citybus2500
Member
by making them appear even older?
Nobody will even notice, let alone care. Seems a waste of time and money to me.
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Reading Buses and Thames Valley
- Thread starter Bwsbro
- Start date
Nobody will even notice, let alone care. Seems a waste of time and money to me.
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Fawkes Cat
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 May 2017
- Messages
- 5,252
Trainman40083
Established Member
Formerly on the claret route
Ah, sorry - I thought that they were second hand purchases
Tramtrain
Member
Wokingham BC has tendered for the local bus services, or at least the patterns it ideally wants servicing.
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/071509-2026
There’s so much inefficiency in the local network, hopefully some competition will result in some more useful cross town connections
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/071509-2026
There’s so much inefficiency in the local network, hopefully some competition will result in some more useful cross town connections
There only seen to be two new services there (neither of them cross-town).
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cactustwirly
Established Member
I think Carousel will be aggressive with these like they were in Maidenhead
markymark2000
On Moderation
To be fair, the council is being extremely flexible with the timetable. As long as it fits within some 'essential' parameters, the rest looks quite flexible and open for operators to plan their own timetables and routes. Operators must fit criteria 1, 2 & 3, desired criteria is 4, 5 & 6, nice to have criteria 7, 8 & 9. I'd say it's probably quite open for a bus operator to run a cross town service if they so wish whether by merging the contracts or commercial extensions to tenders.
I do wonder if RDG keep the 3 if they might invest in new electrics, i think the 127/8/9 might be best to just go to carousel or even just the 127, the issue i love is the ghost air 500 every time i see that theirs maybe 2/3 people on and that's it, even RA1 at Winnersh doesn't seam to do trade, i don't think it did either at TV P&R
RA1 usage in Winnersh is much better than the TVP&R days. I have once seen 5 or 6 families alighting at Winnersh from one RA1 bus. Of course it’s nothing close to Reading Station but is a respectable stop.
The 500 has seen its ridership rising after adding the stops along A4 and Kings Road. The ridership isn’t too bad during the rush hours, but the usage of Winnersh P&R in general can be better. Though honestly with e-commerce so mature and so many vacant offices in Reading, what could one expect.
Tramtrain
Member
Last time I checked the RA website, tickets weren’t available for purchase from Winnersh Triangle or vice versa.
There is some flexibility, but it’s more constrained than that suggests. For Lots A–C, operators bid for the whole Lot, so individual elements cannot simply be picked off and combined with another service. Alternative tenders can combine Lots/services, but the underlying tender criteria still apply.
Looking at the actual specifications, the council is also quite prescriptive in places. For example, the 128/129 replacement (F4) must run in the peak via Coppid Beech, Wokingham Station and Winnersh Crossroads to Twyford; off-peak it must also serve Broad Street, Hurst and Broad Hinton. So although the route is nominally operator-designed, that effectively leaves very little freedom and makes the proposed Coppid Beech park-and-ride journey to Twyford rather circuitous.
The 124 is another example. Its replacement sits inside the wider Lot B Wokingham Town Services, alongside the 121, 122, 123 and 125/A/B. The tender actually says the Waterloo Road/Easthampstead Road area should be incorporated into a longer route. Extending Route 3 would seem an obvious way of doing that, particularly as the separate Route 3 tender encourages minimising layover at Broad Street. But Reading Buses can’t just bid for that 124 element alongside Route 3 without also becoming involved in the wider Lot B package.
So there is flexibility, but the way the Lots and some of the Must criteria have been constructed actually makes otherwise logical cross-town combinations harder to deliver.
Trainman40083
Established Member
Streetlite RE63 EOG appears to be at the Notts and Derby depot, in Derby. Seems 3 are coming.
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Reading have announced some service changes from next week including a reduced frequency on the 5 and 50/50a to every 15 minutes.
https://www.reading-buses.co.uk/timetable-changes-tuesday-1-september
cactustwirly
Established Member
21 is a permanent frequency cut to every 20 minutes too
buslad1988
Member
- Joined
- 28 Dec 2018
- Messages
- 650
I had a feeling that might be the case when they started repainting the deckers, wasn’t there a bus removed from the 26 as well?
Presume the 20 White Knight will be back?
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Mark L
Member
I must admit I’d have thought that of the two Emerald routes the 6 would have had the lower loadings. The frequency cut on the 5 will mean it’s no longer possible to offer a six minute headway between the station and Whitley on the combined service. I do wonder whether the 6 will go down to x15 in due course.
I mean llooking back at when the EV's first entered serivce they had extras (17 still does) for peak workings which have now been dropped in favour of generics, makes you wonder what the emerald order will be i.e how many of those for the route given they have 3 now and what they will be used for after the new new ones enter serivce