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Post by YY13VKP on Oct 13, 2020 18:40:02 GMT
I've noticed Southdown are doing alot of rail work. I’m guessing this is for Southern? That’s because there have been some pretty big rail jobs on as of late. It’s certainly kept me busy !
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 14, 2020 15:54:43 GMT
I drove the Streatham to Epsom via Sutton route a couple of weeks ago. Only a standby duty, though I got to do one return trip. The routeTo my surprise, the service runs every 15 minutes all day - expected it to be half hourly. Stops served are Streatham, Streatham Common, Mitcham Eastfields, Mitcham Junction, Hackbridge, Carshalton, Sutton, Cheam, Ewell East and Epsom. The northern half of the route has few significant parallels with TfL routes. The stops are outside and opposite the Tesco in Streatham, down Greyhound Lane and round the loop to serve Streatham Common Station. Then along Streatham Vale and Grove Road to stop alongside Mitcham Eastfields. From there, proceeded along Tamworth Lane, around Commonside East and West and onto the A237 which passes over Mitcham Junction. The 127 route is followed through Hackbridge (served from Hackbridge Corner) and Carshalton, then from the pond, the X26 is followed for some way, detouring to serve Sutton Station (The Quadrant) before double running back to the main road and following the X26 to Cheam High Street. From there, the 470 is followed through Ewell East to Epsom Town Centre. The rail replacement service officially goes around the one way system and onto West Street, with a live stand on Station Apporach in Epsom. In most cases the route stops outside the station. Hackbridge and Cheam are the exceptions, but the stations are within a 5 minute walk. Streatham Common is risky operationally because some drivers won't go around to loop to pick up the passengers waiting at the designated stop on Eardley Road. It's not actually on that particular railway route, but buses are required to call in anyway, presumably for improved connection opportunities as people would normally change between the Croydon and Sutton lines at Balham. LoadingsThe return trip I did was Sunday mid-afternoon. It was very quiet. Penny numbers travelling north of Sutton and a few travelling between Sutton and Epsom. Running timesPerhaps a little too generous. I was dispatched to cover a trip and left Streatham 10 minutes late. I arrived at Sutton 10 minutes early then found 30 minutes are given to get to Epsom. There's about 30 minutes of excess running time end to end in all. There was a controller at Sutton who ensured buses left on time. Vehicle ChoiceEuro 5 Enviro 400. As usual there were deckers out from C, MG and the BX commercial fleet. SummaryA quiet route with not much going on. There are a few left and right turns and a couple of one way systems, but not particularly complex. Route difficulty rating - 2/3 (intermediate) Enjoyability - 2/5 (fairly unenjoyable) Next route review - Balham to West Croydon via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace It runs along some unserved roads and looking at the maps, it most certainly requires the driver to be familiar with the area!
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Post by galwhv69 on Oct 14, 2020 16:20:20 GMT
Next route review- Balham to West Croydon via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace It runs along some unserved roads and looking at the maps, it most certainly requires the driver to be familiar with the area! Lovely route that, isn't it Had to help out the driver a bit as a map wasn't enough with the tight twists and turns! Only missed out SRH by mistake due to being in the wrong lane at a junction Only 2 passangers on the entire BAL to GIP section 35 mins running time! way too much, driver was 5e after the Norwood Road Roadworks! Diversion in Gipsy Hill as there were sone pointless road closure sigbs on Gipsy Road (An MHV fits fown Dulwich Wood Avenue )
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 14, 2020 22:16:00 GMT
Next route review- Balham to West Croydon via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace It runs along some unserved roads and looking at the maps, it most certainly requires the driver to be familiar with the area! Lovely route that, isn't it Had to help out the driver a bit as a map wasn't enough with the tight twists and turns! Only missed out SRH by mistake due to being in the wrong lane at a junction Only 2 passangers on the entire BAL to GIP section 35 mins running time! way too much, driver was 5e after the Norwood Road Roadworks! Diversion in Gipsy Hill as there were sone pointless road closure sigbs on Gipsy Road (An MHV fits fown Dulwich Wood Avenue ) It doesn't surprise me that wrong turns are made on a route like this! Maps are ok for guidance if you know the roads and just need a steer on which turns to take. The knowledge also comes in handy if there are diversions in place. It's a hazardous route to get lost on as the side roads are narrow and it has more than its fair share of low bridges in close proximity! Fortunately I'm very familiar with the setup at Streatham Hill! The running times are still like that. Locals tend to be wise to heavily padded schedules and make other arrangements if they have the choice. With 27 minutes to get from West Croydon to Crystal Palace, it wouldn't surprise me if the buses ran on their leaders times thereafter.
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Post by vjaska on Oct 14, 2020 22:35:31 GMT
Lovely route that, isn't it It doesn't surprise me that wrong turns are made on a route like this! Maps are ok for guidance if you know the roads and just need a steer on which turns to take. The knowledge also comes in handy if there are diversions in place. It's a hazardous route to get lost on as the side roads are narrow and it has more than its fair share of low bridges in close proximity! Fortunately I'm very familiar with the setup at Streatham Hill! The running times are still like that. Locals tend to be wise to heavily padded schedules and make other arrangements if they have the choice. With 27 minutes to get from West Croydon to Crystal Palace, it wouldn't surprise me if the buses ran on their leaders times thereafter. Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout.
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Post by richard on Oct 14, 2020 22:38:10 GMT
It doesn't surprise me that wrong turns are made on a route like this! Maps are ok for guidance if you know the roads and just need a steer on which turns to take. The knowledge also comes in handy if there are diversions in place. It's a hazardous route to get lost on as the side roads are narrow and it has more than its fair share of low bridges in close proximity! Fortunately I'm very familiar with the setup at Streatham Hill! The running times are still like that. Locals tend to be wise to heavily padded schedules and make other arrangements if they have the choice. With 27 minutes to get from West Croydon to Crystal Palace, it wouldn't surprise me if the buses ran on their leaders times thereafter. Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout. What was Go-Ahead's PDLs like? Unfortunately I never got a chance to travel on them
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 14, 2020 23:25:25 GMT
Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout. What was Go-Ahead's PDLs like? Unfortunately I never got a chance to travel on them The old X plate PDLs looked like PVLs inside but sounded like the centre staircase Metroline TPs. The newer PDLs sounded like Metroline's TPLs, but with annoying beeping from the cab indicators that was unnecessarily loud!
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Post by vjaska on Oct 15, 2020 0:01:48 GMT
Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout. What was Go-Ahead's PDLs like? Unfortunately I never got a chance to travel on them Absolutely great buses, was really gutted when they left London especially the X & 02 reg examples
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 15, 2020 0:05:02 GMT
It doesn't surprise me that wrong turns are made on a route like this! Maps are ok for guidance if you know the roads and just need a steer on which turns to take. The knowledge also comes in handy if there are diversions in place. It's a hazardous route to get lost on as the side roads are narrow and it has more than its fair share of low bridges in close proximity! Fortunately I'm very familiar with the setup at Streatham Hill! The running times are still like that. Locals tend to be wise to heavily padded schedules and make other arrangements if they have the choice. With 27 minutes to get from West Croydon to Crystal Palace, it wouldn't surprise me if the buses ran on their leaders times thereafter. Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout. That must have been disappointing with the NV . My last memory was of one on rail replacment in London was NV139 getting a severe caning without any mercy at all on the Victoria to Brixton route which has now been consigned to history in favour of extras on the 2! I happened to be in Stockwell and after hearing that Olympian crossing over the A3 with its shrieking transmission, decided to jump on it. Happy days, never heard Olympians driven like that on rail again.
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Post by vjaska on Oct 15, 2020 1:05:35 GMT
Sounds like it's not changed from many years ago when I did the route on a NV & a PDL because it was excessively padded then - the driver of the PDL piddled along practically the entire route and the bus was empty pretty much throughout. That must have been disappointing with the NV . My last memory was of one on rail replacment in London was NV139 getting a severe caning without any mercy at all on the Victoria to Brixton route which has now been consigned to history in favour of extras on the 2! I happened to be in Stockwell and after hearing that Olympian crossing over the A3 with its shrieking transmission, decided to jump on it. Happy days, never heard Olympians driven like that on rail again. The Victoria Line replacement was run much tighter from memory as I remember grabbing a decent ride out of WDL1 when it was still at Q - my last ride was on a LT when the line had a power cut and I was temporarily staying in Vauxhall so used it to reach work and even that journey was pretty quick. The NV ride was better than the PDL ride as the driver at least decided to get a bit more out of it but the PDL driver was having none of it
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 16, 2020 22:33:40 GMT
The Victoria Line replacement was run much tighter from memory as I remember grabbing a decent ride out of WDL1 when it was still at Q - my last ride was on a LT when the line had a power cut and I was temporarily staying in Vauxhall so used it to reach work and even that journey was pretty quick. The NV ride was better than the PDL ride as the driver at least decided to get a bit more out of it but the PDL driver was having none of it There is that element of tight running times, but I think some drivers who do rail just enjoy driving the buses hard . The one time I did Victoria to Brixton I recall the times were about right. I'm going to pen an email to Govia Thameslink Railway feeding back about the running times on the Balham - West Croydon route - are there any other Southern routes in the London area that have significantly excessive times in the middle of the day?
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Post by vjaska on Oct 16, 2020 22:44:09 GMT
The Victoria Line replacement was run much tighter from memory as I remember grabbing a decent ride out of WDL1 when it was still at Q - my last ride was on a LT when the line had a power cut and I was temporarily staying in Vauxhall so used it to reach work and even that journey was pretty quick. The NV ride was better than the PDL ride as the driver at least decided to get a bit more out of it but the PDL driver was having none of it There is that element of tight running times, but I think some drivers who do rail just enjoy driving the buses hard . The one time I did Victoria to Brixton I recall the times were about right. I'm going to pen an email to Govia Thameslink Railway feeding back about the running times on the Balham - West Croydon route - are there any other Southern routes in the London area that have significantly excessive times in the middle of the day? TBH, I'm probably the worst person to ask on railway replacementa as I rarely get to use them for both justified and non justified purposes
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 16, 2020 23:20:18 GMT
TBH, I'm probably the worst person to ask on railway replacementa as I rarely get to use them for both justified and non justified purposes I try not to use rail replacement either if I need to get somewhere - would sooner use an alternative route!
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Post by 6HP502C on Oct 18, 2020 17:59:30 GMT
Next route review- Balham to West Croydon via Streatham Hill and Crystal Palace It runs along some unserved roads and looking at the maps, it most certainly requires the driver to be familiar with the area! Lovely route that, isn't it Had to help out the driver a bit as a map wasn't enough with the tight twists and turns! Only missed out SRH by mistake due to being in the wrong lane at a junction Only 2 passangers on the entire BAL to GIP section 35 mins running time! way too much, driver was 5e after the Norwood Road Roadworks! Diversion in Gipsy Hill as there were sone pointless road closure sigbs on Gipsy Road (An MHV fits fown Dulwich Wood Avenue ) I've taken MEC4 out for the rest of the night! Gipsy Road is closed due to planned works so I'm following the boarded diversion via Salters Hill!
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Post by galwhv69 on Oct 18, 2020 18:09:22 GMT
Lovely route that, isn't it I've taken MEC4 out for the rest of the night! Gipsy Road is closed due to planned works so I'm following the boarded diversion via Salters Hill! Geez Is this the first time buses have used Salters Hill? Do double deckers miss out Gipsy Hill Station then?
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