, but has shown in it's response to the cuts has far more local knowledge, consideration and care for it's passengers than the Council.

There is a large space of clear (Thamesdown-liveried) blue water between Thamesdown and Swindon Borough Council. Would that it were the same for other council-invested companies...

Council Bus Bingo Service Cuts... Grab Your Dabber

901 The Copse/Groundwell Park & Ride.
12 Priory Vale Express.

54 West Swindon routing.

1 Covingham and Eldene (renamed number 2, reduced frequency)

Will the buses below soon be added to the above list of withdrawals and cutbacks of buses in Swindon?

15 23 V bus 73 74 75

Swindon's recent record on buses isn't a happy one. A combination of house builders support money coming to an end, and a £100,000 cutback in the Swindon Borough council transport budget for subsidies will see the above services severely effected.

Any resemblance to a coherent public transport policy hasn't been the case for a while now. With reelected councillors pontificating on bus cuts, but without knowledge of the industry, or the laws shaping it, knowledge is thin on the ground bus-wise in the Council. It appears the ruling party have yet to get over the very 80s and 90s habit of pandering to motorists for votes.

Swindon Centric Says ; Perhaps Swindon/Wiltshire should launch it's own Passenger Transport Executive, but fill the board with a majority of passengers (each of different demographics, students, OAPs, workers, etc), Thamesdown Transport, Stagecoach in Swindon, First Great Western and a highly knowledgeable transport officer from Swindon Borough Council. But not a councillor in sight.

PS Swindon Centric understands that Thamesdown are planning on releasing a summary leaflet of the changes soon, with the new timetable and greater details from the 1st of July, with the changes being implemented from Sunday 25th of July.