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Post by snoggle on Oct 8, 2014 14:33:50 GMT
The 357 is a pointless route ever since it was cut back to Chingford Hatch from its 97A days. I say scrap it altogether, it is never full unless there is a gap in service from the 215 or 97 and does not warrant double deckers imo. If it were to be extended to Woodford Station as Snoggle mentioned, it makes sense; other than that I don't see the point of the route. The 357 is a tough one. Off peaks i'd agree with some of your points mentioned as sometimes you can be the one of very few passengers on the bus. However, I see this route quite useful during the peaks as its normally used up Northbound out of Walthamstow. It is a help to the 97, particularly at times when the service has inconsistent headways due to varying traffic issues along the route. It carries 1.5m pass jnys a year which isn't bad. It's not brilliant but there are plenty of routes with lower ridership. It is quite unusual in having double decks - most other routes with that sort of patronage are single deck operated. However your point about "gap filling" is well made. I was watching buses go out of the Central the other afternoon and a 357 left very well loaded towards Chingford. Even with the better frequency on the 97 these days it is still possible to get awkward gaps between buses heading north up Chingford Road. It often loads well on a Sunday although that's with baby Darts on that day - again rather more gaps between buses on that day so more likelihood of the bus filling up. The 1030 bus on Sunday morning into Walthamstow is usually full and standing.
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Post by vjaska on Oct 8, 2014 17:40:15 GMT
The 357 is a tough one. Off peaks i'd agree with some of your points mentioned as sometimes you can be the one of very few passengers on the bus. However, I see this route quite useful during the peaks as its normally used up Northbound out of Walthamstow. It is a help to the 97, particularly at times when the service has inconsistent headways due to varying traffic issues along the route. It carries 1.5m pass jnys a year which isn't bad. It's not brilliant but there are plenty of routes with lower ridership. It is quite unusual in having double decks - most other routes with that sort of patronage are single deck operated. However your point about "gap filling" is well made. I was watching buses go out of the Central the other afternoon and a 357 left very well loaded towards Chingford. Even with the better frequency on the 97 these days it is still possible to get awkward gaps between buses heading north up Chingford Road. It often loads well on a Sunday although that's with baby Darts on that day - again rather more gaps between buses on that day so more likelihood of the bus filling up. The 1030 bus on Sunday morning into Walthamstow is usually full and standing. Warning - 'person who knows nothing about the route about to comment alert' Could the route not use long single deckers, thus allowing the route to be extended to Whipps Cross Hospital at all times rather than Sunday's?
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Post by snoggle on Oct 8, 2014 19:23:48 GMT
Warning - 'person who knows nothing about the route about to comment alert' Could the route not use long single deckers, thus allowing the route to be extended to Whipps Cross Hospital at all times rather than Sunday's? There are low overbridges connecting bits of the hospital that prevent double decks running through the hospital site. Single decks only or else you be carrying patients on trolleys on the top deck! Double decks run down Whipps Cross Road - the 257 (old 262) and the old 230 when it ran to the Green Man.
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Post by vjaska on Oct 8, 2014 19:32:39 GMT
Warning - 'person who knows nothing about the route about to comment alert' Could the route not use long single deckers, thus allowing the route to be extended to Whipps Cross Hospital at all times rather than Sunday's? There are low overbridges connecting bits of the hospital that prevent double decks running through the hospital site. Single decks only or else you be carrying patients on trolleys on the top deck! Double decks run down Whipps Cross Road - the 257 (old 262) and the old 230 when it ran to the Green Man. Think you've misread my post - I never mentioned anything about using double deckers into the hospital grounds as I knew that's the reason why single deckers are used on Sundays. I was thinking if 12m single deckers could be used instead?
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Post by snoggle on Oct 8, 2014 21:20:57 GMT
There are low overbridges connecting bits of the hospital that prevent double decks running through the hospital site. Single decks only or else you be carrying patients on trolleys on the top deck! Double decks run down Whipps Cross Road - the 257 (old 262) and the old 230 when it ran to the Green Man. Think you've misread my post - I never mentioned anything about using double deckers into the hospital grounds as I knew that's the reason why single deckers are used on Sundays. I was thinking if 12m single deckers could be used instead? I iz fik. I suppose you could but there are already 14.5 bph each way at peak times through the hospital grounds and there is just enough space for a short single decker to stand on a Sunday (when things are quieter). Finding stand space for 4 long single decks per hour might be stretching things a bit too far. I also think that long single decks would be inadequate for some of the peak flows out of the Central towards Chingford. People would be standing for much of their journey. I have often wondered if an alternative to using double decks was to use single deckers but on a higher frequency to see if encouraged patronage - eg x12 M-S, x20 Sun and evenings. The main issue with those eve / Sun frequencies is that they'd be out of step with the 215. At the moment there is a rough attempt to run the 215 and 357 equally spaced.
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Post by capitalomnibus on Oct 8, 2014 22:18:15 GMT
It could have single decks on Monday - Friday. I am sure I have seen odd workings some years ago of DML's on the 357 during a weekday and it managed. The loadings on the 357 just does not justify double decks.
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