Stagecoach announce extra Sunday bus services

In a move clearly intended to increase competition with newly privatised Thamesdown Transport, Stagecoach West has announced extra bus services in Swindon from 1^st April. Stagecoach’s new services include an hourly service on service 9 on Sundays from Swindon town centre to Wroughton via Wichelstowe. Thamesdown Transport already run buses every half hour on Sundays on their service 11.

However, this may not be good news for East Wichel bus passengers. As is already apparent from Stagecoach’s timetabling of service 9 on weekdays, they prefer to run buses just a few minutes ahead of Thamesdown services, aimed at maximising Stagecoach’s profits and maximising Thamesdown’s losses. So we’re likely to see two buses a couple of minutes apart on Sundays, followed by a gap of almost thirty minutes, rather than a bus every twenty minutes.

There’s also no guarantee that Thamesdown will continue a half-hourly Sunday service on service 11 when faced with competition from Stagecoach. This will be the first competitive test in Swindon for Thamesdown Transport’s new owners, Go South Coast.