Public transport in Leicester and the county is notoriously poor. Services are split between different operators, with no integration between any of the companies involved. Travelling from one part of the county to another can mean buying multiple tickets. There is a Flexi Ticket, that allows travel across most operators, but this is not widely advertised, and when I once asked an Arriva bus driver about it, he denied all knowledge. The cost is higher than a day ticket with just one operator, and is limited to the city and suburbs.
On top of that, services often run to a timetable of their own making; I have often waited ridiculously lengthy times for a bus in the past, with the longest wait being close to an hour for a service that should have been running every 8 minutes.
Unreliability can be blamed on other motorists. It is true that in Leicestershire, we have some of the worst road systems in the UK. The BBC East Midlands news programme reported last year that the A426 into the city was the most congested road in the region. Calls to use public transport fall on deaf ears, as motorists know that bus services are unreliable, yet don't see that they are part of this problem.
Getting motorists out of their cars and onto public transport is also thwarted by the cost. The main operators in the city appear to be more concerned with increasing profit margins, as I blogged back in February.
But even so, where the cost of running a car and the cost of parking outweighs the cost of a bus ride, some people will not give up their cars. They see the car as giving them more freedom, even if it's to sit in a traffic jam.
The Park & Ride scheme, to me, is the best of both worlds. The buses are clean, and unless there are major problems on the roads, they are very reliable, having been planned to use routes that have bus lanes. You also get the comfort of your car at the very start and end of your journey, so if you are ladened with shopping, or it's raining, you don't have to suffer.
I do think that the Leicester schemes are somewhat short-sighted.
Firstly, the services only operate until 7pm. Given that Leicester wants to compete with Nottingham, and the improvements to the city centre to give it a more cosmopolitan vibe with the bars and restaurants, it seems bizarre that there is no evening or night service. In Nottingham, there are Park & Ride schemes that operate until 1am.
For extra revenue, why not use the Park & Ride sites as taxi hubs at night? For a £2 flat fare from the city centre, anyone who has been out in town could get the bus to Enderby, or Birstall, and then pay for a taxi to the outlying towns and villages, reducing the cost of getting home. Wouldn't something like this encourage more people into the city?
The second shortfall is the limited stops. Say I wanted to go to Braunstone Gate, and not the city centre. I would have to get off the bus at St Nicholas Place, which has driven past the bus stop opposite Duns Lane, a shorter walk in stupid heels.
The original Enderby service did a loop around the city centre that has been cut. This served the Infirmary, and had been recommended for the football and rugby. Now that this loop has gone, that's fewer people potentially using the service.
As for the football and rugby, it surely can't be difficult to re-route the service to drop off and stop on Aylestone Road, thus easing congestion on an already busy road?
Oh, and provide an evening service when required.
I really do hope that the numbers at the Birstall site do pick up. Just to annoy some of the blinkered car users who refuse to accept that they are a big part of the problem with traffic in this city.
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