Wednesday, 30 December 2009

Worcester by Park & Ride

I used the new Park & Ride site at Sixways in Worcester yesterday.

The County Council had a special promotion allowing you free travel if you downloaded a voucher from the Park & Ride website. Did this and presented it to the driver.......who of course knew nothing about it! To his credit, though, he persevered about issuing us with a ticket and did eventually do so. Glad there wasn't a queue behind us though. And it was worth it as we had free parking and free travel for two in a city notoriously difficult for motoring.

Unlike most Park & Ride schemes, though, this one is actually the extension of two "normal suburban bus routes, so the journey to the City Centre was actually through a series of 20th century estates of various vintages and quality. Nothing if not a slice of life, though.

On the return journey, one bus appeared in the bus station ,was parked up and then the driver just "vanished". No idea if it had failed or if a driver wasn't available or what. Various members of staff appeared, chatted on mobiles and disappeared but no one thought to tell the ever-lengthening queue what was going on. It was also noticeable that no-one seemed bothered by this. Do Worcester's public transport users just casually accept poor service? Is it par for the course? Why didn't an inspector just come over and chat to the queue and explain what had gone wrong and how the issue was being resolved?

And don't get me started about the service in the woefully-understaffed Slug & Lettuce in Worcester. That was beyond crap! Avoid at all costs, despite it being in a delightful 18th century converted church.

Good job Worcester is lovely to make up for it!

1 comment:

  1. I had no service at all at the Square Peg on one occasion, just about six weeks ago, and so just left. If I had had no service in the next Wetherspoons I went in, I would have been on to Head Office and Spice and any other groups I could think of who are likely to use them to warn them off.

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