It was a very snowy Saturday in February, so bad that buses under my control didn’t leave their garages. At the next board meeting, my Chairman lamented the loss of revenue and handed me a reprimand for failing to forecast the event when I had prepared my budget for the year. Oh, that I possessed the predictive powers of Nostradamus, then all would have been well.
Such skills are a must for anyone who works in the bus industry. When I was running schedules training courses, there was an expectation amongst those attending that there might be some infallible and scientific approach to determining running times for new services. I have tried desperately to find one; a solution has so far evaded me. I am pretty sure that the tried and tested method of carrying out several trial runs is still the only way.
Some years ago I drove a bus to test the running time for a new service. I managed to do the journey in 18 minutes. My trade union representative then took the wheel and it took him 22 minutes. He argued that all the traffic lights were on green when I drove. I argued they were all on red when he drove. We compromised on 20 minutes.
Invariably the estimated running time was a compromise because traffic conditions and dwell times can vary significantly by individual journey, time of day and day of the week.
When it was running, the service was monitored so action could be taken if the running time was too little or too much.
Despite advances in technology, including computer-assisted scheduling, the basis of deciding journey times is unscientific. Those who understand the realties will appreciate just how true this is.
The other day a driver waited her time at intermediate timing points to the extent of making the journey unattractive to users. Knowing the manager of the company involved, I reported the occurrence informally and was told that there was such fear of falling foul of the Traffic Commissioners’ standards that excessive running times were built in as matter of course.
He also told me that a where two buses were running together on the same route because of congestion, a similar fear saw his company reluctant to curtail the late running bus short of its destination and get it back to time on its return journey as this would be seen as failing to run in accordance with the registered timetable.
I don’t envy today’s managers who must contend with a similar attitude from those in remote and, dare I say, uninformed authority.
