StarTrak bugs force temporary shutdown

Technical difficulties at the Leicestershire County Council base of the Startrak GPS tracking system have led to the technology being turned off on our Nottingham – Derby rainbow 4 and rainbow 5 routes. This means that the ‘next bus’ screens at bus stops are blank, there are no on-bus audio or visual stop announcements and the text messaging service is not available. As this newsletter was being prepared, rainbow 5 was back up and running, but the system will not be fully recommissioned until Brand Managers Jamie Cheatle and Cherryl Holland are satisfied that it is working reliably.

The fault began to show in early August with erratic displays on the roadside countdown signs.  The linked ‘next stop’ audio and visual on-bus announcements then began running out of step.

Jamie Cheatle said:

“The on-bus announcements were sometimes a long way adrift, and the countdown signs were starting to show buses as still to come even after they had actually left the stop.

“Since the same problems were showing up on rainbow 5, Cherryl and I took the decision to close Startrak down on both routes rather than risk confusion or worse still, lack of customer faith in the system”.

Leicestershire County Council, who are responsible for the technical side of the operation, are now working behind the scenes to get it back up to full working order.

Cherryl Holland said:

“We have switched rainbow 5 back on so that every bus and every stop can be checked.  The manufacturers have also sent over field technicians.

“This is a painstaking process and one which we are determined to see all the way through. We know that Real Time Information is important to many customers.  However, it has to be dependable so if the system is not 100% it could just as easily to do us more harm than good”

“Interestingly, we’ve had more complaints about the on-bus stop announcements being down than we have had about the real time – people have come to depend on the announcements and they miss them when they’re not working”.

The Star Text system is also affected by the same fault.  All recent customers are being sent a separate text apologising for the breakdown and promising that they will not have been charged for texts during the period of non-operation.

We hope to return to normal as soon as possible and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to customers for the loss of the real time service.

New peaks for transpeak
really scenic route doing well

Since its big relaunch a year ago, transpeak has doubled its payload.

The new look for one of our oldest brands came about with the help of Derbyshire County Council who secured kickstart funding to enhance and extend the timetable and mount a huge awareness and marketing campaign.

The selected stop transpeak brand now runs every hour from Nottingham and Derby to Belper, Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton – and on to Stockport and Manchester every other hour.

Before we joined forces with Derbyshire, transpeak was struggling to make ends meet and was running two hourly from Manchester to Derby.  Traffic congestion on the busy A6 in particular had taken a heavy toll and bumped up costs on what is our longest route.

Commercial director Ian Morgan said:

“Although there is still a long way to go, it looks as if transpeak is now starting to turn the corner, which is thanks to a strong partnership in which each partner plays to its strengths, a good team effort, and one of our broadest ever marketing campaigns to reach the a very wide catchment area of potential customers.

“The challenge is that this market may only travel once or twice a year for a couple of years– so you have to keep winning new converts.

“The kickstart rules are that transpeak must be able to stand on its own by the end of three years.  The early signs are that it is capable of meeting that challenge if growth continues at the current rate”.

The next stage of the marketing campaign will be a fully illustrated transpeak brochure and coupons delivered to homes throughout Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Hot Spots
Annual list appears online for the first time

Each year we produce a list of pinch points and bottlenecks that hinder the smooth progress of buses. In the past these lists have been sent to local authorities to draw attention to the locations where we need their help to get our buses through the jams.

On high frequency routes in particular, it only takes one or two such ‘Hot Spots’ to make buses bunch together.  And every time you see 2 buses together on a 10 minute timetable, there’s a gap of 20 minutes somewhere down the line.

This year we intend to widen the circulation of the Hot Spots reports in the hope that it will generate extra support for help so that we can improve service quality. The reports will go to local authorities, Highways Officials, MPs, Councillors, the media, pressure groups – anyone with a direct interest in public transport. There is also a special page on our web site so that anyone can download it - click here for link 

Commercial Director Ian Morgan said:

“Some of the Hot Spots, like Adams Hill on Derby Road in Nottingham, are long term, expensive problems.  Others don’t require much more than a bit of imagination or a few road markings to make a difference.  All of them require some political will to create clear routes for buses – and we will keep making that point.

“Traffic congestion is getting worse and no matter how modern or clean we keep our fleet, no matter how friendly our drivers and no matter how frequent or accessible or well marketed the service, the fact is that if the bus doesn’t turn up at the time we say it will then customers will not travel by bus. Punctuality is our customers’ number one demand. Improving bus services means improving punctuality first.

“When roadspace is tight, it makes sense to think about moving the most people rather than the most vehicles.”

Thanks for the seats…and the sheep

Travellers using our Villager brand between Derby and Burton upon Trent have voted their new-look buses a hit.

150 customers took part in a recent survey after the buses had been given a complete makeover inside and out.  The buses were completely stripped out for refit and emerged from the paintshop wearing a very different style of Villager livery. This was our first project to feature a new ‘2+1’ seating layout, replacing the traditional ‘four seats across’ style with a roomier double seat and spacious ‘personal’ single seat.

Over two thirds of people preferred the new layout to the old, and in the whole survey, only 9 people said that we should return to the old seating.

The makeover went down extremely well.  Over 90% of people said that they preferred the new interior décor to the old – and in fact the ‘new’ buses have now moved right up into second place on our customers’ ‘Villager Top Ten’ – number one, most satisfyingly, is still the friendly team of drivers. Comfortable ride was next on the list with 43% of people feeling that the quality of the ride had actually improved.  The ‘2+1’ seating is a new entry at number four.

Even when given the chance to criticise anything they wanted, a massive 70% of people could think of nothing they would change about Villager.

Regular readers of our Newsletters will recall that there was much debate about the famous sheep – which had been so strong a part of the original Villager livery that locals had unofficially dubbed the route ‘the sheep buses’.  Our decision to keep the sheep (right down to sheep transfers on the ticket machines) won the approval of a staggering 94% of people in the survey.

Brand Manager Adrian Cadd said:

“I am heartened by the tremendous customer confidence in the new-look Villager and the crew.  The buses have been declared a ‘good as new’, our first venture into the new style seating is a success and the friendly service is still in top place.  This is the only trent barton brand to have its own ‘mascots’, so the massive vote for the sheep is fantastic”.

Spring trial for TOTO
quick, cashless bus travel edges closer

Cashless transactions on the bus platform, tailored discounts for regular customers, quicker boarding times, better timekeeping…all are on the horizon thanks to recent developments on the TOTO front.

Standing for ‘Touch On, Touch Off’, TOTO is our code name for a new-generation of smartcard that you can charge up in advance, top up online or at a pay point – then never have to worry about finding a cash bus fare again.  You simply ‘Touch On’ as you board the bus and ‘Touch Off’ at your final stop.  A computer coupled to the GPS satellite system works out where you boarded the bus, where you got off and hence your fare. It then applies a discount (for helping us to speed up boarding times) and deducts it on the spot.  You’ll be able to earn bonuses too rather like ‘bus miles’ for the most frequent users.  Bus transactions will be quicker, so timekeeping will improve.

And after extensive bench-testing and fine tuning, a brand new ticket machine and card reader is now in production in Germany.  A pilot scheme will be on full operational trial on our rainbow 4 route in spring 2007.  The pilot will be in two phases, the first of which will invite a small group of selected customers to test TOTO in every which way, and measure how they take to it. Hopefully this will get any bugs out of the system and identify any problems that we have not anticipated.  The second phase will involve offering TOTO to all rainbow 4 customers who want to try the convenience of the new ticketing system.

If both phases of the trial are successful the system will be rolled out company-wide, probably in 2008.

Northern flavour for July winners

The Driver of the Month campaign has taken on a distinctly northern flavour thanks to the success of no fewer than four Dove Holes drivers in July.

George Crook received the £100 cheque for Driver of the Month, whilst his colleagues Roger Berry, Rob Holford and Douglas Finlayson (also a former Driver of the Month) were commended.  Paul Weightman prevented a Dove Holes whitewash by taking a July commendation for Broadmarsh.

Famous Five go ZigZagging

Early on a cold and windy Saturday, 5 intrepid young Scouts set out from Sandiacre on a journey that would eventually cover 235 trent barton miles in 14 hours by ZigZag ticket.  Their travels would take them to Ashbourne, Mayfield, Stockport, Nottingham and Chesterfield.

Their aim was to raise money to fund their entry into the World Scouts jamboree during their school summer holidays in 2007. And their travels netted them over £500 towards that cause.

Helen, Chris, Ben, Sam and Phil wrote in to pay special thanks to Customer Services Manager Josie Horrobin and Brand Manager Brian Reaney for their help and advice in plotting the itinerary.

They also sent special thanks to Derek on the one and Red Arrow driver Emma for being so helpful.

Best in the country…

“I used to live in Heanor”, writes Pat W from Chilwell, “so I know your drivers are the best in the country for their wonderful disposition.

“I didn’t think you could improve on that, but when I wanted to know about your rainbow 5 route I left a message and was amazed when someone actually called me back to give me all the information I needed”.

“I wonder how many passengers stop to consider that a driver has so much responsibility.

“Once again, THANK YOU to all your drivers and the people behind the scenes who help keep the buses on the road.

“I hope I have many more years travelling on your buses.  I know the standard will never be lowered”.