App issues blight launch of Callconnect on-demand bus services in Rutland
A council’s new flagship on-demand bus service has been hit with technical issues ahead of its launch on Monday.
The on-demand service for the west of Rutland is supposed to go live at the start of next week (March 31) but a problem with the app means people have been unable to book a bus slot.
The promise from the authority was that Zone 1 - which covers Oakham and goes eastwards to Clipsham, and westwards to Whissendine and Melton Mowbray - would go live on Monday.
Passengers will receive free travel until the end of June and the price will be just £1 for a year. Zones 2 and 3, which cover the remainder of the county, are due to go live later in the year.
Under the changes, the R2 bus service between Oakham and Melton will be replaced with a RZ1 service operating a fixed-route during peak times at the start and end of the day.
Rutland County Council, which is reducing some fixed routes to save £300,000 a year on its public transport bill, has signed a contract with neighbouring Lincolnshire County Council to extend its Callconnect service into Rutland.
The service should allow people to book a bus journey up to an hour before they travel, but the app has not been not working and customers are not being told when they can travel.
A council spokesperson said today: “Regrettably, there is a technical issue with the Callconnect smartphone app, which means bookings can’t be made online at the moment.
"This will be resolved for Monday 31 March, when the new RZ1 service is launched.
"Passengers can still arrange travel over the phone by ringing Callconnect on: 0345 234 3344. Operators are available to help and answer questions from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 6pm on Saturdays.
"We apologise for any inconvenience.”
The app went live on Monday (March 24) and yesterday (March 25) the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) tried to book a journey within Zone 1 from Oakham to Market Overton for launch day, on March 31. The Callconnect App displayed an incorrect message saying the pickup location was outside the service zone.
The operator's response was to say the journey would be logged on a list and phone calls made to customers on Monday morning (launch day) to say whether or not the journey was possible.
The council’s Liberal Democrat cabinet agreed the contract with Callconnect in November despite being aware of issues with the service. Currently Callconnect covers parts of Rutland, such as Ketton, within its Lincolnshire service.
At a meeting of the full council in October, Ketton councillor Karen Payne (Con) said the service is rarely used because it is not dependable.
She said: “The service frequently cancels at the last moment or does not turn up. This is not good if people have a long-awaited hospital appointment, job interview or whatever else. Residents tell me they don’t trust this service because it is unreliable.”
In response, the cabinet member for transport Coun Christine Wise (Lib Dem) said the system ‘had to work’ and there would be clauses in the contract.
Rutland and Lincolnshire county councils have signed an agreement and, while the sums have not been made public, back in November the authority estimated the annual cost of the on-demand scheme would be about £480,000.
Rutland County Council is opening a new transport hub in Cold Overton Road, Oakham, funded by Levelling Up money from the Government.
Bus journeys have dropped in Rutland in recent years. In 2018 there were 414,000 passenger trips made in the county, whereas the number taken in the past three years since lockdown is about 175,000.
