NOTES ON A SMALL CITY

Richard Wyatt

Yellow is certainly a stand-out colour. But that’s useful, says our columnist Richard Wyatt when it comes to providing a bus service. The Big Lemon keeps the emphasis on yellow as its fleet brings back discontinued bus routes in Bath and Bristol

It’s a personal thing of course, but one of the reasons you may have bought a yellow car is that it’s easier to spot in a crowded car park. That was something Tom Druitt thought about when he and a group of others got together in a Brighton pub to discuss public transport and then decided to set up a Community Interest Company to provide affordable and environmentally sustainable bus services in the local area. They wanted their vehicles to stand out from the crowd, so yellow it was and –after Tom passed a greengrocers and saw a box of lemons –the name for this fledging bus company jumped out at him.

So The Big Lemon was born and has been operating successfully in Sussex ever since. The company recently took the decision to expand, and BL buses are now colouring our west country world in Bath and Bristol, where they have taken over, at least, some recently discontinued routes.

Tom Druitt is now company CEO and we chatted by telephone. What makes their business different is that passengers in the past have not only paid to step onto the bus, but they’ve invested in them too. The Big Lemon doesn’t borrow from banks, but has worked with local residents and investors to fund their transition to a fully electric bus fleet through the issue of Community Bonds, secured on the buses themselves.

Their footprint in our area so far is a small one. They have a short-term contract in both cities to the end of the financial year. However, if all goes well, they’ll tender for a longer-lasting contract during the next round of bidding. If successful, they would be looking to increase their fleet and probably seeking new bond-holders to invest in solarpowered buses to give a greener edge to public transport in our streets.

There IS a national shortage of bus drivers, and the fact the government actually wrote to many existing drivers to encourage them to swap to HGVs –also feeling the personnel pinch –accelerated the issue.

It’s the West of England Combined Authority and not B&NES who handle public transport, and Metro Mayor Dan Norris says that in the absence of the government coming up with a national plan, regional authorities like his have to find an answer.

He thinks we should be looking for new pools of workforce, and has already suggested that students, Ukrainian refugees and even more mums could be encouraged, by thinking in a different way and creating bus shifts that fit a more flexible lifestyle.

Funnily enough, in my chat with Tom he told me that two of his company’s executives were students when they first got behind the wheel of a bus.

Dan says he is well aware of higher inflation and the fact that private bus companies are seeking to make a profit. However, just recently, WECA was part of an initiative to reduce fares in the hope of boosting passenger numbers.

The Metro Mayor said the new fare package delivered on his pledge for simpler and cheaper bus fares, which would help a little towards easing the cost-of-living crisis for locals, and would go a long way to addressing the big challenges on the buses at present, with passenger numbers 25% down on pre-pandemic levels. There is still a steady drip of driver losses and Dan says when it comes to losing sleep over regional issues, its the problem of buses that keeps him awake.

At The Big Lemon, Tom says they could do with finding a few extra drivers, too, but they have not been affected as badly affected as the bigger companies.

The Big Lemon was looking to develop local operating companies, driven by the local communities, and he thought people preferred to work in a smaller team where there was a more informal atmosphere between management and the rest of the work force.

“The rule book is there, of course. but it was more of a backstop. We prefer a more collegiate way of working,” says Tom.

We’ll have to wait and see how big a slice of the market these yellow buses manage to cut out for themselves, but our Metro Mayor likes the idea of solar powered buses and says –if they do well in Bath –they would be in a stronger position.

Dan says all our bus drivers are “community heroes and heroines”, and that “if you drive a bus you are a pivotal force in helping to get children to school and adults to work or to the shops.”

Public transport comes in many shades, but it’s up to us to ensure that they continue to colour our world. n

TheBig Lemon in Bath

“I am delighted to welcome The Big Lemon buses to Bath. Many residents rely on buses to access key services, such as education and healthcare, so it’s great news these routes have been restored. It took a lot of work behind the scenes to find a new company to take these on and I am very grateful to the staff in our public transport department.

“The number 11 bus is an absolutely vital service for children from Bathampton to get to secondary schools each day. With this service restored, they can catch the 11 from the centre of the village into town and walk on, or else change service for schools in the south of the city, without having to hang around in the dark early mornings.

“B&NES Council has no direct control over privatised bus services, but the Lib Dems will continue to campaign for better buses and lobby the West of England Combined Authority to restore and improve routes.” Councillor Sarah Warren, Cabinet member of Climate and Sustainable Travel

Cllrs Sarah Warren and Kevin Guy with The Big Lemon Operations Manager Colin Morris with the first number 11 bus service from Bathampton