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Post by Nathan on May 11, 2014 9:26:39 GMT
So I'm get wondering...weren't there ever any Euro II buses that were upgraded to Euro III and above?
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Post by M1104 on May 11, 2014 18:05:44 GMT
So I'm get wondering...weren't there ever any Euro II buses that were upgraded to Euro III and above? Not 'proper' engine upgrades, only their exhaust traps were modified to euro3+ emissions. |
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Post by VPL630 on May 11, 2014 18:37:02 GMT
So I'm get wondering...weren't there ever any Euro II buses that were upgraded to Euro III and above? Not 'proper' engine upgrades, only their exhaust traps were modified to euro3+ emissions. Quite a few buses have had Euro4-5 retrofits |
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Post by M1104 on May 11, 2014 20:51:38 GMT
Not 'proper' engine upgrades, only their exhaust traps were modified to euro3+ emissions. Quite a few buses have had Euro4-5 retrofits Yes but I don't think any of those buses were originally euro2 engined barring the DLP class DAFs with Arriva sightseeing, which were done after TfL service. |
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Post by COBO on Jun 3, 2014 22:00:15 GMT
Besides from driving the Buses and maintaining the buses, are there other jobs are there at a bus company?
At a bus company whose job is it to decide what bus goes where? Like example at Go-Ahead who job is it to decide that Scania Olympus's go to BT? And bus companies have apprenticeships?
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Post by snoggle on Jun 3, 2014 22:20:05 GMT
Besides from driving the Buses and maintaining the buses, are there other jobs are there at a bus company? At a bus company whose job is it to decide what bus goes where? Like example at Go-Ahead who job is it to decide that Scania Olympus's go to BT? And bus companies have apprenticeships? There will be admin people looking after the administration of the garage and head office. There are procurement people who will order what is needed to run the service - petrol, spare parts, oil, lubricants, uniforms, refuse collection, stationery, IT etc. Some of that may be controlled through head office but you still need local info to be collated and checked. There will also be training people and people looking after HR issues including pay, rostering, staff discipline etc. Some of that will lie with the garage manager but I'd expect there would be some assistance. There are also commercial people, probably head office based, who negotiate with suppliers, TfL etc. There will also be finance people responsible for ensuring all the money is looked after properly and that people keep to their budgets. At the Merton Garage open day I was told there is also an asset management system which tracks everything that happens to the vehicles and other assets. This allows the company know exactly how reliable each vehicle and how much is spent on them. I'd also expect there to be some people with responsibility for the property management and upkeep of all of the buildings the bus company owns or rents. Depending on company policies some of these roles will be in at head office and some may be outsourced to other suppliers. There are also people that help manage the performance of the routes and staff - garage managers, I-Bus, inspectors etc. Someone will also be responsible for verifying the volume of service that is run on each route so that if TfL say some other volume of service has operated on a route then I expect the operator and TfL will negotiate on what was run and what TfL should pay the operator for. This is a pretty fundamental aspect of how the bus companies run in London. Happy to be corrected by those who actually work for bus companies! |
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Post by COBO on Jun 3, 2014 22:43:04 GMT
Besides from driving the Buses and maintaining the buses, are there other jobs are there at a bus company? At a bus company whose job is it to decide what bus goes where? Like example at Go-Ahead who job is it to decide that Scania Olympus's go to BT? And bus companies have apprenticeships? There will be admin people looking after the administration of the garage and head office. There are procurement people who will order what is needed to run the service - petrol, spare parts, oil, lubricants, uniforms, refuse collection, stationery, IT etc. Some of that may be controlled through head office but you still need local info to be collated and checked. There will also be training people and people looking after HR issues including pay, rostering, staff discipline etc. Some of that will lie with the garage manager but I'd expect there would be some assistance. There are also commercial people, probably head office based, who negotiate with suppliers, TfL etc. There will also be finance people responsible for ensuring all the money is looked after properly and that people keep to their budgets. At the Merton Garage open day I was told there is also an asset management system which tracks everything that happens to the vehicles and other assets. This allows the company know exactly how reliable each vehicle and how much is spent on them. I'd also expect there to be some people with responsibility for the property management and upkeep of all of the buildings the bus company owns or rents. Depending on company policies some of these roles will be in at head office and some may be outsourced to other suppliers. There are also people that help manage the performance of the routes and staff - garage managers, I-Bus, inspectors etc. Someone will also be responsible for verifying the volume of service that is run on each route so that if TfL say some other volume of service has operated on a route then I expect the operator and TfL will negotiate on what was run and what TfL should pay the operator for. This is a pretty fundamental aspect of how the bus companies run in London. Happy to be corrected by those who actually work for bus companies! Thanks Snoggle. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2014 23:42:51 GMT
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Post by COBO on Jun 4, 2014 15:42:34 GMT
Besides from driving the Buses and maintaining the buses, are there other jobs are there at a bus company? At a bus company whose job is it to decide what bus goes where? Like example at Go-Ahead who job is it to decide that Scania Olympus's go to BT? And bus companies have apprenticeships? There will be admin people looking after the administration of the garage and head office. There are procurement people who will order what is needed to run the service - petrol, spare parts, oil, lubricants, uniforms, refuse collection, stationery, IT etc. Some of that may be controlled through head office but you still need local info to be collated and checked. There will also be training people and people looking after HR issues including pay, rostering, staff discipline etc. Some of that will lie with the garage manager but I'd expect there would be some assistance. There are also commercial people, probably head office based, who negotiate with suppliers, TfL etc. There will also be finance people responsible for ensuring all the money is looked after properly and that people keep to their budgets. At the Merton Garage open day I was told there is also an asset management system which tracks everything that happens to the vehicles and other assets. This allows the company know exactly how reliable each vehicle and how much is spent on them. I'd also expect there to be some people with responsibility for the property management and upkeep of all of the buildings the bus company owns or rents. Depending on company policies some of these roles will be in at head office and some may be outsourced to other suppliers. There are also people that help manage the performance of the routes and staff - garage managers, I-Bus, inspectors etc. Someone will also be responsible for verifying the volume of service that is run on each route so that if TfL say some other volume of service has operated on a route then I expect the operator and TfL will negotiate on what was run and what TfL should pay the operator for. This is a pretty fundamental aspect of how the bus companies run in London. Happy to be corrected by those who actually work for bus companies! And who's job at TFL is it to change a bus the route e.g. who decides to extend a route or withdraw a route or to divert it? |
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Post by COBO on Jun 4, 2014 15:43:05 GMT
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Post by snoggle on Jun 4, 2014 16:35:41 GMT
And who's job at TFL is it to change a bus the route e.g. who decides to extend a route or withdraw a route or to divert it? John Barry is the head of Network Development at Surface Transport so he has overall responsibility for the team who develop route change proposals. Don't think someone just sits there with a bus map and felt tip pens and decides to change where buses run. I failed an interview many, many years ago for bus service planning. This was because I had a completely stinking cold and really couldn't think straight so I cocked up the statistical parts of the interview. You do need to have an understanding of statistics, computer models etc. Being numerate and computer savvy will be essential skills as will the ability to weigh and judge written feedback / information. The planners will review and model vast amounts of data from surveys and from Oyster card data. If you read up on the various papers that TfL submitted to the London Assembly investigation into buses then you can see that TfL don't go route by route. They model demand over areas or route corridors and will look to see what elements need to be adjusted (up or down). Obviously they also receive a load of comment from London Travelwatch, councils, stakeholders, operators, staff out on the ground and passengers and all of that has to be reviewed. TfL also have their own way of determining the likely cost of service enhancements or savings from route cuts. They can also model the time savings and congestion reduction benefits plus extra revenue from improving services (better services generally mean more passengers and more revenue). TfL Background paperAnd now to be both a misery and an optimist at the same time!   The misery element is that you need to bear in mind that TfL are likely to cut HQ jobs quite severely in future years so you may not have a long future in a HQ job. The optimist element is that an informed source has told me that a few of the bus companies are likely to lose some of their schedulers as they're coming up for retirement. Scheduling is an important but rare skill but is crucial for the bus companies in devising cost effective bids for tenders and making the best use of drivers and vehicles. There is an opportunity there, if you wanted to learn, to take over from those "old hands" in time. Hopefully the operators have some "succession planning" in hand and would be looking to recruit new people. If you were interested I would write speculatively to all of the bus companies asking if they have any vacancies or are likely to be recruiting. If you wanted to know more about what the job involves then I'd "show some enthusiasm" by asking if there was an opportunity to shadow a scheduler for a few days to see what's involved. Obviously that would probably be unpaid work but shows the bus company you're willing to make an effort. There is one obvious person, who posts on this group, who might be willing to give you some advice but I'd expect that to be done privately. |
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Post by COBO on Jun 4, 2014 16:42:36 GMT
And who's job at TFL is it to change a bus the route e.g. who decides to extend a route or withdraw a route or to divert it? John Barry is the head of Network Development at Surface Transport so he has overall responsibility for the team who develop route change proposals. Don't think someone just sits there with a bus map and felt tip pens and decides to change where buses run. I failed an interview many, many years ago for bus service planning. This was because I had a completely stinking cold and really couldn't think straight so I cocked up the statistical parts of the interview. You do need to have an understanding of statistics, computer models etc. Being numerate and computer savvy will be essential skills as will the ability to weigh and judge written feedback / information. The planners will review and model vast amounts of data from surveys and from Oyster card data. If you read up on the various papers that TfL submitted to the London Assembly investigation into buses then you can see that TfL don't go route by route. They model demand over areas or route corridors and will look to see what elements need to be adjusted (up or down). Obviously they also receive a load of comment from London Travelwatch, councils, stakeholders, operators, staff out on the ground and passengers and all of that has to be reviewed. TfL also have their own way of determining the likely cost of service enhancements or savings from route cuts. They can also model the time savings and congestion reduction benefits plus extra revenue from improving services (better services generally mean more passengers and more revenue). TfL Background paperAnd now to be both a misery and an optimist at the same time! The misery element is that you need to bear in mind that TfL are likely to cut HQ jobs quite severely in future years so you may not have a long future in a HQ job. The optimist element is that an informed source has told me that a few of the bus companies are likely to lose some of their schedulers as they're coming up for retirement. Scheduling is an important but rare skill but is crucial for the bus companies in devising cost effective bids for tenders and making the best use of drivers and vehicles. There is an opportunity there, if you wanted to learn, to take over from those "old hands" in time. Hopefully the operators have some "succession planning" in hand and would be looking to recruit new people. If you were interested I would write speculatively to all of the bus companies asking if they have any vacancies or are likely to be recruiting. If you wanted to know more about what the job involves then I'd "show some enthusiasm" by asking if there was an opportunity to shadow a scheduler for a few days to see what's involved. Obviously that would probably be unpaid work but shows the bus company you're willing to make an effort. There is one obvious person, who posts on this group, who might be willing to give you some advice but I'd expect that to be done privately. Thanks Snoggles. |
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Post by COBO on Jun 11, 2014 15:17:52 GMT
Is something wrong with the 4? I see no 4's towards Waterloo. I see nothing on lvf.
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Post by Nathan on Jun 11, 2014 15:46:57 GMT
Is something wrong with the 4? I see no 4's towards Waterloo. I see nothing on lvf. There's nothing wrong with it. I just checked it, and it's fine. |
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Post by I-Azusio-I on Jun 11, 2014 15:47:18 GMT
Is something wrong with the 4? I see no 4's towards Waterloo. I see nothing on lvf. There are 4's heading to Waterloo now (Well some!) I think all the delays are down to the Taxi Protest in Central London. |
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