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Bus services on Bank Holiday Monday


kevofaz25

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errm, no, you start with an excess of tax over use - giving some fat to live off - as/if variations begin to occur. As Baz rightly says, the tax take from smokers is almost garanteed due to their addiction (although could be threatened by the black market); likewise, the love affair with the motor car is similarly imo an addiction - so I don't see your scenario actually occuring. :roll:

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If the bus services had operated until eight pm on Sundays and bank holidays - or if there had been a reduced frequency after six pm 'til the end of the day - then I suspect most people would accept that as necessary cost saving and there wouldn't have been half the complaints there have been.

 

However, to have the last bus service at just after 5pm really reflects badly on the council. People who claim that all the journeys withdrawn were running around empty, with respect, I would suggest probably didn't use them very regularly. And although I haven't worked out the exact figure as yet, I believe the council saves only around ?50k per year on subsidy for these Sunday services out of their widely touted ?150k annual savings.

 

And meanwhile, if you believe what the opposition are saying, the council has taken ?205k in dividends from the bus company over the past three years. So they take with one hand, and then take with the other as well!

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The number of buses I see that are empty during a weekday would surely tell me that either no one wants to use them or they are too expensive for people to use.

 

Maybe reducing the regularity of the buses during the day (I mean do we really need a bus every 5 minutes to Dallam or Westbrook) and maybe keep the services running on a Sunday...

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Well first day in college for my young chap today and he got the bus home as he finished slightly earlier than expected.

 

Now ?1.10 from Warrington Collegiate to the Bus Station is OTT to say the least (with an additional ?1.40 for the journey from the bus station to Stockton Heath unless you take your college pass from round your neck and its 70p then :wink: ) Guess the drivers will soon cotton on so we are in effect talking ?2.50 per one way trip to/from home. Both ways would be a fiver a day :shock:

 

Not to worry though as for ?21 a month he can always buy a Bus Saver Card which entitles him to FREE travel ANY DAY and ANY TIME... 7 days a week.

 

Which got me thinking though and having just done a quick calculation based on 100 students using public transport from the college to the bus station alone............if Warr Borough Transport dropped their price from ?1.10 to 40p (which lets face is is less than a packet of crisps) for the very same journey they 'could' actually more than DOUBLE their income :wink:

 

Wont bore you with my calculation and reasoning but I'm sure their boffings MUST have thought about it as it's so blindingly obvious :shock::lol::wink:

 

Infact for 40p I would even stop using my car when I go into town :D

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The only way public transport will be able to become more popular than the car is it for it to be on call 24 hours a day, from your front door to the destination of your choice, at less annual cost than a car.

At the moment in my case it only meets the destination of my choice part, but as I don't have a car (by choice) I have to arrange my life around the bus timetable. For example, I went to watch Warrington Town at the weekend. I left home at 2PM, got a bus at the top of the road, bought a day rover ticket (?3.75), changed buses at the interchange, got to the ground in good time for the game, and came back home in similar fashion. However I wouldn't attempt to do this for a night match because the service doesn't exist. So something fundemantal has to change. It's not just the cost of public transport that's at issue but rather the lack of it at times when we may need it but it's uneconomic for the provider! I don't have the answer, and I suspect the man who does is going to end up very rich. Here's your chance for fame and riches Obs :lol::lol::lol::lol:

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You've illustrated the dilema of private transport - yer only need it to actually move from A TO B; the rest of the time, it's parked in your driveway as a status symbol. We could look at a few options: 1) for the fitter folk, a public bike use scheme - point to point - like the one they've always had in Oxford or the one they've just started in London. 1) For the less active - a bike rickshaw (taxi) scheme - imagine "pink" rickshaws?! 3) and the obvious - view taxis as "public" transport and subsides them accordingly. 4) for longer journeys - encourage point to point car rental schemes. :?

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It's not a question of "practising what one preaches" - but what one wishes to afford. I have a "free" bus pass, but prefer to use my car for my limited trips (a) cos it's more convenient and (B) cos I can listen to my own music whilst puffing on a fag. For this privilage, I would probably pay double or even treble my current car tax - which could be used to provide you with a free bus pass. I guess I'm not alone with this preference, which convinces me, that the idea of subsidising public transport usage out of car tax, is a viable option in terms of tax gathering. :wink:

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I'm going to get a free bus pass anyway (Next year I hope :lol: ) but you are trying to tell me that all it takes to get public transport as a viable alternative to private car ownership is to increase car tax, when you (as a car owner and driver yourself) admit that the tax you pay doesn't go towards public transport. Are you that blind to the reality of our corrupt system of government? Or part of it? :?:?:?

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front page news today that workers cannot get a bus home from work on a Sunday because they finish work after the buses finish and are stranded. :oops:

 

one way out would be to go back to the days when Sunday was a "day of rest" and stop all Sunday trading. that way nobody would need a bus on a Sunday so you could do away with a Sunday service altogether. :wink:

 

living very close to the hospital i regularly see empty buses plying the route between town and dallam. i also see plenty that are crammed to capacity as well. i do wonder though how many of the full buses are filled with the free bus pass people. if there are 40 people on the bus and 39 have free bus passes then the trip is not making any money.

 

i would use the bus more often than i do (about once or twice a year) if it was not so expensive. as i have said before the cost of a bus journey to town and back for me and my wife is over ?5.00. cost of the same journey in my car, taking into account wear and tear,petrol consumption,road tax,insurance and the cost of parking for two hours works out at around ?2.90 not quite half the price but still almost 2 litres of fuel saving for me. considering that will give me roughly 30 miles of travel it makes more sense for me to take the car rather than the bus.

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I can't see how any of them make money.

IF the Government and Councils want people to use public transport, it should be subsidised.

Let's face it, unless you live on the road that they travel, you have to walk to the bus stop. they may not stop anywhere near where you are going. If you have been shopping, you have carrier bags to deal with. You probably have to walk to the bus stop to get the bus home, and walk home when you alight the bus.

If you are able-bodied, not a problem. If you are disabled it's a major problem. Car or bus. There's only ONE winner.

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