Evidence presented by Arriva the Shires and Essex to the HCC Scrutiny Committee in respect of the Authority's Winter Maintenance Programme
Arriva the Shires and Essex have four depots within Hertfordshire; Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage and Ware.
The snow disrupted services to various levels at these depots throughout week commencing 2 February 2009. Monday, Thursday and Friday were the worst affected days in terms of bus service delivery
Monday - there were virtually no services operated until 12 noon at any of the above depots.
Thursday at Hemel Hempstead services started at 1035 except service 11, 30 and 31 which are rural contracted services and did not operate. Watford ran all local services, but with delays. Stevenage town services did not operate until late morning. Ware had a full service apart for services operating on untreated minor roads.
Friday, all depots met full morning run out, but services could still not access untreated minor roads. However, persistent snow meant that by 1400 town services in Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead were suspended. At 1600 Stevenage resumed town services. Watford and Ware ran services throughout the day on treated roads.
Very little mileage was lost to staff as the vast majority of our drivers and support staff managed to get to work, many on foot.
Gritting Issues
It was disappointing that services at Hemel Hempstead were disrupted to a significant extend due to the fact that despite requests the road leading to the depot, Whiteleaf Road, was not gritted which meant that buses were stranded in the garage
In general terms, over the years our services have developed to penetrate estates in order to make access to buses easier. This causes a number of issues in that these minor roads are often untreated and, as residents can not get to work, parked cars also pose problems.
One solution may be to agree “snow routings” for services with buses sticking to main roads, but these would be pre agreed routes that can be easily publicised during periods of disruption.
It may be worth noting that in the past the local authority used to prioritise bus routes for gritting.
Communication
During the snow Arriva the Shires and Essex provided regular updates on services being affected through local radio, traveline, our own web site and our customer services department.
Perhaps we need to consider how we could improve communication between the bus operator and the county council in respect of which services are running. Some organisations went to the council for this information which was not readily available.
Bus operators would welcome more information about where and when gritting takes place and to know in advance that gritting will happen. This would give us more confidence in sending buses out when we know snow is coming – sometimes there is a reluctance to do this in-case buses become stranded on untreated roads.
There also needs to be a clear channel of communication between the bus companies and the local authority so that when we have issues we can talk to someone with the authority to take action or to say that our request can not be met.
Bus companies also need earlier notification of school closures. Often great effort is made to get school buses out only for the driver to be called back as it has been discovered that the school has been closed. This effort could then have been better used in getting local bus services running. We do realise that closures are publicised on local radio, but in the busy despatch station people find it difficult to take in this information through this medium.
Brian Drury
Commercial Director – Arriva the Shires and Essex.