Bus service changes

[Withnail]

I live wildwood, I use X25, 825 and 74, much easier

Depends upon your circumstances really - all of them mean getting to either the Cannock or Lichfield roads, either at Weeping X or Radford Bank for the first two. Depending on where you are on Wildwood this can be quite a haul.

The empty-nesters on Wildwood, of which there are not few (though getting fewer...), are getting too old for that kind of crap, though i suppose it could be argued that they have little to be lost by joining the Magical Mystery Tour. It's not like their time matters in any way, does it?

 

[marky]

waited at Wildwood for 74, and now a new white 74 bus going from Cannock to Stafford past Wildwood, don't know name of company or anything, virtually same time the Arriva double decker 74 bus arrived, £2.50 said on my ticket, but paid the usual 2.30

 

[Wormella]

Out of interest - does this mean we can now park on the guessing defunct bus stop that is directly outside of our house on St. Leonards - if there's no No 2 service that uses it any more.

Is a bus stop, still a bus stop if there are no buses that stop there?

 

[Withnail]

Although it doesn't show on the route map, last time i took the Wildwood bus (3) it went up St. Leonards Ave. to Fairway and onwards.

 

[Sooz]

For anyone who is interested/concerned - there's a meeting at Walton Village Hall tomorrow night (Thurs 3rd Sept) 19.30 to discuss the closure of the route and possible alternatives/solutions. It would be great to have some ideas and/or support

 

[arthur]

I only saw this late tonight, so too late to have any input to the meeting, but a useful bit of information and a tactic when you’re trying to get the local authority to subsidise a bus route where elderly or disabled people live

SCC statement

We work to support, improve and co-ordinate Staffordshire's public transport network. We work with private bus and rail companies, other organisations and user groups to raise standards and make public transport more responsive to local needs

www.bettertransport.org.uk

Statement

Local Transport authorities must secure the provision of appropriate services to meet public transport requirements.

In practice this means that where it is socially necessary to have a bus service, but the bus operators will not run a bus commercially, local authorities must step in and subsidise a bus service or part of a bus service

I used this argument in the rising brook area to get a bus route reinstated about 4 years ago it was a real battle to get them to engage but they do have a duty to meet the public transport needs of elderly and disabled.

Just keep writing to the county county public transport department, go to your local councillor and the bus service provider and get answers - Also the Citizens Advice hold information on this.

 

[Sooz]

Good advice - thanks. The meeting was really well attended with around 150-200 present despite only Walton being leafleted about it. No Arriva rep turned up and whilst the Staffordshire councillor present made the effort, he seemed to have very bad information and kept reiterating the service had to be commercially viable. From what Arthur says above, that shouldn't be the deciding factor.

 

[Withnail]

I don't see why we can't have a London Transport type arrangement sort of thing anywhere.

Perhaps if we call his name three times;..

@henryscat ...

 

[marky]

825 bus went 'wrong way' yesterday? got the 825 bus from Gaol square, then at the windmill it turned left for Earl street not right towards station, completely bypassed Newport road as well (temporary bus stop) then past Webb and Lucas then past the Sun (didn't even stop at the Sun)

then went down Wolverhampton Road instead of Lichfield Road, through Rickerscote then out of Silkmore Lane towards proper route Weeping Cross

anyone who was waiting for that bus, you know where it went, bypassed everyone, but is this new route? says on timetable it's meant to stop at Station then down Newport Road

 

[Jade-clothing]

Day one of no buses down St.Leonards for my parents yesterday and they needed to go into town. £8.80 the round trip cost them!
It's absolutely ridiculous. As they go into town 3 times a week for either shopping or more often than not a doctors appointment it is going to get really expensive for them!

 

[Gramaisc]

Day one of no buses down St.Leonards for my parents yesterday and they needed to go into town. £8.80 the round trip cost them!
It's absolutely ridiculous. As they go into town 3 times a week for either shopping or more often than not a doctors appointment it is going to get really expensive for them!

It could be worth investigating this, @Jade-clothing - http://www.communitylinkstafford.co.uk/ .

 

[arthur]

The web site seems to be up and running with the 'see all stops' function but we made a note of the times that the buses went by the house today and the time is nothing like the time table.

The route from town is ridiculous doesn't stop at sainsbury's any more - why won't it the whole idea of having the stops at sainsbury's and goal square is that they go around the town.

 

[Jade-clothing]

It could be worth investigating this, @Jade-clothing - http://www.communitylinkstafford.co.uk/ .

Thank you Gramaisc I'll have a look

 

[arthur]

I've looked at the community link site and send an e mail asking for prices of journeys.

The following paragraphs are part of an article taken from the guardian. It clearly says that local authorities have a statutory duty to subsidize - this is the argument to use to get a bus route reinstated - a petition will help and fight for your local bus service

“With regard to the public transport bus service pensioners and disabled persons have the concessionary fare bus pass so if there is a cost for the community link bus this is still placing disabled and pensioner at a disadvantage and the local authority should not be able to evade their duty to subsidize and your that is not commercially viable ”

“But as austerity measures make mincemeat of council budgets many vital subsidised services – which provide a bus where one is needed but no commercially operated route exists – are disappearing…………….”

“Reducing the availability of buses will have significant long term impacts socially, environmentally and economically,”

A third of all bus journeys are undertaken by the 10 million older and disabled people with concessionary bus passes. Councils have a statutory duty to provide them with free off-peak travel, yet the Local Government Association (LGA) says funding for the scheme has been cut by 39% during the life of this parliament.

http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2015/mar/16/next-government-end-bus-cuts-crisis

I would encourage people affected by the cuts to bus services to challenge the council on this issue half of them don’t know what their duty is. If anyone needs any help PM me.

 

[Jade-clothing]

@arthur I've also sent the community link people an email and it is £4 each way, which is about the same as a taxi for my parents unfortunately.
Thank you for the above information, I'll pass it on. There has been a petition and press coverage and their local counsellor is helping them. As far as I know to no avail as yet though. They've already spent nearly £18 this week on taxis and still need to go into town again so obviously this can't go on indefinitely as being pensioners they, and all of their neighbours simply can't afford this.

 

[Apricot]

My daughter had an appointment with the dentist in Stafford today. The 825 bus is meant to take her from outside Walton school. I went on the arriva journey planner and checked - a bus was scheduled for 3:19pm (to get there very early), with the next one at 3:49pm (to get there just in time). I've got the journey planner info printed off so I know I wasn't dreaming it. You enter the date and time you will be travelling so it's quite specific.

Because she's only 14, I needed to be sure I had the correct information for her journey, so as well as checking the bus online I also phoned arriva to check which bus stops the bus would stop at (Walton on the Hill, the Rise) and the ticket prices.

She got to the bus stop shortly after 3 and waited till well after 4, but no bus came.

Does anyone know what's meant to be happening with the 825? I'm going to phone them now.

 

[Apricot]

I phoned Arriva, apparently the buses were delayed, and if they are delayed for long enough they take buses off the journey to allow them to catch up, which is why she waited for over an hour.

The dentist was very understanding (thank you Oriel) and booked her in again next week. I asked Arriva what I should do and they just said "try again".

I will probably take her myself by car.

 

[arthur]

Following the change of routes it soon became obvious to all that Arriva had made some mistakes. so I wrote to tell the council that mistakes had been made with route changes and that they were not meeting their duty of providing for the elderly and the disabled in the Silkmore area of town

One half of silkmore lane had been left with out a service and although i was not affected by this change i wrote reminding them of their duty and pointed out that they had completely missed a group elderly living in that area.

Below is part of the reply i received from the council

"Following discussions with Arriva, and the receipt of a petition calling for the reinstatement of a service in Silkmore Lane, I am pleased to inform you that Arriva will introduce a service 6A to run with service 6, which will serve Silkmore Lane with a half hourly service. It is anticipated that this service will commence on Saturday 26 September 2015 subject to the approval of the Traffic Commissioner.

So anyone else affected in any other area, a petition is definite the way to go and go to the council not Arriva.

 

[Apricot]

My daughter used the no 3 bus to get to the dentist today (leaving from the bus stop by the Co-Op in Wildwood) and all was ok.

 

[marky]

My daughter used the no 3 bus to get to the dentist today (leaving from the bus stop by the Co-Op in Wildwood) and all was ok.

cheaper the white 74, £1.50 into town, get it on cannock road, but of course no good if you have an Arriva pass