The Bright Fairy Lights of Swindon's Bus Policy

The loss of a million miles of bus route running in Swindon & Wiltshire since 2013 doesn't seem to bother Swindon Borough Council.

They've defended themselves with pointing out that they and central government support nearly 15 services with investment (or as government usually likes to call it in it's loaded way, 'subsidy') with the Bus Services Operators Grant and Section 106 money from developers.

Oh yes, like the £55,000 of Section 106 money that has been used to decorate the Greenbridge Roundabout with lights to make it look nice.

£55,000 would have gone a long way on, maybe employing a handful of people to act as traffic officers that could be on-call on peak traffic days around the Outlet Village.

Think how good an idea that would be, whilst your stuck on a bus, staring at the pretty lights.

20 and out

Sense has prevailed and the Thamesdown Transport service 20 will not return.

Despite politicians trying to lay the blame for it's demise at Thamesdown's door, the straight-talking from the bus company's head should be commended for making it clear that the service never covered it's costs.

Swindon Borough Council can "um" and "ah" about it's withdrawal and there being subsidy available to run some sort of service, but when that subsidy is only £25,000, you can see the deep blue water between politics and reality of how much it costs to run a bus service on the ground.

Back to the Future on the Buses

Changes proposed by Thamesdown Transport see lots of what was old will be new again.

From the 31st May, the changes will include :

- The 1/1A will now resume it's previous cross-town routing, linking Covingham and Nythe with Middleleaze and Grange Park, which will see the number 2 vanish. This gives East Swindon a 10 minute frequency again, after it being cut down to 15 minutes, then upped to 12 minutes when it's been the number 2. Evening services will go back to a half-hour frequency.

- 13/14 are rerouted after 6pm and all day Sunday via Regent Circus for the new cinema.

- The 15 sees the last service from Wichelstowe withdrawn.

- The 17 and 18 see changes to give Penhill back a 10 minute frequency to Park North and the Park South service is reduced to half-hourly and extended to Coate Water.

- The 20 will be withdrawn as it does not cover it's cost. Strangely, for a bus that doesn't have enough passengers to pay for itself, the withdrawal of it is predicted to cause car park chaos for the GWH staff forced to drive.

All in all, the changes see lots of improvements, or a return to previous service levels, with some commercial flair by rerouting to take advantage of new destinations, but the withdrawal of the 20 is a necessary move, unless Swindon Borough Council want to increase subsidies, don't blame the bus company for it's loss.

Swindon's Buses : Our Local Councillors' Political Panic Room

If you catch the bus in Swindon, whether it's Stagecoach, Thamesdown, Wilts and Dorset, or even National Express, you may not have realised that your method of transport has become a political safe ground for the town's politicians.

Since the reduction in bus subsidy locally by Swindon Borough Council and the reduction in the Bus Service Operator Grant, the attitude of councillors towards this method of transport has become something to observe.

But even back in May 2010, we got an early warning of what was to come in terms of councillors attitude (http://swindoncentric.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/omnibus-obfuscation.html).

However, after the cutting of carparking charges in the town centre and the rise in people walking through the town centre, those two events were linked as cause and effect. Something that was not taken into account included businesses taking car parking spaces for their employees (that would also show up as a 'shopper' in the council view of things, with an office worker walking past the cameras recording the numbers whilst doing their Monday to Friday '9 to 5') and the number of 'shoppers' traveling to and from the town centre by bus (or indeed train).

Why was the effect of bus travel on town centre footfall not distinguished? It could be the love-hate relationship that Swindon Borough Council appear to have with their own bus company, Thamesdown Transport. Don't forget, the council own Thamesdown Transport. Love, because in the good times, it can generate a welcomed income for the council and the fallback is always available of selling TT if things get really bad and we build even more roads to nowhere at Wichelstowe and we suddenly have to really pay for them. And hate because councillors can (and indeed have been doing a lot recently) of faux outrage when TT announce a proposed change to a bus route to keep themselves in the black. 

These route changes wouldn't be needed if Swindon Borough Council hadn't decided to cut it's bus subsidy in half from £400,000 to £200,000 to balance it's books. What's made worse is that councillors continue to play politics as they 'battle' to save services that everyone knows don't have a hope in hell's chance of lasting commercially because there aren't enough passengers.

But instead of explaining that the only way to keep them running is to put council subsidy into them, councillors rally against the bus companies (including Thamesdown, which the council and therefore every single taxpayer in Swindon owns) and blame the big bad bus companies!

So once and for all, Swindon councillors, stop cutting bus subsidies for unprofitable routes and then blaming the bus company when they can't make it pay it's way with a handful of passengers a day and need to close it.

The town, it's bus passengers and especially all those staff at Thamesdown Transport deserve better transport politics than using the bus as your political safe ground.