The Branchline
For a number of years, our operation has run one of the two commercially solid corridors in the county of my birth, Somerset. As the population is somewhat thinly spread those commercial corridors are as you may imagine somewhat few and far between.
When Southwestbus launched in 2010 the Wellington-Taunton and Taunton-Bridgwater-Burnham on Sea corridor was targeted. It's seen a lot of competition over the years. Berrys tried to compete between Wellington and Taunton in the early 1990s, Quantock Motor Services in 2002, a very short lived operation called Somerset Rider also did so in 2001.
The only company to stick at it was Webberbus, who managed almost 9 years and built up significant customer loyalty. Had they stuck to this plus their other Easylink route between Taunton and Minehead maybe they'd still be in business today.
The route between Minehead and Taunton has also seen competition over the years - in 2001 Somerset Rider ran shorts between Williton and Minehead, with peak extensions to Taunton. That later significantly expanded into an hourly timetable across the whole route. First's reply was to double the frequency to every 30 minutes, have a fares promotion, introduce a motorcycle inspector plus vans to drive up and down the route.
It's a significant corridor in that one end of the route has a national rail line, and the other a Butlins Holiday camp. The renowned Dr Beeching (he who did so much for railway preservation) helped the corridor become very sustainable by closing the railway in 1970.
That became what is now the West Somerset Railway.
It's a common complaint from locals that First caters for the Butlins clientele at the expense of the local populous. So much so that they can't get on number 28 buses. Webberbus took full advantage of that in 2009 when they launched the 18 and immediately landed themselves significant market share. First's reply was to again double frequency to 30 minutes from hourly, rather missing the point that if they'd kept it operational at that level beforehand the competitor wouldn't have exploited the gap left open for them.
You have the more recent fun from First who have massively put resources into Exmoor Coaster whilst pulling trips on the 28 due to 'no driver, or no bus' - none of which are acceptable excuses in the eyes of the traffic commissioner.
That's now ended as two councils simply won't pay them to run empty open toppers all summer long after disrupting the established network. Not that it's not a good idea, but it's one that will take many years to become viable, and for that you need to accept losses in the short to medium term.
Now, you'd think all this stuff would be understood by those who run model bus fleets, but.......
......the operator who does has run it hourly for many years.
From what can be gleaned runs it once an hour with three double deck vehicles. That's not inline with the actual demand for travel on the route. It was pointed out more than once that potential existed to offer a better level of service. Draft timetables were produced - discussions were had. Sadly, negotiations with this particular operator were usually laboured and drawn out.
As I had a long standing working relationship I wished to protect I didn't put my ideas into practice. However some events last summer which I will not expand upon here meant I rethought that 'obligation'. I am no longer constrained and I can do what I want to do with the corridor. I don't sit back and let people attack me, the way I live my life, and tell barefaced lies about me without consequence.
I'd sketched out the bare bones of the timetable I'd want to run up this corridor back in 2023.
Like most problem solving, it helps to begin with a blank sheet of paper.
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| Work out when and how often. |
With a little bit of thought, I managed to come up with something that does this. The further education college is significant in that Somerset Council subsidises student travel - so college students can purchase annual passes and bus operators are reimbursed for the journeys made on those passes.
Likewise, with the concessionary fare scheme. Somerset is a very rural county with an ageing population. Those passholders will make long journeys as a result. This is sort of the reverse of most concessionary schemes where you need to have multiple people using that seat on the bus journey.
So it is very much in my interests to operate buses to cater for this additional traffic rather than to ignore it or supress it.
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| Establish how long it takes..... |
The resulting press release was version no 4 - earlier ones were a bit more pointed....
"A new bus link between Taunton and Minehead
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| You then have the shell of a timetable |
We have been repeatedly asked whether we can run a bus route between Minehead and Taunton.
We've decided time and again we'll not operate such a route. Until now.
We are pleased to announce we're going live with Service 28 on 31st August 2025.
Many have asked us too if this route can serve the county’s main hospital, Musgrove Park on the route too. Guess what? We’re doing that. We’ll also pass BTC Taunton on the way in/out so if you attend college, we’ve got that covered too.
In Minehead we’re serving Tesco. If you’re going to Butlins, we can take you there. To help us run reliably we’ll have one route around Minehead where we take in the major places before returning to Taunton.
But best of all is how often we’re going to run this route. In the daytime, it will run every 20 minutes. There’ll be buses into the late evening, and on a Sunday during the summer we’ll operate every half hour because there's going to be more people needing the bus. During the winter, we’ll operate once an hour.
We’ll back up this timetable with attractive fares, season tickets and a dedicated team of drivers who’ll only work this route because we need the support of you, the customer to succeed. You’ll get to know them all and they’ll get to know you too. They'll know which gate or lampost to drop you off at and pick you up from. They'll remember which day you'll be travelling.
We’re known for our excellent customer service on our other routes and for always turning up when the timetable says it will. Even in the snow. Other bus operators feel this an optional extra whereas we believe strongly that regular and reliable bus services deliver passenger journeys. If that means someone leaving a desk to go and drive the bus, that’s what we do. Because you rely on us to get you there.
From Sunday 24th August we will be operating the route for the first week free of charge, so you can try out your new bus route. We’ll also be able to get the route going before the start of the new academic year. Some of our heritage buses will come out to play too. You might find people high up in the company out and about and behind the wheel of some of them.
We’re really looking forward to serving our new customers with the start of the new 28 service, providing what you've asked us for.
We are Southwestbus. We are locally owned and locally managed.
We are passionate about buses. And we’re here to serve our customers."
As the route has been designed to do two loops at either end, it means all points needing serving have been and the amount of double running is minimal.
Thoughts then turned to branding for the buses working the route.
Ultimate childishness can be achieved by painting all buses S&D Prussian Blue.... :D there's an idea.
Now that the route has been operating almost six months, it is time to revisit what's working and what is not. We know full well (unlike others) that the summer months see a spike in visitors and that capacity needs to be higher in the summer than the winter thanks to those visiting Butlins.
On the other side, local people still need to travel.
So, the three times an hour timetable will become four in time for the 2026 summer season.
Here's the Monday to Saturday summary timetable.
