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Post by snoggle on Aug 16, 2016 21:30:03 GMT
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Post by lonmark on Aug 17, 2016 12:19:56 GMT
Bad idea move. It will be more confused to all passengers. Just like old Kentish buses who did renumber routes and some route change as well make a worse service and many months time or so, change it back to how it was to be. So first should never change big route numbers on current route number.
I bet people will be complain to local newspaper 📰
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Post by smiler52 on Aug 18, 2016 14:41:37 GMT
It's because the management at empress road have no clue what they are doing
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Post by snoggle on Aug 18, 2016 14:52:10 GMT
It's because the management at empress road have no clue what they are doing I rather suspect that "Head Office" have run a finger over the numbers and decided they aren't getting anything like the returns they should be getting esp as some new vehicles have gone into Slough in recent years. Therefore time to cut costs and try to get reliability back under control. I suspect some of it will unravel because of putting so many routes into the bus station.
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Post by stubag on Aug 18, 2016 16:33:28 GMT
It's because the management at empress road have no clue what they are doing I rather suspect that "Head Office" have run a finger over the numbers and decided they aren't getting anything like the returns they should be getting esp as some new vehicles have gone into Slough in recent years. Therefore time to cut costs and try to get reliability back under control. I suspect some of it will unravel because of putting so many routes into the bus station. I would imagine the subsidy from BAA has almost depleted. Those new buses were "brought" by BAA, (it's a sliding scale of subsidised funding year on year)
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Post by snoggle on Aug 18, 2016 16:44:44 GMT
I rather suspect that "Head Office" have run a finger over the numbers and decided they aren't getting anything like the returns they should be getting esp as some new vehicles have gone into Slough in recent years. Therefore time to cut costs and try to get reliability back under control. I suspect some of it will unravel because of putting so many routes into the bus station. I would imagine the subsidy from BAA has almost depleted. Those new buses were "brought" by BAA, (it's a sliding scale of subsidised funding year on year) Oh that's interesting - I didn't know that's how the funding works but I'm not terribly surprised that something from BAA is designed to "vanish". I'm not hugely familiar with Slough's bus network but I'm amazed First Group have stuck it out given all the retrenchment elsewhere in their empire. Given the vestiges of whatever was Alder Valley / Beeline went a long time ago and Bracknell much more recently there's little else to keep them there. I would have though RATP would be able to make a decent fist of things if they employed some of their magic from Bournemouth coupled with London United's presence close by.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2016 17:10:22 GMT
I would imagine the subsidy from BAA has almost depleted. Those new buses were "brought" by BAA, (it's a sliding scale of subsidised funding year on year) Oh that's interesting - I didn't know that's how the funding works but I'm not terribly surprised that something from BAA is designed to "vanish". I'm not hugely familiar with Slough's bus network but I'm amazed First Group have stuck it out given all the retrenchment elsewhere in their empire. Given the vestiges of whatever was Alder Valley / Beeline went a long time ago and Bracknell much more recently there's little else to keep them there. I would have though RATP would be able to make a decent fist of things if they employed some of their magic from Bournemouth coupled with London United's presence close by. I would like to see Reading Buses take some of First Berkshires work on, they took on their service between Bracknell and Reading, relaunched it and passenger numbers have increased hugely. Reading really are a superb operator. Wish someone would sort out Abellio at BF,a new owner or investment could help rid Surrey of the stigma that exists towards buses there. Their Heathrow services are far worse than the 7series.
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Post by vjaska on Aug 18, 2016 17:53:16 GMT
Oh that's interesting - I didn't know that's how the funding works but I'm not terribly surprised that something from BAA is designed to "vanish". I'm not hugely familiar with Slough's bus network but I'm amazed First Group have stuck it out given all the retrenchment elsewhere in their empire. Given the vestiges of whatever was Alder Valley / Beeline went a long time ago and Bracknell much more recently there's little else to keep them there. I would have though RATP would be able to make a decent fist of things if they employed some of their magic from Bournemouth coupled with London United's presence close by. I would like to see Reading Buses take some of First Berkshires work on, they took on their service between Bracknell and Reading, relaunched it and passenger numbers have increased hugely. Reading really are a superb operator. Wish someone would sort out Abellio at BF,a new owner or investment could help rid Surrey of the stigma that exists towards buses there. Their Heathrow services are far worse than the 7series. That part of Surrey is extremely hard operating territory so I suspect even someone of 'the Reading Buses standard' would even struggle down there.
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Post by thesquirrels on Aug 18, 2016 20:21:29 GMT
Oh that's interesting - I didn't know that's how the funding works but I'm not terribly surprised that something from BAA is designed to "vanish". I'm not hugely familiar with Slough's bus network but I'm amazed First Group have stuck it out given all the retrenchment elsewhere in their empire. Given the vestiges of whatever was Alder Valley / Beeline went a long time ago and Bracknell much more recently there's little else to keep them there. I would have though RATP would be able to make a decent fist of things if they employed some of their magic from Bournemouth coupled with London United's presence close by. I would like to see Reading Buses take some of First Berkshires work on, they took on their service between Bracknell and Reading, relaunched it and passenger numbers have increased hugely. Reading really are a superb operator. Wish someone would sort out Abellio at BF,a new owner or investment could help rid Surrey of the stigma that exists towards buses there. Their Heathrow services are far worse than the 7series. Abellio have done a fair bit IMO 'around the edges' with live bus info, transparent fares, tacking on earlier and later journeys in a few cases and making remarkably few retrenchments, leaving what commercial network there is remarkably stable after a number of turbulent years when Arriva dropped most of the network. Some more high quality full sized SD buses would be the next step but I can't see it happening. I think Abellio would have a hard time trying to replicate the 7-series operation into Heathrow from Walton and points S/W now, even with better vehicles. In operational terms it doesn't have the free flowing dual carriageways like the Bath Road, more a 'case of the 31' where it cuts across other orbital routes and through town centres and can be subject to quite heavy delays as a result. But more fundamentally, while Ashford, Sunbury Cross and Walton are relatively affordable places to live *by Surrey standards* a typical 'airside' or terminal job wage at the airport is not going to get you far and it is only becoming less affordable out there. I would suggest a pattern between that falling affordability and declining patronage. Slough, Wycombe, Southall. Hayes, Uxbridge (in parts anyway) have always been cheaper, are still relatively affordable and it is from these areas that buses carry standing loads into the airport. The demand is there (see the hastily reinstated early journeys after an outcry by shift workers) but is residual and declining. Staines and the 441 will be an interesting one to watch in that regard in the next few years. A couple of shards of genuine improvement among all the First changes: 1) the night service between Slaah and the airport goes up to every half hour, with alternate buses bifurcating to mean an all night service to all terminals, and 2) the Slough-Uxbridge corridor goes up to hourly on Sundays, from 7am til 7pm rather than every 2(ish) hours now 10-6. I am cautiously optimistic about this scheme. For the highly time-sensitive nature of a lot of airport journeys (whether for work or flights) I'll take the pain of having to change for the improved reliability of a shorter route. The A4 away from Slough is OK but in the town itself - especially between Langley and Salt Hill - can have appalling traffic issues, and I can well see where this scheme has come from. A lot of these journeys will be made on BAA-subsidised staff passes or other seasons already so I don't think many will lose out financially as a result. The bus station is definitely going to struggle, though. They had that nice big one..
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Post by stubag on Aug 18, 2016 23:06:13 GMT
Most of the Surrey network that Abellio operate is tendered for SCC. The 441 like the "7 Series" has a subsidy from BAA, If it wasn't for that subsidy its very possible the service wouldn't run at all.
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Post by Gary on Aug 21, 2016 19:57:59 GMT
Suits me quite nicely, the new 7 route. Hopefully the journey from Heathrow Central to Heathrow T5 will be via Bath Road rather than the Perimeter Road.
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Post by l1group on Aug 26, 2016 0:40:46 GMT
I've blogged about Berkshire for quite some time, and I see that this is an attempt by First Berkshire to definitely cut costs and rationalise operations. This is the most severe parts of what happens:
George Green loses its frequent (current) 7 service as the (current) 7 gets withdrawn. 58/78 parallel Slough-Britwell is combined into one route, so that's actually a good saving there. Route 5 now covers what used to be an area (Cippenham) that was served by three routes before the 5 existed! (76, 2/3 and 8) Slough Trading Estate loses 1bph along with a route to Britwell (as the 1B is renumbered the 13 and truncated to Burnham Station)
The 7series 7/N7(T2/3) looks to be via the Perimeter Road as there is no Compass Centre timing point. Rationalising that means the 77 and Trelawney Avenue links to Heathrow are lost. The 77 direct Bath Road route means the 81 is now the only Bath Road route between Colnbrook and Slough that isn't the 702. However, it does bring a FREQUENT BUS ROUTE between Heathrow Central and T5. Finally. The last frequent bus route link needed between the terminals (the 441 is every 30mins). First Berkshire have reduced the night service to Central to every 2hrs (but the N9 exists) and actually give Terminal 4 a night bus finally.
The new 14 (replacing the 6, basically) gives a faster ride from Slough to Wexham Park Hospital (but the WP1 exists...), but introduces a change for people around Knolton Way as the bus now doesn't go to Wexham Park Hospital from there.
There are some pointless renumbering of routes, notably the 71 > 8 and the 60/61 > 10/11
Otherwise it's a clear way to rationalise routes without affecting too many people. Not what I like, but the massive shrinking of First Berkshire is alarming. I can see the Bath Road and station forecourt getting busier as there are a lot more buses in the bus station.
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Post by stubag on Aug 26, 2016 6:49:50 GMT
It would appear that the funding from Segro (there was funding provided by the company that owns Slough Trading Estate) has also been withdrawn as buses through the trading estate have been cut.
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Post by Gary on Sept 19, 2016 7:47:47 GMT
75 and 76 tiles are in the process of being removed from the bus stops down Bath Road. Guess that means the 7 will be travelling via the Perimeter Road instead.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2016 0:42:56 GMT
So the 81 will be busier then ? I'm impressed with the Hatton Cross and Terminal 4 night service and I intend to pop out and see what the passenger levels are.
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