Go2Gate gets going

Sunday 27th August 2023

This week’s DRT experience samples yet another model of operation following recent examples I’ve covered of semi-flexible and Taxibus schemes in West Sussex, Wiltshire and Sevenoaks.

It’s the new Go2Gate branded operation operated by Thames Valley (part of Reading Buses) and introduced last Sunday with funding from Heathrow Airport.

It’s a very simple set up.

Three Mercedes Sprinter minibuses in a smart Go2Gate livery have been acquired with two of them (one spare) shuttling between Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 and Dedworth, the residential area just to the west of Windsor.

No other stops are served. It ‘does what it says on the tin’ linking Dedworth and Heathrow aimed principally at staff living in Dedworth as well as any residents flying from the airport or wanting to connect with other land transport options at the Airport for onward travel.

A single ride is £5 with discounts for two travelling together £7.50 or a group up to five (£10). Heathrow staff pay £2 and concessionary passes are accepted after 09:30 Monday to Friday.

The service runs daily between 03:00 and 23:30 except Christmas Day.

A colourful leaflet has been produced and distributed in Dedworth to raise awareness of the new operation.

Journeys have to be booked using the app which is supplied by Padam Mobility. There’s no phone option. Journeys can be booked as much as 28 days ahead or “up to a few minutes before you want to travel” which is obviously useful for those returning on a flight into Heathrow and won’t be sure what time they’ll be clear of luggage collection/customs to make a journey home to Dedworth.

I gave the service a try on Tuesday and met the very affable and extremely polite Darren who was hugely positive about the new service and looking forward to seeing it become more popular.

I’d booked a departure on the app a couple of days before travel leaving at 12:15 from Terminal 5 to Dedworth and noted the app also offered me departure options at 12:45 and 13:15.

Arriving at Terminal 5 at 13:00 Darren was already parked up on the departure stand …

… and I had time to notice bus stop information was displaying details of Go2Gate …

… as was the destination board at the exit from the Terminal…

… which was good to see.

Even though it was just myself who’d booked for the 13:15 departure, Darren explained we’d have to wait until very close to that time before leaving in case another passenger booked a ride at the last minute.

In the event no one else did book and we set off at 13:12 taking a route via the M25 and M4 to junction 6 then down the A355 to take us the short distance into Dedworth.

Luckily we escaped from the M25 at the M4 junction just as the signs were warning of the inevitable “Queue Ahead” towards the M40 junction.

Darren dropped me off at All Saints Church having taken just 19 minutes from Terminal 5 and instead of parking up was going to do a tour of Dedworth to raise awareness of the service with passers by seeing the bus and its branding before he headed back to Terminal 5.

I noticed the bus stop information supplied by the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead made no mention of Go2Gate but perhaps this is something that will be added in the coming days. ‘Perhaps’ is doing the ‘heavy lifting’ in that sentence I suspect.

We’d passed the second bus on the M4 heading to Terminal 5 and this confirmed my suspicions that Go2Gate is actually running to a scheduled half hourly frequency timetable leaving at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour from each end whether or not anyone has booked to travel.

You might well ask in that case why on earth are passengers required to book via the app? Why not just turn up at a scheduled time as with any other half hourly service? Wouldn’t it be much easier and straightforward?

I know it wouldn’t be as techie, but that’s surely not the objective of bus provision – keep it simple is always the best way of ensuring success.

To test my theory out I tried to book another journey from Heathrow Terminal 5 over to Dedworth yesterday morning and scrolled across the journey options to see the departure times I was being offered and as you can see ….

,,, it’s a half hourly service. So why not just say so, and advertise it as such?

I appreciate Go2Gate offers pick up/set downs in a few more roads in Dedworth than Thames Valley’s fixed route 2 to Windsor and Slough does…

… which is particularly helpful for passengers with luggage but this benefit needs to be weighed against the additional complication of having to book compared to a fixed route/timetable. Perhaps a compromise would be to offer a semi flexible routing in Dedworth and fixed times from Heathrow like Wiltshire Connect 101 and Book-A-Bus 99 successfully achieve, as described in recent blogs.

I’m sure Heathrow Airport have done their research and know how many staff live in Dedworth who’ll obviously be welcoming this new direct service.

But I wonder whether there’s enough to justify a half hourly service?

It’s also interesting that Dedworth (population 8,000) is getting all this attention whereas Maidenhead (population 67,000) now has no direct bus links to the Airport following a recent reorganisation of bus routes by First Berkshire.

But as far as Go2Gate goes, it’ll be interesting to see how this DRT model of operation pans out, bearing in mind the limited geographic area covered and a fixed destination at one end – two key factors that certainly make it straightforward compared to many of the other DRT schemes I’ve reviewed over the last few years.

For next Sunday’s DRT blog I’m back in West Sussex as the new Book-A-Bus route 99 operation has already spawned a sibling, fully flexible route 98, operating in an area north of Petworth which is crying out to be test ridden.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS and Su DRT extras plus for next week only … An Open-top Bus Blog Bonanza for three consecutive days on MTW.