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  1. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    In which case, the lack of any major incidents in this or similar locations, allied to the highly organised recovery response, means that your concerns really are unfounded. Indeed, I remember doing it on the 310 between Jarrow and Whitley Bay via the Tyne Tunnel. I've also been through the...
  2. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    The Tyne Tunnel is a contemporary example. They manage to have full size buses and HGVs and, as with the Queensway, any breakdowns are dealt with very quickly and efficiently. Or you can have the 108 in London that uses the Blackwall Tunnel only on southbound journeys - the northbound tunnel...
  3. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    As @Statto states, it was dereg when the main changes came. Still, in 40 years, it hasn't proved to be any major Health and Safety concern. The original Tyne Tunnel had a single bore and oncoming vehicles including trucks and two bus services linking Jarrow with North Tyneside, usually...
  4. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    Double deck buses have used the tunnel since it opened in 1934 albeit initially on a limited basis. The cross-river services, as we see them now, began in the 1970s under Merseyside PTE and have continued ever since. In that time, there has been no issue with the use of double deck buses so...
  5. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    Fewer, obviously. They're talking of c.700 new vehicles plus you have the schools fleets too (so probably a 1000) whilst the 1200 doesn't include the Ribble and Crosville vehicles (c.500) - fleets that also experienced a marked decline between 1969 and 1986. The point is that the default...
  6. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    So where is your evidence that this is a major issue, let alone (as you originally framed it), a Health and Safety issue? Double deckers have safely worked through the tunnel for decades. As @Polarbear stated, car traffic will be funnelled onto the nearside lane whilst a wrecker is sourced...
  7. TheGrandWazoo

    Liverpool City Region-Bus Franchising

    I know I've had differences of opinion with you in the past but you're on the money here. There are no Health & Safety implications in running double deck buses through the tunnel. Similarly, the idea that it's preferable to make passengers have to change at Birkenhead, make their journey...
  8. TheGrandWazoo

    Stagecoach South & South East

    I suspect it's a bit of a mixture. The topography makes Hastings very compact so it's easier to serve with high population density. The flipside is that Hastings is one of the more deprived areas in South East England and poorer people tend to travel less.
  9. TheGrandWazoo

    Carousel Buses (Go-Ahead group)

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

    More issues with overcrowding preventing children getting to school.

    You're quite right in that it's a very extensive, hard nosed approach that the procurement world seem to enjoy, and indeed, not confined to the public sector. I have had a couple of interesting private sector ones that would have thinking that you're dealing with sociopaths if not psychopaths...
  11. TheGrandWazoo

    More issues with overcrowding preventing children getting to school.

    I guess it depends on the circumstances. I'm sure that operators will be aware of school terms and that is of course factored in. If in this instance, perhaps it was something like the school was closed for weather or some other unforeseen short notice reason, it is probably reasonable not to...
  12. TheGrandWazoo

    More issues with overcrowding preventing children getting to school.

    Fuel isn't the biggest single cost - it's staff costs. Fuel is the greatest variable cost but the fixed costs of a driver, maintenance, licenses, back office etc far outweigh 45%
  13. TheGrandWazoo

    Transdev Blazefield

    Indeed, and perhaps you also have to wait for an ageing train that trundles along every 30 mins? Even the 170s are now 25 years old which stunned me. More importantly, when you factor in things like the route taken by the 36 in serving the south Harrogate catchment like Rossett and Oaklands...
  14. TheGrandWazoo

    Carousel Buses (Go-Ahead group)

    Because it's expensive to have another driver (and they're at a premium as it is) so hence why they would normally aim to employ deckers. If they have deckers off the road, they are unlikely to be able to obtain another driver in peak so they'll send a single decker out as it's better than nothing.
  15. TheGrandWazoo

    First West of England (Bristol, Bath & The West)

    43001 has already visited Warminster, and one board does the early Frome run
  16. TheGrandWazoo

    Trips by Bus and Coach: Your reports

    Was good to read @route101's trip report of a trip on Delaine to Stamford, having done it not too long ago myself. As for @RELL6L... I know what you mean about the definition of East Anglia, and it is imprecise. It is often just Norfolk and Suffolk though with Cambs and parts of North Essex...
  17. TheGrandWazoo

    Sunderland 700/701 TUPE dispute

    Isn't that the problem? That these services are only viable when you have low cost operators who are simply working at a level that it unsustainable. That there was one good service (the 170) doesn't mean the rest were or are. Until you ask, you'll never know.
  18. TheGrandWazoo

    Sunderland 700/701 TUPE dispute

    Can't disagree with what you say As for unsafe HGVs... there's simply a lot more HGVs vs PCVs.
  19. TheGrandWazoo

    West Coast Motors & Borders Buses

    Looking at these two examples, I don't know what else they could have done. The two vehicles failed at 22 and 30 miles away from base, whilst Edinburgh is 33 miles. By the time you can get a vehicle and driver mobilised and sent to Edinburgh, you're probably not going to make the scheduled...

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