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TLC
Jan 10, 2015 23:43:24 GMT 1
Post by sharksmith on Jan 10, 2015 23:43:24 GMT 1
I thought about this from the other way in that it could explain why they brought only slightly newer Solo's from Doncaster to cover until they had made a decision whether or not to move away from minibus operation in Bradford. Still as I said this is only what one driver told a passenger who thought the route was to be withdrawn hence my question.
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TLC
Jan 10, 2015 11:41:40 GMT 1
Post by sharksmith on Jan 10, 2015 11:41:40 GMT 1
Speaking of TLC, I was on the 846 the other night and a passenger asked the First Bradford driver about the route being cancelled, the driver told him that he had heard TLC were taking over at the end of March. Have you heard anything about this, I thought TLC were close to capacity at their depot's so would think an extra six bus PVR would be a problem, unless of course what the passenger was referring to was a reduction in frequency, maybe to hourly with the cancellation of either the 846 or 847. These routes would fit in nicely with TLC's existing Shipley locals but I have seen no mention of it before.
Any truth at all in this?
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Post by sharksmith on Nov 7, 2014 20:11:04 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Oct 5, 2014 17:06:11 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 27, 2014 13:53:11 GMT 1
I assume by Eureka main entrance it will be at the end of the large car park near the bridge. Otherwise we could expect the first open top NBFL if they take any nearer. No, it made it under the bridge www.flickr.com/photos/35759580@N03/15344927526/
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 24, 2014 23:05:49 GMT 1
I use this forum primarily as a bus enthusiast and only very marginally as a bus user. With this in mind I enjoy seeing a regular turnover of buses to keep my local interest high. We are lucky to have many business models in West Yorkshire from First in Leeds receiving mainly new buses, First Bradford, Arriva in Dewsbury or Yorkshire Tiger with their mix of new and cascaded vehicles to First Halifax who almost only get cascades. We also have our independants buying in secondhand stock.
As a bus enthusiast which business model do you prefer?
For me I like the Bradford or Halifax models which produce a more regular turnover of vehicles for me to photo. I spend a lot of time in Carlisle and nothing would bore me more than the Carlisle model where about eighty percent of the fleet is replaced every 8/9 years with little movement in between, although this position was forced on Stagecoach somewhat by the famous Carlisle floods.
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 24, 2014 22:20:00 GMT 1
Although these days the area is classed as Teeside much of Stagecoach North East's Stockton depot's operating area is really North Yorkshire so I've squeezed this thread into this section.
Only about 90 minutes up the A1/A19 is Stockton on Tees home to both Stagecoach & Arriva depots. Not very widely publicised is Stagecoach North East opening the doors to it's depot this Sunday, 28th September. This event is held to celebrate 40 years since the formation of Cleveland Transit and in conjunction with the 500 group who will be providing a display of historic buses. Stagecoach themselves will be displaying hybrid/gas buses.
The event runs from 11am to 4pm with a free shuttle bus from Stockton High Street, from near the Stagecoach Travel Shop. The usual stuff will be available such as stalls, behind the scenes view of engineering, bus wash rides etc.
See the Stagecoach Teeside website for further details.
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 3, 2014 19:27:48 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Jul 27, 2014 22:38:47 GMT 1
I'm sorry but if you turn up for a bus just 90 minutes before the event is due to start you're asking for trouble. Going by the queues on the Wharfedale Line when the Tour de France came to Ilkley 3-4 hours would seem to be more appropriate.
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Post by sharksmith on Jun 12, 2014 18:43:15 GMT 1
Tried out the new site at Poppleton today and first impressions is that it opened a month too early, I'm not sure who picked the opening date but would assume it was the council that is the culprit.
The car park itself is fine and the waiting room appears to be almost complete but the surrounding area is still a construction site with traffic jams both ways outside the site. This meant that I waited almost twenty minutes for a bus to arrive to take me into the city. Staff were on hand to explain and apologise but it wasn't a great start.
Once the bus arrived it had to be placed on charge so was replaced by a regular Park & Ride B7RLE (69378). One of the staff mentioned that only one of the two sets of charging equipment was working so the schedule for keeping these buses powered up was having to be reworked. In addition a bus which was loaned to help out with this broke down earlier this week and has had to be returned.
The journey into York, even at 10.15 was very slow and the bus appeared to suffer traffic congestion badly, what was apparent was that there didn't appear to be very much in the way of bus priority measures to speed us into the centre.
By the time I returned to the car park at around 15.30, this time on 49904 the service appeared to have recovered it's ten minute frequency but again we got stuck in a traffic jam when approaching the site and I saw three buses heading back to York in quite close proximity.
The electric Versa was very nice and gave a good ride when not in stationary traffic, certainly seemed to have more guts that the awful B7L's which also work in the city.
Hopefully once all the roadworks are gone and the site is actually finished some of these teething problems will disappear but I'd avoid the site for a month or so for the time being, it's just a shame that the powers that be made the mistake of launching a half finished project.
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Post by sharksmith on May 15, 2014 7:52:12 GMT 1
69568/71/72/73 should be at Bradford now I expect the rest of the 13 regs will displace the rest of the W regs to Halifax? Question is, what will happen to the T regs (Blue Line branded)? Although most lists I've seen show Streetlites 63224 to 63240 going to First Glasgow's Blantyre depot, I have seen one list however which has these down for Bradford, it would be about the right number to replace the current 607/620 branded Renowns with a few spare and looking at Blantyre's fleet profile their full size single deck fleet is much newer than Bradford's. Of course it could just be rubbish but those buses on the 607 will need replacing sooner rather than later.
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Post by sharksmith on May 10, 2014 17:48:18 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Apr 30, 2014 19:50:40 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Apr 30, 2014 19:48:25 GMT 1
First South Yorkshire 53034 Shipley bound on Canal Rd this morning at 6.50, transfer/loan to First Bradford or heading somewhere further? As Bradford only use Solo's on the 630 & 846/847 it doesn't appear to fit in with an early morning positioning run as the first 846 out of Shipley should arrive in Shipley in service from Kings Rd/Queens Rd as the first 846 arrival of the day at 7.00. Answering my own questions here, 53034 was indeed heading for Shipley to work the 7.09 846 so presumably there was a problem with the first service of the day. I caught up with this bus in Bradford at lunchtime although I was almost caught out by the real time information readout on Sunbridge Road which showed the service as cancelled. www.flickr.com/photos/35759580@N03/14072268661/
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Post by sharksmith on Apr 30, 2014 7:21:25 GMT 1
First South Yorkshire 53034 Shipley bound on Canal Rd this morning at 6.50, transfer/loan to First Bradford or heading somewhere further? As Bradford only use Solo's on the 630 & 846/847 it doesn't appear to fit in with an early morning positioning run as the first 846 out of Shipley should arrive in Shipley in service from Kings Rd/Queens Rd as the first 846 arrival of the day at 7.00.
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Post by sharksmith on Mar 12, 2014 23:04:47 GMT 1
Seen 60849 and 60851 in Halifax as well If you saw 60849 in Halifax it must have been on the 576 or 681 because I saw it back on the 620 today still with yellow line branding.
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 23, 2014 13:44:00 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Feb 6, 2014 20:38:47 GMT 1
There was an FTR Streetcar on the 72 yesterday so I assume it was this one.
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 22, 2014 19:49:03 GMT 1
From Facebook yesterday
"Sunday 6th April - Yorkshire's premiere vintage bus event will be held across four sites in Bradford. These are Centenary Square, Jacobs Well, the old Metro Hall Ings bus garage, and the FirstGroup Bowling Back Lane depot."
Sounds like First may be involved then so maybe we will see a Bradford Blue Gemini after all, or maybe even a WYPTE liveried version! I'm still not sure about them using the old bus depot, it's awful dark and dingy in there and the Keighley Bus Museum does not mention this venue or the First depot for that matter.
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 21, 2014 20:14:47 GMT 1
I don't know where this idea that Streetcars were to be used came from when the WYITA document of 27 November 2013 confirmed from the word go that the service would be run using double deck vehicles.
In respect of King Lane I can see a number of problems
1. It's too far out, a 28-33 minute journey is a long time for motorists to invest in a bus ride especially added to the stop/start nature of the regular bus services used to service it.
2. It's in the wrong position, surely it was only ever going to be of any interest to passengers from Otley/Harrogate as it's too far west for motorists from Wetherby, York or A1 traffic.
3. Has it really had any meaningful promotion, no dedicated livery and I've never seen any posters in the city centre. No dedicated website or even a page on the Metro or First Leeds websites.
The new site is much better, 6 minute journey time, every ten minutes and adjacent to the motorway network. Also with a dedicated livery and a reasonable fare although I hope that £3.00 fare is only for the first person and serious reductions are in place for additional passengers as £12.00 for four people would be too much. Also the missing Saturday dates when Leeds Utd are at home would need to be publicised well on a dedicated website. I understand the reasons behind this but it does seem a half hearted approach to Park & Ride to be closed for a couple of Saturdays in December every year, just when it's needed the most for Christmas shoppers, unless they are only thinking of working commuters.
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 13, 2014 21:13:05 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Jan 6, 2014 20:25:45 GMT 1
That sounds a bit unlikely as this is now split between a car park for Buckingham Bingo, which I would imagine would be busy on a Sunday, and office car parking with electronic barriers installed.
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Post by sharksmith on Nov 24, 2013 23:24:24 GMT 1
I wonder if anyone could answer the following Metrolink question for me.
I tend to use the Whitefield park and ride for my weekend visits to the Greater Manchester area and have no problems getting a space even mid morning. Over the last few years however I've used an almost empty car park in Oldham for weekday visits but since said car park has reduced it's fee to £1 for 12 hours this car park is virtually full by 9.30 each morning. I wonder can anyone tell me how well used the Metrolink park and ride sites are during the week.
Living in Shipley I know I could park at the railway station most Saturday's but come Monday to Friday you need to be there for 7.30am to guarantee a spot, can I assume Whitefields car park might be as full on a Monday morning?
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 22, 2013 14:23:20 GMT 1
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Post by sharksmith on Sept 9, 2013 21:28:11 GMT 1
PB0004197/4 - J & B TRAVEL LTD, PICKUP BUSINESS PARK, GRANGEFIELD ROAD, STANNINGLEY, PUDSEY, LS28 6JS
Registration Accepted by SN Starting Point: BAILDON TOWNGATE Finish Point: MENSTON ST MARYS RC SCHOOL Via: Service Number: L21 Service Type: School or Works Effective Date: 02-SEP-2013 Other Details: MONDAY TO FRIDAY INCLUSIVE SCHOOL TERM ONLY
This would explain why I saw a J&B Olympian passing through Shipley at 7am this morning instead of the usual Godsons bus.
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