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Remaining bendy buses
Roland Perry writes:
In message , at 23:30:51 on Sat, 25 Jun 2011, Paul Corfield remarked: I still think it's a monstrous waste of resources to be binning the bendy buses when they still have another 10-15 years life in them. The operators will move them to a different city, won't they? Unfortunatly they have. I came across one in Leicester, causing chaos as it is too long to turn right from the right turn lane and was therefore blocking traffic going straight on. Victoria Park Road to Queens Road. They are totally unsuitable for British cities. Couldn't they just have had the back cut of and a new back welded onto the bus part. Phil |
Remaining bendy buses
In message , at 11:01:50 on
Sun, 26 Jun 2011, Paul Corfield remarked: The operators will move them to a different city, won't they? They've not managed it so far. A few went on to Olympic site worker shuttles, some have gone to Brighton, Bournemouth and Leicester. Arriva have moved a fair number to Malta for their big network scheme. That's interesting - I was reading an article the other day about Arriva talking over from the colourful owner-drivers on the island. An example of a route where they could be used is the X26 from Kingston to Heathrow. That route fills up well but is not suited to double deckers as people cannot lug their luggage upstairs. In other news... I saw a (P&R[1]) double decker being used on the Nottingham to East Midlands airport SKYLINK service the other week. Not sure if that was a deliberate attempt to increase capacity, or whether it was an emergency substitution. The destination boards had it programmed in though. [1] Which have quite a bit of luggage/standing space downstairs. -- Roland Perry |
Remaining bendy buses
Paul Corfield wrote:
The reality is that very expensive assets are being chucked on the scrap heap as a result of a political whim turned into a policy. Even more (in terms of quantity) replacement assets are being bought new to replace them prematurely. It is as if we had shuttled back to the 1970s and were reliving the worst aspects of LT's vehicle policies from that time. One might have hoped that that particular lesson from history had been learnt by now. I suspect that such politicking will continue for a good unless a consensus develops across the main parties that agrees these things better before the assets are ordered in the first place. I have no memory of whether the initial bendy orders were supported by the Conservatives at the time (or which particular Conservatives - a serious problem with the GLA set-up is that Mayors aren't necessarily going to come from within and a party's Assembly group's agreement will be less binding on candidates than a parliamentary one) but I do wonder if Livingstone would have so readily agreed them if he'd realised what a controversy they would be or that he could face defeat in an election (and in 2005/6/7 a lot of people outside Labour took his re-election for granted). Then again Livingstone is one of the least likely politicians to go in for such agreements. It's perfectly clear that a fair proportion of people do not like going upstairs on double decks so more seats on a single deck offers a sensible compromise. Is the design workable for that? On the bendies at the moment the crush is in the door areas and people generally don't try to move down into the seating aisles because they lack confidence they can get out in time. The (usually) one way doors on double deckers do at least encourage movement in that direction. |
Remaining bendy buses
Paul Corfield wrote:
They are totally unsuitable for British cities. Couldn't they just have had the back cut of and a new back welded onto the bus part. No they are not - people seem to conveniently forget that bendy buses have operated for years and years in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bath, Gateshead, Leeds, York, Coventry and Birmingham with barely a squeak of complaint about them. These buses run on a wide variety of services on streets of varying dimensions and they are not subject to the sort of irrational and daft vilification that has surrounded their use in London. Of all those cities I can only recall using bendies in York - and there they seemed to run on fairly wide roads, not narrow twisting ones. Do those cities allow boarding at all doors or just the front? The "free bus" aspect has been one of the things people hate about them the most and, whether rightly or wrongly, they believe one of the reasons for crushcrowding is the limited disincentive for free riding. Also do the buses generally serve short hops in the urban areas where standing is more tolerated for a brief period or long suburban journeys where seats are more desired? If people wish to complain about long and cumbersome vehicles why is there not a vocal campaign about huge tri-axle coaches and buses that are deployed on routes like the Oxford Tube, Megabus and various sightseeing operations? The answer is that a Mayor (or Mayoral candidate) has not put them in their sights so far as political campaigning is concerned even though they are almost as long as less manouevrable than their bendy counterparts. There were attacks on the buses before Bojo's campaign. Part of it is down to London exceptionalism, especially as the bendies coincided with the phasing out of the Routemaster, but also the buses were never terribly well sold to portions of the public who have to use them. |
Remaining bendy buses
Paul Corfield wrote:
They are totally unsuitable for British cities. Couldn't they just have had the back cut of and a new back welded onto the bus part. No they are not - people seem to conveniently forget that bendy buses have operated for years and years in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bath, Gateshead, Leeds, York, Coventry and Birmingham with barely a squeak of complaint about them. These buses run on a wide variety of services on streets of varying dimensions and they are not subject to the sort of irrational and daft vilification that has surrounded their use in London. Of all those cities I can only recall using bendies in York - and there they seemed to run on fairly wide roads, not narrow twisting ones. Do those cities allow boarding at all doors or just the front? The "free bus" aspect has been one of the things people hate about them the most and, whether rightly or wrongly, they believe one of the reasons for crushcrowding is the limited disincentive for free riding. Also do the buses generally serve short hops in the urban areas where standing is more tolerated for a brief period or long suburban journeys where seats are more desired? If people wish to complain about long and cumbersome vehicles why is there not a vocal campaign about huge tri-axle coaches and buses that are deployed on routes like the Oxford Tube, Megabus and various sightseeing operations? The answer is that a Mayor (or Mayoral candidate) has not put them in their sights so far as political campaigning is concerned even though they are almost as long as less manouevrable than their bendy counterparts. There were attacks on the buses before Bojo's campaign. Part of it is down to London exceptionalism, especially as the bendies coincided with the phasing out of the Routemaster, but also the buses were never terribly well sold to portions of the public who have to use them. |
Remaining bendy buses
On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:05:03 +0100, "Tim Roll-Pickering"
wrote: seating aisles because they lack confidence they can get out in time. The (usually) one way doors on double deckers do at least encourage movement in that direction. Nothing says you can't operate bendies that way. Neil -- Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK |
Remaining bendy buses
On Sun, 26 Jun 2011 14:49:49 +0100, "Tim Roll-Pickering"
wrote: Do those cities allow boarding at all doors or just the front? Just the front. Maybe the issue is to some extent operational, then. In some places, e.g.parts of Germany and Switzerland, all buses are like that. Neil -- Neil Williams, Milton Keynes, UK |
Remaining bendy buses
On 2011\06\26 11:01, Paul Corfield wrote:
Other examples are the 227, 203, 232, 285 and 358 - all busy and constrained to single deck operation IIRC. I believe the 232 has often used double deckers, and route 285 contains no low bridges that I can find. Not sure about the others. |
Remaining bendy buses
On 2011\06\26 08:42, Neil Williams wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:37:04 -0500, wrote: I noticed some ex-TfL bendies in use in Leicester on Friday on route 80, between various Leicester Uni locations. They were painted bright green! Perhaps some should be considered for the Oxford Road services in Manchester? Major student area with lots of cyclists. |
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