More DRT travel experiences

Sunday 9th July 2023

You lose some you win some.

In the world of DRT trials we see schemes ending as failures after a shoal of public funding has been expended just as others get going thanks to another shedload of money and renewed optimism this really will be the one to succeed because “it has unique circumstances”. That’s despite none of the new breed having succeeded so far.

What’s that definition of insanity?

Something about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

It feels that way as I continue my mission to seek out a DRT that truly is a success.

Last Sunday I reported on the scheme in East Leeds ending its trial early, and this Sunday it’s all about a new scheme that began a month ago in week commencing 12th June.

It’s in Worcestershire and I popped over on Thursday to give this ‘Worcestershire on Demand’ branded scheme across a rural area east and south east of Great Malvern a try.

The County Council reports it’s well pleased with its first foray into DRT operation in Bromsgrove – calling it a huge success (mental note: must give it another try soon) – so have followed it up with this latest venture funded by its Bus Service Improvement Plan. Two more schemes are set to follow.

It’s difficult to determine the precise geographic area covered for this one from the app and there’s no map available online but here’s (below) my rough assessment based on the app map shown above.

As you can see, it includes two main areas of population – the truly delightful town of Upton upon Severn and the village of Kempsey – as well as various other hamlets, but excludes Great Malvern itself and nearby Worcester (off the top of the map). However you can book a ride to/from Great Malvern or Worcestershire Parkway railway stations from/to the defined area as well as Malvern Retail Park and also the hospital in Great Malvern which is adjacent to Malvern Link railway station.

A one year contract for the scheme which initially involves two vehicles has been awarded jointly to two local operators. One vehicle each is operated by LMS Travel and Malvern Community Action. The former is a Worcester based bus and coach company which has experience of tendered bus work, school contracts and private hire and the latter is a charity undertaking some excellent work in the local community including providing transport and which in turn is sharing the contract with fellow community bus operator Worcester Wheels.

The operation had a “soft launch” a couple of weeks ago and vehicles currently in use are in their fleet liveries before vinyls to promote the Worcestershire on Demand brand arrive. Malvern Community Action are also arranging to buy a new minibus to operate the contract.

The software and algorithm is from Via Technology and uses the same app as the Bromsgrove on Demand scheme. There’s a phone number to make a booking for those without smartphones. I’ve also read a booking can be made on a web portal but locating it online has beaten me.

You can book journeys up to three weeks ahead and earlier last week I made my bookings for Wednesday to connect with a train arrival at Great Malvern station for a ride down to Upton-upon-Severn and a return an hour and a half later to take me to Worcestershire Parkway station.

Due to a last minute other commitment I had to change plans and make these trips on Thursday but it was an easy case of editing the scheduled journeys from Wednesday to Thursday and receiving confirmation of the same timed departures for the new date.

As I’ve explained when describing previous DRT experiences, the booking confirmations give a 30 minute window for your pick up and I’ve now worked out if there’s no other passengers booking journeys around that time the algorithm is programmed to narrow that pick up time down to a six minute window more or less in the middle of that initial half hour window. and you’re given that update about half an hour before the journey is due.

So my 11:30 – 12:00 window for a pick up at Great Malvern station changed to an 11:42 to 11:48 window half an hour before 11:42 as shown above. This means passengers making connections from an arriving train (mine was at 11:14) to a DRT need to err on the side of caution when booking the connecting time (it would have been too tight to opt for an 11:15-11:45 window – they are available every 15 minutes) and end up waiting longer than they would really like to. I’m not sure why the algorithm didn’t just let the driver come to pick me up at 11:30 – it wasn’t as if Andy (the driver) had been doing anything before picking me up – indeed he told me I was his first “real” passenger since the scheme started (four weeks ago), aside from County Council officers trying out the system.

There was also some confusion where Andy would pick me up. I waited where the app told me to wait on Avenue Road but Andy went first to the station exit/entrance for Hereford bound trains …

… and then realising I wasn’t there drove round via Avenue Road to the exit/entrance for London bound trains on the other side of the tracks.

Luckily I saw him drive from one to the other so realised what was happening and sprinted (sort of) down to meet him where he’d pulled up.

We had a good chat on the journey over to Upton-upon-Severn which took around 15 minutes. Andy is a paid driver for the charity Malvern Community Action and it sounds like they do some great work within the local community across a wide range of issues including providing community transport.

The bus currently being used has a manually operated passenger door…

… and the seats are rather spartan and ‘welfare like’, but as reported above, Andy says they are aiming to buy a new minibus for this contract.

Andy parked up in the car park in Upton-upon-Severn and I bade him a fond farewell hoping it wouldn’t be another four weeks before his next passenger.

Upton-upon-Severn really is a delightful place to visit …

…with lots of quirky independent retailers including The Map Shop …

… which I just had to go in and take a look around.

I could easaily have spent the whole hour or so just in there.

Back outside it was easy to spend the time exploring the ‘high street’ and soaking up the atmosphere on the river bank. I don’t usually include so many non bus or train photos in a blog but am making an exception for Upton.

It was soon time for my Worcestershire on Demand journey back though, and this time to the relatively new Worcestershire Parkway station.

The 30 minute window for my return was 13:15 to 13:45 – I’d allowed sufficient time for the worst case scenario of a pick up at the extreme end of that window and an assumption of a 20 minute non-stop journey but with possible added variations for other bookings to give me the comfort of knowing I’d be in good time to catch the train at 14:22. But you can see it isn’t easy to judge these things when making connections – despite it being sold how “seamless” it all is by DRT promoters.

As you can see (above) that half hour window became a six minute window 13:27 to 13:33 (this time exactly in the middle of the half hour) at 12:44 but it was only when Shak (the driver) set off from Kempsey where he was waiting to be told about any booking at 13:07 that his progress showed up on my App…

… and the horror of seeing the pickup location wasn’t where I was in the centre of Upton-upon-Severn (and as you can see from the earlier screen grabs where I’d booked the journey to commence) but just over a mile to the west in a road called Milestone Road in a place called Tunnel Hill.

I’d no idea where that was, so looked on Google maps and was told it was a 22 minute walk away from where I was standing with the app saying the bus would pick me up there in 20 minutes. That was a shock and the differential got worse as I scampered as fast as I could but I could see Shak’s progress towards me was even quicker and I became concerned I wouldn’t arrive in time and he’d leave without me.

In these circumstances there’s nothing you can do; there’s no-one to contact.

I decided to carry on walking but to keep looking out for Shak coming up behind me and jump in the road with arms waving to stop him. Thank goodness the app was updating to show his changing location as well as giving me the registration number so when he came into view about a quarter of a mile into the walk I pounced.

And luckily he stopped and we introduced ourselves.

This time the bus was provided by LMS Travel. It was a very smart minibus from their executive style hire fleet covering for the normal accessible bus which was having a routine service on Thursday.

We had another great chat especially about the technology and Shak’s optimism that this service will be a great success, not least, he thinks, from residents of Kempsey who now have the potential to take a bus to Great Malvern – something not possible on scheduled bus routes. He foresaw many people taking advantage of this opportunity which made me observe that it might be better to bring them all together on scheduled journeys rather than competing to book the bus to suit each’s individual needs and therefore potentially a conflict of demand on the vehicle.

You could almost run a half hourly (definitely hourly) service from Kempsey via Upton-upon-Severn to Great Malvern with two buses but that wouldn’t be as exciting as DRT so the DfT wouldn’t have approved it for funding within the Council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan.

It took around 20 minutes for us to reach Worcestershire Parkway and after more chatting with Shak about algorithms I left him to await his next booking.

It was great to meet Andy and Shak and hear their positivity and optimism for the year ahead. I wished them good luck and I am sure they will both be great ambassadors for the service in the coming year.

One other point, when first trying to book my journeys I couldn’t make the app accept Great Malvern or Worcestershire Parkway stations as origins/destinations so rang the booking line to see if they could book my intended journeys only to find it was answered in the County Council’s Highways Department. The first time I called, the person answering didn’t know whether those points were included in the scheme but inadvertently cut me off when asking me to hold, and the second time, a different person said she’d get someone to ring me back – but no-one ever did. I wasn’t sure how they’d have booked my journey bearing in mind their lack of knowledge. Luckily I got the app to work.

That, together with the very odd algorithm issue about my pick-up in Upton-upon-Severn is possibly why this scheme is still in “soft launch” mode.

That 12 month trial is going to pass all too quickly.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS and occasional Su DRT specials, like today.