\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 As part of the www.greatscenicjourneys.co.uk<\/a> venture my pals and I have created, I\u2019m currently a fixture on the upper deck of open toppers, admittedly with drops of rain falling on my barnet and the breeze from the sea blowing the cobwebs out of my lugholes. Despite the weather, I\u2019ve seen big crowds and of a demographic type that would make bus industry top brass purr. No more need to pay glamorous hip and trendy dudes to pose in marketing campaigns on buses, knowing deep down you never really see them on-board a bus: this lot are travelling for the fun of it on an open topper near you.<\/p>\n Take the Land\u2019s End Coaster last week at Penzance. The stonking queue I witnessed of scenic thrill-seekers brought joy to my heart! It got better, by Sennon Cove, all seats were taken, and I overheard more languages than at the United Nations and a gaggle of young Japanese tourists working their selfie-stick hard. Yes, who\u2019d have thought it \u2013 a selfie stick on a First bus? Awesome.<\/p>\n I asked Claire Wood, the hugely impressive marketing manager at First South what the recipe for success was. \u201cStunning scenery, simple pleasures and service with style and a smile,\u201d she chimed. This understates the fact that, despite having a geographical patch stretching from Penzance to Portsmouth, Claire, who helpfully has a tourism background, has spent much time in and out of attractions, hotels and tourist authorities spreading the love about the various open top services in First\u2019s \u2018Adventures by Bus\u2019 brand.<\/p>\n Last month, Claire even got me to narrate a film, running for a bus across a mud-ridden Exmoor in my pastel suit and silk handkerchief. It\u2019s called \u2018Britain\u2019s Steepest Bus route and is about the open top Exmoor Coaster up Porlock Hill (available on YouTube very soon, don\u2019t worry I\u2019ll let you know where and when!). It tells the tale of this incredibly scenic bus journey. Over four days, it took 142 takes for me to get my lines right and I must have seen 50 open top buses run back and forth, all with crowds not far short of a Crystal Palace home game and with as many happy and smiling customers as at Selhurst Park too. Little wonder then that First will launch an open top bus service in Southsea very shortly, a giddying experience that takes in maritime heritage, nightlife, designer shops, cathedrals, and rollercoasters in under 30 minutes.<\/p>\n I was determined to sniff out other open toppers to verify that popularity extended beyond Cornwall. Research was a doddle as my Twitter feed has been jam-packed with marketing bods generating anticipation about the relaunch of their services. In another corner of First, Piers Marlow\u2019s mob in Great Yarmouth were salivating about Clipper Cabriolet, replenishing tourism hotspots and BnBs with leaflets and putting glamourous vinyls on bus stops to showcase the service prior to its restart. It worked as buses were flocked to from Caister to Gorleston with folk stopping off to enjoy eclectic Yarmouth. <\/p>\n It was a similar story much further up the North Sea in Scarborough where the 30-minute Beachcomber trundling from the North to South Bay was heaving. Go Ahead East Yorkshire\u2019s head of commercial, Stuart Fillingham, fills in the gaps.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something quite quintessentially British about open top bus rides in the summer, especially by the sea<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something quite quintessentially British about open top bus rides in the summer, especially by the sea,\u201d he says. \u201cScarborough can get quite congested, so the Beachcomber is also a way for people to maximise their time at the coast, not having to face walking with the whole family down a seafront to find the perfect spot on the beach. <\/p>\n \u201cWe also have the additional benefit of stopping at Alpamare and Sealife, which obviously have separate tourist benefits themselves, so there\u2019s a reason to hop on board for everyone \u2013 whether it\u2019s taking in the views, travelling to tourist destinations, or simply gaining a vantage point for the seaside to find a less busy part of the beach.<\/p>\n Stuart continues: \u201cWe offer great value both in terms of travel and attractions; those wishing for a car-less holiday benefit from an all-in-one Coaster ticket, which covers them across all local East Yorkshire services, including Beachcomber.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that some people are driving into the area, which is why we\u2019re offering a combined ticket with our Park & Ride sites this year, meaning customers will be able to park up for free, head into Scarborough without the hassle of finding a parking space, and then hop on board our Beachcomber services as a family.\u201d<\/p>\n So, coastal corners ticked, I sent a spy up to the Lake District to see whether inland open toppers held as much appeal. Last month, Stagecoach Cumbria\u2019s popular managing director Rob Jones organised a shindig with stakeholders to launch new branding on his 555-service straddling Lake Windemere. Tourism bigwigs were hyperventilating from Rob\u2019s tireless engagement with the community to create a proposition that helps fuel the local leisure economy. My snout reported back that his 599 open top service was near enough standing room only and with the type of folk who were far from traditional bus customers. <\/p>\n Rob explains how he\u2019s pulled it off. \u201cOur fabulous 599 service has a running commentary onboard, so much more the feel of a tour bus than a local service bus,\u201d he says. \u201cAll along the route, local landmarks are pointed out and some history shared too. Our buses are stocked with the popular The Lakes by Bus timetable guide and our drivers are a regular team who deal more habitually with our tourist customers.\u201d<\/p>\n Whilst Rob was schmoozing his stakeholders, I could hear the jungle drums emerging off Beachy Head from the Eastbourne Sightseeing Bus that rain hadn\u2019t dampened their Easter Saturday launch and popularity is such that already they\u2019ve started a 30-minute frequency and have duplicate vehicles in reserve! And if all that\u2019s not fun enough, there\u2019s Stagecoach\u2019s dotto mini-train down the prom in Eastbourne too! <\/p>\n On Good Friday, Go Ahead\u2019s Morebus business launched new Purbeck Breezer open top services, traversing delightful Durdle Door and the quirk of a bus boarding a ferry across the sea. Talented Morebus head of marketing Nikki Honer explains the pull of the open toppers: \u201cI think it\u2019s as simple as it being a very clean honest day\u2019s fun! The views you get from the top deck can\u2019t be achieved with any other form of transport. The Needles Breezer on the Isle of Wight is almost a thrill ride in itself, and where else do you get to go on a bus on a boat!?<\/p>\n In normal Monday to Friday life, when we are all busy with going to work etc, many people think buses aren\u2019t for them. However, an attractive looking open top somehow doesn\u2019t say bus, it says experience and fun especially when the sun is shining<\/p>\n \u201cIn normal Monday to Friday life, when we are all busy with going to work etc, many people think buses aren\u2019t for them. However, an attractive looking open top somehow doesn\u2019t say bus, it says experience and fun especially when the sun is shining. When you are on an open topper, you only have to look around and people are laughing and smiling at such a simple pleasure, possibly reminding some of their youth and for others a great way of keeping the kids entertained.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, Morebus picked up the pieces when Yellow Buses ceased trading to run a route from Bournemouth to Hengistbury Head, with connections from a popular holiday park in Poole to Sandbanks. However, as Honer concedes: \u201cWe were doing this with a normal bus which wasn\u2019t screaming \u2018fun\u2019! We felt by expanding the Breezer family and giving these buses a fun new look along with some clever marketing activities, that we can generate more customers and encourage more leisure trips. We want people to enjoy our coastline and if we can help them do that by leaving the car at home, the campsite or hotel then even better.\u201d<\/p>\n Morebus has more Breezers than Bacardi and this summer, as well as the original Purbeck Breezers, scenic thrill seekers can ride the Beach Breezer from Poole to Mudeford via Bournemouth, the Harbour Breezer from Rockley Park to palatial Sandbanks and the Jurassic Breezer from Weymouth to Swanage. Weymouth is the ultimate open topper multi-route interchange hub, with First\u2019s own services down the coast to Lyme Regis and Axminster as well as to Portland.<\/p>\n I wanted to double check that it wasn\u2019t just coast and scenery that pulled the crowds. So, it was off last week to Edinburgh for a classic open top city sightseeing service on Bright Bus Tours which is now run by McGill\u2019s following their acquisition of First Scotland East. I had a cheeky chat with McGill\u2019s famous top dog, Ralph Roberts, and he implored me to take a fresh perspective on the proposition \u2013 he\u2019s excited by the potential of the service.<\/p>\n Ralph\u2019s spreadsheets will confirm what I saw which were humungous queues despite drizzle and an icy blast off the Forth, so windy my toupee was clutching onto my bonce for dear life. Happy customers abounded too, all engrossed in a commentary full of titbits and in a dry, but also laconic Scottish accent, that evoked the days of Robert the Bruce with every turn of the bus, scaling up towards the imposing castle and then down to the Royal Yacht Britannia. The staff in Belisha beacon orange jackets are a garrulous bunch, hoovering up customers off the streets with their genial charm.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not all glory though and it\u2019s vital that these services aren\u2019t successful just because of fab scenery. A manky old bus with rusty poles, departing from decrepit municipal bus stops sans branding, won\u2019t do. Neither will a driver fitting the tired old stereotype of a grumpy authoritarian old bloke who is going to dampen the spirits of any scenic thrill seeker, even if the view from the top of the cliff onto the crystal clear deep blue sea down yonder is spellbinding. The bus industry needs to be able to prove that it can be trusted to take the foundations of a great product \u2013 scenery and fresh air \u2013 and wrap round it customer service differentiators that make it as high quality and customer-centric a proposition as you\u2019d find at most world-leading tourist attractions.<\/p>\n The fact that it\u2019s an uncomplicated \u2018ask\u2019 makes it a tantalisingly possible quest \u2013 after all, bus companies aren\u2019t being asked to run something as complex as a fairground in terms of a range of completely different rides, mass queue management, catering, souvenir selling and sideshows. A well-maintained bus stop with an up-to-date timetable and branding visible from a distance is also key. So too, a clean bus with a nice, compelling vinyl on the outside and interior branding that adds to the ambience and route\u2019s narrative.<\/p>\n Of great importance is a beaming, welcoming driver creating a sense of adventure, stopping the bus for a photo opportunity and regaling tales of the scenery or history of the route or a decent App or recorded live commentary. A plug socket to charge up the phone for when the journey has finished, comfy seats and then a \u2018have a great day, thanks ever so much for joining us\u2019 when alighting are also part of the winning formula. In all cases the fares are already great value, particularly with the current government-backed \u00a32 offering on many of these routes in England, which is simply incredible. <\/p>\n Of course, marketing is important both of the kind that the local bus folk are doing, replenishing leaflets in hotels and at attractions, as well as the digital marketing that has been mastered by other sectors which can identify and target those with a likely penchant for open top buses. <\/p>\n Having traded in the cricket season for open top tours, I\u2019m not stopping now and there\u2019s the Skegness Seasiders from Stagecoach East Midlands to be sniffed out, as well as their sister company\u2019s paradisical service in Torbay, the Toon Tour, a rumbustious open top sojourn round the bright lights of Newcastle and Gateshead, plus an atmospheric trip on First\u2019s mercurial Dartmoor Explorer when it re-starts in July, traversing the moody but magical moor, which resembles a trip round a safari park, with buses regularly impeded by marauding wildlife. <\/p>\n The sector needs to look at where affection for its services exists<\/p>\n The sector needs to look at where affection for its services exists. Open toppers, which by my rough estimate are worth around \u00a330m a year in revenue, invoke the opposite emotions among the public than are normally reserved for conventional bus services. Like preserved steam railways, they bring a smile to the face of customers, conjuring up feelings of happy times and simple, affordable, innocent pleasures, in the company of loved ones, of nostalgia or a sense of impending adventure.<\/p>\n The good news is the bus industry does it well. The even better news is that with not much more effort, it could do it with fantastic aplomb and create an unbeatable product that forever sells itself! See you in Skeggy on Stagecoach\u2019s Seasiders!<\/p>\n \u00a0 DON\u2019T MISS OUT \u2013 GET YOUR COPY! \u2013\u00a0click here to subscribe!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The post Making the most of our open top buses<\/a> first appeared on Passenger Transport<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u200b\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 My rough estimate is that open toppers are worth \u00a330m a year. The bus industry does them well \u2013 but what more can be done? \u00a0East Yorkshire\u2019s open top Beachcomber buses returned on April 1, running up to every 20 minutes between Scarborough\u2019s North and South bays \u00a0 Never mind the weather being murky, happy days are here again…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-camcab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/camcab.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
East Yorkshire\u2019s open top Beachcomber buses returned on April 1, running up to every 20 minutes between Scarborough\u2019s North and South bays<\/em><\/p>\n
\nNever mind the weather being murky, happy days are here again as the Easter weekend saw the re-launch of many open top bus services across the UK. As the debate rages around the systemic decline in passenger numbers, there\u2019s something bubbling up in the shires, coastal towns and cities of our great kingdom and it\u2019s called open top buses.<\/p>\n
This article appears in the latest issue of\u00a0Passenger Transport<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n