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East Anglia Bus Scene

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stuart81

Member
Joined
9 Oct 2015
Messages
133
Location
Ipswich
Oddly seems most of First's Vulcan Road services aren't tracking on bustimes since the service change yesterday although the 20 / 21 isn't either which I assume is still at Roundtree Way.
 

borage

Member
Joined
21 Feb 2018
Messages
176
Oddly seems most of First's Vulcan Road services aren't tracking on bustimes since the service change yesterday although the 20 / 21 isn't either which I assume is still at Roundtree Way.
Alas not that odd – a few different services around the country that changed yesterday have the same problem. I think they needed to remember to tick something in Ticketer portal to include the new routes in the SIRI-VM (Service Interface for Real Time Information – Vehicle Monitoring) feed.
 

gingerheid

Established Member
Joined
2 Apr 2006
Messages
1,722
Thanks for highlighting that report, it contains a lot of interesting statistics that you don't often get to see.
Yes - some of the numbers are really interesting!

I was particularly interest to learn (via the T1, T2 & T3) the price range of keeping a double decker bus on the road for a certain number of hours a day.

It made me feel hopeful for franchising. It's clear that Stagecoach are very expensive, but that understandably other operators are nervous about not wanting to take the risk of overexpanding while trying to compete with them.

It's also interesting to see how franchising could interact with sort of almost profitable services. Tendering encourages the provision of a minimum level of service with the minimum outlay, but buses become more attractive the more of them there are. Legally the T1 probably shouldn't exist; it really is very close to a competitor to the B. Bus companies have gone to court for less. However it's really doing quite well if you consider that the infrequent timetable and lack of multi-operator season tickets makes it quite flawed. If it was a proper part of a busway network then I feel that, at worst, it wouldn't lose any more money if it ran every 20 mins (especially after Stagecoach cuts its slower services). Better still, I think that it running every 20 mins would also help make the A & B more attractive!
 

TheGrandWazoo

Veteran Member
Joined
18 Feb 2013
Messages
22,931
Location
Somerset with international travel (e.g. across th
Yes - some of the numbers are really interesting!

I was particularly interest to learn (via the T1, T2 & T3) the price range of keeping a double decker bus on the road for a certain number of hours a day.

It made me feel hopeful for franchising. It's clear that Stagecoach are very expensive, but that understandably other operators are nervous about not wanting to take the risk of overexpanding while trying to compete with them.

It's also interesting to see how franchising could interact with sort of almost profitable services. Tendering encourages the provision of a minimum level of service with the minimum outlay, but buses become more attractive the more of them there are. Legally the T1 probably shouldn't exist; it really is very close to a competitor to the B. Bus companies have gone to court for less. However it's really doing quite well if you consider that the infrequent timetable and lack of multi-operator season tickets makes it quite flawed. If it was a proper part of a busway network then I feel that, at worst, it wouldn't lose any more money if it ran every 20 mins (especially after Stagecoach cuts its slower services). Better still, I think that it running every 20 mins would also help make the A & B more attractive!
That's an interesting take on things.

You're not bothered that it was the same people who will be responsible for franchising that have put forward moneypits like the T2 or the T12?

And if you think that it's expensive having deckers on certain routes, the T12 is over £200k for running a minibus on a restricted schedule.
 

Kartenga

On Moderation
Joined
25 Feb 2021
Messages
46
Location
Hadleigh
FlixBus will be operating a new route from 15th September 2026
Ipswich - London

Does anyone know which company is running it on their behalf?
 

gingerheid

Established Member
Joined
2 Apr 2006
Messages
1,722
That's an interesting take on things.

You're not bothered that it was the same people who will be responsible for franchising that have put forward moneypits like the T2 or the T12?
The T2 is indefensible.

I feel that places like Earith and Sutton are places that fit better into a franchised network than a fragmented one where competition isn't supposed to be happening.

And if you think that it's expensive having deckers on certain routes, the T12 is over £200k for running a minibus on a restricted schedule.
I meant that Stagecoach's deckers are expensive compared to Whippet's.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

FlixBus will be operating a new route from 15th September 2026
Ipswich - London

Does anyone know which company is running it on their behalf?
It's a Central Connect Yutong
 
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