DISCOVER: Thinking about passenger transport services (including School transport, subsidised bus services, door to door transport, and concessionary travel), what's currently working well in Fife?
The 94/94A is certainly working well and offers an hourly service between Newburgh and StAndrews serving many villages along the route.
This service allows connections with Rail stations at Leuchars or Cupar. You can connect at Newburgh with Service 36 for Perth. This bus connects with the X buses at various places. I rely on this bus service for social/medical/shopping and the hourly service is fantastic.
I feel that the concessionary bus travel bus-pass and the Dial a Ride provision offered is essential to enable individuals with a disability or impairment the opportunity to access their community. Stagecoach promote barrier free provision on their buses . However, my friends and I who have disabilities have a mixture of positive and negative stories of their journeys on buses. The negative include being told the lift is not working, bus drivers refusing to operate lifts, not being able to access the lift unless you are in a wheelchair, and, the indignity of a lift getting stuck half way through operation etc. Barrier free provision should mean just that, and offer equality to all passengers using public transport. More roll on buses where lifts are not required between Fife and outwith Fife removes the issues with lifts. A hassle free experience is what we all want.
No access to even Glenrothes town centre other than by crossing A92 and then trudging around housing to find bus stop which provides a very limited service. Bus does pass by end of estate but can only alight not get on and the bus goes to another village only. So basically a no bus service. Would love a service to access town centre, GP, hospitals in Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Ninewells but not really hopeful. One transport issue I have is with cycle combined pedestrian paths. They do not work and are dangerous. No matter how many notices are ere ted giving pedestrians priority cyclists pay no attention to them. Anyone with a hearing disability doesn't hear cyclist's wheels or bells approaching from behind. Experience verbal abuse so much don't even go out walking now. These areas should be seperated. Aware there are services for disabled, do hope these continue and indeed improve. Only bus I use is from park and ride to Edinburgh as no way to access locally.
To be honest not much works with the local bus service unless it’s an Express service serving Edinburgh etc. Bus fares I do feel are a little expensive and not very appealing. Day to day, the cost And convenience of taking your car makes the bus useless which could be why the council subsidise so many town services!
Thank you for your response. Service 81 is one of Fife Councils supported services. Within the timetable there is a commercial extension to Parkneuk. It’s unlikely that the frequency of service 81 would be increased whilst the service is supported. Commercial services operate increased frequencies due to the level of demand. Supported services generally only operate hourly as the demand for a more frequent service isn’t there.
Excellent – well needed, if anything increase this service – but modernise it. Antiquated booking system and paper based print out timetables. Have you looked at when most trips are made – the literature says till 10pm – I’d suspect that this is used mainly during the day. Look at how these buses are utilised and whether there is opportunity for them to be used weekends/evenings. Hire them out to clubs and community groups?
We are constantly looking at how we can improve to meet the needs of our passengers. One area we are currently working on is our booking service. We are speaking with our software supplier and are hoping to move to an on-line platform where passengers can make bookings directly on-line. This will then feed-in to a digital platform in the minibus allowing us to move away from hard copies of Driver Manifests. We have, however, to bear in mind that the passengers we transport are the most vulnerable in our communities and not all have access to an on-line application and we need to continue to allow voice contact.
Our scheduling software is designed to maximise the number of journey requests taken on each day against vehicle availability with us having successfully provided in excess of 177,000 passenger trips last year. Our vehicles are fully utilised from 07:00 - 22:00 Mon - Sun so are not available for external hire.
Stagecoach is working well. It’s frustrating that my daily commute to and from work now involves transferring from stagecoach to bay travel. Its extra cost. I am a driver. But I’ve been choosing to get the bus for work and was paying a weekly bus pass that covers me during the day. But now if I’m working on a later shift I’m as well as driving. Or broker a deal for bay travel to accept stagecoach passes. I don’t get an app with live tracker. I can’t use a planner. I literally am using a table on the internet. It’s too outdated and frustrating. If a bus is late I can’t tweet the company as they don’t have Twitter and can’t see when it’s due to arrive. It’s as poorly structured as this answer is. Lol
Thank you for taking the time to contribute. I am assuming you are referring to Bay Travel now operating 4B & F6, evening and Sunday service which is funded by the Council. The bus operator in the evening changed as a result of the recent award of the Councils South Fife tender. The Council is obliged to accept the lowest tender that meets it specification and procurement rules prevent us from insisting that operators accept Stagecoach tickets as this would put others at a competitive disadvantage. We are however aware of the issue’s passengers are facing regarding purchasing 2 tickets. As part of our post tender review we held discussions with Bay Travel who have agreed a supplementary ticket as an add on option to anyone who purchases a Stagecoach day return/dayrider, for a cost of £1. Similarly, anyone with a weekly Stagecoach Megarider can purchase a weekly supplementary ticket from Bay Travel for £3.50 (please note these add-ons are for service 4B and F6 only). Cont.....
Looking ahead the Council is working closely with Transport Scotland to roll out the All Bus Companies ticket (abcbustickets.com) to the rest of Fife. The ABC ticket will allow the purchase of a single ticket which is valid on all operator’s services. We hope to expand the ticket to cover the remainder of Fife within the next 3-6 months. I am also aware that Bay Travel is working with their ticket machine provider to establish real-time information provision. With regards to the app/twitter we will contact the bus company to see if an app is in development, meantime Bay Travel has a Facebook page where they post any delays to their services which you may find useful.
Thanks for the response and seems like things are in plan. Would be nice to see more proactive contributions to the community rather than reactive and to ensure the rules on tender have the community at heart and not just based on a figure sum. People are much more complex than a number on a sheet as we all know. As the younger generation is coming up and the elder generation is is moving on technology is now playing a key part in every business structure. Take Thomas cook for example. And with the world at our finger tips and communication being greater than ever sloppy rules and business plans are being re aligned with a real need for urgency.
It may also be worth investigating "One Ticket" - https://www.one-ticket.co.uk/ - they do a Fife area bus ticket that covers Bay Travel, Stagecoach and Moffat & Williamson for £10 for 1 day, £33.60 for a week - they also do 28 day and annual passes.
There was talk of developing rail services from Dunfermline to Alloa: this should not be developed as there is no demand (no market) for this - if anyone needs transport to or from Stirling they can us bus rout 8 /8A and change at Falkirk/Alloa.
Open answers (77)
The 94/94A is certainly working well and offers an hourly service between Newburgh and StAndrews serving many villages along the route.
This service allows connections with Rail stations at Leuchars or Cupar. You can connect at Newburgh with Service 36 for Perth. This bus connects with the X buses at various places. I rely on this bus service for social/medical/shopping and the hourly service is fantastic.
Thank you for your positive feedback on the subsidised service 94/94A.
I feel that the concessionary bus travel bus-pass and the Dial a Ride provision offered is essential to enable individuals with a disability or impairment the opportunity to access their community. Stagecoach promote barrier free provision on their buses . However, my friends and I who have disabilities have a mixture of positive and negative stories of their journeys on buses. The negative include being told the lift is not working, bus drivers refusing to operate lifts, not being able to access the lift unless you are in a wheelchair, and, the indignity of a lift getting stuck half way through operation etc. Barrier free provision should mean just that, and offer equality to all passengers using public transport. More roll on buses where lifts are not required between Fife and outwith Fife removes the issues with lifts. A hassle free experience is what we all want.
No access to even Glenrothes town centre other than by crossing A92 and then trudging around housing to find bus stop which provides a very limited service. Bus does pass by end of estate but can only alight not get on and the bus goes to another village only. So basically a no bus service. Would love a service to access town centre, GP, hospitals in Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline and Ninewells but not really hopeful. One transport issue I have is with cycle combined pedestrian paths. They do not work and are dangerous. No matter how many notices are ere ted giving pedestrians priority cyclists pay no attention to them. Anyone with a hearing disability doesn't hear cyclist's wheels or bells approaching from behind. Experience verbal abuse so much don't even go out walking now. These areas should be seperated. Aware there are services for disabled, do hope these continue and indeed improve. Only bus I use is from park and ride to Edinburgh as no way to access locally.
To be honest not much works with the local bus service unless it’s an Express service serving Edinburgh etc. Bus fares I do feel are a little expensive and not very appealing. Day to day, the cost And convenience of taking your car makes the bus useless which could be why the council subsidise so many town services!
The 81 would be better if it's service was increased or have the 19A extended from Ballingry to Glenrothes
Thank you for your response. Service 81 is one of Fife Councils supported services. Within the timetable there is a commercial extension to Parkneuk. It’s unlikely that the frequency of service 81 would be increased whilst the service is supported. Commercial services operate increased frequencies due to the level of demand. Supported services generally only operate hourly as the demand for a more frequent service isn’t there.
Excellent – well needed, if anything increase this service – but modernise it. Antiquated booking system and paper based print out timetables. Have you looked at when most trips are made – the literature says till 10pm – I’d suspect that this is used mainly during the day. Look at how these buses are utilised and whether there is opportunity for them to be used weekends/evenings. Hire them out to clubs and community groups?
Thank you for providing feedback on DRT.
We are constantly looking at how we can improve to meet the needs of our passengers. One area we are currently working on is our booking service. We are speaking with our software supplier and are hoping to move to an on-line platform where passengers can make bookings directly on-line. This will then feed-in to a digital platform in the minibus allowing us to move away from hard copies of Driver Manifests. We have, however, to bear in mind that the passengers we transport are the most vulnerable in our communities and not all have access to an on-line application and we need to continue to allow voice contact.
Our scheduling software is designed to maximise the number of journey requests taken on each day against vehicle availability with us having successfully provided in excess of 177,000 passenger trips last year. Our vehicles are fully utilised from 07:00 - 22:00 Mon - Sun so are not available for external hire.
the bus station in Leven is working well - it's clean and has facilities, and the range of destinations is good.
Stagecoach is working well. It’s frustrating that my daily commute to and from work now involves transferring from stagecoach to bay travel. Its extra cost. I am a driver. But I’ve been choosing to get the bus for work and was paying a weekly bus pass that covers me during the day. But now if I’m working on a later shift I’m as well as driving. Or broker a deal for bay travel to accept stagecoach passes. I don’t get an app with live tracker. I can’t use a planner. I literally am using a table on the internet. It’s too outdated and frustrating. If a bus is late I can’t tweet the company as they don’t have Twitter and can’t see when it’s due to arrive. It’s as poorly structured as this answer is. Lol
Thank you for taking the time to contribute. I am assuming you are referring to Bay Travel now operating 4B & F6, evening and Sunday service which is funded by the Council. The bus operator in the evening changed as a result of the recent award of the Councils South Fife tender. The Council is obliged to accept the lowest tender that meets it specification and procurement rules prevent us from insisting that operators accept Stagecoach tickets as this would put others at a competitive disadvantage. We are however aware of the issue’s passengers are facing regarding purchasing 2 tickets. As part of our post tender review we held discussions with Bay Travel who have agreed a supplementary ticket as an add on option to anyone who purchases a Stagecoach day return/dayrider, for a cost of £1. Similarly, anyone with a weekly Stagecoach Megarider can purchase a weekly supplementary ticket from Bay Travel for £3.50 (please note these add-ons are for service 4B and F6 only). Cont.....
Looking ahead the Council is working closely with Transport Scotland to roll out the All Bus Companies ticket (abcbustickets.com) to the rest of Fife. The ABC ticket will allow the purchase of a single ticket which is valid on all operator’s services. We hope to expand the ticket to cover the remainder of Fife within the next 3-6 months. I am also aware that Bay Travel is working with their ticket machine provider to establish real-time information provision. With regards to the app/twitter we will contact the bus company to see if an app is in development, meantime Bay Travel has a Facebook page where they post any delays to their services which you may find useful.
Thanks for the response and seems like things are in plan. Would be nice to see more proactive contributions to the community rather than reactive and to ensure the rules on tender have the community at heart and not just based on a figure sum. People are much more complex than a number on a sheet as we all know. As the younger generation is coming up and the elder generation is is moving on technology is now playing a key part in every business structure. Take Thomas cook for example. And with the world at our finger tips and communication being greater than ever sloppy rules and business plans are being re aligned with a real need for urgency.
It may also be worth investigating "One Ticket" - https://www.one-ticket.co.uk/ - they do a Fife area bus ticket that covers Bay Travel, Stagecoach and Moffat & Williamson for £10 for 1 day, £33.60 for a week - they also do 28 day and annual passes.
£10 a day is pretty expensive don't you think? Through ticket/One ticket is very necessary but no one will pay £10 if they can drive for less.
There was talk of developing rail services from Dunfermline to Alloa: this should not be developed as there is no demand (no market) for this - if anyone needs transport to or from Stirling they can us bus rout 8 /8A and change at Falkirk/Alloa.
Not been able to use the concessionary pass for the train service. Find the process to complex.