Stick it to First - Start a bus co-op

[Andy Hamilton]

I got the bus here the other day as my girlfriends mum was down (normally walk or cycle), I hate the buses in Bristol as they are run by the money grabbing first group. The fare was £1.80 each for a single to go a distance of 1.25 miles.

Now then I got to thinking about how much profit is being creamed off this amount and what could be a solution.

Setting a massive bus Co-op would be a start I thought. It would have to start off small, perhaps just one route and one slightly old but reliable bus and two drivers/mechanic. Passengers would be charged at cost plus a little more to invest in expanding the co-op/fleet. I am sure that these fares could be slashed offering a better service for passengers and even higher pay for drivers. All profits ploughed back into the co-op.

Is this a slightly over ambitions idea?

[oldfella]

All Ideas are ambitious until you try, but unfortunately it costs money to find out.

[Flo]

Remember to take into account the fact that a lot of seats will be filled up by pensioners with free passes and what the county pays you won't cover the fares.

Likewise - you won't get many regular passengers with older buses. Unfortunately people won't get out of their cars unless they are far more comfortable travelling another way. Just don't expect to cover your costs unless you provide reliability, comfort, warmth in winter, cleanliness and an on time service. Oh and smart staff with good customer facing skills.

Otherwise people will just think they have caught the school bus - not popular.

Sorry to be a wet blanket. But you have to look at it from what the customer expects - cheap poeple may want in buses but they also want a far better service than they are willing to pay for.

Oh and you won't have the economies of scale for buying your very expensive fuel with only a bus or two - you certainly won't be able to get it on tick with no track record.

[Thomzo]

I think you have to have a licence from the local council to operate buses in their area.

And buses get really badly damaged by the yobs that use them.

Good luck

Zoe

[ina]

I think that's what a lot of private companies are trying to do in some cities: they offer cheaper fares - but then they have to stick to the most popular routes and times of day, meaning there' no service for large parts of the day - otherwise they couldn't cover costs. I know it seems expensive, £1.80 for such a short trip - but it generally works out cheaper for longer trips, and the car would still cost you more.

[invisiblepiper]

We live in a semi rural area - seaside town and unfortunately the buses are scarily unreliable. It is common to be called at 10.30 at night by a stranded teenager on an unlit road cos the last bus has not appeared.
Sadly this means a heavy reliance on a car - which it might be possible to do without in the city. Oh , and reliance on a bloomin' mobile phone for the teen to get you!
( I am talking of long er distances - walking a couple of mile is fine - but not seven miles on an unlit road with fast ish traffic.)
The bus company simply replies by apologising , or stating high staff absence.
Consequently, our teens queue to learn to drive asap - and finally to the point - some sort of community/cooperative bus could be a more reliable idea - but unlikely to be cost effective.
Sorry - ranting this morning

[Rod in Japan]

There was a bloke on here a while back talking about a car-sharing/taxi sort of scheme. I think that would both be easier to set up, would scale better, and would provide better service.

[Big Al]

I think this is a non starter Andy, certainly without money backers. We have stagecoach up here in hartlepool and a couple of entrepenuers tried to do exactly what you have proposed but they had problems with the CUSTOMERS......

There is no bus services into the small posher estates in Hartlepool so they aimed to provide this service to the residents and they blocked the roads and caused no end of trouble so the two lads went bust.

It would be nice to have a nice clean bus with a curtious driver who drives carefully and sensibly and maybe a conductor ( cuts down on trouble makers). Also comfortable seats, not exactly plush leather settee type but better than normal.... oh and cheap fares....

I applaude your idea but it might be a better solution to start up a peddle bike taxi service. I was going to do this about 14 years ago but I had to have a hackney licence and a whole load of red tape made it financially impossible...... oh and the bike taxi had to have an MOT test every year complete with emmissions test......

rules... don't you just love 'em.

Alan

[Shirley]

If your eyes can bear the yellow... take a look at this site http://www.thebiglemon.com/