Thursday 9th November 2023
If the pre-launch photo-call is anything to go by everyone at Shropshire Council is very excited about the County’s introduction of DRT.
Photo courtesy Shropshire Council.
After much anticipation and about two years in the planning, Shropshire Council’s Connect On-Demand branded DRT scheme finally got underway on Monday with a ‘soft launch’ (ie no ribbon cutting or cup cakes) to three villages south of Shrewsbury operating initially only between 10:00 and 14:00. The area covered and hours of operation will gradually expand during November along with roadshows to raise awareness of the new service.
This initial ‘pilot’ covers two zones. One covering villages south of Shrewsbury currently served by tendered rural bus routes 544/546 operated by Arriva …
… with the second zone being a new residential area in the south east of Shrewsbury around Oteley Road currently unserved by buses.
Connect On-Demand buses will pick up and set down at key destinations in Shrewsbury town centre including the bus and rail station as well as the Meole Brace Retail Park. It will operate between 07:30 and 18:30 on Mondays to Saturdays.
During this initial phase in period passengers can travel for free on Connect On-Demand while routes 544/546 continue as before but they are being withdrawn after 2nd December when DRT takes over completely.
Funding for this initial DRT pilot has come from Shropshire Council’s £1.5 million Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP). The BSIP explains more schemes will follow with east of Shrewsbury next and potentially north and south after that.
That’s probably why five vehicles have been purchased by the Council which operates the service itself including employing the drivers rather than contracting out as most authorities do.
Two Mercedes Sprinter minibuses are operating the service this week with a third on order but not yet delivered. The Council also has a battery powered Mellor Sigma seen in the pre-soft launch publicity photos and I understand a Vauxhall Vivaro nine seater has also been acquired.
All five vehicles are based at the Council’s depot in south Shrewsbury.
I took a ride from Shrewsbury to Pulverbatch on Tuesday to see how the pilot ‘soft launch’ was going and met the lovely Jeremy who was very much looking forward to his new role as a driver with Connect On-Demand.
I’d booked on Sunday evening to be picked up from Shrewsbury railway station and as per Via’s standard algorithm/software secured a ‘half hour window’ between 12:10 and 12:40 which I thought would just about work for my 12:11 train arrival with fingers crossed it wouldn’t be as tight as the 12:10 end of the ‘window’ as you’re only given two minutes grace.
Knowing the journey time to Pulverbatch is around 20 minutes I also tried to book a return journey for around 13:30 but was thwarted by the software telling me I’d already “booked a ride for this time”. I tried later times but got the same “computer says no” reply.
A phone call to the booking line on Monday afternoon didn’t help as it too is only operating between 10:00 and 14:00 during this trial phase, so I resigned myself to waiting in Pulverbatch until 14:35 for the next two-hourly departure on route 546.
However the good news was on Tuesday morning once the pick up time had been refined to a six minute window (12:22-12:28) about an hour before pick up, I tried again for a return departure at 13:15 and got offered a pick up between 13:12 and 13:18 which was ideal.
Jeremy arrived at 12:22 at the bus stop outside Shrewsbury railway station rather than pick up immediately outside on the forecourt …
… and he excitedly showed me his itinerary including my return journey as well as picking up Francis in the town centre on our journey out to Pulverbatch and dropping him off at the village of Longden on the way.
Francis was delighted with the new service as he finishes college at lunch times on Tuesdays and previously had to wait two hours until the next route 546 departure.
We arrived at Pulverbatch Village Hall which is actually located in a micro hamlet adjacent to Pulverbatch itself called Church Pulverbatch at about 12:50, I took some photos and Jeremy had a cigarette break and we set off back to Shrewsbury at 13:00 arriving in the bus station 20 minutes later.
Residents of Pulverbatch and other villages on the line of route on route 546 currently have a peak morning departure at 08:05 and a 17:05 and 18:05 return from Shrewsbury with four off peak return journeys in between. Route 544 to Little Lyth is just a four return off-peak service. One bus operates both services. This all ends on 2nd December.
The replacement Connect On-Demand will have at least two buses (and maybe a third?) covering the area served which will obviously double the costs. I suspect passengers booking journeys will soon coalesce around the current times on routes 544/546 by either force of habit or because that’s when buses will be available by nature of other passengers doing the same. People like Francis will benefit if they can secure a booking at the time they want to travel but how many Francises are there out there?
There’s palpable optimism and excitement in Shropshire Council for Connect On-Demand but I’m not sure that euphoria is shared by the passengers I saw boarding the 14:07 departure from the bus station bound for Pulverbatch on Tuesday.
In four weeks time that simple process will be a thing of the past, and they’ll all have to use an app or make a phone call and try their luck at making a booking before being able to get home.
As discussed many times in these blogs and in the comments over the last few years, it would be much more sensible if the Council wants to improve bus services to the villages by stepping the service up to a two bus operation (at double the cost) to just double the timetable on the 544/546 from a two-hourly to hourly frequency giving everyone the confidence of knowing the times they’ll be able to travel.
But that’s perhaps far too simple and, of course, not very techy as you don’t need apps, software and algorithms provided by tech companies; or a call centre. Just a timetable.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
Comments are welcome but please keep them relevant to the blog topic, avoid personal insults and add your name (or an identifier). Thank you.
BusAndTrainUser 
Maybe I am missing something but the lower panels on the back could be used to explain either how to get the app or provide the number for the call centre.
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Those two routes could possibly be combined to provide a more frequent service
Most of the 544 Route is duplicated by the service 26 which runs every 30 minutes. It leaves only the Meole Village to Little Lythe section serviced by only by the 544
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If Frances is ‘him’ , the spelling is Francis!
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Yes; both Jeremy and I were surprised when a male boarded as the ‘manifest’ had it spelt with an e. I’ve updated the post.
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Nice maps. Nice publicity for the launch. Nice shiny new vehicles.
If those positive features could be provided alongside the existing timetables (available for all, without the faff of booking), they could be on to a winner.
A revenue/cost projection would be very interesting, highlighting how many New passengers take the place of Former users, who drift away.
Petras409
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Costs rarely get given Probably between £60K & £100K per vehicle if you factor in all costs. Revenues are typically very low with average passenger numbers per trip on DRT service being typically less than 2. Fares vary but unlikely to be more than £5. The track record of DRT is that about 95% plus fail once the initial funding runs out.
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Wasn’t Shropshire an early proponent of DRT several years ago, but it ended quite abruptly after only a short period of operation? I remember going to a talk about it pre launch at County Hall from the guy in charge of it all who left when it all reverted to conventional operation.
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Midland Red West once operated a very comprehensive Shropshire network right into the 1990s with subsidy from the then Shropshire County Council. Unfortunately the majority all carried nothing more than fresh air & consequently we deregistered the whole network which reached as far as Knighton. Let’s hope this latest venture is more productive & sucessfull my fears are DRT is a trendy new all things to everyone which fall by the wayside. Overall Shropshire or as we still call it Salop is notoriously bad bus country revenue wise. As for DRT even Transport for West Midlands struggles to make a sucess of the one that operates in the Heart of England rural parts of Solihull. It is constantly under review and being tweeted the problem being very few actually use it.
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I’m wondering if historic declines in rural bus use is a trend that could be reversed with a bit of imagination and innovation to take advantage of the following factors:
• An ageing population
•The phasing out of petrol/diesel cars – the motor industry is withdrawing cheaper ICE models (e.g. Ford Fiesta), but aren’t planning production of EV equivalents. As the availability of used small ICE cars declines prices will rise leading to an affordability problem for many. Public charging infrastructure is not being managed as a coherent national plan and roll out is haphazard.
• Young people are not so attracted to driving as previous generations, plus they will also be affected by the growing unaffordability regarding transition to EVs
• Net zero – educated people are increasingly aware that we cannot continue just driving everywhere. Hence LTNs, interest in walkable neighbourhoods, desire for better public transport, awareness of public health benefits from more active travel.
Politicians and transport planners, and transport professionals should be developing coherent policies taking the above into account. I would expect them to be informed about other countries solutions and learn from them, and not be restricted by ideology and “not invented here” thinking. New models of public transport regulation and operation are needed to deliver the new policies.
Peter Brown
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Indeed they were. I bought most of their old Shropshire Link vehicles after it finished! I expect this will go the same way.
Dave
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This is nothing more than modern day snake oil, with software providers as the main salesmen. However, it’s enabled by the provision of hypothecated funding from DfT.
You wonder how many times we will go through this loop? Shropshire is an intensely rural county outside of Shrewsbury and loadings will always be pitiful. Use of minibuses is sensible in terms of running costs but you have to aggregate loadings via a fixed timetable IME
BW2
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In 2010 Shropshire Council rolled out a county wide DRT; the county was divided into 9 booking zones. At the same time removed most of the market day services and some useful direct links between market towns such as Ludlow to Bridgnorth. The DRT was branded ‘Shropshire Link ‘ and a lot of money was thrown at marketing it, unlike most other scheduled services. Many of us campaigned against this, but we were assured by the then principal public transport officer and Portfolio Holder that all would be well. By 2013 the authority decided to scrap the entire Shropshire Link project, the reason being it was too costly…the average subsidy per passenger journey in 2012/13 was £19.96. Deja vu.
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I recall the consultancy company I worked for at the time being essentially sacked from a job with Shropshire County Council for not recommending DRT in a report into improving bus services. Ho hum.
Dave
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I wonder what the annual level of subsidy is to Arriva for the current service provision of routes 544/546 compared to the costs of providing replacement DRT buses in the same area…?
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Hello Roger. You certainly are on top of these things seeking out new routes as soon as they start! I have an interest in Shropshire bus routes as we have a holiday home in Bucknell (12 miles west of Ludlow} and frequently use the local Minsterley Motors route 740 to Ludlow and the Lugg Valley 498 from nearby Leintwardine to Hereford on a Wednesday. I think I share your views that DRT schemes are thought up by office based IT people who don’t use buses. In the case of Shropshire Council they haven’t learned from their failed Shropshire Link that carried few people at enormous subsidy. I have emailed Ian Nellins, the Shropshire cabinet member responsible for transport issues, expressing my thoughts that DRT services do not work, are not cost effective, are little used and that when scheduled bus services are replaced by DRT passengers find other ways of getting around eg lifts from friends, buying from Amazon. I have suggested that he read your blog to educate himself regarding other DRT schemes. He has not replied to me
My fear is that this new scheme will be extended to our area of Shropshire and we will lose our Minsterley Motors route 738/740 Knighton to Ludlow which regularly carries 12-15 people per journey. Many of our regulars do not use new technology and would probably not use DRT. In our case absence of our Ludlow bus would simply mean taking the car to Ludlow. This would be disappointing as we are concessionary pass holders, but more to the point we would lose the social interaction with other users of the bus.
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The 738 & 740 used to form part of the Midland Red West SHROPSHIRE BUS network I once provided a late relief on the 738 and we had the princely number of three passengers for the journey from Ludlow on a Leyland Lynx its hard to be believe these services are still viable to be subsided the way forward is surely DRT in these local authority financial constraint times as the subsidy can be targeted at the actual users .
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“My fear is that this new scheme will be extended to our area of Shropshire and we will lose our Minsterley Motors route 738/740 Knighton to Ludlow which regularly carries 12-15 people per journey.”
Suggests that DRT wouldn’t be appropriate in that instance.
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All AM’s and PM’s on the bus so maybe they think that Sir Jacob Rees Mogg might catch it when he’s up in the western Midlands?He won’t and hardly any one else will use it either!
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Good blog can you do going forward drt bus
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Are you going back to ride the last service buses to see if they are carrying more than fresh air (given free nature of the DRT in its prelaunch phase ?)
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Thanks for your thorough report Roger. My wife was delighted to feature in the picture of the 1407hrs 546 at Shrewsbury bus station. I attended the roadshow on the 8th Dec to understand how the service was going to work and on the 11th Dec after I had tried it out to give some feedback. On both occasions the staff were helpful and enthusiastic but I wasn’t sure how familiar they were with the 546 or its passengers needs.
I made a booking the day before for Friday 10th to get to Shrewsbury Rly Stn by 1100hrs . The app offered me a pick up between 1005 and 1035 hrs at the current terminus of route 546 at the White Horse pub. The stop at my end of the village does not feature on the app- under normal circumstances I would track the 546 on the Arriva app and flag the bus down at my front gate when it was due. I got a confirmation text for the booking but no update reducing the pick up window so walked up to the stop for 1005hrs. At 1010hrs Connect on Demand’s Mellor Sigma turned up. Cristos the driver was very welcoming and confirmed that I was the passenger he was expecting and told me we had to wait for another passenger who turned up shortly afterwards. We left at about 1015hrs. Cristos told us we had one other pick up of two people in the village of Annscroft about halfway to Shrewsbury. We had about 5 mins there waiting for them to appear and departed there at 1027hrs passing the outbound 546 a minute later. Arrival at the Square in Shrewsbury was at 1045hrs where the other passengers got off and I was delivered to the Rly Stn at 1050hrs well in time for my requested arrival. Overall the experience was fine and the journey time was similar to that on the existing service. I was impressed with the comfort of the Sigma and it was quiet enough for this hearing aid user to converse comfortably with my fellow passengers. At the roadshow I asked why my pick up time had not been refined down and also what appears to be a reduction in the number of boarding points as compared with the existing service. They promised to look into that. There are also only a limited number of stops you can book to or from in Shrewsbury itself. I have been told this is to avoid unfair competition with other bus services as the DRT is operated under a not for profit section 22 license but it excludes stops patronised by existing users of the 546. A lot of current users are also concerned about the emphasis on the app and the currently limited phone line operating hours.
Although the broadly 2 hourly timetable of the current service may not seem very good to urban dwellers local users have learnt to plan around that. I even managed to complete a journey home to by rail from Graz in Austria to Shrewsbury in 2013 by a ride home on the 546.
On a historical note the 546 route (sometimes with a different route number) has been operated by Midland Red or its successors for at least 98yrs (the earliest reference I can find is a 1925 route map) and a 1944 timetable shows a timetable not that different from todays. I and the others who contributed to its18,950 boardings in 2022/23 will be sad to see it go.
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Many thanks for sharing your travel experience and thoughts.
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2022/23 actually refers to June 2022 to May 2023.
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Earlier this year I caught the train to Church Stretton, walked over the Long Mynd and down in to Pulverbatch, where I caught the 1435 546 into Shrewsbury. I am not sure that I would be confident doing this with only a DRT from Pulverbatch. When should I try to book my journey? Trying to book in advance for a specific time would not be a good idea because I did not know exactly how long my walk would take. There again, not booking until I got to Pulverbatch seems risky, I might be stuck there for a very long time (the pub was not open). At least with the 546 I was confident that if I missed the 1435 I should be able to catch the 1535. Admittedly, I was actually surprised when planning this walk that service to Pulverbatch was as good as it was and indeed that it was operated by Arriva – I would have expected it to be Minsterley. Also I have to say there was nobody on the bus when it arrived at Pulverbatch and we only collected one other passenger into Shrewsbury. Perhaps what you would expect mid-afternoon in this direction.
A. Henthorn Stott
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