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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on May 27, 2023 6:20:27 GMT
Not sure whether you're serious in the first part of your post, no one is going to remove you for having an alternative opinion! Well, I have learned a lot these couple of days, primary of which is I have little in common with a majority of people here. I hope to be wrong, because I learn an awful lot of stuff here (my bus knowledge is poor, which doesn’t help my cause and has been the cause of some of the rows I’ve had here), but I fear I may be hounded out or feel that my type isn’t welcome and walk away. I really haven’t enjoyed the last few days on this forum. I hope you do remain on this forum. Your knowledge of Bexley & Woolwich area buses in particular is commendable. As you may have noticed, I mainly only come here weekends and sometimes just Saturdays. My New Year's resolution, which I have maintained, is to do other forums in rotation rather than on many days in succession. This way the forums all feel a bit fresher, I run less of a risk of similar silly replies on successive days, and I have some more time for offline interests (which we can all too easily forget about these days!). You could say that, alongside dogmatic restrictions on my range of days on transport forums, I now have undogmatic restrictions on other forums too.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on May 27, 2023 6:26:02 GMT
Today I mainly went out mainly for trains and then got distracted by a Volvo B7TL of Harrogate Bus Company operating on the X99 Sky Class route from Leeds to Wetherby, however the connection was super tight at Leeds so opted for the safer connection with the 60 from Leeds to Keighley which was operated with PJ05 ZWD, a lovely well looked after Gemini with nice comfy seats. The route has a lot of hills in both directions and quite a bit of fast running, despite that and it being around 20c the big Volvo fan only kicked in a few times on full roar, it’s been a while since I’ve been on a B7TL with the fan going. Despite the drivers best efforts we lost around 10 mins in total mainly due to loadings. From Keighley I was originally planning on doing the M4 Mainline route to Burnley and the X43 Whichway back to Manchester but looking at the time I would be getting home I thought it would be safer to do the B3 Brontë Bus to Hebden Bridge and then catch a train, the B3 is a route that goes passes through many villages where you wouldn’t expect to meet a full size bus, climbing quite a few hills as well, one of which was too much for this poor B7RLE which started to overheat and go into limp mode at probably the worst part of the route where there wasn’t anywhere safe to stop just outside of Oxenhope. The driver persisted at about 3mph still climbing uphill and just as we were pulling into the first safe place to stop the alarm went off and full power was restored, typical Volvo. Both really nice routes, the B3 being much tighter and scenic than I expected, you might want to give it a miss for a few days as it’s smells like the fields have been freshly spread with manure haha 1H02 0948 London Kings Cross to Brough - 802301 1K18 1215 Brough to Leeds - 185126 + 185127 2757 - PJ05 ZWD – 13:15 60 to Keighley 1751 - K100 TDV – 16:06 B3 to Hebden Bridge 2I22 1612 Hebden Bridge to Manchester Victoria Walk 1A69 1735 Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston I am considering some £2 rides on other Transdev routes nearby, such as Saturday route 59 Harrogate - Skipton, in July. The routes you rode routes 60 and B3, would have been £2 anyway being West Yorkshire routes. West Yorkshire Bus Daysavers cost just £4.50 now.
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Post by twobellstogo on May 28, 2023 13:15:21 GMT
Well, I have learned a lot these couple of days, primary of which is I have little in common with a majority of people here. I hope to be wrong, because I learn an awful lot of stuff here (my bus knowledge is poor, which doesn’t help my cause and has been the cause of some of the rows I’ve had here), but I fear I may be hounded out or feel that my type isn’t welcome and walk away. I really haven’t enjoyed the last few days on this forum. I hope you do remain on this forum. Your knowledge of Bexley & Woolwich area buses in particular is commendable. As you may have noticed, I mainly only come here weekends and sometimes just Saturdays. My New Year's resolution, which I have maintained, is to do other forums in rotation rather than on many days in succession. This way the forums all feel a bit fresher, I run less of a risk of similar silly replies on successive days, and I have some more time for offline interests (which we can all too easily forget about these days!). You could say that, alongside dogmatic restrictions on my range of days on transport forums, I now have undogmatic restrictions on other forums too. Kind words - thank you! I’ve poked the RideLondon wasps nest again just now, so who knows how long I’ll last?….
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Post by VPL630 on Jul 2, 2023 15:41:15 GMT
Yesterday due to the train running late and missing connection after connection I sort of made up what I did 1W21 1052 London Paddington to Evesham - 800312 28 - Evesham - Stratford 15676 KX10 KTF 76A - Stratford - Banbury 19082 MX56 FTZ 488 - Banbury - Chipping Norton 36931 SN63 MYD S3 - Chipping Norton - Oxford 10786 - SN66 VZH 1P34 1900 Oxford to London Paddington - 800306 The 28 I didn't do the entire route, only from the station onwards, it was a pretty nice fast run with great views at times, much better on a decker, and quite a few up and downhill sections as well but nothing compared to the 76A, I used google maps to plan the last bit, and the 76A was the quickest route at the time to Banbury, I wasn't expecting much but by the fact the upper deck windscreen was cracked, I thought I might be in for a surprise and that I was. The 76A only has 1 return journey a day and is a variation of the 76, there is also a 76X which is a more direct service. As soon as we turned off at Pillerton Priors it was apparent that trees in the area are in dire need of being cut back as we made our way through Radway and Edgehill I was honestly surprised the windscreen was surviving each impact without cracking further, got have been some of the worst roads I've been down on a decker but the route was pretty scenic, 14% gradients and a lovely Euro 3 Trident E400 powering along the road, made for a great ride, the route is one that serves villages but never really stopped to pick up or drop off anyone along the way, certainly worth doing if you're in the right place at the right time, A quick look on bus times shows that it is only the afternoon journey that is decker which then works onto the 76X so you can do both variation in one if you'd like. The 488 is another route, mostly servicing country lanes and fields, d*mn fast run on an E200 even if it really makes the whole bus rattle The S3 is quite a direct route, the bus was late on the inbound journey and left around 10 late, the route itself is mainly high-speed A roads but I wouldn't say it's best suited to a Voith E400MMC even if to Gold Spec, the poor ride quality also highlighted how poor the roads are in Oxford
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Post by VPL630 on Jul 4, 2023 8:32:15 GMT
Yesterday I went in search of a Citaro, surprise surprise.
Using the wonderful Bustimes.org website I was quickly able to locate PC18 BUS which was on the wonderful and demanding 801 route from Moreton-in-Marsh to Cheltenham, I have great appreciation for bus times as it allows you to see what vehicles operated previous journeys and allows you to essentially work out what trips will be operated by what vehicles assuming everything goes to plan. It was more time efficient for me to catch the bus from Moreton-in-Marsh at 1050 and I was enjoying the journey as it was being expertly driven, you can probably understand my frustration when on approach to Bourton-on-the-Water I could see a Pulhams Solo parked at a bus stop, with the driver having a word with ours, then as we proceeded to a better location we were all turfed off this lovely Citaro in favour of the third oldest Optare Solo in the fleet YJ57 EGV, now a bus is a bus and I’d rather not have the journey cut but this was a downgrade and a half, typical solo idle so rough at times the driver was resting his foot on the accelerator to smooth it out, completely gutless up the many demanding hills, turned what would have been a really enjoyable journey into something that wasn’t. But anyway, Pulhams are now part of the £2 scheme
From Cheltenham I got the 94X to Gloucester, there is nothing to write about this route other than the bus was late, it was branded for University of Surrey and the USB ports didn’t work, I believe it’s the quickest way between Cheltenham and Gloucester flying down the A40
Now as much as I like MAN powered vehicles, there just aren’t that many in the UK, so I thought I’d take a ride on an ex Stagecoach Gold Spec MAN/E300 22752 GX58 MVR which has been repowered by Cummins, bit surprised it had every warning light related to the retrofit lit up, it was absolutely gutless even with kickdown being used and at the back of the Bus you could feel the heat and fumes coming though the gaps over the top of the engine, 0/10 wouldn’t recommend, the route it was operating on was the 71 to Northway but I got off at Tewkesbury just missing the 540 which was operated with a coach that wasn’t tracking on bus times, I wasn’t that bothered as the E300 behind was what I was after
The 540 operated by Astons Coaches isn’t part of the £2 scheme but a single from Tewkesbury to Evesham is the grand total of £2.50, the majority of the time it’s operated by 2 old style Transbus E300’s and an E200 but as yesterday proved you might get lucky and have a ride on a luxury coach, the route serves increasingly narrow lanes and would probably be more suited to smaller vehicles, annoyingly and without checking I also managed to get on the afternoon journey that served a school, I highly recommend avoiding this journey if you want to enjoy the route… The traffic around Evesham was terrible and we actually lost around 15-20 mins getting into the town which meant I missed the 553 to Honeybourne, so I got some food and decided to wait for the X50 operated in the form of 32645 KP54 AZJ
A B7TL still in Barbie livery along with full roaring fan, not had one of these for a while, a shame that the driver drove in such a way that made no sense to me anyway, full throttle then would slow down for no reason, other times would accelerate to the speed limit and at others crawl along at 30 in a 50, touching the brakes while going up hill at times I have no idea what was behind his mentality but he certainly wasn’t making up any time, left about 8 mins late and arrived about 10 down when a few more mins could have been shaved off if he actually had tried to properly, quick walk to Worcester Foregate Street to find out the train has been cancelled so a very fast paced walk to Shurb Hill just making it in time
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Jul 8, 2023 14:24:36 GMT
I shall share more at the time, but I currently have some long-distance £2 rides in the Newcastle area planned for September. Even in August I may have 1 or 2 in the Harrogate or Skipton area.
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Post by twobellstogo on Jul 12, 2023 11:42:25 GMT
Back on the vastly underrated 32 today. Not the boring Edgware Road route, but the spectacular route run by Compass Travel across the Surrey Hills through some gorgeous villages. It’s a great route and well worth sampling.
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Post by twobellstogo on Jul 24, 2023 16:56:05 GMT
1066 to Frant from Tunbridge Wells, run back to Tunbridge Wells, then 29 to Uckfield, 29A to Heathfield and 51 back to Tunbridge Wells. A nice day out, and I avoided the rain!
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Post by londonbuses2018 on Jul 29, 2023 21:33:02 GMT
April 2023 Loop - Ramsgate to Margate via Broadstairs 36 - Margate to Herne Bay (Stagecoach) 🔺- Herne Bay to Canterbury 15 - Canterbury to Dover 81 - Dover to Sandwich 45 - Sandwich to Ramsgate
Potters Bar to London Colney (Unfortunately 84 isn’t part of £2 fare) London Colney to Bushey (UNO)
Gong to Kent in August so i want to try the 102 from Dover to Rye.
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Post by ibus246 on Jul 29, 2023 21:48:37 GMT
Cambridge to Bedford on the Stagecoach 905. Great value!
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Post by M1199 on Aug 2, 2023 22:33:10 GMT
Currently staying at my oldest mates house in Newquay, had a few hours spare earlier, so I headed up to Padstow on First’s Atlantic Coaster. Headed up to Padstow onboard 33427, which was formally Metroline’s TE945, came back to Newquay on 33426, which was another ex Metroline bus, in the form TE894.
I always find it weird having travelled on a bus so often at home and then being on it again in a different part of the country (and in this case a different company!)
Both were lively journeys, although coming back on 33426, you could have been mistaken that it was back on the 607 being driven by a very heavy footed driver! Dunno whether First have tweaked this one as it climbed the hills with ease!
One thing I will say, these Cornish drivers must have balls of steel to drive the way they do along some of the roads the route serves….
If anyone is down in Cornwall, I would defo recommend it as one to tick off the list.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Aug 12, 2023 7:37:02 GMT
An update is that on August 26th I am keeping my Yorkshire day to West Yorkshire with a Daysaver, so avoiding any £2 singles in the Harrogate/Skipton area. I prefer to do this area once the electric buses on route 36 (Leeds to Harrogate) are in service.
I am still due some £2 rides in the Newcastle area in September.
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Post by gwiwer on Aug 27, 2023 20:00:06 GMT
Currently staying at my oldest mates house in Newquay, had a few hours spare earlier, so I headed up to Padstow on First’s Atlantic Coaster. Headed up to Padstow onboard 33427, which was formally Metroline’s TE945, came back to Newquay on 33426, which was another ex Metroline bus, in the form TE894. I always find it weird having travelled on a bus so often at home and then being on it again in a different part of the country (and in this case a different company!) Both were lively journeys, although coming back on 33426, you could have been mistaken that it was back on the 607 being driven by a very heavy footed driver! Dunno whether First have tweaked this one as it climbed the hills with ease! One thing I will say, these Cornish drivers must have balls of steel to drive the way they do along some of the roads the route serves…. If anyone is down in Cornwall, I would defo recommend it as one to tick off the list. Speaking as an ex-Cornish bus driver (based at St. Ives) I can support the contention that we have parts made differently to some others. It's rather interesting to say the least trying to keep time along single-track roads when following tractors and faced with oncoming SUV+Caravan combinations. The tractors are also locals at work. The SUV drivers often have no idea where reverse is let alone how to back up when towing. One of my favourite routes has always been what is now the Lands End Coaster. In my driving days it was three separate routes. The 1 (with A, B and C variants all requiring different combinations of country lanes / steep hairpin hills) between Penzance and Lands End, the 17 (which is still the main daily year-round route) between Penzance and St. Ives and the 15 between St. Ives and Lands End along the north coast. Most trips were 'deckers; the rest were coaches used on or between school runs. The 15 was and the Lands End Coaster is scheduled for open-toppers as the scenery is magnificent. And around half the 40-mile circuit is along single-track road where the hedges brush both sides of the bus. There are a couple of spots where if you meet anything coming the other way one of you is going to have to reverse up to a quarter of a mile. Some of the hairpins were mighty tight in a 36-foot coach. We also took buses into Mousehole - an aptly named village if ever there was one. There are two 90-degree turns between granite cottages to get in and out and a very tight reverse-around-a-corner turning move right above the harbour. If you got it just right you had an inch either side on those turns and about six inches spare when reversing towards the harbour with a 30-foot drop behind you.The locals all know that if you meet the bus on the corner you back up or pass wrong-side. The visitors have no idea ....... I once met a German tour-coach coming the other way through the narrows at Rosemergy, a remote spot on the coast road where you cannot pass. He saw me coming, stopped and threw his hands up in horror. I got the paper out! Eventually he came over to me and told me I had to back up. No way. I was the bigger vehicle and I probably had more cars in the queue behind me than he did. He was also closer to the nearest passing bay. After five minutes of stalemate he offered me his seat. The only time i have ever driven a left-hand drive Setra coach. After a quick glance at the controls I promptly reversed it back into a farm gate way in a single move without batting an eyelid and to the cheers of his passengers. I returned to my bus and drove on. I sometimes wonder how long it took hime to get out of there as I had left hime only a couple of inches either side! I thoroughly enjoyed my driving days there, although not the way we were treated by an ever-stressed management always pressing us to work rest-days and run extra trips after our rostered duty. Despite all those lanes, tight corners, equally tight timetables and putting buses into places many people simply wouldn't believe a bus could go I never once scratched a bus, or a wall, not had any incident of any kind. It truly is a different world to city driving. I wouldn't ever want to take the wheel in London though. The Lands End Coaster is within the £2 scheme though if you choose to sit on board for the full 3¾-hour round trip (which is highly recommended) they will charge you £4 for a return journey because you end up where you started. It's marketed as a tourist trip but for most people it is also the only local bus they have and it's a lifeline through the much quieter winter months.
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Post by M1199 on Aug 28, 2023 7:04:25 GMT
Currently staying at my oldest mates house in Newquay, had a few hours spare earlier, so I headed up to Padstow on First’s Atlantic Coaster. Headed up to Padstow onboard 33427, which was formally Metroline’s TE945, came back to Newquay on 33426, which was another ex Metroline bus, in the form TE894. I always find it weird having travelled on a bus so often at home and then being on it again in a different part of the country (and in this case a different company!) Both were lively journeys, although coming back on 33426, you could have been mistaken that it was back on the 607 being driven by a very heavy footed driver! Dunno whether First have tweaked this one as it climbed the hills with ease! One thing I will say, these Cornish drivers must have balls of steel to drive the way they do along some of the roads the route serves…. If anyone is down in Cornwall, I would defo recommend it as one to tick off the list. Speaking as an ex-Cornish bus driver (based at St. Ives) I can support the contention that we have parts made differently to some others. It's rather interesting to say the least trying to keep time along single-track roads when following tractors and faced with oncoming SUV+Caravan combinations. The tractors are also locals at work. The SUV drivers often have no idea where reverse is let alone how to back up when towing. One of my favourite routes has always been what is now the Lands End Coaster. In my driving days it was three separate routes. The 1 (with A, B and C variants all requiring different combinations of country lanes / steep hairpin hills) between Penzance and Lands End, the 17 (which is still the main daily year-round route) between Penzance and St. Ives and the 15 between St. Ives and Lands End along the north coast. Most trips were 'deckers; the rest were coaches used on or between school runs. The 15 was and the Lands End Coaster is scheduled for open-toppers as the scenery is magnificent. And around half the 40-mile circuit is along single-track road where the hedges brush both sides of the bus. There are a couple of spots where if you meet anything coming the other way one of you is going to have to reverse up to a quarter of a mile. Some of the hairpins were mighty tight in a 36-foot coach. We also took buses into Mousehole - an aptly named village if ever there was one. There are two 90-degree turns between granite cottages to get in and out and a very tight reverse-around-a-corner turning move right above the harbour. If you got it just right you had an inch either side on those turns and about six inches spare when reversing towards the harbour with a 30-foot drop behind you.The locals all know that if you meet the bus on the corner you back up or pass wrong-side. The visitors have no idea ....... I once met a German tour-coach coming the other way through the narrows at Rosemergy, a remote spot on the coast road where you cannot pass. He saw me coming, stopped and threw his hands up in horror. I got the paper out! Eventually he came over to me and told me I had to back up. No way. I was the bigger vehicle and I probably had more cars in the queue behind me than he did. He was also closer to the nearest passing bay. After five minutes of stalemate he offered me his seat. The only time i have ever driven a left-hand drive Setra coach. After a quick glance at the controls I promptly reversed it back into a farm gate way in a single move without batting an eyelid and to the cheers of his passengers. I returned to my bus and drove on. I sometimes wonder how long it took hime to get out of there as I had left hime only a couple of inches either side! I thoroughly enjoyed my driving days there, although not the way we were treated by an ever-stressed management always pressing us to work rest-days and run extra trips after our rostered duty. Despite all those lanes, tight corners, equally tight timetables and putting buses into places many people simply wouldn't believe a bus could go I never once scratched a bus, or a wall, not had any incident of any kind. It truly is a different world to city driving. I wouldn't ever want to take the wheel in London though. The Lands End Coaster is within the £2 scheme though if you choose to sit on board for the full 3¾-hour round trip (which is highly recommended) they will charge you £4 for a return journey because you end up where you started. It's marketed as a tourist trip but for most people it is also the only local bus they have and it's a lifeline through the much quieter winter months. It’s always interesting to hear first hand accounts of drivers tales. Must of been a sight reversing their coach for them! Incidentally, I spent a few hours wandering about in Mousehole, albeit only driving to that car park just on the outskirts of the village and walking the rest. Lovely little place. Was hoping to witness seeing a bus traverse the harbour but upon walking to the bus stop to check timings, there was a hand written note on it stating the stop was closed and buses were picking up from another stop elsewhere. Nevermind….
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Sept 30, 2023 13:48:24 GMT
I did reach the Newcastle area last weekend. As I said elsewhere, I saw some ex GA London buses in Gateshead.
I used the £2 single from Carlisle to Newcastle, Berwick to Newcastle and Newcastle to South Shields.
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