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Post by sharksmith on May 2, 2023 20:33:25 GMT 1
www.transdevbus.co.uk/keighley/2023fares-keighleyDay Tripper up to £14 now, didn't it start off at £9. Doesn't feel such good value anymore but I suppose you can still get from York/Ripon to Manchester/Preston for £14. That said ever increasing prices for day tickets the greater the geographical area is a bit of a bugbear of mine. Essentially the bus companies are charging a single price for bus seat for about 16 hours. I could take that seat up for the full sixteen hours shuttling between Keighley and Bracken Bank for £3.80, or Skipton and Leeds for £5.70 or from York to Manchester for £14.00. Each days travel would be using exactly the same resources, i.e. one seat for 16 hours so why the huge discrepancy in prices. It's not like a taxi where the driver has to provide additional fuel the further you go, these are all scheduled services which will run anyway, whether the seat is empty or not. Yes, you could spend all day going backwards and forwards between Keighley and Bracken Bank, but in practice very, very few people would do that – most people will be making a small number of short journeys, and so £3.80 is a fair price for what the average person wanting to buy that ticket will do during the day. Bus companies are not going to set fares and tickets based on the 0.1% of passengers who want to spend the day gricing and ignore the 99.9% of passengers who are just going about their daily business. But that's exactly what they have done, if I wanted to commute to work from Shipley to Leeds I would now need to buy the whole West Yorkshire ticket instead of the much cheaper K-Day, although obviously I'd get the much cheaper Metro version. First are the same, removed the First Bradford ticket so if I want to go to Bradford it would now be a more expensive whole West Yorkshire ticket. At least First priced theirs more appropriately. As for the Day Tripper, that must surely also account for 0.1% of their overall sales so why not keep it at a more reasonable price point to try and encourage greater use of the network they have created. I can see the point of cheap very local tickets but the larger the zone it just seems unnecessary. These latest changes seem squarely aimed at the Keighley to Skipton travellers wrapped up in a load of other superficial changes. And no, before I get dragged into the old boring argument again, Transdev are not the only company guilty of this kind of thing.
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Post by sharksmith on May 1, 2023 15:35:03 GMT 1
www.transdevbus.co.uk/keighley/2023fares-keighleyDay Tripper up to £14 now, didn't it start off at £9. Doesn't feel such good value anymore but I suppose you can still get from York/Ripon to Manchester/Preston for £14. That said ever increasing prices for day tickets the greater the geographical area is a bit of a bugbear of mine. Essentially the bus companies are charging a single price for bus seat for about 16 hours. I could take that seat up for the full sixteen hours shuttling between Keighley and Bracken Bank for £3.80, or Skipton and Leeds for £5.70 or from York to Manchester for £14.00. Each days travel would be using exactly the same resources, i.e. one seat for 16 hours so why the huge discrepancy in prices. It's not like a taxi where the driver has to provide additional fuel the further you go, these are all scheduled services which will run anyway, whether the seat is empty or not.
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Post by sharksmith on Mar 27, 2023 13:12:00 GMT 1
UID Transdev learner Volvo B10BLE going through Beeston, Leeds. Bit confused as they tend to park up at White Rose Centre but why as that's an area Transdev currently do not cover. Happened last week aswell. Michael Windle The driver trainers generally leave the depot in the morning and don't go back until late afternoon so can end up some way away from the depot. I think it's pretty much up to the instructor where they go and where they have lunch. When I trained at Harrogate we generally drove around the routes that are used by Thorp Arch test centre. Having said that we went to Keighley, York and even up to Leyburn at one point.
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Post by sharksmith on Mar 17, 2023 23:33:55 GMT 1
Forgot to post this earlier this week but, Tuesday @17.00 First Streetlite Max 63052(or could have been)63053 seen on A62 Manchester Rd By Stoney Battery headed towards Huddersfield displaying rail replacement on desti blind. Also Wednesday roughly the same time 63058 seen at the same location also headed in the same direction albeit blank desti blind. On both evenings neither were carrying passengers. A bit of research tonight shows they are ex-First Southampton buses in a predominately red "local" to Southampton livery but no branding. Can anyone shed any light on what they were doing there?, Are they transfers to Huddersfield or are they now with another operator, maybe just passing through. They both had First fleet numbers though. A batch of former First Southampton Streetlites have entered service in Sheffield still in red. 63052 is one of these which has seen service in Sheffield according to Bustimes although this information is backed up by some photos appearing of these buses in service there.
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Post by sharksmith on Mar 17, 2023 9:20:34 GMT 1
The list keeps getting shorter. Does anybody know which depot operates the contracted 113 Dewsbury Hospital to Pontefract Hospital via Pinderfields Hospital that was taken on when CT Plus collapsed? 1001 & 1055 running on it today per BusTimes so that would make it Dewsbury?
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Post by sharksmith on Mar 8, 2023 18:33:30 GMT 1
Can't imagine First would have unilaterally decided to do this, they must have had the blessing of the WYCA.
Just goes to show that if a service isn't being used, it will get cancelled just as quickly no matter who is in control, private company or under public control.
I don't understand why Park & Rides aren't successful. I always tend to use them if they are available, ahead of trying to park in an unfamiliar town or city and paying parking charges.
The Leeds one's seem to have everything going for them. Difficult city to drive around, expensive parking, decent locations with relatively short transfer times.
I guess there is just too large a proportion of the public who will not use a bus under any circumstances. Maybe only fully subsidised completely free park and rides could trigger a shift in thinking.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 15, 2023 15:51:28 GMT 1
It was running, but not tracking, last Thursday when I was last in the office as I saw their streetlite.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2023 12:28:13 GMT 1
This is a brill idea. Have you had the chance to read there was a lady called Emma Turner (ETWriteHome) on Twitter. Who used standard buses to travel from London to Edinburgh. She did go via Pontefract and Leeds according to the Tweets I saw. Yes, I did see that, she got a load of grief on the comments section of the news article I saw, why can people not do something a little out of the ordinary with their time without being disparaged! I have family in Carlisle and came back to West Yorkshire by bus in around 12 hours a couple of years ago, it was a really enjoyable day. I've often though of doing a charity bus ride Lands End to John o'Groats or maybe around the coast visiting as many RNLI stations as I can by bus. I did think if this was popular I could expand it out of the area for longer trips.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 10, 2023 17:50:42 GMT 1
I'm happy to create another round if we can get a few more people to join in.
I could set it to last for ten days or a couple of weeks to give people plenty of time to join in.
Any other changes people would like to see?
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 10, 2023 10:50:58 GMT 1
And the winner is cp2012 with a massive 56 points!!
A shame we couldn't get at least one more entry to make things a little more competitive as you received points for both the quickest & slowest routes and most imaginitive and enjoyable routes without any competition at all! You also hit one of the mystery locations in Shipley, but missed Ossett as the second.
Hope you had fun planning the journey, I enjoyed seeing it and congratulations on the win.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 9, 2023 8:19:21 GMT 1
Just a reminder if you're playing the game you have until 8pm this evening to post your day trip from Otley to Hemsworth.
Who's going to show the best knowledge of West Yorkshire's bus network?
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 5, 2023 15:07:30 GMT 1
There's been a lot of arguing and insults flying around the forum as late so here's something which can hopefully be both fun and possibly conversation provoking.
I have picked two locations, sat at opposite ends of West Yorkshire.
What I'd like you to do is simply plot a bus journey between the two locations, using as many or as few buses as you like. Why not it will only cost you £4.50!
The route is completely up to you, how long your trip lasts is your decision, although it must be completed within one calendar day.
All individual rides must start and end within West Yorkshire but can cross into another county during the journey as long as you're back in the county before you alight.
Points will be allocated as follows -
Quickest Journey - 5 Most Relaxed (Slowest) Journey - 5 (All connections must have less than 1 hour between the next trip) Fewest Routes - 5 Most Unique Routes - 5 (Only one one visit per location allowed) Each Unique Vehicle Type - 1 (Allowable vehicles you have used will be any bus which worked the route at any point during 1st February 2023 per Bustimes, including incorrect ticket machine allocations) Each Different Operator used - 2 (For this all First/Transdev/Stagecoach divisions will be deemed as being using the same operator and return journeys just to use an operator is not permitted) Most Enjoyable Route - 8 Most Imaginative Route - 5 Avoiding Leeds City Centre - 3 Mystery Location - Travel through either of the two mystery locations on your journey, which only I know, to receive bonus points - 1 = 2pts, both 5pts
I will pick the most imaginitive route but I'll give at least 24 hours for the forum to discuss the most enjoyable route before I take into account all opinions and decide the winner of this.
The two locations, start in Otley, Finish in Hemsworth......you have until 8pm on Thursday 9th February to post your quick or epic journey here.
Please quote start time, route number, on & off location, operator and bus type you are using for each imaginary journey. A short walk to make connections is permitted but not much more than a quarter of a mile...and no trains.
Please like this post if you are intending to take part, so that I know I'm not wasting my time, although you may want to post your final routes closer to the deadline to keep your secrets secure, no editing after the deadline though! I've tried to think of all the obvious ways to cheat but might have to tweak things if people enjoy the game and there is a round 2.
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 25, 2023 21:15:57 GMT 1
Interesting that there is no mention at all of new buses arriving for Flyer soon, most un-Transdev like.
Have plans to introduce electric buses and infrastructure at Idle changed?
I thought the plan was for these to be in operation by 2022.
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 9, 2023 21:41:43 GMT 1
More than likely Transdev are giving the routes up but could be a simple change of registration to instead work from Idle, always seemed strange for Keighley to work them when Idle is so much closer to Otley. Even more so for the 948 which ends for the night within half a mile of Idle depot but runs out of service the 10 miles or so back to Keighley every night.
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Post by sharksmith on Dec 7, 2022 18:57:38 GMT 1
All Bustimes do is provide a portal to view data that is supplied by bus companies, without them I would be considerably worse off. To be honest, if I was the guy who created the website I'd just say stuff it all and not bother. In my opinion we should just accept the information as an imperfect source, much like a bus timetable which is usually correct but can be complete fiction at times. It's turning into a First, Wrightbus, etc. situation where it's cool to slag them off when a lot of what they do is actually perfectly fine.
It was maybe not wise to let everyone and his dog make amendments to stuff like liveries and transfers because as you say there are many, many young immature teens who are interested in buses, having said that I have come across many, many 'gentlemen' of a certain age who are insufferable know-it-alls about the industry and refuse to admit when they are wrong.
I'm very grateful for Bustimes both as an enthusiast when trying to track vehicles down for photos and as a passenger not having to rely on Metro for real time information or individual bus company apps for tracking when waiting at a bus stop. I find that 99% of the time, the bus it says is going to turn up, turns up and if it appears to be unusual then it may well be wrong. I just wish it had been available when WYPTE had their Foden and Ailsa running as I missed those two time and time again!
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Post by sharksmith on Aug 11, 2022 8:16:52 GMT 1
Interesting story in the T&A this week regarding Santander's ongoing problems with their building in Bradford. This has resulted in them now providing an hourly courtesy bus for Bradford customers to enable them to access their Shipley branch.
I assume as a free courtesy bus, limited to Santander account holders, it will be able to side step some of the usual legislation. On the other hand I would expect this 'bus' to be fully accessible to avoid PR problems and also would assume the driver will have to be appropriately licensed.
I guess some sort of minibus will be used but if you are a Santander account holder you will have a weekday hourly express service between Shipley & Bradford between 9.30 & 13.30 from 22 August, and the best bit is it's free!
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Post by sharksmith on Aug 4, 2022 22:21:28 GMT 1
The 3.58 Greengates to Leeds service came off a Salts school service so assume this will mean no more Aireline buses running through Wrose of an afternoon.
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Post by sharksmith on Jul 29, 2022 22:18:20 GMT 1
Yellow Buses, the former Bournemouth Transport which has been run at various times by Transdev and RATP, has gone into administration.
The administrators have said they are in advanced discussions with a large national operator regarding a takeover.
This would seem to be the kind of operator previously taken over by Go Ahead but as they are the competitors from all sides I don't know if they would be allowed to take over here. Stagecoach would also seem a likely bidder.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next week or two.
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Post by sharksmith on Jun 23, 2022 8:00:28 GMT 1
You sometimes notice in this hobby that routes can fall in and out of favour over time.
One example would be the old WYPTE version of the 640 which was the Bradford Corporation 40.
This route originally ran from Hall Ings to Saltaire roundabout via Bolton Junction, Five Lane Ends, Thackley & Shipley.
When I was young back in the 1970's this route always seemed to get brand new buses allocated. It had the first twenty Scania Metropolitan's (2601-2620) allocated from new and also received the first fifteen Roe Olympians (5001-5015) when new.
Over time the PTE and Rider started to tinker with it. First there was the diversion into Shipley Market Place then it was turned into a cross city route and linked to Buttershaw. Night buses started to be routed via Greengates along the route of the 642 and at some point some services were routed through West Royd estate, probably around the time the WYRCC 678 route was removed. Also around the same time it was curtailed to terminate in Shipley instead of Saltaire.
By now the route had lost it's new Olympians in favour of more elderly Atlanteans. Then came the ultimate kick in the teeth when the route lost it's well established number to the current 640 route and became the 610, 611 & 612.
By the time I took any interest in the route again it was mainly allocated elderly Volvo B10BLE's and even worse to follow with the ghastly B7L's.
Renumbered again to the current 612, 613 & 614 the route seemed to be allocated whatever rubbish was left in the depot, it provided a home for the final days of the ALX400's.
The route seems to have bounced back a little in recent times to at least receive a mish mash of new and old buses, with more deckers also being allocated, but it's a far cry from it's better days.
There are many examples of this I can think of around the country but has anyone else got any tales of West Yorkshire routes falling spectacularly from grace?
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Post by sharksmith on Jun 13, 2022 21:31:15 GMT 1
That may be true but it's not the whole story. As an enthusiast and former commuter I spent a lot of time on Transdev's Versas. They may have a lot of seats in their small interior but at the cost of personal space. On the odd occasion a B7RLE turned up they felt cavernous compared to a Versa. Also some of the Versa seating capacity is playing fast and loose with the term seat. For instance the two behind the driver cannot fit two regular sized adults without serious buttock overhang. The five at the back is also a serious squash for five adults. May I ask, was this one the 60? I got fed up with catching it, as once it got to Rodley it was 80% full on most journeys. As you say, the space for each seat is laughable. I'm 6ft 2 and regularly had to sit next to someone, facing sideways with my legs blocking the gangway. Yes, that's right, I used to spend 12-15 hours a week on that bus and much of that time was uncomfortable, and that was pre Covid. As you say the bus used to be full Rodley to Leeds even before the 670 was cancelled. Unfortunately this was also the section which took the longest to travel through, particularly in the afternoon peak. I've not returned since the first lockdown as I have a car park space cheaper than the bus fare now. Even if I lost it though I don't think I'd go back, would probably pay the extra for the train.
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Post by sharksmith on Jun 13, 2022 16:24:42 GMT 1
The E200s seat 39, the Tempos 43, the Rosso Versas 41 and the grey B7RLEs 44 Therefore there is a lot of complaining in this thread for basically a 5 seat maximum difference I think this all boils down to an enthusiast wanting deckers so they can sit upstairs That may be true but it's not the whole story. As an enthusiast and former commuter I spent a lot of time on Transdev's Versas. They may have a lot of seats in their small interior but at the cost of personal space. On the odd occasion a B7RLE turned up they felt cavernous compared to a Versa. Also some of the Versa seating capacity is playing fast and loose with the term seat. For instance the two behind the driver cannot fit two regular sized adults without serious buttock overhang. The five at the back is also a serious squash for five adults.
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Post by sharksmith on May 25, 2022 19:04:50 GMT 1
And in the real world, it isn't the seat covers that persuade you to use the bus. You are either happy to use the bus or you are not. If you are not, because you have bought the car anyway, you think it is slow, often late or cancelled, and full of smelly/drunk/dangerous people, or screaming unruly school-kids with mobiles blaring out music with threatening lyrics, then no amount of paint, seat covers, or any of the nonsense that Transdev waste money on will persuade you out of your car. If you are happy to use the bus, then providing the bus isn't so dirty or worn out, that you wouldn't dare sit on the seats, no one really cares. You just want the price to be reasonable, the timetable to be convenient and for the bus to turn up on time and arrive on time. You expect all the other negatives listed above. It sounds like you're trying to read my thoughts, and are failing miserably... I stated very clearly what would appeal to me, and you've just totally disregarded that. Let me put it in black and white: I live on a Transdev route with clean, thought-out, modern buses with top quality drivers, most of whom know every single regular customer. This service only runs every 30 minutes, but I will always choose to use it if I am travelling to Leeds. Now let's say I lived in Lofthouse, Arriva's 110 runs frequently through there at a much better frequency than my route. Would I use it? No way in hell. Why? Cramped, low height buses that usually smell of sick and BO, cheap, nasty and dirty E-leathy seats, less than friendly drivers, a company that you struggle to get an answer from and a colour scheme that quite frankly is too dull and uninspiring to even be used in a mortuary. To quote Transdev: 'Buses people want to be seen on'. I don't usually criticize operators as they all have a very difficult job to do and many of the problems described can be put down to antisocial passengers rather than a lack of care. The idea that Transdev are some 'gold standard' bus company is just not true. At first when you mentioned a half hourly service to Leeds, I thought you were talking about Aireline but then you said modern buses and I realised not as the six 14 year old buses branded for Aireline could not be described as this. Understandably due to their age Transdev seem to have trouble keeping these six on the road, we were down to two out of six a couple of weeks ago, their replacements are 17 year old vehicles, occasionally we still get 21 year old Presidents appearing. I feel I can talk about Transdev and Aireline with some assurance having used the service to commute for over two years pre covid. Let's not forget that the route did have brand new buses, but these were Optare Versa's which everyone with half a brain pointed out were totally unsuitable and too small for the route before they entered service. Despite the numerous complaints, Transdev continued to cram it's passengers in like cattle until the airport routes thankfully removed them. Let's talk about free WI-fi and USB. I spent around two hours a day commuting on Aireline and my free wi-fi allowance didn't last the full journey, just web browsing or playing games, not watching videos. Luckily I was one of the first on the bus in a morning because I had to hop seats to find a working USB port on many occasions. As for cleanliness most buses are filthy by mid afternoon but more than once I left the bus after a morning commute to find chewing gum on my trousers. Not the fault of Transdev but again a problem caused by passengers on all buses! I'd also say that with one or two exceptions, the Aireline drivers do not know every regular passenger heading to Leeds, the turnover of drivers would make this impossible. Sure there were a handful of long timers who lasted my two years but it was generally new drivers every few months and not all of them were sunshine and light, admittedly none were outright unfriendly though. I have now stopped commuting by bus thankfully as it was a chore but I still travel for leisure. Occasionally you ride on a bad bus, a rowdy afternoon X63 where I alighted to catch the next bus instead, a Stagecoach bus in Cumbria where a local drug addict wanted to chat and a Transdev 152 between Blackburn and Burnley where the bloke in front had clearly pissed himself are all examples but are never the fault of the operator. With all bus companies the 'off bus' customer service is very poor, don't forget that Transdev routinely block customers on social media when they raise genuine complaints which is probably worse than being ignored. The problem with Transdev is that it's all smoke and mirrors, buses people want to be seen on, no-one wants to be seen on a bus, they just want to get where they want to go, when they want to get there and no bus company can guarantee that, I don't care who they are. I'm not trying to bash Transdev but credit where credit is due, First have really upped their game in recent years whereas most people would accept that Arriva and Stagecoach are on the way down. Go Ahead are a funny one, award winning in some areas, including the North East but absolutely slated in Manchester on a regular basis.
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Post by sharksmith on May 16, 2022 10:22:30 GMT 1
It will be interesting to see if, after only just reworking its day ticket range recently, First will reintroduce area tickets again as their West Yorkshire day ticket will be 70p more expensive than the multi operator version. The same can be said for Arriva's West Yorkshire day ticket too!
Compared to other former PTE areas this day ticket will be the cheapest in the North of England, including countywide single operator bus tickets so something to celebrate. I do wonder who is paying for it though.
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Post by sharksmith on May 14, 2022 12:08:08 GMT 1
1719 has returned from Thorntons, with 1709 going up in its place. Keep an eye out for 1718 in the coming days too.... Assume 1718 is going to be a platinum jubilee bus then, about time one appeared in West Yorkshire.
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Post by sharksmith on May 5, 2022 16:26:08 GMT 1
To be honest they're in an impossible position really, particularly as fuel costs will have also gone through the roof recently.
If they give drivers the rise they no doubt deserve, then their only option would be to cut services or put up prices, neither of which is going to be popular and is likely to damage patronage.
I understood from previous conversations that Selby was on the edge in respect of profitability so the final option would be to close up shop, let someone else pick up anything which is profitable, and let North Yorkshire Council worry about the rest.....good luck with that.
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