MidlandRed.net

I was talking to a regular passenger who lives in Canterbury Road, Ronkswood who was not impressed, to say the least, with the amended service on the 38/X38 route from Worcester City to The Royal Hospital commencing 15 October 2017.

Residents in Canterbury Road will not have a bus after 08-01 until 09-36 in the direction of The Hospital and worse still will not have a bus after 15-37 until 17-56 in the direction of The City - the 15 minute X38 service will run directly along Newtown Road completely missing Canterbury Road. My guess is that Liverpool road is about half a mile from the X38 route, which is not a great distance for a young able-bodied person, but a good way for the elderly or anyone laden down with shopping. Having walked round to the main road lots of fitter people will probably be encouraged to abandon the bus and walk into town. Overall a pretty shabby way to treat regular passengers, and a seemingly good way to discourage travelling by bus!

Well said Tim.

Obviously the reason for this is to ensure that buses are on time for the main peak flows of the service into the city in the AM and out of the city in the PM.

Bus this seems particularly cruel on those down Canterbury road, to have such large gaps in service, maybe every other journey as a X38 would have been better.

But of course whilst this might be OK for many routes where passengers only want to get in and out of the City Centre, this forgets that people do have appointments and need to work at the Hospital all day!

I am quite upset about this change. I understand the operational needs that may have bought about this change on the 38 route but this is going affect quite a few regular passengers who live at the Liverpool Road / Perry Wood side of Ronkswood who now will have a long walk at certain times of the day along the full length of both Liverpool and Canterbury Roads to catch a X38. I agree, every other bus running as a X38 in the peak would be more helpful to Ronkswood customers. I reguarly use the 38 at these times and i buy weekly tickets. I have decided to abandon the 38 and start walking into town as much as possible. It will cause a lot of confusion for the first week or so.

It has been pointed out that buses that run to the hospital as a X38 will return to the City as a 38, and visa-versa. Anyone who wishes to catch the 38 from Canterbury Road to the Hospital can stop on the bus into the City on the X38 journey, much like the old 31A ran in the very early Citibus days... Can anyone spot the flaw in this plan?

While we are on the subject, the company has published a booklet with details of the changes, but it went to print before they changed their minds on the route number, so the X38 is listed as the 38A.

I presume a day ticket will be required even if only a single journey from Ronkswood to town is being made as travelling via the hospital will be two seperate journeys?

I am pleased that the route number was changed from 38A to X38 though.