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Post by snoggle on May 23, 2019 21:35:34 GMT
She's on the 12 now, returned to service yesterday Don't expect it to be out in service for very long. Just counted up the numbers of days TA1 has run in service according to LVF = 56 days and that's over roughly 6 months and a bit. Even allowing for the fact it's not expected to run when weekend schedules run that's barely 50% availability. You have to wonder just what on earth is wrong with it with such poor reliability for what is a brand new bus.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on May 23, 2019 21:40:23 GMT
Don't expect it to be out in service for very long. Just counted up the numbers of days TA1 has run in service according to LVF = 56 days and that's over roughly 6 months and a bit. Even allowing for the fact it's not expected to run when weekend schedules run that's barely 50% availability. You have to wonder just what on earth is wrong with it with such poor reliability for what is a brand new bus. If we split the two parts of it, the BCI and Vantage parts we can see BCIs with other operators (basically Ensign) seem to be operating relatively well, however if you look at all the other Vantage buses they all seem to have a very poor track record. We all know what happened to the 123s VLAs, WVL94 and WVL95 were some of the most sporadic buses I've seen and I'm clueless as to what happened to the RATP one. So I'm willing to bet the issue with this is the addition of the Vantage pack (however I'll happily be proved wrong if someone in the know corrects me). I wonder if they should have trialled it as a diesel, then potentially challenged manufacturers to make a Hybrid version of their tri-axle buses.
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Post by george on May 23, 2019 21:48:43 GMT
Don't expect it to be out in service for very long. Just counted up the numbers of days TA1 has run in service according to LVF = 56 days and that's over roughly 6 months and a bit. Even allowing for the fact it's not expected to run when weekend schedules run that's barely 50% availability. You have to wonder just what on earth is wrong with it with such poor reliability for what is a brand new bus. Only 56 days that is awful.
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Post by snoggle on May 23, 2019 22:33:34 GMT
I wonder if they should have trialled it as a diesel, then potentially challenged manufacturers to make a Hybrid version of their tri-axle buses. I pretty much agree with this. Sadly trialling diesel buses would fail all the politics at City Hall and with certain Assembly members. Therefore it was never a goer. The use of the Vantage kit was clearly an attempt at a cheap expedient to get something into trial service. I suspect we will not see hybrid versions of tri-axle buses like the Enviro 500 or Volvo B8L. I know there have been a couple of trial vehicles in Hong Kong but nothing seems to have happened since. There is not the same political pressure in Hong Kong, Singapore or the USA to force the main manufacturers to mass produce hybrids through the ordering strategies of the bus operators. I suspect the next step in the Far East will be electric tri-axle double deckers - probably produced by BYD. This may result in UK / European manufacturers losing a lot of Far East business unless they do something very clever very soon. Of course London is getting its own all electric deckers very shortly. I also think that high capacity deckers are off the agenda with TfL. The idea was undoubtedly an "old regime" one (first cited by Leon Daniels at the LT Museum) and we know what has happened to actually employing people who understand buses in senior positions in TfL Buses. Oh yes - there aren't any!
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Post by vjaska on May 23, 2019 23:17:04 GMT
Just counted up the numbers of days TA1 has run in service according to LVF = 56 days and that's over roughly 6 months and a bit. Even allowing for the fact it's not expected to run when weekend schedules run that's barely 50% availability. You have to wonder just what on earth is wrong with it with such poor reliability for what is a brand new bus. If we split the two parts of it, the BCI and Vantage parts we can see BCIs with other operators (basically Ensign) seem to be operating relatively well, however if you look at all the other Vantage buses they all seem to have a very poor track record. We all know what happened to the 123s VLAs, WVL94 and WVL95 were some of the most sporadic buses I've seen and I'm clueless as to what happened to the RATP one. So I'm willing to bet the issue with this is the addition of the Vantage pack (however I'll happily be proved wrong if someone in the know corrects me). I wonder if they should have trialled it as a diesel, then potentially challenged manufacturers to make a Hybrid version of their tri-axle buses. I highly suspect the Vantage pack is the issue as well though one of the early issue it had which first delayed it's entry into service was brake related.
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Post by eggmiester on May 24, 2019 8:01:01 GMT
291 is still running poorly. Lots of curtailments and bunching and also inbalenced service not 3 each way The route gets a new schedule from June 1st with an additional bus running from BX using one of the 658’s school buses on the evening peak.
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2019 8:29:49 GMT
291 is still running poorly. Lots of curtailments and bunching and also inbalenced service not 3 each way The route gets a new schedule from June 1st with an additional bus running from BX using one of the 658’s school buses on the evening peak. Strictly Es still?
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Post by cl54 on May 24, 2019 12:26:21 GMT
The route gets a new schedule from June 1st with an additional bus running from BX using one of the 658’s school buses on the evening peak. Strictly Es still? Yes. How they expected to run the route with the same number of buses as Stagecoach is beyond belief.
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Post by lonmark on May 24, 2019 13:33:24 GMT
Yes. How they expected to run the route with the same number of buses as Stagecoach is beyond belief. Don't forget the different between Single Desk and Double Desk buses. If double, then you wait for people to come down from the upper deck. but if Single, no problem, they get off quick! Think about it! how long it takes for them to get off the buses and also get through the between car parks on narrow road too.
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Post by sid on May 24, 2019 15:48:49 GMT
Yes. How they expected to run the route with the same number of buses as Stagecoach is beyond belief. Don't forget the different between Single Desk and Double Desk buses. If double, then you wait for people to come down from the upper deck. but if Single, no problem, they get off quick! Think about it! how long it takes for them to get off the buses and also get through the between car parks on narrow road too. I thought the 291 was better suited to single deckers with a frequency increase as necessary.
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Post by eggmiester on May 24, 2019 17:13:53 GMT
The route gets a new schedule from June 1st with an additional bus running from BX using one of the 658’s school buses on the evening peak. Strictly Es still? As far as i know yes.
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Post by cl54 on May 24, 2019 18:32:32 GMT
Don't forget the different between Single Desk and Double Desk buses. If double, then you wait for people to come down from the upper deck. but if Single, no problem, they get off quick! Think about it! how long it takes for them to get off the buses and also get through the between car parks on narrow road too. I thought the 291 was better suited to single deckers with a frequency increase as necessary. There is no real problem with deckers. There is not enough space at the stops in Woolwich for more buses.
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Post by Hassaan on May 24, 2019 19:27:48 GMT
Only WS65 is allowed out as it is a shorter length than the other WSs. Travelled on WS65 on the 386 a couple of nights ago. Previous trips have been very smooth but the whole bus was vibrating when stopped on this occasion. Sadly a lot of vibration is standard for these Mercedes engines, no matter what bus it is in. They appear in the Streetlite, Streetdeck, Solo, Versa, Metrocity and Metrodecker.
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Post by 725DYE on May 24, 2019 19:52:05 GMT
Travelled on WS65 on the 386 a couple of nights ago. Previous trips have been very smooth but the whole bus was vibrating when stopped on this occasion. Sadly a lot of vibration is standard for these Mercedes engines, no matter what bus it is in. They appear in the Streetlite, Streetdeck, Solo, Versa, Metrocity and Metrodecker. Yes they are shaky which quite frankly is inexcusable these days if you ask me. On the contrary the sound they make is absolutely fantastic - OM20227-20238 (20239 is a Cummins) make a fantastic boomy sound which is a sigh of relief compared to the droning Voith MMCs and dull sounding deckers we get nowadays
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2019 20:30:03 GMT
The 396 has had even less Single Decker workings this week.
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