People living in Hollingdean have asked for action from Brighton and Hove City Council after changes made the service an unreliable “magical mystery tour”.
At a council housing management panel meeting, Hollingdean Residents’ Association chair Des Jones and secretary Ian Beck raised the issue of the number 20 bus being more unreliable than the old 50 route.
A lack of electronic bus stop signs also means that residents have no idea when buses will turn up.
Mr Beck told the panel of residents, council officials and councillors that the community was sold the service as providing a better timetable.
Among the many complaints to the residents’ association, one said that there had been a 40-minute gap in what should be a three-times-an hour service.
Mr Beck said thatthe company told him that there was no mechanic to deal with broken-down electric buses which had caused the long delay.
He said: “They’re not abiding by the timetable at any time. It’s very rare a bus comes at the time on the timetable.
“We haven’t got electronic signs that could give us more information on what’s going on.
“People in Hollingdean are totally fed up with the 20 at the moment because, when you get on the bus, you either have to go down to Lewes Road first or all around the world to where you need to go on a magical mystery tour of Brighton.”
Mr Jones said that the community had been promised the return of the 50U bus but this had not happened.
On the new 20 route, he said: “Going from Hollingdean into Brighton is impossible for anyone to get on a 20 to Old Steine.
“I’ve got a bus pass. I don’t mind changing buses but, for people without a bus pass, it costs them twice as much to get from Hollingdean, change bus and get to Old Steine.”
Transport officer Nicoletta Bertoldi said that she would take the comments back to the transport team and raise them with the bus company.
Hollingdean Community Centre volunteers have set up a 20 bus survey on their website to establish how people in the area feel about the new route.
Labour councillor Mohammed Asaduzzaman, who represents Hollingdean and Fiveways, asked the Hollingdean Community Centre manager to send the results to Brighton and Hove City Council so that the authority could work with the bus company.
Brighton and Hove Buses launched the new route this summer, merging the 50 which served Hollingdean and the 18 service to Queen’s Park.
The route is well-used enough not to attract a subsidy from the council.
Where does the is route actually start-and route does it take.
I got the 20 Bus other day from the Old Pizza Hut stop opp Imperial Arcade to St James St- up to Queens Park like where I wanted to go, seems once it’s in Hollingdean it goes elsewhere to get back down to where it needs to go.but
But coming back down seems hard work.
I’m finding now that the Marina has enough buses going down-1X,7,21,23,47,52-any more.
I also find from 7 Dials there is no bus that really goes past the Old Childrens Hospital like the Old route of the 7 used to do-that was a lifeline but suppose the numbers are low.
I’m definitely up on the little Buzzbus No47 From West Hove to Saltdean, good route that serves Kemp Town.
It is a strange and labyrinth of a route. Surely the route up and around Brighton Station is duplicated in respect to the 37B?
It’s certainly not disability friendly either. I certainly agree with residents about the lack of electronic displays in the Hollingdean area. I’ve found myself on several occasions ending up down at Lewes Road bus garage with the attendant aggravation of having to change to another more direct route into Brighton town center. This is probably going to be a problem for elderly customers and people with disabilities.
It’s useless around Queens Park as well. They have just messed up the routes completely and shifted the bus stops without any research or consultation.
Constantly waiting for the 20 in Hollingdean and we have all the old old buses not electric ones just this morning I got on one bus which was already fifteen minutes late to be told to get off and get the next one behind it because the one we was on was late and don’t even know where it went. Probably back to the garage. Just makes no sense. Terrible service
I have gotten on a bus on davey drive, been told its only going to sainsburys, whereafter it will come back up to hollingdean, but I’d have to pay twice as sainsburys is the end of the route. I then had to get off the bus, and wait for another bus! And without electronic signs, I had to wait half an hour, only to have to get off at london Road to get into town, as it was quicker to do that than go round the whole of queen’s park first! And the route back was not past the station, just completely made up and went back the old 50 route, which was fine by me as it meant I got home quicker. The bus going past the station is pointless, as if you wanted to get in or out of town via the station, you walk 10 minutes to the station and get the train to moulscoomb.
I didn’t think it could get any worse than the 50, with its 25 minute waits, only to disappear off the board 5 minutes before arrival and reappear at 25 minutes, but they made it so bad they could justify scrapping it to save money by combining routes and ‘adding buses’, as the 50 only ever had 4 buses on it, usually right next to eachother. They were always rammed because of it. But this route is twice as long, if it even goes where it says, does not indicate where it is going, and only goes to sainsburys to drop the drivers off. And despite being longer, it is more restrictive, as it doesn’t go through the old steine, where you can get buses to the rest of the coast. Literally no redeeming feature, a descion made purely for profit, and £6 total a day for the privilege.
I have been following this little transport drama with considerable interest.
I do, of course, have a bus pass. One must keep abreast of these things. In reality, I confess that my preferred mode of transport is rather more likely to be a locomotive — preferably one heading towards Chichester, where I can be collected for luncheon at Goodwood.
For shorter journeys, there is always the Bentley.
I am therefore perhaps not the ideal person to lecture the residents of Hollingdean on bus services. But even I can recognise a Magical Mystery Tour when I see one.
I was in my prime when The Beatles were producing such masterpieces, and I am fairly certain Magical Mystery Tour was intended to be an album rather than a description of the local bus timetable.
The community representatives appear to have raised some rather substantial crumbs of concern: a service supposedly running three times an hour but leaving passengers facing gaps of around 40 minutes; buses apparently failing to keep to the timetable; the loss of direct journeys people previously relied upon; and the promised return of the 50U seemingly disappearing somewhere along The Long and Winding Road.
Then we come to the electric buses.
Apparently some have been breaking down and there is a shortage of mechanics to repair them.
A shortage of mechanics?
This is precisely the sort of thing I feared when they first started replacing perfectly respectable machinery with these new-fangled electric contraptions. In my day, if something stopped working, one summoned a mechanic, produced a suitably impressive spanner and got on with it.
Still, I am assured that electric buses are the future.
Perhaps somebody could explain that to the passengers waiting at the bus stop.
There is, naturally, the consolation of the fare cap. Single fares are currently capped at £3 and are due to fall to £2 in January.
Splendid.
Although if one previously made the journey on a single bus and now has to change onto another, the passenger may require two tickets. As the residents point out, that is rather less attractive if you haven’t got a bus pass.
Which gives a rather different interpretation to Ticket to Ride.
Two tickets for one journey. One might almost think the biscuit tin had been left open.
And then there are the electronic information boards. If the buses are occasionally performing their own version of Nowhere Man, surely passengers might reasonably be provided with some means of discovering where they have gone.
I appreciate that the number 20 is commercially operated, so Hove Town Hall cannot simply summon one by ringing a bell. But the council does have responsibility for the real-time passenger information infrastructure.
Perhaps, therefore, this is one occasion when the matter might be raised at one of those occasions when councillors venture over to Brighton Town Hall.
Although I rather suspect that locating the Mayor’s Parlour may be considerably easier than locating the number 20.
As for the residents of Hollingdean, I hope their concerns are taken seriously. A bus service is not much use if passengers are left wondering whether to Wait a little longer, Help! someone find the missing bus, or simply Drive My Car.
Although in my case, naturally, that last option is rather more straightforward.
Yours, from the departure lounge of the Biscuit Estate,
Viscount Biscuit