Christmas and New Year service levels

As we return to school and work, lets take a look at how the public transport industry coped over the Christmas and New Year period. On the 24th, most operators had an early shutdown. Trent Barton ran its Indigo and Skylink routes until midnight, but other than that, last buses ran between 1900 and 2030. On Christmas Day no trains or buses ran in the Nottingham area. There was a very limited service across the country, including on the Isle of Wight where Southern Vectis ran a Sunday service.

Last year Trent Barton ran services on Boxing Day and New Years Day. NCT also ran the contracted Citylink 1, but no other services. This year the C1 was planned to run again but unfortunately due to flooding the service had to be cancelled. This meant NCT did not run any services on Boxing Day. This year though yourbus also ran some services. Their Y36 and the recently introduced Y28 ran every 20 minutes on Boxing Day. I travelled on the i4 on Boxing Day. The service was advertised as being every half an hour but the bus I tried to catch was 25 minutes late. It was then so full it went straight past without stopping. Fortunately the next bus was running more or less to time and although it was well loaded it was empty enough to stop and let me board. Loadings were healthy on all other routes and the Indigo was running every 15 minutes. Despite this some bunching occurred and two full and standing Indigos were observed going round the QMC roundabout. I think this kind of service on Boxing Day is simply brilliant and it is a shame that some of the larger operators have not taken the initiative to run services over the festive season. I feel sure Trent Barton and yourbus made a decent profit on Boxing Day, and services were certainly well used. The tram was running a Sunday service and bus and tram live time screens were running with correct times.

On New Year's Day the story was a little different. Trent Barton were running more buses but unfortunately they advertised the Indigo as running between Long Eaton and Derby when in reality it was only running between Nottingham and Long Eaton. This caused lots of confusion for intending passengers and in the end Trent Barton offered free taxis to those who were affected. Despite this rare example of good customer service, the incident still shouldn't have occurred. It might have been better to take a spare vehicle and run it over the route for the day to avoid leaving anybody stranded.

yourbus said they were also running the Y28 and Y36 every 20 minutes, but apparently these services were sporadic at best. This is unfortunate because it reduces passenger confidence in bus services, and it means that next year many people may be unwilling to use the bus because they think it is unreliable and it may not turn up! This is not really the sort of advert the bus industry needs. Interestingly trains were running normally on New Years Day, except for engineering work, and I travelled from London to Bury St Edmunds and back with no issues whatsoever. Why can't buses be like that?!

So, next year we need more Boxing Day buses, correct online timetables and perhaps a service from NCT. I feel sure the bus companies of Nottingham will rise to the challenge, giving a better service for all passengers. Perhaps we will even see the Indigo running on Christmas Day!