The first week of the new bus timetables has seen much moaning and groaning around the islands, and justifiably so. However, I don't think it is quite fair to gripe at "three timetable changes in as many days", when there has always been a different service on Saturday, no service on Sunday and then a weekday service on Monday. That is taking it a bit too far. However, I have been reading some ridiculous stories this week about even the drivers not knowing when to go where, how, and at what time. And I resent playing the man rather than the ball, but it's not terribly clever for the person in charge of public transport to go on holiday at the time the timetable changes.
I am also a bit flabbergasted why this has come as a bolt out of the blue. As far back as last December (see this link from Hebrides News) these intended changes were already being publicised. Looks like they were not publicised widely enough with all the gnashing of teeth and bashing of heads against walls that I have been witnessing over the past week.
I'm afraid it is a symptom of a local authority which does not consult widely enough (or in the right places) about strategic changes to service delivery. CnES is not unique in this, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI've a lot of annoyed customers in Harris, cos they're used to getting their soap orders on the Harris bus ...
ReplyDeleteQuite why this is no longer possible, I don't know, but was told that they only stop now, at these places, 'on request', rather than standardly ...
Quite why *my* request, (having paid the boxes bus-fare) didn't count for anything, I was not sure ...
It doesn't sound like the best of changes at all. Is there any upsides to it? Could it possibly be changed back again if enough people complained?
ReplyDeleteI agree,it must be frustrating and and can sympathise as where i lived in france we didn't even have a bus service,only school buses which refused to take anyone other than school kids and this in a group of villages which nearest town was 25kms away--which is hell for the elderly who cannot drive anymore as in a lot of villages there are no shops
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