Gloucestershire DRT riding with Robin (Part 2)

Sunday 23rd July 2023

DRT aficionado blog readers will recall my ride on Gloucestershire’s Robin branded scheme soon after it was introduced last October – the one when I was only the third passenger after two weeks of operation and took a trip from the village of Windrush to the Cotswolds’ tourist favourite of Bourton-on-the-Water, operated by local firm, Pulham Coaches, now part of the Go-Ahead Group.

I explained at the time the North Cotswolds scheme was one of two being funded by Gloucestershire’s £1.35 million funding from the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund with the other covering South Forest of Dean.

Operated by community transport operator Lydney Dial-a-Ride the two vehicle operation is said to be one of the few DRT success stories with councillors reportedly well pleased with results so far so I’d been keen to give it a try out and finally managed to get over to Lydney on Thursday before last to see how it’s going.

The area covered is quite large for what is effectively one operational bus for most of the day. It stretches from just north of Chepstow along the west side of the River Severn through Lydney and Cinderford to Huntley and over as far as Coleford. I couldn’t find a map on Gloucestershire’s website – this one was online when the scheme launched….

… but now there’s just a list of places served within the area covered.

If you click on one of the above places a sub directory of stops comes up.

The map on the app shows more bus stops as you zoom in.

Here’s my rough guide to the area covered – why a decent map like this can’t be provided online is a bit baffling – it would be very helpful.

Two Mercedes Sprinters are allocated to the service, one operates an early turn (07:00 to 15:00) and the other a middle turn (11:00 to 19:00) so, after taking account of meal breaks for the two drivers, around nine of the twelve operating hours sees just one bus on the road.

That, and the scattered location of passengers and likely destinations means most journeys have only one passenger on board together with quite a lot of dead running in between jobs and very little scope for amalgamating trips.

So when councillors and others call it successful it depends what your definition of success is. If it’s having a bus on the go all the time, then, definitely, South Forest of Dean Robin must be up there in the DRT Top 10 success stories but if just one passenger is on board and maybe the occasional two it’s hardly justifying its existence bearing in mind no passengers are carried on the dead running.

You can book Robin via a phone line or online on Gloucestershire County Council’s website as well as the app.

The software algorithm is provided by Padam Mobility and once I’d remembered to switch over from the separate North Cotswolds section of the app to the South Forest of Dean bit I was easily able to book my desired journey from Lydney towards Chepstow departing at 13:00 ten days in advance – because that’s how you do DRT. None of this turn up and go nonsense bus passengers have become accustomed to – that’s so old fashioned. These Demand Responsive If You Book Up To Two Weeks In Advance Transport (DRIYBUTTWIAT) schemes really are the future.

Robin doesn’t like taking passengers from Lydney to the obvious destination of Chepstow as that’s the preserve of Newport Bus six times a day route 72 so I could only book a ride as far as Tutshill on the English side of the River Wye from where I took the 20 minute walk across the River into Chepstow to complete my journey.

I’m not sure why this restriction applies as route 72 also goes via Tutshill on its way into Chepstow and there was a journey from Lydney bus station at 13:38, not long after my booked journey with Robin at 13:00. Maybe it’s because Chepstow is over the border in Wales?

Anyway I’m not complaining as it was lovely to have my own personal DRT driven by Mark, one of the three regular drivers on the service, and I enjoyed the walk too.

Not long before the pick up time my smartphone buzzed with a notification which oddly told me “Your Gloucestershire County Council is arriving and will wait for you until 13:01 before departing”.

My train was due to arrive into Lydney rail station at 12:55 so as it was another case of “your DRT will only wait for a minute”m I once again used the facility to message the driver on the app to let Mark know I was arriving on that train and this time it worked as he confirmed he’d received it.

I’d tried to work out which way I’d need to walk from the station to the designated pick up point shown on the app …

… but I needn’t have worried because as the train pulled in on time I spotted Mark waiting at the bus stop in the car park just a very short walk from the platform exit.

As usual we had a lovely chat on the journey down to Tutshill which took about 15 minutes. It would seem many passengers use the book by phone arrangement for Robin (Mark explained many are senior in age and not into technology) but he observed it wasn’t always helpful that the call centre is in Leicester and those answering unsurprisingly lack local knowledge about quirky place names.

There was a notice on the door of the Mercedes Sprinter bus explaining what Robin was all about, which seemed an odd place to put it.

Mark showed me his bookings for the following day comprising 13 separate rides across the whole area for his duty between 11:00 and 19:00 but his observation was telling that on a good day he’ll take about £30 in cash from fares (ticket machines aren’t card enabled yet) but spends double that on filling the bus up with diesel every day. Obviously concessionary travel reimbursement is also on top of that revenue but an average of between one and two passengers an hour is going to present some challenging decisions for Gloucestershire’s councillors when the two year Rural Mobility Fund grant has been used up in October 2024.

And that was another DRT journey done. Another one next Sunday.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS plus Su DRT extras.