Thamesdown punctuality report makes good reading (From Swindon Advertiser)
Get involved! Send photos, video, news & views. Text SWINDON NEWS to 80360 or email us
Thamesdown punctuality report makes good reading
7:10pm Tuesday 24th July 2012 in News By Matthew Edwards
Thamesdown took delivery of six new buses last month
BEING late can no longer be blamed on the buses as Thamesdown post impressive punctuality figures.
The latest reliability and punctuality report from Thamesdown Transport shows that despite the company being down on its own targets both are high.
During the period April 1 to June 30 this year, the company operated 99.71 per cent of its scheduled mileage which was just short of its target of 99.80 per cent.
The company’s punctuality during the same period was 92.20 per cent, short of its target of 95 per cent.
Traffic problems and congestion accounted for more than 1,000 miles not completed.
Major road traffic incidents, such as the closing of Commercial Road last month after an elderly lady was knocked down by a car on a zebra crossing, accounted for 70 miles not being completed.
Delays caused by changes to the Whalebridge roundabout have also been pointed out as a problem.
In total, 759,000 miles were completed by Thamesdown buses out of the 761,179 miles scheduled.
Punctuality results are based on buses departing terminal points no more than five minutes late or one minute early on recorded journeys from the real time information system, with 7.8 per cent of journeys being deemed late.
MD Paul Jenkins said: “We fell just short of our reliability target in the quarter from April to June, mainly as a result of heavy traffic congestion in Swindon town centre.
“This included the impact of the Olympic torch procession and diversions arising from a gas leak at the railway station forecourt and the closure of Commercial Road after an accident.
“These factors, together with the on-going delays arising from the new junction in Princes Street and the diversion of westbound buses along Faringdon Road, also affected our punctuality in the quarter. Despite these difficulties, the vast majority of our services ran as scheduled and on time.”
For details of Thamesdowns performance visit www.thamesdown-transport.co.uk.
mrjdoe says...
8:12am Wed 25 Jul 12
Whist 5 minutes does seem an acceptable amount of time for a late bus dependant on traffic etc. I am wondering how many buses use this real time information system. It would skew the figures if for example it was only used on a certain percentage of the buses. At the moment 1 in 13 buses are late according to the data collected. It would be interesting to see that figure on 100% of their buses.
But kudos to Thamesdown at least they are trying to improve their services, its not always easy navigating around this town on the best of days with so much work going on and all the bad drivers about!
Now lets start improving our roads and stop the council putting in pointless junctions (i.e. whalebridge) which only add to the problem.