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Post by thesquirrels on Sept 6, 2014 17:54:36 GMT
Extend the 215 during the summer extension to Waltham Cross Bus Station via Sewardstone, Waltham Abbey & Eleanor Cross Road (if length is an issue, it can miss out Waltham Abbey via Meridan Way). The reason why I've suggested this is the Lea Valley Campsite brings buses from Harlow, Chingford & Walthamstow but not Waltham Cross which is the nearest town to the north west - anyone in this direction it seems would have to travel into London and then get the tube to Walthamstow and then a 215 to reach the campsite. I've no idea how loadings are, whether there would be any patronage along my suggested route or even if the extension would work outside the seasonal period that the 215 serves the campsite but I'm sure someone will tell me if it's viable or not lol. This is like one of the best idea on this thread (in my opinion ) I think the extension would not need to be a seasonal one it could easily operate all year and just miss out the campsite in the summer. The camper would be able to access the site from Waltham Cross Station or Waltham Cross High Street with the 215. The direction the 215 comes into Waltham across is also way different to the other TfL routes. I know the 505 was mentioned but like it was mentioned this route goes to Chingford Station not Chingford Mount or Waltham Cross, it doesn't serve the campsite bus stop as well so camper would need to walk from Sewardstone Road. There is a sizeable new build estate along Meridian Way that currently isn't served by buses, along with an enormous Sainsburys distribution depot opened about 10 years ago - this is a round-the-clock operation employing over a thousand people. The stops are there but with nothing to serve them. Considering Snoggle's observations about passenger numbers at the Chingford end, I wonder if the 505's continued survival as a commercial operation at the London end partly owes itself to being the closest bus route to pass the area. I also wonder if there could be a justification for TfL providing a service from their area - both from Waltham Cross for other TfL routes (perhaps even running from the Enfield area) as well as the northern part of Waltham Forest, to link into the employment opportunities around there. It may well be a case of suppressed demand - people will not take the job in a public transport desert, or if commercial fare levels (or paying seperate TfL and non-TfL bus fares) prove prohibitively expensive. The 81 is a good example of a route which has boomed from taking people in the London area to job opportunities outside (Poyle, Langley, Slough), and doing so cheaply at that.
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Post by thesquirrels on Sept 1, 2014 20:34:31 GMT
Yesterday 35 to London Bridge. No 149s south of Liverpool Street because of football diversions in Tottenham and roadworks at the bottom of Bishopsgate (and none seen at the Bishopsgate stop outside the station, presume the buses turned at Norton Folgate). Had to let a 47 and 48 go because of crowding. Diversion was via Aldgate and Fenchurch Street. TfL were tweeting that the 149 had collapsed in a heap (my words) yesterday due to football and roadworks (as you say). Buses were turning at Shoreditch from the north so no wonder everything else was being hammered. I can't recall the last time that a trunk service like the 149 was "part suspended" on a Sunday as a result of a regular event (football) and some roadworks (again a regular feature in the City at weekends). Exactly. The diversions on Bishbosh/Gracechurch have been on and off over weekends for the last few months for resurfacing and some other utility works, and diversions away from WHL when Spurs are home have been standard practice for years. I can't understand what would have gone so wrong. Oddly the countdown display at the s/b stop at Liv St was still showing 149s through to London Bridge (a couple, listed as 27 minutes away before disappearing). A 48 for London Bridge also vanished with 1 minute to show.. must have become a Shoreditch terminator. iBus having a tizz, I suppose.
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Post by thesquirrels on Sept 1, 2014 17:58:12 GMT
Yesterday 259: Heysham Road to Tottenham Town Hall 123: Monument way to Gants Hill. DW. Belted it through Tottenham Hale and Forest Road with about 20 passengers on board. Minor holdup at Walthamstow Town Hall as the road was busy with traffic associated with the Antiques Roadshow who were there for the day. Otherwise, all seemed too good to be true and so it was... we got to Wood Street where it caught up with its leader (a VLA), apology over the tannoy that the leader was "extremely late" and we would have to hang about to leave a gap. Bus in front was also absolutely belting it so after an initial pause we were not delayed too much - we lost sight of it fairly quickly and even at a respectable pace only caught sight of it again at Gants Hill. Both buses went through to Ilford. 66: Gants Hill to Romford Station. DW. Left Newbury Park with a healthy load, reckon an SD would have struggled. Was hoping for a decker on the 296 but just missed one (Trident) at GH and did not fancy a half hour wait for another. 498: Romford Station to Brentwood High Street. Olympus. Clear traffic all the way so no reason to make any time up.. Lunch 498: BT Building to Romford Station. Again, an Olympus. Had a 15 minute gap so had a walk down the hill and enjoyed the view of the distant London skyline. Brentwood is surprisingly high up! 370: Victoria Road to Lakeside. VLA. Did not hang about in the lanes between Corbets Tey and Ockendon and was generally quick throughout. Was carrying about 50 people when it got to the terminus. 372: Lakeside to Elm Park Station. Surprised to note that a handful of others transferred from the 370 onto the 372. Haven't taken this journey with the benefit of a top deck view in daylight before.. seemed slower than it has done in the past. Journey did drag through Aveley and between Rainham and Elm Park, driver wasn't giving it much. District line to Mile End Central line to Liverpool Street 35 to London Bridge. No 149s south of Liverpool Street because of football diversions in Tottenham and roadworks at the bottom of Bishopsgate (and none seen at the Bishopsgate stop outside the station, presume the buses turned at Norton Folgate). Had to let a 47 and 48 go because of crowding. Diversion was via Aldgate and Fenchurch Street. Northern Line to Kings Cross FCC: Kings Cross to Finsbury Park (365) FCC: Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace (313) FCC: Alexandra Palace to Hornsey (313. no northbound local service)
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 30, 2014 12:04:30 GMT
Wood Green has a page in the Improvement & Projects section Wood Green changes on TfL page
Haringey council has a more detailed page of construction stages and plans what the high road will look like after the works Wood Green changes on Haringey page
After looking at the plans there are no real changes to bus stops most noticeable change to bus stops is the bus shelter at Wood Green Station (Northbound & Southbound) will be dismantled and replaced by a standard TfL bus shelter. Im please that Langham Road will be closed at its junction with Westbury Avenue. But besides that there are not many major changes going on. Thanks for the links. The removal of the big bus shelters at Wood Green is a mistake (IMO). They were very well used and now the southbound stop has virtually no cover at all. This is pretty useless when if you need to rest your legs while you wait - plenty of older people use buses in Wood Green. I wonder what the reasoning was to remove them? There was a lot of what the authorities would class as 'anti social behaviour' that occurred around those shelters, especially the one outside Morrisons, which was a congregating spot for the local street drinkers, the day release crowd and anyone else that had been turned out of the Goose. I think Haringey council/TfL might have decided instead of tackling the problem to just 'design it out' with the street works and hope they go away. When I was at school the southbound stop by the cinema was a major congregating spot where some inter-schools friction would occur (some of the nastiest fights i've seen happened there, including two young turkish men whipping each other with belts with an audience of about 30 schoolkids egging them on) - I understand things are quieter now but it is still considered an issue. The shelters were in a pretty run down condition so I'm not surprised to see them go. But some sort of shelter & seating should be put in their place, even if it is a bank of standard bus shelters.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 30, 2014 10:45:39 GMT
Why would people that want stops after Leyton (towards walthamstow) get off at Stratford? For the same reasons people heading towards Tottenham (and even Edmonton, IME) pile off the tube at Manor House and sit on a 259/279 for half an hour plus. Seven Sisters is the more obvious railhead, but people evidently see the cost saving of a z12 travelcard vs a 1-3 as worth the trouble. You can see the proof every day along that stretch. There are enough demographic similarities between Tottenham and Leyton/stone to make me think the same thing will happen in east London next year. Money is money.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 30, 2014 8:41:38 GMT
Agree with Trident, a quick look at the tt's on LBR suggests a combined 69/97 from Canning Town to Chingford would have a running time of about 100 minutes in the peaks. Getting it through traffic in Stratford, Leyton, Walthamstow and over the A406 would prove too much for it to be run reliably, I reckon. And I do think the current sections reflect demand over the various stretches pretty well.
I think the routine bus siege at Leyton Station might die down a bit when Stratford is rezoned - some will see the chance to save on the price of a travelcard zone and transfer to buses at Stratford.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 30, 2014 6:31:18 GMT
The last time Haringey Council decided to rip WG High Road up and start again (in 99/00 IIRC) southbound buses were diverted down a set of side roads to the east of the shopping city - Gladstone Avenue, right Noel Park Road, Bury Road, right Whymark Avenue and left back onto the High Road just short of Turnpike Lane. Northbound buses used the High Road as usual. This worked fine from memory - it gave the highway workers the lane of the High Road they needed to work on and retained the usual bus services (in practice buses either slalomed their way from WG to TL in about two minutes flat or spent about 15 minutes in a wall of buses trying to get out of Whymark.. still sounds better than this plan, though). Why can't TfL use this arrangement again?
Fully agree with RouteW15.. Wood Green is not in the best state of health as shopping centres go in London. Slashing the bus services over the peak shopping period is going to send shoppers elsewhere. A lot of the retailers are smaller non-chain businesses where a protracted bad period could mean the difference between sink and swim.
I notice that the 141 is going to be left unaltered. That will be a fun one to run.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 19, 2014 18:24:44 GMT
Abellio's 9750 on the 343 sounding like it's exhaust had gone. Sounded *rough* moving off. Still out there this evening, though.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 17, 2014 23:59:28 GMT
There was a gap in the 466 bus service this morning. There was about 20 minutes between the two buses and it should be every 8-10 mins. This frustrated an awful lot of people at the interchange. I don't think it helped that the trams are currently terminating at Sandilands. There ended up being a total of four 466 buses at interchange at the same time. However, DW 21 which should have been there to bridge that gap had it's bonnet up, so one can only presume it had technical problems. At least 3 of these drivers all got out and were having chat next to one of these buses which added fuel to the fire at the bus stop. Several people were saying they were going to go and "say something" to the drivers because it was "unacceptable". I used to be a lot like this but now realise: what will the drivers actually do? They can't and won't say 'oh, i'd best start my bus 10 minutes before my scheduled departure time because people are moaning'. I just don't think people understand that buses have to stick to a timetable and if one is missed out it can't be replaced straight away. It has a knock on effect and the other buses have to keep to their allocated departure times. On a completely different note, has anybody been on the 166 bus recently? I've done this route from Purley to Banstead twice this week and some of the roads (not sure of the names as i'm not a regular on the route, there's one which is basically a massive hill up and down, closer to Banstead and the other is adjacent to the Lavender fields) are absolutely awful. Literally I and several other passengers were having to shout at each other to be heard over the sheer vibrating and rattling the bus was making. We were literally bouncing up and down in our seats. I don't think i've ever seen a road that needs more of a resurface than these ones, the Enviro200's seemed to cope quite well. I don't think the previous ADL darts would have made it to be honest!!! Chipstead Way is the road that climbs twice towards Banstead before reaching Woomansterne Village whilst I presume the other is Carshalton Road (I've no idea where that Lavender Fields is). These roads have been like that for years - I've done it on the ADL's, the DWL's that are now at TH, the T31's ENL's & the 312 PDL's and everything rattled along there. I used to ride the route a lot when I was at Croydon College a few times - the Epsom General Hospital journey was worth doing to see the scenic parts of the route. The roads the 331 takes through Denham are in a similar state of repair, Denham Avenue probably being the worst. Oxford Road was finally resurfaced a couple of years ago but I don't think had been touched prior to that since the opening of the M40. The roads the 107 and 292 take through Borehamwood are a pretty rattly as well (along with 40 year old street lighting).. it's a bit of a shock to leave London and see the attitude some of the bordering authorities take to highway maintenance.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 17, 2014 23:30:31 GMT
All things said, I think a 409 in it's pre-2001 guise *could* have made it into the TfL network as far as Godstone Green. In those days it ran via Purley Cross and played a major role between Croydon and Caterham over the roads which would come to be served by the 466 (frequencies were 2bph to Godstone, one continuing to EG - it combined with the 400 to give 4bph as far as Caterham-on-the-Hill). But the tramlink route changes in 1999 and the consequent inception of the 466 did for the 409's viability on that corridor - it was quickly reduced to hourly throughout, then a couple of years later was diverted via Selsdon and Chelsham to cover the old Metrobus 483 and various other local links in that part of the world.
I took a 409 once for the ride, back when Metrobus ran the full Croydon-EG route with Olympians. It took just under an hour to get from Croydon to Caterham - consider that the 407 and 466 take about 35 minutes, being generous. Caterham through Godstone to East Grinstead took a more direct route, but you could understand why the decision was made to break it up it to reflect the nature of the shorter journeys made along the route - I don't think many would have made the end-to-end journey of two hours.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 17, 2014 20:13:20 GMT
Abellio Surrey are transparent enough to include faretables for their Surrey routes on their website - as a guide, a short hop is £2 and a single from Esher to Walton is £3.60. Kingston to Esher down the Porstmouth Road is £2.60. Cheap is not the first word that comes to mind, especially in the context of their TfL neighbours. But I'm presuming from the relative stability of their routes in the last couple of years that those fare levels have allowed them to cover costs.
Why would TfL favour a link to Godstone over Redhill? A sizeable number of people in the southern half of LB Croydon travel into Redhill for work and education (can't speak for schools but East Surrey College has a considerable number of students living in Croydon) - TfL has more of an obligation there for the sake of it's own ratepayers. Godstone is a much smaller town - effectively a large commuter village, and I think most travel would be towards Caterham (for trains to Croydon and London) and Croydon AM and reverse PM. So to actually have a tfl 409 would be brilliant for the burghers of Godstone (and a few weekend daytrippers from London), but it makes no sense to fund it from City Hall when it would instantly lose TfL money.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 10, 2014 14:59:37 GMT
121 Enfield Lock Station (seen & in use on DLAs - not sure about newer vehicles) Enfield Highway Ponders End, Enfield Garage Enfield Town Oakwood Station Southgate Station Palmers Green, North Circular Road Wood Green
259: Upper Edmonton, Angel Corner (rare but seen) Snells Park Tottenham Town Hall Manor House Finsbury Park Holloway, Nags Head
W5 Crouch End
The 275 list was a stab in the dark - I also forgot it had been extended to St James St, hence no Wstow Ctl. Derp!
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 9, 2014 8:22:02 GMT
125 North Finchley Whetstone Griffin Hampden Square
149 Monument Shoreditch Dalston, Downham Road (removed?) Stoke Newington Stamford Hill Tottenham Town Hall Snells Park
192 Angel Road Edmonton Green Bush Hill Park
232 Wood Green (presumably to stand on Redvers Road, but have seen an evening journey arrive 35 late, throw a 3 point turn from the stop outside KFC on Jolly Waggoners Hill and speed off full throttle up the High Road) Arnos Grove Brent Cross Neasden Shopping Centre Neasden, Brent Park Tesco (not seen in years, but used when things on St. Raphaels Estate got a bit too lively to leave buses hanging around for target practice/cashpoint supplies)
247 North Street Collier Row Marks Gate Hainault Fullwell Cross (Romford Market - maybe others can confirm?)
275 Walthamstow Bell Woodford Station Woodford Bridge Fullwell Cross
299 Southgate Station
313 Chase Farm Hospital Enfield Town Ponders End (unofficial? but seen) Potters Bar Tesco
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 6, 2014 20:25:27 GMT
67: - West Green Road / Black Boy Lane - Stamford Hill - Stoke Newington - Dalston, Downham Road - Shoreditch
(Anyone know if Turnpike Lane is listed as a curtailment? In over 20 years of using the route I've never seen one do it)
253: - Mornington Crescent - Camden Town - Holloway Nags Head - Finsbury Park - Manor House Stn - Stamford Hill - Clapton Pond
254: - Finsbury Park - Manor House Stn - Stamford Hill - Clapton Pond - Hackney Central - Ash Grove - Whitechapel
I am sure the 29 has a curtailment point at Camden Road/Brecknock Road - I have seen them blinded for it (but have never seen a 253 turn there). When exactly escapes me though - might even be pre-bendy days. definitely on the front of a DW - large aperture, from memory.
The 141 also has Baring Street in Hoxton as a curtailment point, in common with the 271 and 21. Or it did, anyway. As with Brecknock, can't remember the last time I saw one blinded for it.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 7, 2014 21:35:41 GMT
The early Reeve Burgess Darts (DR) went like stink. Foot flat to the floor and you could surprise many car drivers off the lights! Ahh, fond memories. Back to the questions: What single deckers is the fastest on dual carriageways/motorways? Heavy duty single buses such as the Citaro or the OmniCity are going to excel here because of their larger, more powerful engines. Because of their weight and larger wheels they will also be more steady to drive at high speeds as opposed to midibuses. I have driven Darts against the limiter on the motorway and found them to be skittish! IIRC Darts are limited to a top speed of 53mph anyway. I would be surprised if Citaros and the Omnicity were not capable of reaching 100kph. What single deckers is the best at climbing Hills? Again it would have to be a heavy duty bus like the Citaro or Omnicity. You've got remember a Dart has a small 3.9l 4 cylinder engine so might do ok unladen but not so with a lot of passengers on board. That little engine has a tough job! Perhaps an earlier 5.9l 6 cylinder Dart might fare better. What double deckers is the best at climbing Hills? Not sure but Mitchley Hill (Route 412) in Purley is a very good test of this! It would be cool to be able to test a variety buses on this route. The DLAs struggle the most - probably because of the age and wear on the engine. The DWs do marginally better and the Enviro 400s (T) make it up the fastest. Again it is probably age related. I'm sure a newly rebuilt engine in a DLA would perform a lot better. Other than that perhaps a Volvo Olympian Cummins L10? What double deckers is the fastest on dual carriageways/motorways? An East Lancs/Optare Olympus Volvo B9TL would be my bet. There are a fair few coach operators that own these and I see them from time to time with school parties on the motorway. Otherwise something like an unrestricted Euro 2 or Euro 3 Trident as mentioned by someone else. Again a Volvo Olympian - I remember reading somewhere that Ensign are particularly fond of their Alexander Royales because they are more than capable of doing motorway work too (I'm not sure if theirs are Cummins L10s?) I believe the Volvo Olympians stopped using the L10 engine from around N reg based on the examples Q had, their M reg single door Docklands buses having the Cummin engines whereas their N reg dual doored variants for the 35/40 having Volvo engines. The Reeves bodied Dennis Darts (DR/DRLs) did indeed move like 'the dogs b*****ks' on the road against the average cars. I don't know what the torque/horsepower specs were, but they would have given the MAN single Deckers a good run for their money, bearing in mind the DRL's were shorter in length. I believe Arriva South's latest Darts (before their E200s) have euro4 spec'd 4.5L engines as opposed to the 3.9L units in their euro3 examples. Another dangerously fast bus where the VC class Volvo city buses Stockwell had for the 133 and 196, until they were eventually governed. They were excellent shifters up the hills along the 196, Knights Hill in particular. I only ever got to use the VCs on the 133, where the stop-start trunk road conditions and heavy passenger flows didn't give much scope for fast running (during the day at least). Stop-start conditions, that is, until Streatham.. a late runner due for some sort of break would take Southcroft Road at some eyewatering speeds for a residential area. Merton Council eventually put in some calming measures along the road (probably not related!!..) but that just made the ride more lively!
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