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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2011 17:20:20 GMT
Although on paper it seems like a good idea, in my opinion the EL1 and EL2 really are awful. I don't frequent East London often, but on Bank Holiday Monday I did and it is genuninely the worts idea I think I've witnessed. The buses themselves are excellent, the B9TLs are quite fast! Also, the livery is excellent, and the red and orange go well. However, what is the point of the EL1 at this moment in time if is effectively is the EL2 and has nowhere to extend to yet! Also, it took me 46 minutes from Barking Station to Ilford Station / Ilford Hill on an EL2 - are the Ilford Lane/Fanshawe Avenue street alterations always that unbearable? Next time I'll think I'll take the 147 from East Ham or the 366!
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Post by Swadbus on Sept 2, 2011 18:32:41 GMT
Although on paper it seems like a good idea, in my opinion the EL1 and EL2 really are awful. I don't frequent East London often, but on Bank Holiday Monday I did and it is genuninely the worts idea I think I've witnessed. The buses themselves are excellent, the B9TLs are quite fast! Also, the livery is excellent, and the red and orange go well. However, what is the point of the EL1 at this moment in time if is effectively is the EL2 and has nowhere to extend to yet! Also, it took me 46 minutes from Barking Station to Ilford Station / Ilford Hill on an EL2 - are the Ilford Lane/Fanshawe Avenue street alterations always that unbearable? Next time I'll think I'll take the 147 from East Ham or the 366! At the other end of the scale. Early mornings and evenings you can do Barking stn to Ilford hill in around 8 minutes. The traffic in Ilford lane is dire (although much better since it was narrowed in preparation for the EL routes). I commend the controllers who in my opinion seem to do well to keep this service regular. Likewise I have always found the driver's very polite with excellent driving skills on the EL routes. Believe me, I probably spend more time travelling on London buses than anybody else on the forum, so I don't make claims like that easily!  |
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Post by greeny253 on Sept 2, 2011 23:01:23 GMT
Although on paper it seems like a good idea, in my opinion the EL1 and EL2 really are awful. I don't frequent East London often, but on Bank Holiday Monday I did and it is genuninely the worts idea I think I've witnessed. The buses themselves are excellent, the B9TLs are quite fast! Also, the livery is excellent, and the red and orange go well. However, what is the point of the EL1 at this moment in time if is effectively is the EL2 and has nowhere to extend to yet! Also, it took me 46 minutes from Barking Station to Ilford Station / Ilford Hill on an EL2 - are the Ilford Lane/Fanshawe Avenue street alterations always that unbearable? Next time I'll think I'll take the 147 from East Ham or the 366! Don't write it off based on a bank holiday timetable experience. For one thing they are on Sunday times  . When it's running on it's normal weekday frequency it honestly is fantastic. I once managed Barking to Dagenham Dock on an EL2 in 10 minutes or so going back to my garage at the time. Yes Ilford Lane can sometimes be pretty bad but it's not always that bad. The EL1 replaced the 369 which used to do Ilford to Thames View Estate. The EL2 goes the same way but extends to Dagenham Dock which is useful for the people that rely on public transport to get down there for work. |
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Post by john on Sept 2, 2011 23:19:14 GMT
Although on paper it seems like a good idea, in my opinion the EL1 and EL2 really are awful. I don't frequent East London often, but on Bank Holiday Monday I did and it is genuninely the worts idea I think I've witnessed. The buses themselves are excellent, the B9TLs are quite fast! Also, the livery is excellent, and the red and orange go well. However, what is the point of the EL1 at this moment in time if is effectively is the EL2 and has nowhere to extend to yet! Also, it took me 46 minutes from Barking Station to Ilford Station / Ilford Hill on an EL2 - are the Ilford Lane/Fanshawe Avenue street alterations always that unbearable? Next time I'll think I'll take the 147 from East Ham or the 366! Don't write it off based on a bank holiday timetable experience. For one thing they are on Sunday times . When it's running on it's normal weekday frequency it honestly is fantastic. I once managed Barking to Dagenham Dock on an EL2 in 10 minutes or so going back to my garage at the time. Yes Ilford Lane can sometimes be pretty bad but it's not always that bad. The EL1 replaced the 369 which used to do Ilford to Thames View Estate. The EL2 goes the same way but extends to Dagenham Dock which is useful for the people that rely on public transport to get down there for work. God, if bank holiday services were a benchmark then the 174 would be the worst route in London!! No lie, I saw 3 on Monday one behind the other. The amount of turns I saw was stupid!! That's another subject altogether though. As for the EL routes, I've only used them once and, tbh, considering it was rush hour down Ilford Lane, it really did perform well, especially with the patronage levels. |
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Post by greeny253 on Sept 2, 2011 23:25:35 GMT
Don't write it off based on a bank holiday timetable experience. For one thing they are on Sunday times . When it's running on it's normal weekday frequency it honestly is fantastic. I once managed Barking to Dagenham Dock on an EL2 in 10 minutes or so going back to my garage at the time. Yes Ilford Lane can sometimes be pretty bad but it's not always that bad. The EL1 replaced the 369 which used to do Ilford to Thames View Estate. The EL2 goes the same way but extends to Dagenham Dock which is useful for the people that rely on public transport to get down there for work. God, if bank holiday services were a benchmark then the 174 would be the worst route in London!! No lie, I saw 3 on Monday one behind the other. The amount of turns I saw was stupid!! That's another subject altogether though. As for the EL routes, I've only used them once and, tbh, considering it was rush hour down Ilford Lane, it really did perform well, especially with the patronage levels. The 174 doesn't need curtailments and 3 together to be the worst route in London…… It manages that quite well by it's very existence!! ;D |
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Post by eggmiester on Sept 3, 2011 6:56:04 GMT
The EL1 and EL2 are actually one route. the reason for the 1 and 2 suffix's is because the section between Thames View Estate and Dagenham Dock was expected to be lesser used than the Ilford - Barking - Thames View section. Therefore by cutting every other bus back to Thames View, you concentrate the most resources over the busiest section of the route.
The thing with that you create a problem with every other bus on said route not going all the way. The easiest way around this for TFL was to number the shortend workings seperately to the longer ones, thats where you get the EL1 and EL2 from. In effect both routes run together at a joint frequency, so in the real world, an EL1 would be followed by an EL2, then that would be followed by the next EL1, so the daytime service pattern is scheduled as EL1, EL2, EL1, EL2 and so on.
I also beleive it is still the case that the buses interwork between the routes, so xxx on the EL1 changes to EL2 at Ilford, does 1 rounder then back on EL1's etc.
So the purpose behind the numbering is to differentiate the short and long workings. Who knows as/if patronage picks up over the lesser used section the short workings might get extended, thus one route would be in effect withdrawn with the other taking the responsibility for all scheduled workings.
HTIOI.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2011 22:42:33 GMT
I did understand the EL2 bit, though I was just astonished at having to wait about 25 mins at Barking Station, and then arriving at Ilford on the ring road 45 mins later! Best livery, best buses, worst journey time! As for the whole route numbering, I'm just used to buses turing short and running in two sections, for many years I suffered at the hands of the 182 when some (I think half) of journeys would turn at Neasden and the 18 used to have short workings (to Harlesden, I think?) :-)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2011 0:13:38 GMT
You'll find that week we suffered badly due to eid and then the longbridge road closure in the evenings. overall its not a bad route but having done that route now since it started the council would do well to listen to us about how to improve it. The pelican crossings at the top end of ilford lane change far to frequently bunching everything together, that clogs the roundabout. that is made worse by all the side roads those should be made 1 way, entry only.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2011 16:28:29 GMT
Ahh, of course, Eid ul-Fitr! I did notice an awful lot of businees being done in the stores along Ilford Lane, notably a confectioners - which I would have probably wandered into had I got off the bus. And I do agree about the one-way roads, as a lot of people tried to escape the traffic along that but there was a lot of double-parking which would be OK if the streets, which are mostly parallel run one-way.
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Post by truckerd2 on Sept 8, 2011 17:37:56 GMT
I live in Barking. Ilford lane is not normally that bad. There was probably some problem on the A406 north circular that day
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Post by rambo on Sept 11, 2011 19:34:08 GMT
EL1 and EL2 are treated as 2 different routes.
I can be an EL2 all day or a mix of both.
The biggest problem is ilford lane, lets just say the 'locals' can't park for toffe!
Best looking drivers though...................
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Post by I-Azusio-I on Aug 21, 2013 1:43:46 GMT
This is a question: If GAL don't win an extension (most likely they will) for the ELT routes and they go to another operator e.g Arriva in 2015, will Arriva have to unleash a new seating interior or will it be the same and will they also have to match the new buses and the bus stops for the current livery or a different one? |
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fl70500
Driver
Its me from BE
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Post by fl70500 on Aug 27, 2013 10:10:41 GMT
Well the buses are leased so guess next company could lease them straight after unless they do their own thing. But as GAL would be concerned once the route is gone so would the buses be.
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. When it's running on it's normal weekday frequency it honestly is fantastic. I once managed Barking to Dagenham Dock on an EL2 in 10 minutes or so going back to my garage at the time. Yes Ilford Lane can sometimes be pretty bad but it's not always that bad.
