November Buses carried the information that Martin Dean of the Go-Ahead Group was to speak at Euro Bus Expo on the theme of matching services with customers. May I respectfully suggest that he looks in his own backyard for an example of how not to achieve this?
During a recent holiday in Dorset, I decided to take the approximately two-hourly Damory service 5 into Weymouth. For the 11.03 departure from Crossways (Warmwell), I was at the stop at 10.50 in the entrance to a caravan park, where there is neither a stop flag, timetable nor any road marking. The only source of confirmation that the bus would stop here was from the campsite manager, and yet here is a ready source of fare paying passengers who probably have no clue that they can get to Dorchester or Weymouth without driving and having to pay for parking. And 200m farther along the road is a Parkdean holiday resort with several hundred more potential customers.
At around 11.20, with no sign of the bus, I called Go-Ahead’s customer services team. A helpful assistant had no idea why the bus was late, but if I held on he would check with one of his colleagues; he then cut me off. My second call produced the response that the bus was delayed but wi…
