A 57 mile DRT ride across East Sussex and a DRT ride in a saloon car in Bristol

Tuesday 8th October 2024

Apparently I’ve become renowned for being “anti-DRT”. I can’t think why!

Let me clarify.

From a professional standpoint, DRT is a complete waste of public money – almost always costing more in subsidy than axed traditional bus routes due to them needing too much subsidy. Operationally, it’s hugely inefficient. From a passenger perspective it doesn’t offer reliability and consistency of delivery. But because DRT uses an App and is portrayed as a technological revolution, public officials and politicians become mesmerised and fall for the “state of the art, ground breaking, world leading, innovative solution” claims by the software peddlers.

But ….. from a personal point of view, I thoroughly enjoy my DRT journey experiences, usually having my very own delightful personal chauffeur to chat too who takes me along rural roads and through villages and hamlets that have been off limits to traditional bus routes for many years.

Part one of today’s blog is a great example of the latter. A true DRT adventure taking advantage of the wonderful service offered by this once-in-a-generation opportunity to travel across a county free of charge with your own chauffeur – because make no mistake, when the money runs out in a few years time, none of what I describe below will be possible.

Part One

When East Sussex launched its ten zone Flexibus branded DRT service across the county in May last year it occurred to me it would be interesting to attempt a journey from one side of the county to the other just using a DRT minibus across each of the zones along the way.

But the problem was the sections of ‘no man’s land’ between most of the zones meant the journey couldn’t be continuous, and also, you couldn’t book more than one journey at a time making for a very uncertain adventure.

So I abandoned the idea.

But earlier this summer the scheme was modified to do away with different zones and instead have one large geographic Flexibus area stretching from neighbouring West Sussex towns just across the border (eg East Grinstead, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill and Hassocks) in the west across to Rye in the east, as well as up to Royal Tunbridge Wells and Pembury in Kent, in the north.

The only journey restriction being a single trip must be no more than 14 miles between its origin and destination ‘as the crow flies’. Otherwise, boundaries no longer exist.

It seemed a golden opportunity to resurrect the idea of trying to make a cross county journey from my hometown of Hassocks (just over the border in West Sussex, but served by Flexibus) across to Rye in the extreme east of the county. A distance of 40 miles (as the crow flies), which, if I worked out the steps carefully and used the 14 mile limit to the maximum could be done in just three DRT hops; ie three times 14 = 42 miles, giving me two miles leeway.

Flexibus doesn’t let you book a journey that can be easily taken on scheduled bus and rail services so I had to select two intermediate staging points for the journey away from existing frequent bus routes with direct connections. However, I didn’t want to risk going to isolated hamlets without public transport for fear of becoming stranded as Flexibus doesn’t let you book more than one journey at a time and I was worried I’d get an “all our vehicles are currently busy please try again later” response, or maybe there’d be no phone signal.

Looking at the map, I initially came up with the villages of Barcombe and Robertsbridge as potential mid point options making for a Hassocks-Barcombe-Robertsbridge-Rye trip.

There’s a handy function on an inter-active map on the Flexibus website where you can enter your origin point and it will show the 14 mile range for your journey. Here’s where I could travel from Hassocks (shown in green).

I realised I could get further east than Balcombe so selected Halland, a small hamlet south of Uckfield (with its main feature being a roundabout on the A22) as my first stop, which is 12.3 miles from Hassocks (as the crow flies). I booked a journey at 07:45 on the morning of the adventure (the app wouldn’t let me book anything the day before). The earliest departure available was 09:00 from Hassocks station – I subsequently found out you can rarely book a journey before 09:00 as parents and school children monopolise the bookings during the morning peak.

As I walked to the pick up point at Hassocks rail station wondering which side the bus would park, the app wasn’t particularly helpful, displaying a rather confusing diagram ….

…. but luckily I guessed right and found Dave, having just arrived, by the east entrance alongside the Brighton bound platform.

It was great to meet Dave again. I’d been his very first passenger on the inaugural day of Flexibus last year and he is thoroughly enjoying working on Flexibus. He’s one of three minibuses and drivers at CTLA Newhaven involved with FlexiBus with the other five vehicles provided by a community transport operator in East Surrey. East Sussex has recently introduced a new fleet of Mercedes minibuses on Flexibus with a driver operated door for passengers and a step which comes out – just as well as it’s quite a climb into the vehicle. Passengers in wheelchairs board using the tail lift.

There’s plenty of variety for Dave under the new one-zone arrangement as the eight minibuses work all over the County rather than the previous arrangement of being confined to just one zone. I think the new scheme has seen a reduction in the number of minibuses and drivers as previously there seemed to be at least ten on the road.

We had a great chat on the 45 minute (20.5 mile) journey over to Halland where we arrived at 09:45, after which Dave was off to Deanland Wood to take a passenger who’d booked a journey to Hailsham. It’s a retirement complex located off the A22 which used to be served by Compass Bus route 143 but now residents have Flexibus or three journeys to Hailsham and Eastbourne on a Tuesday and Thursday on Cuckmere Buses route 48.

The app wouldn’t let me book my onward journey from Halland while I was still undertaking a journey so having left Dave I set about booking journey number 2. Robertsbridge was more than 14 miles from Halland so instead I opted for Ninfield, 13 miles from Halland (as the crow flies) so just inside the limit.

I was struggling with the app. First it wouldn’t let me book a journey before 11:00…

… then it offered one in 10 minutes at 09:58 …

… then I lost the phone signal so having walked a bit further on and regained the signal decided to ring the booking line (based in Portsmouth with WeMove). It turned out to be my lucky day as Don was nearby just finishing a break and having his minibus checked over and the call centre advised it would be with me within 10 minutes, by 10:00.

I was a bit befuddled locating the pick up point by the roundabout but soon spotted Don arriving and climbed aboard for the next stage of my cross-County Flexibus adventure.

Don hadn’t long started driving for Flexibus having previously run his own taxi business in Crowborough and we had another great chat on the journey over to Ninfield.

That took half an hour, arriving at 10:30, for the 15.6 miles journey and Don suggested as he hadn’t got another booking until 12:45 with a pick-up in Bexhill, it could well be him who gets allocated for my third segment on to Rye.

Even though the online inter-active map was showing Rye was achievable in one hop from Ninfield (only just) …

… the app was telling me Rye was outside the zone…

… but another call to the call centre established a journey from Ninfield to Rye was indeed possible and sure enough Don, who was still parked nearby, gave me a toot and thumbs up as the call handler told me the booking had been confirmed with zero waiting time, and he’d also got the message on his in-cab tablet, so we were on our way over to Rye which Google maps tells me is 14.01 miles from Ninfield (as the crow flies), so just made it.

To cut this long story short, having passed through the delightful East Sussex town of Battle, the northern delights of Hastings, the villages of Guestling Green, Icklesham and Winchelsea we arrived in Rye an hour later at 11:30 having completed the 21 mile trip.

Two and a half hours and 57 miles after leaving Hassocks in three rides using my concessionary pass with no other passengers. That’s the beauty of DRT. Your own personal taxi service to explore a whole county.

If you know what you’re doing.

It felt like Don and I had become firm friends after our 90 minute journey together. As I left him, his in-cab tablet device pinged to tell him his 12:45 pick up in Bexhill was being reassigned and he was now being directed to Groombridge to take a passenger to Crowborough.

Groombridge is 33 miles and an hour’s travel time from Rye.

What a farce.

Part Two

Another DRT farce is currently playing out in Bristol with the Combined Authority’s WESTlink scheme, where licensed Private Hire cars are being used instead of minibuses in the Bristol North zone.

As highlighted in a recent blog the scheme across ‘Greater Bristol’ has also recently seen boundary changes to some of its zones including the Bristol North zone having its 12 seater minibuses replaced with new seven seaters “to see if the service can be run more cost effectively with smaller vehicles”.

However, all is not well with the changeover with BBC News reporting delays in getting the new vehicles licensed with South Gloucestershire Council and the Traffic Commissioner’s Office. Private Hire licensed saloon cars are being used as a temporary measure, which has understandably upset local taxi and Private Hire drivers who quite rightly see it as a publicly funded competitive service offering rides at £2 or free for concessionary pass holders. Which it is.

I thought I’d do a quick BusAndTrainUser Verify investigation into the story while in Bristol on Saturday morning before last, so after taking a look at the new Ashley Down railway station, I used the WESTlink app to order a ride from Bristol Parkway over to Avonmouth railway station – a journey also possible by train with a change at Bristol Temple Meads or a 46 minute direct bus journey on the half hourly Stagecoach operated routes 10/11.

I booked the pick up for 10:00 and was successful at the first attempt to get a ride confirmed with the vehicle already in the Avonmouth area and heading towards me as I took the train from Ashley Down via Filton Abbey Wood to Bristol Parkway.

The Mercedes saloon car arrived at 10:04 and teasingly parked just ahead of the queue of taxis waiting for custom outside the station.

I could feel the tension among the waiting taxi drivers.

There was someone in the back seat so I waited for them to get out…

… but with no movement it dawned on me they were a passenger continuing on and this was to be a shared ride, so opened the front door and sat in the front seat and off we went across north Bristol to Avonmouth which included a ride down the M5.

As we passed through the shops at Avonmouth, we dropped the back seat passenger off…

…and it was a short ride further on for me to be dropped off at the railway station.

The journey had taken 18 minutes.

WESTlink reckon the “vehicles may be smaller” but will “have a temporary WESTlink sign”. It didn’t.

It also states the change to seven-seaters “will take place over a couple of months from 2 September”. We’re over halfway through that timescale and no sign so far of the new vehicles and my driver on Saturday had no idea when they might arrive.

When WESTlink was introduced amid much fanfare in April last year it replaced many bus routes, withdrawn in favour of the benefits Mayor Norris foresaw from using a DRT set up. I doubt he envisaged saloon cars being used – albeit as a temporary measure – with their lack of accessibility and, in my view, completely unsatisfactory for shared riding with strangers.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS. (The next route 100 blog, due for posting last Saturday, is running late and will now appear in due course. This is due to blog uploading congestion.)

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