A 29-Week Explorer Ticket covering Alpha Centauri, the Far
Side of the Moon, and Dagenham Heathway, please
4 July 2024
ABOVE: Stagecoach South West 37133 (YY14 WGK), an ADL Enviro200, heads along The Quay in Bideford, North Devon, working route 15A, a complicated local service. The nominal destination display is for the "Affinity Outlet", an out-of-town shopping centre. Taken on Friday 3 May 2024.
Whenever I make a trip that is going to be restricted to one area or one operator (or both, obviously), I always have a look to see whether there is a Day Ticket that I can buy that will (a) reduce the number of transactions I need to undertake, (b) give me a little more flexibility if I change my plans, and (c) save me a bit of money.
There are some great deals to be had out there. I have previously mentioned the Seven-Day ticket I got from Arriva for its entire North West & Wales network - £26.00 when I bought it in June 2023 (current price is £27.50). I got 33 rides out of that ticket, making an average of just under 79p per ride. Paying individually would have cost more than £66. I say "more than", because seven of those rides started in Wales, where the £2 fare cap does not apply, so I have no idea how much money I saved on those. And the savings could have been even greater, as I only used the ticket for five of the seven days (I had to go home)!
ABOVE: Arriva Wales 2908 (CX58 EWY) crosses the Jubilee Lift Bridge in Queensferry, Deeside, working route 5 from Mold to Ellesmere Port, on Friday 16 June 2023. The Arriva North West & Wales ticket is valid on this cross-border service.
Tap-on, Tap-off tickets (or just "tap-on") also offer flexibility and ensure that I don't pay more than I should. But it depends on how it is managed. I was in Liverpool, just a few days ago as I write this, and tapped onto three Arriva Merseyside buses while I was there. This should have capped my travel at £5.30. However, I then took a bus out of the city on route 7 to Warrington. This route is outside the "Liverpool City Zone" where one can tap in, so the driver should, I think, have charged me £2.00 and issued me with a ticket.
But he didn't. He just told me to tap on and take a seat. Possibly conscious of being 25 minutes late, or of his forthcoming break (he left the bus a couple of miles into the journey), he probably thought it didn't matter, as the machine would still take the £2.00. But, because my travel would already have been capped by the previous three journeys, effectively I got that ride for £2.00 less than I probably should have done - ie, for nothing.
ABOVE: Five Arriva Merseyside buses pass Liverpool Lime Street station on Friday 28 June 2024. In front is 4847 (BT66 MPZ), a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3. working route 13 to Stockbridge Village.
But I'm always a bit nervous when I set out to buy one of these day tickets on the bus, because, in my experience, there's what seems to me to be about a 50/50 chance that the driver will not be familiar with the ticket that I want to buy.
And that's what happened to me in Devon. There is a rather wonderful bus ticket there called the "DevonDay Bus Ticket", which does what it says on the tin and offers "unlimited travel throughout Devon on one ticket" for £9.60. But no-one seems to have heard of it!
That's not quite true. The very amiable driver on the route 58 bus to Exmouth had heard of it - he just couldn't find it on his machine; "I've seen a few, but I've never issued one before". He eventually found it, but we left five minutes late on that journey, and at least two of those minutes were down to me.
Including the 58, I got five rides out of that ticket - I have already described that day out in a previous article - the Axe Valley driver looked suspiciously at the ticket as though he had never seen one before, but didn't say anything - if he had, I would have pointed him to the poster for the ticket on his bus! The other three subsequent drivers were all Stagecoach drivers, so were probably just happy that it was a Stagecoach ticket with the current date on it.
(Incidentally, I know that five rides, at what would have been £2.00 each, represented a minimal saving for a £9.60 day ticket, but I had to 'retire hurt' that day, and would probably have squeezed one or two more trips in otherwise.)
ABOVE: A selection of Stagecoach South West buses in Exmouth Parade in South Devon. Nearest the camera is 48004 (YJ15 ADX), an Optare Solo SR, working local route 98 to Littleham. The ADL Enviro400s in view are probably both working route 57, the 'direct' route to Exeter which starts here. It's Wednesday 1 May 2024.
So the next morning, I was at Exeter Bus Station again, to buy another DevonDay Bus Ticket. I had decided to catch the number 38 to Buckfastleigh, to have a ride on the heritage South Devon Railway to Totnes.
This driver had not heard of my ticket at all. He spent an age trying to find it on his machine, but without luck. Feeling embarrassed at the delay that I was causing, I offered to pay the single fare to Buckfastleigh. The driver then suggested that I just "take a seat" and "pay on the next bus". I started for the stairs, but I'm not comfortable travelling without a ticket, so I turned around and left the bus.
I ended up buying a Stagecoach e-ticket ("South West Explorer"), valid for all Stagecoach services in Devon (but not those of other operators). This cost £10.00, and I wonder to this day why Stagecoach offers a day ticket that is 40p more expensive, but gives less, than the one I was trying to get (although of course they keep all the revenue on their ticket)!
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a bus driver to know his or her range of tickets, but I can see why it's difficult sometimes. Go to any of the Transdev bus companies across the north of England and there is a plethora of tickets to be had. This page on the Blackburn Bus Company page lists only two tickets, but each of the 11 menu options on the left-hand side opens up a further range of tickets.
A driver on, say, the 152 from Preston to Burnley via Blackburn will need to be familiar with the ranges listed for Burnley (20 tickets available), Blackburn (24 tickets), Lancashire (a whopping 48 tickets) and 16 tickets for services "across the North of England". There may be some duplication within the different categories, but that's still a lot of tickets to understand!
ABOVE: Blackburn Bus Company 2769 (BF63 HCL), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, passes through Walton-le-Dale near Preston, on a route 152 working towards Blackburn and Burnley, despite what the bus destination display is indicating! Photo taken on Tuesday 2 July 2024.
So my point here is that I'm not asking for a 29-week Explorer Ticket covering Alpha Centauri, the Far Side of the Moon, and Dagenham Heathway, although there have been occasons where I might as well have been! I can recall failures in Brackley in Oxfordshire, and in Harrogate, where drivers just could not find the tickets I wanted, and there have been numerous other occasions where I have caused delays because drivers have either not heard of the ticket I want or have not been able to find it.
I just want to be able to buy the ticket that has been advertised, with a minimum of fuss. Not too much to ask is it?
ABOVE: The fabled "DevonDay Bus Ticket", from the one occasion where I managed to get it!
I raised the matter of drivers being unaware of and/or unable to locate the DevonDay Bus TIcket with both Stagecoach South West and Devon County Council.
Devon County Council told me that it had:
"... met with operators to ensure that they ensure that all the drivers know of the ticket and where to find it".
Quick work, if true, as this reply came less than five working days after I made my enquiry.
Meanwhile, Stagecoach South West's response was less convincing. Sent within two working days of my enquiry, the company simply said that it would:
"... share this with the local operations team to make all drivers who operate on that service that this is a ticket that we do offer".
It's the phrase "on that service" that particularly concerns me, as I never mentioned a specific service. The company did not respond to my suggestion that it was not in its commercial interests to make the ticket easily available, given that it has its own ticket.
I'll be back in Devon at some point, so I'll find out whether the message has got out... And maybe I'll get to visit the South Devon Railway next time, as I never made it!