In July 2020, I had a bold vision to repurpose this WMBU website into something more community-driven, as I felt that bus passengers were not seeing their voices and opinions being heard through the usual ‘consultation processes’ being utilised by both the local transport authority and local bus operators.
I know that 2020 and much of 2021 so far has been a difficult time for many people, but as I approach the time when I have to renew my subscription to the software platform powering this website, I’m finding myself taking stock of the situation and wondering what happens next.
First of all, I would like to thank those few people who have signed up here, and made some valuable contributions in forum discussions or in the local groups that have been set up already.
Secondly, I’m grateful in a way to those members who took the time to sign up here, but then never got involved.
What many people will be unaware of is the number of people who have used the Contact Us page to get in touch.
For obvious reasons, I’m not going to reproduce the contents of any message sent privately through that form.
But what is ultimately disappointing is the number of people sending messages to complain about bus services, or demanding refunds for tickets/passes. It does quite clearly state on that page that I cannot help with such queries, and that people should contact the bus operator or transport authority directly.
The idea of setting up this website the way I have, is so that bus passengers who are disgruntled – for whatever reason – can air their concerns and grievances in a public forum, so that other passengers can discuss and debate those issues. Together!
From what I have seen elsewhere, people are happy to complain to a bus operator on Twitter when their bus doesn’t turn up on time, or to complain on Facebook because some passengers aren’t wearing masks. But apart from that particular bus operator asking the person in question to contact them directly via their customer services or direct message, what I see very little of is any engagement with other bus users on the same or similar issues. Or even any kind of ‘follow-up’, ie did that bus operator resolve your query to your satisfaction?
Let me be bluntly honest – I set up and run this website in my own time, and I don’t get paid for doing this; this has been something I have done as a ‘hobby’ for the last few years. My own free time has become limited, and there are other interests I am pursuing, or would like to pursue further.
My hope was that if enough members came on board and started actively participating in discussion forums and groups, with members helping each other with queries, and sharing useful information from elsewhere, the website community would essentially ‘run itself’, and I could take a bit of a ‘back seat’.
But that sadly hasn’t really happened. I don’t really have the time or the financial resources to run advertising or marketing campaigns to get people interested in and joining this website. Our Facebook page has over 1500 ‘likes’ and followers, and I hoped that if even a third of those could have got involved here on this website, we would have had a nice little community, with others being invited to join by current members.
But equally, I can see the level of engagement with the Facebook page dwindling over the last year, and I’m not really sure what I can put this down to. Maybe its simply because many passengers haven’t been regularly using public transport because of this ‘pandemic’ and lockdown restrictions, and maybe I just need to be a little more patient!
So it is with some regret that I announce that I will be closing down this website from July 2021, at which point all the community features (groups, forums, social feed) will be removed including all member profiles and activity. The remainder of the site will stay active, until September 2021 when the domain name is set to expire, at which point the website will be permanently removed.
It is a shame, as I have invested so much time and effort into getting this site where it is today, I genuinely believed that I had set up a platform that people would be happy to get involved with and utilise, but in the grand scheme of things, it has clearly not worked, and maybe bus passengers are not yet ready to engage with other public transport users in a community fashion.
Or maybe this is the problem, where people are so used to using things like Twitter to send ‘angry tweets’ because their bus was 6 minutes late, and this ability to ‘directly engage’ with bus operators in this fashion means that any ‘issue’ becomes a personal one. It is a sad fact that ‘social media’ actually makes people quite selfish and ‘anti-social’ in a sense.
So there you have it, thats my opinion on this. The end is drawing near, and I thought I’d have the decency to at least give people some advance notice. As for me, well yes I will keep travelling on buses, as I have been doing for the last 30 years, and in my own way will continue to champion and advocate for people to use buses, for years to come.
For the few people who will be disappointed by this announcement, I am sorry, but I hope you understand. I have realised that it is time to focus on my own priorities, and this interest is no longer one of them. I wish you all the very best!
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