new years eve night buses

[beaver14uk]

Yes I certainly worked one NYE driving around London looking at the night routes and loadings. As far as I know that has continued. As commented on there will be plenty of feedback opportunity and using a NYE de-brief with operators.

Jan 2, 2014 8:58:22 GMT M1199 said:

Jan 2, 2014 0:11:09 GMT snoggle said:

Complete guess on my part but I expect there are a decent number of Network Services staff around the system who will monitor what is going on. As the routes are scheduled then I-Bus will give stats on the extent of "on time" running and any wide divergence would, I am sure, trigger questions being asked about the cause of the delay. I also expect the operators will actively seek feedback from drivers as to how their duties went and what issues they had (if any). Operators will want to know so they can deal with any performance issues and justify their payments for the night. If NYE buses run late because they're over subscribed then that is hardly the operator's fault is it?

Another guess but I expect Centrecomm will be informed if there are localised problems such as delays, fights or even heavy loadings meaning people are being left behind.

I've certainly had feedback from a friend as to how NYE services loaded on previous NYEs when he was out and about on NYE, on TfL work, observing how things were going.

Happy to be corrected by those who *do* know what happens.

Cheers for that Snoggle, I had completely forgotten about how you could monitor certain aspects through I-Bus!

[westhamgeezer]

I was actually going to ask the exact same question about patronage figures when there is no need to touch in or anything, the answer suggested seems a sensible one though, I am sure that there must be some procedure in place to record whether or not the route was well used.

With regards to these services, I believe that the main purpose of the routes that do not normally operate 24/7 is to connect with local tube stations that are operating all night. So, bearing this in mind, I would maybe expect to see similar routes operating on Fri/ Sat Nights when the tube starts running all night, possibly at the expense of routes like the N9. It will be interesting to see however, as TfL like standardisation, and with regard to that, I am not sure whether they would have more local routes running through the night on Fri/Sat only. Any thoughts?

[snoggle]

Jan 2, 2014 12:48:53 GMT westhamgeezer said:

I was actually going to ask the exact same question about patronage figures when there is no need to touch in or anything, the answer suggested seems a sensible one though, I am sure that there must be some procedure in place to record whether or not the route was well used.

With regards to these services, I believe that the main purpose of the routes that do not normally operate 24/7 is to connect with local tube stations that are operating all night. So, bearing this in mind, I would maybe expect to see similar routes operating on Fri/ Sat Nights when the tube starts running all night, possibly at the expense of routes like the N9. It will be interesting to see however, as TfL like standardisation, and with regard to that, I am not sure whether they would have more local routes running through the night on Fri/Sat only. Any thoughts?

I think TfL will move away from standardisation in terms of linking with the night tube. There have been a couple of statements that hint in that general direction in terms of pulling back bits of the core night bus network and then making sure there are reasonable links in the suburbs. The danger for TfL in tampering with the N9 is the lack of District Line service in West London under the Night Tube plans. It's not evident that the Picc will stop at Ravenscourt Park or Stamford Brook. The N9 provides the alternative local service so can TfL take out much capacity? I agree people will more likely use the tube to Hounslow and to Heathrow.

I managed to save an old Bus Service Change Bulletin from years back when later hours of operation on the tube was being planned for weekends. TfL only identified a subset of routes that would gain extra late journeys to provide a connection with the later running tubes. I expect similar logic will be employed for the Night Tube but the cost impacts are different as longer hours of operation will be needed. I would anticipate places like Hounslow, Ealing and North Greenwich gaining extra weekend night services to give greater connectivity with the Tube. I suspect the NYE service pattern might be a decent place to start for these tube - bus hubs.

I can also see the N73's frequency being cut to Walthamstow but perhaps we will get a weekend 123 given it will link Piccadilly, Victoria and Central Line stations which will all have a night tube service?

[M1104]

I had noticed during the New Year free period (23:45 - 05:00hrs) that some passengers were still swiping their cards on the machine. Some drivers were telling them not to (but in many instances was too late to avoid) whilst other drivers weren't really bothered. The thing that gets me is couldn't the software have been temporarily reprogrammed not to accept credit, or at least accept any intended credit as a 'free pass'?

Or better yet, couldn't the drivers simply remove the module from the wayfarers or does it have to remain inserted for the purpose of data gathering?

[Steve80]

Jan 2, 2014 14:19:57 GMT M1104 said:

I had noticed during the New Year free period (23:45 - 05:00hrs) that some passengers were still swiping their cards on the machine. Some drivers were telling them not to (but in many instances was too late to avoid) whilst other drivers weren't really bothered. The thing that gets me is couldn't the software have been temporarily reprogrammed not to accept credit, or at least accept any intended credit as a 'free pass'?

Or better yet, couldn't the drivers simply remove the module from the wayfarers or does it have to remain inserted for the purpose of data gathering?

Taking the module out of the wayfarer seems to affect the ibus system. There been a few times when I have forgotten to sign on (meaning I have to use my emergency ticket) or the module not working correctly and I have to program the ibus system manually. The ibus would work for about 5 minutes and then it would keep switching itself on and off forcing me to manually program the ibus again and again.

If I was working on new years eve then I would simply have pressed the option button (the red button) once as this seems to stop the oyster from scanning