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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 20, 2024 22:22:11 GMT
Actually it’s got me thinking about what routes emulate other letters from a Birds Eye view J : 474 L : 173 M: 247 S : 191 U : K1 V : 331 (upside down) Y: 381 Z : 111 G: B12 R: 107
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 6, 2024 21:49:25 GMT
I'm watching it on bustimes too. Seems to have hit traffic in Barking. Don't think it's going to get to the tunnel for at least another half an hour. You have to admire Ensigns for this although I wonder how many people are waiting for it at Bluewater. When the bridge / tunnel has gone down in the past the alternative is the Tilbury Ferry via Gravesend Tilbury Ferry were accepting tickets today. Yes, Ensign does put in the effort and seem to care about doing a good job. They've run out a free courtesy bus in the past when First Essex has failed to run the last 100 of the night from Lakeside back to Bas. Now under common ownership, of course! The X80 has managed less than 2 miles in the last hour in the A13 traffic!
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 6, 2024 21:21:30 GMT
The southbound Dartford crossing has been closed since early afternoon. Ensign's X80 has been suspended since then - they have a bus now stuck on the A13 to Kent via the Blackwall and the A2 to pick up the last northbound journey and make sure nobody is stranded overnight. Ensignbus 163 is the bus concerned - looking at Bus Times it's still stuck outside Beckton right now at 21:17! (It left Lakeside at 20:15) I'm watching it on bustimes too. Seems to have hit traffic in Barking. Don't think it's going to get to the tunnel for at least another half an hour.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 6, 2024 21:16:18 GMT
Canning Town and the area around the A13 have been a mess since around 4.30pm. I assume there are problems on the A13 or Blackwall Tunnel.
All below are turns now (8.15pm)
X2 69 to Plaistow from Walthamstow 115 to Canning Town Station from East Ham X4 5 to Plaistow Abbey Arms from Romford
276 to Canning Town Hermit Road from Stoke Newington
X2 147 to Prince Regent from Ilford
On a separate note the 241 and 325 are diverted via the A13, Barking Road die to New Barn street being closed this weekend. The 300 runs direct from Freemasons Road via the A13 to Canning Town Station missing out Barking Road.
The southbound Dartford crossing has been closed since early afternoon. Ensign's X80 has been suspended since then - they have a bus now stuck on the A13 to Kent via the Blackwall and the A2 to pick up the last northbound journey and make sure nobody is stranded overnight.
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 6, 2023 23:29:12 GMT
Really smart. I love that logo. A really well put together set of ideas.
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Post by thesquirrels on Apr 15, 2023 18:00:42 GMT
I’m addition, speaking of people’s habits, what about when the older generation of people we have now all die off? A lot of banks are pulling out of high streets and going on line and lots of shops have closed due to internet shopping. If people have less reason to visit a town centre, won’t that affect passenger numbers even more so? Outside of school holidays, I assume most shops are struggling with less footfall. Except kids playing truant or excluded, the perpetually unemployed, I don't see many in the shops during the weekdays. Like Tottenham's EN13, I don't know how Moorgate's M&S, covering 4 floors of dull, manages to keep going As for banks, as less use cash and everything can be done online, I can see why a lot of branches (outside the financial districts or affluent areas) are closing. You can even take a picture of a cheque and upload it on a banking app rather than take said cheque to the counter Said shop survives as they recently decided to bin the Fenchurch Street branch - Moorgate is now the last M&S in the square mile!
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Post by thesquirrels on Apr 15, 2023 8:00:31 GMT
The problem with Arriva is they are owned by Deutsch Bahn, a German company. All well and good but sadly buses in the UK dont get the funding like they do in Europe. Lots of European countries including Germany, have bus services run by the state. It works and worked well. Maybe Deutsch Bahn didn’t realise what they were getting into when they brought a UK bus company. I don’t know. Here in the UK transport is a mess. Deutsch Bahn are flogging a dead horse, who would really want to buy a loss making national bus company now? If things don’t improve in the next five or ten years, maybe buses will be run by the state ? I think pre Brexit Arriva was doing well in Europe, plus Covid probably had most of Europe realising like us they can work from home so commuting drastically reduced even after lockdowns were lifted. Ownership of Arriva now is as desirable as the Spurs manager job under Daniel Levy, where investment is more occasional splurges of cash I was surprised that the Kent operations were still running a 2004 Volvo B7TL at max speeds until a very recent investment in the fleet of new E400s It's great to see new buses for Enfield and Norwood but overall presentation of the fleet is poor. Tottenham's newer ENRs (apart from 1, 4 and 5 which for unknown reasons havent entered service yet) have issues with lack of blinds in some cases and are using slipboards like their elderly sisters, 149's LTs are crying out for refurb... I'm sure the uncertainty concerning new owners also affects morale and performance as the old guard seem to be staying in post (again see Spurs ) but I think a lot of the Big Five are cutting operations as councils run out of funding. Look at the mess in London with an out of control Sadiq Khan looking for every opportunity to punish the motorist to draw in a few more bucks, but is then wasting it on non starters like the Superloop... Observing Manchester trying to copy London with the Bee Network, let's see how much Arriva and Stagecoach get there once regulated fleets under single liveries get going... A few 04 B7TLs are still going in Medway! Not enough of the new order to displace them all.. Tunbridge Wells has 51 and 02 plate B7TLs out this morning!
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Post by thesquirrels on Mar 25, 2023 10:06:51 GMT
I had to bring this video back of the 12 back in 1998. I can't lie this video bought a tear to my eye because of how good this journey must of been. It's a shame that we won't get anything like this in London anymore especially with the 20mph on many London roads now and the electric revolution gaining pace. youtu.be/2Ff4kMxb_t0Long live the Volvos 🫡✊️ There was a sweet spot in the late 1990s with certain routes on Sunday timetables, often pre-dating the advent of Sunday trading (1994, i.e. prior to that large shops were closed Sundays), getting busier and busier on the same frequency, resources and running times, meaning some quite hard driving. You can tell that bus was full and standing up the Walworth Road - look at the way it disgorged passengers at the Elephant!
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Post by thesquirrels on Feb 28, 2023 19:59:44 GMT
Did you ever use the route before the diversion? I did. A lot of people found it useful. I believe Southwark Bridge lost its service once before in the early 90s but it was met with strong local objections, leading to the peculiar peak hour 149 shuttle to Waterloo resuming. For 23 days during July 1991!
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Post by thesquirrels on Jan 13, 2023 22:44:20 GMT
Upcoming Changes: Saturday 21 January Route 147 will have a new Monday to Friday timetable from this date with the additional PM peak journey that departs Canning Town for Ilford between 1630 and 1700 withdrawn. No change at any other time with buses continuing to run every 8 minutes during the daytime on Monday to Saturdays with two additional AM peak journeys from Ilford to Canning Town between 0700 and 0800 on Monday to Fridays, every 10 minutes during the daytime on Sundays and every 12 minutes during the evenings. Route 213 will have a new timetable from this date. Buses will be revised to run every 12 minutes during the during the daytime on all days of the week and every 15 minutes during the evenings. Route 213 will continue to run every 30 minutes throughout the night on all nights of the week. A temporary timetable will be introduced on route 268 which will widen the frequency of the service to a bus every 16 minutes during the daytime on Monday to Saturdays with no change during the evening or on Sundays. This will give buses more time to undertake the diversionary route during the closure of College Crescent in the Swiss Cottage area to allow for HS2 works to take place. The stops served by route B13 in Bexleyheath Town Centre will be changed from this date. Buses towards Horn Park will now start from bus stop Z opposite Bexleyheath Library on Townley Road on the southern side of Bexleyheath Town Centre. Bus stop M in the Market Place will no longer be served. Buses arriving from Horn Park will now finish at bus stop Z opposite Bexleyheath Library on Townley Road and no longer will set down at bus stops B outside Asda or at Friswell Place bus terminus. Route B13 will have a new timetable from this date with buses running every 20 minutes during the daytime on Monday to Saturdays and every 30 minutes during the evenings and all day on Sundays. So that’s two frequency cuts to routes in Outer London. Wonder when the 213 last ran x12mins Mon-Sat daytimes? I can't think of a time when the 213 has ever run less than 6bph. www.timetablegraveyard.co.uk/scantab213.htm - historical timetable scans for the 213 back to 1984. x10 mins throughout with an enhancement to x8 in the 2000s.
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Post by thesquirrels on Nov 19, 2022 18:02:22 GMT
I'm planning on getting on the 84 during the Christmas season. Has anyone on here been on the revised 84 since the Sullivan Buses takeover and how does the service now compare to how it was when Metroline had it? St. Albans itself, already pretty notorious for congestion in the city centre, does get that bit worse in the run-up to Christmas with shoppers traffic.
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Post by thesquirrels on Oct 23, 2022 12:02:04 GMT
Couldn't think of any more examples but is the 62 the only route to share a terminus with the same name as a footballer? (Paul Gascoigne, Gasgoine Road) Jude Bellingham (47, 171)
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Post by thesquirrels on Sept 10, 2022 21:09:55 GMT
Are there any bus routes that remind you of certain songs just generally? An example I have is OutKast - Ms Jackson reminding me of the 191, maybe it's because there was an FRV done on it with that song, but like the message of the song, the 191 has quite a number of twists and turns and could generally be considered quite complicated. The 42 reminds me of West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys - a Titan crossing Tower Bridge appears in the music video working the route.
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Post by thesquirrels on Jul 26, 2022 17:11:51 GMT
Some pictures of the Irizars for the 358 On a route serving 70+ stops I hope the single-leaf narrow entrance doesn't come to be a source of regret. Flashbacks to the SLWs on the 144!
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Post by thesquirrels on Jun 10, 2022 18:56:49 GMT
Carousel Buses are withdrawing the 103 between Watford and Amersham from July. Source: Intalink website, upcoming changes section. Leaves the A404 between Little Chalfont and Rickmansworth without a regular bus service for the first time, though the Met does shadow the majority of it. Guessing Herts CC have pulled their funding for that end of the route. The section between Amersham and Wycombe via Beaconsfield remains. There is some schools traffic to the Chorleywood area which the Met won't be able to replace directly so I'm guessing something will be put in to replace that. Definitely doesn't help that the 103 is only hourly. Some passengers may live much closer to a bus stop than a station, but the Met Line/Chiltern combined give 6tph through Chorleywood. The Rickmansworth-Watford section is also very useful, but has little usage due to the frequency. The 103 is the fastest link here, other than the 724 which doesn't serve Watford Town Centre as directly - with passengers opting to instead use Arriva's more frequent services (recently changed to the 321), despite taking a longer route around residential parts of Croxley. The loss of a local service at Little Chalfont is probably the main concern - perhaps Chiltern's route 105 could divert to serve Little Chalfont, between Amersham and Chalfont St Giles? Haven't seen official word on it yet but informed rumour is that the 106/107 from Slough up to Chalfont Common will be extended via Little Chalfont to Amersham to cover. Given the regular use of E400s it will be a squeeze around the B roads between Chalfont Common and Little Chalfont, but it does at least provide an hourly service up White Lion Road for most of the day.
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