New Buses Orders

[Phil]

RE: New Buses Orders

(22/03/2013 21:16)3111 Wrote:  The 12/13 serve a significant number of hotspots and residential areas. If the services were marketed properly around those areas, they would probably appeal to car users (one of the main points of bus services - to provide car users with other ways to travel). If that knock-on effect did take place, patronage figures would increase and would prove that the order of single-deckers for the services was not enough. However, if that did happen and Arriva did eventually decide to provide the services with double-deckers, car users may already have decided against using the services and the damage may have been done. I'm sure that, if double-deckers were drafted in alongside huge marketing effort, their time would be worthwhile.

This was exactly the type of scenario that I thought the 79 would fall into. When this route was converted to single deck operation in 2005, overcrowding was chronic, even at non-peak times. I thought there would be a danger of people abandoning the bus, thus resulting in single deckers being adequate. This simply didn't happen and thankfully, after 6 years, double deckers returned and they are proving their worth once again.

(22/03/2013 21:16)3111 Wrote:  For existing passengers, in comparison to a typical Marshall, there are five extra seats and an additional area of standing room. Whilst Pulsars do tend to go onto the services regularly at the moment, a full allocation of them will be beneficial somehow. It's something, at least (not much, but better than how it currently is).

Going by loadings I have seen on the 12/13, the increase of capacity from a dart to a pulsar probably won't make much difference. Again, I can use the 79 as an example. Literally overnight, the good handful of Olympians that were used on this route were replaced by Marshall and Pointer 2 darts to, ahem, "compliment" the new Strider Cadets on the 79C. Now in similar circumstances to the 12/13, the darts were eventually replaced by slightly larger, 44 seater vehicles (Commanders) in order to ease loadings. Did it work? Did it sh**e and I can see a similar situation happening to the 12/13.

(22/03/2013 21:16)3111 Wrote:  Furthermore, bunching is another big factor with these regular services - often, several pass through Queen Square Bus Station at once, then nothing appears for up to 10 minutes and then the cycle is repeated. Personally, I think that the bunching issue needs to be addressed in order for the services to run more efficiently (such as adding more time where traffic is an issue). Then, when they're running efficiently and passenger numbers are more realistic (spread-out) on each 12/13 journey, patronage figures can be properly assessed.

Spot on!
Queen Square bus station is completely unfit for purpose. Couple this with the ridiculous traffic system in the city centre then you've got problems.

(22/03/2013 21:16)3111 Wrote:  Bear with me on this - my wording, as always, may be a bit difficult to understand. This isn't aimed at Phil. This scenario also goes with most (if not, all) services. Hope it makes sense and points are taken-in!

You made some great points and I hope my replies have some substance to them.

Thing is, I think Arriva are far too comfortable in Merseyside and Liverpool in particular. They hardly have any meaningful competition and they have the might to do whatever they want without any sort of challenge. Why don't they use this advantage to try something new instead of always playing safe with their high frequency corridors. They should try branching out and try introducing links between areas that we haven't got yet.