Misinformation, Disinformation and Non-Information

In 'What Do You Want?' – 'Information!', I told you about the getting-blood-from-a-stone-like process of trying to find out details of bus services in England when I was phoning from Wales. That was nearly six years ago. I've no idea whether things have improved since. I might give them a call when I can face another uphill struggle.

Subsequently I've highlighted the inadequacies of the Traveline Cymru website, and the paucity of information on bus company websites. The situation is exactly the same once you log off and return to the Real World.

In my local area (Aberdare), Stagecoach drivers occasionally have timetable booklets which passengers can pick up. Occasionally… However, these – by definition – list only the Stagecoach services. The various buses operated by Globe Coaches, N.A.T. Group, First Call and other local companies don't merit a mention. In fact, unless you happen to see one of these buses while you're out and about, you probably won't know that they exist.

The obvious starting point for information is the public library. However, the person you speak to will probably drive to work, and be clueless about what bus services operate in and around a particular town. On a good day, you could strike lucky and meet a punter who knows the area well. In desperation, you might pick up the local council's helpful summary of 'service changes' from the desk in the reference section, only to find that it's fifteen months old and things are about to change again. Having said all that, in these days of financial cutbacks and wholesale reductions in public services, you might be lucky to find a library at all.

The next port of call would be the bus station. However, there's a fair chance that the information panels have been vandalised or defaced. (One notable exception is Bridgend, where the bus station is enclosed, fully staffed, and monitored by CCTV.) Even where timetables are on display, there's no guarantee that they are the up-to-date editions. The services listed may have been altered, diverted, or even discontinued since the posters were produced.

The situation is often worse at bus stops. The same caveat about the currency of the timetable applies here, too, but a lot of the time there's no information at all. It seems to be a matter of sheer chance whether you get a full breakdown of the services or nothing at all. Have a look at these two bus stops, opposite each other on a busy route not far from my home. Compare and contrast, as the old exam papers used to say…

[caption id="attachment_12230" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Cemetery Road/Cledwyn Terrace, southbound. A veritable treasure trove of information.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_12231" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Cemetery Road/Cledwyn Terrace, northbound. Not even a space for a timetable.[/caption]

If you're heading south towards Aberdare, you get a full listing of the buses (their route numbers, the time they're due at the stop, and the approximate journey time), information about different tickets, and contact details for Traveline Cymru.

If you're heading in the other direction, you've got next to no information. The header of the bus stop sign does list the services on that route, but even that information is out of date.

Contrast that with the experience of the rail passenger (sorry, customer.) Every railway station I visit has the full timetable in clear view. The network map is displayed proudly, not furtively hiding in an obscure corner of the website. Handy pocket-sized booklets, which lay out the whole Valley Lines timetable, can be obtained from staffed stations. Smartphone owners can use apps which allow them to view live departure boards. The dot matrix displays at stations may be unreliable at times, but they're still better than having no information at all!

In Cardiff, as in other major cities, vehicles are fitted with GPS locators, and electronic displays at stops tell you approximately how far away the next bus is. That technology will probably be rolled out across the Valleys in a few decades, assuming there aren't any teething problems. In the meantime, we cope by using a combination of obsolete timetables, local knowledge, and the 'custom and usage' of service patterns which have evolved over the past thirty years.

There's a useful service offered by Traveline Cymru, whereby you can get details of the next four buses at a particular stop simply by texting its code to 84268. (You can see the codes in the preceding photos.) However, that system collapses totally when the code isn't shown, as I discovered during a recent trip to the Bridgend area. In this information blackout, you find yourself simply waiting around, like Mr Micawber, hoping that something will turn up.

There's a fine line between misinformation and disinformation. I always define the two as follows: Misinformation is accidentally giving someone the wrong timetable; Disinformation is deliberately giving someone the wrong timetable. Most bus companies in South Wales are experts when it comes to the former, and pretty decent at the latter.

Finally, there's Non-Information, as exhibited by several bus stops in my local area. They are perfect examples of what I described earlier: the timetables are absent; the routes listed are incomplete, obsolete, or just plain wrong; and even the Traveline Cymru phone number is often their old (discontinued) one.

To illustrate this, I took these photos earlier today. This is the bus stop outside Aberdare Library – and it's an Information Black Hole.

As you can see, the three eye-level panels which should contain timetable information have been vandalised to little short of total destruction. At the same time, the two panels at the top of the bus stop sign have faded to the point where they are almost unreadable. The list of bus routes which can be made out is outdated and incomplete. You'd be far better off going into the Library and asking… No, hang on, scrap that idea! Anyway, what could you do when the Library is closed? You can ring Traveline Cymru and hope for the best, of course – always assuming that their phone number hasn't been effaced.

Here's another example, from a bus stop near my home. It might be more legible than the previous ones, but it's still inaccurate.

Note the last entry on the list: X55 Hirwaun, Rhigos, Swansea. Now, that bus was introduced by Silverline Management Services in January 2009, operating a staggering two journeys a day in either direction. (You'll be amazed to learn that it didn't last.) I wonder how many passengers have waited at this, and the other mis-labelled stops along the route, for a bus that will never arrive. It's not an isolated case, either. I've previously mentioned the bus stops at the entrance to Llwydcoed Crematorium, in spite of the fact that no buses ever pass that way. I'm sure that there are other examples all over the Valleys. Tracking them down will be a whole new project!

Finally, here are two shining examples of obsolete information, about half a mile apart in the village of Cwmdare. The first is a bus stop at the end of Bwllfa Dare Terrace.

This is the stop I mentioned in The Last Bus In the Cynon Valley (Part 1), when I said that no buses run to Bwllfa Dare Terrace any more. It's about a three-to-four minute walk from the current terminus, in fact. If you don't believe me, try and find service 12, from the Aberdare depot, on the Stagecoach in South Wales website. Or on Traveline Cymru, come to that. Go on, I dare you, I Bwllfa Dare you! (Incidentally, the current terminus doesn't have a shelter. Wouldn't it make sense to relocate this one a few hundred metres down the road?)

This next one is even better. I found it just along the road from Elim Chapel in Cwmdare this afternoon. (I had an old photo of it in my collection, but I wanted to make sure it was still there!)

This sign can be approximately carbon dated to October 1986. Deregulation heralded the arrival in the Cynon Valley of the late unlamented Shambles Shamrock Coaches of Pontypridd. (My early letters to the media were mostly written in response to that company's legendarily dreadful 'service'.) Fortunately for the travelling public, the company is history now – although their founder occasionally tries to set up new bus services elsewhere in South Wales. Keen-eyed passengers can still spot rusting relics of those dark times dotted around the Valleys, though.

I've no idea which body is responsible for the maintenance of bus stops and their information boards. Instinct tells me that it should be the highways department of the local authority, but I could be wrong. Perhaps it was SEWTA, the now-defunct South East Wales Transport Alliance. If it was, its successor will have a big repair job on its hands. I can't imagine that the bus companies themselves are charged with looking after the stops and information boards. How would the various operators divide up the costs between themselves? Maybe it's a private company acting as a subcontractor to any, or all, of the preceding candidates. Regardless of who it is, they're clearly doing a bang-up job!

This extremely poor service information is, I believe, a key factor in the decline of bus passenger numbers. Who wants to spend half an hour or more online planning what should be a simple journey from A to B? Anyway, you shouldn't need to go through that palaver every time you need to go somewhere – not in the year 2014. It's much easier to pick up the phone and call a taxi. If there are a few of you, it might even work out cheaper! Would you really want to hang around at the northbound stop on Cemetery Road in the hammering rain, without a clue of how long you'll be waiting before a bus appears? I know I certainly wouldn't.