Carousel Buses (Go-Ahead group)

Dwarfer1979 said:

But someone has to pay for that extra capacity, if you have sufficient off peak work you can spread the cost to make it viable but if you only have a single trip in each direction that needs the extra bus and you don't have enough viable off-peak work to cover you need (taking a relatively low day cost for a bus) about 70 people paying £3 per trip (and school kids are often travelling on discounts so income is some cases may well be below £3 per person per trip) which is difficult to achieve. There are ways to massage these numbers, and operators may take different views on how to cost a peak duplicate depending on the nature of the work, to come out with a slightly different calculation depending on circumstances but at the end of the day even a dozen passengers left behind on one trip isn't going to be a viable demand to meet.

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Yeah I do get that but I can’t see how it’s good for business to leave passengers behind as over time these passengers will find other modes of transport.

Mgameing123 said:

Yeah I do get that but I can’t see how it’s good for business to leave passengers behind as over time these passengers will find other modes of transport.

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Simply because if it costs more to provide the service than the revenue you get, it's pretty bad business.

There is a bus run empty from henley to wycombe at approx 4pm, could this be used for passenger service.

Jamiescott1 said:

There is a bus run empty from henley to wycombe at approx 4pm, could this be used for passenger service.

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There is an 850 which arrives at Henley at 3.32 which then disappears off the BusTimes radar for a while. It looks like it would be sensible to run the school 624 from Henley at 4.25 (this service doesn’t track) but sometimes it goes out again before this would be possible. I think buses run empty to Henley for the 620, 623, 624 and 625 around this time so it would be weird to run one empty the other way at the same time. I haven’t fathomed this one out now.

RELL6L said:

There is an 850 which arrives at Henley at 3.32 which then disappears off the BusTimes radar for a while. It looks like it would be sensible to run the school 624 from Henley at 4.25 (this service doesn’t track) but sometimes it goes out again before this would be possible. I think buses run empty to Henley for the 620, 623, 624 and 625 around this time so it would be weird to run one empty the other way at the same time. I haven’t fathomed this one out now.

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Maybe it was only during school holidays it ran back to wycombe early, it could become a 600 during term time.
After being left at a stop for 45 minutes on 3 separate occasions due to full buses, I've now changed my working hours to avoid having to take the peak time buses

Things seemed to have improved this week with many more Streetdecks on the road and mostly on the 850, with far fewer single decks and no obvious cancellations of key journeys. Maybe "something has been said".

But punctuality is still a major problem including many journeys starting out late, even at the start of their day from Wycombe.
Yesterday departures from Wycombe:
7.20 left 7 late
7.40 left 17 late

Today from Wycombe
7.20 left 11 late
7.40 only left 1 late - but was 22 late by the time it got to Henley.

The 7.45 starting from Henley was 26 late yesterday and 10 late today.
The following bus, due at 8.05 (having come from Reading), conversely was 10 late yesterday and 25 late today.
So yesterday they were 4 minutes apart, today 35 minutes apart!

I take the point about the marginal cost of running duplicate buses and how this is unlikely to be cost effective overall. I agree, but if the service is unreliable, and unpredictably unreliable at that, then lots of people will be affected and will quickly look to find alternatives. Tracking helps, but the 7.45 from Henley doesn't track until it starts its journey so potential passengers don't know if it is queueing to get into Henley or just cancelled, while other journeys can be on time to start with and then get very delayed.

Tracking is normally extremely accurate, but today 80221 is tracking as 80677. Earlier both were on the 850, now only 80221 is.

This morning the 7.55 from wycombe stopped tracking at Handy Cross and physically appeared in marlow at about 8.35 where it started tracking again.
There are roadworks on Desborough avenue in wycombe which is apparently causing some additional delays

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TheGrandWazoo said:

Simply because if it costs more to provide the service than the revenue you get, it's pretty bad business.

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Due to the increased demand from henley college students, Reading buses have started a double service on some services.

Following increased demand on aqua 28 to and from Henley College, we are increasing capacity on the service for the busiest journeys.

Additional buses​

On Monday to Thursday mornings, we will be running an additional bus alongside the usual 7.50am departure from Friar Street, Central Reading, running around 5 minutes after the usual scheduled bus.

On Monday to Friday afternoons, there will be an additional bus alongside the usual 4.30pm departure from Hart Street, Henley. This bus will run at the same time as the usually scheduled bus.

These additional buses will be double-deck buses to help provide extra capacity.

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Jamiescott1 said:

This morning the 7.55 from wycombe stopped tracking at Handy Cross and physically appeared in marlow at about 8.35 where it started tracking again.
There are roadworks on Desborough avenue in wycombe which is apparently causing some additional delays

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Sep 2026 ==


Due to the increased demand from henley college students, Reading buses have started a double service on some services.

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So it definitely is possible if neccessary.

Jamiescott1 said:

Due to the increased demand from henley college students, Reading buses have started a double service on some services.

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Mgameing123 said:

So it definitely is possible if neccessary.

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If there's an uptick in college students and they can therefore make it pay, then yes. Never said it wasn't possible but you have to make the economics work.

The High Wycombe PickMe Up DRT service appears not to be viable without the time limited DfT grant. The service will end on 2 November.

PeterC said:

The High Wycombe PickMe Up DRT service appears not to be viable without the time limited DfT grant. The service will end on 2 November.

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Shock!

It’s lasted a lot longer than many DRT schemes have, I’d assumed it was doing ok.

I wonder if Go Thames Valley will find a use for the vehicles or if they’ll get rid

Andyh82 said:

It’s lasted a lot longer than many DRT schemes have, I’d assumed it was doing ok.

I wonder if Go Thames Valley will find a use for the vehicles or if they’ll get rid

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I read Roger French's write up from 2023. It was on a three year trial (2022 to 2025 though wonder if it got an extra year?) but apparently it was different as it would allow you to book trips even if a conventional bus was available. It was also popular with school kids.

Yes it gained a 1 year extension on the trial. However not sure if the software changed in some way but certainly in the last 9 months or so at least, if a conventional bus route was close by it would no longer let you book, even if the DRT could offer a more direct service

sturfc said:

Yes it gained a 1 year extension on the trial. However not sure if the software changed in some way but certainly in the last 9 months or so at least, if a conventional bus route was close by it would no longer let you book, even if the DRT could offer a more direct service

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Details of replacements in the form of changes to conventional services to areas concerned are now up on the Buckinghamshire web site.

Bedford OB said:

Details of replacements in the form of changes to conventional services to areas concerned are now up on the Buckinghamshire web site.

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The changes are detailed here by the council. Enjoy

Changes to bus services and timetables
View planned changes to bus services and timetables due to start over the next few weeks.

You can also view our bus service disruptions and bus stop closures page.

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80407 on the 850 seems to be running around with no regard for the timetable. Having left High Wycombe roughly on time for the 12.15 it has just gone backwards and forwards to Henley - now it is 28 minutes early!

RELL6L said:

80407 on the 850 seems to be running around with no regard for the timetable. Having left High Wycombe roughly on time for the 12.15 it has just gone backwards and forwards to Henley - now it is 28 minutes early!

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Is that from on the ground observation or from a data feed? If the latter I would suggest that there is an issue with the data.

Mollman said:

Is that from on the ground observation or from a data feed? If the latter I would suggest that there is an issue with the data.

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No, I saw it twice, both times slightly ahead of the journey that should have been 15 minutes in front of it!