Olympics Torch

Dear Operator

The purpose of this e-mail is to advise on Events/Traffic situations surrounding the Olympic Torch and the ParaOlympic Flame Event in Suffolk from a Passenger Transport outlook.

The Route and times of the Torch passing through Suffolk can be viewed through the following link:-

http://www.london2012.com/olympic-torch-relay-map
Please note the Torch will be in two modes.--Torch Bearer and Convoy.  Convoy is when the torch is being moved from A to B in a vehicle with outriders etc.

The Olympic Torch will first arrive in Suffolk from the Great Yarmouth direction and into Lowestoft on  the morning of Thursday 5th July 2012.

There will be events surrounding the Torch that morning in Lowestoft.

Operators can expect traffic delays and demand for Public Transport should be considerable. Commercial bus operators may need to consider capacity issues.

Beccles and Bungay will not be visited by the flame.

The Torch will then travel through Coastal Suffolk (Including Southwold, Wrentham, Saxmundham, Leiston, Aldeburgh, Woodbridge and Felixstowe). Expect Traffic Problems.

In the late afternoon and early evening the Flame will be arriving in Ipswich and will travelling by boat around Fox's Boat Yard area, the Orwell Bridge and into the Wet Dock. Ipswich evening of Thursday 5th July 2012.

Huge numbers of people are expected in Ipswich that evening and there will be major celebrations centred at the main event in Christchurch Park.

In the late afternoon early evening Public Bus services and Park and Ride are expected to be operating normally to bring people into the town. These services are of course very depleted for the evening return, unless operators react.

The flame leaves early the following morning and initially leaves Suffolk in the Colchester direction.

    

The Torch then comes back into the County mid afternoon on Saturday 7th July in Haverhill.

Late afternoon Saturday 7th July the Torch will be in Bury St Edmunds.

Much of the surrounding area will not have a Torch visit. Towns such as Diss, Brandon and Thetford will not be on the Torch route.

Commercial service bus route operators may well need to consider capacity requirements on their existing services.

District Councils are the local 'patrons' of the Olympic Flame. There may well be a Park and Ride organised for this event by St Edmundsbury District Council.

Early evening events on Saturday 7th July will be in Newmarket, where a carnival will also be taking place.  

Paralympics Torch event Evening of Friday 24th August -Needham Market.

The Suffolk Para Olympic Torch event will be at just one location -Needham Market lake.

This will be the major Suffolk event held at this location. There may well be a number of visitors with mobility difficulties. Public Buses do not operate in the area in the evenings; access and practicality of the rail service to and from Needham Market is very limited. At times Needham Market High Street will be closed as will Coddenham Road (Railway Bridge) and other roads.

Suffolk County Council and Suffolkonboard.com web sites are likely to be providing and collating information relative to transport etc. 

Operators are alerted to these events:-

• To be aware of potential traffic issues.
• To be aware of Public Transport issues.
• Schools may wish to hire vehicles to visit locations, in the North of the County.
• Demand to hire vehicles which provide wheelchair facilities may be particular great on Friday 24th August as well as the other events.

I hope this is helpful.

David Gibbs and Andrew Gee.

Senior Network Planners -Suffolk County Council. 

Halesworth Hoppa Postcards

A set of postcards with a common back had been produced for HACT by Mustard Creative. These will be distributed by volunteers whenever there is the opportunity, such as from the bus and at community events and by volunteers doing letter drops in their neigbourhood. It is hoped they will be retained by potential passengers and volunteers as a reminder on fridges and pinboards and picked up by the casual browser from information carousels.

Mike Penning reply to D1 issue

After much toing and froing I have had a response from a minister to my letters on the D1 issue asking for something to be done to ensure community transport operators can continue to recruit volunteer drivers for the size of vehicles that can be sustainably put into rural service without the cost burden of over £1000 per volunteer for the PSV license. I suggested that the weight limit be raised for vehicles to allow volunteer drivers licensed after 1997 to drive and this concession would be solely for non-profit transport operators and volunteer drivers.

His reply basically says: "them's the rules" and it would be unfair to give the PSV license free for volunteer drivers as commercial bus operators would claim they are discriminated against.

I fear he has not grasped the precarious state of rural community transport, he certainly hasn't acknowledged or disputed my thesis that there is a time-bomb of a shortage of volunteer drivers nor has he offered any other solutions to those I suggested.

My MP Therese Coffey has indicated she thinks support for the cost of the PSV license might be the way forward and I shall pursue this but, as I explained in my briefing, to the various minister and the CTA, this has its downsides as well.

MiDAS Driver Observer/Assessor/Trainer Wanted

Halesworth Area Community Transport are seeking a second trainer for their driver and 'bus buddy' volunteers which
operate the scheduled 'Halesworth Hoppa' services.

Do you have experience in driver training, perhaps in a uniformed service? This is not essential but you should be familiar with operating vehicles exceeding 4250 Kg MAM.

Do you have a comprehensive knowledge of the Highway Code and are willing to learn advanced driving skills to become a MiDAS instructor?

Can you encourage and inspire volunteers with your patient teaching and effective communication skills?
HACT can offer you a rewarding role in helping to provide essential transport for many thousands of people by volunteering for just a few hours a month. Ideally it would suit you in weekdays but weekends or evenings are alright too.


You must have held a full licence  for two years for cars and mpv's plus be over 21 (plus D1 or PSV entitlement) for minibuses.


You will need to successfuly attend a MiDAS Driver Assessor/Trainer course which is six days over two weeks and involves classroom work, preparation and delivery of a short presentation, safety and handling practicals and of course driving culminating in providing an observed drive of a satisfactory standard. Expenses would be reimbursed.


A MiDAS Driver Assessor/Trainer will need to be able able to confidently and consistently demonstrate a high standard of driving combined with excellent communication skills to prospective drivers and current volunteers who require periodic re-testing. They will need to coach the MiDAS model in a class room type setting and demonstrate on the road so as to obtain the best from a wide cross section of ages and abilities.


Non-profit HACT has provided Halesworth with scheduled local bus services for nearly twenty years because commercial operators can‟t. The whole community depends on public transport being available for everyone.


HACT's volunteers are serious about giving a reliable service but they want to make it fun too. They are looking for that quality in you as well.


Call HACT on 01986 875900 between 9:00 and 12:00 for an informal chat to find out more. At other times leave a message and someone will call you back soon as they can.


Halesworth Area Community Transport, The Railway Station, Station Road, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8BZ www.hactbus.co.uk

Ordnance Survey GeoVation Challenge

From my work for Suffolk ACRE and my volunteering with Halesworth Area Community Transport, I have discovered how difficult it is to model and test new ideas about local transport provision. For instance, if you wanted to  change a bus timetable to be more convenient for Halesworth (or to save councils some money) you may well be messing things up for people in Kessingland and Aldeburgh. You might try to lobby your councillor to subsidise a service and be told there’s no demand for it, or it doesn’t fit in their budget, and you will find it’s very hard to get substantive data to make your case.

What’s person to do?  If only you had a virtual bus and train set; you could model how and where your public transport goes (and work out its cost) with the real schedules and see new ideas in action without spending many nights painfully typing timetables into spreadsheets, as I have done, because there’s no tool for this yet, though there’s lots of mapping and transport simulation software that could be tied together to make one.

For some time I have been thinking of ways to get this done but only heard yesterday that there is a competition that could cover the cost of making this idea a reality.

So please can you vote for my idea that can empower communities to plan transport timetables themselves in the Ordnance SurveyGeoVation Challenge. Would you do this ASAP as it closes on March 28^th.

It’s a competition for funding to build a website application that will display current bus, train and other public transport schedules from which users can visualise current routes and schedules and also enter proposed routes and timetables to see potential connections with other modes and the impact of amendments or new provision of services.

https://challenge.geovation.org.uk/a/dtd/108489-16422

It seems you have to register with the button at the top to vote.

I’ve spoken to software engineers who are working on things like this already. You’ve seen their stuff in the news and they tell me it can be done.

Don’t let the powers that be simply tell you the public transport your community needs can’t be provided. If public transport planning can be made truly collaborative; villages, towns and parishes won’t be pitted against each other for scraps from the providers table – in ignorance of each other’s needs - nor have to pay for transport subsidies with political patronage, but will be able devise services for themselves in all modes that can best serve them from the resources of commercial, statutory or charitable organisations.

I do this with my personal remit but through my work there would be a network of testers and potential users that could rapidly put this into national use.

Walberswick Community Buses

updated 5/11/12  see below

If you look for a bus service for Walberswick, Suffolk in the usual places, you’ll find there is only DRT services advertised.  However, it is very little known because the timetable isn’t published anywhere that Walberswick runs two 'scheduled' bus services of its own and these are free to passengers because they are funded with £4630 per year (in 2010) by the Walberswick Common Lands Trust, who derive their income from the £3 beach parking charge the Summer visitors have to pay.


Every 3rd Thursday of the month at 9.30 AM a minibus departs from from the Tuck Shop and, depending on demand, the lower car park in Walberswick for John Lewis in Norwich. I don’t know the return time but the bus - chartered from Waylands - apparently goes to another job then does the return run a couple of hours later. There are no stops en-route.


Every Wednesday there is a departure at 9.30 AM to Halesworth (on 1st Wednesdays of the month it continues to Beccles and Lowestoft), leaving as before and will drop passengers as needed at the Market Place or the Co-operative Supermarket. It waits for 90 minutes then returns. Again, no stops en-route, which is a pity for residents of Blythburgh as every bus must pass there.


Full details are a bit scant as the timetable isn’t published anywhere, even in the village, as it’s “just something you know about” a resident told me. I’ll reserve comment on the ramifications of that kind of presumption. There is a pre-booking system and a waiting list is kept as the service is often over-subscribed. Bookings are taken at 01502 724763


Sometimes the 15 or 16 seat minibus that Waylands supply (they're never quite sure until the day before) could have done with a wash but residents tell me they are very happy with the service and the drivers. The buses have a tail lift and there are passengers who use it. Though the bus doesn’t go door-to-door, it can stop anywhere it’s passing and the drivers are helpful. It used to have a £1 booking fee but was dispensed with when the WCLT assumed the entire cost. The bus contract is legally with the WCLT (the secretary is Jane Tibbles 01502 724448).


Apropos of a Handy Bus service, this is a very good example of a village (that is fortunate to have the means) of taking transport needs into their own hands and managing it themselves and has done so for years. The service was started in May 2007 on a six month trial and then only used to run monthly but demand steadily grew to where they are now.


Walberwick recently completed a parish plan. It has been put to that committee that opportunity exists to create synergies and efficiencies using the bus service to deliver other social care functions for everyone in the village. I hope those ideas - and many others arising from the consultation - will get considered.

From the Walberswick Parish Plan Stage 2 report October 2012

Public transport 

A large number of respondents (158) wanted improved public transport.
However there are already various means of accessing transport from the village to local areas that could be more widely publicised. Suffolk Links, which is a subsidised Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) service providing connections to bus and train links in rural areas, operates from Monday to Saturday and covers travel to Saxmundham, Leiston, Darsham and any village within the Blyth service area. Concessionary Passes can be used for this service. The WCLC provides a Wednesday bus to Halesworth three times a month and to Lowestoft on the fourth Wednesday. WCLC also runs a bus to Norwich, one Thursday per month. The twice weekly public transport to Beccles had to be withdrawn due to lack of uptake. Unfortunately there is no bus service to Southwold nor does the Suffolk Links service extend to Southwold; this inconvenience needs to be rectified.

Going Nowhere?

Without public transport serving its Market Place or going the length of the High Street, many residents of Southwold and Reydon in Suffolk have become isolated from essential services and feel trapped in their homes while the shopkeepers have reported a decrease in trade since the buses were banned from the town. It is well understood that such isolation has an enormous impact on health and if left unchecked, increased cost for the public purse will result.


One solution that could meet the conflicting demands that necessitated this £10,000 'experiment' is for Southwold to have its own community bus, running a scheduled local service in a loop around the town and outlying villages. Connecting with the inter-town buses, it could serve the tourism areas of the pier and the harbour and connect the residential areas and Reydon to the High Street with a small disabled-accessible ‘Hoppa’ bus able to navigate the narrow streets and around every thoughtlessly parked 4x4.


It is fortunate that nearby is the model of the Halesworth Area Hoppa, a self-supporting scheduled bus operating on four weekdays and driven by volunteers, providing the younger and the older resident a lifeline to reach essential services in their town. A number of potential models exist from section 22 scheduled public service to a co-operative chartering regular buses for its members; the 'Handy Bus' model I devised.


If there were twenty good men and women of Southwold and Reydon under 70 years old with clean driving licenses who took their driving test before 1997, prepared to give three hours a month (as people do in Halesworth) to drive the bus – and some others to be bus conductors - then running  a community bus in Southwold would be entirely feasible and affordable within the resources of this fortunate town’s many charities and benefactors and its revenue from the new car park. Government grants rapidly shift according to agendas but two presently exist to support transport initiatives and/or coastal towns.

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_86_11.htm

http://www.dft.gov.uk/news/press-releases/dft-press-20111208a

But most importantly of all, there would have to be at least three visionaries prepared to work together to establish this community bus company and perhaps a dozen others to sit on its management committee every other month. Unfortunately, and I mean no disrespect to Southwold’s many civic activists, for it is the much the same everywhere, people can be persuaded to sit on convivial committees and be given titles with real responsibilities but finding volunteers who would be prepared to give up other responsibilities and their leisure to sweat over VOSA regulations etcetera in the beginning are much, much, scarcer.


But Southwold has a great and proud tradition of rising to the challenge. A bus might not be as sexy as a cinema or a railway but it does offer an opportunity to create something of lasting and great social usefulness; for without the fundamental infrastructure of practicable public transport, all other efforts will be for naught if the town - as a community - withers and dies to become a coastal theme park amidst the unsplendid isolation of its increasingly elderly residents.


There is a great deal of encouragement and support for those three people prepared to say “we will see it through” but it begins with them making themselves known.