Smithys Transport Page

What do the following have in common? Nottingham, Merseyside, Luton, Tyne & Wear, Bath, Bristol, West Midlands. These are the areas with some of the biggest increases in bus usage. Do you know what else they have in common? They all invest in buses and working with operators.

@EngFocus @tfwrail I fully agree. To think someone got paid a lot of money to come up with this silly design.

@SmithysTP @tfwrail Which makes the placement of the pillar even more stupid.

Okay, so I'm not convinced by the design , but it does look more welcoming and functional than the old ticket office. @tfwrail what are the plans for the now closed ticket office? #Chester

@EngFocus @tfwrail A sales point on the other side (I presume you mean facing towards the toilet) is daft though when the queue line is into the concourse? You'd have to shout loudly to get the next customer. Sales points should logically be adjacent to each other surely?

@SmithysTP @tfwrail There's another sales point on the other side. But looking at it, they could get 3-4 staff members behind there. But that stupid pillar is a weird choice.

@CricketAleTrain @Heidi_Labour Probably something along those lines but it's still not good to just send more and more money to Trainline who are the an absolute thorn in the industries side. Almost as if its a coincidence that Trainline fought against the GBR app and now they are about to get more commission

@SmithysTP @Heidi_Labour Perhaps they will take a % of the delay repay payout in commission…? Looking forward to seeing the ‘No win, No fee’ adverts on daytime TV featuring @Heidi_Labour 🤣🤣🤣

It will be quicker and easier to claim Delay Repay with Great British Railways.🇬🇧🚄 You'll now be able to claim your refund directly from wherever you got your ticket. We're also cracking down on fraud to protect honest passengers and taxpayers. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@OwenStreet7 @ThemeParkJam @altontowers Thorpe Park is only better served because of the strong exclusivity agreement. Plus local routes passing by as it's a main route. Chessington is subjective. Links to Surrey are dismal. Legoland is better thanks to council funding as they are normal routes and not dedicated.

@SmithysTP @ThemeParkJam @altontowers Exactly 💯 and hotels too!!! I can't help think it's intended to drive up hotel stays too... Thorpe Park, Legoland and Chessington seem to be very well served by public transport which is a massive contrast 😱

We would not recommend public transport to Alton Towers this year. D&G buses have cancelled the X41 service from Stafford (at short notice) so we attempted the Stoke route. There were about 40 people waiting and the driver completely drove past and skipped the first stop.

@OwenStreet7 @ThemeParkJam @altontowers Merlin don't care. The more people who drive the more people who pay for parking. Only Chessington and Legoland are reasonably served by public transport, and in both cases Merlin refuses to give much details on these options and pushes their parking.

@OwenStreet7 @ThemeParkJam @altontowers If Towers is anything like Thorpe Park too (also Merlin) then there is an exclusivity agreement in place which stops other bus operators from picking up any slack even if they wanted to.

@CricketAleTrain @ChimeWhistle It's an interesting idea but I can't see it ending well as many staff won't know the intricacies of all the systems. There's already enough complaints about shop staff sorting out food delivery apps and parcels for delivery companies.

@SmithysTP @ChimeWhistle Didn’t TfW trial selling tickets at corner shops/paypoint outlets in south Wales, do they still offer that facility? Perhaps they could try selling tickets in vape shops there are enough of them in every town in the country..! 🤣

According to one senior source at RMT, a push for booking office closures and slashing the number of retail staff at one operator, may be closer than you think. One only has to look at the public reaction last time it was proposed, to realise it's an unpopular policy.

@CricketAleTrain @ChimeWhistle Depends when the usage and demand. There is zero issue with reducing ticket office opening hours in line with demand. Also exploring options working with others such as PTEs for ticket sales at interchanges to save on dedicated staff.

@SmithysTP @ChimeWhistle or a one shift operation 0630-1330?

@ThemeParkJam This has been an ongoing thing for a while with D&G. They are scoungers and refuse to put more capacity on any service or run any extra buses unless they are backed up with taxpayer of corporate funding. They refuse to do anything off their own back, even when there is demand.

@OwenStreet7 @ThemeParkJam @altontowers It wouldn't be so inaccessible if it wasn't for Towers actively persuing using closed door contract buses rather than funding open public transport for everyone.

@ThemeParkJam It's an absolute scandal and is absolutely unacceptable for the UK's most popular theme park @altontowers are you aware this is going on for years? there needs to be an urgent review of public transport links immediately. We need shuttle buses like at Thorpe Park.

@railLKB There isn't really any good reason why stop boards haven't been more standardised over the years. It's daft. Even worse is when there's multiple boards very close together because a stuck up TOC insists on their own boards, or markers are very close together.

How would I make it better; [1] standardise the stop boards, as featured, hazards boarder indicate industrial use. But with black background. [2] Give passenger facing information their blue identity.

Always reminded that Driver's stop boards, are often confused the passenger. Sure, there's a differentiation with color inversion. But, not helpful, regardless of personal visual abilities.

@zzzoooman @EngFocus Retail options are shocking. The WH Smiths is stupidly priced and opens as/when it wants, and the 3 cafes are all owned/operated by the same company (Caterleisure). Surely competitions authority should be looking into this?

@zzzoooman @EngFocus Station ran under the Labour governments who both insist on wanting people to access cash. And they remove the flaming cash machine. The mind boggles.

Actual visible signs of progress at #Chester station. It feels like this modest "upgrade" has been going on for years.

@EngFocus That's because it has been going on for years. Bonkers how long this project is taking.

@StagecoachCNL Are there any plans to revamping this Twitter account to reflect your expanded network in South Lancashire? Twitter/X seems to be the final piece of the puzzle of the Preston depot moving to this divison.

@CricketAleTrain @alexhornbyrail @BahnGotthard This is the same Northern who used Scamline ticketing platform and thus currently refuses to support Plusbus E-Ticket. One of the biggest enablers of multi modal travel in the past few years.

@alexhornbyrail @BahnGotthard Imagine this at Windermere/Penrith for The Lakes, Bangor/Porthmadog for Snowdonia, Buxton/Matlock for Peak District, Poulton for Fleetwood, Harrogate for Ripon, Skipton for Yorks Dales etc. Yes most have some buses but no integration, marketing or through tickets.

That’s integration, Swiss style! 🇨🇭

Expanding your use of BODS disruption data would not only massively expand the information that operators can put out, but also at times lead to a massive reduction in the amount of double entry that operators/LAs are doing.

@passengerteam With you now pulling in BODS Disruption data for your Traveline demo, will you also be working with existing full package and MyTrip operators to pull through disruption data on the the operators own websites?