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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2017 16:06:50 GMT
Which area has the best bus network outside of London? And which areas have a very poor network? In Crawley, we have MetroBus network who I think do a very good job. I read somewhere that bus use is up 4.4% in the area which I think in this day and age is no mean feat. We now have fastway buses and improved frequencies, and all buses have wifi / nice seating
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Post by jay38a on Apr 6, 2017 17:08:57 GMT
Oxford has a fantastic network in the city, everything commercial, including night buses run by Stagecoach.
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Post by ThinLizzy on Apr 6, 2017 19:02:11 GMT
Best Outside London? Definitely Nottingham with NCT and TrentBarton and Edinburgh (Lothian/East Coast Buses bit at least)
I haven't been there for a while but First seems to be doing some good things in Cornwall, but doesn't seem so good in Manchester and Glasgow. As someone else mentioned, Stagecoach Outside of London is mostly good with a few patches of not so good.
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Post by thesquirrels on Apr 6, 2017 19:57:36 GMT
In terms of comprehensiveness, operating hours and general service quality I'd like to put Brighton up there... but below the surface things have not been well in recent years at B&H, especially in peak season over Summer, with reports of a toxic garage culture and poor management leading to quite severe staff shortages. If they could get staff retention up to where it needs to be to provide a consistent service it would be a very strong contender. Stagecoach's incursion into their territory is as good as any of the B&H routes with a very frequent service into the night.
Lothian have been an exemplar provider for as long as I've known of them. I have heard from multiple sources that the two major companies in Oxford co-operate to provide a very good service.
NXWM in Birmingham I've always regarded as rather weak, but their offering is slowly improving. Ditto First in Bristol.
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Post by ThinLizzy on Apr 6, 2017 20:05:50 GMT
In terms of comprehensiveness, operating hours and general service quality I'd like to put Brighton up there... but below the surface things have not been well in recent years at B&H, especially in peak season over Summer, with reports of a toxic garage culture and poor management leading to quite severe staff shortages. If they could get staff retention up to where it needs to be to provide a consistent service it would be a very strong contender. Stagecoach's incursion into their territory is as good as any of the B&H routes with a very frequent service into the night. Lothian have been an exemplar provider for as long as I've known of them. I have heard from multiple sources that the two major companies in Oxford co-operate to provide a very good service. NXWM in Birmingham I've always regarded as rather weak, but their offering is slowly improving. Ditto First in Bristol. B&H used to be one of the standard setters, but I agree, in recent years standards have slipped which is a real shame as it was a "Jewel in the Crown" for Go Ahead.
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Post by VWH1414 on Apr 6, 2017 20:07:15 GMT
I found that Stagecoach South provide a good little network of routes along the Kent coast, with their 100/101/102 services
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Post by snoggle on Apr 6, 2017 20:45:01 GMT
Depends on how you define things really. Several posters have already listed the usual suspects of Brighton, Oxford, Nottingham and Edinburgh. Parts of Tyne and Wear aren't bad but as with so many places there has been a 30 year process of thinning out and rationalising the network. Last time I was in Liverpool I thought the services were reasonable - some corridors were very frequent with co-ordinated Arriva / Stagecoach timetables and inter available fares (largely due to pressure from Merseytravel for voluntary partnerships). Since then a lot of new buses have joined Arriva's fleet but it's still nothing like it was prior to deregulation where services were comprehensive, frequent and cheap. The problem with trying to identify "best" and "worst" remotely from an armchair is that most (all?) of us will have no day to day experience of using these services in varying traffic / weather conditions so we can't actually judge fairly. We only know the routes we use in London or perhaps on the edge of London if we live in the home counties. Even what might look like "worst" from a London perspective may actually be considered decent enough if you have no alternative in somewhere like Accrington or Maidstone or Solihull or Redcar. People who are reliant on buses make the best of what they have and adjust their routines to cope with limited service levels etc. You can see this if you've ever used a bus route that runs once a week or once a day. Those of us who rode the 931 the other Friday saw that the regular users were just glad they have a bus that got them quickly to Lewisham for their shopping and got them home, close to their front doors. None of us would say the 931 is the best route in London but if you are *reliant* on it then you think it's marvellous. Sorry that's a bit of a wordy "thinking" type response but without objective rating criteria it's very hard to make a fair judgement.
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Post by Gary on Apr 7, 2017 8:30:06 GMT
I think Reading are a decent operation. Great, well maintained fleet and reliable services.
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Post by sid on Apr 7, 2017 13:10:12 GMT
I think Reading are a decent operation. Great, well maintained fleet and reliable services. Yes I think Reading Transport are great in every department, fleet, staff, network and they seem to have no difficulty keeping the many branded buses on the correct routes. I'd go along with what others have said, Lothian, Nottingham and Oxford and although Brighton & Hove may have slipped a little from their previous high standards they are still not bad to put it mildly. I've always thought TWM could be doing a bit better in Birmingham although I'm by no means a regular user.
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Post by vjaska on Apr 7, 2017 13:30:28 GMT
I think Reading are a decent operation. Great, well maintained fleet and reliable services. Yes I think Reading Transport are great in every department, fleet, staff, network and they seem to have no difficulty keeping the many branded buses on the correct routes. I'd go along with what others have said, Lothian, Nottingham and Oxford and although Brighton & Hove may have slipped a little from their previous high standards they are still not bad to put it mildly. I've always thought TWM could be doing a bit better in Birmingham although I'm by no means a regular user. Agree with that - Brighton & Hove is one I've used many times in the past and I can't fault them. The Luton network didn't seem bad when I used last year - lots of newer buses roaming around compared to a couple of years before with only the odd Volvo Olympian & ex DLA hanging around. The W reg Tridents have remarkably survived the chop but they're showing their age.
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Post by twobellstogo on Apr 7, 2017 17:23:28 GMT
I've always thought TWM could be doing a bit better in Birmingham although I'm by no means a regular user. Was using NXWM last weekend : have to say a vast improvement on my previous visit. Buses clean, frequent and reliable. Just wish they wouldn't stick posters on most of the lower deck windows on the double deckers I travelled on. I like to see out! The traditionalist in me would also prefer blue to be the main livery colour rather than red, maroon or grey...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 21:12:01 GMT
I have come across the Kings Hill batch of routes in the Maidstone area. I love the X1/X2 commuter style bus idea. I wonder if it's well used. For once a new development has been designed to receive bus priority/have appropriate roads for buses to run through, unlike in London.
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Post by wivenswold on May 5, 2017 17:15:57 GMT
Colchester is pretty bad but not helped by the daily gridlock around the town centre.
First have finally got 17 Streetlites but otherwise every bus in town has been cascaded from elsewhere. First Colchester's double decks usually look like they've been rescued from the scrapyard.
It's a shame because the town is expanding very quickly and a holistic approach is needed to transport. Unfortunately local planners are not very forward-thinking.
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Post by snoggle on May 5, 2017 17:50:32 GMT
Colchester is pretty bad but not helped by the daily gridlock around the town centre. First have finally got 17 Streetlites but otherwise every bus in town has been cascaded from elsewhere. First Colchester's double decks usually look like they've been rescued from the scrapyard. It's a shame because the town is expanding very quickly and a holistic approach is needed to transport. Unfortunately local planners are not very forward-thinking. Colchester was stuffed the day they sold the municipal bus company. If it had been kept and allowed to develop like the very best municipal operators I suspect Colchester would have a pretty decent network. Unfortunately there is too much reliance on the car but that is now typical of virtually everywhere.
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Post by sid on May 5, 2017 18:15:49 GMT
I have come across the Kings Hill batch of routes in the Maidstone area. I love the X1/X2 commuter style bus idea. I wonder if it's well used. For once a new development has been designed to receive bus priority/have appropriate roads for buses to run through, unlike in London. Reasonably well used from my occasional observations and of course it is competing with the train. It would be nice to see such services in London.
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