DAVID JENKINS found himself mightily confused by the information — written and spoken — around a road closure in Ipswich…but he was impressed by the local municipal’s destination displays
PUBLICITY MATTERS
How should bus operators seek to tell their customers about a diversion? And does it need to be different for regular passengers and occasional users?
My starting point was a visit to Ipswich and a quick look at the Ipswich Buses website. A headline banner on the site entitled ‘Ranelagh Road Railway junction closure’ [sic] was my starting point.
Since I would be arriving by train, the mention of ‘Railway’ set alarm bells ringing, but the page to which I was taken left me none the wiser. Despite having visited Ipswich before and knowing the road layout in the vicinity of the station, there was no mention of what I thought would be an important stop.
At this point, I should highlight that the road layout at Ipswich station means that half the services use one pair of stops on Ranelagh Road, while the other half stop on Burrell Road (outbound) and actually on the station forecourt towards town. So I did not investigate further, assuming that the Burrell Road services (which also include First) would still be running.
