o539
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Post by o539 on Feb 3, 2023 22:03:09 GMT 1
But you still have an option to pay with contactless on London buses. This is totally different, no method of paying on the spot is accepted. But still, whilst unacceptable, any business can reject any type of payment they wish. Though that might be true in some cases, these buses have no ticket machine or anything of the sorts and someone has just said that they couldn't get on with cash or even for free (which was the way I've got on the last several times as they've just refused payment and let me on). And they said they were told when they got on that they only accept "pre-pay". However the only way listed on their website to do this, if the driver was even talking about the same thing, is to either ring them up and pay over the phone, or use their online payment portal *which isn't even accessible, it is only mentioned on the website*. It seems the method of payment they accept is changing every time someone gets on the bus, and now they're even refusing entry onto the bus because of this which is completely insane.
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Post by deerfold on Feb 3, 2023 23:30:34 GMT 1
No idea. That doesn't stop them checking validity, though. Of a paper ticket, but of an MCard? . . . No. Which is why I specially said they couldn't check an MCard in my previous post. ENTCS cards and MCard-on-phone or multi-operator tickets on paper could all be checked by the driver visually. However MCards couldn't and it seems very daft to require people to buy a ticket from another operator before using your bus.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2023 0:10:14 GMT 1
Of a paper ticket, but of an MCard? . . . No. Which is why I specially said they couldn't check an MCard in my previous post. ENTCS cards and MCard-on-phone or multi-operator tickets on paper could all be checked by the driver visually. However MCards couldn't and it seems very daft to require people to buy a ticket from another operator before using your bus. Do they no longer add the start/expiry date on the receipts for M-Cards? Whilst that would be little use for packs of day tickets it allows you to check Weekly/Monthly tickets. It used to be mentioned in Metros T&Cs that people should keep hold of the receipts for cases of no working ticket machine.
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Post by deerfold on Feb 4, 2023 0:26:53 GMT 1
No. Which is why I specially said they couldn't check an MCard in my previous post. Do they no longer add the start/expiry date on the receipts for M-Cards? Whilst that would be little use for packs of day tickets it allows you to check Weekly/Monthly tickets. It used to be mentioned in Metros T&Cs that people should keep hold of the receipts for cases of no working ticket machine. No. And the last few times I used an MCard, I added the tickets to it myself on my phone.
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Post by daveshipley1111 on Feb 4, 2023 1:33:25 GMT 1
“ I've sent an addendum to my previous e-mail to "Buses" magazine, updating them on recent events - and all of this has been passed on to Metro.”
What is Buses magazine please ? Is it a complaints mag for us public ?
I went for the 30 today from Pudsey but when I boarded the driver said he was on a break. But the bus was due to leave in less than 2 minutes…so I got off and waited at the stop. He then just drove off ! The bus was stopped at the traffic lights exit the bus station so I banged on the door and he shouted F off !
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Post by roilshead on Feb 4, 2023 19:23:10 GMT 1
What is Buses magazine please ? Is it a complaints mag for us public ? Dave, I'm surprised you asked that. It's been the only/"number-one" enthusiast magazine since 1949. (I must admit its not what is was, and it probably takes me fifteen minutes to read my monthly copy - but then the bus industry isn't what it once was to me, so most of the content doesn't interest . . . but its monthly purchase has been part of my life since September 1977. This month it had a centre-fold spread of an A&A bus on the 30 - I wrote in explaining how lucky the photographer was to captured the service, outlining the various experiences in this forum . . . now I'll have to addendum my addendum as your experience is pure gold. Does anybody know what what "A&A" actually stands for? - I was thinking perhaps "Amateurs & Ar*eholes". But haven't they brought such colour to our lives?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2023 20:07:59 GMT 1
What is Buses magazine please ? Is it a complaints mag for us public ? Dave, I'm surprised you asked that. It's been the only/"number-one" enthusiast magazine since 1949. (I must admit its not what is was, and it probably takes me fifteen minutes to read my monthly copy - but then the bus industry isn't what it once was to me, so most of the content doesn't interest . . . but its monthly purchase has been part of my life since September 1977. This month it had a centre-fold spread of an A&A bus on the 30 - I wrote in explaining how lucky the photographer was to captured the service, outlining the various experiences in this forum . . . now I'll have to addendum my addendum as your experience is pure gold. Does anybody know what what "A&A" actually stands for? - I was thinking perhaps "Amateurs & Ar*eholes". But haven't they brought such colour to our lives? Affordable & Amenable according to their website
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Post by daveshipley1111 on Feb 4, 2023 21:03:26 GMT 1
Hi
Thank you for the explanation. I’m not really a bus enthusiast but will look out the magazine.
Incidentally what a great friendly forum this is.
Well done everyone
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Post by roilshead on Feb 5, 2023 17:22:56 GMT 1
Dave, I'm surprised you asked that. It's been the only/"number-one" enthusiast magazine since 1949. (I must admit its not what is was, and it probably takes me fifteen minutes to read my monthly copy - but then the bus industry isn't what it once was to me, so most of the content doesn't interest . . . but its monthly purchase has been part of my life since September 1977. This month it had a centre-fold spread of an A&A bus on the 30 - I wrote in explaining how lucky the photographer was to captured the service, outlining the various experiences in this forum . . . now I'll have to addendum my addendum as your experience is pure gold. Does anybody know what what "A&A" actually stands for? - I was thinking perhaps "Amateurs & Ar*eholes". But haven't they brought such colour to our lives? Affordable & Amenable according to their website Amenable? !!!! - in light of recent events this is beyond parody! you really couldn't make it up.
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Post by Mr D Roebuck-Johnson on Feb 7, 2023 21:03:39 GMT 1
No bus seen today late morning. Rang operator, they said it only operates when you book it the day before ! Couldn’t believe what I was hearing…when I caught my breath back I said oh right can I book it for tomorrow then please ? Guy said sorry we have no driver tomorrow and put phone down !
I wish I recorded the conversation now !!
Could write a book about this 😂
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WYBS
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Post by WYBS on Feb 7, 2023 21:13:36 GMT 1
No bus seen today late morning. Rang operator, they said it only operates when you book it the day before ! Couldn’t believe what I was hearing…when I caught my breath back I said oh right can I book it for tomorrow then please ? Guy said sorry we have no driver tomorrow and put phone down ! I wish I recorded the conversation now !! Could write a book about this 😂 Hahahahaha class.
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Post by deerfold on Feb 8, 2023 9:57:08 GMT 1
No bus seen today late morning. Rang operator, they said it only operates when you book it the day before ! Couldn’t believe what I was hearing…when I caught my breath back I said oh right can I book it for tomorrow then please ? Guy said sorry we have no driver tomorrow and put phone down ! I wish I recorded the conversation now !! Could write a book about this 😂 Definitely pass that one onto Metro and the Traffic Commissioner. The TCs are very particular about prebookable services being registered and clearly advertised as such.
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Post by roilshead on Feb 13, 2023 20:00:24 GMT 1
I've received a reply from WYCA in response to my e-mails about non-compliant operation by A&A of this service. I received this e-mail today, so if you look at the reference to the date of the meeting with A&A that meeting must have before before the experiences of 2nd, 4th, and 7th February experienced by myself and others (so I've sent them yet another e-mail updating them about my and others' experiences of this operator as relayed on this website). This is the full content of the e-mail I received:
"Thanks for your further correspondence regarding bus 30.
We are aware of a number of issues with the operator providing this service, A&A coaches. They operate this and a number of school services under contract to the CA.
We had them into the office a couple of weeks ago for a performance meeting, where we raised this and a number of issues. They appear to still be having driver issues so we are looking to bring in a temporary timetable on the 30 (requiring less resource) which we hope they will be able to operate reliability.
Given the market conditions we are reluctant to retender at this stage, however we have informed A&A that we will be taking the contract off them if they do not improve performance. We are hopeful we can have a temporary timetable introduced from 19th February.
If then we do not see improvements, we will look to take further action. Our contract compliance officers are aware of the issues and are continuing to monitor them closely."
I'll keep you posted . . .
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o539
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Post by o539 on Feb 14, 2023 12:31:16 GMT 1
It's good to hear that WYMetro is actually doing something about it, although like you just said it seems the meeting happened a while ago before many of the more questionable interactions took place.
Hopefully this intervention brings some change and the service improves, but I guess only time will tell, and I just hope none of the Pudsey runs get removed or that the service becomes a skeleton, although to be fair I think any service is better than what we're getting at the moment, so even if it's a less than ideal timetable at least the service will be running, hopefully.
I do have to say though that the current timetable was very optimistic, without any space accounting for breaks or traffic, so hopefully this new temporary timetable will help fix those problems, and the problems with A&A in general. Although that might be me getting my hopes up, I'd like to think that this new timetable will fix some things, but given the previous swathes of problems it's hard to tell just yet...
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Post by Burnside on Feb 14, 2023 14:59:58 GMT 1
Given the nature of some of the gripes, a temporary timetable may make the service more reliable, but it sounds like there are deeper issues within the company which it wouldnt change.
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o539
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Post by o539 on Feb 15, 2023 19:56:42 GMT 1
I wonder when we'll see the new timetable as there's nothing new on the metro website or service changes page as of yet
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o539
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Post by o539 on Feb 15, 2023 21:23:28 GMT 1
I wonder when we'll see the new timetable as there's nothing new on the metro website or service changes page as of yet The new timetable would be introduced under the short notice provisions of bus registration legislation. So, the service change will be under short notice and supported by Metro. Without which it won't get past the traffic commissioner. I'm sorry but I have no idea what you mean by that, how does that affect when we'll see the timetable, since shouldn't that just reduce the amount of hoops they have to go through to get the new timetable approved?
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Post by roilshead on Feb 27, 2023 20:15:46 GMT 1
I have, today, received a reply from WYCA in response to an e-mail I sent highlighting the problems mentioned on this thread since the beginning of this month:
"Dear Philip Thank you for your further correspondence. This behaviour is clearly unacceptable and we have informed A & A that we will be taking the contract off them if their performance does not improve. We are continuing to monitor them closely."
I'm out-and-about on Friday - I might risk another attempt at travelling from Pudsey to Horsforth, just for the jol of seeing what happens . . .
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o539
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Post by o539 on Feb 27, 2023 21:28:13 GMT 1
I have, today, received a reply from WYCA in response to an e-mail I sent highlighting the problems mentioned on this thread since the beginning of this month: "Dear Philip Thank you for your further correspondence. This behaviour is clearly unacceptable and we have informed A & A that we will be taking the contract off them if their performance does not improve. We are continuing to monitor them closely." I'm out-and-about on Friday - I might risk another attempt at travelling from Pudsey to Horsforth, just for the jol of seeing what happens . . . Ah that's good news, additionally it seems like they are running some services sometimes at least since there's a photo of their Ex-Glasgow ALX400 B7TL 31139 on the "First Bus Enthusiasts" Facebook group running the 30 on town street in Horsforth. Still no sight of the new reduced timetable though that they (WYMetro/WYCA) mentioned in the previous email that was coming in to help reliability...
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Post by daveshipley on Mar 2, 2023 17:24:38 GMT 1
Unbelievably there were two buses on the 30 this morning. Albeit nothing is simple with this operation….
One bus was indeed on the Pudsey trips but omitting Calverley due to “parked cars”.
One bus was on the short Vale to station trips as and when. You’ll find it on the A6120 lay-by down from the Horsforth RA when not “needed” 🫤
It’s progress 😂
Even saw a guy photographing it !
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Post by Burnside on Mar 3, 2023 1:07:02 GMT 1
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Post by stephen01 on Mar 3, 2023 1:18:09 GMT 1
they need shutting down and if i was in Metro & NYCC's postition i'd be pulling all contracts from them especially the school work.
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joseph
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Post by joseph on Mar 3, 2023 7:13:00 GMT 1
If this was a major sports star who had done something like this, contracts with sponsors would be ripped up without payout in an instant, so why can't WYCA and NYCC do this? After all, publicity wise who wants to be associated with a company who does this? Someone should send this report to the mayor and ask her why they are continuing with A&As contracts in the West Yorkshire area, I bet she quickly acts.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2023 14:15:59 GMT 1
If this was a major sports star who had done something like this, contracts with sponsors would be ripped up without payout in an instant, so why can't WYCA and NYCC do this? After all, publicity wise who wants to be associated with a company who does this? Someone should send this report to the mayor and ask her why they are continuing with A&As contracts in the West Yorkshire area, I bet she quickly acts. Whilst I think what A&A is unacceptable, the WYCA is in a tricky situation here due the driver shortage that if they take the contract off A&A there might not be another operator to take it on & the service ends up suspended again, sadly it seems at the moment it's a choice between a poor service or no service.
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Post by stephen01 on Mar 3, 2023 14:29:17 GMT 1
If this was a major sports star who had done something like this, contracts with sponsors would be ripped up without payout in an instant, so why can't WYCA and NYCC do this? After all, publicity wise who wants to be associated with a company who does this? Someone should send this report to the mayor and ask her why they are continuing with A&As contracts in the West Yorkshire area, I bet she quickly acts. Whilst I think what A&A is unacceptable, the WYCA is in a tricky situation here due the driver shortage that if they take the contract off A&A there might not be another operator to take it on & the service ends up suspended again, sadly it seems at the moment it's a choice between a poor service or no service. think you'll find people may want no service to a service run by discriminative people.
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