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Saw 4503 and one other maybe 4507 heading towards Eastham and beyond in Bromborough on private hire about 11.30am I wonder where they were going?

(30/08/2018 23:25)bus401 Wrote: [ -> ]Saw 4503 and one other maybe 4507 heading towards Eastham and beyond in Bromborough on private hire about 11.30am I wonder where they were going?

I think it was an organised day out to chester for the older generation organized by birkenhead depots sports and social club which happens every year i think.

Thanks for the imfo ,hope it went well.

2545 and 3008 on 487 today while 6002 was on 492/5 and I think it was 6005 was on 464.

Reliability is down again, waited for the 407, 16.21 departure from Cook Street, only to see from the app the incoming 472[which becomes the 407] was 12 minutes late, & ended at least 20 late, i spotted what should have been the 472 in the tunnel, with not in service displayed, after deciding then to get the first bus which was 437 to Birkenhead then change to the 38 which ended up being a good move, as even the 407, 16.41 departure was 10 late.

This is why i dont like interworking , you import delays from one route onto another route , the interworking of the 407/472 was to save on driver transfers but if your seeing delays like 12 to 20 minutes does the possible intervention of the Traffic commissioners for late running not outweigh running the routes as singular routes.

(08/09/2018 09:29)wirralbus Wrote: [ -> ]This is why i dont like interworking , you import delays from one route onto another route , the interworking of the 407/472 was to save on driver transfers but if your seeing delays like 12 to 20 minutes does the possible intervention of the Traffic commissioners for late running not outweigh running the routes as singular routes.

In a big city where frequencies on most routes are high then maybe so, though in smaller places where frequencies are lower, you pretty much can't help interworking unless all routes' running times work out perfectly or you have no/little layover on some routes and huge amounts of layover on routes.
E.g. in Warrington route 2 takes 28 minutes and runs half-hourly so if it didn't interwork it would only get 2 minutes between runs, and route 3 takes 37 minutes and runs half-hourly, so if it didn't interwork, it would be sat around for 23 minutes between runs.

I'm not against interworking as long as enough layover time is given so buses can start on time, on the Arriva 471/472 they have 6 minutes layover at Heswall & 5 minutes at Liverpool, but heavy traffic especially now the holidays are over & traffic light systems can put paid to that, anything departing after 3pm can be ripe for hold ups with school run ecc.

Even Stagecoach 471/472 was running 10 late & later.

Interworking is a fantastic way of running bus services. The issues arise when you interwork buses which run to different areas. If buses are delayed in New Brighton for example, the 432 and 433 will be delayed regardless of them being on their own or interworking. In Warringtons case, they interworked things like the 25 and the 3 so buses in Martinscroft risked being delayed by something happening in Birchwood. In Chester, the 1/1A interwork but that is ok because they both run to the exact same area so regardless of where the delay is, both routes would be affected anyway. Plus, it means buses aren't say around for 12 minutes after every trip.

Those are three examples of interworking. two where interworking can help and one where interworking can be a major disadvantage.

The 407 and 472 are a bit daft as they run to completely different areas so when something happens, it affects a lot more than just the 407 or 472. I can see the advantage of off peak interworking but between 3pm and 7pm, theses should be kept as standalone routes or interwork but with a good 10-15 min layover (at which point, you have to look at which would cost more, the extra buses for the extra layover on interworking or shuttle cars for what would essentially be just a few drivers (as you could just time drivers to start and finish when the interworking happens).

The 407 and 472 was the one i picked up on .

As the 471/2 is a partnership route this is the route that should be standalone , but Arriva dont have another route that can interwork with the 407 as the 464 is every 30 minutes and the 487 has to be single deck because of Neston Liverpool Rd .