After all, it is occurring on their watch. And Mrs Banks and I blame Cameron’s Big Society.
Something terribly sneaky, you see, has happened to our village bus. They’ve put up the fares. They’ve cancelled a couple of runs. They’ve retimed the rest.Without asking – or even telling – a solitary soul!
Word first got out about the altered timetable when a lady from Branxton told ’Er Up In Arms how she’d waited for a bus that “never came”. Actually, it did – but (uselessly) twenty minutes after its long-advertised time.
The parish council knew nothing about the change. Neither did our post office, which has always been the designated stop in Crookham.So Mrs B boarded the next bus to Berwick to find out for herself.
Sure enough, times had changed, one trip had been abandoned altogether and the fares had gone up. And all of this had happened three weeks earlier.Nothing advertised in The Journal or the Berwick Advertiser. Nothing even in that waste of space, money and manpower the county council mischievously calls ‘Northumberland News’.
The timetable confusion is extraordinary:
VISIT the bus company’s website and you will find a timetable dating back to September 2006.
CALL at Berwick’s Tourist Information Office and you’ll be given a ‘slimmed down’ schedule which omits any reference to Branxton, Crookham, Duddo, Felkington or Shoresdean. It tells you where the bus starts and finishes its trip but gives no indication of which route it follows.
My check call to the operators, Glen Valley Tours, confirmed the changes. Confusion still clouded the question of cost: the receptionist quoted £2.80 as the new single fare (“It’s gone up 20p or 30p, I’m not sure which”) but she was unable to remember the new return fare.
“If you ask for a return on the bus you might get a discount but it won’t be much.”
The bus driver told us different: £2.60 single and £4.80 return is what HE charges.
So here’s why I’m getting steamed up: the 267, like other scheduled services in Northumberland, is subsidised by the taxpayer through Northumberland County Council. The service is not cheap, especially compared with heavily subsidised big city services like London and Manchester.
Londoners pay just £1.20 per bus trip to travel anywhere in the capital, with a daily £3.90 cap on bus costs. Under-18s pay just 60p per trip with a £1.95 cap.
Less advantaged north Northumbrians – with far fewer transport alternatives than their big city counterparts – struggle to meet comparatively colossal bus fares. With the minimum wage set at £5.80 per hour (or £3.57 for under-18s) daily travel can represent a hefty percentage of earnings.
It’s not so much a Big Society we need, Campo, as a joined-up one.
In the meantime don’t bother asking the bus company for a timetable, get one from the bus driver. And pay the fare HE asks rather than the price Glen Valley suggests!
WHEN fat cats telephone hoping to part you from your hard-earned, how do they KNOW who they’re talking to?
“Is Mrs Banks at home?” the Man from Barclays asked. “No,” I replied. “Can I help? I’m her husband.”
“Afraid not,” said the banker. “Is her brother available? [the siblings handle my elderly mother-in-law’s affairs]”.
I thought quickly. “Yes he is…hang on.” Pause. Change of voice. “Hello?”
“Ah, Mr Newton . . . I just wanted to go over a few things . . .”
Ridiculous, this security charade. Isn’t it?
First published in The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne, May 14 2010
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