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Post by eggmiester on Aug 30, 2018 9:14:22 GMT
It seems that NX’s allocations have become a lot more strict lately, the 36 is now nearly fully hybrid, the 1st gen WHVs and EHs are solely running on the 436, the 171,172, 343 are fully MMC and the 321 is fully diesel, normally a few hybrids sneak out in the 321/436. I wonder what’s caused this clamping down all of a sudden. All of the older 57&08-reg Es are now quite strictly allocated to the 321. Several reasons.. 1. Contract compliance, all the contracts barr the 321 require hybrid buses. 3. Staff training. A lot if the 172 and 343 drivers are not trained on the WHV, occasionally one will sneak out but those routes must predominantly be allocated EH buses. 2. Emissions zones. Most routes pass stricter emissions zones this require hybrids. The 321 just skims the Lewisham zone so gets away with using diesel buses. You will find the N321’s will generally be EH or WHV now for reliability (night routes have always tended to use the newer buses in garages) so if theres none out in the day your best chance of a hybrid on the 321 is late evening / overnight.
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Post by eggmiester on Aug 29, 2018 9:34:56 GMT
Go-ahead have new Putney - Barnes - Roehampton route proposal in new LSP for University of Roehampton Appears it will use double decks, but max length only 10.0m consultations.tfl.gov.uk/lsp/907ca74d/ The University either have money to throw away or they are expecting legions of people. Are the 72 and 265 really unable to handle passengers for the short trip from Barnes to Roehampton Lane? I must be missing something here. I suspect tfl cuts to the local services have resulted in the uni taking action into their own hands and providing transport to their students and staff. A lot of colleges and universities have started to provide their own services to students and staff, Kingston Uni has a well known and well organised network of routes that LU currently run, The Uni of Greenwich have services between the campus sites provided by Centaur travel....
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Post by eggmiester on Aug 23, 2018 10:26:39 GMT
From what i have heard on the grapevine GAL are to purchase some ex tower transit 2011 reg DN’s made surplus off route 30 via ensigns.
This should answer any questions relating to what vehicles will be used on the recent awards.
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Post by eggmiester on Aug 20, 2018 13:06:25 GMT
It seems pretty doubtful to me too, but it seemed the most logical considering GAL are already stretched in terms of existing buses so I don’t know how they’ll find two more also is the 486 having a reduction on renewal or are they going to try and run the same frequency off 14 vehicles instead of 16? Or is there a change of routing regarding the 180/129/472/161 changes etc? I can't remember what the original tender notes specified but it wouldn't surprise me if there was a frequency reduction given TfL's current stance. As for finding two E's, it can be done especially as MB has one E spare despite 882 still yet to be replaced which could be replaced by a Euro IV E from AL along with the 60 reg E on the 353. The new 486 tender states a frequency and PVR reduction on the new contract.
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Post by eggmiester on Jul 20, 2018 11:03:24 GMT
For anyone interested,the majority oof shuttles are operated by Go Ahead London,Stagecoach (Not London) And Brighton & Hove Buses More details will come later ;-) Goahead London have the mainstay of the Airshow contracted services this year plus their usual commercial routes to the public event weekend. As far as i am aware the buses used this year have been commercial DD’s mostly the recent Enviro 400 additions ex SW (route 196) doing the on site and station to gate work, with the newer commercial E’s working the longer distance duties with the white coaches that are on loan from Volvo. The on site shuttles are using ex MB E200’s from the 284/181 a couple of which have been refurbished for the 225 and will go to MG after. Brighton and Hove and Metrobus Crawley are also providing support to GAL as they usually do with vehicles on site covering various duties.
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 30, 2018 9:50:08 GMT
ENL107 on route 166 with the front destination blind stuck on “Waddon Marsh”. That gives me the impression that route 289 is included on their blindset. Cue the rumours about the 289 moving to TC..... I think the 289 has always been included on TC single deck blind sets. Even way back ti when they ran the 407
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 17, 2018 23:06:13 GMT
While GALs commercial fleet are commonly found on Kent rail replacement, I thought it worth mentioning that E44 was helping out on the Canterbury West to Ashford rail replacement today. Presumably this is still in the main fleet as according to LVF it worked a TfL route only yesterday. BX have the commercial rail office base there and there are a number of commercial drivers who prefer to take the low numbered E’s as the E39-56 batch are less restricted (due to the 486 traversing shooters hill) so these do regularly go out on distant rail work, they have recently been noted as far as the south coast i.e. Brighton, Worthing, Littlehampton etc as well as their regular forays into Kent and East Sussex.
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 17, 2018 22:54:44 GMT
How man of the new SRM B5LHCs have been ordered for the 37? Will it get a full allocation or will it be a part allocation with the Es? AFAIK only 2 are coming in as demonstrators and will work alongside the allocated Es. I also believe that these two buses are expected to be sporting new blind technology They have traditional power blind units fitted from the factory and will be using powerblinds.
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 12, 2018 15:50:37 GMT
They probably will all come off when the rest of the SN18s enter service. Last time I heard the type training for the 36 drivers wasn’t complete which is why there were (proportionally against the PVR) much more MMCs on the 171 rather than the 36. Surely the type training must be finished now though? I'm not sure type training can be used as an excuse since if they can drive the 61reg EH's, the MMCs aren't that much significantly different, practically the same imo The MMC’s are completely different in The way they operate and the cab controls are also a lot different to the original Enviro400H EH’s hence the union requested all drivers were trained and signed off on the MMC type. And before anyone asks, yes I have been trained to operate one and can say they are totally different operationally. (i am yet to actually properly drive one though as i dont get to go NX as often as I used to).
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 11, 2018 11:55:29 GMT
I see SE92 is marked as accident according to LVF and was lasted used on the 6th on the P5, anyone know what happened? I cant say too much on the matter but SE92 was in involved in a very bad rtc whilst on a rail duty last week and will be off the road for some time.
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 7, 2018 23:03:42 GMT
Very much looking forward to seeing the 386 running from Morden Wharf. Very poor relation at Stagecoach Plumstead The 386 is using run numbers MG201-211
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Post by eggmiester on Jun 7, 2018 22:53:27 GMT
B16 is planned to be using some of the 244's SE's if the 244 converts to DD. If the 244 doesn't get converted to DD's then I'd expect to be 300 SE's instead (300 is planned to use 10.8m SE's from the D6). The B16 has a full allocation of SE's whereas the B11 uses one 51 reg LDP although it's planned to be cut back from Thamesmead in the Crossrail consultation so if that goes ahead, the LDP will probably go without replacement. If it doesn't go through, then it will probably be replaced by a 300 SE as you mentioned The LDP’s area actually on paper allocated to the B16 (stated in the new contract to be replaced within 18 months) and will be released when the B11 pvr is reduced (if retained). At the present time the talk is that if he 244 is retained it will remain single deck rather that DD as proposed but this is unconfirmed as we eagerly await the tender results.
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Post by eggmiester on May 27, 2018 16:41:05 GMT
As said above, there are 33 MHVs currently at PM. Route 63 has a PVR of 26 so needs 29 of them. Route 363 has a PVR of 14 so needs 15 vehicles - there are 13 EHs so only 2 MHVs are required. This leaves 2 MHVs spare. And as I said, all the MHV’s at PM are allocated between the 63 & 363 - PVR of 14 generally requires two spares. The 363 PVR is 15, theres not enough EH’s at PM to cover this as it was the result of a PVR increase last year so the shortfall is covered by spare MHV’s off the 63 that were made surplus by a PVR reduction. The 2 spares are basically there because PM’s rota servicing is done at Camberwell so these cover for buses away at Q.
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Post by eggmiester on May 21, 2018 8:51:29 GMT
Is WS117 (the single 18reg) intended as a top up for route 286 at MG (due to the PVR difference from the 170)? The ex-170 WSs (67reg) plus the WS65 demonstrator and WS117 gives 15 vehicles for a PVR of 14. Yes WS117 is a top up for the 286 and will possibly release SE212 to SW. Total PVR’s always include a spare (to give a TVR - Total vehicle requirement) so for a PVR if 14 you’d have at least 1 maybe 2 spare buses making the TVR15 or 16 respectively.
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Post by eggmiester on May 14, 2018 11:37:23 GMT
As previously mentioned all registrations are now dealt with by swansea, however the system still works on area codes based on where the applicant applying for the registration is based or lives. The DVLA will allocate the area code to the address of the applicant, so if a vehicle is first registered by a manufacturer based in yorkshire they will issue a yorkshire area registration (YA-YX), similarly if the manufacturer or person / company registering the vehicle is located in Kent they will be issued a South eastern area code (GA-GX).
So if Wright buses are receiving scottish registrations then they must either have an office based in scotland that is dealing with the registration of wrightbus products for the uk market or ( and highly likely) they buy blocks of registrations in bulk from the DVLA and it could be that scottish plates are cheaper to reserve in bulk, or the DVLA reserve some scottish codes for bulk buying.
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