QBP Liverpool and Wirral

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
Just to agree with what has been said above, I've used all of the QBPs in peak times now and the worst is the 86 by a country mile. It is simply woefully inadequate in terms of capacity. Arriva buses, as outlined, usually the only choice for most students, are less frequent and departing full throughout the day. I've seen Volvo B7TLs drive past the Liverpool Arts College stop as they are already completely full. It's a desperate situation, and don't get me started on the horrid "summer timetable".

The simple solution is to return the Arriva timetable to every five minutes, admittedly compromising the constant timetable Merseytravel continually boasts about. Stagecoach simply haven't done enough to address the capacity issues. If their allocations were entirely double deckers, it might be different.

[Jack]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
Can Arriva Weekly Tickets be used on First and Stagecoach buses on QBP routes?

[First Class]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
The main problem with bus services (in general), but especially the QBP routes is the lack of capacity.

Stagecoach should have invested in bigger buses from the outset, compare Liverpool to their Manchester operations and it makes our city look like a backwater. At least they tend to use new(ish) buses, but some of these new buses are now coming up to 7 years old.

First Group, well, they've given up entirely. Not likely to be around much longer. Hopefully a successor operator will replace their horrid fleet with new, high capacity vehicles across their entire network. Again, compare with Manchester, and Merseyside has done quite badly.

Arriva have one of the newish fleets, but ALL QBP routes they operate should have double deckers allocated, 2/10/10A/14/471/472. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if Stagecoach/First had bigger vehicles...

You simply cannot reduce a timetable without increasing the capacity on the fewer services that run as a result.

[px55efc]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral

(18/10/2012 17:43)507009 Wrote:  Just to agree with what has been said above, I've used all of the QBPs in peak times now and the worst is the 86 by a country mile. It is simply woefully inadequate in terms of capacity. Arriva buses, as outlined, usually the only choice for most students, are less frequent and departing full throughout the day. I've seen Volvo B7TLs drive past the Liverpool Arts College stop as they are already completely full. It's a desperate situation, and don't get me started on the horrid "summer timetable".

The simple solution is to return the Arriva timetable to every five minutes, admittedly compromising the constant timetable Merseytravel continually boasts about. Stagecoach simply haven't done enough to address the capacity issues. If their allocations were entirely double deckers, it might be different.

I agree. Stagecoach buses on the 86 just dont have the capacity. Smaller darts have replaced slightly larger B10ble's, which have near enough gone anyway. The double deckers on the 86C dont help much, as most students take up the Arrivas.
Reinstating the Arriva service wouldnt compromise much, as the stagecoach buses would just 'fill in the gaps'.

Do the buses on the 86 just qualify for QBP as most routes have brand new buses, not nearly new. (55/06 arr, V/55 stg)

[MPTE1955]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral

(18/10/2012 17:59)sumner Wrote:  Can Arriva Weekly Tickets be used on First and Stagecoach buses on QBP routes?

Yes.

[First Class]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral

(18/10/2012 18:23)MPTE1955 Wrote:  

(18/10/2012 17:59)sumner Wrote:  Can Arriva Weekly Tickets be used on First and Stagecoach buses on QBP routes?

Yes.

Almost.

Standard weekly tickets, (issued from a normal ticket machine), can be used.

However, Arriva PayPoint or m-tickets are not accepted on Stagecoach.

Additionally, the new "Stagecoach Smart" ITSO card cannot be used on Arriva.

[MPTE1955]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
I was thinking of it in terms of ones that you buy off the driver, monthly tickets cannot be used on Stagecoach.

[Jack]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
Thanks for the help, I'll be buying it off the driver so hopefully that can be used.

[b2311e]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral
This might be a mistake in the timetables, but the Wirral 471/472 timetable appears to allow any ticket other than M-tickets, regardless of operator - Page 5 here

Yet the Liverpool routes, such as 86, ask for the same operator if it's not a driver-issued ticket - Page 4, yellow box.


These partnerships seem to have confusing rules for ticketing - There's no consistency. Not to mention the drivers who don't understand what tickets are allowed where.

I think one of the most bizarre parts of this is that driver-issued Arriva weeklys are allowed regardless of operator, yet equally priced PayPoint ones are not.

[darthblakey]

RE: QBP Liverpool and Wirral

(18/10/2012 21:22)b2311e Wrote:  I think one of the most bizarre parts of this is that driver-issued Arriva weeklys are allowed regardless of operator, yet equally priced PayPoint ones are not.

This is because only Arriva get paid the cost of the PayPoint tickets directly and other operators are not, so that is why they are not being accepted, the same goes for Arriva LEA passes in St Helens, Stagecoach are not receiving payments so you cannot use them on 10A Stagecoach services.