F is for Faresaver

Thursday 23rd March 2023

After D for Delainie and E for Ensignbus I’m staying with the independent family owned bus company theme for my next visit in this year’s A to Z series of bus and train companies and headed over to Chippenham on Tuesday for a look at the respected bus company based in the Wiltshire town called Faresaver.

Faresaver was founded by John Pickford back in 1979 using one minibus on a school contract which John himself drove as a sideline to the village shop in Corsham which he and his wife owned and ran. Gradually the shop trade died away and the bus business grew with the expanding business moving into a purpose built bus depot eighteen years later in 1997.

The fleet has grown over ensuing years and now stands at around 60 operating a tidy network of commercial and tendered routes serving the western side of Wiltshire (Chippenham, Devizes, Melksham and Trowbridge) as well as extending to Frome and Bath.

Two of John’s three sons joined the business and play key roles. I’m guessing John lets them take more of the decisions these days with his own involvement reducing.

Justin is the eldest and joined the business in 1993. An early task was introducing the company’s first computer as well as donning overalls in the workshop. He now oversees Faresaver’s finances. Youngest son is Daniel who’s the commercial mastermind designing timetables, analysing ticket data and overseeing operations. The company is very geared up to the use of social media and there are some lovely personal profiles of the family (which the foregoing summary has been extracted from) on the Faresaver Facebook pages.

Faresaver’s core bus routes operate half hourly or hourly.

The 271/272 are the trunk routes between Devizes, Melksham and Bath which runs hourly from Devizes and half hourly from the Melksham area with the routes also splitting in the Box area. Evening journeys numbered 273 are tendered.

The double deck operated X31 runs half hourly between Chippenham, Corsham and Batheaston to Bath, the X33 is hourly between Chippenham and Devizes and the X34 runs half hourly between Chippenham, Melksham and Trowbridge to Frome.

Routes 1/1A/1C provide a half hourly town service around Devizes as do a variety of route numbers (63/66/67/68) in Trowbridge and there’s also an hourly service around Chippenham although the X31 also provides local connections too.

Other routes are less strategic but provide handy links between the main towns served and outlying villages.

I was impressed to see printed timetable leaflets for the key routes on board buses as I travelled around ….

… which also have a route diagram for the X34 ….

….and all the information is available on the company’s website including, very welcome to see, maps showing the network of routes in each of the major towns served.

An overall network map would be a nice extra to highlight the extent of the area served. Just a suggestion.

The hub of the network in Chippenham sees buses arrive and depart into and from the town’s bus station which could best be described as rudimentary, which is obviously not of Faresaver’s making, but reflects on the image of its bus routes in the area.

Numbers I saw travelling were very reasonable for a Tuesday off peak in March – the X31 and 271/2 were the busiest with the X34 close behind.

Unsurprisingly for a company called Faresaver there are day tickets (£7.50) weeklies (£25) and monthlies (£92) with reductions in the latter two (£24 and £85) if purchased on a mobile. Details are available in the timetable leaflets with “more information and a full list of fares” on the website, although I couldn’t find a full list of single fares when I looked.

The fleet is well presented with a rather understated livery dominated by an attractive purple colour. Three main types of vehicle operated are (single decks) ADL Enviro 200s, Optare Solos and (double decks) Volvo B9TL Wright Ecliise Gemini 2s.

Seat moquette and styles give a clue to previous owners but all the buses I travelled on had clean interiors and were well presented.

Bus stop plates varied across the patch with some looking a bit worn and others the responsibility of the local authority (particularly on the routes into Bath) but where a Faresaver branded plate was on show it was well presented together with route numbers.

Timetable displays at bus stops seem to be organised by Wiltshire Council as they all had that authority’s branding. I got the impression there’s a good working relationship between the two and I’m sure Wiltshire are pleased to have an operator like Faresaver playing such an important role in this part of the County.

Indeed the Company has definitely transformed over the last decade or so. At one time it appeared to have a somewhat maverick approach not least when First Bus was going through the era of service cuts, fare hikes, margin chasing and remote management.

The James Freeman era saw a much more mature and mutually respectful relationship – for example wasteful competition ceased on both the Melksham and Frome corridors to Bath with Faresaver being the sole operator on the former and First West of England on the latter.

Faresaver now plays the role of a responsible operator in this part of Wiltshire and gives a good service for the public. All the drivers I came across were pleasant and helpful with a high standard of driving. I hear the company is set to expand shortly having picked up tenders for two routes in Bath and another in Bristol which will extend its western reach.

Faresaver has become a well respected player in the bus industry and it was a pleasure to pay a visit and take a few rides. Another family owned bus company doing a great job.

Roger French

Previous AtoZ blogs: Avanti West Coast, Blackpool Transport, Chiltern Railways, Delaine Buses, Ensignbus.