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Commuters spurn rail
Page 19
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• Commuter-coach operators are poised to capture a biggerthan-ever slice of the market from British Rail if current trends continue.
Several operators report a significant increase in commuter passengers in the past few months, and a bigger-thanusual flood of enquiries when British Rail made its annual fare increase announcement last month.
The combination of reliability of service, low fares (on average 60% below BR) and a guaranteed seat is increasingly blunting the edge of rail's advantage of speed. "Our average journey is 1hr 15min," says David Hockley, director of Reliance Coaches, which rims between the Gravesend area and London. "We never have a cancellation. I was running 10 coaches a day last January and now it's 12 a day. We're definitely picking up more customers and losing less."
The Kings Ferry, which runs 30 services a day from the Medway towns to London, has seen an increase of around 200 regular passengers in the past two months. "We offer a better service than British Rail," says commuter manager Vanessa O'Neill. Over 50% of her customers have annual season tickets. "We pick up from where people live, and women especially tell us that coach is a safer means of travel."
However, operators in the South-East complain that longterm road improvement programmes are spoiling business by slowing down the journey. "The police have called in on professional operators to see how things can be improved for PSVs," says Mike Thornton, general manager of Scotts Tours which runs commuter services from Kent. "But they are hampered without cooperation from councils to lay down and enforce double yellow lines and other traffic regulations."