The bright green bus pulls up, the doors open and the driver greets me by saying: "Oliver Pridmore?" Having your full name read out by the driver is far from the usual start to a bus journey, but this was no ordinary trip.
Nottinghamshire County Council recently unveiled its new on-demand bus service, allowing passengers to select a pick-up and drop-off point before being matched up with the nearest bus. This process is carried out either by phone or by using the 'Nottsbus On Demand' app, which Nottinghamshire Live decided to download so that we could hop on and try the new service.
'Nottsbus On Demand' does not follow a fixed route or timetable, with buses instead travelling anywhere within three operating zones where there is not already a scheduled service running. The three operating zones comprise North Ollerton, South Ollerton and Mansfield.
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On the morning of Tuesday, September 6, I took a journey within the North Ollerton zone, covering villages such as Treswell, East Drayton and Headon. I was hoping to take a trip from the Retford area to East Markham, the edge of which appeared to be within the travel zone when I was booking on the app.
But after a few failed attempts at this, it seems that the service doesn't include this village and I instead booked a journey from North Wheatley to Askham. When putting my pick-up and drop-off points into the app, it told me a bus would be available in just over 20 minutes.
I made my way to the designated point, where I looked at the app to track where my bus was. No more wondering where your bus has got to, an icon on the app tells you exactly where it is and gives you the latest ETA, almost giving you the feeling you're waiting for an Uber.
The bus dutifully arrived on time and after the unique greeting, I got on board to pay. In terms of paying for the fare, I became a little confused, but I'm afraid this was on my part rather than the bus service's.
I was under the impression I still needed to pay for the journey, but was told that the bus only took cash at the moment which, of course, I didn't have. The driver then told me it didn't matter as the first journey is free, but I looked back at the app again to find that after having inputted my card details, the fare had been taken from my account anyway.
The confusion on my part aside, the relative infancy of the bus service coupled with passenger numbers remaining lower after covid meant that there was only one other passenger on the bus, who got off at Retford's bus station. For the second half of the journey, I was the sole passenger on the 16-seater.
It certainly made for a quick and efficient journey though and the green Mercedes bus I travelled on certainly made for a pleasant trip. The service is currently in a trial stage and Nottinghamshire County Council is working on it with Via Transportation, an American company behind a similar project in Milton Keynes.
The buses in the North and South Ollerton zones will run from Monday to Saturday between 7am and 7pm, excluding bank holidays. The evening service in Mansfield will run every Thursday, Friday and Saturday between 7.30pm and 12midnight.
Councillor Neil Clarke, the Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said at the time of the trial being announced: "We hope that this new service will offer residents a reliable, affordable and greener way to travel. By giving passengers the choice as to when they want to travel, we are also able to offer them greater flexibility with their travel plans.
"In areas that are currently serviced by a two hourly bus service, such as Wellow, Egmanton and Caunton, residents will be able to enjoy more frequent bus travel. And because our buses will not follow a fixed route, they will provide a new transport option in those areas that are not currently served by our bus network."
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