More Connecting in Wiltshire

Thursday 16th November 2023

When I wrote about Wiltshire Council’s launch of Wiltshire Connect three months ago I mentioned the Council would be expanding the geographic area covered by its semi-flex DRT scheme in two more phases; in September and at the end of October. Sure enough the full operation is now up and running so I popped over to Marlborough last Thursday to try out one of the new services.

As explained back in August the Wiltshire approach to DRT is a long standing arrangement allowing route variations ‘on demand’ around fixed timed departures from termini in a published timetable between the main centres of Devizes and Pewsey, and since the area extensions, Devizes and Marlborough as well as Marlborough and Hungerford.

The link from Marlborough to Devizes, introduced from 4th September, is a new one and revolves around a semi-flexible timetable for new routes 100/100X on Mondays to Fridays and complete flexibility on Saturdays …

… while the Marlborough to Great Bedwyn and Hungerford link, introduced from 30th October…

… replaces the former limited routes 20/22 with a similarly limited timetable now numbered 110/120 and operating a circular route which, of course, can be supplemented by requesting a ride at other times either through the app or via the phone line.

The same fully flexible arrangement applies on Saturdays as per routes 100/100X. That same arrangement also applies to the original route 101 between Devizes and Pewsey on Saturdays.

Aside from one journey operated from Swindon on route 120, Go South Coast’s Salisbury Reds unit operate these routes with six Mercedes Sprinters comprising four of the familiar and popular EVM Cityline and two the smaller EVM Avantgarde version.

I thought I’d use the service between Marlborough and Hungerford as it looked as though it would take a nice rural route through Great Bedwyn and the hamlets of Shalbourne and Ham, and when I booked a ride I hadn’t looked at the published timetable for route 110 but just used the app to make a booking. I asked for a departure from Marlborough at 11:30 and it offered me one at 12:01 which seemed handy so I booked it and then realised that was the timetabled journey at 12:00 – I’m not sure why there was a minute’s discrepancy.

The bus pulled up at the bus stop outside Lloyds Bank in the delightful Marlborough High Street – only spoilt by all the parked cars in the middle of the road – and six passengers boarded. I was the only one who’d booked and the driver greeted me by name as he’d seen my booking on his ‘manifest’.

We set off for Hungerford and dropped three passengers off in Great Bedwyn and then drove past the station…

… and picked up another passenger as we left the village.

We paused outside the Plough in Shalbourne…

… and the Crown and Anchor in Ham …

… to wait time, and as we entered Hungerford at 12:40 we dropped one more off. I alighted in Hungerford and I’m guessing two of the three still left on the bus from Marlborough would alight in Froxfield and the lady who boarded in Great Bedwyn would continue on to Marlborough as the bus returned there via the direct route along the A4.

In Great Bedwyn we passed one of the other Mercedes Sprinters heading the other way with one pasasenger on board on what must have been an ‘on-demand’ journey as there’s no timetabled journey at that time.

Indeed there really aren’t any journeys back from Hungerford to Marlborough on the timetable, so I decided to use the app to book myself a ride.

To cut a long story short, I tried a departure leaving Hungerford every half hour from 14:00 to 17:00 and kept receiving back the same ‘computer says no’ response.

Which wasn’t very encouraging. I gave up and returned home by train from Hungerford.

When back home last Thursday evening I tried to book a journey for a similar time the next day (last Friday) and was offered a pick up in Hungerford at 14:04; and then tried for a later departure and was offered another at 14:57, and again, a third offer at 16:22. So the moral seems to be, book the day before if you don’t want to be stranded in Hungerford.

As I’d found when trying out the original route 100 from Pewsey to Devizes there were posters promoting the new service in Hungerford…

… and the timetable case in Marlborough had been updated which was good to see.

It certainly comes across Wiltshire Council knows how to use DRT effectively (as far as DRT can ever be considered ‘effective’) even if some of the flaws from a passenger perspective, as so often highlighted in these blogs, are still evident.

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.

14 thoughts on “More Connecting in Wiltshire”

  1. Gosh, I am grumpy mode this week! Unused service promotion space on the back of one Sprinter – earlier this week – and, now, that odd logo next to Reds (left hand door). What does it mean. It looks as if part has peeled away.

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    1. Andrew,
      That logo is ‘ioki’ (with a reversed k presumably because cool or something along those lines) with ‘Digital public transport’ underneath, so I assume they’re the app provider. They claim to “help you digitalise all forms of transport in a multimodal way”…

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      1. Thank you.

        here in North Norfolk our bus runs twice on a Friday (and the first one is always late) and it stops where ever anyone wants to get on or off – and with only 4 -8 passengers it is easy to do. Digitalisation is passing us by! We may have been in the operational zone of the Sharrington Community Bus – an NBC initiative of 50 years ago. I didn’t live here then and it did not last long enough for me to experience.

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        1. The Sharrington community bus parking space is still marked as “community bus” in Holt. Haven’t seen anything parked in the space for years.

          MilesT

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  2. Does this not show there is something fundamentally wrong with the App? What were both buses doing for the rest of the afternoon? Surely the system should be able to show you what times buses were coming back from Hungerford. Supposing you were a disabled passenger who had gone for an afternoon trip , and then could could return.? Yet again DRT is shown to be an expensive inefficient way to provide a bus service, when will the powers that be learn?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. The Hertfordshire DRT has now been expanded to taken in Ware and Hertford areas but with lot of No go trips. Another 2 buses for this so the cost must be increasing fast. Still the DfT throws a lot of money at Hertfordshire so they will keep going until that cash runs out

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  4. What a pity Councils no longer seem bound by “best practice” as they once were, happily sharing information freely with each other, and at least giving them an excuse for tax-payer funded “Junkets” from time to time in which to exchange their “good ideas”.

    Whilst the Wiltshire approach to DRT commenced many years ago in the form of ‘Wigglybus”, whilst not perfect, at least carries passengers. And those not bristling with the latest Silicone Valley technology and totally dependent on the local bus service are thus able to travel.

    It should be a blueprint for many others, but sadly most will crash and burn when the cash runs out.

    Terence Uden

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  5. How long will it take providers and funders to learn that unless these services are reliable people will not use them?

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    1. They’re not provided for people to actually use. They’re provided for politicians to posture over and get their media coverage, and so the DfT can claim that they’re funding public transport in the regions.

      As ever the only losers are the people who actually NEED public transport.

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  6. DRT losses continue. The failed Ffleci buses bought by Newport council at a cost of £1M, 5 were sent to west wales but are no longer used, one is with pembrokehire council for a temporary service

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  8. Whilst little financial or passenger revenue if is published it is pretty clear the DRT business model simply does not work and can never work

    If you factor in all costs you have to be looking at in the region of costs of a £100K a year per vehicle so about £330 a day. Typically DRT gets less then 2 passengers per trip. Assuming it operates 12 hours a day that’s 24 passengers a day. Lets assume a generous fare average of £5 a trip that a £120 a day

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