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Post by deerfold on Jan 31, 2023 21:32:53 GMT 1
I think this is quite a good debate about the Flyer series actually being Airport buses, but goes beyond to the level of the attractiveness of LBA. By the time the majority have got into Leeds & caught the A1 to the airport, you're well on your way to Manchester, comfortable on a train , hopefully with an airport advance single costing £15. I travel quite a lot for work. Pre-pandemic our flights were about 50% from Manchester, 50% Heathrow with the odd one from LBA. Many business destinations haven't returned to Manchester - we've used it for two trips in the last year (one in one direction only). We attempted to use LBA once but our flight was cancelled. We used public transport for one of the Manchester trips, but a taxi for the other, but use public transport to Heathrow. We were briefly on a direct route to the Airport, but it took over an hour when a taxi would have been 20 minutes.
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kendall17
Forum Member
Justice for the 96!
Posts: 4,514
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Post by kendall17 on Jan 31, 2023 23:29:15 GMT 1
I think this is quite a good debate about the Flyer series actually being Airport buses, but goes beyond to the level of the attractiveness of LBA. By the time the majority have got into Leeds & caught the A1 to the airport, you're well on your way to Manchester, comfortable on a train , hopefully with an airport advance single costing £15. I travel quite a lot for work. Pre-pandemic our flights were about 50% from Manchester, 50% Heathrow with the odd one from LBA. Many business destinations haven't returned to Manchester - we've used it for two trips in the last year (one in one direction only). We attempted to use LBA once but our flight was cancelled. We used public transport for one of the Manchester trips, but a taxi for the other, but use public transport to Heathrow. We were briefly on a direct route to the Airport, but it took over an hour when a taxi would have been 20 minutes. Did/would catching any of the airport buses to LBA cross your mind?
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Post by deerfold on Feb 1, 2023 7:18:48 GMT 1
I travel quite a lot for work. Pre-pandemic our flights were about 50% from Manchester, 50% Heathrow with the odd one from LBA. Many business destinations haven't returned to Manchester - we've used it for two trips in the last year (one in one direction only). We attempted to use LBA once but our flight was cancelled. We used public transport for one of the Manchester trips, but a taxi for the other, but use public transport to Heathrow. We were briefly on a direct route to the Airport, but it took over an hour when a taxi would have been 20 minutes. Did/would catching any of the airport buses to LBA cross your mind? As I said in an earlier post, I caught one from LBA last year. They're not generally useful to me, as, from my house, I'd have to catch two buses to get to one of the Flyer routes.
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Post by Burnside on Feb 1, 2023 17:57:09 GMT 1
Doubt it has anything to do with new deckers, as the money for Transdev vehicles was for single deckers. Deckers for 36 pal, that's being electrified. I know. I was referring to Flyer.
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Post by gogglyboi on Feb 2, 2023 0:39:45 GMT 1
As someone who regularly catches the A1 to Leeds from Green Lane, I'd say if the route was timed to meet up with flights better it could absolutely justify deckers during peak season at least. I've frequently had to wait for another bus when a flight has just arrived in as it is absolutely jam packed with passengers from the airport, so suggesting holidaymakers don't use the service is just outright wrong. I do however agree that with the current timings, loadings are far too inconsistent for decker operation.
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Post by johndc1984 on Feb 2, 2023 7:12:00 GMT 1
As someone who regularly catches the A1 to Leeds from Green Lane, I'd say if the route was timed to meet up with flights better it could absolutely justify deckers during peak season at least. I've frequently had to wait for another bus when a flight has just arrived in as it is absolutely jam packed with passengers from the airport, so suggesting holidaymakers don't use the service is just outright wrong. I do however agree that with the current timings, loadings are far too inconsistent for decker operation. Using the A1 as an example I would think at every 20 minutes in my opinion this is reasonably aligned with the varied departure and arrival times of the flights, aligning to flights would mean a potentially different timetable each day as not all flights operate daily, and quite a lot of factors can impact how long it takes to get from the plane to the bus stop such as the time baggage reclaim and passport control takes, you can also throw weather into the mix if the flight has a strong tailwind they can arrive well ahead of schedule. I think it’s inevitable at airports your going to get surges of people heading to the bus in crowds as they all get off the plane at more or less the same time and exit at the same time, the car park buses such as Sentinal have the same issue.
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Post by stevieinselby on Feb 2, 2023 15:16:46 GMT 1
As someone who regularly catches the A1 to Leeds from Green Lane, I'd say if the route was timed to meet up with flights better it could absolutely justify deckers during peak season at least. I've frequently had to wait for another bus when a flight has just arrived in as it is absolutely jam packed with passengers from the airport, so suggesting holidaymakers don't use the service is just outright wrong. I do however agree that with the current timings, loadings are far too inconsistent for decker operation. With buses on the A1 every 20 minutes, it's hard to see how they could be better aligned with flight times, you'll never have too long to wait for a bus. On the A2 and A3, with them only being every hour, it's definitely more of an issue ... but 1️⃣ flights don't depart and arrive on a regular hourly frequency, or even at the same time every day, so if bus times were aligned to flight times then you would lose the clockface service pattern that the majority of passengers who are not travelling to/from the airport benefit from. 2️⃣ a solo passenger near the front of the plane with just carry-on luggage might be at the bus stop half an hour before a family with suitcases to pick up, so very hard to pitch the bus at a time that ensures most people would be able to make the connection but not leaving some passengers waiting too long sounds like mission impossible.
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