A new service catering to local demand has been launched in Norfolk, backed by a comprehensive targeted marketing campaign
Amid much anticipation following a hyper-local marketing and community engagement strategy, Coach Services of Thetford has enjoyed an encouraging first week on its new ‘Breckland Beeline’ service 90. From Monday 4 December, the family-owned Norfolk independent operator, whose history can be traced back to 1957, ran the first direct bus service in over a decade between its home town of Thetford, and the county city of Norwich.
Operating five journeys every day from Monday to Saturday, the company has successfully employed the time-honoured tactic of ensuring both local relevance and high impact recognition in all aspects of brand, publicity and marketing to drive initial interest in the service, which is operated on an entirely commercial basis. Both organic and paid social media posts were employed in building awareness around Norfolk’s third largest town, alongside adverts in the popular ‘About Thetford’ community magazine and a door drop to all 13,000 households in the town.
Meanwhile, the brand-new ADL Enviro E400MMC purchased specifically for the route and wearing full ‘Breckland Beeline’ branding both inside and out was put into service on the operator’s principal corridor between Brandon, Thetford and Bury St Edmunds to further promote the service in the week prior to launch.
Operating almost entirely along the main A11 trunk road, the journey time over the 29 mile route stands at just 55 minutes and utilises the established strategy of following the same route as one would travel in a private car in order to promote modal shift. There is a brief, straight-line diversion into the midway town of Attleborough, the population of which, like Thetford, is growing significantly due to extensive new housing developments, and a stop at the Cringleford bus interchange just outside Norwich, providing links to the nearby Norfolk & Norwich Hospital.
Combined with the £2 maximum single fare cap, the direct nature of the service has to be seen as an attractive alternative to those who would otherwise make the journey by train, of which there are two per hour taking between 31 and 37 minutes, and costing £18.30 or £11.90 for a peak or off peak return respectively. A group ticket (2+3) on the bus can be purchased for £14, this being a reduction of 25% on the ‘normal’ price as a result of a Norfolk County Council BSIP initiative; the rail equivalent is £27.75. In line with many places across the UK, rail passengers arriving in Norwich have a half-mile walk prior to reaching the main part of the city centre, adding at least 10 minutes to the journey time and making the door-to-door advantages of the bus service even more attractive.
On the first day, passenger loadings exceeded expectations; a trend that was continued throughout the whole of the first week, during which over 1,000 passengers were carried despite persistent wet weather. This clearly provides evidence to support both the long expressed local desire for a fast, direct service and the value of the proactive engagement that was undertaken with the local community. In fact, one Facebook post shared initially on the pages of just six active local groups in the last week in November received a unique reach in excess of 20,000 people (the population of Thetford is approximately 25,500) and an active engagement rate of some 13% on a purely organic basis. So far, passenger feedback on the service has been entirely positive.
Rob Crawford, Finance Director for Coach Services, said: “It has long been our ambition, and the most common request we receive, to provide a service to Norwich for the people of our local community and we’re delighted to have been able to add this to our network against a backdrop of local population growth, and underpinned by both the Government’s £2 single fare cap scheme and a BSIP-funded group fares initiative from Norfolk County Council.
“With what we believed to be a highly attractive proposition, we recognised the need to actively invest in brand, marketing and high-quality community engagement to give the service the best possible start and chance of long-term success. We are delighted to have employed the services of David Jordan through his recently established specialist public transport marketing agency, Jump-On, who worked seamlessly alongside us – devising the brand and livery, creating all the required publicity and marketing assets, driving our local engagement strategy and putting together a proactive targeted pre- and post-launch campaign.
“We couldn’t be happier with the results from our first week of operation, and look forward to building on these in the run up to Christmas and into the new year.”
