Very uneventful very hot very stuffy day today. Was stuck on the b10 1 till 4 doing taxis with the heating stuck on after coming out of the gym! Not the best day for it. Taxis are good for gossip. Heard today we have won the tender for the centreline service or whatever it's called now. I believe it's going to be run from Hyde road . I thought first had just got new buses for it too. **update, i cannot find anything to confirm this on the net so it is just hearsay upto now** Just getting off a 409 they seem to run ok in the evening but read a comment about poor service first thing in the morning which isn't good when people are trying to get to work and there are buses missing. Back in at 6 tomorrow with the god awful 390s for the second part. This picture is the old bank at mumps which has been left like this for a while now but i believe someone has started work on it. Random yes but i like the building lol.
Centreline? what's that.
ReplyDeleteWhats wrong with the 390... hate Optares or Old people... or both lol
William you should be ashamed. Its the old name for the City Free bus that runs around Manchester.
ReplyDelete390s are like doing taxis. round and round and round and round. Anyway whats your roll perched near D stand?
Thats just infront of worst bus oldham. Apparently a developer bought it with grand plans , then the bubble burst. I hope they do it justice soon. Had my induction today , route learning for the rest of this week now i think, at Ashton. I have never heard of the 390 !
ReplyDeleteWilliam is showing his age lol. Centreline is the previous name for the Metroshuttle service in Manchester city centre, although when it was called Centreline [in GM Buses Day's] it wasn't free. I think there was a flat fare of 16p.
ReplyDeleteThe Metroshuttle routes [Centreline] are up for re-tender i belive so i can belive Stagecoach MAY have won them.
The new buses for the 3 Metroshuttle lines are Optare Solo SR's[the same as Bluebirds solo's] and have been paid for by GMPTE. I think there also Hybrid buses and IF Stagecoach have won the contract im sure First will be very unhappy about it. Its quite a cushy contract to have!
good on stagecoach bet they will run it better then worstbus
ReplyDeleteQuestions to answer... and give me a break, I only just finished college lol
ReplyDeleteSpeedwell have appointed me to 'monitor' the competition. Yesterday was rather strange as I clocked 13 different buses on the 350... although it should be 11 only... weird. I'll be doing it again today, but not tomorrow as I'm off for a week. Not a holiday though, damn.
Metro shuttle will also have Versa's too, not sure for which route but they're there. Oh but it would be funny if they lost the contract... and it's a big job and the only other company that could grab it is either stagecoach or arriva, correct me if I'm wrong.
MetroShuttle is to get 8 Solos and 12 Versas...all diesel-electric hybids.
ReplyDeleteWilliam spying on the enermy lol. I rememeber Dennis's doing the same think some years ago. Counting how many buses Stagecoach had running on the 216/219. They found that there was something like 8 extra buses on the 216 and 5 extra buses on the 219. They took there findings to the office of fair trading, but nothing ever happened.
ReplyDeleteYour wrong regarding the Centreline/Metroshuttle William. As far as i know all operators are invited to tender for it and infact Bluebird ran it for a couple of years in the late 90's using Merc Vario's although they called it the 'Shopper' service.
william
ReplyDeletewith the 350 the buses seem to breakdown a lot I remember last year 40366 broke down twice in a week
was On NKG tonight coming home a 350 double deck passed empty
Hello Mic,
ReplyDeleteI've just summarised my report and there are certain topics that need addressing with First... and stagecoach (236/7 lay-by waiting time lol) not stagecoach's fault but the S50 should share a stop with the S48.
I was doing the S48 review in the morning and there were 2 Olympians, even one of the First drivers said that First should cut there losses and just have solos lol
To be fair Speedwell do there fair share of stand blocking as well. As a regular user of the 236 ive lost count of the number of times the bus has had to load in the middle of the carriage way while the S50 waits a little longer, and often when theres a S48/S50 at the stand at the same time the bottom door is blocked so the Stott's 41 and JPT 335 has to load in the middle of the carriage way.
ReplyDeleteThats why I said stagecoach weren't too blame. The pte need to rearrange alot... sooner rather than later preffered.
ReplyDeletewilliam
ReplyDeletedo not think the bus stn is big enough go on the drivers that said that they are putting double decks on the 331/33 services when they could have solos there aswell
keep up the reviews
what are the S48 loadings like now
The bus station isnt big enough full stop. There is constant back ups the exits are poor and the slots are badly timed. I'm sure now William is working for Speedwell it wouldnt be appropriate to be offering passenger numbers on a web site. Although from my pbseration i say between 30-40% full throughout the day which isnt bad at all for any small operator.
ReplyDeletethats good to hear and sometimes those traffic lights out of the bus stn can stay on red for a least 5 mins
ReplyDeleteOh no, these are things I keep under wraps, especially figures lol The S48 is doing fine, but that's obviously due to it's timed launch.
ReplyDeleteThe Bus station is layed out very poorly indeed, and the times set are just a mess. I reckon that if First decided to not hog the lay by on 'D' stand then the S50 could rest there... or shift the 395/6 and 217 to 'E' Stand and have the 'C' stand for the S routes, as they are timed away from the glossop buses... see this is what I work out in my head argh lol
Its strange that the S48 isn't doing better, when they were running once an hour they seemed to have full loads but now there every 20 mins they seem to always be less than half full which is a shame, but having said its very rare to see a full 348!
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the bus station isn't going to get that much bigger. Its just being re-designed to house the tram's and the Arcades extension.
I think planning the times and slots is key but also it seems alot of the operators break the rules in Ashton. As i understand it any bus is only allowed to spend 4 Mins max loading at the stand. No time should be spent at the stands on Layover, yet First, Stagecoach and Speedwell all do this on a daily basis. Agreed there isn't enough Layover space in Ashton but the only place i see these rules enforced is in Shudehill where you often see the GMPTE inspecter moving buses on if they have stayed to long.
Found out a little bit more info on the Metroshuttle services.
ReplyDeleteApparently the services are up for re-tender in September but its suspected First will continue to run all 3 services as the new vehicles arn't even on the production line yet.
But when they do get delivered GMPTE are awarding each of the 3 Metro-serices seperatly, so for example First could win MS1, Stagecoach could win MS2 and Bluebird MS3.
The tenders for MetroShuttle had to be in by 22nd June. Five year contract.
ReplyDeleteYep but they are due to start in September i belive, but as the new vehicles haven't even started being built yet its expected First will continue to run all three services on a temp basis.
ReplyDeleteAshton could do with a bus stn like Huddersfield where buses park up at the back then come on stand when ready
ReplyDeletespeedwell NKH is back on the road hope S48 does get more passangers should do as time goes on train got packed at Stalybridge today 7.00am to Manchester as the expresses where not running
also saw 20938 on the 347 today
Yes Mic i saw it as well. There was also a Volvo Olympian on the 409 tonight.
ReplyDeleteyes it was 34031 it was just passing Ikea as I was walking to the train stn
ReplyDeleteIts not good is it Mic. First seem to be going backwards, although got to say the Oldham Olympians look alot smarter than the ones at Dukinfield.
ReplyDeletewell 34069 was at Dukinfield for a few days last year and that one had should a quiet engine it was then replaced by 31927
ReplyDeleteI think the arrows at Wigan get withdrawn in september so could see the Dukinfield ones going aswell
going to have a farewell ride on the speedwell 354 this saturday coming
Oldham based 34061 got a full repainted and looks posh 31950 got the same before moving to Wigan
ReplyDelete