deerfold
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Post by deerfold on Dec 21, 2022 18:48:39 GMT 1
It cannot work like Greater Manchester. In an attempt to speed up the snail-like X99, and in fact taking one of my suggestions posted on here, you now just tap your card for the £2 fare, or you just put £2 in cash down and walk away. You don't get a ticket, unless you need a £4.50 day ticket. Therefore they have no idea how far you are travelling, and therefore cannot know what the fare would have been under the old rules, and therefore cannot work out the difference. And as for replacing the current buses with the 36 Volvos, the sooner the better. At least the heating works and there isn't an epilepsy inducing disco upstairs at every stop, as there was during the day on the X99 that I used on Monday. The lighting for the gloomy day was about right, but at every stop, on the left hand side, suddenly the lights went from that level of lighting to full operating theatre brightness. Once the doors closed again and the bus moved off, they dimmed again to a reasonable level. At night, there are never any lights on the left hand side either upstairs or downstairs. For some ridiculous reason the upstairs lights seem to be linked to the downstairs lights. Why would you need the lights upstairs to come on brightly at each stop? And at night, I understand on a rural route, for visibility, the driver may not want the left hand lights on downstairs, but why can they not be on upstairs? The whole left hand side of the bus upstairs is so dark because there are no lights on. Far too dark to read one of the dog-eared books that fly off the shelf and land on the luggage rack downstairs because of the route style. I think the turn at Bardsey to and from Rigton Grange and East Keswick gets them every time! And the Volvos don't have the grills at the bottom of the windscreen upstairs blowing filthy air into your face if you sit at the front. You can see the dirt blocking the grills, especially the middle one. That has never been cleaned. A disgusting health hazard. The Volvos don't have the reading lights in the seat backs, but none of them work on the X99 anyway, so those won't be missed! There are no tables for people to fill with litter either, and when someone presses the stop button, at least it is audible, and no one is pressing the button 20 times in panic, thinking it is not working. And with the recent filthy weather, you should see how dirty the shiny black plastic which lines the staircase is. Whoever thought that shiny black plastic was a good idea was wrong! Have you contacted Transdev about the many problems with this route?
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Post by Username on Dec 21, 2022 19:31:04 GMT 1
It cannot work like Greater Manchester. In an attempt to speed up the snail-like X99, and in fact taking one of my suggestions posted on here, you now just tap your card for the £2 fare, or you just put £2 in cash down and walk away. You don't get a ticket, unless you need a £4.50 day ticket. Therefore they have no idea how far you are travelling, and therefore cannot know what the fare would have been under the old rules, and therefore cannot work out the difference. And as for replacing the current buses with the 36 Volvos, the sooner the better. At least the heating works and there isn't an epilepsy inducing disco upstairs at every stop, as there was during the day on the X99 that I used on Monday. The lighting for the gloomy day was about right, but at every stop, on the left hand side, suddenly the lights went from that level of lighting to full operating theatre brightness. Once the doors closed again and the bus moved off, they dimmed again to a reasonable level. At night, there are never any lights on the left hand side either upstairs or downstairs. For some ridiculous reason the upstairs lights seem to be linked to the downstairs lights. Why would you need the lights upstairs to come on brightly at each stop? And at night, I understand on a rural route, for visibility, the driver may not want the left hand lights on downstairs, but why can they not be on upstairs? The whole left hand side of the bus upstairs is so dark because there are no lights on. Far too dark to read one of the dog-eared books that fly off the shelf and land on the luggage rack downstairs because of the route style. I think the turn at Bardsey to and from Rigton Grange and East Keswick gets them every time! And the Volvos don't have the grills at the bottom of the windscreen upstairs blowing filthy air into your face if you sit at the front. You can see the dirt blocking the grills, especially the middle one. That has never been cleaned. A disgusting health hazard. The Volvos don't have the reading lights in the seat backs, but none of them work on the X99 anyway, so those won't be missed! There are no tables for people to fill with litter either, and when someone presses the stop button, at least it is audible, and no one is pressing the button 20 times in panic, thinking it is not working. And with the recent filthy weather, you should see how dirty the shiny black plastic which lines the staircase is. Whoever thought that shiny black plastic was a good idea was wrong! Think this problem is only with the X98/9 buses as the Witchway buses seem to be fine.
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Post by SCH117X on Dec 21, 2022 21:19:29 GMT 1
And is the lights issue everyone of the four or just one. Do you take a bus out of service when the fault is a niggle and not a safety matter. Starbeck is going to be more pushed for vehicles once the 36 goes back to its full timetable given that no proper replacement has ever been sourced for burnt out 3615 and a number of the four red public service deckers are commonly to found on the 36 but now have also to cover the X98/99. One trick they have when pushed is to swop the Ripon section of a 36 duty to a single decker.
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Post by steve440 on Dec 22, 2022 9:47:39 GMT 1
It cannot work like Greater Manchester. In an attempt to speed up the snail-like X99, and in fact taking one of my suggestions posted on here, you now just tap your card for the £2 fare, or you just put £2 in cash down and walk away. You don't get a ticket, unless you need a £4.50 day ticket. Therefore they have no idea how far you are travelling, and therefore cannot know what the fare would have been under the old rules, and therefore cannot work out the difference. And as for replacing the current buses with the 36 Volvos, the sooner the better. At least the heating works and there isn't an epilepsy inducing disco upstairs at every stop, as there was during the day on the X99 that I used on Monday. The lighting for the gloomy day was about right, but at every stop, on the left hand side, suddenly the lights went from that level of lighting to full operating theatre brightness. Once the doors closed again and the bus moved off, they dimmed again to a reasonable level. At night, there are never any lights on the left hand side either upstairs or downstairs. For some ridiculous reason the upstairs lights seem to be linked to the downstairs lights. Why would you need the lights upstairs to come on brightly at each stop? And at night, I understand on a rural route, for visibility, the driver may not want the left hand lights on downstairs, but why can they not be on upstairs? The whole left hand side of the bus upstairs is so dark because there are no lights on. Far too dark to read one of the dog-eared books that fly off the shelf and land on the luggage rack downstairs because of the route style. I think the turn at Bardsey to and from Rigton Grange and East Keswick gets them every time! And the Volvos don't have the grills at the bottom of the windscreen upstairs blowing filthy air into your face if you sit at the front. You can see the dirt blocking the grills, especially the middle one. That has never been cleaned. A disgusting health hazard. The Volvos don't have the reading lights in the seat backs, but none of them work on the X99 anyway, so those won't be missed! There are no tables for people to fill with litter either, and when someone presses the stop button, at least it is audible, and no one is pressing the button 20 times in panic, thinking it is not working. And with the recent filthy weather, you should see how dirty the shiny black plastic which lines the staircase is. Whoever thought that shiny black plastic was a good idea was wrong! Have you contacted Transdev about the many problems with this route? If they are not issuing tickets for cash then the cash is going straight in the driver's pocket and needs reporting to the company.
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Post by SCH117X on Dec 22, 2022 18:16:49 GMT 1
Never had a problem raising issues with Transdev via a private message to them and invariably get a response. No chance of Harrogate Council acquiring Wetherby as it ceases to exist next April consumed into North Yorkshire.
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Post by SCH117X on Dec 30, 2022 15:20:58 GMT 1
The economies on the Harrogate Electrics have been announced effective 19 February with a 2 replacing the 2A and 2B running every 20 minutes as opposed to the half hourly interval of each current service, the 3 being reduced to every 20 minutes from every 15 Mon-Fri, but increased to every 20 on Saturdays from half hourly, and the 6 having a simpler end to its route going from a 9 to a O shaped end of route. www.transdevbus.co.uk/harrogate/changes-harrogate-19-feb.
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Post by SCH117X on Jan 27, 2023 21:40:46 GMT 1
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Post by Bradford Traveller on Feb 28, 2023 17:40:47 GMT 1
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2023 15:11:23 GMT 1
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Post by stevieinselby on Mar 1, 2023 16:58:26 GMT 1
They have only had those routes for 2 years, so I doubt that's the full term of the contract, I guess they are relinquishing them early? I mean, that's not necessarily a surprise, if they don't think it's viable on the current contract terms, back in 2020 when the contracts were agreed no-one was expecting that we'd be in this situation today.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Mar 1, 2023 19:15:20 GMT 1
Yes the contracts were originally meant to run until 2026 but were no longer sustainable at the price paid in 2020/2021
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Post by leeds rider on Mar 2, 2023 15:59:15 GMT 1
They have only had those routes for 2 years, so I doubt that's the full term of the contract, I guess they are relinquishing them early? Well, he did say they were loosing them (letting them go), not losing them (failing to win them)!
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Mar 5, 2023 0:26:41 GMT 1
Some of us can remember Transdev in the pre Hornby era - Former Blazefield flair and innovation downgraded, Corporate fleet names introduced, old school bus Olympians on front line service. Think a bit like how First and Arriva run their Yorkshire businesses
I’m not sure where many seem eager to go back there. Probably so they’ve got something to moan about.
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WYBS
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Post by WYBS on Mar 5, 2023 13:28:27 GMT 1
I wonder if it will be someone already within the company who will step up to the (ostensibly) vacant role or someone brand new.
I fear it will be someone who will have been employed to ruthlessly cut costs, and thus the standard of the company will hugely decline.
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stephen01
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Post by stephen01 on Mar 5, 2023 13:45:46 GMT 1
Now that's jumping to conclusions; for all we know he may be re-locating to the new York Depot.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 15:00:54 GMT 1
I wonder if it will be someone already within the company who will step up to the (ostensibly) vacant role or someone brand new. I fear it will be someone who will have been employed to ruthlessly cut costs, and thus the standard of the company will hugely decline. There's many cost cutting avenues to go down that wouldn't see much a reduced standard for the passengers (not paying a certain designer over 200K a year to put 2 colours together with a diagonal line would seem an obvious choice, or merging Malton in with the new York depot. I Wouldn't be too surprised if they looked to downsize from Waterloo in Huddersfield also) I'd say for the time being it should be fairly ok network wise as they are already introducing their cuts although I Do think there's certain areas they could go further if needed.
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 5, 2023 15:28:25 GMT 1
I wonder if it will be someone already within the company who will step up to the (ostensibly) vacant role or someone brand new. I fear it will be someone who will have been employed to ruthlessly cut costs, and thus the standard of the company will hugely decline. There's many cost cutting avenues to go down that wouldn't see much a reduced standard for the passengers (not paying a certain designer over 200K a year to put 2 colours together with a diagonal line would seem an obvious choice, or merging Malton in with the new York depot. I Wouldn't be too surprised if they looked to downsize from Waterloo in Huddersfield also) The money spent on those liveries is pocket change when considering just how many liveries have been created over the past two years. Plus, they don’t just pay for liveries. It’s the interior, social media branding, and the logo. When you factor in all of that it seems like an absolute bargain in my eyes. I don’t think any money has been wasted at Team Pennine, other than the 262. The new vehicles? Probably saved them boat loads of money. They tried to save the Tempos, and they are still constantly off the road. I can’t imagine how much is spent repairing the Tempos
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 15:43:20 GMT 1
There's many cost cutting avenues to go down that wouldn't see much a reduced standard for the passengers (not paying a certain designer over 200K a year to put 2 colours together with a diagonal line would seem an obvious choice, or merging Malton in with the new York depot. I Wouldn't be too surprised if they looked to downsize from Waterloo in Huddersfield also) The money spent on those liveries is pocket change when considering just how many liveries have been created over the past two years. Plus, they don’t just pay for liveries. It’s the interior, social media branding, and the logo. When you factor in all of that it seems like an absolute bargain in my eyes. I don’t think any money has been wasted at Team Pennine, other than the 262. The new vehicles? Probably saved them boat loads of money. They tried to save the Tempos, and they are still constantly off the road. I can’t imagine how much is spent repairing the Tempos I Mean it depends how you look at it, but the head office is just going to see it as 200K spent with little to no return on it. It's noticeable that both operators that went down the road of using alot of the same designer on stuff (GNE being the other) are now both looking at doing cost cutting due to poor finances so you do have to ask, was it worth it? At Team Pennine, alongside the 262 I'd say the 'Hudds Quick' branding was abit of a waste - 319s binned,324 never started & 360 only survives because First pulled the 327.
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 5, 2023 16:44:59 GMT 1
The money spent on those liveries is pocket change when considering just how many liveries have been created over the past two years. Plus, they don’t just pay for liveries. It’s the interior, social media branding, and the logo. When you factor in all of that it seems like an absolute bargain in my eyes. I don’t think any money has been wasted at Team Pennine, other than the 262. The new vehicles? Probably saved them boat loads of money. They tried to save the Tempos, and they are still constantly off the road. I can’t imagine how much is spent repairing the Tempos At Team Pennine, alongside the 262 I'd say the 'Hudds Quick' branding was abit of a waste - 319s binned,324 never started & 360 only survives because First pulled the 327. I believe to have a successful brand it has to directly target either the area, people, or history on a specific route. General brands like ‘hudds quick’ are a complete waste of money. Transdev has done these types of brands before and they never last long. The denby’s and northern line are examples of branding done correctly. Directly targeted, matching interiors, promotion of the route on the livery as well as extra information on roof panels. Which also help make the interiors far more colourful and happier! Growing a route through branding isn’t something which happens overnight. As mentioned in the bus back better document from the government, the 36, took fifteen years to double patronage.
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 5, 2023 18:04:11 GMT 1
How many new vehicles were delivered? That'll account for a million, fairly easily. Assume the buses are c£100,000 minimum per vehicle. Someone will have made a business case for those new buses. Someone will have signed off a budget for those buses, likewise all the tendered work that's been taken on. A lot of money has been spent at Best Impressions. But you can have buses in a base livery and adapt branding to suit. Might be able to save a few thousand - or thousands. If you need a CEO which will save money - perhaps Alex isn't one of those people? Marketing does cost money - you do need to spend money to make it. It's hard to argue against his track record in growing businesses but maybe that isn't what is needed now? Maybe someone does need to come along who will contain the costs of the business? Strata’s (first hand) and E200 MMCs (second hand): They’ve simplified the fleet quite a bit, with tiger it was a very wide range of buses from all kinds of manufacturers. I believe that makes costs shoot up? The vehicles from tiger were old, in complete disrepair, with some even having holes in the bodywork. Not very salvageable. Due to the older buses they’ll be less fuel efficient, and with a lot of the routes being contracted routes that nobody uses, fuel efficiently is key. Also worth nothing is that because the vehicles are very modern, they’ve got a long lifespan ahead of them. It may be a lot of money to chew at the moment, but they can easily survive a good fifteen years. I’m sure by that point they would’ve made their money back several times over.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 18:28:31 GMT 1
At Team Pennine, alongside the 262 I'd say the 'Hudds Quick' branding was abit of a waste - 319s binned,324 never started & 360 only survives because First pulled the 327. I believe to have a successful brand it has to directly target either the area, people, or history on a specific route. General brands like ‘hudds quick’ are a complete waste of money. Transdev has done these types of brands before and they never last long. The denby’s and northern line are examples of branding done correctly. Directly targeted, matching interiors, promotion of the route on the livery as well as extra information on roof panels. Which also help make the interiors far more colourful and happier! Growing a route through branding isn’t something which happens overnight. As mentioned in the bus back better document from the government, the 36, took fifteen years to double patronage. You make some good points (although I Wouldn't say Northern Line is the best example, as would many non-transport enthusiasts remember a railway that closed down almost 50 years ago?) The main thing is, you need to already have a decent starting base if your going to chuck loads of money at a service/network - The 36 is a good example of this, as even if after the latest rebrand had happened it was already making enough money so there was little risk. Throwing money at the likes of Ribble Valley, Team Pennine (excluding the odd couple of routes), Wharfedale & 'Little' Hotline was always going to be a risk & it simply didn't pay off. One other thing I've just though of as well, if Alex is gone & we are entering a 'Transdev Cost Saving' era I wouldn't be too surprised if we see a more standard interior without the multi coloured headrests - be interesting to know how much it's costing to replace the ones on the Mellors & Optares that currently getting moved around Strata’s (first hand) and E200 MMCs (second hand): They’ve simplified the fleet quite a bit, with tiger it was a very wide range of buses from all kinds of manufacturers. I believe that makes costs shoot up? The vehicles from tiger were old, in complete disrepair, with some even having holes in the bodywork. Not very salvageable. Due to the older buses they’ll be less fuel efficient, and with a lot of the routes being contracted routes that nobody uses, fuel efficiently is key. Also worth nothing is that because the vehicles are very modern, they’ve got a long lifespan ahead of them. It may be a lot of money to chew at the moment, but they can easily survive a good fifteen years. I’m sure by that point they would’ve made their money back several times over. New fleet has savings in some areas but more expensive in others - Fuel efficiency being one saving (although with E200s you've got the added cost of Adblue instead) but you've got depreciation & insurance costs. In fact having a longer lifespan can be a negative on a loss making route due to the depreciation costs but due to Tiger fleet not being the best It was probably the best choice to go for fairly decent second hand vehicles. slightly off topic, but good luck getting 15 years from the Stratas, as they built with only a 7-10 year operational life in mind.
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Post by stevieinselby on Mar 5, 2023 18:56:22 GMT 1
The money spent on those liveries is pocket change when considering just how many liveries have been created over the past two years. I can't help but think that creating one corporate livery and sticking to it would have saved them quite a bit of money, rather than the constant rebranding, not to mention the repainting every time they move a bus from one division to another. It could still have been something high quality, but at less total expense.
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 5, 2023 20:12:57 GMT 1
I agree. A massive downside is that they didn't start off with a good network, especially with two of the major routes being passed to Arriva... Doesn't help that the company simply does not have a network in the urban areas but they do have a decent one in the semi-rural towns surrounding Denby Dale! I hope focus is put on the area which actually has a network. A good aim for them would be to focus on the D2-D3. They serve Shepley, an small town of a couple thousand, yet it doesn't have evening or night buses to and from Huddersfield. That could be a really great growth opportunity, especially with the vehicles already being branded.
Thanks for letting me know. I'm still learning about this kind of stuff. I believe that would still be enough time to make their money back?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 21:12:40 GMT 1
Strata’s (first hand) and E200 MMCs (second hand): They’ve simplified the fleet quite a bit, with tiger it was a very wide range of buses from all kinds of manufacturers. I believe that makes costs shoot up? The vehicles from tiger were old, in complete disrepair, with some even having holes in the bodywork. Not very salvageable. Due to the older buses they’ll be less fuel efficient, and with a lot of the routes being contracted routes that nobody uses, fuel efficiently is key. Also worth nothing is that because the vehicles are very modern, they’ve got a long lifespan ahead of them. It may be a lot of money to chew at the moment, but they can easily survive a good fifteen years. I’m sure by that point they would’ve made their money back several times over. Got to confess, it's no surprise if the Tiger vehicles were utterly shot. It'd fit in with Arriva's maintenance practices. Strata's would be written down over 7/10 years. You'd save on older buses on the depreciation and the initial purchasing costs (or leasing costs) - maintenance will cost you more. But it might be the difference between having a service and not having a service. Entering the 'tendered' market is questionable when it comes to expansion. The consequences of that decision are coming to roost. But some people are good at managing growth - less so at making money and containing cost. Growth involves expenditure to some degree.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2023 21:22:05 GMT 1
I agree. A massive downside is that they didn't start off with a good network, especially with two of the major routes being passed to Arriva... Doesn't help that the company simply does not have a network in the urban areas but they do have a decent one in the semi-rural towns surrounding Denby Dale! I hope focus is put on the area which actually has a network. A good aim for them would be to focus on the D2-D3. They serve Shepley, an small town of a couple thousand, yet it doesn't have evening or night buses to and from Huddersfield. That could be a really great growth opportunity, especially with the vehicles already being branded. Thanks for letting me know. I'm still learning about this kind of stuff. I believe that would still be enough time to make their money back? The problem is with D2/3 is they compete more against the railway than the D1 - so whilst Shepley doesn't have evening buses it does have a fairly decent evening train service so a couple of evening trips won't do much to compete against it. Whilst the railway is not as close as the buses go to the village it does fairly well for a station of it's size. I'd assume knowing the Stratas operational life they did the depreciation finance plan based on it, what could be why some of the routes became more unviable (say having to spread the cost of a Strata over 10 years V a E200MMC over 15). They could always go down the route First did with their elderly Solos about 10 years ago & just keep them going beyond designed shelf life & have them fall to bits (or into flames as with a couple of examples) but i doubt that would fit in well with Transdev's ego/reputation/PR.
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