MidlandRed.net

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/24 ... m-collins/

With the election of a new Labour government, everything will be great !

Triple-Deckers every 5 minutes, 24/7 !

Unfortunately if we still have not enough drivers (Worcester are being assisted with drivers from Rochdale at the moment) then any improvements to bus services will not be occurring. In September, the X50 goes to half hourly, there will be later Malverns, and there will be increased frequencies on some City services, if we have the drivers!

A shortage (again) of drivers is a real shock ! -- it was only a short time ago WR apparently had more than enough and was sending them to help out at Bristol --

what's causing the high "turn-over" of drivers ??

That is a surprise. It doesn't seem that long ago that Worcester were sending loan drivers to Bristol to help them.

Unfortunately the company is part of the usual bus company mentality - spend a fortune training people to be a bus driver - then spend a fortune finding ways to dismiss them. Until they change their mindset, there will always be a high turnover of staff.

The Labour Party in Redditch also want to take back control of the buses. I know the Labour party are committed to making it easier to franchise bus services but I don't think those advocating it realise how much work and effort and up front funding is needed to create a bus franchise as the Combined Authorities are finding out. The issue in Worcestershire is that public transport is in control of the Shire County which is Tory controlled and it has progressively over the last few years spent less and less on public transport. This is in no small part to Councils getting less and less funding from central government with the only part of public transport that is a statutory function that of youngsters home to education transport.

The 2017 Bus Services Act required all transport authorities to create a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). It has only been in the last year or so many authorities have got any funding to deliver these plans hence where the money for Bromsgrove and Malvern DRT and the recent enhancements to the service 540 have come from and presumably the funding for the enhancements to the X50 and Worcester city services will come from - it will be interesting how sustainable these changes are.