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Post by VPL630 on Apr 8, 2017 10:57:18 GMT
You beat me to it mate! I was just about to post that At least we have something concrete now rather than the vague notice posted previously As for the running times I've found I'm almost always two minutes late by the time I come off Hewitts Roundabout but provided I don't get inundated with kids at Warren Road I'm almost always back on time by the time I turn into Charterhouse Road. The only time this hasn't happened was yesterday afternoon when I had 36306 on my second half. A coincidence surely? Oh most definitely. I had the misfortune of about 600 kids getting on in orpington when I had 36308 the other day and the thing was doing about 5mph flat out going up the hill at the bottom of Charterhouse. 36307 is out there today, will I be the lucky one to have it this afternoon? 😂 I'll look out for you as I'm TB33 on the 269's until 4pm and then TB37 after 5pm
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Post by TB141 on Apr 8, 2017 11:04:47 GMT
Oh most definitely. I had the misfortune of about 600 kids getting on in orpington when I had 36308 the other day and the thing was doing about 5mph flat out going up the hill at the bottom of Charterhouse. 36307 is out there today, will I be the lucky one to have it this afternoon? 😂 I'll look out for you as I'm TB33 on the 269's until 4pm and then TB37 after 5pm TB21 til 16:15 then TB91 til 22:00 😉
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Post by Dillon95 on Apr 8, 2017 11:35:21 GMT
The Chelsfield loop should run on time when the brats go back to school and the fun fair goes away hopefully.
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Post by LBOTG on Apr 13, 2017 9:10:17 GMT
Three things to point out: - There is an R7 tile at the "Centre Common Road/War Memorial" stop in Chislehurst, even though the route uses Prince Imperial Road to reach the station.
- On my trip alone 6 different people boarded the wrong R7, as they stop at the same stop on Orpington High Street and are scheduled to arrive at the next time. The similarity of "Chelsfield" and "Chislehurst" both visually and verbally doesn't help, perhaps buses should emit one of the stops along the High Street in both directions to prevent this confusion?
- I thought MB were supposed to be receiving Wrightbus Streetlite vehicles from the 462 from 1st April. I didn't see a single one in the garage on Monday whilst passing by on my R8. Does anyone have more info on this topic?
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Post by vjaska on Apr 13, 2017 9:13:48 GMT
Three things to point out: - There is an R7 tile at the "Centre Common Road/War Memorial" stop in Chislehurst, even though the route uses Prince Imperial Road to reach the station.Â
- On my trip alone 6 different people boarded the wrong R7, as they stop at the same stop on Orpington High Street and are scheduled to arrive at the next time. The similarity of "Chelsfield" and "Chislehurst" both visually and verbally doesn't help, perhaps buses should emit one of the stops along the High Street in both directions to prevent this confusion?
- I thought MB were supposed to be receiving Wrightbus Streetlite vehicles from the 462 from 1st April. I didn't see a single one in the garage on Monday whilst passing by on my R8. Does anyone have more info on this topic?
MB is receiving the WS's still from the 462 as far as I'm aware - no idea what the hold up is but there was one WS at MB in March as I saw a pic of it.
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Post by snoggle on Apr 13, 2017 9:31:35 GMT
Three things to point out: - On my trip alone 6 different people boarded the wrong R7, as they stop at the same stop on Orpington High Street and are scheduled to arrive at the next time. The similarity of "Chelsfield" and "Chislehurst" both visually and verbally doesn't help, perhaps buses should emit one of the stops along the High Street in both directions to prevent this confusion?
Isn't this is a general problem with the network in Orpington? The High Street is an important destination but several routes are not purely N-S in their orientation so have to double run to serve it. The need to serve the station also causes issues but, again, it's an important traffic generator. I suspect people will eventually get used to the revised services and will, perhaps, use their eyes a little bit more to double check the destination blind. I imagine there'd be more of a "riot" if it was suggested that buses don't serve the High St and people had to walk down to south / east of the War Memorial to pick up their buses.
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Post by Paul on Apr 13, 2017 12:43:34 GMT
Three things to point out: - On my trip alone 6 different people boarded the wrong R7, as they stop at the same stop on Orpington High Street and are scheduled to arrive at the next time. The similarity of "Chelsfield" and "Chislehurst" both visually and verbally doesn't help, perhaps buses should emit one of the stops along the High Street in both directions to prevent this confusion?
Isn't this is a general problem with the network in Orpington? The High Street is an important destination but several routes are not purely N-S in their orientation so have to double run to serve it. The need to serve the station also causes issues but, again, it's an important traffic generator. I suspect people will eventually get used to the revised services and will, perhaps, use their eyes a little bit more to double check the destination blind. I imagine there'd be more of a "riot" if it was suggested that buses don't serve the High St and people had to walk down to south / east of the War Memorial to pick up their buses. For my part I've been trying to make sure people are on the right bus using a broad profiling range I've made up. If it's a regular R7 passenger I know where they are going so know if they are on the right bus. If it's a large group of kids I presume they want the Hewitts Farm fair. If it's someone I don't recognise I presume they want the old R3 section. It's worked well so far - only had one pair of people get on the wrong bus. People will work it out eventually That said, we should be using Gravel Pit Way on the way to Chislehurst - I think it would greatly simplify things and I'm not picking up many people from the McDonalds stop going towards Chislehurst anyway
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Post by LBOTG on Apr 13, 2017 18:04:02 GMT
That was my other idea! How come they are serving both stops on the high street in both directions for now?
Vjaska, I think the bus you saw was WS6, which was used for type training, but unfortunately broke down inside the garage!
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Post by jay38a on Apr 13, 2017 18:12:32 GMT
That was my other idea! How come they are serving both stops on the high street in both directions for now? Vjaska, I think the bus you saw was WS6, which was used for type training, but unfortunately broke down inside the garage! The WSs are at Hants and Dorset. Who ever designed how to access the blindbox on a Streetlite needs to be shot, the whole front windscreen needs to come out
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Post by Deleted on Apr 27, 2017 20:01:58 GMT
How's usage on the R7? I haven't had a chance to take a trip to Chislehurst yet
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Post by eggmiester on Apr 28, 2017 5:52:18 GMT
That was my other idea! How come they are serving both stops on the high street in both directions for now? Vjaska, I think the bus you saw was WS6, which was used for type training, but unfortunately broke down inside the garage! The WSs are at Hants and Dorset. Who ever designed how to access the blindbox on a Streetlite needs to be shot, the whole front windscreen needs to come out :: Really?? The boys at NX managed to fit blinds in WS65 from inside... saw them do it.
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Post by jay38a on Apr 28, 2017 9:21:47 GMT
The WSs are at Hants and Dorset. Who ever designed how to access the blindbox on a Streetlite needs to be shot, the whole front windscreen needs to come out :: Really?? The boys at NX managed to fit blinds in WS65 from inside... saw them do it. Could well be the length of MB blinds causing the issue.
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Post by Paul on Apr 28, 2017 9:34:47 GMT
How's usage on the R7? I haven't had a chance to take a trip to Chislehurst yet Non existent in the evenings. I'm on my long weekend now but in the previous week I've been doing a duty where the second half was one rounder on the 7s, leaving Chislehurst just before half ten. Typically I wouldn't see anyone until Orpington Station and then only two or three people going through to Chelsfield Village. The return journey was generally completed without anyone troubling me at all! I pass the other R7 at Bromley High School and every time we were both empty! I'm told, however, that usage is not too bad during the main part of the day with the Chislehurst end picking up very slowly. It not particularly scientific but with our new module system we can see exactly how many people have travelled on the bus when we take the module out at the end of the day and my R7 was typically showing 250-300 people. Given there are four buses out there for most of the day and on the old R7 you could count on something like 250 for the day, it would appear overall passenger numbers have increased quite a bit
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Post by snoggle on Apr 28, 2017 9:54:29 GMT
How's usage on the R7? I haven't had a chance to take a trip to Chislehurst yet Non existent in the evenings. I'm on my long weekend now but in the previous week I've been doing a duty where the second half was one rounder on the 7s, leaving Chislehurst just before half ten. Typically I wouldn't see anyone until Orpington Station and then only two or three people going through to Chelsfield Village. The return journey was generally completed without anyone troubling me at all! I pass the other R7 at Bromley High School and every time we were both empty! I'm told, however, that usage is not too bad during the main part of the day with the Chislehurst end picking up very slowly. It not particularly scientific but with our new module system we can see exactly how many people have travelled on the bus when we take the module out at the end of the day and my R7 was typically showing 250-300 people. Given there are four buses out there for most of the day and on the old R7 you could count on something like 250 for the day, it would appear overall passenger numbers have increased quite a bit Interesting but the key is, of course, how much is traffic swapped from the R3 and how much is genuinely new given the better service and new links. Still it's not bad at all given it is early days and it takes weeks and months for people to twig about new services and where they go / what they do. 2015/16's patronage was around 88,000 on the R7 so based on a 6 day week service that gives 283 pax per day. If you're now seeing around 900 on M-S (approx 310 days given bank hols etc) then that's 279,000 - Sundays would be extra on the top - which is about 3-4 times higher as you suggest. Not bad for an area like Orpington. Of course we will have to wait 15 months before we see a full year's numbers as the change kicked in at the start of the new financial year.
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Post by Paul on Apr 28, 2017 18:14:29 GMT
We have, of course, seen the ready made clientele base switch over from the R3. I'm surprised though that it hasn't actually been more. When I was driving throughout the day (admittedly in the school holidays) it wasn't unusual to drive straight up Charterhouse Road and only stop at the top of the road
We have definitely improved the travelling experience for a few people though with the quicker link between Chelsfield Village and Petts Wood being utilised by a small but regular number of passengers
I definitely await the publication of ridership figures with an interested anticipation
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