Post by Deleted on May 1, 2015 19:03:21 GMT
Hi all,
I'm writing a research piece on the reliability of night bus services in London. Part of this involves looking at factors which hinder the progress of journeys. As such, I'm trying to compile a list of night buses and the night element of 24 hour routes which have live changeovers and where they take place, as not all of them are shown in the schedules. I have the following, any help would be much appreciated.
N15 - Barking, Fair Cross
N35 - Camberwell Green
N47 - Catford Garage
N68 - Camberwell Green
N136 - Catford Garage
N171 - New Cross
365 - Romford, North Street
Thanks!
The schedules may refer to something known as the Garage stand (XX GRS) which would refer to the bus running dead back to the garage in order for changeovers to take place. The 295 for example after a certain time at night will run dead from Ladbroke Grove to Westbourne Park to changeover. Given that the actual night service runs for approximately 5 hours a night, it is rather uncommon for changeovers to take place in 0200-0300 range as it would make for an inefficient period of work for the driver. Live changeovers for N28/N31 are rather ideal, just outside the front door. In relation to your research, the N28/N31 are affected by poor levels of stand time at Camden Town (and Wandsworth for N28). 5 minutes each end just isn't enough to run a reliable service, it takes one set of temporary lights for example to put you six minutes late, and when negotiating busy sections of route, you begin to fall behind schedule all night. I know it sounds rather trivial, but you certainly need to look at what happens on the road.
I'll give you a little insight, you get minicabs just stopping in the middle of the road to pick up punters all over the place, and when you have tight stand time this sort of thing impacts reliability hugely.