PTTG  CAMRA's      Public Transport Task Group

WHAT IS THE PTTG?

The Public Transport Task Group of CAMRA exists for two main reasons:

• Where useful transport services exist, to encourage and assist CAMRA branches in promoting them as a means for discerning drinkers to visit their favourite pubs, and find their favourite beers.  
  

• Where useful transport services do not currently exist, to encourage and assist CAMRA branches to campaign for their introduction.

The trouble with our best pubs is that many of them are in the countryside and many of us live in towns, although the reverse can also be true, with rural drinkers wishing to have an evening out in town.  This raises the question of how to get the customers to the pubs, which is particularly critical if rural pubs are to survive.   The question is set against the background of declining use of both the public houses - especially rural ones - and public transport, as well as a proposed reduction in the drink drive limit.   CAMRA has decided to remain neutral over the drink drive limit but has become a major campaigner on the public transport front.  This is primarily to help the pubs remain in business given that rural depopulation and changes in social attitudes have robbed many of them of their traditional trade.   However, an additional benefit is to help preserve the transport services themselves which often, of course, cease to exist when not enough people use them.  

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Task Group consists of a core of around 10 CAMRA members who meet three times a year, and report to the National Executive through the Pubs Campaigns Committee.  Other members are perfectly welcome to come along and exchange views with the group, and to this end meetings move around the country to give people in the regions a chance to get there from time to time.  Times and places of the meetings are always announced in the Diary pages of What's Brewing, the CAMRA monthly newspaper.  The level of interest and commitment shown by many CAMRA branches has been impressive and very encouraging.   All the Group’s meetings are well attended and some excellent ideas have flowed from them.   But this would count for little without support from branches and, indeed, several branches have themselves taken the initiative and arranged some excellent campaigns.

Many of these campaigns have involved promoting particular bus, train and even tram services that provide access to worthwhile pubs.   Some of the earlier promotions revolved around the opening of new tramway systems.   Many of the problems faced by rural village pubs are shared by pubs in the declining industrial areas served by these new tram systems.   Established to serve a local customer base, many of these pubs now depended on customers travelling from outside the area to keep them viable.

THE CAMPAIGNS  The first, produced by branches in Greater Manchester, was a leaflet listing pubs within easy reach of Manchester’s Metrolink tram network.   This was followed by a similar leaflet, produced by West Midlands branches, covering the tram route from Birmingham to Wolverhampton. This in its turn was superseded in August 2002 by the Good Pub Guide to the Black Country, jointly published by CAMRA and local transport operator Travel West Midlands.   This lists 48 pubs around Birmingham, Wolverhampton and the Black Country including not only pubs near the tram route itself but also ones accessible using Travel West Midlands’ network of frequent bus services. The leaflet includes a London Underground-style map showing the tram line and twenty five bus routes with a frequency guide indicating how often services run.   Pint glass symbols on the map show where the pubs are located.  Information is also given about useful tickets, and telephone numbers and website addresses to contact for further information.

Elsewhere, CAMRA’s West Lancashire Branch got together with Lancashire County Council to produce a leaflet promoting the bus route between Preston and the village of Chipping, which nestles on the southern slopes of the Forest of Bowland. This gave the idea to West Cumbria and Western Lakes Branch to join with the Countryside Agency, Cumbria County Council and Jennings brewery to bring out a pub trail leaflet covering Stagecoach’s bus route between Penrith and Workington.   Branch secretary,  Ros Berry, was aware that funding might be available from the Rural Transport Partnership and managed to obtain some.

At the other end of England, Cornwall Branch and Cornwall County Council produced Pubs By Bus, a leaflet based on the Truronian bus company’s route that runs from The Lizard, the most southerly point of the British mainland, to Perranporth on Cornwall’s north coast.   A highlight of this route is the historic Blue Anchor pub and brewery at Helston but the leaflet also lists another 19 pubs that are worth a visit. Although bus times are not shown in the Cornwall leaflet – a telephone number is given for timetable information – services continue until late at night and are therefore ideal for pub visits.   It was funded partly from the County Council’s road safety budget and includes a graphic warning against drinking and driving.

CAMRA was involved, however, in selecting 33 pubs in Somerset that can be reached by bus on Sundays.   These are described in Somerset County Council’s Sunday and Public Holiday Bus Services leaflet and are marked on the route map.   Full timetables are shown for each service. Transport provision has traditionally been poor on Sundays and potential users can be put off travelling on that day.   In recent years some County Council’s have been developing their Sunday bus networks and this leaflet shows just what is possible in Somerset.   How about Sunday lunch or an early evening drink in 1996 CAMRA national Pub Of The Year, the Halfway House at Pitney?   Service 954 will get you there.

Meanwhile, across the country in Norfolk, Anglia Railways launched an “Ale Track” scheme to persuade people to use the train to visit some of that county’s rural pubs.   While CAMRA’s Norwich and Norfolk Branch support the scheme, they were not involved with organising it.  They have not been idle, however.   In partnership with the County Council, they arranged the printing and distribution of thousands of drip mats promoting public transport and publicising Norwich Beer Festival.   Festival customers who used the train to get there, upon presenting their rail ticket at the door, were given 50 pence off the normal admission price. The Branch has also organised rural pub passport schemes funded by modest contributions from the participating pubs, the passport leaflets including relevant bus and train times.

Most of these schemes involved co-operation between local CAMRA branches and the local authorities responsible for transport provision in their areas.   In some cases, other sources of funding were also used.   As a result, none of them cost CAMRA very much money, if any at all.   However, they all succeeded in promoting CAMRA’s name and objectives and in helping pubs that otherwise might struggle to remain open.

TRANSPORT TO PUBS

In some counties timetable books are easily obtained from libraries, tourist information offices, etc.   Elsewhere it might be more difficult.   Here are some suggestions:

• Look for roadside posters or bus stop timetables in the vicinity of the pub.   These might not show all buses serving the local stop but should include the main ones.
• Bus station offices are worth visiting but these often only distribute timetables of the main operator and sometimes not all of them.
• You might be able to get your local operators or county council to post timetables to you as they are published.
• An increasing number of operators have websites and these sometimes provide detailed timetable information (see Useful Links).
• Telephone enquiry lines could be tried but these are of more help if you have a specific journey in mind.  The national Traveline number 0870 608 2 608 (textphone 0870 241 2216) is good for buses, while you can find out about train journeys at National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 (Minicom 08456 050600).
• One of your local branch members might work in the industry or be an enthusiast and be able to supply information.
• Publicans might be able to help but beware those who claim the pub is open all day when it is not, who claim at least six real ales are always served when they are not and who may claim there are buses every five minutes when there are not!

WHAT CAN MY BRANCH DO? 

As the ultimate purpose of this is to encourage people to go to the pub by public transport where this exists and walking or cycling are not options, PTTG is asking the local CAMRA membership to help by publicising the possibilities in various ways.  Local knowledge is the key you know which pubs (and which bus or train operators) would benefit by tempting sensible drinkers to use the one to get to the other.  There are lots of ways of doing this.  For instance you could:

• Use the branch magazine - insert articles detailing actual pub crawls using public transport in your area, encourage advertisers (particularly rural ones) to include transport information in their adverts, or even seek ads from transport providers.  Remember your newsletter's readership should be one of their target groups
• Put public transport information in the local pub guide
• Add transport info to your web site
• Encourage bus-shy locals where you drink to use the bus - maybe take them on a pub crawl
• Provide a simple timetable for the landlord to pin on the pub noticeboard (you can either produce one yourself, or use a copy of the relevant local timetable leaflet)
• Ask the publican if he/she is using a website to promote the pub to include information on how to get there
• Talk to local transport companies and the local authority (county, district, metropolitan etc) with responsiblilities for providing services in their area, with a view to doing a joint promotion as in the examples shown above.  Costs to CAMRA are usually zero, but we still get our logo on the front of the leaflet - and some useful publicity as well!

These are just a few suggestions to help branches get started.

USEFUL LINKS

Many websites exist to provide you with the sort of information you may need, and they are too numerous to be listed here.  Local county council/unitary authority/Passenger Transport Executive sites often have public transport information, as do the major bus companies.  The major sources are listed below:

BUSES

General information (these should give you pointers to the information you are looking for):

www.traveline.org.uk
www.ukbus.co.uk
www.pti.org.uk

Bus companies:

www.arriva.com Arriva bus and train information
www.firstgroup.com First Group buses and trains
www.stagecoachplc.com Stagecoach buses and trains
www.gobycoach.com National Express (for longer journeys; also tel 08705 505050

You can also look up bus journeys between towns and villages for yourself by subscribing to a national timetable site (currently £2/month or £5/quarter) at www.internet.xephos.com

TRAINS

www.nationaltrainenquiries.co.uk (or call 08457 484950, Minicom 08456 050600)

SAMPLE CRAWL  

There are endless combinations of pubs you can visit by bus (or train, or both), as well as variations such as walking between pubs which are not too far apart.  You'll have to work out what is possible in your own area, of course.  But PTTG members have a few tried and tested favourites of their own.  The following shows just one of the possibilities, this one being in Berkshire. REMEMBER, IT IS ONLY AN EXAMPLE SET UP IN JULY 2004 - DETAILS OF BUS TIMES OR PUB OPENING TIMES CAN CHANGE AT SHORT NOTICE, so do your planning with the most up-to-date information to hand.  And do ring the company if you plan to take a large group on a small bus!

Beer by Bus
Bracknell to Maidenhead, Weekdays

Crawl itinerary:

The Stag & Hounds, The Royal Standard, the Victoria Arms & The Jack o’Newbury, Binfield; the White Hart & The Royal Oak, Shurlock Row; the Bell & the Star, Waltham St. Lawrence, and the Beehive, White Waltham.

The route is "Hail & Ride" between Bracknell bus station Bay 3 and Maidenhead stop C in  Frascatti Way Market Side approx 200 metres from the railway station, by the cinema.

This is just a brief guide for pubs on this route; please tell the driver the ones you want.

Details may change, so it is always worth ringing to check before you set off.

Useful contact numbers:-

Bracknell bus station: 01344 782222
Traveline:  0870 608 2 608

First Link 0118 9083678           www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk              

National Rail enquiries 08457 484950

Produced by The Campaign for Real Ale, supporting pubs & public transport.