bmmoboy wrote: ↑21:25 Friday 31st July 2026
You need much more than new management, you need a whole new way of thinking, something that First don’t seem to understand. Unless a major rethink of operations happens soon, Worcester will end up with 35, 30s and Bromsgrove, Evesham and Malvern services. Every time I go into Crowngate, there seem to be poorly used services, and only a handful of passengers milling around. I was waiting at the lights at the bus station exit at 16.30 yesterday, I saw 2 buses, a double decker with 2 passengers, and a 31, with just a single customer, and that was in the rush hour! Every other bus I saw in the City was virtually empty. It must be disheartening for the Drivers.
It is worrying to see how much bus usage has declined in Worcester. Earlier in the week I spent a day in Devizes, a town in Wiltshire which by population is about one-fifth the size of Worcester. The dominant operator in the town is Faresaver, with other routes provided by Salisbury Reds and one trunk route provided by Stagecoach.
I was there to represent Stagecoach at an event organised by Wiltshire County Council to promote bus services in the town, with the Council and the other operators also sending people along. We set up camp in the Town Centre within sight of the "Bus Station", and between 10am and 2pm we answered any questions that passers by gave us. Obviously I had the easiest job as Stagecoach only run one route there!
I put "Bus Station" in inverted commas because this is not a big town and the bus station only has three stops. One in each direction, plus a third on a side road that allows buses to turn around and depart in either direction. The two main stops each has the capacity for two buses, and a good sized shelter, while the third stop fits one bus and has no shelter.
Despite the size of the town and modest facilities, there was a constant stream of buses coming and going throughout the day. It seemed like as soon as one bus arrived another one would depart, and they were all being used. When speaking to the other operators, I learned that we were there on market day, which is always more busy than the rest of the week and so they provide extra buses, but everyone agreed that there are enough people using buses during the rest of the week to make these networks viable. Yes, some routes require help from the local authority, but the LA made it very clear that they see benefit to giving that support and have no intention of cutting it back. On the contrary, I spoke at length with the local authority about a forthcoming scheme to replace bus shelters in rural areas, and how one of our other routes (not in Devizes) had been chosen as part of this scheme.
While this all shows what can be achieved when everyone works together with willing support from the local authority, I now come to my second point...
The nearest city to Devizes is Bath, which as we all know is a First stronghold. I spoke to dozens of people that day and a significant amount of them said how they would perfectly happily travel to Bath on one of the Faresaver buses, but once there everything goes wrong because any onward travel means they have to use First. Others lived in or near Bath and never use the bus locally, but often travel away from Bath on buses provided by other operators, such as going to Devizes on market day. I told one couple that Stagecoach run a bus from Bath to Stroud, and they were keen to try it, safe in the knowledge they didn't have to use First!
My big takeaway from the day was that Stagecoach, Faresaver, and Salisbury Reds have mostly got it right in that corner of Wiltshire, but everyone hates First. This is not an exaggeration, First do not operate any buses in Devizes so there was no real reason for anyone to talk about them at our event, yet a lot of people wanted to, and not in a positive way.
I left First 7-years ago because I thought the whole system was broken and there was no light at the end of the tunnel. This wasn't a local Worcester thing, I worked with some great people who clearly wanted to make a difference, but it always felt like Group were holding us back. Chris is right when he says they need a whole new way of thinking, and until that happens places like Worcester and Bath are going to suffer a poor services and all the consequences that come with that, such as increased car traffic and social isolation for those without a car.
Well that went wildly off topic. Sorry. I blame Chris!
