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Post by redexpress on Jun 2, 2019 7:00:27 GMT
The South London Line rail replacement service between Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays/Canada Water is changing hands from Arriva London to Abellio London. First date of operation for the new contract is today. Ironically it is annoying when that line is shut - working in Battersea I usually take the Overground from Queens Road or Denmark Hill to Wandsworth Road. Supposedly the replacement bus takes 33-45 minutes to do the journey, but the waiting time for a service like this is based on complex and unpredictable variables which cannot be computed. I can't deal with the stress of that so commuting via London Bridge and Waterloo or London Bridge and Clapham Common it will be! Then I'll sign on and drive the very same route I just avoided. From a driving perspective I relish the route given I grew up in the area but it is difficult if you don't know the area - lots of twists and turns and buses have been known to go missing, not to be seen again for hours in the past. Before rail replacement became dominated by two main operators this was occasionally run by London United AV. Which was much more interesting given London United had no routes at all within that area. It is a lovely route and I recall some drivers getting hopelessly lost , usually around Denmark Hill or between the Old Kent Road and Peckham. It was annoying as it was operated every 30 mins. I think HH helped out sometimes too, seem to recall travelling on a VH on it. I had a memorable ride on that route in LU days. We had to divert because of an RTA somewhere, and I was amazed that our driver confidently took us via the old P13 route through the back streets of Peckham to get back on track - in a long-wheelbase Trident, no less. Much later I joined this forum and realised that the driver was none other than The Urbanite himself!
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 3, 2019 21:56:38 GMT
So I drove the Hammersmith to Heathrow Terminal 5 night service and Gunnersbury to Heathrow Central daytime service last weekend. Was glad for the chance to get this part of the Tube network covered as it won't be closed again for a long time! The routeThe service ran every 7-8 minutes during the day, calling at Gunnersbury, Acton Town, Ealing Common, Ealing Broadway, South Ealing, Northfields, Boston Manor, Osterley, Hounslow East, Bell Corner for Hounslow Central, Hounslow West, Hatton Cross and Heathrow T2&3. The changeover point was in Chiswick Business Park for the day service. At night, the service ran every 10 minutes between Hammersmith and Heathrow T5. For night rail replacement, drivers start and finish at the depot, keeping the same bus throughout the shift. Relief was taken at Heathrow T5. The route was long and meandering, giving the H28 a run for its money for number of times crossing the A4. As a precautionary measure, route learning sessions were run in the days leading up to the closure. I didn't go but I heard one session took 9 hours! Years of riding the bus network gave me enough confidence to do the route with just a map and I was mostly fine. The only mistake I made was coming off the A4 towards Heathrow - the route was Spring Grove Road and Kingsley Road to Hounslow East, but I somehow ended up on the Lampton Road corridor to Hounslow Central. I realised fairly quickly and corrected this at the first opportunity. I hadn't appreciated just how far T5 is from Heathrow Central, then how far Central is from Hatton Cross. This section alone took the best part of a half hour. The speed limit on the perimeter roads was reduced in early May and speed cameras installed so it was a slow amble around the airport. A nice sight was the distinctive nose of a BA 747 outside one of the maintenance hangars. The route was so circuitous that I was directing people to take the H91 from Hounslow West to Hammersmith. Our route took us through Hounslow Town Centre then onto the A4 through Osterley - but when 5 minutes away from Gunnersbury, we dived off the A4 to serve Boston Manor, up to the Uxbridge Road, back down through Northfields, through South Ealing then back onto the Uxbridge Road corridor once again to serve Ealing Broadway and Ealing Common. A U turn at Acton led us to Acton Town, then along the A406 to Chiswick Roundabout, then through Gunnersbury to terminate at Hammersmith Lower Bus station, where I saw Jack with his camera on Friday night The most bizarre element of the route was caused by a planned, but unforewarned closure of the A406 from Acton Town to Gunnersbury. We were diverted via Popes Lane to South Ealing to drop down to the A4 and back to Chiswick Roundabout. Thing is, we had been to that junction in South Ealing around 25 minutes earlier! The biggest missed turn risks were coming off the A4. If the driver wasn't paying attention, they could very easily return to Gunnersbury after serving Boston Manor, or run direct Hatton Cross - Osterley - Gunnersbury. LoadingsMost of my buses were empty. I was leaving the first stops dead on time, but on every single trip caught up with my leader and overtook them, sometimes overtaking my leader's leader. As most passengers were boarding early on in the journey it meant I didn't have much work to do. I did the 0230 from Hammersmith on Saturday morning and had expected to pick up a lot of airport workers, but I didn't pick up so many. I was at T5 from 0350 - 0458 and watch N9s arriving fully loaded (so must have been unpleasantly heaving arriving into Central) and the local buses arriving well patronised, but not packed. I gather the service was a lot busier during the day on Saturday and Sunday, but I was doing nights and very late shifts. Running timesThe running times were about right. Over the weekend, the fastest trip between Heathrow Central and Gunnersbury was 56 minutes, completed by 9401 on Friday night/Saturday morning Over the weekend, the fastest trip between Heathrow T5 and Hammersmith was 73 minutes. The average was 93 minutes and the maximum was 2 hours 7 minutes. The fastest was 9505 on Saturday night. Vehicle ChoiceI took 9401 on Friday night, the only performance unrestricted Euro 4 E400 at Battersea. This fantastic bus had been sat in the depot for days, drained of air and with a flat battery. Even a 24 volt jump start pack wouldn't get it going. It had to be jumped from another bus - kudos to the engineers for persevering with it - and a learning experience for me so I know what to do if my TA won't start. Despite being limited to 45mph, the dead run to T5 only took 34 minutes. It performed faultlessly. I took 9505 on Saturday night, a Euro 5 E400 with the fuel pump set to lazy mode. Very out of character for me to take one of these by choice, but this one used to be limited to 56mph and 2000rpm TopoDynised. The speed would have come in handy for making the dead run on the M4 and M25 a bit less tedious. However the powers that be caught up with it since last time I had it and limited it to 40mph. Acceleration was nippy however so the bus was just right for this route. Sunday I had 9405 - the less said about that, the better. Monday I had one of the 18 plate MMCs. SummaryI'd looked forward to this one since the award was announced and I wasn't disappointed. It's a route that tests your memory, concentration and patience. The meandering nature meant that simply having a sense of direction was no use - you really had to know what you were doing. Catching up with a colleague on Saturday, I asked how he found it. His response was "My friend, by the time I learned the route, the duty was finished!" It could well take two rounders with a pilot to learn the route if you aren't familiar with quite a large part of West London like that. There were no physical issues with the route but it gets a difficult rating due to sheer length. Great stuff and I'd love to do more of these blockbuster routes! Route difficulty rating - 3/3 (difficult) Enjoyability - 4/5 (moderate) Next route review - Clapham Junction to Canada Water, Sunday 2nd June 2019
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 3, 2019 23:07:41 GMT
Before rail replacement became dominated by two main operators this was occasionally run by London United AV. Which was much more interesting given London United had no routes at all within that area. It is a lovely route and I recall some drivers getting hopelessly lost , usually around Denmark Hill or between the Old Kent Road and Peckham. It was annoying as it was operated every 30 mins. I think HH helped out sometimes too, seem to recall travelling on a VH on it. I had a memorable ride on that route in LU days. We had to divert because of an RTA somewhere, and I was amazed that our driver confidently took us via the old P13 route through the back streets of Peckham to get back on track - in a long-wheelbase Trident, no less. Much later I joined this forum and realised that the driver was none other than The Urbanite himself! Yes I remember that day well. I think that might have been the trip where I caught up with my leader at Denmark Hill, who was 30 late at that point. I went via the old P13 route and my leader went straight on towards East Dulwich, then was not seen again. I had a 45 minute layover at Canada Water and that leader didn't turn up. No idea what happened to the bus but presumably the passengers had to make other arrangements!
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 8, 2019 0:28:18 GMT
So I drove Clapham Junction to Canada Water last Sunday. The routeThe service was scheduled to run every 30 minutes during the day, calling at Clapham Junction (Grant Road and St Johns Hill), Wandsworth Road, Clapham High Street, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye for Peckham Rye, Queens Road Peckham, Surrey Quays and Canada Water. All stops were a stone's throw from the station apart from Peckham Rye due to the long term closure of Rye Lane. There were dual changeover points at Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays for reasons I will cover in the running times section. The South London Line runs over viaducts for much of its length, meaning there aren't really any straight roads that follow it. The result is the rail replacement service twists and turns constantly to serve each station. It was well signposted, but if you miss a turn and you aren't familar with South London, you've had it really! Rail replacement buses have been known to go missing on this route and emergency rail replacement buses stick to A roads that don't go anywhere near the intermediate stations! From Clapham Junction, the route hooks around Grant Road and Plough Road to serve St John's Hill. Straight on to Wandsworth Road, then via Union Road to get onto the A3 which takes it through Clapham High Street. At Clapham Common, the 37 is followed to Herne Hill, then the 68 along Denmark Hill, right to serve the station, then through East Dulwich and Goose Green to Peckham Rye. The diversion to avoid Rye Lane followed Copeland Road and Consort Road, then right onto Peckham Road to serve Queens Road Peckham. Then straight on to perform a tedious double back through New Cross Gate, spinning around the Sainsburys petrol staion to access the Old Kent Road. Turn onto Ilderton Road, passing through South Bermondsey and Rotherhithe New/Old Road to serve Surrey Quays, then via Lower Road to Canada Water. The reverse direction had some minor differences. Notably from Clapham Park Road, it is not permitted to turn right into Clapham High Street. This invariably causes passengers to promptly confront the driver and demand to be let off at Clapham Common station. I have sympathy for them because so many drivers in the past have gotten lost on this route and taken time from them they will never get back. The routing is to go down Long Lane and turn the bus around via The Pavement. This then generates cries from people going to Clapham Junction, realising they're about to be taken well around the houses! The set down stop at Clapham Junction is on Falcon Road. LoadingsReasonable. Inner London orbital journeys aren't that easy to make without the Overground so I wasn't surprised to have quite a few end to end riders on each trip. I usually use the line to get from Queens Road Peckham to Wandsworth Road but ended up forking out for an Uber to get from home to Battersea instead. I suspect other people make similar arrangements which is why a popular 4 tph service is covered by a 2 bph rail replacement service. Running timesThe running times were excessive - 1hr 23 minutes in both directions. The times are set by Arriva Rail/London Overground and advertised in the public timetable. Shaving about 15 minutes off each run would be better. To make a duty efficient, you want to give the drivers a proper shift length to make it worth their while to come in, but not pay them to sit around doing nothing too much. The problem with 83 minute trips and a 30 minute headway is that it makes for highly inefficient duties, because a driver can only do one 3.5 hour rounder before requiring a break. Live changeovers sometimes helps to reduce costs, but not by much in this case as QB close to Clapham Junction. Mercifully live changeovers do not happen on rail replacement. There are enough challenges associated with assembling and running a route that only runs for one or two days without introducing operational headaches. So we had dual changeover points at Clapham Junction and the stand in the car park near Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. This allowed a driver to do 3 trips before having a break, making the duties much more efficient. Dual changeover point working has its own drawbacks however as it only works if the service is running perfectly. There are merely my observations as a bus driver - I have no involvement or experience as a bus scheduler! Vehicle Choice9406 was waiting for me at Clapham Junction. This is the garage's prized tacho bus. My initial groan turned out to be misguided - since the last time I drove it, the performance has improved drastically and the 40mph limiter has been removed. I ended up keeping it for the whole shift because instead of having my meal relief at Surrey Quays, I left early to cover a gap and took an hour at Clapham Junction. I took it back to the garage at the end of the shift then did overtime to cover a gap. I took Euro 5 E400 9525 out, the driver's favourite. The ECU fairies are continually tampering with the performance parameters of the buses and this one has had its 2000rpm Topodyn watered down to 1800rpm. It is still a very good bus however. SummaryA complicated route that I enjoy very much, having grown up around some of the areas it passes through. Busy enough and an nice tour of South London if you have half a day to do it. Very good team of drivers and pilots out, with colleagues busy working the Earls Court to Wimbledon route. Route difficulty rating - 3/3 (difficult) Enjoyability - 4/5 (fairly enjoyable) Next route review - TBC N.B. Tomorrow, the 9th June, the bi-monthly Sunday evening NLL closure is on. The last few times, one of the 66 plate MMCs from the P13 has escaped onto the route and done the 22:15 trip from Stratford City Bus Station, though it's an unadvertised service west of Kentish Town West. Subject to availability, this may well happen again. Check LO-S on LVF from 21:45 on Sunday to see what shows up!
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Post by vjaska on Jun 8, 2019 1:05:34 GMT
So I drove Clapham Junction to Canada Water last Sunday. The routeThe service was scheduled to run every 30 minutes during the day, calling at Clapham Junction (Grant Road and St Johns Hill), Wandsworth Road, Clapham High Street, Denmark Hill, Peckham Rye for Peckham Rye, Queens Road Peckham, Surrey Quays and Canada Water. All stops were a stone's throw from the station apart from Peckham Rye due to the long term closure of Rye Lane. There were dual changeover points at Clapham Junction and Surrey Quays for reasons I will cover in the running times section. The South London Line runs over viaducts for much of its length, meaning there aren't really any straight roads that follow it. The result is the rail replacement service twists and turns constantly to serve each station. It was well signposted, but if you miss a turn and you aren't familar with South London, you've had it really! Rail replacement buses have been known to go missing on this route and emergency rail replacement buses stick to A roads that don't go anywhere near the intermediate stations! From Clapham Junction, the route hooks around Grant Road and Plough Road to serve St John's Hill. Straight on to Wandsworth Road, then via Union Road to get onto the A3 which takes it through Clapham High Street. At Clapham Common, the 37 is followed to Herne Hill, then the 68 along Denmark Hill, right to serve the station, then through East Dulwich and Goose Green to Peckham Rye. The diversion to avoid Rye Lane followed Copeland Road and Consort Road, then right onto Peckham Road to serve Queens Road Peckham. Then straight on to perform a tedious double back through New Cross Gate, spinning around the Sainsburys petrol staion to access the Old Kent Road. Turn onto Ilderton Road, passing through South Bermondsey and Rotherhithe New/Old Road to serve Surrey Quays, then via Lower Road to Canada Water. The reverse direction had some minor differences. Notably from Clapham Park Road, it is not permitted to turn right into Clapham High Street. This invariably causes passengers to promptly confront the driver and demand to be let off at Clapham Common station. I have sympathy for them because so many drivers in the past have gotten lost on this route and taken time from them they will never get back. The routing is to go down Long Lane and turn the bus around via The Pavement. This then generates cries from people going to Clapham Junction, realising they're about to be taken well around the houses! The set down stop at Clapham Junction is on Falcon Road. LoadingsReasonable. Inner London orbital journeys aren't that easy to make without the Overground so I wasn't surprised to have quite a few end to end riders on each trip. I usually use the line to get from Queens Road Peckham to Wandsworth Road but ended up forking out for an Uber to get from home to Battersea instead. I suspect other people make similar arrangements which is why a popular 4 tph service is covered by a 2 bph rail replacement service. Running timesThe running times were excessive - 1hr 23 minutes in both directions. The times are set by Arriva Rail/London Overground and advertised in the public timetable. Shaving about 15 minutes off each run would be better. To make a duty efficient, you want to give the drivers a proper shift length to make it worth their while to come in, but not pay them to sit around doing nothing too much. The problem with 83 minute trips and a 30 minute headway is that it makes for highly inefficient duties, because a driver can only do one 3.5 hour rounder before requiring a break. Live changeovers sometimes helps to reduce costs, but not by much in this case as QB close to Clapham Junction. Mercifully live changeovers do not happen on rail replacement. There are enough challenges associated with assembling and running a route that only runs for one or two days without introducing operational headaches. So we had dual changeover points at Clapham Junction and the stand in the car park near Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. This allowed a driver to do 3 trips before having a break, making the duties much more efficient. Dual changeover point working has its own drawbacks however as it only works if the service is running perfectly. There are merely my observations as a bus driver - I have no involvement or experience as a bus scheduler! Vehicle Choice9406 was waiting for me at Clapham Junction. This is the garage's prized tacho bus. My initial groan turned out to be misguided - since the last time I drove it, the performance has improved drastically and the 40mph limiter has been removed. I ended up keeping it for the whole shift because instead of having my meal relief at Surrey Quays, I left early to cover a gap and took an hour at Clapham Junction. I took it back to the garage at the end of the shift then did overtime to cover a gap. I took Euro 5 E400 9525 out, the driver's favourite. The ECU fairies are continually tampering with the performance parameters of the buses and this one has had its 2000rpm Topodyn watered down to 1800rpm. It is still a very good bus however. SummaryA complicated route that I enjoy very much, having grown up around some of the areas it passes through. Busy enough and an nice tour of South London if you have half a day to do it. Very good team of drivers and pilots out, with colleagues busy working the Earls Court to Wimbledon route. Route difficulty rating - 3/3 (difficult) Enjoyability - 4/5 (fairly enjoyable) Next route review - TBC N.B. Tomorrow, the 9th June, the bi-monthly Sunday evening NLL closure is on. The last few times, one of the 66 plate MMCs from the P13 has escaped onto the route and done the 22:15 trip from Stratford City Bus Station, though it's an unadvertised service west of Kentish Town West. Subject to availability, this may well happen again. Check LO-S on LVF from 21:45 on Sunday to see what shows up! I'm surprised they would let less experienced people on this route given the fact it runs along a viaduct and contains a number of low bridges along the way where someone could come a cropper - just a shame that Bedford Road's bridge is too low otherwise that would solve the issue of having to turn around using Long Road, Rookery Road & The Pavement. Did you get anyone asking to be let off in Brixton?
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Post by george on Jun 9, 2019 14:14:29 GMT
VP549 on London Overground rail replacement.
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 9, 2019 14:38:34 GMT
I'm surprised they would let less experienced people on this route given the fact it runs along a viaduct and contains a number of low bridges along the way where someone could come a cropper - just a shame that Bedford Road's bridge is too low otherwise that would solve the issue of having to turn around using Long Road, Rookery Road & The Pavement. Did you get anyone asking to be let off in Brixton? Pilots are supplied to help drivers with the route, but there isn't always one available when needed and sometimes buses still get lost with one on board! Didn't get anyone ask to be let off at any intermediate points this time. In the past a few would want to get off at Herne Hill. I make clear announcements at every stop stating where the next one will be, which makes it easier to say no if people then request an unofficial stop. The problem is if you do it once, it gets on other passengers nerves and for the rest of that trip, several other people will then ask to be let off at random stops. This adds time on an already disrupted journey for others and increases risk of an incident if people have cause to keep distracting the driver so all that considered, best to keep it official with the stops. Good point about Bedford Road. Using it would save around 12 minutes per round trip. There are other places where use of single deckers would straighten out the route too - it could run Beford Road - Acre Lane - Coldharbour Lane - Denmark Hill instead of via Herne Hill. Then use Asylum Road instead of the detour via New Cross Gate. Stripping out some of the excess time would bring return trip time down to around 125 minutes. This could run 2bph with 5 buses, or 3 bph with 8 buses. Maybe I will send an email to TfL and see what they say.
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 9, 2019 15:05:45 GMT
VP549 on London Overground rail replacement. Has to be said there are some quirks to the rail replacement system. There are several different one year long contracts operating on the North London Line, i.e. Willesden Junction to Gunnersbury - Metroline service LO-R. Willesden Junction/Turnham Green to Richmond - Abellio Gospel Oak to Gunnersbury - Abellio Camden Town to Gunnesbury - Abellio Acton Central to Richmond - Abellio Stratford to Hackney Wick - Metroline Stratford to Highbury & Islington - Metroline Stratford to Camden Town/Richmond - Abellio service LO-S. And that isn't even it as there are additional variations that only operate for limited hours. Some operate all day, whilst others until 12:00 on Sunday only etc. The same can be said of the LO West Anglia services that run between Hackney Downs and Chingford/Enfield Town/Cheshunt! The first and last in that list are both operating today, though my bus will probably be around 20 minutes behind the last Metroline bus from Willesden Junction to Gunnersbury!
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Post by gloriouswater on Jun 9, 2019 18:56:58 GMT
I have been on a decker down Asylum Road - several times (with a full height E!) on Southern replacements from London Bridge to Tulse Hill, and on lowheight SP5 when RATP held the contract for the South London Line replacement.
That was a memorable trip - we got halfway down Asylum Road before being told it was blocked due to a fallen tree, had to do a 9000-point turn with another passenger helping, return to OKR, go down to New Cross, where the driver did a straight U turn in front of the garage to continue down to Peckham! To make matters worse, the bus then took a wrong turn in Brixton, ending up in Stockwell before yet again turning round (via the 196's route is memory serves me right) to Wandsworth Road and eventually CLJ Took more than 2 hours in the end - what fun that was!
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Post by galwhv69 on Jun 9, 2019 18:59:28 GMT
VP549 on London Overground rail replacement. Has to be said there are some quirks to the rail replacement system. There are several different one year long contracts operating on the North London Line, i.e. Willesden Junction to Gunnersbury - Metroline service LO-R. Willesden Junction/Turnham Green to Richmond - Abellio Gospel Oak to Gunnersbury - Abellio Camden Town to Gunnesbury - Abellio Acton Central to Richmond - Abellio Stratford to Hackney Wick - Metroline Stratford to Highbury & Islington - Metroline Stratford to Camden Town/Richmond - Abellio service LO-S. And that isn't even it as there are additional variations that only operate for limited hours. Some operate all day, whilst others until 12:00 on Sunday only etc. The same can be said of the LO West Anglia services that run between Hackney Downs and Chingford/Enfield Town/Cheshunt! The first and last in that list are both operating today, though my bus will probably be around 20 minutes behind the last Metroline bus from Willesden Junction to Gunnersbury! Do you have 8343 or 8344 out lol?
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 9, 2019 19:03:55 GMT
I havent signed on yet but there are no guarantees - luck will probably have it that they're either on their 6 weekly rota inspection or buried down the MOT pit roads.
Then it depends on what allocations say - I might be told to take whatever is at the front of the C10 parking lines.
Time will tell!
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Post by 6HP502C on Jun 9, 2019 19:15:30 GMT
Do you have 8343 or 8344 out lol? Ok, no chance - they're both in the maintenance shed, one of them suspended 6 feet in the air. Ah well, will try again at the end of September.
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Post by galwhv69 on Jun 9, 2019 19:17:10 GMT
Do you have 8343 or 8344 out lol? Ok, no chance - they're both in the maintenance shed, one of them suspended 6 feet in the air. Ah well, will try again at the end of September. shame Would've gotten thrashed if it was available probably Is 9001 permitted
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Post by galwhv69 on Jun 9, 2019 21:56:01 GMT
I havent signed on yet but there are no guarantees - luck will probably have it that they're either on their 6 weekly rota inspection or buried down the MOT pit roads. Then it depends on what allocations say - I might be told to take whatever is at the front of the C10 parking lines. Time will tell! Did you take 8858?
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Post by george on Jun 9, 2019 22:21:34 GMT
I saw a rail replacement bus at Swiss cottage earlier was a WVL. It was in service just wondering what route this was on as the London Overground and thameslink where both fine in that area.
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