North West Bus Service Changes due to Coronavirus outbreak

[iMarkeh]

RE: North West Bus Service Changes due to Coronavirus outbreak

(21/03/2020 11:52)knutstransport Wrote:  The transport industry needs to be careful in their approach to this.

Cutting routes where there's no viable alternative may mean essential workers, like care home workers and the receptionist at a doctor's surgery cannot get to work.

Reducing services may mean a higher average passenger number on the services which do run which could increase the chance of the virus spreading if one person carrying the virus travels on a bus.

Promising to run as many services as possible and then cancelling some at short notice due to drivers taking ill or having to self-isolate may mean people find themselves out of their homes for longer than they plan - increasing their risk of catching the virus.

One thing I've seen in shops (which I haven't yet heard any bus operators say) is asking customers to pay using contactless, unless they are unable to do so e.g. transaction amount too high or they don't have a contactless card.

Another thing operators need to consider is in the current circumstances it doesn't matter how many footprints you can see on the floor or how much mud has sprayed on to the exterior of the bus, in comparison to how much it matters than the things both drivers and passengers touch (like the poles and stop buttons) are regularly cleaned properly - in an ideal world this would be done when vehicles are sat around out-of-use between services.

I half agree with this. While yes the industry needs to be careful not to overload the buses, If the passenger numbers have reduced as much as they say (20% fare payers, 75% concessionary), it might not be as bad. I do think that some of the reductions are too far. Saturday timetables seem to be the best course of action as that is a slight reduction normally at peak times and can lead to slight PVR reductions.
It's worth noting as well that these figures were from the past week. Since then, pubs and restaurants are being told to close and cafes becoming takeaway only. The schools have also been told to close meaning some journeys will be even quieter.
IF you have 6 deckers per hour carrying a max of 20 passengers at a time, taking it down to 5 buses per hour would only add 4 passengers onto each other bus. It's not a huge amount. Some of the more extreme examples though (Blacons have gone from every 10 to every 30 for example) could lead to a good few people crowding on the available buses.

On the point about contactless, bus operators are pushing for it on their socials and dedicated Covid-19 website pages but not really as much on the bus. That said, I paid for my ticket yesterday on an Arriva Chester bus and I paid with card and 3 ticket bits came out. Ticket, Receipt and a 3rd bit promoting using contactless to reduce contact. I and the driver were very confused that 3 bits came out but it made sense later on.