va59
Conductor
Posts: 145 
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Post by va59 on Sept 24, 2024 8:41:59 GMT
Was in the Woodford area yesterday so happened to spot a few buses on the revised network. It seemed very weird seeing a W14 heading to Whipps Cross but did notice it had more passengers onboard that the previous 549. I also spotted a W12 terminating at Charlie Browns Roundabout with another bus behind heading Woodford Bridge. I am not sure what's going on along Chigwell Road but the traffic from South Woodford to the roundabout is getting worse each week it now backs al the way back to George Lane most Saturday daytimes. I think there was a burst water main at Woodford Bridge (top of the high street) which was causing untold amounts of delays going back as far as Broadmead Road. At the point I was there, there was a W12 about to turn on to Chigwell Road from Broadmead Road, another one 200 yards further up and another one just under the M11 flyover. |
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Post by WH241 on Sept 24, 2024 9:06:05 GMT
Was in the Woodford area yesterday so happened to spot a few buses on the revised network. It seemed very weird seeing a W14 heading to Whipps Cross but did notice it had more passengers onboard that the previous 549. I also spotted a W12 terminating at Charlie Browns Roundabout with another bus behind heading Woodford Bridge. I am not sure what's going on along Chigwell Road but the traffic from South Woodford to the roundabout is getting worse each week it now backs al the way back to George Lane most Saturday daytimes. I think there was a burst water main at Woodford Bridge (top of the high street) which was causing untold amounts of delays going back as far as Broadmead Road. At the point I was there, there was a W12 about to turn on to Chigwell Road from Broadmead Road, another one 200 yards further up and another one just under the M11 flyover. I was referring to the other part of Chigwell Road from Charlie Brown towards South Woodford. This section seems to be suffering really bad congestion over the last few weeks. |
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Post by vjaska on Sept 24, 2024 19:01:28 GMT
One for adl among others possibly: So, I ended up in Havering today for a couple of rides: 165 service is a bit ropey with buses either bunched or having sizeable gaps between them. The RM drivers are a cheery bunch though, a 287 driver helped out a recent recruit in regards to his bus leaking diesel just as he was about to leave Abbey Wood Lane as a 165. 10174 is a very good bus - only sampled from Rainham Tesco to Abbey Wood Lane but had some good movement out of it, would leave most T's quite easily Loadings on the 165 today during off peak were neither quiet nor extremely busy, busiest sections was Abbey Wood Lane to Rainham Tesco & Elm Park to Romford (this was the busiest section) Noticed Stagecoach has an issue with their handrails paint peeling, saw it on several examples - not something I've noticed hugely on Abellio examples, E's or T's in my own area in comparison 346 diversion is nuts - does an entire loop of Upminster Park Estate & Cranham before heading to Upminster and using the old routing by the station to face towards Harold Wood Driver was extremely helpful, pointing out to everyone exactly where the diversion goes whenever someone boarded - top marks to her for information The old 497 section has picked up a little in terms of custom - not to the point where it was anything to shout home about but there were a fair few more making use of it than my last ride I really dislike those grey seats!!! |
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Post by MKAY315 on Sept 24, 2024 19:17:50 GMT
I had a flashback from 2007 where I'd always get the 58 from East Ham to go to Leyton on the weekend for sporting activities and TNL33015 (LK51 UYS) was my stalker bus. Man that particular vehicle used to fly. What I liked about that bus in particular was the stopping sign upstairs was in capitals rather than the small lettercase which was adopted from the X-reg tridents onwards.
The 58 has always been an interesting route but man I would feel sorry for those drivers trying to get through Green Street especially when West Ham used to play there.
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Post by busoccultation on Sept 24, 2024 19:31:24 GMT
One for adl among others possibly: So, I ended up in Havering today for a couple of rides: 10174 is a very good bus - only sampled from Rainham Tesco to Abbey Wood Lane but had some good movement out of it, would leave most T's quite easily Loadings on the 165 today during off peak were neither quiet nor extremely busy, busiest sections was Abbey Wood Lane to Rainham Tesco & Elm Park to Romford (this was the busiest section) Apart from the fact it has been a longest running stalker bus of mine (for nearly 8 years as of now), it is a pretty decent bus and generally a decent batch of those 63 regs across RM, BK & TB are as Euro 5 E400 goes. |
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Post by DW221 on Sept 24, 2024 19:59:52 GMT
One for adl among others possibly: So, I ended up in Havering today for a couple of rides: 165 service is a bit ropey with buses either bunched or having sizeable gaps between them. The RM drivers are a cheery bunch though, a 287 driver helped out a recent recruit in regards to his bus leaking diesel just as he was about to leave Abbey Wood Lane as a 165. 10174 is a very good bus - only sampled from Rainham Tesco to Abbey Wood Lane but had some good movement out of it, would leave most T's quite easily Loadings on the 165 today during off peak were neither quiet nor extremely busy, busiest sections was Abbey Wood Lane to Rainham Tesco & Elm Park to Romford (this was the busiest section) Noticed Stagecoach has an issue with their handrails paint peeling, saw it on several examples - not something I've noticed hugely on Abellio examples, E's or T's in my own area in comparison 346 diversion is nuts - does an entire loop of Upminster Park Estate & Cranham before heading to Upminster and using the old routing by the station to face towards Harold Wood Driver was extremely helpful, pointing out to everyone exactly where the diversion goes whenever someone boarded - top marks to her for information The old 497 section has picked up a little in terms of custom - not to the point where it was anything to shout home about but there were a fair few more making use of it than my last ride I really dislike those grey seats!!! Those SN63s are a decent bunch, pretty much all of them are across RM/TB/BK. Most Euro 5 E40Ds can do the job nicely tbf Yeah thats a good point actually I’ve only noticed really paint peeling handrails with Stagecoach, never Arriva, GAL or any other operator that I can remember. Kinda weird |
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Post by southlondonbus on Sept 24, 2024 20:02:04 GMT
One for adl among others possibly: So, I ended up in Havering today for a couple of rides: 165 service is a bit ropey with buses either bunched or having sizeable gaps between them. The RM drivers are a cheery bunch though, a 287 driver helped out a recent recruit in regards to his bus leaking diesel just as he was about to leave Abbey Wood Lane as a 165. 10174 is a very good bus - only sampled from Rainham Tesco to Abbey Wood Lane but had some good movement out of it, would leave most T's quite easily Loadings on the 165 today during off peak were neither quiet nor extremely busy, busiest sections was Abbey Wood Lane to Rainham Tesco & Elm Park to Romford (this was the busiest section) Noticed Stagecoach has an issue with their handrails paint peeling, saw it on several examples - not something I've noticed hugely on Abellio examples, E's or T's in my own area in comparison 346 diversion is nuts - does an entire loop of Upminster Park Estate & Cranham before heading to Upminster and using the old routing by the station to face towards Harold Wood Driver was extremely helpful, pointing out to everyone exactly where the diversion goes whenever someone boarded - top marks to her for information The old 497 section has picked up a little in terms of custom - not to the point where it was anything to shout home about but there were a fair few more making use of it than my last ride I really dislike those grey seats!!! Those SN63s are a decent bunch, pretty much all of them are across RM/TB/BK. Most Euro 5 E40Ds can do the job nicely tbf Yeah thats a good point actually I’ve only noticed really paint peeling handrails with Stagecoach, never Arriva, GAL or any other operator that I can remember. Kinda weird Yes I remember that the original E400s on the 199 latterly had that. Must be the paint they were using that wasn't very strong. |
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Post by adl on Sept 24, 2024 20:27:50 GMT
One for adl among others possibly: So, I ended up in Havering today for a couple of rides: 165 service is a bit ropey with buses either bunched or having sizeable gaps between them. The RM drivers are a cheery bunch though, a 287 driver helped out a recent recruit in regards to his bus leaking diesel just as he was about to leave Abbey Wood Lane as a 165. 10174 is a very good bus - only sampled from Rainham Tesco to Abbey Wood Lane but had some good movement out of it, would leave most T's quite easily Loadings on the 165 today during off peak were neither quiet nor extremely busy, busiest sections was Abbey Wood Lane to Rainham Tesco & Elm Park to Romford (this was the busiest section) Noticed Stagecoach has an issue with their handrails paint peeling, saw it on several examples - not something I've noticed hugely on Abellio examples, E's or T's in my own area in comparison 346 diversion is nuts - does an entire loop of Upminster Park Estate & Cranham before heading to Upminster and using the old routing by the station to face towards Harold Wood Driver was extremely helpful, pointing out to everyone exactly where the diversion goes whenever someone boarded - top marks to her for information The old 497 section has picked up a little in terms of custom - not to the point where it was anything to shout home about but there were a fair few more making use of it than my last ride I really dislike those grey seats!!! The off peak on the 165 is like you say on some trips, other trips can be extremely busy but the route is never quiet as you say. I’m not sure about your journeys and I myself have been on the 165 a lot today, but the upper deck is well utilised with the lower deck full on most trips. The reason I absolutely feel it must stay double deck this is because the single decks just about coped in the off peak as you’d have a fully seated bus plus people standing right to the door most times whereas now you have that additional deck which is well utilised. The peak however couldn’t cope at all with the single decks in the sense that people would be driven past multiple stops. Before anyone says ‘oh well it only needs dealers in the peaks then’ the heavier journeys in the off peak also drove past people when the route was single decked and the route is busier majority of the time which is a similar situation as the 365 & 252. In fact most years passenger usage is not much lower then the 252 & 365 and that’s been with SDs (previous data.) I’m sure vjaska, you got from your experience that the people on your DD bus would easily fill up a single decker on most trips . The 165 is also not an ‘end to end’ route like a route like the 370 and is a key route for trips between the hotspots it serves. Notably from my own experiences, Fridays the off peaks often can be as packed as the peaks. |
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Post by yunus on Sept 24, 2024 21:34:56 GMT
Speaking of the 275 in the ranting thread, how comes the 179 rarely sees Hybrids but they are the regular fare & sometimes the composer majority on the 275?
Ten years ago or so the route was 100% E40D!
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Post by WH241 on Sept 24, 2024 21:48:16 GMT
Speaking of the 275 in the ranting thread, how comes the 179 rarely sees Hybrids but they are the regular fare & sometimes the composer majority on the 275? Ten years ago or so the route was 100% E40D! 179 runs from BK not T. The 179 does see occasional hybrids from BK. I do think you are overplaying the 275 and majority hybrid allocation. Most days it’s a handful. The priority at T is the 56 needing a full hybrid allocation. You might see strays now there are hybrids for the 20 but that’s about it. |
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Post by adl on Sept 24, 2024 21:52:46 GMT
10342 taking a trip out on the 296 this evening, subbed in earlier at Parkside Avenue with an E200 coming off. Notably this happens quite a lot in evenings / late evenings or early morning but is rare unless it’s a Sunday for a DD to work the 296 for a full day nowadays they used to run for full days. The 13 reg appear to be becoming a bit unreliable as 18 reg 9.7m MMCs regularly are used to cover on the 296 which aren’t exactly suitable for peak times, surprised a DD doesn’t cover considering NS have around 3 spare buses on top of route TVRs now since the extra Electroliners have appeared.
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Post by yunus on Sept 24, 2024 21:57:36 GMT
Speaking of the 275 in the ranting thread, how comes the 179 rarely sees Hybrids but they are the regular fare & sometimes the composer majority on the 275? Ten years ago or so the route was 100% E40D! 179 runs from BK not T. The 179 does see occasional hybrids from BK. I do think you are overplaying the 275 and majority hybrid allocation. Most days it’s a handful. The priority at T is the 56 needing a full hybrid allocation. You might see strays now there are hybrids for the 20 but that’s about it. Trust me most days it is more than just a handful. As I said on the ranting thread there was literally 5 x Hybrids in a row so. In fact there has been a 100% Hybrid run out at night not so long ago. I am assuming other garages allocate the buses differently? If I am not mistaken at BK the 145 is the route allocated Hybrids but personally I have only seen one with my own eyes on the 179 since transferred to BK. Sometimes it can feel weird adapting to all these changes. |
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Post by MMS2001 on Sept 24, 2024 22:52:41 GMT
66036 Volvo BZL on the 488 tonight
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Post by DW221 on Sept 24, 2024 23:02:19 GMT
66036 Volvo BZL on the 488 tonight Wont be surprised if one ends up on the 236 at some point haha |
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Post by WH241 on Sept 25, 2024 8:37:45 GMT
179 runs from BK not T. The 179 does see occasional hybrids from BK. I do think you are overplaying the 275 and majority hybrid allocation. Most days it’s a handful. The priority at T is the 56 needing a full hybrid allocation. You might see strays now there are hybrids for the 20 but that’s about it. Trust me most days it is more than just a handful. As I said on the ranting thread there was literally 5 x Hybrids in a row so. In fact there has been a 100% Hybrid run out at night not so long ago. I am assuming other garages allocate the buses differently? If I am not mistaken at BK the 145 is the route allocated Hybrids but personally I have only seen one with my own eyes on the 179 since transferred to BK. Sometimes it can feel weird adapting to all these changes. You can’t really compare what’s out on an evening to a day time peak. As an example there are only two hybrids on the 275 at the moment. Anyway I can’t see anything changing on the 275 before the tender award. The 257 electrics will be late into service so it will keep its hybrids for several more months. There could already be a plan in place for those buses once released. |
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