Stagecoach MCSL - Chester & Wirral Depots

[WhiteVanMan]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 13:52)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  And to where will Stagecoach be getting the money to carry out this market research? They won't be using their own income to solve a problem that isn't caused internally.

What wrong with Stagecoach (and other companies), checking they ticket machine data!
Also checking data from GreenRoad and CCTV images!

[ls1911]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 13:52)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  And to where will Stagecoach be getting the money to carry out this market research? They won't be using their own income to solve a problem that isn't caused internally.

Most of the local areas around Cheshire Oaks are affluent, these are people that have atleast one car. If you were on a higher than average income and the choice of paying for the bus or driving your own vehicle to a place with free parking right on the doorstep you'd simply take the car.

Likewise Stagecoach won't do a deal with Merseyrail because at present they make more money by someone travelling to chester or Ellesmere Port Station and getting the X8 from there than they would under a deal. Stagecoach only continued the deal on service 1 from Bache because it was an agreement with First. Ideally, Stagecoach want people using the express X8 only (instead of the train) to the tourist attractions and to purchase their own £3.90 dayticket (and is complimented by the stopping 1 and 2)

I thought there was a special merseyrail ticket for Cheshire Oaks? Or has it finished now?

[Bevan Price]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 08:21)iMarkeh Wrote:  I know the traffic isn't Stagecoach's fault but what is their fault is that they dont take steps to try and resolve the issue. Maybe some market research needs to go on to see where all the people are going to as it could be a viable bus journey and 70 people on a bus takes up a lot less space than 50-60 cars.

Stagecoach can do nothing to sort out the traffic problems - that should be done by the council and the owners of Cheshire Oaks. The entire area could do with a major redesign of the road system.

What Stagecoach could consider is whether or not the revenue gained by serving Cheshire Oaks covers the cost of the time wasted by their buses being stuck in regular, massive traffic jams.

[knutstransport]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral
A lot of operators do market research all the time, especially those with free wifi that make you register to use the service and state the purpose of your journey each time you use it

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 19:37)ls1911 Wrote:  I thought there was a special merseyrail ticket for Cheshire Oaks? Or has it finished now?

Only for the Zoo which is now only valid on the park and ride service

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 20:42)knutstransport Wrote:  A lot of operators do market research all the time, especially those with free wifi that make you register to use the service and state the purpose of your journey each time you use it

That's a different type of market research. There's a difference between a wifi registration and visiting the local housing areas surrounding Cheshire Oaks and asking a comprehensive survey of how they travel to the site, and how Stagecoach can persuade them to use their services instead. For example with the wifi registration it asks you your purpose of visit, what it doesn't ask you is how often you use the bus on a regular basis, where you want the bus to go, your opinion of the travel options etc

Likewise if you did the same at Cheshire Oaks stopping shoppers it takes a lot of time, permission (You need a licence to stop people on the street, and cheshire oaks is private property), data evaluation and a comprehensive amount of questions that people simply do not want to answer whilst enjoying their own leisure time

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 19:13)WhiteVanMan Wrote:  What wrong with Stagecoach (and other companies), checking they ticket machine data!
Also checking data from GreenRoad and CCTV images!

Ticket machine data is highly inaccurate, It doesn't tell you the exact stop someone boarded, only fare stages and at what time, likewise it doesn't always tell you when a person is alighting, only the fare stage.

Although smartcards are fully comprehensive as to what service you've used all day for example, again they don't tell you when a passenger alighted, why they did so, and paper weekly/day tickets tell you virtually nothing about a passenger except that they had one and what service they initially purchased it on (and that's if the driver even registered it)

CCTV images only last for a period of time unless backed up manually. To get information on who boarded you would have to look at every single minute of a CCTV tape when in reality a bus could be in service 5am-midnight each day, it isn't feasible at all.

(and just to add if anyone believes I'm being a bit defensive, I'm not meaning to be, but my degree specialism is marketing, and part of that is data capture, analysis, problem solving and feasibility studies)

[knutstransport]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 22:19)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  That's a different type of market research. There's a difference between a wifi registration and visiting the local housing areas surrounding Cheshire Oaks and asking a comprehensive survey of how they travel to the site, and how Stagecoach can persuade them to use their services instead. For example with the wifi registration it asks you your purpose of visit, what it doesn't ask you is how often you use the bus on a regular basis, where you want the bus to go, your opinion of the travel options etc

Likewise if you did the same at Cheshire Oaks stopping shoppers it takes a lot of time, permission (You need a licence to stop people on the street, and cheshire oaks is private property), data evaluation and a comprehensive amount of questions that people simply do not want to answer whilst enjoying their own leisure time

Yes there's different types of market research. The point I was getting at is some operators are collecting data on a daily basis without any additional cost or effort. The wifi registration may collect more information than you think. For instance, if you're a teenager with a Saturday job at Cheshire Oaks and take advantage of the wifi each time you travel then a standard wifi registration system will record that a teenager is travelling for the purpose of work every Saturday.

Operators like Arriva regularly do online surveys where they offer incentives to both passengers and non-passengers for sharing their opinion. While some transport companies use research companies to find out information for them which has the advantage of the participants don't know who the data is being collected for so may respond differently e.g. in an Arriva survey someone might complain about their route not being Sapphire while if they don't know what transport company is collecting the responses they might say they want things which aren't included as part of Sapphire and that they aren't really bothered about things which are included.

[knutstransport]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 22:22)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  Ticket machine data is highly inaccurate, It doesn't tell you the exact stop someone boarded, only fare stages and at what time, likewise it doesn't always tell you when a person is alighting, only the fare stage.

It needs to be used with caution. For instance, if you use ticket machine data for D&G's 88 service it doesn't tell you how many people use the Wilmslow station stop so you can't use ticket machine data to determine whether that stop could be omitted. However, it would tell you how many people travel between Mobberley and Wilmslow or beyond which might be useful for planning alternative arrangements if part of the B5085 is closed for a week due to roadworks.

[wirralbus]

RE: Stagecoach Chester & Wirral

(15/11/2016 22:14)Raawwwrrr! Wrote:  Only for the Zoo which is now only valid on the park and ride service

The Zoo ticket is only valid on the X8 now , when the P&R service was getting revised to a cross chester route system it changed .