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.