I’ve just realised that my last Newsletter was in March last year! Very many apologies for not keeping you all up-to-date with RACB activities. And I’ll try to do better in future.
Since Spring last year we have been busy with a number of things. First our marketing team, four of our volunteer drivers, have put a lot of work into promoting our service to new customers. They have had new timetables printed (with the new fares shown) and posted new timetables and leaflets around houses along our routes. They have also engaged a company in High Wycombe to spread the word about RACB in the world of social media, about which few of us know, in an attempt to attract new and younger passengers. The last three months have seen a gradual increase in the number of passengers on the bus so it looks like the campaign is working.
We have also been working on our aspiration to replace our current diesel bus with a fully electric version. After a number of false starts, we managed to organise an electric bus in Princes Risborough on 11 January to follow our own bus around our routes all morning. You may have seen it – white and a little bigger than our green bus. The idea was to run it round our routes to see if the battery would enable a full day of service. Well, it might just have done but, disappointingly, the range achieved was much less than expected. Given that, and the difficulties we are having in finding appropriate charging facilities, it looks likely that we will have to put our all-electric aspirations on hold until battery performance increases significantly.
The other challenge has been on keeping our current bus fully serviceable. Our maintenance man Ian Firth is doing a great job in keeping the bus going but there seems to be an increase recently in niggling problems. Nothing serious but enough to take the bus off the road for short periods and at increasing cost. The bus will be 7 years old in March and it has clocked up nearly 150,000 miles. That’s not excessive for a minibus but we will need to change it soon, probably by the end of this year, to ensure we can continue to provide a full and reliable service every day.
Meanwhile, we’re seeing a welcome number of new passengers on the bus as well as our loyal customers, many of whom have been with us for a long time. Please tell your friends and relatives about our bus and as the daylight hours lengthen and the weather warms up come along and join us, not just for the ride but also for the chance to chat with other passengers and our wonderful drivers.
Peter
