Bilbao Bus Strike

 Bilbobus

The Bilbao urban bus network is operated by ALSA (Spain's largest bus and coach operator and sister company to National Express under Mobico ownership) under the brand Bilbobus, I believe under contract to the regional Basque Government rather than the municipality.  

The majority of the Bilbobus fleet is made up of rigid hybrid Mercedes Citaro buses of varying lengths.  

Industrial Dispute

There is an on-going industrial dispute ("strike") between the employees and ALSA since the beginning of 2024.  Action appears to have sporadic up to 9th April and then became daily.  It appears this is due to the lack of a pay rise for three years (in other places reported as a below CPI pay offer) exacerbated by alleged other failings by ALSA in their employee relations.  ALSA note that the value of their contract does not allow for any pay rise; in turn the trade union have very much identified the two politicians they feel are to blame for the current situation.  The length and scale of the dispute is resulting in a lot of propaganda appearing on buses and bus stops.

Strike propaganda covering route displays and accessibility information.  

There have apparently been issues with deliberate vandalism rendering buses unusable.  I suspect that buses have been used as barricades to prevent access to depots and in the course of that they get hand written messages added to them,

 

It's very clear which politicians are apparently responsible: this image inside a Bilbobus vehicle.

And again!  The pink poster on the left is a detailed explanation of the rationale of the industrial action.

Another poster added to a bus....

And another....

Servicios Minimos

The industrial action is taking place every weekday: at weekends the full normal timetabled service is operating.  This does not mean there are no buses on weekdays: a minimum service level is operating.  It appears to be unilaterally imposed by the Basque government, but as that comes from World Socialist Web Site, I'd take that with a pinch of salt   To their credit Bilbobus have posted basic timetables on every bus stop, and the revised service seems to be largely correctly reflected in their timetables and real time section of their app, although I'm told it's not always 100% accurate.

One iteration of the minimum service timetable. 

A later iteration of the minimum service timetable (June 2024) which shows more services and routes operating.  Presumably the finances of the individual drivers or trades unions are being stretched with such a long industrial dispute so more are returning to work, as well as the increased minimum service levels.

Servicios Minimos windscreen display.

Minimum Service on route 7.

Bilbao is a very popular tourist destination, but the open top Bus Turistico has also fallen victim to the industrial action.

Response

As noted above it appears that the provincial Basque Government have some ability to impose minimum service levels, and have raised it over time. It would be great to know the legislative framework behind that.

The inter-urban/commuter hinterland Bizkaibus are making stops at more suburban Bilbao bis stops.  These don't appear on any [obvious] timetables or real time information (as Bizkaibus and Bilbobus see to be completely separate systems).

Bizkaibus, a substantial inter-urban network centered on Bilbao, operated by a variety of contracted bus operators in an even wider variety of vehicles. This Irizar i4 carries a tiny Avanza name on the front.

There is also some on-line news posts in the English language press in Spain about whether the Basque Government can - and apparently will - remove ALSA's contract to operate Bilbobus.  At the time of writing I can't find the link, but this is a common government response rather than to address the underlying problem (in the UK see: Operator of Last Resort).

In the absence of any solutions...

....here's some more Bilbobus images...and I'll add that ordinarily Bilbobus is a fantastic operation wth dense coverage of this hilly city and supported by a two line Metro, one tram line, a cable car, Bizkaibus, inter-urban rail networks of Euskotren and RENFE and a large coach station.

Irizar ieTram.  Maybe, one day, coming to London route 358.

Another Citaro hybrid.

Solaris Urbino electric.

Excellent next stop and connecting bus information on board every vehicle.

The humble lift, one of many across this port city built in a valley.

New in the West Midlands

A couple of visits to the West Midlands recently has seen some changes appearing in the public transport scene....

Avanti Class 805

It is apparently controversial to say but I rather like the DfT's Intercity Express Project train fleet, and in Avanti service as the Class 805 I think they are much nicer to travel on than the operator's other trains, the Class 390 Pendolino (dark and cramped) and the diesel Class 222 Voyager (on their way out with the arrival of the bi-mode 805s).

West Midlands Trains Class 730

These might be the final iteration of the Bombardier/Alstom 'Aventra' train built just up the road (or the Derby lines) in Derby.  They are very different from the venerable Class 323s they will replace (and on which I commuted for six years).  Notable is the lack of any bulkhead or screen by the doors, creating a very light and spacious interior.  They do have far fewer seats, largely in a 2+2 configuration but with a good number of single seats (or Rowley seats).  One thing I don't like about WMT's 730 procurement is the lack of vision in buying three car trains and running them round in multiple: a six car train would give more space for seats and passengers, have a fully walk through train for both personal [perception of?] safety and for on train/revenue control staff, and reduce the likelihood of 3-car trains being sent out in the peaks.

Seat back tables seems a little excessive for the Cross-City line in Birmingham.

Rowley seats

Very open interior

As a post upload note due to a comment by a friend: these trains are also being used on services between Northampton and London Euston, and for that they are a very poor replacement for the Class 350.

And a Heritage Livery

One of the out-going fleet of Class 323s has been painted in it's original Regional Railways livery.  I thin this one has moved on to its new home with Northern, operating in north-west England, now.

University Station

Just in time to miss the 2022 Commonwealth Games, a new station has been built at University. To be fair it was required as the tiny ticket hall at the old station building was wholly inadequate for the university to the east and hospital to the right.  When I first visited in April 2024 there was disability guidance filming taking place, which seemed to require loads of agency staff standing around doing nothing.   There was also some WMT middle/middling managers there who seemed surprised when I pointed out there wasn't a single sign pointing towards the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, apparently with 1.215 beds is one of the largest single site hospitals in the UK, cheers Wiki.  On my second visit a staff shortage (sic) meant the busy side, in to the city, had its gates left open but the less busy southbound was staffed...je despair!

Anyway, poor signage and odd staffing arrangements aside, it's an OK station.  It has a lift or a lot of stairs if you want to access/leave the platforms, 

Plenty of train-cardio opportunity!

No signage to the hospital (don't be fooled: 'NHS Services' points towards a small health centre which will be in a shop unit at the station

Station overview from the Hospital side

Very Light Rail

A work trip afforded the chance to look at the Very Light Rail concept being developed by Coventry City Council and the Black Country Innovation and Manufacturing Organisation. Read more here....

Electric Buses 

And in particular, for Coventry, which aims to be the first city to have a fully electric bus fleet.  National Express West Midlands (or Wumpty to older viewers) have replaced their double deck fleet and Stagecoach recently ordered electric buses for their Nuneaton depot, who run in to Coventry.  These ADL Enviro 400 City EV are smooth and quick buses - or so it seemed to be, but apparently are only capable of forty-something mph.  Nonetheless they keep up with the flow of traffic on the busy A45 between Birmingham, the Airport and Coventry much better than any diesel bus.

Tram Extensions

Some years from opening, but the extensions from Wednesbury to Brierley Hill, and from Birmingham city centre to Digbeth and Deritend are at east under construction....

The Brierley Hill extension passing Dudley Castle

And the Deritend extension passing the Custard Factory on Digbeth High Street

Ticket Machines

What goes around comes around! Midland Metro opened in 1998 with ticket machines at every stop.  I suspect a combination of poor design and vandalism led to their unreliability and eventual removal, being replaced with conductors on each tram.  Well, that is now being reversed and ticket machines are being installed, but not yet operational, on what is now West Midlands Tram.

And one thing that is still rubbish - ticketing

After Avanti took over the West Coast rail franchise, at Coventry station they replaced the bank of 10+ ticket machines that had only recently been installed by predecessor Virgin Trains and took away the ability to buy West Midlands day tickets from them.  

The West Midlands could do with catching up with literally [almost] everywhere else in the world and enabling mobile phone day tickets, or fare capping. But no, pointless old-technology-when-they-were-new 'Swift' cards remain in use. Or queue at the ticket office where only one window was open. Is it Walsall or Warsaw where one can buy any ticket on any number of apps and validate it on-vehicle with no driver interaction? Hmmm.....

Rubbish

The Mighty LAX

 

Background

Once upon a time Stagecoach (Bedford depot) operated two routes in to Luton:

81 - hourly service through central Bedfordshire villages along the A6 between Bedford and Luton

99 - hourly service between Luton Airport, Luton and Milton Keynes via the M1 motorway

The 99 has a reasonably interesting history as it was originally the VT99, a commitment in the first round of rail franchising for Virgin Trains to provide a coach link between Milton Keynes and Luton Airport (and there was also a VT98 between Watford Junction station and Heathrow Airport).  Post-Virgin Trains the 99 was usually operated by coaches towards the end of their front line service life. The attraction of MK as both a leisure and employment centre for Lutonians sustained the route and eventual operation by longer tri-axe coaches released by service decimation changes on the X5 (Cambridge-Bedford-MK-Oxford).

At the end of it's days the 99 was operated by these smart Plaxton coaches, which remained branded for the remnants of the X5: Cambridge has been peeled off the top of the destination list.

Fast forward to October 2022 and the 81 and 99 were combined: rightly this would average out as service 90, but instead the moniker MK1 was adopted. Probably to the chagrin of colleagues at Stagecoach Northampton depot who used the number MK1 for their service between Milton Keynes at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The MK1 was therefore a 'V' shape: Bedford-Luton Airport-Milton Keynes.  It created a new link between Bedford, the A6 and the Airport, and Stagecoach elected to route this leg via the Luton suburb of Wigmore (you'd only know it for the Asda) rather than the more direct route along Kimpton Road, past the Vauxhall factory (Home of the Vivaro). 

Route via Wigmore, courtesy of Bustimes.org

Worthy of mention but no longer relevant are two colossal scheduling screw ups:

1) The adoption of a flat running time irrespective of day or time of day.  You probably don't need to be a bus scheduler to know that there's more traffic on the roads in the morning and evening peak travel times and journeys take longer at these times by bus or car; and

2) The adoption of a one-way route around Luton, so buses came from Bedford, through Luton town centre and Wigmore to the airport, and then departed the airport to the M1 northbound.  I think the service was supposed to do a double run from the M1 Junction 11 to Chaul End roundabout and back again, serving the Luton Travelodge stop which was always very busy for the old 99.  

M1 to Chaul End roundabout double run?

The abysmal performance of the MK1 led to scheduling changes which put the 'saved' bus back in to the schedule and serving Luton Interchange on runs to and from both Bedford and Milton Keynes.

Current Context

Some of my bus industry friends were sceptical about the routing of the MK1 through Wigmore.  I can't claim to be a prolific user, but when I have travelled this was my casual observation is that the service is used for through travel to/from Milton Keynes.  After all it connects a Luton suburb with the attractive employment and shopping opportunities in MK.  I have no doubt the Government's subsidised £2 flat bus fare has helped too, by far the best thing done by the administration at the time.

As a significant Luton suburb Wigmore already had buses to and from the town centre: Arriva's 101 service passed through between Hitchin, the Airport and the town centre and Centrebus's 17/17A service provides a half hourly circular service (itself recently and usefully extended beyond Luton town centre to the Luton & Dunstable Hospital).  

However, in spring 2024 Arriva restructured their Hitchin-Luton corridor which removed direct services between Wigmore and Luton Airport. Again only my observation but I always wondered how important this link is, as it isn't that far to walk and is an eminently sensible cycle commute, the route 101 passengers always seemed to travel through the airport rather than to or from it, and the operating hours were not airport-focussed (unlike Arriva's A service which keeps staff and passengers moving 24/7: airports generate a remarkable amount of overnight travel). 

Sweet Dreams

Unexpectedly, Stagecoach's Bedford depot thin they have spotted a gap in the market here.  Obviously they have all the passenger and revenue data for their MK1 link via Wigmore so their conclusion must be there is good money to be earned.  So on Monday 23rd June 2024 they introduced a new hourly-ish service solely between Luton Interchange (town centre), Wigmore and Luton Airport.  This complements the hourly-ish MK1, although as the timetable below will show, it very much varies in usefulness.

This service is made more remarkable by the fact Stagecoach are dedicating a double deck bus to it (I expected it to be a role for the oldest Enviro 200 singe decker in the depot) and it appears to run empty from/to Bedford; I had expected they would run an extra short trip on the MK1 to at least try and earn some revenue from that lengthy dead run.

The new service has been given the service identifier (as it's not a number) 'LAX'.  Not to be confused with the airport code LAX - Los Angeles International, or the Luton Airport Express train service.  

All that preamble leads me to the point of this post: the timetable.  Dear oh dear, take all the lessons learnt from the disastrous implementation of the MK1 and repeat them! 

• The running time is flat and not graduated, so it seems that a LAX is timetabled to overtake an MK1 in the morning, despite running exactly the same route with the same stopping patterns;
• From the interchange the headways for much of the day are 10:50, meaning ten minutes between departures at 10 and 20 past the hour, and then a 50 minute gap until the next departure;
• The MK1 does have graduated running times allowing more time in the rush hours: in the evening this results in an MK1 and LAX leaving Luton Interchange at exactly the same time at 17:20!;
• The return from the airport is better, with a 25:35 minute headway, and over lunchtime becomes exactly half hourly, as you'd expect;
• However in the evening that becomes 15:45 due to the longer running times afforded to the MK1 making its way from Milton Keynes;
• There's a gap mid morning presumably to allow for a driver meal break.

Unfortunately because the inbound MK1 from Wigmore does not form the outbound MK1 via Wigmore it is not possible to perfectly insert the LAX trips on the opposite half hour.  

Enviro 400 bus on the new LAX.  The very non standard layout of the destination display leaves something to be desired.

What Next

As the efficiencies originally envisaged by joining the 81 and 99 to form the MK1 have not been realised - the extra bus has been added back in to the schedule for reliability - I expect that the services will ultimately be split back in to their constituent parts.

However with Stagecoach's new found enthusiasm for serving Wigmore, and the increased vehicle provision by adding an eighth vehicle for the LAX, I do not expect that the split will replicate what went beforehand. Clearly there are new journey opportunities being, and to be, served.

Before any of that though what we do know is that competition in the Airport corridor has recently increased with Arriva extending their F70/F77 services from Milton Keynes via Leighton Buzzard (i.e. the very long way round) to the airport.

And at the end of July 2024, Arriva introduce new competition on the Luton to Milton Keynes corridor with their own express service, imaginatively titled the X1.  I'm told the X1 will be using coach vehicles, so arguably more comfortable than the double deck buses used by Stagecoach (although some but not all do have high back seats), and will serve Luton Interchange, those popular stops by the Travelodge, and then Dunstable before going up the A5 to Milton Keynes rather than the M1.

The growth of employment in out of town warehousing particularly in MK means that the MK1 can be full and standing between MK and Luton; add in the X1 serving Dunstable, there may just be space in the Wigmore and Milton Keynes markets for both operators.

Though new venture capital owners of both Arriva and Stagecoach may have other plans!