Thursday 1^st November 2012

To whom it may concern,

RE: Transport Consultation

In our youth group (Youth Are Funders) we met  to discuss the problems we all have with public transport, we also came up with some solutions to help solve the problems if you are prepared to listen here are some of the problems people came up with: 

- Buses are always too busy

- The buses are too expensive for people with children or on JSA

- They don’t do returns on buses anymore

- There is only a limited space for wheelchairs/prams

- Very unreliable with timekeeping                                                                                                        Some drivers as this isn’t always the case need to wait until people are seated before moving

- Highly suggest bus companies start working together and allow the use of all tickets especially late at night e.g. Arriva, First, GHA coaches

- Why do we have to pay adult prices at the age of 16 when by law you are not classed as an adult until you are 18?

- Train stations aren’t in every town which means getting the bus to the closest station which evidently is going to cost more

- Trains don’t wait long enough, i.e. in Flint you have to walk over the bridge and most of the time as you’re going over it the train leaves

- There isn’t enough access for wheelchairs/prams as there are steps leading to the bridge but no ramps.

We have a few solutions we think could work if you’d like to take a look:

- We suggest all drivers to have training in Customer service and Equality and Diversity.

- Anybody under the age of 18 should be classed as a child and anyone in education that can prove it should be cheaper.

- All bus companies should work together and accept all tickets

- We suggest a Facebook page to explain the information on prices, times, do’s and don’ts as more people would look and know if it’s on a social networking site

- Bus tickets should be able to get used on trains as like we’ve wrote there isn’t a station in every town charging more for people.

Please find below some true case studies from some members of the:

        “Me, my partner and baby were waiting for the x11 to Chester, when the bus finally arrived (it was half an hour late too) there were 2 buggies (small prams) in the wheelchair space with no children sitting in them. A guy on the bus stood up and went to move one of the buggies out of the way for us but we were told by the bus driver that we couldn’t get on unless we put our pram down. The baby was asleep, it’s a larger pram and we also had a lot of baby stuff under the pram. My partner and our baby had to then wait for the next bus; I had to leave by then as I had a doctor’s appointment.”

     “When I was living in Flint at the hostel, my partner and her daughter were visiting on a Friday. We got the baby ready for bed and put her in the pram asleep, we then went to the bus stop to wait for the 10.20pm bus which is the ‘last bus’. When the bus arrived it was quite full as the ice disco had been on and young people were standing in the wheelchair/pram bay. The bus driver did stop but only to tell us there was no room, so he turned away a young mum with her baby late at night because of young people standing where they shouldn’t have been. He didn’t even tell them to move up the bus even though there was more room towards the back.”

       “It annoys me when drivers can’t let you off with say 10p as in most cases when drivers haven’t got enough change they say they will give it you when you get off the bus, most drivers will then let you off the bus knowing they owe you money. I’ve been on the bus when my partner forgot her change and the driver looked at her and let her get off, when I reached him I stood there and called her back to get her change.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this, we hope to hear from you soon.

Yours hopefully

Stacey Harris, Eloise Jones, Catherine Jones, Sherrie Keenan and Chantelle Keenan (Youth are Funders)