Introduction

With most of our bus services and some of our rail services funded from local and national taxes, it is only reasonable for the residents of East Cotswolds to expect value for money. Bus and rail fares matter a lot, but more important is availability. A cheap service operating at times when people are unable to travel helps no-one. Likewise, connecting bus and rail services become meaningless when the connection time is greater than an hour.

This article takes a look at the services provided to the area east of Cirencester, along the A417 line towards Fairford and Lechlade. This is commuter land with most people working in Cirencester, Swindon, Gloucester or Cheltenham. A few go as far as London on a regular basis. At present the area is served by a few County Council funded buses and by First Great Western Train services via Kemble Station.

Kemble Rail Link

Kemble provides rail connections to Swindon and London Paddington to the east, and Stroud, Gloucester and Cheltenham to the west. The County Council have ensured there is a bus to and from Cirencester for a few selected trains. Sounds good so far.

However, a quick glance at the timetable reveals no morning rush hour trains to Swindon. These were removed three years ago. With no trains arriving in Swindon between 8am and 8.59am the service is clearly not intended for working people. First Great Western say they schedule their trains for the convenience of Reading and Paddington commuters. Wales & West claim they have insufficient rolling stock to provide the necessary service ! Both say that the single track between Kemble and Swindon inhibits more trains. I have checked this out - it is not true - between 8am and 8.40am there are no trains on this track in either direction (not even goods trains). Note that the running time on the single track stretch of this rail is just 12 minutes - time to fit in two extra trains.

Westbound to Gloucester and Cheltenham is just as bad - they do have a train arriving about 8.30am, but unfortunately this is the first train, so anyone with an 8.30am start will arrive late for work everyday.

Kemble-Cirencester Bus Link

Potentially a great idea, but sadly it is of little use to anyone who doesn't live in Cirencester itself. Why ? Because the last eastbound 77 bus from Cirencester towards Fairford & Lechlade leaves at 5.45pm. This is ¾ hour too early for commuters from Gloucester & Cheltenham, and 2 hours too early for the Paddington arrivals. There are very few bus/rail commuters from Swindon for reasons given see above.

77 Bus Service

(Cirencester - Fairford - Lechlade - Swindon)

The first westbound bus arrives in Cirencester at 8.35am and the last eastbound departs at 5.45pm. Assuming people must walk some distance to work this can only suit those working the proverbial 9 to 5. About 50% of Cirencester businesses start at 8am or 8.30am !

Travelling in the other direction, the first bus arrives in Swindon at 10.24am and the last bus leaves Swindon at 4.25pm. Taking into account the missing rail service, this, unsurprisingly, leaves only the motor car for getting to and from work.

School children and students appear to be the only groups who benefit from the current 77 transport policy.

Connections

It is perhaps an odd thing to say, but one would expect a public authority to insist on properly-timed connections if they are paying for the bus services. A quick look at east-west journeys from, say, Lechlade or Fairford through to Stroud, Gloucester or Cheltenham shows the real state of play.

· Most of the Cheltenham departures from Cirencester leave 3 minutes before the arrival of the connecting bus from the east.

· Connection times for the next Cheltenham bus is more than ¾ hour.

· Only one Gloucester bus per day links up with the 77 service, and that involves a ¾ hour wait.

· Only two Stroud buses per day link up with the 77 service, one of which involves a 1¼ hour wait.

· The three out of the four connecting buses to Malmesbury and Chippenham each day include a wait in excess of 1½ hours.

Stagecoach were asked why the connecting times were so poor. They advised that "these services are operated under contract to Gloucestershire County Council and it is the Passenger Transport department of this authority that specify not only the timetable but also the type of vehicle to be used and to an extent, the fares that are to be charged".

They also said that any of their existing contracts with the County Council could be re-negotiated if necessary !

Through ticketing

It is still not possible to buy a through bus ticket from, say, Ampney Crucis to Kemble, just a 20 minute bus journey. Likewise, through rail/bus tickets do not exist for 99% of destinations. Technically it is easy to achieve - a cheap hand-held computer can these days accommodate every fare between hundreds of thousands of destinations nationally - yet we are only looking for ticketing to a limited number of local destinations.

What should we be doing ?

Here we can only look at what other countries do. The most successfully integrated systems create a hub for each area, e.g. Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester etc.. Hubs are generally centred on rail stations (so for Cirencester read Kemble). Most buses in most directions must pass through the hub. (Some services, e.g. Tetbury, Malmesbury, Bath, Chippenham & Stratford already pass through Kemble).

Inward and outward buses are timed to meet trains. Outward buses do not depart until inward buses in the same general direction have arrived.

Applying this to East Cotswold, buses on the major routes (Lechlade, Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, & Stroud) should terminate at Kemble. This alone would give the rail companies sufficient extra traffic to justify an improved rail service.

The bus timetables should be aimed at groups of people with common interests such as Swindon shop workers, office workers, factory workers, shoppers etc., or similar groups for Cirencester or Gloucester say. This will ensure that a majority in each group will be able to benefit from the service. It is not a difficult task - Switzerland have done exactly this for more than 60 years incorporating many dozens of private bus, rail and steamer transport undertakings.

Where do we start ?

We could talk about it for a long time, and achieve very little. Far better to start small but with the final plan always in mind.

First, re-route the 77 service so that it terminates at Kemble Station. This will be cheaper than the present practise of running a separate bus from Cirencester to Kemble.

Next, address the problem of service interval, and first & last buses. An irregular service is not a service at all - just a hotch potch of random journeys from which people cannot benefit.

Then, one by one, re-route and re-time each of the westbound connecting services into the new 77 timings.

Winners and losers

There are no losers ! Rail and bus companies benefit from additional revenue. The County Council benefits for the kudos associated with a successful transport policy. The passenger benefits from an improved service. Society benefits from the reduction of CO₂ emissions.

So, what are we waiting for ?