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Post by towerman on Feb 17, 2017 17:11:24 GMT
Remember in 2004/5 on a route using Tridents(X4 Peterborough-Milton Keynes)being passed by an old type Merc mini bus on the X4!
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Post by sid on Feb 17, 2017 18:21:56 GMT
Looks like these buses suffer from a lack of leg room [tweet][/tweet] That's a bit misleading, obviously that's the back row where legroom is a bit less but I'm 6ft and I sat there without a problem. Legroom could be better, as it could on a lot of buses, but I didn't hear complaints about it when I travelled on them on Monday.
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Post by vjaska on Feb 17, 2017 18:56:02 GMT
Looks like these buses suffer from a lack of leg room [tweet][/tweet] That's a bit misleading, obviously that's the back row where legroom is a bit less but I'm 6ft and I sat there without a problem. Legroom could be better, as it could on a lot of buses, but I didn't hear complaints about it when I travelled on them on Monday. General point here - new buses really shouldn't have problems with a lack of legroom - even ADL fixed this problem on their Enviro 200's whilst the Streetlite with its higher than normal seating capacity manages to give decent legroom.
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Post by moz on Feb 17, 2017 22:37:55 GMT
* - this situation has one solution, used in the provinces where the bulk of the service is provided between 07:00 and 19:00.....12 hour shifts on a four day week Don't knock it - I love it! Three rest days a week and the occasional six day long weekend. Also, these 11/12 hour jobs are mainly driving/on bus with a couple of shortish breaks so you don't get the chance to get tired like I did with the 4/5 hour breaks on spreads in London. Moz
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Post by ServerKing on Feb 20, 2017 9:08:27 GMT
I spent a few hours in Ashford this afternoon, all seemed to be going very well. A few grumbles about the buses being too small but generally passenger reaction was very positive, many seemed impressed with a x15min service up until 23.00. No overcrowding even at peak times, buggies and wheelchairs accommodated without any problems. The extra buses do add to the congestion around the station at busy times but that was about the only negative aspect I noticed. m.flickr.com/#/photos/105118016@N05/32069482103/Let's hope Stagecoach win the 192 next time round!
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Post by sid on Feb 20, 2017 12:38:06 GMT
I spent a few hours in Ashford this afternoon, all seemed to be going very well. A few grumbles about the buses being too small but generally passenger reaction was very positive, many seemed impressed with a x15min service up until 23.00. No overcrowding even at peak times, buggies and wheelchairs accommodated without any problems. The extra buses do add to the congestion around the station at busy times but that was about the only negative aspect I noticed. m.flickr.com/#/photos/105118016@N05/32069482103/Let's hope Stagecoach win the 192 next time round! Actually they would be ideal for the Enfield to Edmonton Green bit on a 5/6 minute headway if a double deck route (191?) took over the Tottenham Hale section.
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Post by N230UD on Feb 23, 2017 18:14:49 GMT
From my observations in Ashford on a weekday last week, the service is mostly popular with local residents - many of them saying this to the drviers. Leg room is an issue for some seats, but I had no problems where I was sitting. There are also flip-down seats at the front where there would be plently of legroom. They might not have the best legroom, but most people won't be travelling on them for long, and the seats are far more comfortable than the 'breadvans' of the 80s and 90s.
The drivers mostly had excellent customer service - they obviously haven't taken the bad habits of the 'old school' drivers. I spoke to one of the driversand he much prefers the minibuses to big buses. They are easier to manoeuvre around parked cars, and easier to keep to time in, and generally less stressful to drive. He did point out to me that he wonders what they will be like in summer - they have no opening passenger windows and no air-con.
There was bunching (not helped by countless roadworks happening during the school half-term), but surely this is inevitable on a service like this? Obviously Stagecoach will be trying their best to reduce it, but even with the bunching I didn't have to wait too long for a bus at all. Bearing in mind the frequency for the 'B' route to Park Farm is tripled, so even with bunching the service is a vast improvement.
There were controllers at Bank Street (the main town centre interchange) doing their best to avoid late running and bunching.
I really hope Stagecoach do well with this, it seems to be going ok so far. I'm not sure if other towns would do well with these minibuses. Ashford is quite unique in some ways. I wonder if they will be later introduced in Canterbury (if Ashford goes well of course) - the local routes are mostly short, routes aren't hugely busy and there is an increase of London commuters due to the High Speed, however routes can suddenly get packed due to the countless amount of schools in Canterbury.
Also interesting to note - this change also involved new ticket machines for the minibuses, and also the rest of the Ashford-based fleet, enabling contactless debit card payments, which is a huge benefit. It also means routes to Faversham, Canterbury, Maidstone, Tenterden, Hastings etc, where Ashford vehicles reach get this benefit. I believe it is gradually being rolled out across East Kent.
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Post by sid on Feb 23, 2017 20:21:54 GMT
From my observations in Ashford on a weekday last week, the service is mostly popular with local residents - many of them saying this to the drviers. Leg room is an issue for some seats, but I had no problems where I was sitting. There are also flip-down seats at the front where there would be plently of legroom. They might not have the best legroom, but most people won't be travelling on them for long, and the seats are far more comfortable than the 'breadvans' of the 80s and 90s. The drivers mostly had excellent customer service - they obviously haven't taken the bad habits of the 'old school' drivers. I spoke to one of the driversand he much prefers the minibuses to big buses. They are easier to manoeuvre around parked cars, and easier to keep to time in, and generally less stressful to drive. He did point out to me that he wonders what they will be like in summer - they have no opening passenger windows and no air-con. There was bunching (not helped by countless roadworks happening during the school half-term), but surely this is inevitable on a service like this? Obviously Stagecoach will be trying their best to reduce it, but even with the bunching I didn't have to wait too long for a bus at all. Bearing in mind the frequency for the 'B' route to Park Farm is tripled, so even with bunching the service is a vast improvement. There were controllers at Bank Street (the main town centre interchange) doing their best to avoid late running and bunching. I really hope Stagecoach do well with this, it seems to be going ok so far. I'm not sure if other towns would do well with these minibuses. Ashford is quite unique in some ways. I wonder if they will be later introduced in Canterbury (if Ashford goes well of course) - the local routes are mostly short, routes aren't hugely busy and there is an increase of London commuters due to the High Speed, however routes can suddenly get packed due to the countless amount of schools in Canterbury. Also interesting to note - this change also involved new ticket machines for the minibuses, and also the rest of the Ashford-based fleet, enabling contactless debit card payments, which is a huge benefit. It also means routes to Faversham, Canterbury, Maidstone, Tenterden, Hastings etc, where Ashford vehicles reach get this benefit. I believe it is gradually being rolled out across East Kent. Yes very much the same as my experience, there were a few moans and groans about the bus being too small but generally it was overwhelmingly positive particularly in the Park Farm area with the considerable frequency increase and 4bph until late evening. Drivers seem generally happy with them and as you say they all have excellent people skills. Inevitably there will be some bunching on such high frequency routes but there does seem to be a controller in Bank Street throughout the day keeping everything in order. I know it's early days but it seems to have been a great success thus far and yes I would think Canterbury might get something similar in due course. These buses also have the big advantage of no front wheel intrusion.
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Post by sid on Mar 21, 2017 14:37:33 GMT
There is an interesting article on the Ashford operation in the latest Buses magazine.
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Post by sid on Jul 3, 2017 14:04:44 GMT
From my observations in Ashford on a weekday last week, the service is mostly popular with local residents - many of them saying this to the drviers. Leg room is an issue for some seats, but I had no problems where I was sitting. There are also flip-down seats at the front where there would be plently of legroom. They might not have the best legroom, but most people won't be travelling on them for long, and the seats are far more comfortable than the 'breadvans' of the 80s and 90s. The drivers mostly had excellent customer service - they obviously haven't taken the bad habits of the 'old school' drivers. I spoke to one of the driversand he much prefers the minibuses to big buses. They are easier to manoeuvre around parked cars, and easier to keep to time in, and generally less stressful to drive. He did point out to me that he wonders what they will be like in summer - they have no opening passenger windows and no air-con. There was bunching (not helped by countless roadworks happening during the school half-term), but surely this is inevitable on a service like this? Obviously Stagecoach will be trying their best to reduce it, but even with the bunching I didn't have to wait too long for a bus at all. Bearing in mind the frequency for the 'B' route to Park Farm is tripled, so even with bunching the service is a vast improvement. There were controllers at Bank Street (the main town centre interchange) doing their best to avoid late running and bunching. I really hope Stagecoach do well with this, it seems to be going ok so far. I'm not sure if other towns would do well with these minibuses. Ashford is quite unique in some ways. I wonder if they will be later introduced in Canterbury (if Ashford goes well of course) - the local routes are mostly short, routes aren't hugely busy and there is an increase of London commuters due to the High Speed, however routes can suddenly get packed due to the countless amount of schools in Canterbury. Also interesting to note - this change also involved new ticket machines for the minibuses, and also the rest of the Ashford-based fleet, enabling contactless debit card payments, which is a huge benefit. It also means routes to Faversham, Canterbury, Maidstone, Tenterden, Hastings etc, where Ashford vehicles reach get this benefit. I believe it is gradually being rolled out across East Kent. I had a ride on them on a hot day last week, opening windows have been retro fitted.................shades of the LT ! www.flickr.com/photos/105118016@N05/34851321414/in/dateposted-public/
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Post by gloriouswater on Jul 3, 2017 15:18:48 GMT
I rode one on Saturday when it was pretty hot and hadn't realised the opening windows were a retrofit. It was mildly stuffy inside but certainly nothing uncomfortable, bearing in mind I was also sitting at the front away from the windows. Better comfort overall than on a certain other bus we could name About them not having AC, has that been retrofitted or was there forced air cooling as I heard something that sounded a lot like AC on my bus. I quite like the Sprinters too, they have a bit more character to them than most other modern buses, and sound pretty good (for a van) when they get floored on one of the dual carriageway sections. Only issue I have is the doors seem to open and close quite slow on all of them. One driver I saw clearly was fed up of waiting for them to close fully and just drove off with them still half open I suspect the higher frequency service has attracted some people out of their cars - I say this because I overheard some little kids on about how "this bus is like Daddy's car" so hmm, maybe I'm just being optimistic (for a change )
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Post by sid on Jul 3, 2017 15:27:47 GMT
I rode one on Saturday when it was pretty hot and hadn't realised the opening windows were a retrofit. It was mildly stuffy inside but certainly nothing uncomfortable, bearing in mind I was also sitting at the front away from the windows. Better comfort overall than on a certain other bus we could name About them not having AC, has that been retrofitted or was there forced air cooling as I heard something that sounded a lot like AC on my bus. I quite like the Sprinters too, they have a bit more character to them than most other modern buses, and sound pretty good (for a van) when they get floored on one of the dual carriageway sections. Only issue I have is the doors seem to open and close quite slow on all of them. One driver I saw clearly was fed up of waiting for them to close fully and just drove off with them still half open I suspect the higher frequency service has attracted some people out of their cars - I say this because I overheard some little kids on about how "this bus is like Daddy's car" so hmm, maybe I'm just being optimistic (for a change ) I know what you mean about the doors being a bit slow but I've found them quite pleasant to travel in.
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Post by gloriouswater on Jul 3, 2017 15:31:21 GMT
I rode one on Saturday when it was pretty hot and hadn't realised the opening windows were a retrofit. It was mildly stuffy inside but certainly nothing uncomfortable, bearing in mind I was also sitting at the front away from the windows. Better comfort overall than on a certain other bus we could name About them not having AC, has that been retrofitted or was there forced air cooling as I heard something that sounded a lot like AC on my bus. I quite like the Sprinters too, they have a bit more character to them than most other modern buses, and sound pretty good (for a van) when they get floored on one of the dual carriageway sections. Only issue I have is the doors seem to open and close quite slow on all of them. One driver I saw clearly was fed up of waiting for them to close fully and just drove off with them still half open I suspect the higher frequency service has attracted some people out of their cars - I say this because I overheard some little kids on about how "this bus is like Daddy's car" so hmm, maybe I'm just being optimistic (for a change ) I know what you mean about the doors being a bit slow but I've found them quite pleasant to travel in. Agreed, they're pretty nice overall. I'd like to see more services like this popping up in the future, maybe a revival of the old 395 through the Rotherhithe Tunnel even? Although that's a bit optimistic with the way traffic through the tunnel is nowadays.
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Post by snoggle on Oct 12, 2017 19:19:38 GMT
I note with interest that the latest Buses Magazine reports that Stagecoach have cut off peak service levels on two of the Ashford "Little and Often" routes. One of the routes has lost 5 bph which is quite a cut. I can only assume peak traffic (commuters from the station) is reasonably bouyant but off peak travel is not as strong nor as remunerative to sustain the cost of those driver wages.
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Post by MoEnviro on Oct 12, 2017 19:45:51 GMT
I note with interest that the latest Buses Magazine reports that Stagecoach have cut off peak service levels on two of the Ashford "Little and Often" routes. One of the routes has lost 5 bph which is quite a cut. I can only assume peak traffic (commuters from the station) is reasonably bouyant but off peak travel is not as strong nor as remunerative to sustain the cost of those driver wages. I believe the frequency reductions are due to happen on 19th November. I still haven't gone down to see/photograph them...
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