For the sake of the town's sanity, can Swindon Borough Council put some (make that, any) roadsigns up to direct people to the Wroughton Park & Ride if they're going to the Outlet this weekend?
It's fine advertising it through press releases, but there are no sign on the roads at all.
If you want it to work, do it properly, come on!
Someone did blink first, it turns out to have been Stagecoach, but not in the way expected.
They've increased the frequency of their 55 service to every 10 minutes Monday - Saturday and up to 15 minutes on Sundays.
A small but welcome move will see westbound services serve Lydiard Fields in weekday morning peak times.
There will now be 9 buses an hour in each direction when the 55 is combined with Thamesdown's R1 route, and a hyper 5 minute frequency at some parts of each hour.
As robust a bus route as Swindon to Wootton Bassett is, unless there is fundamental modal shift on the corridor, the capacity will not come close to break-even on those frequencies.
Meanwhile, if you want a personal taxi at a reasonable price with wi-fi to Bassett, you're quids in.
Engines are being revved in the second round of Swindon's bus war, as a key route is set to be fought over.
Thamesdown Transport are to launch at the start of May a service in direct competition with Stagecoach in Swindon to Royal Wootton Bassett. R1 will run on a 15 minute frequency Monday to Saturday daytimes, hourly in the evenings and half hourly on Sundays. At some times during each weekday daytime hours, this will give Bassett a 5 minute frequency when combined with Stagecoach's 55 service.
There are clearly not enough passengers to demand this level of frequency across both operators, so it remains to be seen who'll blink first and thin out their timetable after a month or so.
The same saturating of routes and markets is happening with Thamesdown's other service changes on the 14th May, Cavendish Square will have the newly created number 5 from the severing of the current 13/14 running on a 7/8 minute frequency weekday daytimes, the rerouted 17/17A to serve Park South, plus the hat-trick of frequency with Stagecoach's number 3.
There are other welcomed minor changes, especially the 1/1A remaining on it's combined cross-town route to the GWH on evenings and Sundays.
Welcome changes in the second battle, and if you live in Swindon's Cavendish Square, you've never had it so good bus-wise!
Clippies get your small change holstered, the 'alight' bell has been sounded in the first round of the Swindon bus war.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
As goes the Wichelstowe quality bus corridor plan.
The aims of the project already seem to largely exist. The buses in use by Thamesdown are the newer vehicles, fitted with Wi-Fi and information displays, with a highly-recognisable brand (despite the soft market research currently being undertaken by the new owners), with a high frequency of service.
The only aims not already in existence seem to be a quicker journey time, limited stops and traffic priority.
Over £3 million is allocated to speed up the number 11 from 22 minutes journey time to 10 minutes, as the original plan for Wichelstowe foresaw a rapid transit (posh name for fast bus) route.
Swindon Borough Council propose to achieve this by getting rid of pedestrian crossings in Old Town and diverting buses along Wood Street and diverting general traffic in other ways.
Firstly, the 22 minute journey time is from Waitrose and as anyone knows, no-one commutes from Waitrose into town. Secondly, the pedestrian crossings in Old Town are necessary. The footpaths on Devizes Road at the northern end are narrow enough currently that two people have trouble squeezing past each other, let alone if the crossing is removed. The shared space at Regent Circus does work well, but pedestrians only have to look one way on each crossing. Try removing the northern Devizes Road crossing and then attempt to cross over, looking both ways, with no traffic lights and a roadway surface that matches the footpath with a lorry pinning you to the wall of the buildings. Thirdly, Swindon Centric can't imagine the Wood Street glitterati wanting such common things as omnibuses zooming along ferrying working class people to work.
Trust SBC to want to spend wonga without realising what they've already bought, already had installed, and already don't use. The bus gate, lights and junction on Wootton Bassett Road are currently only used for westbound buses, despite being built for townbound buses from Wichelstowe and has never been used.
Why to goodness does SBC not investigate running a bus from Wichelstowe via Redposts Drive and into town either via the unused bus infrastructure via Penzance Drive and the Outlet or east along Wootton Bassett Road and the former bus route of William Street? The journey time would be nearer the 10 minute mark via William Street than the expensive, strange and dangerous proposals through Old Town.
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.
The link between art and public transport is well known and Swindon will be practicing just that on Saturday, with a dedicated bus service for the Big Arts Day.
Swindon Borough-owned Thamesdown Transport will be running a special service, the 1X every 20 minutes from Fleming Way to Lydiard Park from 12pm until 3pm and from 4.40pm until 7.40pm.
Return services will depart Wilmot Close (just outside the Tregoze Way entrance to Lydiard Park) from 12.14pm until 15.14pm and from 4.54pm until 7.54pm.
There's also Thamesdown's regularly scheduled no. 1 and 1A that runs to Grange Park and along Tregoze Way.
Swindon Centric Says ; A bus and art mega day in a leafy part of town, what more does one need?
Click here for the original and still the best at this brilliant idea, here's our own version for Swindon's buses from last week.
10. Its, it's over... I'm sorry, this is where I get off.
9. You can't fit three double-buggies on here.
8. This will knock your socks off.
7. She's lost weight but you can't really tell.
6. It's the miracle and misguidance of television that's done it.
5. Bet there's no-one else on this bus on a wet Friday that's had as big a day as me.
4. It's a big Swindon story, get me Hildy Johnson, fast!
3. When you get onto the lower deck, duck.
2. I want to go all the way, can I do that?
And the number one overheard phrase on Swindon's buses from last week is...
1. No-one can read timetables any more, it's a soon-to-be-lost skill.
Overheard something we've missed? Then let us know.
