Right quick report back,

the website on a Blackberry worked fine and was perfectly up to date!

It's functionality and style is basic but ideal for a mobile user, and it DID work with all of the bus stop codes I entered saving me texting them @ a cost of 25p plus standard rates (35p in total for me).

I would recomend other moile uses give it a try and report back their findings.

Thanks,

* oh btw I am in Sussex, and was accessing Brighton and Hove bus information *

Have just contact South East and National Traveline with the follwing:

"Dear Sir/Madam,

I am contacting you regarding the cost of calling Traveline via it's 0871 number mainly from a Mobile.  The current cost is estimated to be from 20-40p per minute to contact your Call Centres from a UK mobile phone. Whilst this charge is NOT levied by yourselves, it's because you use an 0871 number that we have to pay extra. Ofcom have introduced 03 numbers and it would be better for you to use such a number for us to contact you. Your original number 0870 608 2 608 could easily become 0370 608 2 608 and would be charged at a standard geographic rate rather than the "premium" cost it now is. It is quite obvious you are happy to make money out of callers to Traveline, even more so with this press release - http://www.pti.org.uk/docs/Numberchange.htm proving the number change was nothing more then a need to make money to run the service! As it's the ONLY advertised service we have NO choice but to use it. I await your response with interest."

We shall see,

A response from Traveline South East - http://www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk/

"Thank you for your comment.

Traveline is an independent organisation and we have to find sources of income to pay for the services which we offer.  The major part of our costs are covered by local authorities - who generally pay for the information systems that we use and the continual collation of service information from all operators. We make this information free of charge on our web sites., But for those who want the additional service provided by the call-centre traveline nationally has decided that it should use an 0871 number, from which traveline earns a few pence per minute from the standard 10p per minute call charge.  Mobile operators then add their own heavy charges on top of the standard tariff - and that is something that we are not able to influence.

The basic cost for an 0871 call to the user represents about 10% of the direct costs of delivering that information from the call-centre .... on top of that there are the costs of the systems provided, and of the data collation, that makes traveline possible.  Traveline believes that this is reasonable level of contribution to be sought from callers.  As I am sure you are aware, there is no cost for accessing the same information through our web sites.

If you have an iphone we already provide "traveline south and east"
information as an app - the app costs £1.79 but it is then a free service thereafter.  If you have a mobile web browser you can also use our site to get information for free - we recommend using the large text interface on a mobile phone.

I hope this gives you some explanation of the background to the decision to use an 0871 number for access to traveline's call-centres and ways you may be able to avoid this by using the internet on your mobile phone if you have that feature. "

Any views?

** Thank you to Dave for his comments, you were right! **

I've checked through the alternatives we have for Traveline in each area (i.e. those which the 0871 directs calls to; not individual bus companies).

All still work except for East Anglia (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) which was (and still is according to its website) operated by EWA Ltd. The number is 01245 454385 which is now not recognised and I have replaced this with EWA's switchboard number, 01245 492828, with a note that callers will have to ask to be put through.

The other two we don't have are East Midlands and South West, which are both operated by Telephone Information Masters Ltd in Exeter, along with Traveline South East.

Barbara,

Will check the number and get it varified

many  thanks

Barbara wrote on Apr 28^th, 2011 at 2:15pm:

We have visited Traveline quite a number of times and I have joined your thread to the existing one.

The 0871 number directs calls to different call centres in different areas. Gloucestershire is served by Traveline South West and we have been aware for several years now that it is answered by a call centre in Exeter, but have been unable to source a geographic number for it.

To re-cap, Traveline South West , Traveline South East and Traveline East Midlands are operated by Telephone Information Masters which is based in Exeter. We have no direct 01392 numbers for any of these.

The other one we don't have a number for is Traveline East Anglia and this is operated by EWA Ltd. We used to have a working number for this one, but it was disabled.

---

Individual bus operators may well be able to provide timetable information for their own services. Whether they can do so for other operators and if so whether they are impartial are other matters.

Stagecoach Bus Gloucester gives the customer services number as 01452 418630, so I have added this to the database under that name with the 0871 number. This makes it clear that it is for one particular operator and not the generic Traveline as the 0871 number.

At the very least, send them a comment about their 0871 number!

http://www.traveline-cymru.info/contact-us/

StarGazing wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2013 at 11:28am:

Thanks for posting about this. I've joined your posting to the extensive thread we already have running for Traveline.

Traveline is a network of call centres which are available via the number 0871 200 2233.

I've been through the list of individual Traveline alternatives and cleared out those which no longer work:

Traveline Cymru - Previously verified numbers were 01766 543100/1 and these are now not recognised. The service was provided by Galw whose domain galw.org is no longer registered.

Traveline North East & Cumbria is covered by two different call centres. 0191 244 5695, which is now not recognised was for Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, Co Durham, Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Recar & Cleveland. The new alternative, 0191 202 0747, is the main menu for Nexus on which there is an option for Traveline.

01946 598201 was for Cumbria and was operated by Traveline Cumbria Limited whose web address, www.traveline-cumbria.co.uk forwards to this address on the Cumbria County Council website, which returns a 404 "page not found" error. Calls are now answered by Telephone Information Masters in Exeter, which also takes calls for some other areas.

Traveline North West Lancashire area was previously 01772 849101 but this number is now not recognised. It was previously operated by Lancashire County Council and is now run by Telephone Information Masters.

Traveline West Midlands was previously operated by Centro and verified alternatives were 0121 200 **** (now used by another unconnected company) and 024 7655 9559 (not recognised). Telephone Information Masters says it answers calls on behalf of Traveline West Midlands.


In order to find an alternative for Traveline Cymru we need to find out which company or organisation operates it. A news release was issued by Traveline Cymru on 10th July 2012 entitled Future of Traveline Cymru call centre secured:
Quote:

This explains why galw.org is no longer registered, as the company has gone out of business.

PTI Cymru is the operator of the call centre and its details are:

PTI Cymru Ltd | Market Hall | High St | Penrhyndeudraeth | Gwynedd | LL48 6LP
Telephone: 01766 772120

Look up on BT Phonebook companies called in postcode returns an entry for this company with telephone 01766 772100. Note the similarity to the number above, this suggesting that it might have a block of numbers. However, calling 01766 772100 reveals that it is Traveline Cymru! I have listed this in the database.


Here is a summary of the Traveline areas we don't have alternatives for, all of which are operated by Telephone Information Masters:

• Traveline East Anglia
• Traveline East Midlands
• Traveline North East & Cumbria: Cumbria area only
• Traveline North West: Lancashire area only
• Traveline South East
• Traveline South West
• Traveline West Midlands

As I've mentioned previously, we have no known number to access the Exeter call centre of Telephone Information Masters.