• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

McGill's Buses - Renfrewshire & Inverclyde

markymark2000

markymark2000

On Moderation
Joined
11 May 2015
Messages
5,090
Location
Great Britain
318266 said:
I for one look forward to what can occur when bus companies are no longer incentivised to compete against each other on particular overdone corridors e.g. Paisley Road West, and what could then happen if the finances priorly allocated to an overabundance of provision in one area are reallocated to improving links in more suburban areas in which there have been wide swathes of cuts in recent years due to the vicious cycle affecting buses as oft described by the Confederation of Passenger Transport, which I would imagine would improve as a result of government subsidy!
Click to expand...
If operators are 'competing' and there is an 'overabundance of provision' in this one area, why is SPT using taxpayers money to fund the 153 which spends 2/3rds of it's journey time plodding along Paisley Road West? Or is this just yet another great example of SPT wasting money because it is beyond their basic capabilities to properly plan and run the tendered bus network?
If so, can you explain why you expect this to change with franchising when there is a clear pattern of mismanagement of public funds and general inability to do basic things?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

318266

318266

Member
Joined
30 Sep 2017
Messages
874
Location
S&W of Alexander Dennis, N&E of Wrightbus
Stan Drews said:
I’m curious, what is the incentive for bus companies to compete against each other?

There’s very little competition nowadays, so I’m sure the operators would be keen to find out what they’re missing.
Click to expand...
On large bus corridors (usually areas of high deprivation with little access to rail transport) such as Paisley Road West, QEUH-Govan-Glasgow, Easterhouse-Glasgow, Cumbernauld-Glasgow and Shawlands Cross-Glasgow, the incentive to compete is obvious - there are a lot of passengers, enough that running a competing reliable service with slightly cheaper fares may be able to turn a profit. If a company then eventually "wins", fares can then go back up again.
markymark2000 said:
If operators are 'competing' and there is an 'overabundance of provision' in this one area, why is SPT using taxpayers money to fund the 153 which spends 2/3rds of it's journey time plodding along Paisley Road West? Or is this just yet another great example of SPT wasting money because it is beyond their basic capabilities to properly plan and run the tendered bus network?
If so, can you explain why you expect this to change with franchising when there is a clear pattern of mismanagement of public funds and general inability to do basic things?
Click to expand...
The 153 is an interesting situation: whilst the obvious solution is to pay First Glasgow to amend the evening and Sunday 10 to go via the 153 routing in Pollok, First do not tend to accept SPT tenders (the only one I can see is certain evening runs on route 8). You could choose instead to tender for an evening X8 service, but you may understandably receive complaints from First and McGill's that you are effectively subsidising an unsustainable competitor to a set of commercial evening Glasgow-nr Silverburn routes.

For social reasons, you would prefer the route to link directly to Glasgow as dropping potentially vulnerable passengers at Cessnock at nightime would lead to less people wanting to use the service, increasing subsidy cost - plus, I would wager it also is likely the preference of the local authority, Glasgow City Council. Furthermore, having the service run direct at night means vulnerable people (e.g. women) leaving a Glasgow/Paisley Road pub can get as close to their house in Pollok as possible without having to spend around 10-20 minutes in Cessnock hoping they don't get robbed, assaulted or worse.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
S

Stan Drews

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2013
Messages
2,139
markymark2000 said:
If operators are 'competing' and there is an 'overabundance of provision' in this one area, why is SPT using taxpayers money to fund the 153 which spends 2/3rds of it's journey time plodding along Paisley Road West? Or is this just yet another great example of SPT wasting money because it is beyond their basic capabilities to properly plan and run the tendered bus network?
If so, can you explain why you expect this to change with franchising when there is a clear pattern of mismanagement of public funds and general inability to do basic things?
Click to expand...
Yes, a good example of the strange ways that SPT work. The 49 is the regular hourly tendered service during the day (Mon-Sat) in the area of North Pollok that doesn’t get a commercial service. It provides a useful link to Paisley Road West for frequent connections to the city centre and it runs to Govan Bus Station where it obviously connects with the subway.
However the 153 serve the same route through North Pollok in the evenings and all day on Sundays, but like you say, it simply follows all the commercial routes into the city centre. Surely it would make more sense for the 49 to run hourly (the 153 is every 70 mins as it doesn’t fit into an hour) to Govan in the evenings and Sundays and have one consistent service.
 
voidwxrranty

voidwxrranty

Member
Joined
21 Oct 2022
Messages
252
Location
Glasgow
318266 said:
the only one I can see is certain evening runs on route 8).
Click to expand...
The 8 is fully commercial. the 7A service at night is tendered

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Stan Drews said:
However the 153 serve the same route through North Pollok in the evenings and all day on Sundays, but like you say, it simply follows all the commercial routes into the city centre. Surely it would make more sense for the 49 to run hourly (the 153 is every 70 mins as it doesn’t fit into an hour) to Govan in the evenings and Sundays and have one consistent service.
Click to expand...
would be more commercially viable too, as then it provides another evening link from Silverburn to Govan, rather than the residents having to rely on the First 3.
 
Last edited:
S

Stan Drews

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2013
Messages
2,139
The ADL E100EV AD24BUS has returned on loan again, and has been out on the 757 today.

One of the Xplore Dundee Yutong U11DD‘s (8611) has arrived at Greenock depot, and is anticipated to be trialled on the Clyde Flyer routes 901/906 to see how the technology performs on a route with longer higher speed sections.
 
LT02 NVV

LT02 NVV

Member
Joined
12 Nov 2019
Messages
633
Location
Glasgow
Resuwen said:
A McGill's Clyde Flyer destroyed in a fire in Greenock this morning
Click to expand...
Oh my. That sounds really bad.


I’ve noticed there had been a recent Citaro overheating incident before this though, 3328 had it’s engine overheat on December 29th in Glasgow, but it was able to be cooled down.
 
S

Stan Drews

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2013
Messages
2,139
Tinkerer said:
There seems to be a lot in the news in recent months about buses catching fire - and they weren't all EVs.
Click to expand...
Is that just a random comment that you decided to throw in the McGill’s Renfrewshire and Inverclyde thread, as it doesn’t appear to have any relevance here.
Citaro 3347 is the only bus that I know of that has been lost to fire in at least 6 or 7 years (and quite possibly much longer), and there haven’t been any incidents with their large fleet of EVs.
There must be hundreds of vehicle fires every week across the UK, and a tiny minority of them are PSVs, although they tend to generate more headlines than cars, vans, lorries etc due to the fact that they can be carrying passengers.
 
Arriva Fan

Arriva Fan

Member
Joined
14 May 2018
Messages
163
Stan Drews said:
Is that just a random comment that you decided to throw in the McGill’s Renfrewshire and Inverclyde thread, as it doesn’t appear to have any relevance here.
Citaro 3347 is the only bus that I know of that has been lost to fire in at least 6 or 7 years (and quite possibly much longer), and there haven’t been any incidents with their large fleet of EVs.
There must be hundreds of vehicle fires every week across the UK, and a tiny minority of them are PSVs, although they tend to generate more headlines than cars, vans, lorries etc due to the fact that they can be carrying passengers.
Click to expand...
Which other McGill's Citaro was lost to Fire?

Was it 3310 or am I misremembering.
 
R

route101

Veteran Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
12,242
I noticed some Citaros are 64 plates. Are these due to be replaced at some point?
 
S

Stan Drews

Established Member
Joined
5 Jun 2013
Messages
2,139
Yutong E9 demonstrator YE74VGO has arrived on loan for a week and should see use on service 14/165 (Rutherglen-Fernhill/Cambuslang), which saw the ADL Enviro100EV demo last autumn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Top