DEANSHANGER BUS SURVEY

Context: Britannia Bus has asked for feedback from Deanshanger Parish Council on the bus service. To inform this discussion a survey was put on local social media and at two bus stops in the village. The Council considered the survey findings at its March meeting and agreed to submit them as its response to Britannia Buses. Brief Summary of Responses In total there were 40 Responses with 35 from Survey Monkey and 5 from the Written Survey.

30% of respondents are current bus users and 70% have used the bus service in the past or would do if it were convenient.

The full responses are detailed on pages 2 onwards. Here is summary of them.

• People are pleased that there is a bus service, find the drivers friendly and the buses punctual. People recognise the financial problems facing a bus service provider operating in a rural area with low or no subsidies. • People would also, however like: o A Saturday Service

o A Towcester service (reinstate the 90?) and for schools/college and work.

o A service that suits commuters to MK more with more frequent buses in the morning (7-9) and evening rush hour (4-7).

o A service that goes to more MK destinations (Kingston, ) or links up with onwards services and also to Northampton (or links up with services that go there).

o An evening service to MK so that people can visit the theatre or have evenings out there.

o A bus that fits school times in Buckingham and Towcester.

o A consideration of contactless payment would be welcome or clarity on the website or at bus stops of the fares and that it is cash only.

o Improvements to the website would be welcomed so that timetables are easier to understand (e.g. routes within villages, no school/school is difficult to understand).

o People welcomed that Britannia would make good the bus stops with new timetables and other information.

Q1 If you use the bus service, what improvements would you like to see (please tick all that apply and add your reasons).

Times 7 : Days 6 : Frequency 5 : Destinations 4 : I’m satisfied with the service 4 : Bus Fares - Use of Daily, Weekly or Rover fares 1 : Other 1 : COVID-19 Compliance 0: Accessibility (Prams, Mobility Aids) 0 :

Comments:

My son is going to be going to college in . He will need an early bus and a bus home again from Milton Keynes if possible. I also have an Autistic son who regularly uses the bus, he is happy with the service, thank you for keeping it going.

Saturday bus should be available also better times rather than every 2 hours.

Times – every hour.

Destination to Towcester.

Timings - The current timings do not easily allow for commuting. The 0724 service offered the opportunity to be in Central MK by 0800. However the only return options are currently 1431/1451 (depending on school term) which is too early or 1721 which is too late. I would like to commute to my office 2 to 3 times a week by bus, but the lack of good return option never quite made this viable. So if I did commute by bus, I found myself using the 89 to get there but then getting the X60 back as far as .

Days - A return of a Saturday service in the future would be great.

Frequency - Would be great to have an hourly service but I appreciate that passenger levels in the village and the cost of doing so may make this prohibitive.

Fares - I completely understand the challenge of running a rural bus service without subsidy and so I am prepared to pay a little extra to keep it going. However it is frustrating that it is a cash only service (not sure if this has changed since Covid). I appreciate introducing cashless technology may be expensive but on a couple of occasions I have ended up not getting the 89 because I have realised, I do not actually have any cash on me!

More frequent services.

Further destinations in Milton Keynes (Bletchley, Kingston).

Early morning work and late evening work service.

Contactless payment.

To make one time in afternoon instead of school or no school as this causes confusion. I go to shopping but find it a long time to wait till 1.03, an earlier return would be good.

Some sort of service on a Saturday would be good. I know it was not used as much as you hoped but we really miss it.

Q.2 If you do not use the bus service, what would encourage you to do so? Times 14 : Days 8 : Destinations 19 : Frequency 17 : Bus Fares - Use of Daily, Weekly or Rover Fares 8 : COVID-19 Compliance 3 : Accessibility (Prams, Mobility Aids) 1: Other 0

Comments:

Regular buses to Towcester and Northampton, for School and college users but also for jobs etc.

I have a daughter starting college in Bletchley and it would have been useful for her.

Bus to Buckingham.

Bus service to Sponne, term time, school hrs.

As I do not drive since my husband's death, I rely on my children to take me shopping and to visit my son who lives in Towcester. I used to be able to get the 89X from Deanshanger to Towcester and into the city. As I pick my grandchildren up from school, I need the service to be more frequent so I can get back in time to do this. I would certainly use the bus at least a couple of times a week just to get out of the village as a change of scenery and to visit friends.

I currently do not use the bus service in Deanshanger because they are not frequent enough and do not travel to Stony Stratford.

Evening buses.

A bus to the centre of MK for shopping mid-morning and back in the afternoon would be good. Also a bus to Towcester for people who need to go the council offices or Foodbank. Q.3 Do you have any questions, further comments or suggestions?

Comments:

I really want this bus service to succeed as I think rural bus services provide a vital service and I know people in the village who do not drive who would struggle without it.

I think it is great Derek stepped in to provide a service after Stagecoach withdrew the previous one. Prior to Covid I used the bus 1 to 2 times a week, either for travelling to work or on Saturdays as part of my journey to football matches but as stated earlier never quite used it as much as intended due to the limitations of its timetable.

I think it would be great if Britannia improved their website and social media page. One thing I found as a new user was that it was difficult from the timetables on the website to fully understand the routing of the bus. It is not obvious if you are new that it is doing a circuit around the village in one direction for example or whereabouts it stops in Milton Keynes. There is also no fare information on the website or anything to say it is a cash only service. Also a number of the bus stops around the village lack any timetable information or contain information only about the previous Stagecoach service.

I have contacted Derek who runs Britannia in the past and it is great he does respond to people's queries on the local Deanshanger FB pages. It would be great to see Britannia really promoting the service, via social media, leaflet drops round the village, special fare offers, a branded bus with a catchy name perhaps, I appreciate these things cost money. I just want to see this service do well and see that as many people as possible in the village know about it.

I would like to see bus services at school times to both Buckingham and Towcester. The school options are restricted due to lack of bus services altogether or the only option being private services.

Bus always on time Friendly drivers.

More frequency would be good, but I guess not practical and bring back the 90 to Towcester and make sure its reliable and well-advertised at the bus stops not just on social media not everyone is online, particularly the older generation who are the people who use the buses.

Make sure there are bus timetables at every bus stop in village people who do not use bus regularly need to be able to see times when they want to use them.

We really need buses to serve peoples’ needs to get them out of their cars.

Pleased to have a bus service – lifeline for pensioners.

As long as we have a bus service.

I am so pleased to have a regular bus service.

Just to have a bus running from the village so as to be able to get out.

Very pleased to have a bus service.

I used to use the Saturday bus service to visit my son who has learning disabilities and having it back would be a real lifeline for us.

It would be good for buses to keep theatre times (evenings) when coming out and not having to rush (hopefully they will start up again).

It would be good not to have a long wait when coming back to Deanshanger after visiting Doctors.