A solution to the biggest problem Beeching caused?

[21C101]

To my mind, the biggest flaw with the beeching closures, wasn't in many cases the closure itself but that the rail replacement was completely divorced from the railway.

When you had a branch line, it meant:

• that trains connected with branch trains at the same station (not a bus station 1/4 mile away).
• that the branch terminus had a station with full station and ticketing facilities.
• that through fares on a single ticket were the norm
• that the full mainline service was connected with including evenings
• that the branch service had similar comfort to the main line, in many cases with first class.

To my mind it was wholly unnecessesary that any of the above was lost when the railway closed. It could all have been replicated using high quality coaches.

With so many local bus services now operated by the same company as the TOC perhaps this concept could be explored now.

This is how I would envisage a "virtual railway" being provided. I'm going to use as an example the Feniton - Sidmouth branch (because I know the area). This closed in the 1960s due to lack of use, as the station was a mile outside town at the top of a hill. To the end though it was reasonably well used by people going to London, with above average first class, but rarely for people going on local trips to e.g. Exeter.

To make the virtual railway the following would be needed:

• Purchase a shop in the town centre by the seafront, preferably with parking nearby. This would be fitted out with a ticket office selling the full range of tickets at a station and waiting room along with CIS showing the connecting coach and mainline departures. Outside would be the bus stop, preferably with an awning/canopy outside the shop so people could get onto the bus in the dry. This would be advertised (with big double arrow logo) and signs as "Sidmouth Station" and marketed as if it was any other railway station. The railway timetable and publicity would show is as a railway.
• Purchase two high quality coaches to replace the buses on the hourly service to Honiton. These would have equipment to allow access for the disabled and could even have a section of very high quality seating designated first class.
• Run the service hourly to connect with all mainline trains including the evening and early morning ones. The service would stop at all the existing bus stops en-route.
• At Honiton the bus runs into a special bay with "heathrow junction" style direct access to the platforms, effectively it terminates inside the station not outside it.

I think if Beeching had done that, the problem would have gone away and the connecting buses would be well used and people would have continued to use the train a lot more. Modern technology also makes it possible to be seamless and accessible to disabled passengers.

 

[edwin_m]

In general I'm inclined to agree with you. Although by analogy with the surviving rail branches I think the solution would have been a conductor on the coach with an Advantix, and just a bus shelter at the terminus.

However I don't think we can rely on the train and bus operators being the same company to secure this in future - what happens when the rail franchise changes or a bus competitor moves into the area?

Today as in the 1960s our trains and buses are treated as separate entities rather than elements of an intergrated network, with a few honourable exceptions such as the Minehead bus that leaves from the station platform at Taunton (is the Eden Project "branch line" still going?). At this risk of annoying at least one member, I would suggest that this sort of arrangement is not going to become widespread unless the bus network is re-regulated, and much more integrated than most of it was even before deregulation.

 

[yorksrob]

I think it would be nice to have a waiting room and ticket office, but I suspect it was those sort of costs that were a cause of the branch line closure in the first place.

 

[Oswyntail]

I think it would be nice to have a waiting room and ticket office, but I suspect it was those sort of costs that were a cause of the branch line closure in the first place.

The key to that would be to have the terminus shop as a going concern (cafe, grocers, etc)

 

[yorksrob]

The key to that would be to have the terminus shop as a going concern (cafe, grocers, etc)

Indeed yes. Infact that 's the key to better facilities at a lot of stations anyway.

 

[najaB]

However I don't think we can rely on the train and bus operators being the same company to secure this in future - what happens when the rail franchise changes or a bus competitor moves into the area?

Specify the bus service as part of the rail franchise and leave it up to the franchisee to decide if they want to run it themselves or contract it to a local bus operator. Also specify that the buses have to be fitted with GPS recording or transponders that allow them to be tracked real-time and the on-time performance to be monitored the same as it is with trains.

 

[yorksrob]

I remember catching the Tunbridge Wells - Eridge bus on one occasion many years ago and it wasn't very well patronised to say the least. I think the key problem was more that the useful through journey to Brighton had been lost rather than the quality of the connection etc.

 

[Greenback]

Indeed yes. Infact that 's the key to better facilities at a lot of stations anyway.

I agree with this. In fact the thread has raised quite a few points that I agree with, including the point about virtual services being part of a franchise, which the TOC could operate themselves or sub contract.

 

[edwin_m]

Specify the bus service as part of the rail franchise and leave it up to the franchisee to decide if they want to run it themselves or contract it to a local bus operator. Also specify that the buses have to be fitted with GPS recording or transponders that allow them to be tracked real-time and the on-time performance to be monitored the same as it is with trains.

I agree this would be sensible. But if the bus is subsidised as part of the rail franchise, the local bus operator may well have a case under competition law. Not sure of the exact legal position but it's certainly the case that a tendered bus service isn't allowed to compete significantly with a commercial one.

 

[JaJaWa]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Trains_ExpressCoach

 

[evergreenadam]

Sadly I think the Audley End - Saffron Walden bus link is to be withdrawn shortly having only been recently introduced.

 

[daikilo]

To my mind, the biggest flaw with the beeching closures, wasn't in many cases the closure itself but that the rail replacement was completely divorced from the railway.

[..]

I think if Beeching had done that, the problem would have gone away and the connecting buses would be well used and people would have continued to use the train a lot more. Modern technology also makes it possible to be seamless and accessible to disabled passengers.

Beeching was about saving cost, not increasing patronage. Moving passengers off a train onto a subsidised bus didn't solve his problem, moving them into a private car did, until it became recognised that cars need roads, carparks etc. And as for the freight business, if the trains lost money, they were stopped.

If I had the time, I would love to build a simulation taking what was achieved following the privatisation of BR, applied to the problem Beeching was faced with. Only in those days, funding of nationwide privatisation probably wasn't there. Indeed, only 3 years after Beeching, the major bus groups were themselves nationalised.

 

[yorksrob]

If I had the time, I would love to build a simulation taking what was achieved following the privatisation of BR, applied to the problem Beeching was faced with. Only in those days, funding of nationwide privatisation probably wasn't there. Indeed, only 3 years after Beeching, the major bus groups were themselves nationalised.

Presumably you could have given one TOC the Great Central, for example and another the MML, providing the sort of competition you get between London and Exeter for example to a lot more places. Whether there would have been enough passengers to go round in that motor centric age, I don't know.

This presumably would gave had more impact on saving the secondary routes than the branch lines as such. There was an interesting discussion as to what actually constitutes a "branch line" in rail recently.

 

[3141]

In many cases of rail closures in the 1960s additional bus services were introduced to help replace travel connections that were lost when a rail service closed, but these bus services were also withdrawn within a few years because of lack of patronage. I suspect that Beeching, and the BR Board at the time, did not appreciate how much passenger traffic they would lose, ultimately to cars, once through travel and ticketing disappeared.

A high quality coach service connecting with trains might do the trick in some cases, though it would also have to have space for heavy luggage, and cyclists would want it to have space for bikes as well, which might not be practicable. But if the setting-up costs are going to include dedicated premises it will be an expensive operation. To take the example of Feniton to Sidmouth, wouldn’t there have to be a “station” in Ottery St. Mary as well as Sidmouth? The business case for all this would have to include estimates of the income from passengers. I wonder how many additional passengers would be needed at Honiton to make it pay. If the operation still needed a subsidy, you might justify it on the grounds that (1) it was providing a better public transport service, and (2) it was reducing carbon emissions through fewer individual car journeys. But there’d be a point where even these factors would be judged not to justify the size of the subsidy.

As for monitoring the on-time performance of the coaches, and fining the operators for lateness, an arrangement would need to be devised so that they weren’t penalised for traffic delays outside their control. Maybe “void” journeys instead of “void” days. If traffic delays occurred regularly and passengers missed the train, or had to wait a long time for the coach to pick them up, they might revert to their cars.

The above factors may explain why there aren’t a great many bus rail links and some of them get withdrawn after only a short time. If the idea was introduced the links would have to be selected very carefully to try to avoid routes on which problems were likely to arise.

 

[najaB]

A high quality coach service connecting with trains might do the trick in some cases, though it would also have to have space for heavy luggage, and cyclists would want it to have space for bikes as well, which might not be practicable. But if the setting-up costs are going to include dedicated premises it will be an expensive operation.

It would probably only make sense for the towns that often appear in the 'Largest town without a mainline rail connection' trivia threads e.g. this one.

As for monitoring the on-time performance of the coaches, and fining the operators for lateness, an arrangement would need to be devised so that they weren’t penalised for traffic delays outside their control. Maybe “void” journeys instead of “void” days. If traffic delays occurred regularly and passengers missed the train, or had to wait a long time for the coach to pick them up, they might revert to their cars.

I agree it wouldn't be fair to fine them for factors outside their control, the suggestion for tracking is more so that the coach journeys show up in real-time train info.

The above factors may explain why there aren’t a great many bus rail links and some of them get withdrawn after only a short time. If the idea was introduced the links would have to be selected very carefully to try to avoid routes on which problems were likely to arise.

Agreed, it wouldn't work in all cases, but it could be used for lines where the business case for reopening *almost* makes sense.

 

[jopsuk]

Sadly I think the Audley End - Saffron Walden bus link is to be withdrawn shortly having only been recently introduced.

Audley End-Walden would be best served by building a high quality cycle and footway along the old branch route, with a lightweight bridge over the main road...

 

[Abpj17]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Trains_ExpressCoach

In theory yes. In my experience any sensible alignment with trains has now been lost. e.g. the frequency of Luton to MK has declined and doesn't link up with Virgin's trains at MK

 

[colchesterken]

"they" should have passed a law that former trachbed could not be built over in case of the need to reinstate,,should only have allowed things like footways or car parks

look a the additional cost of reopening lines due to building on trackbed

I read there are big problems with the new east west line due to building around Milton Keynes

 

[21C101]

In theory yes. In my experience any sensible alignment with trains has now been lost. e.g. the frequency of Luton to MK has declined and doesn't link up with Virgin's trains at MK

It would probably be better used if it was diverted to leave the M1 at Junction 12 and call at Flitwick Station, Ampthill, Centreparcs and Ridgmont Station before joining the motorway again at Junction 13 and heading for the Coachway at 14 before calling at the MK town centre and station.

 

[MK Tom]

The 99 isn't a rail link in any meaningful sense now. It gets its patronage by being the fastest route out of the four services that operate between CMK and Luton, as well as the only direct link from CMK to the airport.

 

[Abpj17]

The 99 isn't a rail link in any meaningful sense now. It gets its patronage by being the fastest route out of the four services that operate between CMK and Luton, as well as the only direct link from CMK to the airport.

And it seems to be the only one quick one that calls at the train station in MK (the other one goes through Dunstable which is never going to be quick). From memory, there are more services from the shops.

21C101 - that might get better used, but would take longer for the people trying to get to Luton?

Tbf, a bus to only Flitwick might make it easier to get to Luton through joining the line there.

 

[The Ham]

The problem I've come across with "branch line" buses is that they are poorly timetabled to connect with trains. For instance they either have very tight connections and so people can easily miss their trains or the connection is too slack and people end up sitting around.

Of course it is possible for one bus to result in both! In that an infrequent traveller would require time to purchase tickets and work out where they need to go, whilst a commuter would be able to make a connection in just a minute or two.

If you are going to run a connecting bus service then they need to be more frequent than the trains that they serve so as to avoid such problems.

 

[SteveHFC]

The 99 between Luton Airport and MK Central is about to have a frequency increase from 4th January - with half hourly coaches in peak hours due to increased patronage from commuters. The result has been numerous occasions in recent months where passengers have been left behind due to the vehicles being full. I use this service daily to travel to work at The Quadrant.

 

[najaB]

The problem I've come across with "branch line" buses is that they are poorly timetabled to connect with trains. For instance they either have very tight connections and so people can easily miss their trains or the connection is too slack and people end up sitting around.

Since they're acting as an extension of the train service, and are being contracted by (or run by) the TOC, it shouldn't be too hard to make sure that timetable closely matches the main trains. Most places you wouldn't need more than 10 minutes slack in the timetable to be reasonably sure about connections.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The 99 isn't a rail link in any meaningful sense now. It gets its patronage by being the fastest route out of the four services that operate between CMK and Luton, as well as the only direct link from CMK to the airport.

It never really was in practice, as why would you get the train from anywhere up north to Luton when you can use Manchester Airport instead? Its main users seem to be warehouse-worker commuters travelling between Kingston and the first stop off the M1 at Luton, which is quite ironic given that those two stops only exist to reduce the distance between stops to allow BSOG (or whatever it's called now) to be claimed for it as a local bus service. It carries almost nobody between MKC station and CMK shops, and similarly almost nobody between Luton station and the Airport.

Neil
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Tbf, a bus to only Flitwick might make it easier to get to Luton through joining the line there.

There was one for a bit, if I recall; it didn't last. Not a rail link, just a commercial local bus service.

Neil
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The 99 between Luton Airport and MK Central is about to have a frequency increase from 4th January - with half hourly coaches in peak hours due to increased patronage from commuters. The result has been numerous occasions in recent months where passengers have been left behind due to the vehicles being full. I use this service daily to travel to work at The Quadrant.

Interesting, as observing it of late it almost seems to be being run down - clearly not! Would be nice to see an upgrade using the old X5 coaches - the X5 is getting new 14m coaches in December. And perhaps up its profile a bit by renumbering X9 and bringing it into the "Cross County" service group, or whatever the new X5 coaches will be branded.

Neil

 

[The Ham]

Since they're acting as an extension of the train service, and are being contracted by (or run by) the TOC, it shouldn't be too hard to make sure that timetable closely matches the main trains. Most places you wouldn't need more than 10 minutes slack in the timetable to be reasonably sure about connections.

Unless they are timetabled to meet trains heading in one direction (say meeting demand for people heading to/from London), as then it can be a long wait. For instance:
Train from London xx:00 to somewhere else
Train to London xx:15 from somewhere else

Bus arrives xx:05 timed to make connection with train to London (therefore if you are going away from London you miss your connection or have to arrive 55 minutes before your train)

Bus departs xx:25 (therefore if you have arrived from London you have 25 minutes to make the connection, which can be quite a long wait)

Alternatively if the bus service takes 58 minutes (off peak) to run the complete route then there is no slack in the timetable, meaning that any delay (road works, peak hour traffic etc.) would not be able to be clawed back and could (especially in the case of road works) mean that the bus gets later and later during the day.

Personally I think that it is better to have a 30 minute or better frequency service which is commercially viable on it's own than run an hourly service which is prone to delays or is poorly timed compared with some trains.

 

[Bald Rick]

A not insignificant proportion of rural 'rail' services in France are run along similar lines, usually from the old station (often with rusty rails out back).

 

[SteveHFC]

Interesting, as observing it of late it almost seems to be being run down - clearly not! Would be nice to see an upgrade using the old X5 coaches - the X5 is getting new 14m coaches in December. And perhaps up its profile a bit by renumbering X9 and bringing it into the "Cross County" service group, or whatever the new X5 coaches will be branded.

Neil

They've had some regular reliability issues with coaches, which has resulted in buses appearing frequently on the 99. The drivers are all very keen to really make the 99 work. Funny you could mention the old X5 coaches - guess which vehicles are due to be operating the 99 from 4th January?

 

[Starmill]

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the bus link from Leuchars to St Andrews. There is a national rail ticket office at St Andrews Bus Station, a fact which is advertised on it's signs throughout the town, and the buses seemed to operate at the times given by the NRT (and NRE App). The buses run a lot more frequently than the trains, so connections aren't so much of an issue. The buses were all operated by Stagecoach, and were fairly bog standard, not mega comfortable, but it's quite a short bus ride for a journey that would take 90 minutes on foot.

I was impressed. This isn't the high quality bus link envisaged by the OP, but it's an excellent start. The bus station at St Andrews was small but functional and clean. Everything you needed from a station was there (except maybe a rail TVM for when the ticket office is closed). The bus stands at Leuchars could do with a bit of sprucing up, but at least there was shelter (Although the bridge is exposed and the station is accessible only by steps), but at least the buses are easy to find from the train and stop right by the station.

 

[cuccir]

Although not sold as 'rail style', the X26/X27 buses to Richmond/Catterick are listed on the departure boards at Darlington station, and on NRE. I don't know if this boosts patronage though?

As said, the key thing missed with bus connections is that people have not trusted them - they see them as too much hassle, uncomfortable, and unreliable. Beeching and others had a vision that coach to rail connections would work, and this hasn't happened.

GPS, integration into online journey planners/booking engines, good on-board facilities (WiFi...) might mean that this could be revisited. For some close-to-profitable services, these could be a push factor into getting more customers. But there will still be the challenges that others have mentioned above.