> Spotted in Clapton: a notice at a bus stop announcing "double deck > buses and a more frequent service for Route 38 - starting Saturday 14 > November".
> It says the N38 frequency will increase to a bus every 12 minutes; no > mention of the daytime frequency.
> There's also a line drawing of what looks like an Enviro 400, but that > could just be representative.
70 new double deckers introduced (mixture of 56 10.4m DB300/Gemini 2 DL and 16 9.9m Trident/Enviro400). Frequency increased to every 2-3 minutes Monday to Friday peak hours, 3-4 Monday to Saturday shopping hours, 5 Sunday shopping hours and daily early evenings. On Mondays to Fridays (except evenings) alternate buses will terminate at Hackney Central station.
<aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote: >It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis >plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!
Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up since they were "debendified".
The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense remaining as bendies anyway.
Neil
-- Neil Williams Put my first name before the at to reply.
On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:31 GMT, wensleyd...@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil
Williams) wrote: >On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield ><aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>>It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis >>plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!
>Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych >to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is >pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up >since they were "debendified".
>The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing >bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense >remaining as bendies anyway.
But sense doesn't come into it - this is Boris's hobby-horse.
docnews2...@gmail.com (Bruce) wrote: > On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:31 GMT, wensleyd...@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil > Williams) wrote:
> >On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield > ><aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> >>It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis > >>plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!
> >Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych > >to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is > >pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up > >since they were "debendified".
> >The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing > >bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense > >remaining as bendies anyway.
> But sense doesn't come into it - this is Boris's hobby-horse.
Now there's a thought! How about hobby horses to replace bendies?
Neil Williams wrote: > Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych > to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is > pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up > since they were "debendified".
I did eventually, after a few days, catch a four-in-a-row of 521s, but they've been on diversion recently which has mucked up the timings. Cellar collapse in Procter Street, or something. Two-in-a-row is so common as not to be worth a second glance. Generally by the time they reach about St. Pauls heading east there are single-digit passenger loads on each one, too.
Re: the 38, the original announcement read as if the off-peak frequency was unchanged from bendies - is that still the case? Note that this is the first time ever that someone's tried to run the 38 with single-door boarding double deckers, and thus pretty much counts as a Boris transport innovation.
>> On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:31 GMT, wensleyd...@pacersplace.org.uk (Neil >> Williams) wrote:
>> >On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield >> ><aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
>> >>It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis >> >>plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!
>> >Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych >> >to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is >> >pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up >> >since they were "debendified".
>> >The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing >> >bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense >> >remaining as bendies anyway.
>> But sense doesn't come into it - this is Boris's hobby-horse.
>Now there's a thought! How about hobby horses to replace bendies?
I had a fleeting but beautiful image in my mind for a moment there! :-) -- Ian Jelf, MITG Birmingham, UK
> <martin.deut...@gmail.com> wrote: > >Spotted in Clapton: a notice at a bus stop announcing "double deck > >buses and a more frequent service for Route 38 - starting Saturday 14 > >November".
> Correct
> >It says the N38 frequency will increase to a bus every 12 minutes; no > >mention of the daytime frequency.
> At weekends it is x12 on each leg so every 6 minutes Picc Circus to > Walthamstow. The N38 has always been double deck.
> The frequencies for the daytime service are increased at all times I > think. Up to every 2-3 mins or so in the peaks.
> Note that only half the service on M-F (not evenings) extends beyond > Hackney Central to Clapton Pond. This is a break with the more usual > "all buses run end to end" approach to TfL services although there have > always been exceptions (186, 221).
Wasn't that more "all routes will be shortened to improve reliability statistics", with the result that routes that had included stopping short of the end of the route no longer did so, and new overlapping routes got created (eg 36 into 36 plus 436)?
The 208 still runs in overlapping sections though.
On Nov 8, 7:11 pm, Paul Corfield <aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> Note that only half the service on M-F (not evenings) extends beyond > Hackney Central to Clapton Pond. This is a break with the more usual > "all buses run end to end" approach to TfL services although there have > always been exceptions (186, 221).
Would the 73 not be a fairly high-profile example of this?
It barely seems worthwhile terminating at Hackney Central. It's only cutting a mile from the route, and won't do anything to reduce congestion on the Narrowway, as the empty buses will still presumably run around Amhurst Road to get to the starting point outside the old Town Hall.
On Sun, Nov 08, 2009 at 07:11:42PM +0000, Paul Corfield wrote: > Note that only half the service on M-F (not evenings) extends beyond > Hackney Central to Clapton Pond. This is a break with the more usual > "all buses run end to end" approach to TfL services although there have > always been exceptions (186, 221).
38 frequently turns short of its destination right now, so maybe actually putting that in the timetable will make the service more reliable.
-- David Cantrell | Cake Smuggler Extraordinaire
The Law of Daves: in any gathering of technical people, the number of Daves will be greater than the number of women.
On 9 Nov, 10:11, martin <martin.deut...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 8, 7:11 pm, Paul Corfield <aoo...@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
> > Note that only half the service on M-F (not evenings) extends beyond > > Hackney Central to Clapton Pond. This is a break with the more usual > > "all buses run end to end" approach to TfL services although there have > > always been exceptions (186, 221).
> Would the 73 not be a fairly high-profile example of this?
I can remember about 45 years ago my father taking me and my brother to visit London for the first time and we stayed at the YMCA near Tottenham Court Road. My brother and I had several bets as to whether the next in each case of a seemingly incessant procession of RMs on the 73 would be going to "Stoke Newington" or "Tottenham Garage".
Tom Barry wrote: > Re: the 38, the original announcement read as if the off-peak frequency > was unchanged from bendies - is that still the case? Note that this is > the first time ever that someone's tried to run the 38 with single-door > boarding double deckers, and thus pretty much counts as a Boris > transport innovation.
It ran for years with RMs, and I suspect for years before that with RTs, STLs, LTs or STs - I think they were all single-door boarding double deckers!
"David Cantrell" <d...@cantrell.org.uk> wrote: > 38 frequently turns short of its destination right now, so maybe > actually putting that in the timetable will make the service more > reliable.
Indeed. Many get nowhere near Hackney. It's not that rare to see a 38 leaving Victoria with a short run to Piccadilly Circus. Certainly in RM days, I think the 38 had about the most blinded short turns of any TfL route. Mildmay Park always sounded like a pleasant enough place to suffer an enforced change of bus.
"Neil Williams" <wensle....@pacersplace.org.uk> wrote: > Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych > to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is > pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up > since they were "debendified".
That's more or less the reverse of my morning walk, and I concur with your Red Arrow sightings. The Thames Path on a crisp autumnal morning is an uplifting way to start the day, and normally only about 5 minutes longer than waiting for a 521 or 17 at London Bridge then crawling down Cannon Street.
On Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:45:49 +0000, Peter Beale <pe...@pjbeale.net> wrote:
>It ran for years with RMs, and I suspect for years before that with RTs, >STLs, LTs or STs - I think they were all single-door boarding double >deckers!
And in these days of Oyster, probably no slower at boarding, either.
Neil
-- Neil Williams Put my first name before the at to reply.
On Mon, Nov 09, 2009 at 08:07:14PM -0000, Chris Read wrote: > "David Cantrell" <d...@cantrell.org.uk> wrote: > > 38 frequently turns short of its destination right now, so maybe > > actually putting that in the timetable will make the service more > > reliable. > Indeed. Many get nowhere near Hackney. It's not that rare to see a 38 > leaving Victoria with a short run to Piccadilly Circus.
And it's not at all uncommon to have fewer than half of them get as far as Victoria going in the other direction.
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