Britain's Buses at their Best
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 พ.ย. 2024
- We've been travelling around the UK to ride some of Britain's Best Buses, talking to passengers and the people that operate them to find out what makes them stand out from the rest.
Whoever controls Britain’s buses, whether it be the private sector, the public sector or a partnership between both there are key features which make for a successful bus operation that will attract passengers in increasing numbers. This film seeks to highlight theses and asks ... can they be applied elsewhere?
This is a feature length documentary in which we ride some of Britain’s Best Buses!
Ten Percent Club : thetenpercentc...
Award Winning Route 36 : www.transdevbu....
Leicester Free HOP! Bus : www.leicesterb...
As someone that works in the bus industry (I have the pleasure of working with Passenger too), I absolutely love what you've done here Geoff. You've put a ton of effort into this, and it shows, you've really dine a great job highlighting the wonders of this industry
As someone who's visually impaired I'm never legally going to be able to drive, I just love being able to work in an industry that can not only help provide for people like myself, but people in general, and you've captured that perfectly. Thank you 💜
just wait till you feel the pain of working with Passengers
(it's a love hate relationship lol) you end putting up with em 😅
Fun Fact: The Harrogate 36 is numbered after the 36 unique mineral springs harrogate is famous for!
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Any idea why the '36' number is displayed on the right hand side of the bus followed by the destination on the left, instead of the number being displayed on the left hand side so any passengers from the roadside will be easier to identify the correct route, as used by most of the buses in the UK?
RIP Harry though.
@@cllee8699 Standard arrangement on Transdev Blazefield vehicles. Re the commentary the 36 has had 2+1 seating upsides ever since the 2003 revamp by Blazefield.
@@b1998En there are 88 mineral springs. 36 were found in Bogs Field.
Buses, the unsung workhorses of transportation, the heroes the working class needs.
Not as sexy as a 300 km/h Shinkansen speeding past, not as flashy as a brand-new Elizabeth line train pulling into Paddington.
But the vital veins that feed the trains, which cannot crawl through these cracks and crevices that only a bus can reach.
Indeed. And this is why we need a wholistic approach to public transit! Trains for longer, inter-city commuting, trams and metro for high capacity within the urban area and busses linking all of these modes together.
That's the issue - too many people see buses as transport for the 'working class'. London is perhaps the exception. It will take a cultural change to shift attitudes
trains too
Buses allows me to walk 3 minutes from the front door of my apartment to the bus station and another 2 minutes from another bus station to my place of work. Much better than train and those long platform.
Congratulations - this should be nominated for an Emmy. Well structured, well scripted, well presented, well edited - great professional production values !
Loved this whole video. It's so refreshing to see that not everything in the UK is in decline.
This should be a Channel 4 documentary
This is something you can't explain but you're right this is just like a C4 documentary
I'm glad it's also on TH-cam or I'd never get to enjoy Geoff's content.
@@leftbas65 I've also watched plenty of videos posted by the London, Ontario-born Amsterdam-based Not Just Bikes TH-cam man and quite a few TH-camrs based in the contiguous US (among them the City Beautiful man). Buses, regardless of what stereotypes out there may exist about them, are so important to have to make a transport system work for more of the people that I'm sure such a system hopes to serve.
@@wainber1 I watch their content, too, and I completely agree. It's just disheartening to realize how far behind we are. Things are improving, just at a glacier's pace. It's not hopeless, but just barely.
Strongly disagree. ‘TV’ is no longer the gold standard; documentaries on TV are always, without exception, cringy, forced and patronising. This masterpiece isn’t any of that.
Commercial TV = having to bend to the whim of the production company and dumbing down the content.
I think that this is the finest video you've ever done, Geoff. It's wonderful to see such enthusiasm from folk working in the industry. Let's hope that the high standard of service shown here is adopted by the less inspiring bus operators!
@@tremensdelirious They're also good, but this is a strong showing none the less!
Great video. I started my own bus company about 18 months ago now. Nowhere near as big as some operators. But I love it and we have a lot of people that enjoy coming on our buses and coaches. I love the innovation in the industry in the past, present and to come. In a lot of areas the big operators dominate. But worth remembering that there are just as many areas where small independent companies are the back bone of an area.
A mate of mine is a driver for the local private service around our college. He's been doing it for a long time, continuing to support the community, his family (and students like myself sometimes) with that job. It's really interesting.
So pleased you have done a feature on buses, the backbone of public transport. Another great transport docu Geoff.
We're lucky in High Wycombe that Arriva decided to close our depot and the one in Aylesbury as it meant they left and took their awful service away. Carousel have come in to replace them and they're so much better. That and they reverted all the route numbers back to historical ones everyone knew. Just need an electric fleet here now so that they do the hills better and ride smoother. I really liked the electric buses in Oxford.
Wow, high Wycombe is absolutely brilliant. Surprised about Aylesbury@@tremensdelirious
I wish Carousel Served Aylesbury as there buses are much nicer than a majority of Redline buses
@@ChappersTravels redline buses you see more in the layby broken down outside thame than in service
I live in Leighton Buzzard in bedfordshire near Milton Keynes the buses down there has its own network letter L so L1 L2 L3 L4 L5 L6 which is impressive I like Carrousel Buses in high Wycombe
Why is it all the large UK wide bus companies that are terrible? Sheffield where I live used to be innovative in its buses. Then Firstbus & Stagecoach bought out all the local companies like Mainline & Yorkshire Traction. Hopefully soon the buses will be taken back under Mayoral authority like the Supertram like the Bee Network in Manchester. Stagecoach have recently introduced an electric service on one of the routes recently though.
Wow, love to see buses getting recognised, especially on your channel!
What a great little documentary! Goes to show again how good of a filmmaker you are. I love the way you interview people especially and how you're able to bring out their passion.
I am 71 and live in Brighton and use the buses many times a week. They provide an excellent service and the app on one's phone allows you to know when the next one is due so you can go out and catch with a short wait (20 minute service where I live). Will use the buses in the evenings instead of taxis and have nothing but praise. Had friends from Cumbria down recently and initially they thought that the quality of our service was the result of the north-south divide but I explained that Worthing (the next large town west) largely stop at 20.00 and that I thought that the buses were full because they provided a good service at a sensible cost. This video has confirmed that. Well done Geoff it's good to see something positive for a change.
Excellent presentation; we just now need to get our politicians to watch the film and realise what an asset we have in buses and how they can move this country toward a sustainable green future. Thanks Geoff and all.
Brilliant video! What an amazing insight into buses across the country.
I work as a driver for Morebus in Bournemouth and can honestly say they are the best company I have ever worked with.
Geoff you may not be aware that former BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration died in June 2022. But its good to see that his voice continues to be heard on the buses after his death.
Gosh, i didn't realise ... how sad, my condolences. It's lovely that they're using his voice, yes!
The level of this documentary is amazing, your channel is one of the best ever
Roger will be number one viewer!! Nice geoff as per
Worked with Roger to make this happen! [ he basically made this happen, hence the credit at the end ]
@@geofftech2 As a busfan living across the pond, Roger is my number one source for all the workings and ongoings in the British bus ecosystem (along with diamondgeezer)! Good to see someone who, fortunately now, has the time to critique and analyze what is going right and what is going wrong. Also interesting to see the parallels with the American ecosystem.
Simply great and inspiring!
This should be a lesson for public transport companies in my home country, Italy. They are often far from the concept of comfort and branding shown in the video.
Thank you so much!
Brilliant work.
This flim is like a pat on the shoulder to all the transport worker, reminding us to stay Passionate, and that we are all important and part of something big even tho we may seem small and insignificant
An excellent documentary Geoff. It’s clear this has taken an enormous amount of work with a level of production you must be immensely proud of.
shoutout to Passenger, we've had this app for Reading buses for some years now and popping down to Brighton recently and realising they also have the same app experience trying to check bus times was so nice and familiar, thanks Tom!! couldn't live without the bus tracker in there again
I couldn't have clicked "Like" on this fast enough. This is a well-done, informative long-form video that others really should watch. Well done, Geoff! I love that the buses in each council area or regional area made similar changes: high frequency, colourful livery, good maintenance, and importantly TRAFFIC control to allow the buses to have some priority. That needs to be spread, not just in places with deficient networks but places with seemingly good networks, too.
This was one of the best videos I have watched in a long time. As someone who absolutely loves buses and transport in general this was incredible to watch and glad buses are getting the recognition for what they do
Great video Geoff
Perhaps this should have been on TV rather than on TH-cam but very good work. I do like buses and I ride on the bus lots of times and they are so convenient and enjoyable to ride on.
Fantastic documentary highlighting not just the importance of buses in keeping people moving, but also the importance and simplicity of making basic improvements to bus services to help improve the appeal of the bus. Well done Geoff!
Geoff you have really outdone yourself. If I wasn’t already an avid user of buses I would want to become one now! I use them everyday to get to work here in Paris, but also I am in the uk quite often and have already found myself on some of the routes you’ve shown, for instance the number 7 in Brighton, which is very useful when you come out of the train station and you want to go uphill. It’s so nice to be able to see the faces that are behind the infrastructure that is offered to us and see how passionate they are. Thank you Geoff
It's great to see some local authorities and the bus industry working together. We recently visited Berlin and Warsaw, and love the way their ticketing works. Bus, local trains, trams, S-Bahn, U-Bahn/Metro etc all on one ticket. Not having to deal with multiple operators or TOCs. One real delight is that 24 hour tickets are truly 24 hours, no matter when you first use the ticket. Also, none of the peak / off peak fare nonsense to catch the unaware traveller out. One rate all day.
Fast and frequent transport, good interchanges to transfer between modes like bus or tram stops and stations by the railway station, unlike many towns and cities in the UK. Which is let down even more by poor to non existent street signage to direct to the bus or railway station. Leeds and Guildford are two examples I can think of. Another observation was that the drivers either rarely sell tickets, or just drive with no passenger contact. The buses having ticket machines on board, passengers using a ticket they purchased from the metro, or on line ticket. The driver just drove the bus, reducing the chances of abuse or conflict for the driver. Stops, and the journeys in general were so quick. You just board the bus, and off it goes. No delays while the driver issues or checks tickets or passes. There were plenty of travelling ticket inspectors going from bus to bus, and apart from one passenger, everyone we saw get checked had a ticket.
While things are improving in some areas, depending on the level of involvement by the local authorities and willingness of the bus operators to cooperate, it still still is a lottery on where you live as far as the passenger is concerned.
My stays in Berlin, Hamburg and Warsaw have really highlighted to me just how far behind we are in the UK compared to Europe. In all these cities, not only was the transport frequent (even on Sundays), well integrated, and affordable, it was also very well used.
We live in Merseyside, and I look to the future with interest regarding Merseytravel and bus franchising. One benefit we already get is free bus and rail travel for the over 60s and disabled travellers, plus the all in one Saveaway ticket that can be purchased for bus and train travel.
It would be so good, if in the future all cities and major towns could have a European style ticketing arrangement.
Buses are a community, I was on a bus in Cheshire countryside last week, and the passengers and drivers knew each other, this was nice to see and brought a smile to my face.
Thank you for doing this fantastic documentary concerning the best buses in the UK.
Glad to see Brighton&Hove buses included :)
This really gives a great perceptive of how buses are brilliantly run when they are done right by people who knows what they are doing...
What a great documentary, I hope we get more of this in future. It's so good to see industry professionals that are passionate about transport. Public transport really is the lifeline of daily life, these networks are almost like complex respiratory or nervous systems interweaving their way through towns and cities, connecting people's lives and allowing us to do what we need to do.
Whether it's work, hospital appointments, school, shopping, cinema, holidays, good public transport allows us to do it simply and effectively. In London we're so lucky that the transport network makes travel almost an after thought so long as you know where you want to go, and it's great other towns and cities are starting to get that too.
Excellently presented and produced.
Recently I was talking to somebody I know about the numerous people that we both know that I had seen and spoken to in recent weeks and months.
He lamented that he never sees any of these people anymore.
This difference is because he drives everywhere by car and I make the vast majority of my journeys by bus.
Good to see some parts of the country have good bus services but you should do a follow-up about towns which aren't so lucky with hourly services during the day, none in the evenings and on Sundays, and poor reliability standards.
Geoff, your journalism skills are second to none. A truly brilliant documentary, cingratulations and well done to everyone.
Great video Geoff, loving the long form documentary style for this. It’s clear a lot of time and effort went into it. Plus those bus seats on the m1/m2 sure are the best I’ve sat on too!
When I lived in London many years ago, I preferred taking the bus over the Tube whenever possible. Yes, it was slower but more comfortable than the sardine can underground carriages.
"It's the people you meet and the stories you end up becoming a part of." That resonates with me and has throughout my life with my career and with my travels. Some of the best moments and memories are so much more than just where I went but the amazing people I encountered along the way. There will be many bus trips on my next visit! The view into Brighton makes me want to add it to my list. I am going to have to stay for months to go, even part of the places I want to. Thank you for such an awesome video.
Bravo Geoff. Nice turn of topic. Really nice format.
As a former user of the 36 i appreciate your attention to something "up north". 🎉
Admirably shows the efforts being made in improving bus travel to/from urban centres. But, the lamentable bus coverage in many rural areas is a major issue, which perhaps you could consider in a future video. Meanwhile, keep up your excellent work. It's a real public service. Thank you.
The woman at around 12 or so minutes made a joke that I think whooshed by Geoff, "the 36 is I guess the posher of the buses, because it comes from Harrogate." Harrogate is one of those places where if you say you live there people might go "ooh, Harrogate, get you!" (if they know you.) Aside from the regional humour element this was a really interesting eye-opener on what is going on around the country with regard to buses.
Harrogate was built to be a rich person's retreat and it shows - as someone who likes their politics it's certainly worth noting that Harrogate is one if the few parts of Northern England where Labour don't exist!!
I wouldn't be able to find Harrogate on a map (yes, I am American..) but I definitely got her joke!
It wasn't a joke
@@Harmonikdiskorde Some places just sound posh, Harrogate is one of those places.
@@ziggarillo I stand corrected.
A most excellent documentary Geoff , well done, very enjoyable and informative. Always look forward to your episodes here in Austria , a former London Transport bus driver driving buses in Vienna...
The 36 is the main route between Ripon and Leeds, there is no train service. Use to use the 36 regularly, but they then cut the last buses from Leeds to Ripon , which means going for a show or the like in Leeds from Ripon, you have to watch the return time. Have to agree that the buses are comfortable and regular during the day.
An excellent range of moquette as well as good services.
Fantastic video! The overall transportation systems (i.e., train, Tube or bus) in the UK are amazing.
Really glad to see all these examples and it's good to know what excellence looks like elsewhere.
Immensely proud of Lothian Buses in Edinburgh and the Lothians. Extremely reliable, comfortable, and fairly priced. Goes everywhere you need to go with excellent Night Bus coverage too. No better service in Scotland (and I'd argue anywhere in the UK which has been recognised before but this is always up for debate).
Really encouraging video about the less sexy public transport that is bus travel! Well done.
Lothian has been out in front for so long that it just shows what an amazing outfit it has consistently been. I love it that they have the city crest back on some of the new buses. I visited Edinburgh a number of times and contrasted it with the post deregulation shambles in my own town.
Public owned busses for Glasgow!
Great video, great pioneers, great partnerships.
And an opportunity for me to shame First Glasgow where they price their 12 minute 500 service to Glasgow Airport at £15.00, whilst their stopping service the 77 which takes over an hour, is priced at £9.79.
Not exactly selling it to folk.
Loved this documentary-style video Geoff. And really good that you are producing material on buses as well as trains. Keep it all coming!!
This was such an enjoyable watch. My key takeaway is that it is incumbent upon city councils and local transportation partners to inspire more bus ridership. It was refreshing to hear one of the operators talk about marketing and community engagement. Thanks for this fantastic documentary, Geoff.
Here in Merseyside, bus services are pretty good - Frequent service, relatively comfortable buses, and usually on time. This is a great documentary!
Really good to watch such a positive (& well done!) documentary, would be lovely if more of the UK could get this quality of service
Well made documentary. Passionate employees and nice photography. Nice one Geoff.
You should make a video on the 192 in Manchester, it’s one of Britain’s most frequent routes running every 3 minutes during rush hour. Stagecoach always put some of their nicest buses on there.
Will be interesting to see what is put on that route from January '25 as the route changes operator, becomes part of the Bee Network and gets different buses along with the rest of South Manchester
@@andrewholland1390 Stagecoach have retained the 192, along with the rest of the Stockport franchise, so I assume it’ll be the BZLs that are already on order for it (whenever they actually decide to turn up).
Brilliant documentary Geoff! I thoroughly enjoyed it, thank you.
A lot of the success is owed to Wrightbus in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
Their company has continued to prove that buses can be high-quality, affordable and reliable all at the same time.
Makes a stark contrast from their near-destruction in 2019!
Whoah didnt expect to see you here your videos are great
@@sus-sb9yw Thank you very much!
If there were an award show for transport videos, this would easily be a contender for an award. This video was pure gold. So very professional and polished. It was so entertaining and I live in America! Great job Geoff!
Very interesting and enjoyable documentary. Being a Londoner, buses are part of my childhood. I spent some time in Chelmsford visiting family earlier this year and was very impressed with the bus service in the area, very reasonable ticket prices to. The only issue was the frequency of the buses to outlying areas, improve that and they are onto a winner.
On the day this came out, Stagecoach have announced huge improvements for the Swindon area
Great video! The "Ribbet" noise on the Leicester Hop!" Is brilliant!
I was so surprised to see Morebus featured in this video, but it was cool to see a local operator get some praise. They're honestly a quite good bus company overall, and so far they seem to be doing quite well after the fall of Yellowbus (and therefore having to take on all of their routes). And yeah their new m1/2s are pretty amazing, but I must say that the seats on the X3 are even more comfy. The interior of almost all the Morebus buses is really good, the colour design makes it so that I'm not travel sick, their older buses in the fleet are however absolutely atrocious with a really noisey rickety ride and those horrible scratchy fabric seats that double as dust magnets and make me feel really travel sick. Also surprised to not see Southampton's Unilink buses on this list, their U1A service runs like every 6min which is bloody impressive, and they seem to be quite well funded and I must say overall seem like a more 'developed' bus service compared to Morebus. A notable mention would be Warrington's own buses ''Cheshire cat'' bus livery variant, no clue what it's about but the bus has an adorable kitty cat graphic plastered all over it! (just google images of it, you won't regret it)
The X3 has recently been stocked with new vehicles to the same standard as the M1/2. The older buses have been cascaded down to local services, still X3 livery but X3 branding removed., so some luxury vehicles may turn up on less frequent routes.
@@doughunt9621 yeah most of the X3s I've been on have been pretty damn nice, lovely seats, nice like refreshed interior, and some have table seats upstairs with those lil puck lights above which is cool
Thank you for a superb video, Geoff! I was blown away by Mr. Stenning so much so that I just picked the phone and spoke to him. Absolute legends these people! TYVM.
I'm an avid fan of Geoff Marshall. I drive buses at Transdev Harrogate - I'm gutted that I missed you in the bus station.
I enjoyed this documentary. Seeing people talk positively about public transport and in particular about buses made me feel a bit more hopeful about this country. Buses provide much needed mobility to millions of people.
You need to try and surround yourself with more people who are realists rather than pessimists. Its an objective fact that we live at one of the most prosperous times in history, in one of the richest and most highly developed countries on earth. Yes, life is very hard for many people, but it is a matter of perspective; the people complaining about the UK have no idea what daily life is like in 95% of other countries on earth.
Metrobus in the Crawley area is also great :) the Fastway is a great piece of bus infrastructure and the new hydrogen buses are so smooth and comfortable. Having hourly buses throughout the night across several routes to places as far as Redhill and Horsham, and Turn Up and Go through the day on the major routes is incredible. It truly makes Crawley a 24/7 town, which is great given the amount of shift workers due to the Airport.
What a beautiful shot at 13.30! I wish more of the bus operators in Canada could take these lessons about making the vehicle an appealing product.
Fanatastic video as usual. You should visit Manchester and take a deep dive into the bee network ( when it’s all fully complete)
Yup I second that! Seeing that Metroline are well advanced with stockpiling new buses ahead of them assuming their south Manchester contracts from January '25, I think it's been quite some time since Manchester has seen such a big influx of new (or refurbished to a high standard) buses in a short space of time. TfGM has indicated that already the Bee Network is seeing passenger numbers up on where they were a year before, just one year on and with the network still only partially in place (the third and final tranch for the buses comes in January '25). If TfGM gets this right, this too could become a model for other large urban areas across the UK as they look to improve and take back control of bus services.
Great documentary about the bus networks around the country.
Oh! Wow! Brilliant. For a long time I thought that modern buses were not as good as those of the past - I’m 72 - but some of those buses look really stylish. And the passion of those interviewed is wonderful to see.
This documentary is very refreshing & encouraging to watch, I'm a bus driver myself & have just recently Left a bus operator wich was beyond terrible 😳 I mean buses constantly breaking down, drivers running early, constant road works, no leading driver in front of you or follower. The list goes on its that bad.😢 but watching this just shows that with good planning a well thought out infrastructure & reasonable bus timetable times as well as good affordability. 👍 well done.
Wow, Geoff travelled past the bottom of my road on the 36. I wasn't expecting that!
I absolutely love the 36. It used to skip out stops in urban Leeds until a few years back (it's first stop to drop off passengers from Leeds towards Harrogate was the Queen's Arms in Chapel Allerton, with a couple of pick-up only stops before that). But ever since they stopped at every stop, and word spread about it, it's popularity amongst North Leeds travellers has boomed in the past year or two. 6 services an hour combined with the 8 First Leeds services an hour along Chapeltown and Harrogate Road equates to a service every 4-5 minutes, a great turn up and go London esque service for this corridor! The only complaint I have is that Harrogate Bus Company and First Leeds don't work together to co-ordinate the timetable, for example a 36 and a First bus (2/3/3A) are often timetabled to turn up at the same time, then there's a 7-10 minute wait for the next one. First world problem I know!
Love hearing Harry Gration's voice every time I ride on the 36, dearly miss him. Hope they retain his voice on the new fleet (as he obviously can't record new announcements!)
Thanks Geoff for this awesome documentary! Sadly, still, for every good bus there is an unreliable, bad bus. Next time you are in Leeds, try riding the 91, one of the few buses in Leeds which don't go in and out of the city centre.
They were auditioning for a new announcer at the preview event they held the other month
@@mikep-1824 That's a shame, I like hearing Harry's dulcet tones
As a bus enthusiast, some of these people I'd love to have a long conversation with! Great video Geoff!
Thanks for making this film, Geoff. When you see the imagination, innovation and hard work going into services around the country, It just shows how much services local to me have declined in the hands of Stagecoach.
The 'flagship' Route 12 Newton Abbot to Brixham, once run by modern route branded vehicles, is now serviced by buses upto 20 years old. The other day an 04 reg Dennis Trident was my ride to Paignton. No USB's, no Wifi, no announcements, concrete seats!
This year, the once popular 122 Babbacombe to Paignton Open Top service was cancelled altogether. Way to attract tourists... not!
Stagecoach used to be a quality service, but not any more.
This exceptionally well made and of very high quality, film, TV documentary level. Lovely to watch.
The perfect bus service is one which doesn't have a timetable as they are so regular you know its never long for one. Our 'high' frequency bus is three an hour. 20 minutes is too long to wait if you miss one. 10 minutes max at peak hours is ideal. I'd also reduce the number of stops so services are quicker. Stops every 400m, rather than the 150m or so at the moment in my area, its just too many in urban areas.
I spent pretty much all my childhood catching the 36 bus, has always been a great service!
With quality content like this who needs a TV licence.
check out Kenyan buses on my page
Loving the outtakes... People passionate about their work. ❤
Fantastic video, I really enjoyed driving for you that day 😊
Superb presentation Geoff. It feels like a whole new step in your body of work
The changes to buses in Leicester over the last few years has really made it easier to get around. The tap-on tap-off fares means you can go anywhere now without worrying about it costing you a fortune!
@@Borderman47 There's definitely still improvements to be made. The Aylestone Road corridor on Sundays is a shining example of a service that at least needs increased running hours, if not a bump in frequency.
This is true, but it's a shame how many rural services they axed completely in the name of making these changes/improvements within the centre
You think? I still find them to be late or non existent most of the time 😢😅
@@powernetworker6526 Mostly because Leicestershire County Council unfortunately aren't as interested in long term investment as the City Council is.
@@WooRSte Well, true. Unfortunately Leicester has some of the worst traffic outside of London at peak times. That isn't really the bus companies' fault though.
As ever, improvements could be made
I met Ray at a university event a few months ago. Very lovely and charismatic man, and he's bloody good at his work too!
Well never thought i'd wake up to see my street on youtube 😂, also the amount of cars that bollard has taken out loooool
What a high quality documentary! Excellent work Geoff 🎉
I've travelled around the UK quite a bit, and the best buses I've been on are the ADL Envrio400XLB B8Ls that Lothian Buses use on their premium 100 service from Edinburgh Airport to the city centre. There is 2+1 seating upstairs and the seats are really nice!
Why can we not press the 'like button' twice? I loved this video when I watched it when it first came out and 'liked' it. I've just, two month later, watched it again and enjoyed it just as much as the first time.
Loved this! More buses please!
Fantastic documentary Geoff 👏. If only we had the sence and willpower to inact systems like that here in America 😳. I'm a retired driver here in Los Angeles and and the foolishness that goes on in our transportation systems is nothing less than insanity. It's good to see someone has figured it out 👏👏👏
Well in my city in the USA, bus riders can stand on a dirt patch and hang out for an hour with some scruffy types waiting for a classic 1984 model city special, that even has the hard plastic seats with the beige color upgrade! Beat that!
@@halleradam many years ago (60's I think) there was some sort of transport festival in New York, and London transport sent a standard Routemaster bus. Upholstered seating, double deck, etc.. The locals couldn't believe that this was a normal service bus, not one specially made for the show.
Really enjoyed this video. A little longer than your usual ones. I met Ray Stenning once, at a Showbus Duxford Rally. He's completely mad, but so creative, and Best Impressions are really really good at designing bus liveries, and marketing leaflets. The standard of buses has improved so much since I first caught one back in the 1970s. Great video Geoff.
Great to see examples of really good practice from around the country. The guy at morebus was right about the seats - there the same ones the Go East Yorkshire use on the X46/X47 route which runs the 2-hour journey from York to Hull every 30 minutes - and for a couple of years they were used on summer Sunday buses running up into the Yorkshire Dales, and they remained very comfortable even on a 4-hour journey. Another nice feature on the X46/X47, which i think some interurban routes on Go North East have as well, is that the buses have a couple of bicycle spaces on - really useful for people living in remote towns that don't have a railway station.
I see you chose _not_ to feature First's innovation of creating timetables by rolling dice, flipping a coin, multiplying the two together and subtracting the colour you first thought of, to ensure that no two journeys throughout the day have the same running time or headway ... I can't think why that wasn't on your list 🤣
Well done Geoff. Having lived in Newhaven since the 90s up to 3 years ago, I've witnessed the change. I had my reservations about the bus lane in to Brighton for the reasons you picked up. But equally, Brighton was choking on cars. I can no longer drive down some roads into Brighton that used to do all the time. Thats Brighton city council trying reduce the congestion and make the cetre of town a more welcoming once you've got out of your car. It does however, make the centre awkward to get around in any vehicle but certainly buses get priority. So with congestion still a thing and awkward routing, taking the bus has become the more sensible option. In addition, the 12 service in connects to Brighton station, Newhaven, Seaford and Eastbourne stations.
I grew up in Oxfordshire and getting into and out of Oxford by public transport has always been a nightmare. There have been calls to re-open rail routes, there are park and ride services but somehow, the centre of Oxford is more of a nightmare than ever it was.
Oxford illustrates another issue. How to run frequent bus services into the city from rural and semi-rural areas. Edinburgh (not far from where I now live) is an awkward city to run public transport. Mostly because of geography. I've often thought some of the old abandoned rail routes could be reopened and repurposed as tram routes. But that still leaves small villages like mine which have a two-hourly bus service into the city....and we're lucky. Taking train journeys would be great if we could easily get to Waverly. This is similar to Oxford where getting to the station can be a nightmare - especially if you have to leave early or arrive back late.
So...I'm impressed certain places are making buses along some routes work and they are being successful. I guess it comes down to "where do people want to go".
Transdev do have very comfortable buses not just on the36 but in general, they are a very good bus company. Their annoucements also have some character on all their buses and aren't just the same monotone text to speech voice. Although Transdev are a brilliant bus company, I'd much prefer FCEV Wright Streetdecks rather than BEV ADL Enviro 400s but it's good that they're going green (and the E400s are much better than the eCitaros the local Harrogate & Keighley services are getting).
Also at 7:26 Transdev took over Harrogate & District (and others) from Blazefield Group in 2006 not 11.
Great documentary Geoff and what a lovely set of people who are pushing this. Let’s hope the £2 fare lasts a lot longer and the transition to better and more frequent busses continues.
5:30 - the most frequent service I know of is the 50 in Birmingham, which has one bus every 4 minutes mainly by National Express West Midlands though Diamond also run on it ws well. It may lose a bit of frequency though when the Camp Hill line finally opens to passengers
I think most people’s experience of the 50 is more like 5 buses at once every 20 minutes.
NXWM website seems to suggest that it's every 5/6 minutes. I don't know whether it's still the case, but back when I was in Birmingham (mid-90s), there used to be a service between the Centre and Alum Rock whose timetables would list the early morning times, and then just write "then every few minutes until" and then the evening times. It was so frequent that, during the day, there was almost always one in sight.
I've started using the bus again after a recent move, I didn't notice at first but electric makes a huge difference! So refined.
I love taking the bus, but why is it sometimes there's this stigma and stereotype that they're only for poor, lower class people? I don't like cycling, I could take the train but what if I wanted to go somewhere and don't feel like driving, I'll happily take the bus.
Because for decades the auto industry's marketing departments have told us this, and conservative/austerity governments have made it true.
@@blorpblorpblorp And Margaret Thatcher actually said just that. But then, what else would you expect?
In many cities, bus service is so bad that you would never take it unless you had no other options 😞
@@philroberts7238Actually though most people believe this it was never proven that she actually did say it, however you and I and the rest of the UK knows all too well it's exactly the type of thing she'd say especially given how badly she screwed up buses under bus privatisation
Such stigmas can also develop due to very poor service quality. Over here in South Wales, the services have been heavily cut down and underfunded over the years with constant building of car-centric housing, retail and industrial amenities. There are no routes to many important destinations, the buses come very infrequently - often every hour or 2 hours, or every half an hour if you're lucky, and finish at 5-6pm on some routes. First Cymru's fleet often consists of many buses that other First subsidiaries don't want, including a HUGE influx of the controversial Wright StreetLite buses from places like Bristol, Worcester and Leeds - and the vehicles can often be poorly maintained and unclean. They don't even try to join the buses up with trains - even when the council tried to put a bus-rail interchange in Port Talbot, barely anyone changes between the two because of the separate fares. Speaking of, the fares have recently had a huge increase, and Tap On Tap Off is barely cheaper than the old fares, with an eye-watering 25% increase on the day tickets which most of the remaining fare-paying passengers were buying. With the service quality in constant decline coupled with the sharp fare increases (paying £6 for a day ticket on a bus that you might wait an hour for only for it not to turn up) the service has lost almost all passengers that have another way of getting around, even the majority of lower-income customers have turned to car ownership because of the extortionate fares, which leaves persons with reduced mobility as the dominant passenger type, which is very unprofitable given most have a free concessionary travel card, which does not provide enough money to fund these services. Given the rollout of London-style bus franchising in Wales over the coming years, I hope this will finally result in a better network, with plans for integrated ticketing between operators and modes and a unified national identity (Transport for Wales). Hopefully there will be performance targets that each operator has to meet (a la Bee Network) and my area (Bridgend County Borough) will be of significant importance being in the Cardiff Capital Region therefore meaning my buses could probably become part of the South Wales Metro. It shows what can be done when you take a look at services like TrawsCymru and especially Cardiff Bus - the difference between the buses in Swansea and Cardiff is night and day!
I've got to hand it to you Geoff your videos are quality, professional and slick - excellent
Even in conservative estimate the bus carries the equivalent of 60 cars , so car owners can't complain about congestion due to bus lanes .
First rate - excellent documentary, Geoff! A well-researched, accessible piece of television, well-paced, up-beat and compelling watching. And all in half-an-hour! More like this please!