Poor timekeeping in Kidderminster leads to fine ‘to be most equitably returned’ to users in the town
Rotala-owned Diamond Bus has been fined £9,075 by Traffic Commissioner (TC) Nick Denton for poor punctuality. The sum will be returned to passengers in Kidderminster in the form of free or reduced-price travel.
In a written decision following a Public Inquiry (PI) held on 21 June, Mr Denton says that despite Diamond having attended PIs in 2014 and 2016 following complaints from passengers about timekeeping, it has made “little substantive progress.”
Diamond challenged Traffic Examiner Austin Jones’ report that 21% of 1,443 monitored services were outside the window of tolerance. Based on that, DVSA reduced its overall non-compliance figure to 11%, and to 15% in what Mr Denton calls “the problem Kidderminster area.”
The operator asserted that 98% of its services ran within the window of tolerance. That was not accepted by the TC, who disregarded some of the reasons that Diamond used as reasonable excuses.
However, he did accept reasonable excuse for 30 journeys, to give an overall compliance of 91.1%. That figure was worse in Kidderminster. There, around 15% of journeys were non-compliant, partially thanks to service 3 which is prone to timekeeping difficulties in Stourport.
The TC also addressed prohibitions received by Diamond and in particular a wheel loss incident on 13 June. Nevertheless, he found no major issues with the operator’s fleet, systems and processes. Nor did he make any adverse findings about the repute of the company or that of Transport Manager Robert Baker.
The fine is based on £33 for each of the 275 vehicles that Diamond Bus is authorised. It was levied by Mr Denton according to Section 155 of the Transport Act 2000, which also allows compensation for passengers in the form of free or reduced-price travel.
“I intend to make a specific direction along those lines, but before I do so, I will discuss with the operator how the £9,075 penalty may be best and most equitably returned to users of Kidderminster services and the users of route 3 in particular,” he says.
