Ironbridge gets a DRT option

Thursday 20th March 2025

Oh no! I hear you cry. “Not another blog about DRT”. “He’s obsessed with it”.

It’s just I’m trying to find one that works and it’s not my fault, nine years on, that search continues.

Beginning on 27th January, this latest offering is from Telford & Wrekin Council being particularly aimed at providing a better service than the rather meagre conventional bus offering between Telford’s town centre and the nearby UNESCO World Heritage site at Ironbridge Gorge and its immediate surrounding area including Madeley.

Now in its eighth week, the four vehicle operation runs Mondays to Fridays between 08:00 and 17:30.

I took a ride on Monday having no trouble booking a late morning pick up in advance from Telford Central railway station to Ironbridge over the weekend.

The new ‘Travel Telford On Demand’ app is a standard offering from Via giving the usual 30 minute window for a booked departure.

With my train arriving into Telford Central at 11:58, I settled for a 12:05 to 12:35 option as experience tells me I couldn’t risk an 11:50 to 12:20 (also offered) as chances are, nearer the time, I’d be given a precise departure at the start of the window, ie 11:50, which would mean missing the journey with the train arriving eight minutes later.

In the event the precise time was updated to 12:20, exactly midway through my chosen window, and in fact, Darren arrived at 12:07.

No-one else was booked on the journey so after exchanging pleasantries we headed off for a very pleasant ride down to Ironbridge and I enjoyed a lovely chat with Darren along the way.

He was telling me four new Mercedes Sprinters are due for delivery next month which will offer an improved access for wheelchair users through the normal passenger door rather than the rear door, as in the Mercedes minibuses currently in use as a stopgap.

Darren said the service was beginning to attract some regular passengers but I was his first passenger that morning.

Two of the four drivers start at 08:00 and knock off mid afternoon with two starting mid morning through to 17:30 with staggered breaks during the day for the team of four, meaning much of the time there’s two or three buses available for passengers.

It only takes about 15 minutes to travel from central Telford direct to Ironbridge.

We entered the Ironbridge area from the west on the outward journey (see above) but on the return headed back via the east (see below).

I also had no problem booking a return journey while in Ironbridge on Monday afternoon with Darren coming back out to collect me within 20 minutes of booking.

It was turning out to be a quiet day for bookings so I’m glad to have been able to add to the passenger count.

The Council issued a press release to promote the new service when it started but I think it’ll need a lot more publicity and coverage in the mainstream media and on social media to attract the thousands of visitors who come to Ironbridge to give DRT a try.

Perhaps a higher profile is planned when the new minibuses arrive?

No information about the service was available at the main bus departure point in Ironbridge alongside the Gorge museum – only a notice advising Arriva’s route 8/8A hasn’t stopped there for the last 15 months.

It now stops in Waterloo Street (there’s no Waterloo Road in Ironbridge, as referred to in the poster), and you’d be hard pressed to find out when the bus departs from Ironbridge as despite its website extolling the virtues of the area…


… it doesn’t list it as a timing point on the rather circuitous route taken by buses on the 8/8A into central Telford offering a 40 minute journey time to the bus station.

Note also, the Madeley Centre timing point seems to have been listed in the wrong place (check out the timings on each journey) and you also have to know High Town is Bridgnorth. Sadly, all too typical of much of Arriva’s communications.

The more direct route 96/96A operated by Select, which links Telford and Ironbridge (continuing to Shrewsbury) every two hours, doesn’t get a mention at the main bus stop in Ironbridge either.

Still, at least the timetable on Select’s website mentions Ironbridge and the service runs on Saturdays, which the new DRT doesn’t so will miss weekend tourists.

There an extensive Park & Ride service in the summer, well, that’s according to a poster on display in Ironbridge, but as it’s dated 2019 I have doubts whether it’s still valid.

My conclusion?

Use three of the four minibuses on a 30 minute frequency scheduled timetabled route between Telford Central railway station and bus station to and from Ironbridge and Madeley on an alternate clockwise/anti-clockwise circular routing in that area (joining up my outward and return journeys shown on the earlier maps) with good promotion and bespoke attractive livery and flood the appropriate outlets with printed leaflets, a good online presence and social media coverage.

And bin the apps and DRT. They’re just an expensive distraction and impediment to attract passengers.

Sadly, I see Telford & Wrekin Council are saying this “launch is a pilot program that, if successful, will be rolled out to other areas in Telford & Wrekin. The council is improving public transport options, making travel more accessible and efficient for everyone”, so it looks like I’ll be continuing my search for a DRT that actually works for some time to come.

And indeed, Rutland comes next, at the end of this month, with the first stage of its wholesale conversion of the majority of the county’s bus routes over to DRT. More on this in a future blog.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS

46 thoughts on “Ironbridge gets a DRT option”

  1. It does seem sort out your conventional bus services and their publicity accuracy first might just be a cheaper and quicker way of providing a decent public transport offering. Then work out the gaps (time or geography) that needs to be be filled and find an appropriate way of doing it.

    For the DRT if the wait window is in half hour blocks, and the main journeys in the area take 15mins it does seem that a fixed timetable is going to be as useful.

    What were the old Pre and Post VNP (MAP) Midland Red Tellus services in the area?

    JBC Prestatyn

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    1. Ironbridge has always had fairly poor services, both pre- and post-VNP (MAP); in fact Telford New Town as a whole has long had surprisingly poor services with hourly (or at best half-hourly) being the standard frequency for the past 40 years or so.

      Like Milton Keynes, Telford was designed on the assumption that every household would have a car and that buses were old hat.

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  2. Thanks for this unfortunately predictably dismal review. On thing I can’t understand is why, in this age of freely available real-time data on public transport, the wizzy AI, or whatever schedules these DRT mini-buses, cannot – when you specify a pick-up at a station (or a bus stop for that matter) – ask you what train (or bus) you are arriving on, and then track that and arrange for the DRT not to miss it!

    The bad bus information at Ironbridge – a tourist hot-spot where that is really important – is, again, dismally predictable – or have both Arriva and the council employed expensive consultants to advise them that customer care doesn’t generate enough extra custom to pay for itself? Sorry – years of disappointment are showing: I know there are good things happening with buses, and that you will report on them when you find them …

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    1. Th problem is it is a shared service so could get diverted to pick someone else and there is your time slot changed. That’s the trouble with DRT it is very hit and miss

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  3. Omitting the town name is not unusual. I assume bus managers don’t check their online timetables.

    An example is Thames valley’s route 53 from Bracknell to Maidenhead., which does not say that Frascati Way is actually in Maidenhead. However the same timetable on the Bus Times website does include the town name.

    Malcolm Chase, Fleet

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    1. Having ridden Route 53 between Bracknell and Maidenhead several times in a previous era, the Maidenhead – Wexham Park Hospital sector was an early ENCTS project. I regretted carrying out this project. Skirting the northern edge of Slough’s hinterland seemed to take an eternity. Gladly a connection to Uxbridge was on offer immediately I got to the Hospital. This connection was running late and went on diversions. As I did not know this connecting route the diversions meant nothing and this experience did not encourage to my traversing this area by bus again.

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  4. I would agree, use the three minibuses on a regular timetabled service. But Telford and Wrekin already has its own successful 100 service which runs hourly and goes to nearby Woodside. Extend that to Ironbridge, it already goes to the Rail Station, divert via the town centre and double the frequency using three normal buses. That would attract far more passengers, including local residents.

    The Councils network is being retendered in July this year with some further improvements. Currently operated by Arriva, Chaserider and Select , the new network will only be let to one operator.

    Current 96 operated by Select is a Shropshire tender, and not included in the above retendering.

    Until someone actually produces software that works all DRT’s will be abject failures, it’s amazing that Councils continue to buy the rubbish that firms like Via sell. You would think that the Dft would commission a proper system and offer it to all Councils who still want to waste money on Drt. Sadly no one in the Dft has the knowledge to understand how useless current available software is.

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  5. Four new minibuses on order, four temporary vehicles now being used, presumably rented, Drivers wages etc….money clearly no object when it comes to DRT. Surely beefing up the 96 with Ironbridge “shorts” running from the Station could have been a far cheaper option?

    The almost total lack of publicity, certainly at bus stops, underlines yet again that those who dream up these schemes clearly never use bus services themselves. And for the diminishing few of us whose lives are uncluttered with an App and “social media obsession” and who actually use public transport for ALL journeys, life goes down another notch.

    Terence Uden

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    1. Total costs could get close to £500,000 and they will be lucky to get a few thousands in fares revenues and councils think this is a sensible use of scarce funding

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      1. It probably isn’t local council funding, but DfT funding for this specific purpose.

        Nonetheless …. one does wonder at the continuation of operations such as this … after all, unless I’m mistaken, the number of successful DRT schemes throughout England must be barely 5% of the total.

        I’m only aware of Teesside and Wycombe that seem to be lasting … perhaps a topic for Roger to investigate in detail?

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    2. The DRT funding is most likely ring-fenced by the Department for Transport and not a core council budget. See “rural mobility fund” and “bus service improvement plan” schemes. As Roger has stated, these are not new schemes. The funds will have strict spending conditions attached to them. It’s a case of try DRT or don’t get the money. Would you rather Telford have no DRT and no bus service at all, with the funds simply going elsewhere for the same purpose?

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      1. Sadly this comment reflects the reality of funding which traps people between a rock and a hard place. The “this or nothing” approach is inflexible and fails to allow creative solutions tailored to particular circumstances.

        John

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  6. Another waste of time and money at least as far as getting too and from the museum is concerned.

    What people visiting an attraction like Ironbridge want is a simple service which connects with the train at one end and somewhere obvious like the main gate to the museum or the car park at the other end (which I appreciate is a little easier said than done when the site is spread over several miles like Ironbridge).

    Hourly is probably the minimum viable frequency, but I doubt there is any advantage to more than half hourly since visitors can always kill time in the cafe or bookshop waiting for the return journey. And they want the timetable posted on the museum’s web site with a clear indication that it is valid for the current tourist season.

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  7. Rutland indeed comes next on 31 March. But no information available on council website despite starting in eleven days !

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    1. And since we’re talking about catching buses to major tourist attractions, that will leave the huge RSPB reserve at Rutland Water with no decent service as far as I can tell.

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  8. Select 96 is a legacy from the once Midland Red X96 from Northampton to Shrewsbury via Bull Ring Bus Station.

    I personally cannot see this lasting very long as there is little or no demand for bus services in this part of the world with most visitors by car or coach.

    The main service linking Telford & Bridgnorth via Ironbridge has had nothing but cuts & even this I can’t see lasting much longer given the main trunk 9 from Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton has just had its frequency reduced.

    On a lighter note in Salop the 125 from Bridgnorth to Stourbridge is to be revised with the 125 now running Bridgnorth to Stourbridge & a new increased frequency 25A running Kidderminster to Dudley via Stourbridge & Merry Hill Centre. Diamond Bus have worked exceptionally with Shropshire Council & Transport for West Midlands to improve services in this part of the world & should be commended for an excellent result for passengers.

    As for Mercedes Sprinters these are excellent little buses seating 20 with full wheelchair access . The ever excellent Diamond Bus have recently introduced a number of them on services in The Black Country on low patronage services taken over from National Express West Midlands in partnership with Transport for West Midlands & are proving reliable hard working buses bringing back memories of Midland Red Wests Mercedes 0609s were seen bussing around the Black Country after deregulation with Diamonds 24 being a direct decendaht of MRW 208. What goes around comes around!

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  10. The Ironbridge website at https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/plan/how-to-get-here/ does mention the DRT. Overall though the how to get there section is incredibly focused on visitors who drive which is a pity. It even deters anybody thinking of walking between the sites and suggests that anybody who wants a walk should buy a walking guide from the gift shop! The tab entitled ‘other ways to get here’ seems designed to make them look as difficult as possible with a warning that bus timetables can change and no detail on local buses from the station. You wouldn’t know from the section on travelling by air that Birmingham International-Telford is a straightforward train journey. A slight aside to your point about DRT which I hope is relevant

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  11. DRT should work in situations where greater flexibility is offered to passengers in replacement of routes which operate 1-3 times per day or 1-3 days per week. There are clearly reasons it doesn’t, outlined many times on these pages. This situation in Telford, a location just on the edge of town, where there are other regular alternative options at/nearby and where the main day of demand is missed by DRT is a travesty even by DRT standards.

    Anyway, the reason I wanted to comment was almost out of despair! Here we have a classic case of public funding being used in a completely wasteful manner just because it’s available. Is this what we are to expect more of (generally, not just DRT) as the public sector takes more control? The lack of commercial sense, leading inevitably to cuts, potentially not the right ones, and the predictable outcry that then follows. At the same time, the commercial operator has failed to serve a destination where there is clearly demand, failed to publicise it well or even correctly, and will doubtless blame a lack of usage as though it’s the public’s fault, as the service continues to deteriorate.

    I’m not normally one to complain with a useful constructive suggestion, but we seem to be at the worst of both worlds juncture just now.

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  12. With DRT they can get a lot of detailed information as to when and where people want to travel, This information could then be used to develop fixed timetable routes. I doubt they make use of the information they get though

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    1. They could get the same information from a good journey planner (hello Google Maps!) on their website, asking people to enter their start and end points and desired times.

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      1. The people responsible for planning bus services need information about where and when potential passengers actually travel ( or need to travel ). Google Maps doesn’t provide that information!

        RC169

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    2. This is what has happened in Milton Keynes, where data from the MK Connect DRT scheme has been used to develop Arriva’s new commercial Loop service.

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    3. Passenger numbers are so low that they are just getting detailed information about when and where Roger and a few others want to travel…

      Brian

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  13. I wish the Transport Select Committee would start a review of DfT DRT funding, to measure outcomes for value for money, compare with conventional bus services, semi flexible scheduled services, and rural bus services in a couple of comparator countries.

    Peter Brown

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  15. Hi Roger

    I had an interesting time in Lincs last week using a combination of scheduled services and the Callconnect DRT service whilst hiking the England Coast Path. I’ve put together an article about it, but here are the relevant sections.

    On my first Callconnect service (Sat 8th March) I travelled from the bus-free zone of Gibraltar Point onwards to Friskney. I was surprised to find we would be picking up two other users in Skegness who were travelling to points not far off from my destination. In the event, one was a no show, but the other boarded at the local Morrisons and was delivered straight to their home in a small village. A DRT success? Well, the unfortunate thing for them was that the contactless machine didn’t work. So a free journey!

    My next booking was for the late morning of Tuesday 11th March between Boston and the village of Fosdyke, which is largely off the bus map aside from a school service and an oddly timed but publicly accessible run to a local poultry factory. The zonal nature of Callconnect means the area centred around Boston ends at the village, and I was unable to book the bus direct to where I wanted to be dropped off. In the event, the driver had no issue dropping me there. Three other things to note about the journey: 1) there was another passenger already onboard who took the service to her house in Sutterton, 2) I saw another Callconnect with three passengers sitting separately going in a different direction; and 3) despite being a different minibus, the payment machine wasn’t working again! So two free rides at this point.

    On the same day I decide to attempt another Callconnect booking and after fiddling for a while, I managed to book a bus to pick me up from the remote village of Gedney Drove End after 3pm to take me to Long Sutton, where I could pick up the Stagecoach-run 505. For the first time, the machine works, and I pay £3. An odd quirk of the software produces quite an extraordinary route for my journey. As we pick up someone on the outskirts of Long Sutton, the app suggests driving to her destination of Holbeach first, before returning to the centre of Long Sutton for me. Perhaps this is because I requested an ‘arrival’ time into Long Sutton, which we were well ahead of, rather than a departure time from Gedney Drove End. Of course, the driver has noticed this and reassures me he was planning to override the system. But as I tell him I’m trying to connect for the 505 he offered to take me to Holbech, a quicker option for me. As we drop off the other passenger in a residential estate to the north of the town, the further convenience of this semi-personalised service revealed itself. The driver was returning to the garage in Spalding anyway, so he offered to take me all the way there, much better for me than waiting for a busy school-time service of the 505.

    On Thursday 13th March, after a lack of reasonable options appeared, I managed to book a Callconnect service from Fosdyke Bridge to Holbeach for 7am, the start of its operating hours. Our 14-minute ride down to Holbeach was simple enough and connected me with my next DRT that covered the adjoining Callconnect zone, back to the remote Gedney Drove End. As the one before, I was the only passenger, which is perhaps not a surprise at the early hour. Both buses had functioning card machines.

    So all in all five Callconnect journeys, three of which were shared and the other two were early morning runs. Two free journeys due to machine faults. It opened up areas along the coast path completely inaccessible with public transport before. Of course, I had a degree of flexibility, whereas others looking for certainty for a morning or afternoon commute might find the app beyond frustrating. Still a lot to work on and I can’t imagine this is a DRT that’s making money, but at least it’s being used to some extent!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. The works bus service you mention (either a B number for Bakkavor or M for Moy Park) will be timed for shift changes. They fluctuate both in timings and loads, with the Bakkavor route to Lincoln currently needing two double deckers to cope with the number of workers – a reminder of “the good old days” when many factory workers commuted by bus, whereas from anecdotal evidence the Moy Park routes are loading less well than they used to.

      Call Connect is the poster boy for DRT, and in its way it does work well.
      The problem is that it covers a huge rural area and probably couldn’t cope with an increase in passenger usage, at least not without a significant increase in resources and therefore cost.
      At the moment fares are capped so are reasonable but before the introduction of the cap they were notably high – a day ticket for all of Stagecoach East Midlands was cheaper than the highest Call Connect single, for example! Given that the area served is economically marginal (i.e. most workers are on minimum wage or zero hours contracts), Call Connect’s full price fares are not conducive to regular use such as commuting. It’s clearly aimed at concessionary pass holders.

      So, Call Connect may be the poster boy, but at the same time it shows the limitations of even long-lasting, successful DRT.

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    2. I last used Callconnect in August and will be doing the same again at Easter, from Croft to Gibraltar Point and return. No issues with booking, ticket machines working and the driver even offered to take us to our caravan, so I handed him our barrier fob.

      As you rightly said Jordan, probably not making money, but it does seem to be well used at times.

      Have seen good loadings from Tesco and Morrisons in Skegness on occasions, with drivers even helping to carry passenger’s shopping on-board and even returning their shopping trolley. Certainly first rate customer service.

      Skegness even has staffed travel office with that rare commodity called a timetable leaflet!

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  16. Whippet believed to be first independent to trial autonomous buses

    Trying to have driverless buses is in my view pretty much a lost cause at present, Trying to do it on the very uncontrolled public road environment is simply mot going to work

    The focus should be on driverless trains which is proven technology and which has costs fast falling

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  17. Telfords funding comes from BSIP. The Dft Rural mobility routes started 2-3 years ago and funding is now running out. Cheshire East have budgeted £800k to continue theirs and reinstated the scheduled route that covers the same area . Bonkers

    So Telford could have used that money for normal scheduled services. I am willing to bet that all of the 20 Drt routes funded by the Dft have been a financial disaster, but the LA’s are now stuck with them as it will be very difficult to scrap them politically.

    Presumably as some stage there will be a report issued by the Dft to justify this waste of £20m and lessons learned. One lesson learned should have been that Drt is a very expensive way of carrying very few people.

    But clearly that message has not been received, and DRT’s are still being promoted by a band a self interested consultants and their abysmal software providers

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    1. It is hard to find up to date data on DRT but what data that is available shows a failure rate of at least 80% for these service, It is probably even higher but the churn with these service makes it difficult to work out accurately

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  20. Is there any service to the Blists Hill museum in Ironbridge?
    (Famous as a Dr Who filming location in the mid 80’s!)

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  21. Actually the failure rate for Drt is very low at present because politicians continue to throw money at them regardless of their viability or their missing patronage targets even after Dft funding has ended because of the perceived political backlash

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    1. Mot correct, At present a lot of funding has been made available for DRT , This is usually for two or three years, The failures will cone when that fanding runs out

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  22. Have you ever tried The Robin, around Cirencester/Kemble?. I live around there and use it quite a bit, and judging by availability it gets an ok bit of usage. Admittedly I mostly use it to go to and from various rural pubs…

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    2. Maybe the best-suggested use so far of DRTs. But the apps can be a bit fiddly – is that a problem for ordering the return journey after sinking a jar or two?

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      1. Not so far. But it tends to be pre-planned. The last trip was Lechlade (4 pubs) > Fairford (2 pubs) > Home. All booked at the same time 1200/1600/1800. A small group of us.

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  23. Thank you! I’d not seen those. However, they are not the South Cotswold one. Having read a few of your blogs, I wonder if that one might be an exception to the norm, possibly because of Kemble station and its nonexistent bus connections. I’d give it 50/50 availability when I need it the next day. Anyway, thanks for sharing! Cheers.

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  24. DRT never seems to work were ever. They are tried once the funding has gone. It would be better idea maybe to get the Bus Companies in that area to connect the villages. An example you have one that is more direct between two place or three places and a slower one that diverts to the villages.

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