Planning ahead used to be a relatively simple task. Most bus companies work in cycles anyway and especially those in seasonal areas. Every spring brings a summer timetable, every autumn a winter one, and the process behind that clicks into place in the months before hand. Each timetable brings with it thoughts of growth or contraction – do we need more capacity on growing routes, or do we have too much capacity on declining routes – may be a mixture?
What’s difficult these days is that we no longer determine ho w much money we will take from our customers. 55% of our customers now travel at a rate set by the local Council, either through the National Free Travel Scheme, or the local ‘Student Rider’ £1 flat fare scheme.
The theory of free and reduced travel is great, for all the reasons we don’t need to repeat! The problem for bus operators is that between December and March, local councils decide what percentage of the fare that would have been paid for each journey made in these schemes, will actually be paid from the April onwards…
…so, it’s incredibly difficult to plan on what will or won’t be viable, when 55% of fares are outside of our control, and set at a declining proportion of the real fare.
Our Easter change to summer timetable has to be registered with the Traffic commissioners around the end of January, so we’re already having to look at staff and vehicle requirements, and will need to have made our own minds up by mid January.
We know what we should be doing given the volume of travel on our network – increasing route 9 between Ryde and Newport from 6 buses an hour to eight, and route 14 between Ryde and Bembridge from hourly to half hourly. The extra passenger numbers justify it, but we need to know whether the payment they bring with them makes it financially viable before we can commit. Route 9 would require another 2 of the Mercedes’ single deck buses, so we’re hanging onto options there. Route 14 similarly requires another bus, though that can probably be accommodated by other changes.
One change we need to consider is route 4 between Ryde and East Cowes. At present it diverts via Binstead and Haylands, but the lengthy and unattractive journey time that creates has damaged the end to end traffic, which tends to be made by full fare payers on longer and therefore higher fare journeys. If we changes, the next question is whether we can put something back in place for Haylands and Binstead, but as the majority of passengers there are using the Free Travel Scheme, it will depend upon what the payment percentage is for that!
But in general terms, this is how the 2009 diary looks…
January
- Normally fare rise time, to keep fares in line with inflation and generally rising prices – no decision yet though, as we ponder what the need for fare rises may be based on the payments for free travel.
- More school journeys transferred into our coach unit, providing more schools with dedicated coaches and drivers.
- Time to register the summer timetable from Easter time with the Traffic Commissioner.
February
- Very much a month of behind the scenes work…
- Working up driver and vehicle workings for the autumn timetable.
- Getting summer publicity up together for printing and adding to the website.
- Ongoing Website development should see us launch ‘pay on line’ options for a whole series of passes and special tickets.
- Another couple of new Scania double deckers are due, replacing more of our older double deckers.
March
- Planning for IW Festival gets underway in earnest for June. We’ve been working away at it since the week after 2008 Festival, but now we get busy making detailed plans.
- Preparation is underway of 1200 roadside timetables for the April timetable change.
- West Island Printers will be busy printing 200,00 summer timetable booklets, all on 100% recycled paper, delivering 60,00 to the IW Beacon for door to door distribution, and the remainder for other distributors and ourselves.
- The Needles Tour gets underway.
- By the end of the month a further 9 new Scania double deckers should be with us, and all our older buses with ‘steps’ should be confined to school only work.
April
- Easter arrives, and the new summer timetable is underway.
- The three Road Trains make their return from winter hibernation, as do some of our other Open Top ‘Island Breezers’ tours.
- Planning is underway for our operation to shift thousands of walkers for ‘Walk the Wight’ on behalf of our special charity, the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.
- Route 9 should be up to 8 buses per hour, so hopefully we’ll have a couple of extra Mercedes’ buses joining the fleet. Also beginning to debut will be another 4 open toppers, replacing our three faithful old timers that we retired at the end of the 2008 season.
May
- May brings us Walk the Wight, and many of our office and engineering staff come out for their first stint of driving. Most of our non-driving staff have PCV licences, so at events like this they are called upon.
June
- Our most manic time of the year, with IW Festival stretching us to the limit in just about every way possible. With about 40 extra buses on the Island for the event, lasting a full week for us, every bus, driver, ticket seller, engineer, cleaner, and many more are well and truly committed to the madness that is IW Festival – thoroughly exhausting, but an event that makes us proud of our ‘family’ of staff and the extended family of helpers who return from time to time to help out at these such events.
- Festival is at the front end of the month, but straight after we are into final planning for our winter timetable. Time to discuss tendered routes and journeys with IW Council, as these are renewed (hopefully) for the winter timetable.
July
- We’re getting into the full throes of the summer season now, as our buses start to creak under the weight of visitors.
- Traffic is at its worst from mid-July, so we’ll probably have had to mobilise extra Inspector staff to deal with this from Ryde.
- As the month closes so Cowes Week arrives, probably the busiest period across the network outside of IW Festival. Fireworks Night at the finale is another event when we need more buses and drivers to cope with the crowds – traditionally our busiest single day of the season, but now well and truly eclipsed by the Monday after IW Festival.
- Again, we’re busy behind the scenes preparing for the introduction of the winter timetable, both our marketing department, liaising with designers and printers, and our Traffic office planning the detail of the bus and driver rotas and shifts.
August
- A full month inundated with customers, and traffic chaos. Once we’re through this months we can take a breath – this is the month when our frontline Drivers, Inspectors and Customer Assistants show their absolute professionalism to the full.
- Behind the scenes, we’ve still got those 1200 roadside timetables to produce.
- We’re also now looking at any tweaks or the new school year, late changes to routes, swapping vehicles of different sizes, working with the IW Council as the details of student movements becomes clear.
September
- Time to relax…err no, I’m afraid not!
- New timetable arrives at the beginning of the month, but most of the ‘Island Breezers’ open top tours will still be running, and so will the Road Trains.
- What’s more, it’s Bestival. This event has grown and grown, and is another big week of movements for us. In some ways this one is more difficult than IW Festival, with the location far more challenging to manage buses to/from, and indeed around. More buses in from England, and more long nights of bus driving for everyone. Hopefully not so much mud this year though!!!
October
- At last, as October dawns the Road trains are tucked away for another winter, and the Island Breezer open top tours are winding their way down.
- Business is noticeably quieter, and this is a time of year when drivers, having performed heroics through the summer, are off for a break.
November
- The final throes of summer end as the ‘Needles Tour’ takes a break for the deep winter, though ‘The Sandown Bay Tour’ has now become an all year open top operation!
- Open Toppers are still on our minds though, as we start planning our festive ‘Christmas Lights’ tours.
- We’re looking for volunteers now for Christmas and Boxing Day driving.
December
- And so to December, time for a few Christmas dos, saying thanks to our staff, and the ‘Christmas Lights’ tours…and it’s time to start looking forward to 2010!