This week TfL upended tradition by launching a demand-responsive bus service in the London borough of Sutton. They've called it GoSutton. It operates using a small fleet of white 13-seater minibuses. Drivers don't follow a set route but turn up after you've summoned them using the GoSutton app. You might end up sharing your ride with other passengers and travelling via an indirect route. It's all very reminiscent of something Citymapper have tried, or what Uber are already doing with pooled rides. I couldn't resist a trip to Sutton to see what was going on.
The GoSutton area stretches from St Helier down to Belmont and from Cheam across to Wallington. You don't have to live in the area to take part. [map][map]
Sutton's an interesting borough to have chosen, being a) highly residential b) devoid of TfL tube and rail services. There are also a fairly limited number of popular destinations, in particular two big hospitals and Sutton town centre, and this should help to keep operational parameters a bit more manageable.
I decided to travel from Wallington to St Helier Hospital, and kicked off by positioning myself up a bus-stop-less sidestreet. I could have walked to the end of the road and caught the regular 157 bus, which would have whisked me to my destination in ten minutes flat, but instead I wanted to try a more bespoke experience. The app on my phone confirmed that a vehicle was nearby and provided a countdown to arrival, so all I had to do was stand on the pavement and wait. A blackbird sang a happy song from the roof of a nearby loft extension. Four minutes and counting.
Rides cost more than taking the bus - £3.50 compared to £1.50. Oyster doesn't work, and Travelcards are not accepted. Freedom pass holders and members of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme ride for free. [FAQ}
I extended my arm to flag the bus down, because I've been well trained, but I suspect the driver would have stopped anyway. I was impressed to see that I wasn't the only passenger, others were aboard with shopping and even a wheelchair! I headed to the rear of the vehicle and picked a seat, then settled back for a unique ride.
It was time for a tour of the backstreets of Sutton, along narrow avenues a double decker would never risk. It was soon clear we weren't heading via any direct route but heading off on a meander that better suited passengers who'd already boarded. A lady sitting in front of me folded up her copy of the Daily Mail and gathered her bags together. I was most impressed when we stopped immediately outside what turned out to be her front door, and then when the driver pulled the same trick with an elderly gentleman a few minutes later. There's personal service for you!
Six minibuses are on call between 6.30am and 9.30pm seven days a week. They can't be booked hours in advance, only in the here and now. If you're more than 60 seconds late at the designated pick-up point, which may be up to 200m away, the bus won't wait.
It became apparent that the reason we were skirting the outer reaches of Carshalton to was stop at the Royal Marsden hospital. A grey-haired lady hopped off carrying a gift bag suggesting she was a visitor - I bet she'd paid nothing - and a middle-aged man in a black anorak took her place - I bet he paid full whack. We weren't returning to town directly either but deviating via the Cheamier side of Belmont, picking up a parent and child combo along the way.
Out here in the sticks, with bus and rail services on the infrequent side, it's easy to imagine how a bespoke door-to-door service might take off. TfL are hoping that drivers will leave their cars at home and summon a minibus to go shopping or bookend their commute, and that having to pay £7 return won't put them off. That said, nobody on my midday bus had programmed in a stop at the station, they were all solely interested in Sutton's retail offering.
Children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult. Licensed service animals are welcome to board without restrictions, but other dogs and cats must be in an airline-approved carrier. Passengers are asked to limit any personal items to a single piece of luggage or a reasonably-sized bag.
Half an hour after setting out I'd only reached Sutton Central Library, confirming that a more direct ordinary bus would have been far preferable. There was now no other passenger who'd been on board as long as I had, and the final shopping-laden contingent weren't going all the way either, dissipating into estates off Benhill Road. By now I thought I'd seen every kind of housing Sutton had to offer, on what felt more like my own personal guided tour than a profitable bus service.
Along one particularly narrow road we had to negotiate carefully past a taxi coming the other way, and being a shorter than average bus certainly helped. Sutton's cabbies are amongst those who stand to lose out most from the introduction of a new, cheaper, point-to-point service, should it eventually take off. Finally we reached St Helier Hospital, after a sinuous journey that had taken almost three-quarters of an hour, so I'm unconvinced I'll be trying that again. My departure left the driver with a cargo of zero, and I suspect a well-earned rest awaited.
If you don't have a smartphone there are ways of taking part by text or by phone. Leaving feedback on your driver's performance is encouraged. Officially this is a year long trial, and Ealing's lined up next.
And now confession time. I didn't ride on a GoSutton minibus, I caught a scheduled bus on route S4, which is one of the regular services that run around the suburbs of Sutton. I didn't want to waste £3.50 on a ride, plus I didn't fancy entering my personal details into an app and selecting a readily-identifiable journey. I'm not target audience, I'm not an Uber-friendly local who needs tempting out of their car. If you'd like to know what really goes on, Roger French has tried out GoSutton and ridden three of their minibuses and his in-depth report is here.
I didn't see a single GoSutton minibus anywhere on the streets during my journey, although that isn't surprising given how few minibuses there are spread across how many streets. Also I didn't see any publicity for the new service anywhere, so I suspect that only a tiny proportion of the population are aware that GoSutton exists. I guess it's in nobody's commercial interests to advise pensioners that their bus passes are now valid on free door to door services, so it's just as well they're the least likely demographic to be smartphone-enabled.
I have my doubts that GoSutton is destined to be a success, but TfL needed to give it a try and Sutton's as good a place as any. I just hope it doesn't ultimately mean that services like the S4 get scrapped in favour of something less predictable and more expensive, as some other parts of the country have found to their cost.
![[map]](https://gosutton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/20190508_Sutton_Updated-Map-1-1030x1030.png){kind=link}