To many buses
 

Peter Britcliffe finally admits the bus station is not the problem,he says
there is to much congestion(I presume he means to many buses)there
then is the answer to everything,reduce the number of buses to suit the
size of the present bus station i.e.as they where pre privatisation problem
solved.

Re: To many buses
 

Well they're shutting down Pilky's so that may ease the situation!

Re: To many buses
 

I don't like the crappy colours there painted....Do they still run the Blue & Reds of the old accy transport.

Re: To many buses
 

Shutting down Pilky's will only leave some routes with no buses at all unless some other company takes over. Cutting down the number of buses may not be the answer if it leaves people with no bus.

It makes sense on routes where there are a lot of rival companies but perhaps making the bus station smaller in order to fit a cramped market into what was once half of it is part of the problem too.

Re: To many buses
 

Northern Blue will be doing all the Town Services from Sat 24th (Merlin Drive,Fern Gore,Pendleton Circ,Dill Hall Circ,Huncoat).The company has rented some land at West End for the buses and will possibly run under the name of Accrington Transport or Accrington & District.About 5 or 6 of the drivers will be from Pilkington's.

Re: To many buses
 

Thank you very much for the info.

Are you one of the lucky ones? I hope all the drivers manage to get new jobs.

Re: To many buses
 

Every Bus Company needs drivers.Blackburn Transport are 27 drivers short.It's a high stressed job,long hours,rubbish pay,rubbish working conditions.I could get a job at any bus company.I've applied to Northern Blue but long term i'm looking for something else.

Re: To many buses
 

:s_bubble: :s_bubble: I found pilky buses very handy when I couldn't drive, the prices were cheap and although the buses were not totally up 2 scratch i found it 2 b a good service. I think more bus companies should be like that as prices can soon add up especially if u have a family & don't drive

Re: To many buses
 

I've seen Blackburn Transport buses much older than the Pilky buses. I'm not too bothered about how old a bus is or what it looks like as long as it gets me from A to B. In fact the newer buses with the plastic shaped seats (that is shaped seats made of plastic, not seats in the shape of plastic ,lol) are nowhere near as comfortable in my opinion as the old ones with the shiny seats that you could just slide onto. Whatever those plastic seats are "upholstered" with sticks to my coat like velcro. Does anybody else have problems with it?

Re: To many buses
 

its about time! :engsmil:

Re: To many buses
 

At a time when the Government is supposed to be trying to encourage the use of public transport over the use of private vehicles Peter Britcliffes statement is make no sense at all. I would have thought that HBC would be bending over backwards to accomodate public transport, not complaining about the fact that we have some. Yet again, I am compelled to wonder how Mr Britcliffe justifies the £12,400 he claims in basic allowances as 'Leader' of the council.

I noticed, the other week, that he was complaining bitterly that the council had been downgraded by the Audit Commission from 'Good' to 'Fair' in a statement on the council's website. That statement contained two errors of grammar. 'Two grammatical errors, so what?' I hear you ask. Mr Britcliffe's errors were published by Cathy Kierans, the council's senior Communications and Marketing Officer who also could not spot them. This is either ignorance of correct English usage which is bad enough, or it is merely sloppiness, which is worse.

Re: To many buses
 

The public transport system would improve if a single company ran all the buses, allowing people to buy passes or through ticket for all buses, allowing them to travel to all parts of the area, including Blackburn/Burnley.

The British system of running a transport system with all kinds of two-bit companies all competing is stupid and costs us all more money than ever.

Re: To many buses
 

"Housing repairs has already substantially improved..."

"we have been misjudged us on this occasion."

Oh dear, oh dear, and our Peter's an ex-AGS lad, too.

However, the person who proof-checked it wants a right kick up the backside. What a shoddy and unprofessional image this must present to those who visit the site.

Re: To many buses
 

What on earth has Housing repairs to do with buses.????.

Re: To many buses
 

Nothing, directly. I was just highlighting the two errors mentioned by Acrylic-bob in Councillor Britcliffe's statement on the HBC site.

Re: To many buses
 

Is my memory failing me, or isn't this the way it used to be before Peter Britcliffe's heroine the delightful Maggie privatised everything?

Re: To many buses
 

if we made buses shorter we could get more buses into the bus station.

Re: To many buses
 

yes it was yerself & much better run too, why did they sell everything off ooo it makes me mad ..

Re: To many buses
 

Yes :) What we need is (are?) shorter buses for the journeys which usually don't have as many passengers and long buses for the busier routes.

Re: To many buses
 

yes when you go to manchester you see the long bendy buses. :engsmil:

Re: To many buses
 

Those double length buses would never fit in our bus station!:)

Re: To many buses
 

If its a bendy bus..can't you just fold it and then it will fit?

Re: To many buses
 

Well I'm just glad I've got my car back on the road. 3 weeks of getting the bus to work has almost bankrupted me! The prices were far too high - especially on shorter journeys. I got the bus from across from Oscar Bear's Nursery (or Imperial Pub) on Blackburn Road to the bottom of Lonsdale Street and it cost between 50p and 67p (depending on bus co) and I was actually being charged from the town centre to Church! Some people may think I was being lazy but I have a bit of walking to get to & from the bus stops as well!

One evening I nipped into Ossy Mills and then got a bus from the Palludium at Ossy into town and it cost £1.05!!! I thought I was going to Blackburn town centre when the driver gave me the price!

Re: To many buses
 

How much is a Gallon of oil...Lucky you don’t live in Blackpool much more expensive up here. Far better by car and it’s better for the environment according to the like of Top Gear.

Re: To many buses
 

better for the engine to put oil in it he he

Re: To many buses
 

I think that the public transport system is in a mess,full stop. It seems to make little sense for the government to beg and plead with people to use public transport when, compared with the car, it is so expensive, uncomfortable and inconvenient.

I travel quite often between Accrington and Blackpool on the train, and there are times when I cannot hear myself think for the screaching of kids, the bellowing of idle parents unable to control them, dung heads who cannot be separated from their mobile phones and insist on conducting their conversations at a level that includes the whole carriage. Add to this the yobs who have no idea of how to conduct themselves in public and the generally dirty and unpleasant conditions of stations and trains and THE COST and you can easily see why those who can, prefer to drive.

All right, I am getting more cantenkerous as I get older and I am really looking forward to getting my pension book then I can really let rip with the 'crotchety old git' thing. But come on, is standing for ages in the cold and rain at Accrington Station and then being confined like cattle for the duration of the tedious journey, with people that you don't know, and wouldn't want to know even if you did, a viable and desireable solution for the 21st century? I don't think so.

As Proust observes, ' Hell is other people.'

Re: To many buses
 

My main grumble with public transport is the lack of protection from the elements while you wait for it. Accrington Station (station???!!!) as you said is a classic example. So too are the bus shelters which serve no useful purpose whatsoever as the wind and rain howl through a one sided structure with a slightly overhanging roof. We haven't even got a Fern Gore one right now. It's a case of now you see it now you don't. Sometimes we have one, then it's taken down, then they put one up, then it goes again.

Re: To many buses
 

Since the council have got rid of pilkingtons buses, we have got northern blue on our route. The state of them to look at are no better than pilkys they too should be sent to the scrap yard.

Re: To many buses
 

I think Acrylic Bob has hit the nail on the head there. One of the main problems is that people don't use public transport, especially at night, because of the moronic behaviour which seems to exist throughout England. There begins the downward spiral.

Re: To many buses
 

just passed a northern blue broke down, need i say more //

Re: To many buses
 

Has your car never broken down?Does it have to be driven 6/7 days a week for about 10 hours a day over humps n bumps and god knows what else?Even new vehicles breakdown,it's a fact of life we have to put up with.The Accrington Transport buses are newer than the Pilkybuses and are well maintained unlike the Pilkybuses,I should know I am driving for them.

Re: To many buses
 

My dad still drives for Lancs Utd and has been a driver for over 30 years, be started with the old Corporation. He always used to work the late shifts, but on some local routes it's not safe. Drivers face the possibility of attack, robbery and pure moronic vandalism. Is it any wonder that people don't want to use the public transport if they have access to a car. I heard a snippet of info from a neighbour today. He has been talking with our local councillor, who reckons that there may be a train station in the future, at the bottom of Marlborough Rd area, near the old iron bridge. The council think that if there was a station up this end of town, more people would use trains. We all know that wouldn't be the case. Perhaps if the trains, tracks and signalling equipment was properly funded and maintained, if the trains ran on time, were comfortable, quieter and less expensive they would be used more. We've organised a meeting round here soon with our councillor and the police in order to thrash out a couple of trouble areas. I might ask him exactly how much HBC are going to waste on this potential project.

Re: To many buses
 

Public Transport is a great thing.Everybody including me would agree that it should be cheaper but due to fuel prices and insurance costs due to the "no win no fee" attitude these days it is barely a non profit business.I'll be working from 12.05 - 23.40 tomorrow on the huncoat route,these evening and sunday services are subsidised by the council.So ie. the council will be paying us a few hundred £sss to run that service on Sunday and i'll probably only take about £30-40 in fares.It's such a waste of taxpayers money.I ain't even gonna go into Blackburn councils deceiving ways and underhand tactics regarding Blackburn Transport, it aint pretty.

Re: To many buses
 

I don't get this, we used to have a Corporation transport service that served all areas of the borough. Then along came privatisation and Accy decided that it was too expensive to continue to run it. Now they spend our money subsidising the private companies, who, no offence intended mate, run a largely substandard service on knackered buses? And we have, on the one hand, Peter Britcliffe bleating that there are too many buses and on the other, the Government shrieking that we must have more. And this is progress? This is meant to be an example of 'Industry and Prudence' is it? I know what it looks like to me!

Re: To many buses
 

Thanks Bob,that was my original point,before privatetisation Accrington Transport
coped very well,and provided a reliable service,it was Thatchers obsession to get
rid of the unions that as been the ruin of the bus station.