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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2013 22:30:58 GMT
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Post by IanF on Apr 18, 2013 22:39:49 GMT
Thanks I never knew they even had thought of this so I've learnt something new. i thought though that stagecoach had the overnight sleepers already set up to go from London - Scotland. |
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Post by snoggle on Apr 18, 2013 23:32:41 GMT
Thanks I never knew they even had thought of this so I've learnt something new. i thought though that stagecoach had the overnight sleepers already set up to go from London - Scotland. There is a sleeper service already in place using fully depreciated articulated Volvo coaches. Classic Stagecoach practice to use such vehicles to "test" the market and see if there is enough demand to warrant further development. Clearly Mr Souter believes there is a decent enough market to warrant the new coaches. The bit that is interesting is the multi-use of these coaches - on day routes in Scotland and then on the sleeper services. I knew they were going to be convertible in terms of the internal layout but had assumed they'd be on Megabus day routes. Clearly shows that the Citylink Gold premium expresses have also worked if they can now warrant double deck Van Hools. I have to wonder how Stagecoach and Metroline have managed to maintain good quality, frequent inter-urban express routes in Scotland whereas they are not that prevalent in England or Wales. I know better rail coverage is one aspect in England but there are plenty of areas where expresses have disappeared - the Midlands for one. Still due credit to Mr Souter for finding yet another opportunity to grow his business. He did something similar in Poland with Polski Express - wonder if he will venture into Germany as their coach service market is now liberalised? |
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Post by jay38a on Apr 19, 2013 12:51:46 GMT
Souter really does keep coming up with these new ideas, one wonders what Stagecoach would be like without him. These new sleeper coaches will really have a push at the Caledonian Sleepers expense, as at the moment the sleeper does not even have plug sockets, let alone wifi. Also with prices on the train are near enough £100 return and thats without a bed and with coaches taking roughly the same time, its only time before the ScotRail has to do the same as FGW do with the Riviera Sleeper and charge standard fares with a supplement for beds.
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Post by snoggle on Apr 19, 2013 14:59:56 GMT
Souter really does keep coming up with these new ideas, one wonders what Stagecoach would be like without him. These new sleeper coaches will really have a push at the Caledonian Sleepers expense, as at the moment the sleeper does not even have plug sockets, let alone wifi. Also with prices on the train are near enough £100 return and thats without a bed and with coaches taking roughly the same time, its only time before the ScotRail has to do the same as FGW do with the Riviera Sleeper and charge standard fares with a supplement for beds. We do sort of know what Stagecoach is like when Mr S is not in charge - the Mike Kinski era where things went horribly pear shaped with a big American deal. Mr S doesn't get everything right - the failed Edinburgh Shuttle and that Scottish floating bus service. The ideas are OK but clearly he can't sustain losses forever. There are also the episodes in Stagecoach history which are not wonderful - Darlington being the classic example. Mr S does, of course, step down later this year but will remain in an advisory role AIUI. His replacement as CEO is, though, very much in the classic Stagecoach mould so I doubt there will be any great change in direction. |
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Post by jay38a on Apr 19, 2013 15:13:14 GMT
Souter really does keep coming up with these new ideas, one wonders what Stagecoach would be like without him. These new sleeper coaches will really have a push at the Caledonian Sleepers expense, as at the moment the sleeper does not even have plug sockets, let alone wifi. Also with prices on the train are near enough £100 return and thats without a bed and with coaches taking roughly the same time, its only time before the ScotRail has to do the same as FGW do with the Riviera Sleeper and charge standard fares with a supplement for beds. We do sort of know what Stagecoach is like when Mr S is not in charge - the Mike Kinski era where things went horribly pear shaped with a big American deal. Mr S doesn't get everything right - the failed Edinburgh Shuttle and that Scottish floating bus service. The ideas are OK but clearly he can't sustain losses forever. There are also the episodes in Stagecoach history which are not wonderful - Darlington being the classic example. Mr S does, of course, step down later this year but will remain in an advisory role AIUI. His replacement as CEO is, though, very much in the classic Stagecoach mould so I doubt there will be any great change in direction. Forgot about that bad American Deal that happened. I know Souter doesnt always get things right, on the whole he gets things to work better then the other 2 big companies of Arriva and First. He received a knighthood for his services to the transport industry in 2011, so is now a Sir. Also i forgot to say that Scottish Citylink is owned by Comfortdelgro and Stagecoach not Metroline. The only connection is that Metroline's parent company is Comfortdelgro |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2013 16:37:06 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2013 16:50:28 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London. There are plenty of 15m coaches already operating around London. Bendi Buses are not banned from London - they just no longer operate on TfL routes |
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Post by VPL630 on Apr 19, 2013 21:34:33 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London. The bendy buses are not banned from London, they are banned from TFL services You know the Oxford tube, they are 15M's long and they seem to get round London fine, same with Nat Express, I am really losing the will to reply to your post's but I can't ignore them because they seem to be everywhere |
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Post by vjaska on Apr 19, 2013 22:39:26 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London. Artics have more maneuverability than you think! |
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Post by IanF on Apr 19, 2013 22:55:53 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London. The bendy buses are not banned from London, they are banned from TFL services You know the Oxford tube, they are 15M's long and they seem to get round London fine, same with Nat Express, I am really losing the will to reply to your post's but I can't ignore them because they seem to be everywhere Megabus have a few 15m coaches too and they only struggle when you get to Bristol. In London they are fine. P.s Megabus's to Cardiff are normally funny as the welsh drivers are all wannabe comedians in my experience. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 19, 2013 23:56:59 GMT
How will the 15m long coaches going to drive around London as the roads are too narrow. The bendy buses are banned from London. Artics have more maneuverability than you think! I was always quite surprised they managed the turns around Peckham town centre on the 436. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2013 0:18:05 GMT
Since the 15M coaches worked in London. Why haven't TFL been proposing Hong Kong 12m tri axle buses? I am glad the 15m coaches still manage the narrow streets of London  |
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Post by snoggle on Apr 20, 2013 9:30:53 GMT
Since the 15M coaches worked in London. Why haven't TFL been proposing Hong Kong 12m tri axle buses? I am glad the 15m coaches still manage the narrow streets of London Do you not pay attention to what has been said on the forum before? The 12m tri-axle issue has been discussed before. TfL do not want to run them because the dwell times at stops would be far too long because of the limited number of doors for the vehicle capacity. In HK buses can stand at stops for minutes at a time while they load or unload despite all buses accepting the Octopus smartcard. As buses are not allowed to overtake if they are supposed to stop at a stop you then get long queues of buses waiting to get on to stops. That can happen in London *but* the queues in HK are some of the longest I have ever seen. It is, of course, the case that bus loadings in HK are very, very high. You will note that what London did was move to a cashless zone and also open boarding on its very busiest routes to try to keep dwell times as low as possible. I recognise Mayoral policy has pulled us away from that to some extent but keeping dwell times low remains a priority in order to keep PVRs as low as possible. Overall journey times are a key factor in determining the cost of providing a service *and* also how attractive a service will be to passengers. |
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Post by daveb0789 on Apr 22, 2013 12:56:55 GMT
As an aside increasing the length of vehicle also increases the accident rate. The route 88 used the Volvo B10Bs which were notorious for having scrapes due to drivers not being used to their length.
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