|
|
Post by 6HP502C on Jan 2, 2016 18:55:22 GMT
If the first weekends of previous years are anything to go by, London will be a ghost town tonight. People will be knackered/broke from New Years, places like Clapham and the West End will be eerily quiet. It's the one weekend of the year where the night bus network is seriously over resourced - few people about and no traffic means buses will be plodding along at a funereal pace, scratching at bus stops and sending what few passengers there are on board to sleep. This is in stark contrast to New Year's Eve, where the night buses usually get to belt it along having lost plenty of time. The N155 I got on from the Elephant was moving at a rather lively pace along Kennington Park Road, after filling up at the Elephant and battling with the 200 or so people who were trying to pile on at Kennington Station (I couldn't fathom why on earth this was happening when the Northern Line was running!)
For the sake of simplicity it's probably best left as a weekend service, but the weeknight frequencies and schedules would be more appropriate!
|
|
|
|
Post by snoggle on Jan 2, 2016 19:22:22 GMT
Feels like the quietest week of the year unless you were near Bluewater or a Westfield. I've never been on so many buses scratching around, pulling in to allow invisible passengers on and off and taking an average 10 minutes for a crew change. As I've said before there must be serious money to be saved by rationalising service levels, running times and schedules. I had the top deck of VLA14 to myself for half the trip to Ilford this afternoon. Rest of the time it was only 1 or 2 other people upstairs. Almost felt like I had my own bus and was being chauffer driven.   |
|
|
|
Post by DT 11 on Jan 2, 2016 19:45:50 GMT
Feels like the quietest week of the year unless you were near Bluewater or a Westfield. I've never been on so many buses scratching around, pulling in to allow invisible passengers on and off and taking an average 10 minutes for a crew change. As I've said before there must be serious money to be saved by rationalising service levels, running times and schedules. I had the top deck of VLA14 to myself for half the trip to Ilford this afternoon. Rest of the time it was only 1 or 2 other people upstairs. Almost felt like I had my own bus and was being chauffer driven. Funny enough Bluewater has not been all that bad, apart from last Tuesday there were three accidents in the area, taking 1 hour to leave Bluewater. On Boxing Day buses were not overly full up, 428s & 492s were pretty much picking up thin air on trips out of Bluewater, until everyone decides to leave or when no 96 is around! If the 96s are running late Dartford Turns leaving queues at Bluewater! The days after Boxing Day everyone decided to leave and clog up Bluewater with Cars! |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2016 20:41:21 GMT
I had a lovely run on the 69 to Walthamstow 45 mins end to end which is amazing for a Saturday afternoon. Downstairs had spare seats all the way too. I wish every weekend was like this is London  |
|
|
|
Post by ServerKing on Jan 2, 2016 20:52:07 GMT
New Years Day falling on Friday, coupled with lousy weather tonight probably have added reasons why so many are staying in...  |
|
|
|
Post by Hassaan on Jan 2, 2016 21:29:44 GMT
Business as usual on the 120 with the "Random Frequency Generator"  , buses were decently loaded but not at the level of having every seat taken. Back on Boxing Day the 120 was wedged due to the Sunday every 12 minutes frequency (in practice more like every 10-20 minutes  ). Today I had most of VH52 (Route 423 from Hounslow to Hounslow Heath) to myself as there was only one other person upstairs and no more than 10 on the bus. Afterwards with the 235 (8440 from Hounslow Heath to North Brentford) there were no more than 15 passengers, and only 4 returning back to Hounslow on 8467 (both times behind a 237, and on return it was a Bell Corner short as well). Enough traffic around to cause two shorts on the 237 and one on the 65, all seen in 15 minutes in Brentford. |
|
|
|
Post by vjaska on Jan 2, 2016 21:44:06 GMT
Had a few quiet & quick runs today but there was one journey that was super slow despite the lack of traffic.
Oh, Elephant & Castle was swarming with traffic no thanks to the stupid new road system there. Only other place I encountered traffic all day was Tottenham Hale.
|
|
|
|
Post by snoggle on Jan 2, 2016 23:46:16 GMT
Had a few quiet & quick runs today but there was one journey that was super slow despite the lack of traffic. Oh, Elephant & Castle was swarming with traffic no thanks to the stupid new road system there. Only other place I encountered traffic all day was Tottenham Hale. That would be the good old retail park doing that. Always terrible at weekends / main shopping days. |
|
|
|
Post by Madstuntman on Jan 5, 2016 17:36:37 GMT
Feels like the quietest week of the year unless you were near Bluewater or a Westfield. I've never been on so many buses scratching around, pulling in to allow invisible passengers on and off and taking an average 10 minutes for a crew change. As I've said before there must be serious money to be saved by rationalising service levels, running times and schedules. I had the top deck of VLA14 to myself for half the trip to Ilford this afternoon. Rest of the time it was only 1 or 2 other people upstairs. Almost felt like I had my own bus and was being chauffer driven. Funny enough Bluewater has not been all that bad, apart from last Tuesday there were three accidents in the area, taking 1 hour to leave Bluewater. On Boxing Day buses were not overly full up, 428s & 492s were pretty much picking up thin air on trips out of Bluewater, until everyone decides to leave or when no 96 is around! If the 96s are running late Dartford Turns leaving queues at Bluewater! The days after Boxing Day everyone decided to leave and clog up Bluewater with Cars! I used to play the 96 challenge when I was driving 492's.... Don't care how late I leave BW.... I'm not leaving until just after a 96 has cleared the stop for me.... Then he gets to Dartford just before me, clears that too and the by the time you get to Crayford his follower has cleared that for you... Easy life!!!! |
|
, buses were decently loaded but not at the level of having every seat taken. Back on Boxing Day the 120 was wedged due to the Sunday every 12 minutes frequency (in practice more like every 10-20 minutes 
). Today I had most of VH52 (Route 423 from Hounslow to Hounslow Heath) to myself as there was only one other person upstairs and no more than 10 on the bus. Afterwards with the 235 (8440 from Hounslow Heath to North Brentford) there were no more than 15 passengers, and only 4 returning back to Hounslow on 8467 (both times behind a 237, and on return it was a Bell Corner short as well). Enough traffic around to cause two shorts on the 237 and one on the 65, all seen in 15 minutes in Brentford.
