We are pleased to be able to announce that, following weeks of hard work and consultation with First Bus, First have now agreed to make the following changes (with effect from Sunday 6th January 2019):
1.) Reverse the changes they made to the U1 route, reverting to the old route
2.) Put the U1X back into service
3.) Tackle longstanding service issues of overcrowding at certain stops during peak times, by putting on extra buses starting at Green Park, Grand Parade, and the bottom of Bathwick Hill.
4.) Increase U2 frequency in term times and run a separate service for school children attending Ralph Allen School, for this academic year.
For further information, please read First’s statement in full.
This is a great outcome, making sure that First maintain the quality and accessibility of their bus services to the university, particularly as they currently hold a monopoly on this route.
Thank you for contributing such vast and valuable feedback via email and social media to First. University of Bath bus users, staff and students alike, have shown great solidarity in the fight for decent public transport to our university campus and you have helped to make First listen. As a branch, we have been active in holding multiple negotiation meetings with First, University senior management and the council with the other campus unions. UNISON will continue to fight for a decent bus service on your behalf.
Although this is a fantastic victory, we should not have had to fight for a decent service in the first place. For as long as a privately owned and profit-driven company runs our public transport, issues like this can and most likely will happen again in the future.
We do not have to accept this as fact; there are other viable alternatives. There are already 10 publicly owned municipal bus companies in the UK, including routes in B&NES, which are doing fantastic work. You can find out more about how to take action and the benefits of publicly owned public transport from campaign group We Own It.
As a branch, we are discussing affiliating to the We Own It campaign and are planning an event on public ownership of buses in the near future. Further details to follow.