Chris Johns wrote:
The bendyness of the busses probably causes more problems in York's
streets - they will fit along "the route" but any obstruction probably
causes them more problems than a tradional bus.


It'd certainly be interesting to see which routes they can and can't be
used on. I would guess that the twisty bit of route 6 through Osbaldwick
will be problematic for them!

Not sure what the next routes planned for ftr are - 1, 3 or 5 would seem
to be the logical next choices.

through traffic - most of York's bus routes are radial, serving two
entirely different areas on opposite sides of the town. Osbaldwick and
Clifton Moor have relatively little in common; neither do Acomb and
Heslington (4) or Poppleton and Stamford Bridge (10). First could have a
much more reliable schedule if they split these routes in town.

pete
--
"That is enigmatic. That is textbook enigmatic..." - Dr Who
"There's no room for enigmas in built-up areas." - N Blackwell

In message
Pete Fenelon wrote:

Chris Johns wrote:
The bendyness of the busses probably causes more problems in York's
streets - they will fit along "the route" but any obstruction probably
causes them more problems than a tradional bus.


It'd certainly be interesting to see which routes they can and can't be
used on. I would guess that the twisty bit of route 6 through Osbaldwick
will be problematic for them!

Not sure what the next routes planned for ftr are - 1, 3 or 5 would seem
to be the logical next choices.

through traffic - most of York's bus routes are radial, serving two
entirely different areas on opposite sides of the town. Osbaldwick and
Clifton Moor have relatively little in common; neither do Acomb and
Heslington (4) or Poppleton and Stamford Bridge (10). First could have a
much more reliable schedule if they split these routes in town.

pete

I think this is probably the thinking behind Nottingham's system of
not having buses running straight across the city centre -as you well
know, suburbs directly opposite each other over the city centre rarely
have much in common, traffic between them is slight, and there is no
reason why traffic North - South or East - West should balance, the
buses one side might be overfull one side and half empty the other
side.

Instead Nottingham runs buses into a city centre loop, this loop (the
same loop for busses coming from all direction) runs round the city
centre, at a comfortable distance from all city centre destinations,
and then the busses go out the way they came in. If you want to
continue your journey the other side of the city centre, you wait at
the same stop, or just along the pavement, for the bus that goes your
way. I think it is a very good idea. In middle-sized cities, I think
it would be a good idea for trams too.

Michael Bell

--

"Pete Fenelon" wrote in message
...
Chris Johns wrote:
The bendyness of the busses probably causes more problems in York's
streets - they will fit along "the route" but any obstruction
probably
causes them more problems than a tradional bus.


It'd certainly be interesting to see which routes they can and can't
be
used on. I would guess that the twisty bit of route 6 through
Osbaldwick
will be problematic for them!


I think the next route planned for ftr buses is the 4 ....


Not sure what the next routes planned for ftr are - 1, 3 or 5 would
seem
to be the logical next choices.


that being route 4 in Leeds.

Press release 15 May 2006

We are very sorry for any inconvenience experienced by our customers as
a result of teething difficulties on ftr.

Any word on what these teething difficulties are, and why it's so
difficult to operate what is basically a fancy bendy bus with fancy
ticket machines and a few extra decorative bits of plastic on the
outside?

The other down side (for some) is the £1.50 flat fare, which is double what
I pay on the "normal" buses.

As already mentioned, they should be on the No. 3

--
King B Boogaloo
http://europeanrailways.fotopic.net/
Any views or opinions expressed and presented are not those of the author
and do not represent those of his employers, they belong to the voices in
his head.

Pete Fenelon wrote:

The ticket machine's crashed on both of my ftr rides so far -
unfortunately after I'd got on and successfully bought a ticket...

Bad software, then...probably either a rush job or too cheap.

Overall... not much difference between ftr and a normal bendybus,
although I can't see how the driver being isolated behind smoked glass
will make passengers feel any safer... (wasn't one of the objectives of
ftr to make bus travel less unappealing to women?)

I find that the fact that MK Metro *don't* have screens of any kind[1]
protecting the drivers to be much more reassuring, as the only reason
they don't is because they don't need them, because bus driver assaults
are pretty much unknown.

[1] A very small number (3 I think) of the very new full-size single
deckers do, but they are always left fully open. I think they were
provided because they were standard rather than necessary, especially
as Metro are now Arriva owned[2] so probably procure through them.

[2] You'd never know, as there hasn't been a rebranding, and Arriva
have actually openly stated they don't plan to, possibly because Metro
has a very good local identity (almost like a municipal, even though
they've never been one) and generally seem to be liked.

Neil

KingBBoogaloo wrote:
The other down side (for some) is the ?1.50 flat fare, which is double what
I pay on the "normal" buses.


The shocking rise from 60p to a quid for the cheapest single back in
January was bad enough...



pete
--
"That is enigmatic. That is textbook enigmatic..." - Dr Who
"There's no room for enigmas in built-up areas." - N Blackwell

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
oups.com...
Pete Fenelon wrote:

The ticket machine's crashed on both of my ftr rides so far -
unfortunately after I'd got on and successfully bought a ticket...

Bad software, then...probably either a rush job or too cheap.

Overall... not much difference between ftr and a normal bendybus,
although I can't see how the driver being isolated behind smoked
glass
will make passengers feel any safer... (wasn't one of the
objectives of
ftr to make bus travel less unappealing to women?)

I find that the fact that MK Metro *don't* have screens of any
kind[1]
protecting the drivers to be much more reassuring, as the only
reason
they don't is because they don't need them, because bus driver
assaults
are pretty much unknown.

[1] A very small number (3 I think) of the very new full-size single
deckers do, but they are always left fully open. I think they were
provided because they were standard rather than necessary,
especially
as Metro are now Arriva owned[2] so probably procure through them.


Although I strongly suspect the buses were already on order prior to
the Arriva takeover... although I guess some minor changes may have
been possible.


[2] You'd never know, as there hasn't been a rebranding, and Arriva
have actually openly stated they don't plan to, possibly because
Metro
has a very good local identity (almost like a municipal, even though
they've never been one) and generally seem to be liked.


I have a theory on why there has been no re-branding yet.... its
because Arriva thought there might be a Competition Commission
referral.... last I heard this was still a possibility.... why rebrand
something you may have to sell on (or give back to the original
owners). If (when?) it gets cleared (either with or without a CC
referral), I wouldn't be surprised if Arriva logos start to appear,
followed by the eventual rebranding.

Neil

In article , Chris
Johns writes
The area is as people have already said a very busy area which
econmically is doing very well. The 207 are jammed full most of the day.

Why replace it then? If they are jammed most of the day, then some more
busses might be in order.

There's a limit to how many buses per hour you can run on a route. The
same number of trams per hour carry far more people.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

On Sun, 4 Jun 2006, Neil Williams wrote:

The ticket machine's crashed on both of my ftr rides so far -
unfortunately after I'd got on and successfully bought a ticket...
Bad software, then...probably either a rush job or too cheap.

What advantage is this machine meant to give anyway? I can't its in any
way an improvement on the previous mode of operation.
--
Chris Johns

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 07:43:05 +0100, Clive D. W. Feather wrote:

The area is as people have already said a very busy area which
econmically is doing very well. The 207 are jammed full most of the day.

Why replace it then? If they are jammed most of the day, then some more
busses might be in order.

There's a limit to how many buses per hour you can run on a route. The
same number of trams per hour carry far more people.

What is actually the limiting factor in how many buses you can run on
a route?