WARRINGTON’S bus service is getting even better according to a survey showing overall satisfaction up by 5 per cent to 93 per cent.
The Results of the Network Warrington Customer survey show customers are rating the service higher in every category.
The overall satisfaction level is 93%, up 5% on the previous surveym while 40% thought Network Warrington was improving, up 10% on the previous survey in 2009.
In the individual categories, 82% were satisfied with frequencies (up 2%); 84% were satisfied with reliability (up 4%); 99% were satisfied with journey times (same as last time); 94% were satisfied with the fares (up 6%); 99% were satisfied with the quality of buses (up 3%); 98% were satisfied with the cleanliness of buses (up 5%); 89% were satisfied with driver’s attitude (up 3%): 99% were satisfied with the availability of information (up 2%); while 99% were satisfied with the usefulness of the information they provide (up 8%).
Commenting on the impressive results, Managing Director David Squire (pictured) said, “These results are fantastic, it is a glowing endorsement from our Customers, we are putting in a lot of effort to get better at everything we do, whether that is the quality of information, the reliability of our buses or the standard of our vehicles. We are continually working behind the scenes to modernise the Company and raise the game, particularly in customer service, and we look forward to rolling out many more initiatives over the next 12 months to benefit our customers. Finally, I’d like to pay tribute to all of our staff, both the frontline staff such as drivers and service managers, and to all the backroom staff that our customers never see for doing such a tremendous job, these figures are a glowing endorsement of the quality of our staff”.
The Customer survey is carried out independently by Bestchart Ltd, over a week in May, the sample size was 320, over a balanced range of respondent’s ages, around 75% of respondents were female, and 40% of all customers were using the bus to travel to Warrington Town Centre for shopping purposes.
10 Comments
Rather than ask existing bus users what they think of the service – wouldn’t it make more sense to ask the huge numbers of people who currently never use the buses WHY it is that they don’t?
What a load of self gratification! Try speaking to those who do not use Public Transport and ask why!
I would probably use the bus more often if it was cheaper. Currently, if I was to use it for going to and from work each day, the fare would cost me almost twice what I pay in petrol, plus I would have a ten minute walk to the bus stop. Not far maybe, but not something I want to do daily in Winter.
I was sitting outside a bar in the centre of Lymm after work one day last week (about 6pm or so) and no fewer than FIVE buses came past in the space of 15 minutes. Between them they had on board a grand total of 14 passengers. Those things do about 8-10 mpg – so they even at “rush hour” they were using more fuel than if those passengers had each travelled in separate cars. Of course, being Lymm, it was then a further hour before another bus passed in either direction – and that one was COMPLETELY empty!
Inky Pete – you’re not counting all the people who got off the bus before Lymm, or got on board after Lymm – plus your observation took place during the summer holidays when schools and colleges are closed and many people are on holiday.
I stopped using them for 4 reasons; cost, frequncy, reliability and they all go through town – no cross borough services and limited late night services.
I did a survey on the bus this morning, the sample was only five people but I think the conclusions are as accurate as those from the 320 in the initial survey.
The overall average for the nine categories was 48% ranging from 100% for the quality of the buses to 0% for the provision of information. I think the latter one was as a result of the electronic displays not having worked for “donkeys years”
True. But the buses run through Lymm from Warrington to Altrincham and back again. If a bus from Warrington is empty, or nearly so, before it even gets to Lymm there really aren’t many more people going to get on it from there on! Plus, this is 5 buses in the space of a quater hour we’re talking about and then nothing at all for a further hour. A bus isn’t going to pick up many passengers if it’s only a matter of minutes since the last one went down the same route. They might have more passengers if they spaced the buses out a bit better!
A lot of people, me included, are unable to drive for various reasons, (health reasons in my case), and therefore don’t have the luxury of being able to choose whether to drive or not.
I think Warrington has a good bus service, although Sunday evenings with no buses at all means no social activities that evening, unless you’re prepared to pay taxi fares. The drivers in the main are all pleasant – despite just getting a grunt or no acknowledgment at all from some passengers. The buses are as reliable as they can be (they’re not immune to traffic hold-ups) and fares are reasonable. I, for one, would be at a complete loss without them.
Rest assured that in the current economic climate, if a bus service doesn’t carry enough passengers (on average, *over both directions*) it won’t last long!