How much is the UK economy being hindered by people being unable to rely on any public transport?

Bristol has just had a huge number of bus routes cancelled at short notice. People had made decisions on where to live based on these bus routes facilitating commuting.

So many people having to wait hours for expensive non-existent trains and buses.
#UK #economy #publicTransport #Bristol

@DToher I saw an interesting thread on Twtr today https://twitter.com/thomasforth/status/1595000478311612417?s=20&t=DWfRwlME9IhOj6tubxnv_Q about buses in England. I've always loved public transport but in some places it's so precarious 😢
Tom Forth on Twitter

“I've been looking at low productivity in the UK. Trying to find examples with data of where it actually happens. Public transport is an ace example. Compared to our more productive neighbouring countries we use far more drivers to transport fewer people. That's low productivity.”

Twitter

@Letxuga007 Tom has a history of writing really interesting pieces on buses.

His bus tracker project highlighted some of the issues. Years ago, I helped him unpick how so many Dublin buses could arrive at their final destination early (the only advertised departure time was leaving the terminus stop, so the buses didn't need to wait around if running ahead of schedule).
You had to work out based on time of day, weather, traffic etc how long it would take a bus to reach your stop.

@DToher that's really interesting! Sounds like the flow analysis analysts in the NHS do for hospitals but without the weather, traffic variables. Running buses is a deceptively complex system.

@Letxuga007 I cheated a bit in the early 2000s. I would phone the bus depot and ask them where the bus was - I was told to do this after I wrote a very strongly worded letter of complaint that had a Dublin Bus rep come to my home to discuss the issues.

From the 90s (or possibly earlier) Dublin Bus had a really advanced tracking system where the location of the individual buses could be determined from the depot, but they would often radio the driver to confirm.

@DToher @Letxuga007 I'm astounded! Yandex Maps (in Russia, I don't know about anywhere else) track all bus routes and times. Open the app and see precisely where my bus is at the current time.
@DToher the Nottinghamshire bus stops all have those live feed notices now - absolutely amazing! I've been quick to forget how frustrating waiting and having no idea if the bus is even running was!