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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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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 6, 2015 22:39:14 GMT 1
There always is the problem when a 20-min service is overlaid on a half-hourly service. The only way to sort this would be to rewrite the entire 25 timetable. !! It is possible to run a 20-minute service along with two 30-minute services and not have (a) any buses running within 5 minutes of each other, and (b) any gaps of more than 15 minutes. Given that the 25 is the timetable with the most constraints, it would be easy enough to shift the 66 and 762 to fit the pattern around it. Example service pattern: 00 - 05 - 15 - 20 - 35 - 40 - 45 - 60
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Unibus
Aug 5, 2015 18:00:46 GMT 1
Post by stevieinselby on Aug 5, 2015 18:00:46 GMT 1
I see that the ducks have now left the yellow Unibuses and set up their home on the PINK, there's just a slightly cleaner duck-shaped hole in the livery on Transdev's buses.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 4, 2015 20:37:11 GMT 1
Reaction to these unfortunate changes can be found here on the York Press m.yorkpress.co.uk/news/13526918.York_bus_changes_slammed/Interesting about the 5 and 10 not covering their costs, maybe an opportunity for EYMS to come in on the Dunnington/Stamford Bridge corridor or for First to think about a more profitable means to serve the Boroughbridge Road corridor than to replace 4 buses an hour at regular intervals with 6ish buses an hour at irregular intervals. Makes sense for First to want to fix something that was broken, but how is this a fix? The weekly ticket was £16, they dropped it to £12... Have they gained enough patronage to cover the difference? I wonder to what extent the problems facing the 10 have been caused by the introduction of the 59. If residents of Poppleton are now driving to the P&R rather than getting the bus from the village then that might go some way to explaining why the route is struggling. At the other end, it's hard to believe that Stamford Bridge and Dunnington can't support a proper half-hourly service. With the 5 and 10 now giving 5.5 buses an hour to the section between Water End and Beckfield Lane, that does sound like over-saturation if they can't make ends meet. Does the 5/5A need to be that frequent at the Acomb end? With it being so much slower than the 1 between York and Acomb, I can't see that many people using it as a through route, so it's more about providing a service for those residential streets, both to Acomb shops and to the city centre. Could that be done effectively on a half-hourly frequency?
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 4, 2015 7:11:54 GMT 1
The buses that run the 'summer only' journeys are not usually MAX - I've seen Temsas and B7TLs, so if this was one of those journeys then a Pulsar 2 is about as good as you can hope for!
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 3, 2015 23:51:34 GMT 1
I don't know where the new double deckers that are now running the 66 have come from but they sound AWFUL, much worse than the worst President that Arriva have got ... and yet other Volvo B9TLs that First have got along with other companies as well all sound absolutely fine.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 2, 2015 19:45:44 GMT 1
Here's a little question for everyone! What route numbers are used by the same operator, but in different city (/town), and run on completly different routes! Let see how many we can get! Arriva North East used to have two 29s, one running from Middlesbrough to Stokesley and one taking the scenic route from Darlington to Richmond, until the latter was taken over by Dales & District. In fact they still do have a duplicate – there's an X4 running from Middlesbrough to Loftus, and another from Newcastle to Blyth.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 2, 2015 18:07:37 GMT 1
Do you not think that the routing could be specified as part of the contract. Fair point, it might be. But whatever the reasons are, it's still a bluddy stupid decision that people travelling on all buses through Piccadilly are going to pay heavily for.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 2, 2015 18:05:39 GMT 1
If what I've heard is correct, then the route is going to be University - Piccadilly - Clifford Street - Nunnery Lane - Station - Rougier Street - Piccadilly - University. Not plausible to run them Piccadilly > Clifford Street > Nunnery Lane, because to get from Clifford Street outbound to Nunnery Lane you would have to go all the way round the Fishergate one-way system overlapping with the route you've already run in on. You could in theory run Piccadilly > Skeldergate > Nunnery Lane, although I would be wary of putting that many buses down Skeldergate and turning right at the end ... not too bad with EYMS having 1 or 2 per hour, but if First put another 9 buses per hour down there then that could start to cause problems. Of course, the maps on First's website don't show the city centre or give any clue which city centre stops are served by each route, and the timetables, as usual, are absolutely sod all use, showing stops only at Sport Village, Piccadilly and Nunnery Lane. And, equally of course, Traveline is no freakin' use either as it hasn't even heard of the service. However, given that the daytime service has 18 minutes between departing Piccadilly and departing Nunnery Lane, I can't see them running it as a circular service (even though that is how it is stupidly and incorrectly described in their timetable), because that would give them a 10+ minute layover at Nunnery Lane, making the service intolerably slow and inconvenient for passengers going to York Station, and 15 minutes slower than if they run there and back through town. I've had a "best guess" attempt to get the timetables right on my website, and apart from the 1 and 12 they should now all be there, but in some cases that's all they are, guesses. OK, let's be smarter about this. NextBuses shows departures from Rougier Street (CC) on the 66 towards York Station. That answers that question, they do just run straight through town on the logical route.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 2, 2015 10:58:28 GMT 1
Not sure if this new but it what Pulse is all about www.firstgroup.com/pulse/Pulse buses are the easy way to travel. They run every 10 minutes or better* all across Leeds, so there's no need to worry about complicated timetables or missing your bus. Just turn up, hop on and go! And to make life even easier, you can download our FREE travel app, packed with handy info like where your nearest bus stops are. *Pulse buses up to every 10 mins or better, Mon - Sat during the day Oh don't worry, I fully understand the marketing plan behind Pulse, I just don't know smart a plan it is. The main problem is that it just doesn't identify with particular routes. At least with the Overground, there were theoretically buses assigned to each route and branded for it, so it was clear what the high-frequency routes were. Yes, sometimes buses were used on the wrong routes, and when you've got lots of small fleets that is not surprising. But with two very large fleets of "Pulse" and "non-Pulse", there should be no excuse for Pulse buses to be turning up on non-Pulse routes ... but that is what is happening all the time. And so it becomes meaningless and confusing for passengers when they get buses that say "Up to every 10 minutes or better" (sic) on routes that only run every half hour.
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Post by stevieinselby on Aug 2, 2015 9:28:30 GMT 1
The latest idiocy in this saga is that the U66 is going to run via Piccadilly, the same as the 44, instead of Clifford Street, which has had the/a main university service for 20 years or more.
No way on earth can Piccadilly cope with that many buses. It's already struggling as it is, and buses are frequently queueing up and backing up other traffic – not helped by the awkward angled bays for the P&R and 44 heading out of town – particularly when term starts again in October and there's an extra 8 buses an hour in each direction, it's going to be chaos.
Meanwhile, Clifford Street – a whole 3 minutes' walk away – will be virtually empty. A clear case of putting petty rivalry ahead of common sense.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 28, 2015 22:02:01 GMT 1
So it turns out that, with the exception of the Connexions 13, which at first glance looks to be OK, Traveline have completely bollocksed up every single change in York that is taking place next week, despite them claiming to have timetable data up to 21 August.
First 4 - No timetable found. <sigh>
First 5 - Traveline shows the revised route and times for the 5 (via the station as well as the new route in Acomb) but still shows the 5A running via Leeman Road at the old times. BTW, I've just noticed that this service is not every 15 minutes, it's roughly 4 buses every 65 minutes, and so the times change pretty much every hour, which is just frickin' stupid and unhelpful, showing no consideration for passengers.
First 6 - Traveline shows buses running from Burton Green to Clifton Moor only and nothing in the reverse direction. The times they have given don't tally up with what is shown on First's website.
First 10 - looks fine from Stamford Bridge to Poppleton, but for Poppleton to Stamford Bridge it still shows the old route and times.
First 13A - route description of Acomb to Haxby (not mentioning Copmanthorpe) still shown but redirecting to Connexions 13.
First U56 - no evidence of this service at all.
First U66 - no evidence of this service at all.
Transdev 44 - still shows current route and times, with no mention of the extension to Acomb.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 27, 2015 7:53:23 GMT 1
I think buying new buses for the 36 is a waste when they have just spend about a million pound refurbishing the current Gemini's I think it's more the other way round - the refurbishment was a waste, when they should have bought new buses and cascaded the B7TLs. I get the impression that Transdev are not happy with the buses on the 36 - I don't know if that's because the refurbishment wasn't done well enough, or if they have now realised that it was just not enough to cover up the age of the buses.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 26, 2015 19:54:55 GMT 1
New buses for Lancashire's flagship route a while back, new buses for Coastliner on a semi-regular basis, new buses for Harrogate's flagship route now and what for Keighley's flagship route? Refurbished 10 year old B7RLE's. Poor relation or what? The 36 is currently using 12-year-old buses, and the X41 is using 10-year old buses, with no prospect of new vehicles coming any time soon that I am aware of. But let's just compare them. The 662 is under an hour from end to end, in predominantly urban territory, I'm guessing mostly 30mph limits with occasional splashes of 40. On the other hand, the 36, X41 and X43 are over 1½ hours from end to end and have significant sections of high-speed running, and Coastliner routes are up to 3–3½ hours, again with lots of high-speed running. So yes, it's pretty much inevitable that the 662 is going to be a lower priority for brand new buses than other high-profile routes the company runs. Do you have any actual criticism of the refurbished B7RLEs on the 662, or are you just narked on principle?
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 25, 2015 8:28:30 GMT 1
When the 5 was "just" City to Strenstall, we used to start & finish on Station Rise, as did the 6 (I think) when that "just" ran City - Osbaldwick. No buses ran dead from one stop to another that I can recall, although the 27A to Leeman Road technically could have around the right turn at the far end of the one way system. It depends where the registered departure point was. Back then, there were still the stop on Station Rise as well, so it may well be that the buses were booked to layover and resume from Station Road. With the loss of the Station Rise stops and the introduction of the 59 at those stops, it could be that TPTB feel there isn't the capacity at those stops any more and that's why the 6 is now booked to start from Station Avenue. Yes, according to my archives, the 5 and 6 were both registered from Station Road, making it a different situation from this time round.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 24, 2015 17:35:30 GMT 1
Aha, someone has finally caught on! Wouldn't a short notice change just be the council asking them to change the evening/Sunday route to match first? Thinking about what I put before regards the 6 route, I was speaking to somebody back when the 5 terminated at Station Road who told me (maybe someone can confirm) that they wouldn't let you board at Station Road and you had to walk round to the Station Ave stop on the other side. I'm sure there's plenty of people who change onto the 6 at Rougier St from east of York, but forcing people to cross 2 busy roads to get to (for arguments sake) the hospital is a bad solution IMHO. Yes, I assume the change to the Transdev 10 is someone belatedly realising that the evening services need to be rerouted in line with the daytime service. The new timetable for the 6 definitely shows inbound buses setting down at Station Road and outbound buses picking up at Station Avenue, and the rules say that passengers should not be carried between the two as the bus is not in service. I would guess drivers will be pretty strict about the rules. I agree that it's not at all passenger-friendly to reduce the number of passengers with a direct bus to the hospital and not to pick up anywhere on the "inside" the inner ring road.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 24, 2015 6:56:47 GMT 1
PB0001873/31 - YORKSHIRE COASTLINER LTD, PROSPECT PARK, STARBECK, HARROGATE, HG2 7NYVariation Accepted by SN: Operating between Nether Poppleton and Stamford Bridge given service number 10 effective from 02-Aug-2015. To amend Route and Timetable. Aha, someone has finally caught on!
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Unibus
Jul 20, 2015 17:14:37 GMT 1
Post by stevieinselby on Jul 20, 2015 17:14:37 GMT 1
Transdev have started to publish details of the changes to Unibus from next month. The holiday timetable is published, but they are just giving info about the term-time times at the moment.
Buses will run from the university (Heslington East interchange) every 15 minutes during the daytime, 7 days a week, increasing to at least every 10 minutes during term time (probably Monday to Saturday only), and every 30 minutes in the evenings.
One bus every 30 minutes will be extended to Acomb via Holly Bank (0800–1800 weekdays, 0900–1700 Saturdays), which gives a considerably better service to Holly Bank than it has now both in terms of frequency and hours of operation, as well as providing a faster service between Acomb and the university than even the current 4, let alone the re-routed service. All other buses will continue to run to Nunnery Lane as now.
During term-time, they are also promising an hourly service right through the night, 7 days a week, which is an exciting new development.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 17, 2015 21:58:58 GMT 1
Transdev have informed City of York Council that they will extend there 44 route to serve 90% of the new 13a route commercially. Therefore this has cancelled the tender Arriva won, last minute. Given that the 13A was to be operated by Euro 5 engine buses does this mean that all the buses operating the 44 will comply! If the route is being operated commercially then it doesn't have to comply with the council's rules for tendered services Just like the existing Coastliner and Unibus services, most First York services, most Connexions services, many EYMS services, many Reliance services, many Arriva services ... you get the picture.
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Post by stevieinselby on Jul 16, 2015 7:49:14 GMT 1
Yes, it's an argument that I've been having with Arriva about (1) reducing the number of timing points doesn't in and of itself mean a service will be more reliable, (2) if passengers have to allow enough time for the earliest running at every interpolated stop, this reduces the convenience of the service because they have to get to the stop earlier to make the same journey, (3) with Google Maps and Traveline and some operators' own websites giving stop-by-stop times, passengers will assume that those are the departure times and won't expect to have to be at the stop 5 minutes early, and (4) the public timetable should reflect what passengers want/need to know, NOT the logistical and operational details of the company.
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