Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Bus and Coach operations, new or changed services and timetables for First Midland Red Buses Limited or its predecessor, Midland Red West Limited.
Matt560Breese
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Joined: 18:42 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Digis, Worcester
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Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by Matt560Breese » 19:29 Monday 24th June 2019

i think the service in Worcester are the worse they have ever been i moved from Kidderminster of which yeah arn't great but its a rural town so you expects it all to finish around 1800 ish but it comes to something when Stourport in Kidderminster gets a later bus service then most places in Worcester.

my personal opinion other than first making a mess of it if a route has any council funding which means they have say in it will always be down graded to suit there budget rather than upgraded or altered to suit the passengers

there are very few late buses now in Worcester.

if you compare this to Gloucester ok a different scale of city but if you look inperticular at the forest network there are still late buses to most of the Forest until gone midnight in some cases some service I.e 24 that gets a better service at night than in the day

sorry if this is ranty but Worcester and Worcestershire as a whole has more potential than the bus company and Worcestershire county council will allow

Brendan
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Joined: 22:29 Tuesday 11th December 2018

Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by Brendan » 23:33 Monday 24th June 2019

In terms of population Gloucester is about 30% bigger.

Where Worcester struggles is the fact that all routes start end or pass through Crowngate which strangles the routes, 2 ways in, one way out and built for mini buses. The lay out of the approach roads doesn't help as they are narrow with tight junctions with poor clearance. All it needs is a traffic light out of sync or temporary works within 1/4 mile of the centre and the town is gridlocked.

A badly parked van on Angel St or an errant vehicle in the bus lane on Foregate at and you are equally stuffed.

I don't think Gloucester suffers to the same extent however I don't visit the as often as once did.

What Gloucester doesn't have though is it's feeder towns/settlements in such close proximity and served by rail. Droitwich, Malvern and Pershore are about 10 minutes by train but 30+ by bus. Trains also run much later and earlier too and I dare say competitively priced

bringstybeast
Posts: 49
Joined: 18:17 Saturday 9th July 2016

Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by bringstybeast » 09:05 Tuesday 25th June 2019

Brendan wrote:
23:33 Monday 24th June 2019
In terms of population Gloucester is about 30% bigger.

Where Worcester struggles is the fact that all routes start end or pass through Crowngate which strangles the routes, 2 ways in, one way out and built for mini buses. The lay out of the approach roads doesn't help as they are narrow with tight junctions with poor clearance. All it needs is a traffic light out of sync or temporary works within 1/4 mile of the centre and the town is gridlocked.

A badly parked van on Angel St or an errant vehicle in the bus lane on Foregate at and you are equally stuffed.

I don't think Gloucester suffers to the same extent however I don't visit the as often as once did.

What Gloucester doesn't have though is it's feeder towns/settlements in such close proximity and served by rail. Droitwich, Malvern and Pershore are about 10 minutes by train but 30+ by bus. Trains also run much later and earlier too and I dare say competitively priced
Gloucester may be a bit more bus friendly territory, but it’s also a hell of a lot easier to drive a car around than Worcester - with quite fast arterial roads and dual carriageways.

Worcester has several large villages just outside the city boundary - Norton, Kempsey, Powick, Fernhill Heath... and bus times from these should at least be competitive with a car. I’ve always felt more could be done to give them a better service. Similar with Droitwich - big housing estates away from both the railway station and the 144 bus route. It’d be no surprise if any resident would rather drive to Worcester rather use public transport.

Things all might be quite different if the bus company actually wanted to grow. Instead we’ve had nearly 20 years of “managed decline”, and now we’ve hit the point where able bodies dare payers can find it quicker to walk into town rather than wait for the next bus...

Is it just coincidence that the local authorities are much more engaged in the areas where Stagecoach operate?

bmmoboy
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Joined: 20:02 Tuesday 5th July 2016

Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by bmmoboy » 10:29 Tuesday 25th June 2019

The problem with Worcester is that there is simply too much traffic using two bridges spanning the River Severn. If the County Council got off their arses and got on with the Northern part of the ring road, with another bridge, it would reduce the amount of traffic by I would guess 30%. The current works to widen the Southern Link won't make a great deal of difference, unless they install flyovers at the roundabouts, and will make it a four lane car park, instead of two lane. The works in Sidbury which are designed to improve traffic flow, will just move the problem to another part of the City.
I shudder to think what Thomas Telford would think of his 1828 built bridge being used by the vast amount of traffic, from cars to HGVs. Surely this structure cannot last much longer.

TimBrown
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Joined: 05:59 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Worcester

Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by TimBrown » 12:49 Tuesday 25th June 2019

I think you guys have correctly identified the main problems in the Worcester area especially the lack of Northern by-pass road.

Attached is a link to the First Bus timetable for route 1 from Weymouth. I may have mentioned this in the past, but the 24/7 service all year round is mind boggling compared to the 9 am to 5 pm service we have on some routes in Worcester!

Can anyone give me a logical explanation why an area half the size of Worcester is so well served by First, is it because of Dorset C.C. support?

https://www.firstgroup.com/wessex-dorse ... &source=sp

Matt560Breese
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Joined: 18:42 Monday 4th July 2016
Location: Digis, Worcester
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Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by Matt560Breese » 21:16 Tuesday 25th June 2019

WCC are just not very supportive of buses and there for bus companies are never very supportive of WCC

Gloucestershire C C and Stagecoach work in a partnership to reduce the amount of public spending they tend to take on tenders see which bits are profitable merge them or run them on there own and then give Gloucestershire cc to make the ideas on the rest of what is left.

even Herefordshire seems more approachable that Worcestershire cc

DD12
Posts: 1650
Joined: 19:49 Monday 4th July 2016

Re: Worcestershire's future passenger transport

Post by DD12 » 13:16 Wednesday 26th June 2019

Yesterday I decided to spend about an hour in Upton, and used the bustimes.org tracker map for the first time to see where my city bus (32) was, BEFORE leaving my house. (I've got a laptop but not a smart phone) -- -- that worked a treat, and I used my credit card to buy the the ticket, -- great PROGRESS :)

However, I was the ONLY passenger on the 15.00, 363 from Crowngate to Hanley Castle ( then 30 minute walk to Upton), AND, I was the ONLY passenger on the 17.33, 363 back to Worcester.

I HOPE that the total revenue earned by / attributed to these two vehicles during the day, was enough for these services to continue !! :(

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