ABOUT THE SURVEY
A survey of this type has never been done before. Apart from finding Britain’s most popular bus route, the main aims were to encourage more bus use and attract positive publicity for buses.
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Funded by Arriva, First, Go-Ahead, Stagecoach & Transdev. Sponsored by Bus Users UK. Organised by Paul Kirby.
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Funders put forward 10 of their most scenic routes in each of England, Scotland & Wales.
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People could add their own favourite routes. After a couple of weeks the most popular of these were added to the lists. Total of 100 routes - 58 in England, 23 in Scotland & 19 in Wales. 17, nearly one-fifth, were non-funder routes.
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Survey was completed online. Passengers could vote for 3 routes in each nation and for one overall favourite.
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It lasted 3 months from February to May 2018.
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Survey was widely publicised in local papers, trade press and social media. The main method of promotion was via the bus companies Twitter accounts with 420,000+ followers and the survey’s Twitter account @MostScenicBus. It kept voters up-to-date on progress and encouraged people to spread the word. Less than half of the bus company funder Twitter accounts promoted the survey.
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Over 1000 people voted in the first 2 weeks. By the end 5,500 people took part and made over 15,000 votes – an average of 3 votes per person. The top 5 routes changed places after a final publicity push in the last 2 weeks of the survey. Winner won by 243 votes.
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Over a third of voters wrote comments on their favourite route, 2092 people. Praise on the top 10 routes in each nation were sent to the bus companies, anonymised.
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98.3% were either neutral, satisfied or very satisfied with the format of the survey.
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Three voters were chosen at random to win cash prizes totalling £300. Details were put on @MostScenicBus.
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The Top 3 winning routes covered the length of Britain – West of Scotland, Northern England and South Coast.
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A press release containing the results was sent out to a wide variety of media outlets. The survey and buses in general received a great deal of positive publicity in May/June 2018.
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This included:
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Trade press – Buses, Coach & Bus publications, Route One
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Newspapers – The Times, Daily Mirror, Yorkshire Post and many local papers
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Online –Mail Online, Sky News, BBC News, Yahoo! News, iNews and many foreign news websites
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Radio - BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4 & many local stations
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National TV – BBC Breakfast News (3 minute report), BBC News Channel & BBC1 News. 7 minute report on ITV’s ‘This Morning’
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My thanks to everyone who voted and all those who helped to make this survey a success. Another survey will not be necessary until 2021.
A better website will hopefully be produced in 2019 for all passengers, especially visitors from abroad and car owners, to make bus travel an easier and more attractive experience.
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2685 voters were willing to take part in future bus passenger surveys.
If you would like to ask this valuable and exclusive cohort of bus users questions relevant to your business, please email most.scenic.bus@gmail.com
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A Simple List of the Top 100 Routes can be found at https://www.pkmarketing1.com/survey-results
