Five more DRTs for Surrey

Sunday 8th October 2023

Surrey County Council greatly expanded its DRT operations at the beginning of last month vying with neighbours East Sussex to be the second placed local authority wasting the most public funds on these money draining schemes (West of England Combined Authority is firmly in the top spot with its multi vehicle WestLink, of course).

Mole Valley District received its expanded borough wide scheme in April this year as I previously reported, following a toe-in-the-water launch in the Leatherhead area back in November 2021. That is being funded by the DfT’s Rural Mobility Fund but I’ve no idea where the funding is coming from for these latest schemes especially as Surrey didn’t get any of the original Bus Service Improvement Plan funding.

Notwithstanding this, from 3rd September five more areas were added to Surrey’s DRT coverage in West Guildford, Farnham, Cranleigh, Tandridge and Longcross.

I’ve tried out all five over the last few weeks including a marathon three in a row on a recent Saturday.

The areas covered are shown on the Surrey Connect website (see above) and although the same Padam Mobility run app covers all six areas (including Mole Valley) you have to be sure you select the right area for your journey in ‘settings’ – which I’m sure isn’t a problem for most passengers who confine themselves to their local area, but I needed to take care during my countywide DRT travelling exploits otherwise the message comes back the “chosen destination is outside the area covered” if you don’t switch location within the app.

There’s a slightly more detailed map online for each area which I’ll include below. All schemes operate between 07:00 and 19:00 on Mondays to Fridays and 08:00 and 18:00 on Saturdays. Fares vary by distance travelled ranging for £2 for under five miles to £15 for over 15 miles. Concessionary passes and LINK cards (for 20s and under) give free travel.

Three separate contractors run the new quintet of schemes each with a separate phone number to make a booking by phone if that’s preferred over the app. Woking Bustler (Woking Community Transport) operate both Longcross and West Guildford, the East Surrey Rural Transport Partnership operates Tandridge and finally Waverley Hoppa Community Transport operates both Farnham and Cranleigh. As previously explained, Mole Valley District Council operates that scheme.

First up, let me relate that Saturday trio of trips tale first. I’d booked them a week ahead to be sure of getting times that suited my planned itinerary. Bearing in mind it was only the third week it wasn’t a problem.

I began with the scheme serving Wood Street Village and Fairlands, west of Guildford.

Both used to be served by an irregularly timed route 17 operated by Stagecoach but this was withdrawn in favour of the new Surrey Connect. As you can see from the out-of-date map below, the 17 used to take an indirect route into Guildford from Fairlands via Wood Street Village but now, if the algorithm doesn’t marry up journeys, passengers may enjoy a more direct ride into town from the former.

Stagecoach’s 20 minute frequency route 20 (formerly known as Kite) between Aldershot and Guildford passes along the A323 on the edge of Fairlands which I used to get myself there for my pre-arranged pick up on the app at 10:00.

The app unhelpfully wanted me to wait further into the residential area rather than the shopping parade (which I’d requested). Inevitably when Steve arrived slightly late at 10:10 he had to do an unnecessary u-turn from that point to exit the estate via the shopping parade.

As you can see, the recently acquired electric minibus had Surrey Connect, Surrey County Council and Woking Community Transport name checks in its rather ambulance style bright yellow livery which despite cynically rebranding these schemes as “Digital” DRT risks reaffirming the subliminal message they’re a branch of welfare transport.

I was surprised it was just me travelling as I’d expected more people travelling into Guildford for Saturday shopping. Steve said he’d taken someone to the Royal Surrey Hospital already that morning (Service 17 used to go that way) and taken someone home from Guildford to Wood Street Village, so pretty busy I’d say.

It didn’t take long for the ‘door to door’ free of charge personal chauffeured ride to reach Guildford bus station and I left Steve to wait for his next passenger.

Meanwhile I repositioned myself in the lovely village of Ewhurst, 12 miles south east of Guildford, thanks to Stagecoach’s hourly route 53 via nearby Cranleigh, also served by the hourly 63 which continues to Horsham making for a half hourly frequency between Guildford and Cranleigh.

Those areas in the Surrey Connect Cranleigh zone are therefore already very well served so I’m guessing Surrey Connect’s Cranleigh area is for those hamlets without any bus service and it’s noteworthy the zone doesn’t extend into Guildford but relies on Cranleigh as its central hub.

I booked a journey on the app for 11:45 to take me westwards across this prosperous part of rural Surrey to the village of Dunsfold.

Coming through Cranleigh on the 53 we’d passed the Surrey Connect minibus heading into the town but it obviously soon did its drop off, turned round and was back with me promptly for 11:40.

It was a lovely rural ride over to Dunsfold lasting half an hour during which time I had a great chat with driver John who works for Waverley Hoppa Community Transport based in Wormley which runs the service.

Hoppa are waiting for its electric vehicles for Surrey Connect and in the meantime are using this eight year old Peugeot Boxer minibus with a tail lift …

… and, like the electric buses used by Woking Community Transport, have a manually operated fold out step for the side access door.

After dropping me off John was off to pick up his next passenger who coincidentally wanted to travel from close to Dunsfold into Cranleigh which he observed doesn’t happen very often, normally involving a lot of dead running between jobs across this large zone.

After a very enjoyable explore of Dunsfold village …

… I caught the infrequent Compass Bus route 42 back to Guildford and then a train to Farnham for my third and final DRT ride of the day.

The Farnham zone is also operated by Waverley Hoppa and I’d booked a ride at 15:00 from the station in Farnham over to Ash station.

This was the only hiccup of the day as 15:00 came and the app was showing the bus some distance away and ominously not moving.

The expected pick up time shown on the app kept moving later and the bus location still didn’t move.

I decided to give the advertised telephone booking line a call and seek help. Unfortunately it went to answerphone as it’s only available on Mondays to Fridays.

Luckily the bus location moved at last and Roger (great name) eventually reached me at 15:18.

He explained the SatNav had packed up and he hadn’t received notification of my booking until after 15:00 which didn’t inspire confidence.

It was another Peugeot Boxer minibus, this time a five year old one.

And another odd pick up location specified by the app located on Waverley Lane some distance from the main Farnham station exit (and the other side of the level crossing) which necessitated another u-turn to head off in the right direction – and Roger had first gone to the station exit expecting me to be there.

We had a good journey over to Ash station which demonstrated how Surrey Connect isn’t bothered about competing with the half hourly South Western Railway train between the same locations.

And that was all three Saturday rides completed.

On another day I gave the new service covering Tandridge Borough.

It’s a large area so has been divided into two – one minibus covering north of the M25 based in Caterham and the other centred on Oxted for south of the Borough.

I’d pre-booked a journey on the latter for a pick up outside Oxted rail station to take me south to Felbridge on the southern border of the zone.

It’s operated by the East Surrey Community Partnership which, like Waverley Hoppa, are awaiting electric minibuses, so in the meantime are using Mercedes minibuses with manually operated side steps and a tail lift.

The bus arrived on time and was a smooth journey to Felbridge taking just under half an hour.

As you can see the minibus was in plain white livery with just a Surrey County Council and Surrey Connect logo.

And finally for my Surrey Connect DRT quintet it was over to Longcross to try out what is a rather specialist service for this tight geographic area close to the film studios and MoD land …

… with their rather inhibiting secure barbed wired boundaries as you exit the little used station on the Waterloo to Reading line.

There’s a fair bit of residential development taking place on part of the film studio/MoD land which Surrey Connect obviously has in its sights to serve.

Unfortunately the station itself is inaccessible by road with only direct access into the north of the film studio complex or about a mile walk along a footpath and private road to the south entrance of the studios where the house building is in full swing.

Gary was supposed to pick me up from there at 11:51 (I’d been offered pick ups every 15 minutes thereafter, 12:06, 12, 21 etc, as seems to be standard practice on the Padam software if no one else has booked a ride) …

… and as there was no sign of him, or the app showing a vehicle location, I gave the operator, Woking Community Transport, a call to see what was happening thinking there might be another software failure.

I was reassured he was on his way and sure enough at 11:58 another bright yellow minibus from Woking Community Transport appeared.

You’re given a myriad of options to travel to if you live in the small Longcross zone (marked green on the map).

I chose Staines railway station (again enjoying a direct half hourly SWR train from Longcross) and just after we headed off Gary’s SatNav packed up so I took over with directions but then we decided it was probably better to get the SatNav fixed so after a classic ‘turn it off and back on again’ routine we were back in business and 19 minutes later I got dropped off at Staines railway station.

And that completed my quintet of Surrey’s new DRT routes which have joined the longer established Mole Valley scheme.

Just to confirm all five journeys were just me on board, the drivers were wonderfully friendly, the minibuses comfortable – the electric ones impressive – and never mind the dodgy SatNavs and scheme finances, I thoroughly enjoyed my DRT riding. There’s nothing better than a personalised free to use rural bus service reaching parts other bus routes don’t always reach.

Long may it continue!

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

Comments are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.