App-y at First Cymru

Technology. It's long been my opinion that some bus operators have been slow to embrace it.

First Bus have produced an app available for iPhone or Android, now available for download. First impressions of it are very positive. It automatically selects the region, though this can be changed easily. Users can search timetables which, while they appear as a long list for the region selected, are searchable and easy to navigate. Fare information is available (but not single or return fares, strange that most bus operators want to keep those to themselves....) plus service updates and links to their Facebook and Twitter pages. Users can view route maps and there's a section for checking the times of the next buses at a particular stop, though whenever I try to do something with that, the app crashes, but bugs can always be expected of a new app. One pity so far is that it doesn't seem possible to view or download whole timetables or even the booklets on the First Cymru site, but for me it's more user friendly than their website and is more likely to be my port of call for information. 

Great work by First.

Now a Stagecoach app would be very handy as I use them more often, but I'm not holding my breath of one appearing any time soon.

Green and red

Stagecoach in South Wales are rolling out a green-light system to show how well their drivers drive. GPS equipment on board which detects numerous movements each minute is able to show how harshly a driver brakes or accelerates, how much they swerve in and out of traffic and so on. The system, which can be seen by the driver using a green, amber, red light system, can show immediately how well a driver drives a bus, plus they can also find out online afterwards how they perform.

Such a system is common in a few other parts of the UK. The main motivation for installing such a system is to provide savings on fuel costs, especially with the reductions in BSOG (Bus Service Operator's Grant, which provides a tax rebate on fuel used in service).

However, if drivers are going to be penalised for harsh acceleration and braking, tight timetables are going to struggle even more. Routes that struggle to maintain time are going to struggle even more to the point where they may well have to be rescheduled, or Stagecoach will feel the wrath of fines from VOSA. In some cases, any efficiency savings from using less fuel may well be cancelled out, or may even cost the company more, in using extra vehicles/drivers to maintain the timetables. Who knows, maybe the system will cost some routes more than it will save them? What will happen then? Frequency cuts rather than extra buses to maintain the same service levels?

Interesting times ahead, that's for sure!