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| Drinks are free here, like travel for ENCTS holders on buses |
Operators are reimbursed by the council, or PTE as applicable for every passenger that uses them. However, funding is decreasing and in an increasing number of cases we have a situation where the operator is running these services at a loss despite having a bus full of passengers who haven't put a penny in the till.
The long-awaited Buses Bill is just a matter of weeks away and we don't know as yet how this will affect the industry. What is becoming more apparent is that local councils will perhaps end up having to find the money to subsidise operators for carrying customers who own such a pass. With costs being driven down every day by local authorities, it's inevitable that bus companies will end up with fewer pence per passenger carried and the end product being no buses on more lighter used routes and services.
For me, there is now only one suitable answer to this mess and that's to axe free travel. It's not so long ago that customers who required it enjoyed half fare or in some PTE areas it was a set fare, vastly reduced from the full price. Operators in some areas have been very clever to have offers where ENCTS pass holders can pay £1.00 for example to travel prior to 09:30 to take advantage of the timed restriction these passes currently hold. Innovative, but it just isn't enough.
Our rural bus services are struggling to make ends meet. Lower passenger numbers means fewer applications through the ENCTS process and also the good old fare-paying customer. Services end up being reduced so again fewer passengers on board and the cycle only ends when the service is withdrawn. A disaster for all concerned in this case. It's pleasing to note that some operators, namely Transdev up in North Yorkshire with their DalesBus which works with the local community and TM Travel in Derbyshire who are turning once funded routes into commercial operations, but the problem still exists and relies heavily on other services supporting the rural offer.
The problem just doesn't end there. Post 09:30 on some busy routes sees a large amount of ENCTS holders filling up buses who are now getting close to worthless to the operator. When I use the word worthless, I mean strictly in a financial term and this is the fault of local and national government who have created such a mess with this system. The issue with a bus being filled with these customers, or 'twirlies' as they were better known in the good old days, is that fare-paying passengers actually can't get on. They see the issue and then find another way of getting to town. Further revenue is lost once more.
We are now at a point where the best things in life aren't actually free and none more so than free bus travel. Operators are doing their best in most cases to keep these lifelines going but there's a limit and I feel that we are now there. The ENCTS pass needs to go, or rather stay and provide the holder with half-price travel. The benefit here is that the operator can offer some excellent ticketing offers whilst reducing the burden on the councils and actually gets a decent return on carrying people from A to B. This really is now the only solution.
I'm pretty certain that Club Tropicana was just a very expensive all-inclusive hotel. The problem is that in the bus world, it's the everyday customer who is paying the all-inclusive for the ENCTS holders to drink the cocktails. Action is needed now before the bus leaves the countryside forever.
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Editorial
By the way, many thanks for the four who enjoyed my daily blogs. My health is not what it was and at times I will have to take breaks away from the blogging but I will try and offer as much as I can in the future. Many thanks for the kind words once more and a happy new year to you and yours!
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