Post by sid on Apr 14, 2018 5:32:18 GMT
I think the Mercedes Sprinters are reasonably comfortable, I acknowledge that leg room isn't great but I didn't find it any worse than on many larger buses and obviously most passenger journeys are fairly short.
I was working in LT's Traffic Management Office when the first minibus routes were introduced; the B1,C11,P4 and W9. Virtually nobody was surprised at the success of the C11, and I wasn't surprised that the P4 came good, especially once the resistance to it being extended from Brockley Rise to Lewisham was broken. The W9 was less certain, but showed promise (and it certainly passed the test of time) but the B1 was a disappointment. I suspect that today, with the decline of the 161 and a lot fewer buses between Bromley and Chislehurst Village than inĀ 227 days, it would be much better used. It should also have gone to Eltham (Well Hall) Station imo.
At the time of the Roundabout routes being introduced in Orpington in 1986 I was a shopkeeper in the Walnuts Centre. I travelled on the R1 on its first Monday of operation from St Mary's Hospital in Sidcup to Orpington and, even allowing for the novelty and confusion, thought it was a big mistake to put minibuses on that corridor, although I could understand the rationale behind the other routes. The 51 had been virtually destroyed at the time by the closure of Sidcup Garage and subsequent re-allocation to Swanley using clapped-out ex-Strathclyde Atlanteans., so the R1 came under even more pressure.
I agree about the R1, certainly the St Mary Cray section which effectively replaced the double deckers on the 229 but I think other Orpington routes were well suited and as I mentioned previously I think the R3,4 and 6 would benefit from minibuses at a higher frequency. I also remember those awful ex Strathclyde Atlanteans on the 51, I recall the 51 getting brand new buses a few years later which were unadulterated luxury by comparison.