Leeds Bus Station Changes from 10/03/08

[jackh]

The following changes will be made to stand departures in Leeds Bus Station, this is so boarding the FreeCityBus can be made safer.

• Service 96 will now operate from Stand 1.
  
• Service 55 will now operate from Stand 21.
  
• FreeCityBus from Stand 2.
  
• Services 28 and 97 will no longer use the Bus Station. Service 97 will alight at Stop 'G1' on Eastgate and start from 'G5' on Eastgate where it currently stops after the Bus Station. Service 28 will use Stop 'G9' to layover before picking up from Stop 'G5' on Eastgate. 28 journeys from Adel that currently terminate at the Bus Station will continue to do so and will interwork with service 96.
  
• Stand 3 and 4 I think will be the new layover stands.
  

However, I don't see the point on the 28 and 97 being kicked out of the Bus Station becuase if my calculates are correct. Stand 20 which the 28 and 97 use will become vacant??

[westyorkshirebus]

These changes result in access to the FreeCityBus being made less safe as it currently uses stand 1

The changes are due to the use of dual door buses on the 28, 96 & 97

[Craig]

This change for the dual door buses certainly makes sense (although those buses are occasionally also used on the 33/33A, 55, X84!), but why would this change make the FCB any less safe?

[westyorkshirebus]

The reason they moved it from 3 to 1 was because passengers apparantly were prone to getting off at 3 and wandering into the stand 2 area

All these changes are a reaction following the person being knocked down a few weeks ago by the way

I imagine Metro have now officially banned dual door buses from using anything other than stand 1 meaning First will not be able to misallocate them to the 33, X84 etc

[jackh]

I don't know whether anybody else has noticed, but Metro have installed signs showing bus drivers their speed in the Bus Stations.

[westyorkshirebus]

There's more info on these changes on the First Leeds website

I do find it amusing the way they just copy staff notices and internal memos directly onto the First Leeds website. I doubt passengers need to know about interworking or where layovers will be taken!

[pub146g]

All this is just an over reaction to the incident when some person decided to walk behind a bus about to reverse out when common sense should have prevailed.

Another case of everybody suffers because of the foolish acts of the minority.

[Craig]

Mar 9, 2008 2:12:18 GMT 1 pub146g said:

Another case of everybody suffers because of the foolish acts of the minority.

I don't think many people will 'suffer' from the slight reallocation of bus station stands.

I agree about First's staff internal memos on the website, I also like the way they list diversionary routes in the 'X Road (R) Y Street' format. Most of their online information is probably misunderstood by most of the readers!

[Davidc]

Mar 8, 2008 23:39:17 GMT 1 @jackh said:

I don't know whether anybody else has noticed, but Metro have installed signs showing bus drivers their speed in the Bus Stations.

Huddersfield had a temporary speed radar set up for a couple weeks a while ago. Its been sat in the corner of the car park bays out of use recently.

A painted walk way has been put in as well along the front of the bus layover bays. So all the drivers have to leave the bus station through the side door by stand z then follow the walk way to get to the buses. No one is allowed to cross the main bus area.

These are safety measures that need to be taken up at Preston Bus station where its a free for all between the buses and the pedestrians. Ive seen a number of close calls there over the years yet people still dice with the buses.

David.c

[jml8371]

The only reason these changes have been implemented by metro, is because of the double door buses. Due to these changes, all routes from Leeds bus station (except the 96) are banned from having a double door bus.
(We have a notice up in the depot telling us to refuse a dual door bus, if your board includes the bus station. This includes changovers as well)

Alternatives are been looked at for all bus station routes, so that any bus can be used again on the routes.

And if you think that this has been planned by First/Metro weeks in advance, the think again!! Metro informed First at approx 1530 on Friday that they were implementing these changes from Monday!!!

Jason
JML8371

[bristololympian]

Why, then can't the centre doors be removed and be replaced with a fixed panel. Each of these buses could seat an extra 4 people too if this is done.

[jackh]

I think the purpose of the Olympians with the centre doors is to reduce dwell time along Headingley Lane etc which is a busy corridor. I suppose passengers and drivers alike have got used to them.

[kendall17]

would like to see some newer dual doors, think they do a good job for us and could see them working on other inner city routes. if you have 70 people on a bus, and 50(as they do at the st. johns ctr.) of them want to get off, whats quicker dual approx 3lines of people getting off or just the 1 front door? its like comparing a dual door olympian with single door one!

[pub146g]

Don't think it's been mentioned on here yet but the 97 is now back starting in the bus staition again after a few days in Eastgate. It's sharing stand 1 with the 96.

On journeys to Leeds both 96 & 97 now divert via Vicar Lane and drop off in York Street outside the bus station.

[nick]

So they are moving stands in the bus station because the 28 and 97 use dual doors.

The 97 Back in the Bus Station does make sense but the 28 really need's to go back in the bus station as it is a good layover point.Will 96 and 97 will go Albion Street,Headrow,Vicar lane,york street or albion street,headrow,park row,duncan street,boar lane,york street,bus station

[westyorkshirebus]

Quite funny is that stand 20 is now used by service 731 on it's own. Service 731 runs 3 journeys Mondays to Fridays only!

[nick]

I am sure they will move 781 into that stand.

What makes perfect sense is to have the X84 Leeds-Otley service use that stand every half hour while Stand 22 X84 Leeds-Ilkley/Skipton and 757 Leeds-LBA-Otley

[kendall17]

rather annoyingly a 28 was on a layover on eastgate and it was blocking buses pulling into their stops and stopping drivers changeover. this lead to buses blocking eastgate and buses became late

[nick]

That is why i think they need to re-route the 28 in leeds as it is going to block eastgate when the drivers are changing over unless it uses the bottom stop which i dont think metro will let it do.

Best idea for the 28 is York Street,Kirkgate,New Market Street,Duncan Street, Station, Qubec street,Infirmary Street,Park Row,Headrow,Alibion Street and then to Adel rather than blocking up eastgate for 3 or 4 minutes

[Craig]

That would add a fair bit of extra running time to the 28, and would mean shifting the changeover point to Infirmary Street which already gets crowded between the 1 and 95.

[jackh]

The 28 is supposed to use stop G9 at the bottom of Eastgate to layover before moving up to G5 to pick passengers up towards Adel. So maybe there are mindless drivers who will just stop at G5 on Eastgate and not layover as they are supposed to.

Anyway seeing as the 97 now also shares Stand 1 in the Bus Station with the 96, why can't the 28 use it as well as the 96 departs at 08, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58 mins past the hour. The 97 departs at 13, 33, 53 the hour and the 28 used to leave the Bus Station at 23, 43, 03 past the hour so it wouldn't conflict with the 96 or 97 on Stand 1 in that respect.

Hmm, the 28 doing that long winded route around the City Centre towards Adel would cause problems in reliability as I think First would need to allocate another bus to the route and it would take about 15 minutes to make it around tops.

[Craig]

The problem is, although the 28/96/97 are all timed to operate a combined 5-minute frequency, in reality bunching happens, and as well as these 12 departures per hour you also have arrivals to drop off before drivers park up for a break. If a group of subsequent arrivals/departures turn out to all be dual door bus operated, nothing has been achieved and you will have Metro complaining at you about safety.

[jackh]

But don't the 96 and 97 alight outside the Bus Station on New York Street rather than at Stand 1 in the Bus Station and the buses go straight into the layover area in the Bus Station after shedding its passengers.

[westyorkshirebus]

As was mentioned before the 96 & 97 are now laying over and alighting passengers outside the bus station entrance at stop F5 on New York Street

To solve the issue with the 28, I think they should reroute it from East Street via Kirkgate and New York Street so this route can do the same thing

[Craig]

Aah, it seems I missed the earlier post about the 96/97 stopping at New York Street. In which case the 28 should either divert Kirkgate and New York Street as mentioned above, or just leave Clarence Dock a little later so it gets to the Bus Station without requring a layover on stand 1. (i.e. the current timetable allows 9 minutes between these points which is clearly longer than necessary).