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Post by leeds rider on Feb 12, 2018 14:05:56 GMT 1
AFAIR, Optional Bus bought its initial buses from L&C and just kept the livery!
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Post by steviewevie on Feb 12, 2018 20:59:01 GMT 1
I may be wrong but I thought that optional bus used Maroon and off white. Or have I got the wrong company?
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 12, 2018 22:14:18 GMT 1
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Post by clifton on Feb 12, 2018 22:27:43 GMT 1
I may be wrong but I thought that optional bus used Maroon and off white. Or have I got the wrong company? I think that was Quickstep?
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Post by leeds rider on Feb 12, 2018 23:26:22 GMT 1
I may be wrong but I thought that optional bus used Maroon and off white. Or have I got the wrong company? I think you might be thinking of sut / Airebus. If recollection serves, they started out in dark blue and cream and later switched to maroon and cream.
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Post by firstbus05 on Feb 13, 2018 1:26:19 GMT 1
Looked on askmid insurance website and the regestrations and fleetnumbers are confirmed as:
35261 - 35294 SL67VWM - Y,VXA - K,M - Y
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Post by steviewevie on Feb 13, 2018 9:48:35 GMT 1
Correct it was Quickstep.
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simon
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Post by simon on Feb 13, 2018 9:54:12 GMT 1
Do we know what these buses are due to replace yet?
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 13, 2018 18:14:53 GMT 1
Remember there is supposedly going to be an increase in the fleet to enable the alleged frequency improvements, rather than it being just a 1 for 1 fleet replacement.
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WYBS
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Post by WYBS on Feb 14, 2018 0:27:35 GMT 1
Photo on flickr shows 35266 SL67 VWS all branded up. A diagonal block red colour has been added to the the front top and the branding on the side says 'Leedscity'. In my personal opinion it is one of the worst looking overall liveries/ branding I have ever seen, dreadful.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2018 9:30:11 GMT 1
Photo on flickr shows 35266 SL67 VWS all branded up. A diagonal block red colour has been added to the the front top and the branding on the side says 'Leedscity'. In my personal opinion it is one of the worst looking overall liveries/ branding I have ever seen, dreadful. Found the photo. Yuk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by ajw11239 on Feb 14, 2018 14:36:24 GMT 1
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sharksmith
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2018 14:44:29 GMT 1
No, It looks really good to me and does what I want my route branding to do, helps me spot my bus from the Headrow while it's still struggling up Eastgate.
What you have to remember is that it's First and on here you get prizes for being the first person to bash anything new First does. Wait until they go into service and watch the complaints come raining in.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2018 17:01:51 GMT 1
Not bashing First but green & red ain't a good colour combination
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2018 17:44:34 GMT 1
Not bashing First but green & red ain't a good colour combination Works for Aireline, Christmas, Italian restaurants everywhere and the Portuguese national football team. Seriously though they're not all going to be green and red, the trick will be keeping enough in neutral colours to ensure route branding does not just become 'route advertising' as Arriva call it. Transdev & Go Ahead seem to be able to manage that in the main but previous history with the big three operators suggests this is something that needs attention to detail which just isn't quite there.
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Post by steviewevie on Feb 14, 2018 18:51:42 GMT 1
Route branding is okay if you make sure the route branded buses stay on the route they are branded for. Unfortunately this seems to be impossible and that includes Transdev and Go-ahead. Arriva uses 110 branded buses on any route and appears not to make any effort to get them back on to the 110. It's Sapphire branded buses for the 162/163 turn up regularly on the 189 alongside similar vintage unbranded buses making the branding pointless. Perhaps the destination blind is the best form of 'route branding' as I remain to be convinced that the general public take any notice whatsoever.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2018 19:39:33 GMT 1
I think it looks quite good to be fair. One plus point is that, currently there is nothing all over the front or upper side windows.
If it’s right that the red bit will vary on different corridors, then it makes sense to have the colour on the front, keeping that colour to a stripe on the side towards the back wouldn’t be very strong.
The bit advertising the features and the fleet name look good as well.
Regarding people moaning about branded buses on the wrong route, from the sightings thread it seems to me you get 10 buses allocated right, 1 not allocated right, a third of those are as part of some sort of peak hour allocation where a bus swaps routes, another third is due to it being a last resort or due to the bus being on a short board where it will then run off and have some work done, the other third is due to sloppy allocating. This is not an excuse to scrap branding.
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Post by nic on Feb 14, 2018 20:20:46 GMT 1
Then WYBUS - they need to look and review every board they run and take steps to ensure that they have the correct amount of buses allocated to the correct routes without the need to intermingle. If there is a need allocate a normal double decker that is NOT branded; preferably it would be one that is not from 2004. One of the recent newer ones to keep brand image up 'at least i've got my normal bus just different paint scheme' 'least its not changed' as opposed to 'theirs moisture coming in from the windows, everything rattles when it's idle, and it sounds like a hoover on steroids when the driver accelerates'.
As for the sloppy allocation - that needs to start internally. If the staff cba ensuring everything is correct and in shape overnight for the next day operation we don't have a cat in hells chance of ensuring we have correct allocations on correct boards.
As for the other 1/3 that can never be helped. However as above - replace it with a modern day bus and not some clapped out 04 double decker or 02 single decker.
I really don't understand why they never have spare buses that are modern and newer waiting around to step in as and when required - personally working in an operations environment i don't see the complexity.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2018 20:28:05 GMT 1
Hopefully one thing that will change is the number of single decks in the Leeds fleet. They seem to have too many, ideally the whole allocation except for those that go under a low bridge would be double deck. This would mean you wouldn’t get the situation of single decks tuning up on major routes at the worst possible time.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2018 20:36:01 GMT 1
Route branding is okay if you make sure the route branded buses stay on the route they are branded for. Unfortunately this seems to be impossible and that includes Transdev and Go-ahead. Arriva uses 110 branded buses on any route and appears not to make any effort to get them back on to the 110. It's Sapphire branded buses for the 162/163 turn up regularly on the 189 alongside similar vintage unbranded buses making the branding pointless. Perhaps the destination blind is the best form of 'route branding' as I remain to be convinced that the general public take any notice whatsoever. It's very rare to find a Transdev brand bus from Keighley or Harrogate on anything but the route they are branded for. I've seen an unbranded bus in Harrogate get pulled off the 1's to go on the 70/71 to ensure that an incorrect brand doesn't appear on the incorrect route, it's taken very seriously. I was in the North East last weekend and all Go Ahead routes were correctly allocated with either the brand or the generic fleet livery and I find this is usually the case. You can't expect every bus on a route to be branded as this would result in the spare(s) doing nothing at all when all buses are in servicable condition. There's nothing wrong with generic liveried buses filling in. I agree Arriva in particular seem to fall foul of branded buses on the wrong route. In respect of passengers, I believe they do take notice, maybe not of the brand but certainly of the colour. Standing on the Headrow I catch the Aireline home from work. When a 33, 508 or 670 is due you see passengers craning their necks and squinting to try and pick out their generic liveried Gemini approaching. When the 60 is approaching there's no such problem, the red front and white destination display stand out a mile and, even though it's a single decker, people start to move towards the end of the bus stop. As I said it's all a matter of will and good duty managers who are on the ball.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2018 20:43:50 GMT 1
I really don't understand why they never have spare buses that are modern and newer waiting around to step in as and when required - personally working in an operations environment i don't see the complexity. Not a matter of complexity, surely economics, having thousands of pounds worth of new buses sitting idle doesn't appear to be good business sense. Surely when breakdowns and accidents happen it's better to have any bus, even if it is nearing the end of it's time.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2018 20:49:23 GMT 1
Go North East do have booked wrong brand turns though, and also branding is abandoned evenings and sundays as many routes are allocated Streetlites from other brands. Nottingham have some booked wrong brand turns as well. If you don’t know they are planned they could be reported on the equivalent of here as a miss allocation. Go North East also use W reg Presidents on major branded routes at peak times.
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Post by nic on Feb 14, 2018 20:57:28 GMT 1
Not if you rotate them through the system. So you have 25 new buses but need a maximum of 22 on the route as the PVR states. You start off by allocating them in this simple manner Day 1, Board 1 and so on.
By day 23,24,25 you sit them on the 'spare bus' to cover any boards that either have disruption to them through the day (so if one breaks in lets say Otley, you rotate one of the buses from Leeds to pick up the slack and run the rest of that board on time. The broken bus comes back into depot and if serviceable sits as a spare bus) or if there is maintenance needed on one of them.
Of course Saturdays and Sundays are different due to less peak traffic therefore less boards however it could still work in the same way.
If an airlines can have millions of pounds worth of aircraft sat on a ramp on 'standby' (never just the one) and in some cases upwards of 5 then first, who charge nearly a £5 to get into town (i don't see that as value for money), can have thousands of pounds worth of new bus sat as a spare bus.
Maybe they would have growth in markets > increased revenue > increased profit > lowered fares due to increased passengers numbers. Rather then continuing to put fares up and drive customers over to the road.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 14, 2018 21:13:46 GMT 1
That would mean having three spare buses and also three spare drivers doing nothing all day if there are no breakdowns, I don't know many businesses who would be happy with that waste of resources, just in case, and certainly this is not unique to First.
Pricewise again I don't think First are any worse, I paid £8.00 for a day ticket with Go North East on Saturday just because my itinerary passed through three zones and much smaller in distance than the First West Yorkshire ticket. Some area's where Stagecoach have a monopoly the prices make my eyes water.
It seems to be the modern way to want bucket loads of customer service, frequent routes, new vehicles, low emissions but when it comes to paying for it people still believe they should be still paying 30p per journey like in the 80's.
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Feb 14, 2018 21:17:30 GMT 1
If a route needs 20 buses during the day, but 22 at peak times, and those extra boards are just one round trip in the morning and afternoon. How many buses would you buy?
Personally I’d say 22.
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