All it needs is something to transition the blue round the indicators into the side skirt a bit better and it'd look fine.
Personally I'm not a fan of front swoops on single decks - they just don't work that well on newer vehicles where the windscreen is lower.
(07/02/2013 07:45)moreton407 Wrote: [ -> ]Noticed this in the new timetable for the 471/472:
"Stagecoach are currently reviewing this agreement and have told us that
they may make changes in the future. Right now, there’s no changes
planned, but we’ll let you know if any changes are going to take place."
That's connected with the ticketing arrangements on the Quality Partnership routes. Stagecoach want to withdraw from accepting passes of longer than weekly duration on the Wirral QBP's, which would bring all routes into line with the existing QBP's on the Liverpool side of the water.
I get the impression Merseytravel have intervened as Stagecoach originally said they would do this pretty quickly upon the takeover of First's operations, but it seems to be on hold for now.
(07/02/2013 15:21)polarbear Wrote: [ -> ] (07/02/2013 07:45)moreton407 Wrote: [ -> ]Noticed this in the new timetable for the 471/472:
"Stagecoach are currently reviewing this agreement and have told us that
they may make changes in the future. Right now, there’s no changes
planned, but we’ll let you know if any changes are going to take place."
That's connected with the ticketing arrangements on the Quality Partnership routes. Stagecoach want to withdraw from accepting passes of longer than weekly duration on the Wirral QBP's, which would bring all routes into line with the existing QBP's on the Liverpool side of the water.
I get the impression Merseytravel have intervened as Stagecoach originally said they would do this pretty quickly upon the takeover of First's operations, but it seems to be on hold for now.
Defeating the object of a QBP then unless timetables are revised on the 1/2 partnership, as passengers with an arriva monthly would then only be able to use a 2 every 40 minutes.
(07/02/2013 20:20)R874 ERE Wrote: [ -> ] (07/02/2013 15:21)polarbear Wrote: [ -> ] (07/02/2013 07:45)moreton407 Wrote: [ -> ]Noticed this in the new timetable for the 471/472:
"Stagecoach are currently reviewing this agreement and have told us that
they may make changes in the future. Right now, there’s no changes
planned, but we’ll let you know if any changes are going to take place."
That's connected with the ticketing arrangements on the Quality Partnership routes. Stagecoach want to withdraw from accepting passes of longer than weekly duration on the Wirral QBP's, which would bring all routes into line with the existing QBP's on the Liverpool side of the water.
I get the impression Merseytravel have intervened as Stagecoach originally said they would do this pretty quickly upon the takeover of First's operations, but it seems to be on hold for now.
Defeating the object of a QBP then unless timetables are revised on the 1/2 partnership, as passengers with an arriva monthly would then only be able to use a 2 every 40 minutes.
This particular 1/2 QBP is seriously skewed , im sure that this particular QBP would involve talks with CW&CC as well as Merseytravel , making it a bit long winded .
(07/02/2013 21:14)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ] (07/02/2013 20:20)R874 ERE Wrote: [ -> ] (07/02/2013 15:21)polarbear Wrote: [ -> ]That's connected with the ticketing arrangements on the Quality Partnership routes. Stagecoach want to withdraw from accepting passes of longer than weekly duration on the Wirral QBP's, which would bring all routes into line with the existing QBP's on the Liverpool side of the water.
I get the impression Merseytravel have intervened as Stagecoach originally said they would do this pretty quickly upon the takeover of First's operations, but it seems to be on hold for now.
Defeating the object of a QBP then unless timetables are revised on the 1/2 partnership, as passengers with an arriva monthly would then only be able to use a 2 every 40 minutes.
This particular 1/2 QBP is seriously skewed , im sure that this particular QBP would involve talks with CW&CC as well as Merseytravel , making it a bit long winded .
Personally, I could envisage a situation where the QBP on services 1 & 2 ends at some point in the future. Arriva could lose quite a bit of revenue if sales of monthly tickets decline & as hinted at earlier, they lost out a bit on this QBP as they only have a service every 40 minutes. Don't think it would take much to upset the applecart.
Would just make more sense to re-jig the service so that it is more balanced ie as per the arrangement on the 10A where each operator runs every other journey. Should be more balanced as well on the 471/472 as only Arriva operate in the evenings.
(07/02/2013 22:57)St Helens Rider Wrote: [ -> ]Would just make more sense to re-jig the service so that it is more balanced ie as per the arrangement on the 10A where each operator runs every other journey. Should be more balanced as well on the 471/472 as only Arriva operate in the evenings.
The idea was that first dominate the 1/2 and Arriva dominate the 471/2 hence why first do all the lates on the 1, and arriva do all the lates on the 471/2.
The 471/2 partnership seems much more balanced than the 1/2 - Although I agree each operator should have an equal share.
We'll have to see how this pans out over the coming months - as has been said its not looking promising for the 1/2 QBP.
Unidentified Stagecoach Enviro400 in Rock Ferry depot earlier...will try to ID later or tomorrow
The reason for Stagecoach wanting to withdraw from accepting monthly tickets is simple... smart cards! Stagecoach are pressing on with moving monthly tickets onto smart cards (as is currently the case with such tickets in Manchester), and these won't be compatible for use on Arriva services.
(09/02/2013 16:21)Nicholas Wrote: [ -> ]The reason for Stagecoach wanting to withdraw from accepting monthly tickets is simple... smart cards! Stagecoach are pressing on with moving monthly tickets onto smart cards (as is currently the case with such tickets in Manchester), and these won't be compatible for use on Arriva services.
Eventually Arriva will migrate tickets on to an ITSO compliant smartcard anyway.
Any company or person can easily read the contents of an ITSO smartcard, and as all (most) new ticket machines have readers, it shouldn't be a problem.
The whole point of "ITSO", (which Stagecoach SMART is based on), is inter-availability between operators.
The actual (and only) reason is revenue abstraction. If Arriva charge £40 for a monthly, (valid on Stagecoach), and Stagecoach charge £50, (valid on Arriva), then Stagecoach will invariably end up with £0 when everyone buys the cheaper Arriva ticket.
With weekly/day tickets, customers generally buy on whatever bus turns up first, so revenue loss isn't really a problem as it is fairly split.
Merseytravel could, of course, make these Statutory schemes and run them like TfL, and basically run them as franchised services which solves the problem.
If I was Arriva, I would bin the 2 QBP, (keep the X2), and reintroduce the X11 every 30 mins.