ROUTE 73 only runs one an hour which is hardly frequent enough to encourage people to travel on it, yet it is now to be cut because it does not generate enough money.
Dr Beeching committed the same blunder on British Railways. If a line did not carry sufficient passengers to make it pay, he would make matters worse by closing it or by reducing the service on it. It never occurred to him that any passenger who just missed a train might go by car instead because it was too long to wait for the next train. Nor did he realise branch lines served the main lines and therefore connections were important.
If you travel from Gloucester to Chepstow on a bus that goes no further than Lydney how do you get to Chepstow? Walk? The 73 goes nowhere near the railway station. Even if it did the line is inadequate due to the lack of stations and the service on it is inadequate due to the lack of trains, and this situation makes it all the more important that the 73 continues to run.
Dr Beeching should have followed the example set by Swedish Railway. Their run-down operation with infrequent trains causing a shortage of money was transformed into a profitable organisation when they doubled the frequency of the trains and halved the fares. Stagecoach could do the same with buses. The most important aspect of public transport from the point of view of passengers is frequency, provided the fares are reasonable. Then if you just miss one it is not too bad because another will be along soon.
Routes 30 and 31 also go to Gloucester, but when they turn left at Elton Corner there is never a 73 from Gloucester waiting there from Elton Corner. Nor does the 73 connect with either the 30 or 31 in the reverse direction. Passengers travelling from Littledean to Newnham or Lydney would be well advised to go by car to avoid the long wait by bus.
If Stagecoach revised the 73 timetable to connect, one with the 30 and the next with the 31, at Elton Corner, not only would it be providing a better connecting service than it does at present, but it would be running every 30 minutes instead of every hour, and this, in turn, might encourage more people to travel on it between Lydney and Chepstow.
Route 73 used to go to Cheltenham. It used to go to Cardiff. The route has already been truncated enough. At least Stagecoach could give this suggestion a try before shortening the route any further. – Anthony Reeve, Littledean.