Got hold of this recently. It's a guide to driving a bus on the 409 service? Anyone who uses it surely knows that it's had it's problems. I have seen the gaps in service whilst being in Ashton and recently noticed i lot of older buses on the route. This guide tells drivers how to answer customer complaints and whats being done for the route. Will see if anything improves. But with oldham town centre being held to ransome by metrolink works and Oldham first depot suffering staffing shortages i doubt it will be anytime soon.
they have posters in the buses saying every 10 mins i do not think so more like every 10 hours
ReplyDelete3 come together every 30 minutes. They like to hunt in packs!
ReplyDeleteThe new livery buses now have 409 branding on it. That said, I did see 2 buses very close to each other on Ashton Road this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since I've done the 409 route, but I think the main problem is the timimg points. From Rochdale to Oldham you have plenty of running time, but from Oldham to Ashton the timings are really tight, from what I remember of the route. Add to that all the roadworks, traffic lights that only let 3 vehicles through at a time (West Street is awful for this) and that's when these situations happen. I'm just glad I don't do the 409's very often ...lol...
ReplyDeletealso the traffic lights out of Ashton bus stn seem to stick on red for ages sometimes and since the bypass opened at Ashton the lights where the buses comedown from Mossley will only be on green for 5-10 secs just mad
DeleteI forgot about the bus station lights, you're right Mic, last time I did the 409, the bus station filter did seem to take forever. I've also heard that the depot are doing some sort of "cheaper weekly saver" promotion on the 409's - £15 instead of £18. Won't be much use to 90% of the passengers though, the ones with concessionary passes ;-)
DeleteI have seen some of your buses branded for service though they would have done like 37432-46
Deletealso does Oldham have solos 40312/13 not seen in Ashton since the new TfGM buses came into use
one of the best arrows 31929 is to be withdrawn soon guess 31952 will stay to replace it
To be honest the only bus numbers I tend to remember are the ones that are particularly bad to drive...lol...
DeleteI did see one of the 409 branded buses out on a 184 route a couple of days ago, seems a bit pointless spending all that money on fancy liveries, then putting the bus on the wrong route.
stagecoach seem to be doing more school services at St Damiens and blue coat school in oldham and seen the new yellow buses running almost empty
ReplyDeletethat would be firstbus with new yellow school buses not sure stagecoach have any
DeleteSaw 31814 on the 348 and 34094/62218 on loan to pioneer yesterday, 40324 reported on loan to bury
ReplyDelete40324 is back home saw it on 354 today think 31952 is still on loan got 62218 home tonight
Delete40324 back home now on 353/54 today
Delete31814 also spotted on the 346 route on Monday, about 1725 at the Albion Hotel stop, Dukinfield.
ReplyDeletespotted the AZ taxi bus heading through Dukinfield with a good load of drivers on board could they be route learning ?
ReplyDeletewould that be 40660 or has that retired yet
ReplyDelete62218 still at Pioneer saw it on 350 today shame the depot is to small to have an allocation of these as they are good ones
I saw a hybrid this morning Sat 15 5 2012 on the 231 service passing along St Albans Ave sounded very quite I think Hyde Rd have two buses on this route on Saturday.
ReplyDeleteHyde rd do an early Saturday 231 which gets into Ashton at around 8am, the last 3 Saturdays it's been Hybrids so guess it's a regular board,
DeleteHyde rd also do an early evening 231 on a Saturday but this is always a normal E400.
Saw Pionner hybrid 59014 on the 64 at Oldham bus station?
ReplyDeleteOdd that, i had heard they were doing the 64s on a Sunday. Seems an odd choice of depot. It only does oldham - Middleton on Sundays too?
DeleteI have had a message from former pennine bus driver he told me that Oldham do the day time services on 64 and 408 but evenings it is done by Dukinfield using the buses from the 419 also must do it on sundays aswell
DeletePioneer bus 40337 is having work done on it at Bolton depot
anyone seen 40312/13 recntly
I did see 40313 on the 402 about 2 weeks ago but not seen 40312/4/50280 for a while. Think 40313 has gone to Oldham.
DeleteAlso think 31929 has been withdrawn from Pioneer now.
Wonder if darts 40367/73/5/6/7/8/9/83 used to be with First Manchester as they are with Potteries?
reason they are doing 64s is they have to be TfGM hybird buses and Oldham depot do not have any of these they only have the school buses
ReplyDeleteBenzo
ReplyDeleteyes those darts are with potteries 31929 was still in service last week had no confirmation about 40313 yet 40314 is still at Pioneer
they are now using the 54regs solos on the 353/54 services a lot more as well as the 02 one
Benzo
ReplyDeleteseen 31929 still in service today 40337 back in service but 40339 is withdrawn after accident yestaday outside Ashton Market