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Post by vjaska on Nov 4, 2019 1:16:17 GMT
The 12 reg E400s are the worst double deckers I've driven in my life, I thought BTs Gemini 2 VHs were naff but holy moly these piles of sh*te are on another level. The more throttle you give, the slower they go. Unbelievable restrictions they've done. And not only that but alot of them have very un-ergenomic seats for drivers. On another note the E40H and smart hybrids are alright. No real restrictions on those. They were restricted whilst at QB and a few years back from memory as they were regularly analysed on here
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Post by rif153 on Nov 4, 2019 7:49:09 GMT
The wheels have well and truly come off for Abellio on the 207. Their operation of the route is beyond a joke, the schedule is far too padded out already with ridiculous amounts of regulation, and more westbound buses turns at Southall Town Hall or Ealing Hospital than at Hayes by Pass. Seen buses running in threes at times which is ridiculous. I think that the buses are a definite improvement, even the 12-reg Enviro 400s are slightly better than the VWs they replaced. However the operation is anything but an improvement for aforementioned reasons. Driver changeovers have always been a weak point for Abellio. For years the shenanigans at Elephant & Castle were regularly ranted about and reached almost legendary status on the SE1 online forum! Closer to home with the Iron Bridge changeovers, ironically things were actually much better than normal yesterday (Sunday), as for much of the day the entire 207 was terminating at Ealing Hospital due to an event in Southall so they were doing their driver changeovers there. Traffic flowed very smoothly even with the 5+ buses parked there (three in the westbound bus lane just before the traffic lights, and two on the outside stand). And when I passed, they even had FOUR of the Ford Fiestas there at the same time without affecting traffic! A perfect example of what should be done in that location. Hopefully they took the opportunity to do that for the 195 too, as ECT, First and Metroline did in their time. With the Metroline 607, the diversion via Greenford Broadway actually passed the garage so even they didn't cause issues for much of the day! First and Metroline schedules for the 207 often gave over 20 minutes stand at Hayes (Ossie Garvin Roundabout), which at times could mean 4 buses on stand at the same time. And while the garage was at Hayes, many buses had no choice but to reach there to change drivers. It appears that the Abellio contract that cut the PVR reduced this, so there is more chance of curtailments if you end up late enough. There has also been the unfortunate coincidence of several road closures on the section between Southall Park and Hayes, which even in the past resulted in the route terminating at either Southall Town Hall, Southall Park, or Ealing Hospital. Metroline also ended up with 3 x buses together and did regulation, but maybe Abellio are more aggressive with the regulation. The current diesel E400s may be variable but the old VWs were too, and still are across various garages. At least the E400s feel more spacious inside, which helps. Between 2017 and 2019 I almost reigiously avoided the 207, horrible sluggish VWs crawling along to make up the run time. There certainly was a lot of regulation back them, but wow its gotten so much worse at Abellio with the amount of buses you have crawling along at 10mph.
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Post by M1104 on Nov 4, 2019 9:07:01 GMT
There may be individual badly performing buses, but in general there are no changes to the acceleration on the hybrids and 19-reg diesels compared to those at other operators. The real problem is with the older diesel E400s, which across all operators can be prone to ending up in derate mode if the bus thinks emissions are too high (often caused by an issue with the AdBlue system). Also caused by clogged DPF filters as most London buses never get a good regular blast at high speed to allow the collected soot to be properly burned off. This often explains the blue smoke occasionally coming out the exhaust of diesel vehicles, the system triggered into regeneration mode where it does the best it can whilst the bus is still in use. Full regeneration can be done at the depot by hooking the bus up to diagnostic to trigger controlled revving of the engine to burn those particles off. If the DPF is not tended to after a period of time I believe it's then an expensive repair or replacement.
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Post by rj131 on Nov 4, 2019 11:40:25 GMT
Driver changeovers have always been a weak point for Abellio. For years the shenanigans at Elephant & Castle were regularly ranted about and reached almost legendary status on the SE1 online forum! Closer to home with the Iron Bridge changeovers, ironically things were actually much better than normal yesterday (Sunday), as for much of the day the entire 207 was terminating at Ealing Hospital due to an event in Southall so they were doing their driver changeovers there. Traffic flowed very smoothly even with the 5+ buses parked there (three in the westbound bus lane just before the traffic lights, and two on the outside stand). And when I passed, they even had FOUR of the Ford Fiestas there at the same time without affecting traffic! A perfect example of what should be done in that location. Hopefully they took the opportunity to do that for the 195 too, as ECT, First and Metroline did in their time. With the Metroline 607, the diversion via Greenford Broadway actually passed the garage so even they didn't cause issues for much of the day! First and Metroline schedules for the 207 often gave over 20 minutes stand at Hayes (Ossie Garvin Roundabout), which at times could mean 4 buses on stand at the same time. And while the garage was at Hayes, many buses had no choice but to reach there to change drivers. It appears that the Abellio contract that cut the PVR reduced this, so there is more chance of curtailments if you end up late enough. There has also been the unfortunate coincidence of several road closures on the section between Southall Park and Hayes, which even in the past resulted in the route terminating at either Southall Town Hall, Southall Park, or Ealing Hospital. Metroline also ended up with 3 x buses together and did regulation, but maybe Abellio are more aggressive with the regulation. The current diesel E400s may be variable but the old VWs were too, and still are across various garages. At least the E400s feel more spacious inside, which helps. Between 2017 and 2019 I almost reigiously avoided the 207, horrible sluggish VWs crawling along to make up the run time. There certainly was a lot of regulation back them, but wow its gotten so much worse at Abellio with the amount of buses you have crawling along at 10mph. It’s interesting to hear what you say about the 207, I use the route quite a lot for a certain purpose and I really don’t think it’s that bad. Yes it isn’t great or perfect but I have seen an awful lot worse elsewhere. I don’t often use it in peaks times but when I have that’s when I’ve been on a bus that’s regulated, I’ve never been regulated in an Abellio 207 off peak. (That concurs with what people have said about running time being increased in the peaks) Also the 207 is a very difficult route to run, just with the sheer volume of people using it and the terrible Southall traffic etc, so I’d say only so much blame can be put on Abellio for poor operation. Inexperience definitely may be a factor but I don’t think any operator could run the 207 absolutely perfectly
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2019 20:35:53 GMT
It will be interesting seeing how allocations work for the first few days of the 24 and 27 moving to Abellio - I assume existing LTs at QB will probably receive updated blinds before the weekend then the new buses moving in will receive updated blinds gradually.
Do Abellio LTs carry blinds for all LT routes at other garages for example WL.
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Post by george on Nov 4, 2019 20:38:34 GMT
It will be interesting seeing how allocations work for the first few days of the 24 and 27 moving to Abellio - I assume existing LTs at QB will probably receive updated blinds before the weekend then the new buses moving in will receive updated blinds gradually.
Do Abellio LTs carry blinds for all LT routes at other garages for example WL.
I believe all Abellio LTs have all the LTs routes on them. EDIT. Just Abellio routes of course 😃
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Post by WSD3 on Nov 4, 2019 20:44:08 GMT
It will be interesting seeing how allocations work for the first few days of the 24 and 27 moving to Abellio - I assume existing LTs at QB will probably receive updated blinds before the weekend then the new buses moving in will receive updated blinds gradually.
Do Abellio LTs carry blinds for all LT routes at other garages for example WL.
I believe all Abellio LTs have all the LTs routes on them. EDIT. Just Abellio routes of course 😃 Also go ahead london have all routemasters routes on every blind
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Nov 4, 2019 20:50:57 GMT
I believe all Abellio LTs have all the LTs routes on them. EDIT. Just Abellio routes of course 😃 Also go ahead london have all routemasters routes on every blind No they don't. The ones at RR just have the 5, 15, N15, 76, EL1, EL2 and EL3 on them. I believe the ones at NX/Q share a set while the ones at SW have a different set too.
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Post by WSD3 on Nov 4, 2019 21:01:00 GMT
Also go ahead london have all routemasters routes on every blind No they don't. The ones at RR just have the 5, 15, N15, 76, EL1, EL2 and EL3 on them. I believe the ones at NX/Q share a set while the ones at SW have a different set too. SW have the 12 and 176 too
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Post by 6HP502C on Nov 4, 2019 21:32:21 GMT
The 12 reg E400s are the worst double deckers I've driven in my life, I thought BTs Gemini 2 VHs were naff but holy moly these piles of sh*te are on another level. The more throttle you give, the slower they go. Unbelievable restrictions they've done. And not only that but alot of them have very un-ergenomic seats for drivers. On another note the E40H and smart hybrids are alright. No real restrictions on those. On flipside, I was actively hunting out 12 plates yesterday. I was trying to get them to let me take 9526 on rail replacement but there was no-one available to perform a required safety check. I had to make do with 9488 which is back from its extended stint at BC. BC had the fuel pump restriction crap flushed out of it and upped the speed limiter as the 109/407 drivers weren't having it and voted with their feet by losing mileage and going sick on duty when it turned up. But QB will almost certainly reinstate it. The 12 plates can be wicked buses. They became amazing when ADL came and installed "fuel saving" software which increased their rev limits and they were all limited to 65mph. However the company has gradually been reducing the limiters to 40 and using the software to restrict the fuel supply to their engines. Some examples of how good they can be 9541 - youtu.be/gbpHXW2wPjY9554 - youtu.be/a03qQJgKzvM
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Post by astock5000 on Nov 4, 2019 21:38:43 GMT
It will be interesting seeing how allocations work for the first few days of the 24 and 27 moving to Abellio - I assume existing LTs at QB will probably receive updated blinds before the weekend then the new buses moving in will receive updated blinds gradually. Do Abellio LTs carry blinds for all LT routes at other garages for example WL.
I believe all Abellio LTs have all the LTs routes on them. EDIT. Just Abellio routes of course 😃 It would appear not all have the 415 on their blinds. Until that route fully converted a couple of months ago, only LT709/711-714 were being used on the route. I make it 14 other buses which must have had their blinds updated at that point, mainly from the ex-211 batch but also LT684/694/702. I don't know if they have the 24 and 27 included too, and I can't say for sure that no more have been done as I'm just going by which buses have been used on the 415. As an aside there seems to be a similar situation at Stamford Hill as only some of their LTs are being used on the 67, while a handful of early LTs at Holloway never received new blinds for the 91, 168 and rerouted 390. They do appear on the 390, with their side blind blank when heading to Victoria, however it must surely be a nuisance to keep those particular buses from being used on the 91.
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Post by george on Nov 4, 2019 21:56:46 GMT
I believe all Abellio LTs have all the LTs routes on them. EDIT. Just Abellio routes of course 😃 It would appear not all have the 415 on their blinds. Until that route fully converted a couple of months ago, only LT709/711-714 were being used on the route. I make it 14 other buses which must have had their blinds updated at that point, mainly from the ex-211 batch but also LT684/694/702. I don't know if they have the 24 and 27 included too, and I can't say for sure that no more have been done as I'm just going by which buses have been used on the 415. As an aside there seems to be a similar situation at Stamford Hill as only some of their LTs are being used on the 67, while a handful of early LTs at Holloway never received new blinds for the 91, 168 and rerouted 390. They do appear on the 390, with their side blind blank when heading to Victoria, however it must surely be a nuisance to keep those particular buses from being used on the 91. I did forget about the 415.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2019 23:35:42 GMT
I find it interesting how and why, Abellio have expanded so much recently. It's not for shareholders benefit that's for sure. Also done very well in rail contracts.
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Post by ThinLizzy on Nov 5, 2019 12:28:46 GMT
I find it interesting how and why, Abellio have expanded so much recently. It's not for shareholders benefit that's for sure. Also done very well in rail contracts. I think Abellio have looked at areas where there was little or no competition and expanded there. For example, what competition would Metroline have for the 207 and 427 tenders if Abellio didn't open new depots in North West London. There does seem to be some "snobbery" towards Abellio from some quarters of the bus and rail enthusiast fraternity, but I generally don't have an issue with them- they're much better than Limebourne were back in the late 90s/early 2000s when I worked for at QB
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Post by Deleted on Nov 5, 2019 12:41:04 GMT
I find it interesting how and why, Abellio have expanded so much recently. It's not for shareholders benefit that's for sure. Also done very well in rail contracts. I think Abellio have looked at areas where there was little or no competition and expanded there. For example, what competition would Metroline have for the 207 and 427 tenders if Abellio didn't open new depots in North West London. There does seem to be some "snobbery" towards Abellio from some quarters of the bus and rail enthusiast fraternity, but I generally don't have an issue with them- they're much better than Limebourne were back in the late 90s/early 2000s when I worked for at QB I have actually grown quite fond of Abellio and like their West London operations most.
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