SU targets ‘ridiculous’ bus services

Warwick Students’ Union (SU) has received a high number of complaints from students about bus services to and from campus. Students have said that there are not enough buses and that they are late, full or not timetabled. More students have been using the buses this academic year after car parking fees were raised last year and more first year students are living outside of the University.

Leo Bøe, SU Welfare Officer, was particularly concerned when a PhD student reported that problems with the buses had led to the cancellation of lectures and seminars taught by those taking PhDs. Bøe responded to the complaints in a post on his blog which has been viewed by 1,200 individuals and which received 25 responses after only one week. One student said: “It’s good it’s being discussed, the buses are ridiculous.”

Campaigns have been made to improve bus services in the past but the SU have now launched a new plan to spur the bus companies, Travel Coventry and Stagecoach, to review their services. The SU are encouraging students to send in detailed information about the problems they experience with the buses. On his blog Bøe asks students to inform the SU when a bus is late or full and to include in their report the date and time, the route number and the bus stop they were at. Bøe said of the bus companies, “their level of receptiveness, I think, depends very much on the type of information that we give to them.”

The SU are also looking into creating an iPhone application which would allow students with iPhones to report problems with the buses as soon as they occur. One student whom the Boar spoke to said: “I don’t know what I would report as late, since during the week the buses don’t seem to stick to the timetables, and if we do report a problem, what difference will it make?”

The bus companies have never been provided with detailed accounts of the problems before, but Bøe said “only time will tell, really, whether we have that much of an impact with this information”. If improvements are made by the bus companies, they will also not be instant as the local authorities have to be informed of any changes to the bus services 60 days in advance.

However, the SU has already met with Stagecoach and Travel Coventry and Stagecoach to put on extra buses travelling from Leamington to campus, although these have not been timetabled.

A third year student who spoke to the _Boar_ said: “I don’t know what else the bus services could do, realistically; I don’t know how many more buses they could put on.”

According to Stagecoach the problems with buses are sometimes beyond their control as they are linked to high levels of traffic, road works and drivers having sick leave. They are aware, however, that the number of students using their buses has increased but said that they provide double-decker buses to accommodate for this. Stagecoach is also aware that the mornings are a particularly troublesome time for students using the service, but that all their buses are already circulating during this period. When asked if they could put new buses onto the roads they said “half the time the buses run empty”. Stagecoach gave no definitive answer when questioned if their services would improve.

There is no way for Warwick students or the SU to know if and when changes to the bus services will occur, but both are taking action.