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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 9, 2015 19:49:18 GMT 1
Irritatingly, VOSA will allow you to see when a service was revised but not to see any details of those revisions. The ticket for the 1A listing Kirby Hill was opened in 2013, although I can't tell if that was the original endpoint or a more recent variation.
However, the entry for the 770 is given as "Leeds to Wetherby" with no mention of Harrogate, so it looks to me as though the endpoints are the original endpoints and aren't changed with subsequent updates - that certainly fits with what I've seen elsewhere.
Which leaves the question, when did the 1A ever serve Kirby Hill? I can't see anything in Knaresborough that might have gone by that name, so is it just a mistake?
I would be amazed if Transdev were planning to serve Boroughbridge commercially, given that they allowed Eddie's to take the contract from them, they didn't attempt to reinstate a service commercially when Eddie's folded, and the subsidy for the route has been cut once in the last 12 months and is set to be slashed again next year, suggesting that there is no patronage to be had.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 5, 2015 17:07:34 GMT 1
I've seen a copy of the revised 42 timetable. Due to nowhere safe to turn around in Cawood nearly all journeys will terminate in Wistow. The service will operate hourly between the new estate near Abbots road and Wistow (Cawood at peak times) via Selby bus station and Charles street. At peak times a Max Gemini will operate from Cawood at 07.40 as a 42 and then change to a 415 continuing too York and in reverse at about 17.40 from York too Selby continuing to Cawood. With Utopia running an hourly service from Wistow and Cawood to York, I can't see any reason for Arriva to run buses through to York from Wistow and Cawood. There aren't huge numbers of passengers using the 42 from those villages anyway (possibly having lost some to Utopia already), and the additional journey time of going via Selby and the A19 will probably put everyone off using it. Charles Street is a different story – the morning peak service to York generally has 12–15 passengers on when it leaves Selby. A regular extension of the 415 hourly to Charles Street would do a lot to compensate residents for the loss of the 42, although from a diagramming point of view I recognise that it could be tricky/inefficient to do that, and even with a through service the extended journey time will be unattractive for passengers. It's a shame that the buses can't serve Cawood, it looks as though Anson Grove could be used to reverse into safely, although whether there would be time to get to Staynor Hall and back in an hour I'm not sure.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 3, 2015 22:37:54 GMT 1
Coastliner have published their winter timetable: www.yorkbus.co.uk/cmsUploads/route/files/CoastlinerWinterTT2015web.pdf, which starts on 27 September On the plus side, they have got it out commendably early (much better than in recent years) and they have done a much better job of proof-reading it than they did last year ... I've only had a quick look through and there are no obvious howlers this time. On the down side, the service itself is no better than last winter, with gaps of up to 2 hours to Scarborough and over 2½ hours to Pickering/TLD, and the evening service is back down to hourly.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 1, 2015 22:46:35 GMT 1
Not reduced. X80 diverted to serve Great Ayton and now runs later (1100 1330 and 1620 from Middlesbrough, 0945 1210 and 1500 from Northallerton). Great, thanks – would be helpful if either the bus company and/or the council actually published these changes!
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 1, 2015 20:31:16 GMT 1
I've heard a rumour that Abbotts have changed (reduced) the timetable on the 80/89/X80/X89 service between Northallerton, Stokesley and Middlesbrough as of this week. There's no mention of it on their website or the NYCC website, although VOSA shows a registration change for the X80/X89 (but not the 80/89) effective last week, although only received about 2 weeks before that. I've emailed Abbotts and NYCC to find out what's going on, but in the meantime does anyone else have any ideas?
On another note, while looking that up, I've found out that the market day service that Abbotts run between Northallerton and Brompton, every 30 minutes on Wednesdays and Saturdays only, looks like it is being cancelled from the end of September.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 1, 2015 15:36:41 GMT 1
Unless NX has any evidence that she has been travelling regularly on an expired pass, they haven't got a leg to stand on. And if they do have evidence that she has made the 37 journeys that would lead to a fine of £1300 then they should be reclaiming that money from the drivers who have consistently failed to check passengers' passes for all that time.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 1, 2015 13:30:08 GMT 1
What about the divide between London and the rest of the country where kids don't get free travel even on buses, and in some cases don't have buses they can pay for at all? Given that the bus network in south London is very extensive, I'm not sure that "kids not being able to travel by train free" is the biggest injustice going on.
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Post by stevieinselby on Sept 1, 2015 7:34:14 GMT 1
What I want to know is why there are so many journeys at the same time to/from Wakefield It would appear that the Saturday and Sunday timetables have been combined, I wonder who checked these They have done the same thing on ALL of their timetables - it's appallingly shoddy, especially as I pointed the mistake out to them in relation to the 415 quite some time ago and they have done nothing about it. This is the kind of stupid, crass mistake that would never have happened when they posted the proper timetable leaflets, but with the crappy auto-generated rubbish they use now there is no process of proof-reading or sense-checking and so sometimes you get complete garbage.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 31, 2015 18:52:24 GMT 1
As Goole is in East Yorkshire this seems right. I marvelled at how Goole was possibly the capital of disintegrated transport, with routes in different directions run by different operators! No worse than Skipton or Wetherby, which have had up to 6 different operators each!
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 30, 2015 16:59:46 GMT 1
Any news on whether Utopia will be diverting to Kelfield? It adds an extra ~7 minutes each way, so probably couldn't quite be done within the current timetable setup, but there are usually one or two people getting on, sometimes more.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 29, 2015 10:21:16 GMT 1
Curse, damn and arsebiscuits - I hope a full refund will be offered to passengers holding annual tickets.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 18, 2015 15:50:12 GMT 1
Don't Utopia have at least 1 Merc Sprinter? That might be light enough? They have a couple of Mercedes 616CDIs, which might just about scrape through, but the route needs 3 buses in service. They may have some other minibuses, but I don't know they would be wheelchair accessible or suitable for stage carriage work.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 18, 2015 11:31:37 GMT 1
NYCC have a meeting with Arriva today to discuss the issue. Apparently the Utopia service will continue unaffected - don't know if that means they will be limited to using particular buses, as I would have thought that at least some of their Solos would be too heavy.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 17, 2015 17:39:16 GMT 1
I am just disappointed that a look at their website indicates that route 22 is Mon-Fri only. I hoped I could ride it on a Saturday. Wouldn't it be great if the 22 carried on a little bit further north-west from Seacroft ... then you could have a Squarepeg in a Roundhay. IGMC...
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 17, 2015 8:56:13 GMT 1
The VOSA rough calculation is 14 passengers per tonne (or should that be ton) Therefore a unladed 5.5t bus plus 30 passengers and driver tops the 7.5t limit could always do a SGi and take a few seats out................... But wouldn't that leave more room for standing passengers, so would potentially be even heavier? No, my suggestion for making people walk over the bridge was not in any way serious - or could it work if you had two connecting buses running up to the bridge? No, while Little White Bus have done that at Usha Gap during roadworks, I think that having it as a permanent arrangement on a main route would be so far off the scale it's out of sight - and that's before you even consider the chronic unreliability of any bus that runs through Fulford and the lack of anywhere to turn buses round. So it looks as though it's either going to be minibuses or running the long way round. Morning peak buses are often carrying 16-20 passengers over the bridge so capacity would be an issue for minibuses. Going via Ulleskelf might add 5 minutes if it ran express and didn't carry local passengers between York and A64, or 10 mins if you want it to call at Designer Outlet (which they probably would). Given the number of people who get off at D.O. or in Fulford, sending it up Taddy Road would not be popular.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 17, 2015 6:48:37 GMT 1
Our M720 Solos are 5.5tonne What's their mgw? I'm struggling to find that for any buses. A bus with 30 passengers on board could easily top over 2t for its load, so I would have thought even baby Solos must be rated for more than 7.5t.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 16, 2015 12:09:23 GMT 1
Here are a couple of thoughts.
Option 1, fit weigh stations either side if the bridge. Use slightly lighter buses like Solos or MPDs. Drive onto weigh station. Unload passengers starting with the fattest until under 7.5t. Drive across bridge while fat people walk across. Let them get back on on the other side, and drive on. Maintains the current level of service with no extra buses needed but probably poltircally unacceptable and discriminatory, and requires installation of weigh stations.
Option 2, divert 42 from Cawood via Ulleskelf, A162 and A64, and run a separate service between York and Kelfield. Would need at least one extra bus and slightly reduced frequencies - could do Kelfield every 75 minutes with one vehicle, not sure how long it would add going from Cawood via A64.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 12, 2015 20:16:13 GMT 1
Bit of early info, 75 to be operated by Kirby Lonsdale Coach Hire from 2 Oct and X75 to run as now during Oct, but funding ends at end of Oct with no replacement funding yet. I think it may run on til after Xmas in the hope of attracting enough Xmas shoppers but can't see it running beyond then, perhaps returning Summer only. Interesting ... the current 75/X75 makes good use of a bus from 0900 to 1820 with a short lunch break, but the 75 on its own isn't much cop. If the service is restored to the 4-times-a-day service that it used to be when it was the 210 run by Hutchinsons and latterly Little Red Bus, that would make it more worthwhile to run as a stand-alone service. Or maybe they might run an occasional service to Carleton, Embsay or Greatwood in the gaps (he says hopefully)?
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 12, 2015 20:06:38 GMT 1
Not too long a wait for a response from NYCC, but not particularly helpful:
The swing bridge at Cawood has being operating with an environmental weight limit which allows the bridge to be used by bus services. However recent assessments of the bridge deck have led the authority to conclude that a 7.5 tonne weak bridge limit needs to be urgently enforced with no exemptions in order to maintain the structural integrity of the bridge. It is proposed the new restriction will be brought in during the autumn.
Service 42 is currently operated by Arriva using vehicles that exceed the 7.5 tonne limit and so will be affected by the change to restrictions. The County Council is working closely with the bus companies so that alternative arrangements can be found to maintain bus services to Cawood following the change to the restriction on the bridge.
Not a whole lot of reassurance that there will be satisfactory arrangements put in place at this stage...
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 10, 2015 19:04:23 GMT 1
PB1081341/35 - YORK PULLMAN BUS COMPANY LTD, FOREST HILL FARM, POTTERY LANE, STRENSALL, YORK, YO32 5TW Cancellation Accepted: Operating between SKIPTON BUS STATION and MALHAM, BUCK INN given service number 75 effective from 02-Oct-2015. Interesting that it appears to only be the 75 between Skipton and Malham they are cancelling, and not the X75 between Harrogate and Skipton. I can't believe they would keep that running without the 75, without at least changing the timetable, so do we think that's just an oversight from Pullman or part of the unique way in which VOSA groups related services' registrations together?
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 9, 2015 22:04:29 GMT 1
The obvious answer from Not Your Clever Council will be the 42 operated by themselves using 16 seat minibuses. That's fine if they are going to run it every 30 minutes, and every 20 minutes at peak times (winter) increasing to every 15 minutes in the summer ... or at least have the peak time services supplemented by additional buses running to Naburn, Stillingfleet and Kelfield. The 35-seater buses used on the 42 regularly carry a standing load leaving York on the 1625 and 1730, particularly during the summer when the service is used extensively by people staying at Naburn Lock caravan park, and the morning peak approaching Designer Outlet and Fulford is often similarly busy. I don't know how well the service is used intrapeak, but given that minibuses don't allow standing passengers I would be surprised if 16-seater minibuses could cope on the current hourly frequency without leaving passengers behind at least weekly, if not daily. And that's without even considering the 422. I believe that Utopia do have a couple of minibuses that would be allowed over the bridge, and when I have seen these buses they do look as though they could mostly manage the passenger loads with minibuses. For me, the red lines on the 42 are: - Sufficient capacity to cope with typical passenger numbers
- Direct services to Designer Outlet and the centre of York in a comparable journey time to now
- Interavailability of tickets with the 415. From where I live in Selby, the 42 is much more convenient, but the 415 is adequate at times when the 42 isn't running (eg, evenings). I already have an annual season ticket that lasts through to June 2016, and I expect to be able to continue to have the choice of the two routes within that ticket (and continuing beyond the renewal date).
I'm not too bothered how they fulfil those, but that's the minimum requirement.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 9, 2015 12:26:21 GMT 1
I've now written to NYCC to ask how they will ensure that people who use the bus from Wistow and Cawood to get to York are not disadvantaged by this change. Let's see what they say!
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 9, 2015 11:15:25 GMT 1
You are correct about the current weight limit signs and maybe I wasn't clear. The restriction is to be put back to what it used to be from 5th October to 7.5T with NO exceptions. Have they given any reason for this change? Is it just a pretext to continue their war on bus users, or is there any justification for it?
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 9, 2015 10:11:56 GMT 1
Given how busy the 42 is, on both sides of the bridge, this would be crazy. The 42 is well used by people travelling to York from the north of Selby as well as Wistow and Cawood – but I can't see many of those people being prepared to travel the long way round unless the bus runs literally non-stop to York from Flaxley Road (if via A19) or Cawood (if via A162/A64), setting down only at Designer Outlet and Fulford – that might just about keep it to an acceptable journey time, but even then it is likely to lead to a longer journey time for a lot of people. But then there will still be a need for buses to Naburn, Stillingfleet and Kelfield – a single bus just running that loop would struggle to maintain an hourly service, so it may well be reduced to a 90-minute frequency or it may be switched to a connection from Designer Outlet in order to keep it hourly. Either way it's a significant reduction in service.
At the moment, the weight limit on the bridge is signed as "No goods vehicles over 7.5t", so there isn't an exemption for any particular buses over 7.5t because the restriction doesn't apply to buses in the first place. (It used to be a general limit of 7.5T mgw except for exempted buses, but that is not what it is signed as now).
How small a bus would you need to use, to get under 7.5t mgw? Would the Mercedes 616s that Utopia use be allowed? I know their unladen weight is about 5.5t, but I suspect even that might be too much.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 6, 2015 22:54:47 GMT 1
By my calculations, First have this week lost about 10 or 11 Olympia diagrams, with the cancellation of the 13/13A, discarding regular clockface timetables on the 5/5A and 10 to squeeze out one bus from thirteen, and the withdrawal of services along Heslington Road and University Road – as these latter are now run by PINK, which were not previously part of the fleet.
I can see upthread mention of one or two vehicles departing, but does anyone know what the plan is for the rest of them? Is it going to be a strategic removal of some of the older buses? Although I suspect that with the oldest buses in the fleet at 13–14 years old at the moment, they will not be being retired for a few years yet so they are probably not going to be moved on to another depot.
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