|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 19, 2019 13:10:58 GMT 1
Having just completed one years worth of commuting on Aireline it's time to give my annual report on the experience. First of all some facts and figures
Aireline branded Optare Versa
242 - 52 Journeys 243 - 40 Journeys 274 - 63 Journeys 275 - 50 Journeys 276 - 55 Journeys 277 - 63 Journeys
Keighley Bus Company livery Optare Versa
240 - 25 Journeys
Wright Streedeck demonstrator
302 - 4 Journeys
Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini
402 - 10 Journeys 403 - 14 Journeys
Volvo B7RLE
454 - 10 Journeys 1823 - 3 Journeys 1825 - 7 Journeys 1843 - 2 Journeys 1844 - 1 Journey 1850 - 6 Journeys
Volvo B7TL President
2708 - 1 Journey 2716 - 10 Journeys
Attendance - No morning journey missed over the whole year with only two evening journeys either missed or so late that it arrived after the next departure. Grade - A+
Punctuality – Morning journeys all turned up within around 5 minutes of expected departure time, arrival in Leeds generally very good but queues at Kirkstall Bridge tend to make arrival in Leeds late, particularly over the last few months of the year. Evening journeys badly affected by traffic in Leeds, Kirkstall, Rodley & Greengates . Arrival times at home generally 5-15 minutes late, up to 50 minutes late on occasions. Mostly nothing Transdev can do about these delays with one exception covered later. No breakdown on any journey I travelled on. - Grade - C
Quality – Versa's decent enough but, as covered many times before, totally unsuitable for the volume of passengers using this service, who actually made this decision!! Would not like to have to catch buses at Park Row or later and have to stand crushed against other passengers for up to 40 minutes to Rodley or Calverley each evening. Also seats do tend to become uncomfortable after around 45 minutes. Credit to Transdev for upgrading 'one' morning journey to Leeds each day to double deck operation, however they are already rewarded handsomely for this by still having a full standing load on this bus with all the additional revenue that this must generate. Double deckers used are however elderly and, with one exception, have no wi-fi. The Gemini's in particular also seem to have a problem with leaking or excessive condensation as damp seats are normal in parts of the upper deck on wet mornings. The Streetdeck demonstrator provided a rare glimpse of potential luxury to come? - Grade C-
Technology – Wi-fi and USB ports are welcome although Wi-fi is not very reliable and you cannot always connect to it. USB ports at individual seats are quite often out of action so some careful choice of seat is necessary if you are lucky enough to be on the bus first. Next stop announcements vary in volume and the original voice was certainly a Marmite situation with equal numbers of lover and haters. I notice Eric appears to have been discretely retired recently with a more generic announcer replacing him. Contactless still seems to slow up boarding of passengers more than any other single reason, it needs to be quicker. Real time on the app is generally very good but would benefit from an Arriva style option to actually see where the bus in on a map instead of being due in 'x' amount of minutes. - Grade – B
Appearance - 327/416 or 78.6% of journeys operated by Aireline branded vehicles with 360/416 or 86.5% of journeys operated by branded or timetabled double deck workings. If the unbranded spare Versa 240 is taken into account this would further rise to 385/416 or 92.5%. No incorrectly branded bus appeared on any 60 journey I travelled on during the year. Grade – A
Staff – As with any company there are all types of staff, from the extremely friendly to the moderately grumpy. Not seen any driver being outright rude and that is a credit to them given that you can certainly not say the same about the passengers. Driving standards vary but even the worst seem to be of a pretty high standard, amazes me how they negotiate rush hour Leeds without any accidents. Grade - A
Value for Money - £17.00 for a Leeds 7 is extremely good value for money but needs to remain so to fend off competition from the trains much quicker journeys times from Shipley and Apperley Bridge, I must admit I have defected on occasion and get home almost an hour earlier, is that hour of my time worth the extra cost? Grade – A+
Overall conclusion – A good first year, I sometimes find the journey length a little tiresome and the quality of vehicles needs improvement to meet passengers expectations. A tricky balancing act this is though as it would not take too much of an increase in fares to push me towards a railway commute instead. Although nice I could do without the technology in favour of value for money and comfort. - Final Grade - B+
Improvements for 2019/20 – As covered many times above, it goes without saying that new double deck buses are the absolute number one priority for me. A quick win though could be achieved by removing the completely useless timing point at Willow Road, a stop where hardly anyone ever gets on or off. I've lost count of the times we've waited up to five minutes for time here on an evening before getting snarled up in a traffic jam fifty yards down the round and arriving five to ten minutes late at Kirkstall Morrisons. I'm sure removing this timing point would improve timekeeping Keighley bound whilst also removing the additional teeth-knashing tedium of sitting waiting time Leeds bound when all you want to do is get into work.
|
|
77syk7
Forum Member
Posts: 639
|
Post by 77syk7 on Jan 19, 2019 17:48:08 GMT 1
An excellent summary about 'Aireline' which makes fascinating reading and I really hope that Transdev takes note of your very detailed suggestions. This is what the forum is all about!
|
|
|
Post by js12345678910 on Jan 19, 2019 18:29:40 GMT 1
I must say that report is impressive. I particularly like the summary of buses you have caught on the route. Well done!
|
|
|
Post by gooderson1 on Jan 19, 2019 23:17:16 GMT 1
Interesting to read but why only one route. At the risk of being pilloried by forum members why not have a Year End report for all the routes in West Yorkshire. Sorry but that is how I feel.
|
|
|
Post by westyorkshirebus on Jan 19, 2019 23:44:46 GMT 1
Very impressive log of your daily commute, well done, and very interesting.
|
|
|
Post by js12345678910 on Jan 20, 2019 0:55:54 GMT 1
Interesting to read but why only one route. At the risk of being pilloried by forum members why not have a Year End report for all the routes in West Yorkshire. Sorry but that is how I feel. Because the 60 is the route he uses daily. There’s no point talking about West Yorkshire in general when he may only really travel on the 60.
|
|
|
Post by stevieinselby on Jan 20, 2019 12:01:32 GMT 1
Interesting to read but why only one route. At the risk of being pilloried by forum members why not have a Year End report for all the routes in West Yorkshire. Sorry but that is how I feel. If you want to write a similar report for the route that you use daily, I'm sure other people here would be interested to read it.
|
|
|
Post by gooderson1 on Jan 20, 2019 22:16:25 GMT 1
At the risk of being pilloried again I would do a similar report on my local route but it runs once a hour between 0700 and 1900 Monday to Saturday(Meltham local 911) so there would be no comparison.
|
|
|
Post by rwilkes on Jan 20, 2019 22:26:31 GMT 1
all these routes are on interest and it may help bus companies improve things
|
|
|
Post by deerfold on Jan 21, 2019 8:46:02 GMT 1
At the risk of being pilloried again I would do a similar report on my local route but it runs once a hour between 0700 and 1900 Monday to Saturday(Meltham local 911) so there would be no comparison. The report is on what buses were used, how suitable they are, and how reliable the route is. The 60 only runs twice an hour. I'm not sure why there's no comparison if you use it regularly enough to have a decent amount of data. Perhaps when you say "At risk of being pilloried", you might think about why people might object to what you're about to write and whether they might have a point".
|
|
MT
Forum Member
Excuse me while I kiss the sky
Posts: 544
|
Post by MT on Jan 21, 2019 23:20:26 GMT 1
Really interesting read sharksmith. The realiability based on your report is good, especially morning journeys. It seems the majority of delays and late running occurs en route as oppose to departing late, good on Transdev for having the buses where they need to be to start their run on time, not much they can do about the unpredictable Leeds traffic. Out of interest is this based on the same AM and PM trip each day, or do you travel at different times?
Being much closer to the Leeds end myself, the change from doubles to singles has meant I rarely travel on the 60, never any space by the time it reaches me! Though I choose to walk most days anyway. I agree about the Willow Road timing point, seems it would benefit from some adjustments for peak journeys.
It would be interesting to see an equally detailed report of the train for comparison, there may be more than just the cost of your ticket at stake!
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 22, 2019 8:14:37 GMT 1
Thanks everyone for the kind comments.
To answer a couple of comments, as stated, this was intended to be my personal observations of a year's worth of commuting on Aireline and nothing more. I probably do travel on Yorkshire's buses more than the regular passenger but could in no way provide such in depth analysis for any other route. There are way too many politicians, consultants, keyboard warriers and 'experts' in the world today who have strong opinions without any real facts and I don't intend to join them.
By the nature of commuting my journeys do tend to be using the same morning and evening departures each day although there have been some variations occasionally and some other trips outside my normal commute.
It was noticeable that a number of Aireline regulars, particularly from Rodley onwards did swap to the 670 during the spring/summer of last year, I assume mainly due to the additional capacity provided by double decker on that route. Since this has changed to the 35, which appears very unreliable, and the upgraded morning double deck working on the 60, some of these passengers have returned.
In respect of the train, I was a rail commuter into Bradford for many years and would have to say the 60 is both more reliable and better value for money. It is only on journey times the train would win for me as having tried the train home from Leeds on an evening it is just as, if not more, overloaded but has the benefit of not having to be suffered for so long.
Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes or other errors in this post as I am currently writing on the top deck of Gemini 403, but that's a story for next January.
|
|
|
Post by westyorkshirebus on Jan 30, 2019 23:23:05 GMT 1
If new double decks aren’t forthcoming for the 60 I think they could do worse than redeploying the 5 ex Coastliner Gemini’s that are now back in the Transdev fold at Rosso. With a full refurbishment they could be as well spec’d as the Versas. www.flickr.com/photos/126644399@N06/45764605615/They are ridiculously over specified for school services and the occasionally fill in on a Bury or Rochdale local which is what they are now used on.
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 19, 2020 17:36:09 GMT 1
Year two is in the bag, here's my second annual report on the experience of commuting on Aireline. As last year, here are some facts and figures to start off.
Aireline branded Optare Versa 242 - 16 Journeys 243 - 14 Journeys 274 - 17 Journeys 275 - 17 Journeys 276 - 17 Journeys 277 - 29 Journeys
Keighley Bus Company livery Optare Versa
240 - 46 Journeys
Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini
402 - 109 Journeys 403 - 102 Journeys 2763 - 4 Journeys 2764 - 1 Journey
Volvo B7RLE
454 - 4 Journeys 1823 - 1 Journey 1843 - 1 Journey 1846 - 1 Journey 1849 - 5 Journeys
Volvo B7TL President
2701 - 2 Journeys 2704 - 1 Journey 2708 - 3 Journey 2713 - 1 Journey 2716 - 21 Journeys
Attendance - For the second year running, no morning journey I went to catch was missed over the whole year. Evening journeys were harder to gauge as the move to a frequency of every twenty minutes did result in a bit of bunching from time to time. I can't say I noticed a departure actually missing but did see a worrying trend of late buses turning at Park Row and not serving the bus station. I don't have a problem with this in the main, before Christmas especially this was understandable due to the problems on Boar Lane and these alterations were well advertised on Twitter. I've seen it happen however on other occasions though, even last week when a late running 3.55 turned early with no such publicised warning. This is a real problem as the new 4.15 departure is Versa operated and already leaves Leeds with a standing load as it is, this bus trying to cram Bus Station and Headrow passengers for these two departures onto the one bus is not feasable! Grade - B+
Punctuality – Morning journeys all turned up on time, arrival times in Leeds generally very good but queues at Kirkstall Bridge and along Kirkstall Rd continue to make some arrivals into Leeds late, the later the service, undertandably the more congestion is encountered and the more variable arrival time is. Evening journeys are still badly affected by traffic in Leeds City Centre, a new problem for this year is the installation of the fairly lightly used cycle lanes installed. Further delays at Kirkstall, Rodley & Greengates are nothing new and with major roadworks due to start at Greengates shortly I worry I may not complete another full year of travel. Arrival times at home still vary wildly. As reported last year there is virtualy nothing Transdev can do about these delays with the exception of drivers making sure they are on stand at Leeds Bus Station on time to load passengers instead of waiting in the lay over bay until a minute before departure and then leaving 3-4 minutes late. No breakdown on any journey I travelled on. - Grade - C
Quality – This is hard because the first part of the year I travelled mostly on Gemini's with sufficient space for passengers to breathe, a comfortable ride and apart from water ingress on 402/403 very good quality. The second part of the year was spent on new workings which are predominantly Versa's, the morning journey is just fine but the 16.15 afternoon departure, after a quiet start, has now been discovered by a lot of passengers and as mentioned before is standing room only. This is not comfortable, especially when delayed by traffic, brings memories back of how bad the 16.35 used to be before it was converted to double deck operation. Regrettably it is unlikely any such upgrade will save this working as this bus also works the short 14.35 to Greengates having run dead from Keighley so I can't imagine it would be cost effective to send a decker. Credit to Transdev for added the extra morning bus and increasing the frequency in the evenings but these are sticking plaster solutions to a lack of capacity generally. The Streetdeck demonstrator from 2018 did not provide the desired upgrade but at least we got 2763 and even 2764 for a week. It's a shame 2764 did not stay for long as on the one journey I did travel on it there were audible comments from other commuters regarding how nice it is. - Grade C-
Technology – Wi-fi and USB ports are becoming a minimum requirement for new buses but need to be maintained. Usage limits on Aireline feel to be very restrictive, I'm not a big user, no videos etc, but with a commute in excess of 2 hours per day, find that my daily limit is exceeded well before my journey home is complete. USB ports at individual seats are now more often out of action than not although this is not a criticism of Transdev alone, bus companies do like to advertise this facilty on launch day but do not appear to want to maintain them correctly, or maybe do not have the expertise to do so? I don't really know where we are with next stop announcements on Aireline, the screens are nearly always working but the volume varies from quiet to non existant these days. Contactless is still personally my biggest bugbear, the boarding times seem so slow for every paying passenger these days, I'm convinced it's so much quicker when I pay for my weekly ticket using cash but then I do try to have exact money available. After last years report Transdev have given me what I asked for and provided real time tracking on their app, Hurrah!! It's a game changer for me. Whether sitting at my desk at work or having a pub crawl I now know exactly when my next bus is going to show up, Bravo!!! Grade – B
Appearance - Aireline branded buses domniate daytimes, very rare to see anything else other than Versa 240 or maybe a Gemini in weekday daylight hours. No incorrectly branded buses really ever appear on Aireline routes although when the double deck vehicles appear in rush hour and on Saturdays they are obviously only in Keighley Bus Company or Pride of the North colours. Grade – A
Staff – The one thing that struck me recently about the drivers is the turnover. I can only think of three or four of last years regular drivers who are still driving Aireline on a regular basis. I'm not sure the latest crop are as welcoming but if they are new they may just be concentrating really hard on what must be a demanding route to drive. I guess if I'm finding the experience harder, they must be too. The overall level of compentance seem still to be very high and there's have been no collisions, amazing through the Leeds City Centre roadworks. Grade - A
Value for Money - It's £18.00 now for a Leeds 7, so still very good value for money, interesting that the price rise came a couple of weeks after First's price rise, was it necessary, coincidental or opportunistic? I know overheads rise but it would be nice to feel that it is necessary rather than the result of keeping up with the Jones. Value for money was proven to not be my most important criteria regarding travel at Christmas when I abandoned the bus for a week on the train at the height of the gridlock problems in Leeds City Centre. It was ultimately more important for me to spend time with my family, and not be sat on the bus, even at the additional expense. Grade – A+
Overall conclusion – I have found the journey length more tiresome this year and an upgrade in capacity is desperately needed. As almost everyone has been saying since they were introduced, the Versa's are not suitable for this service. I do find it strange that a company such as Transdev who are always tweeting about route growth bought vehicles which included no scope to accomodate any additional passengers. Alex Hornby said on this very forum previously that this route was not a very profitable route. It cannot be the Leeds end which is the problem so maybe they need to look a little closer at special offers on the Keighley to Shipley section to make that profitable and return us to double decks as standard. As far as journey times are concerned Leeds Council/Metro need to think more about bus travellers. Just one example is the way Wellington Street has been ruined by the installation of those cycle lanes. There are not 70 cyclists riding down that road for every bus full of passengers but we have all been seriously inconvenienced. I will say that the issue I had with the Willow Road timing point is no longer a problem as the bus now almost never reaches this stop in the 20 minutes allowed. If you push 50 people off the bus I would suggest more than 90% of them will move to cars and so add to the congestion. Final Grade - C
Improvements for 2020/21 – It was very apparent to me over 2019 that Gemini's 402/403 are very reliable buses on this route, almost always in service every weekday despite being 15 years old. If we can't have new double deckers I think I'd be happy to give 3601-3612, at the same approximate age, a shot to solve this problem. They may now be too old for the fast running City Zap/Red Express routes but may be more reliable on the stop/start work of Aireline. Obviously this could be scuppered if the Leeds LEZ scheme finally comes into force.
It may also now be time to stop the amount of bus traffic around Leeds city centre, it seems luidcrous to me for buses from Airedale, Wharfedale, Halifax & Bradford to fight their way across to the bus station instead of terminating at Infirmary Street/Park Row. Ditto with routes from Castleford and East Leeds clogging up the centre to terminate in the west of the city. A free shuttle bus should be provided by Metro between the two ends of the city via the main shopping areas paid for by the financial benefits of less congestion and the reduction in polution involved in having stationary buses sat in traffic.
|
|
|
Post by gooderson1 on Jan 19, 2020 18:26:01 GMT 1
It would appear that the only way to cut down on the amount of traffic entering leads to set up a congestion chargezonesome similar to London. The problems m with that suggestion is that such a charge would be a political not potato I I have relatives that work near Crown point and theyan park close byfor£2-50 per day which is cheaper.than the train. Between outdoor and leeds?
|
|
|
Post by northerner on Jan 19, 2020 18:37:03 GMT 1
Very interesting read, thanks for sharing. Interesting to note they are starting to turn late running buses round at Park Row, this happened to me in the run up to Christmas on the inward working, we were all kicked off on East Parade as the service was heavily delayed. From February First's 35 will start from Park Row to avoid the Boar Lane chaos (although the last couple of weeks haven't been too bad) and with Transdev registering changes it will be interesting to see if they have come up with anything to combat the issues within Leeds City Centre.
Agree with your comments on staff turnover, there does seem to be a lot of new drivers on the route and from experience these aren't as friendly as those they replaced. One in particular is very unpleasant and impatient.
The upcoming roadworks at Greengates could be problematic, although assume this is to widen the crossroads which should ultimately improve journey times. Out of interest, how did the week on the train compare in terms of reliability, crowding and value for money?
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 19, 2020 19:00:13 GMT 1
Very interesting read, thanks for sharing. Interesting to note they are starting to turn late running buses round at Park Row, this happened to me in the run up to Christmas on the inward working, we were all kicked off on East Parade as the service was heavily delayed. From February First's 35 will start from Park Row to avoid the Boar Lane chaos (although the last couple of weeks haven't been too bad) and with Transdev registering changes it will be interesting to see if they have come up with anything to combat the issues within Leeds City Centre. Agree with your comments on staff turnover, there does seem to be a lot of new drivers on the route and from experience these aren't as friendly as those they replaced. One in particular is very unpleasant and impatient. The upcoming roadworks at Greengates could be problematic, although assume this is to widen the crossroads which should ultimately improve journey times. Out of interest, how did the week on the train compare in terms of reliability, crowding and value for money? Thanks for the kind comments I really think it's time to avoid Leeds bus station and forgot that there had been a new registration for the 60, I'm concerned that the bus may now be swamped with former First 35 passengers when it is already overcrowded so fingers crossed. Train was fine, in the week in which they were getting really bad press due to the new timetables everything ran smoothly for me. I only travel Shipley to Leeds return so I was at least able to catch the Bradford Forster Square train which is much much quieter than the Skipton service. I did get a seat both ways but all trains were full and the journey times were much quicker even though it was a much longer walk home from the station, I generally beat the buses best time home by around 30 minutes. It's just so much more expensive, at least paying on a week/day basis!
|
|
|
Post by northerner on Jan 19, 2020 21:54:37 GMT 1
Personally I wouldn't be in favour of not serving the bus station, as there's always a decent number of passengers who board and alight there. Boar Lane has improved since Christmas, so maybe a little additional recovery time would help reliability. Alternatively inbound journeys could operate from King Street via Calverley Street, Merrion Street, Vicar Lane, Lady Lane to the Bus Station.
|
|
|
Post by cwtransportphotos on Jan 20, 2020 17:47:08 GMT 1
Not entirely sure that I agree with the comments regarding the cycle scheme works on Wellington Street, given the fact that with this being introduced, it hasnt reduced the number of lanes.
I cant see them introducing a new fleet for the Aireline, given that the vast majority of the vehicles running during the day only have a handful of passengers on them.
Cant comment on the driver aspect too much as I havent really been noticing that aspect, however I wound not put it down to "demanding routes" given that it is a reletively simple route to negotiate in comparison to others.
|
|
|
Post by adamw on Jan 20, 2020 18:22:18 GMT 1
An interesting read, this. A few comments:
Transdev likely have a looming issue in terms of double-decks with the Leeds Clean Air Zone (due to be implemented in the summer, or later in the year, now, as I recall). The "old" 36 Geminis - 3601-12 will certainly not be compliant, and 402/03 certainly won't be either, I'd suspect (and the last handful of older 'deckers on the Coastliners and 36 will also need upgrading/replacing). That said Witchway (Burnley-Manchester) *is* due new vehicles in 2020, and the 63-reg B9TLs on the route will be able to be upgraded to CAZ-compliance if they aren't already. With their comfy interiors I'd suspect they will be ideal to upgrade the Aireline, and surely that's more likely than new vehicles.
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 20, 2020 18:41:10 GMT 1
Not entirely sure that I agree with the comments regarding the cycle scheme works on Wellington Street, given the fact that with this being introduced, it hasnt reduced the number of lanes. I cant see them introducing a new fleet for the Aireline, given that the vast majority of the vehicles running during the day only have a handful of passengers on them. Cant comment on the driver aspect too much as I havent really been noticing that aspect, however I wound not put it down to "demanding routes" given that it is a reletively simple route to negotiate in comparison to others. The journey from the bus station to Willow Road used to take around 15 minutes in rush hour, last year it consistently took over 20 minutes and the extra delay is all on Wellington Street. I don't know why it should be any different but my experience is that it is. I'm not sure what times you use Aireline but I've gone home sick at 10am, finished at lunchtime, travelled in the evening peak and also in the late evening. I've never been on a journey with a 'handful' of passengers, maybe at the Shipley to Keighley end but not leaving Leeds. I'm not sure how long you have been a bus driver but having driven myself Leeds city centre appears to be a nightmare. I don't think I'd want to drive a bus into Leeds twice a day through all the tight spots and congestion. In addition the almost nightly late running must be a pain for drivers, never knowing what time they're going to get finished and go home.
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 20, 2020 18:49:59 GMT 1
An interesting read, this. A few comments: Transdev likely have a looming issue in terms of double-decks with the Leeds Clean Air Zone (due to be implemented in the summer, or later in the year, now, as I recall). The "old" 36 Geminis - 3601-12 will certainly not be compliant, and 402/03 certainly won't be either, I'd suspect (and the last handful of older 'deckers on the Coastliners and 36 will also need upgrading/replacing). That said Witchway (Burnley-Manchester) *is* due new vehicles in 2020, and the 63-reg B9TLs on the route will be able to be upgraded to CAZ-compliance if they aren't already. With their comfy interiors I'd suspect they will be ideal to upgrade the Aireline, and surely that's more likely than new vehicles. I hadn't heard that a new date for the Leeds Clean Air Zone had been given as yet but if it will be during 2020 then I agree the ex 36 Gemini will not be a solution. When this was all going to happen previously we had the Streetdeck demonstrator running on Aireline for a couple of weeks. I assume there must have been some reason for this. At the time I thought maybe a couple of new buses to replace 402/403 but who knows. Will the Witchway buses be available or are they leased and due for return? It would seem a good solution to upgrade Aireline and the Hotline 152 as well.
|
|
|
Post by SCH117X on Jan 20, 2020 19:21:03 GMT 1
The "old" 36 Geminis - 3601-12 will certainly not be compliant ] They were rebuilt with new engines in 2010/11.
|
|
|
Post by cwtransportphotos on Jan 21, 2020 1:44:27 GMT 1
I highly doubt that they would send the Ex-witchway buses over for the Aireline services. That service will be lucky to see any newer vehicles for the next few years, especially with the "CEO" stating on this thread that it isnt a sustainable route.
|
|
|
Post by sharksmith on Jan 21, 2020 8:11:32 GMT 1
I highly doubt that they would send the Ex-witchway buses over for the Aireline services. That service will be lucky to see any newer vehicles for the next few years, especially with the "CEO" stating on this thread that it isnt a sustainable route. That's a bit of an exaggeration isnt it? What Alex actually said was 'Sadly the 760 isn't as profitable as you believe.' There's a huge difference between that and unsustainable, if the 60 wasn't sustainable then it would have been cancelled long ago. My own experience is full to half full buses most of the day. I'd imagine the bit where it differs from the likes of The 36 or Cityzap would be the eight or so miles between Keighley and Shipley which is already well covered by the Shuttle. I don't use that bit much but could see that section having light usage, particularly since they cut the Beckfoot School section of the route out. I'm sat on a bus now which leaves Shipley at just after half six in the morning, we're not yet at Kirkstall and have six people standing at the front, with more climbing aboard as I type. If this isn't sustainable then all bus companies may as well just give up!
|
|