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Carousel Buses (Go-Ahead group)

TheGrandWazoo

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It seems strange to me that the 275 is a Carousel service considering it stays away from High Wycombe all day. How do they do driver changes?

Wouldn’t it be better run by Oxford Bus Company?
Not really. It was a High Wycombe to Oxford service that was cut back save for the placement journeys. Even then, Chinnor is closer to Wycombe than Oxford.

I doubt there’s a requirement for a driver swap. It’s a 12 hour shift but with > hour break AM, 4 hours then another hours break, one hour before >30 mins before 2.5 hours to finish.
 
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Andyh82

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Thanks, that makes sense

I wasn’t aware of the history of the 275, whenever I’d visited Oxford before, I didn’t pay much attention to the the ‘other operators’ like Red Rose
 

Simon75

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It's the distance from HW that makes things difficult for many, a lot of the bus drivers at Carousel won't have spent a lot of time driving in or near Reading in their personal lives before Carousel got the route, and even if they have been, they will have probably approached it from the M4/A329(M)/A404 direction as that is, of course, far faster than the A4155
Surprised (as its part of a big company, Go Ahead), that drivers didn't do route training before the routes started
 

Mgameing123

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Its not the only service to not be in Wycombe all day as the two buses used on the 577/581/583 also stay away until later in the day. One works back on a 103 from Slough arriving back at 19.20, the other normally runs back out of service from Hazlemere to pick up a 103 from Wycombe to Windsor and back.
I think its more the fact it stays far away from Wycombe all day and is pretty much in OBC territory.
 

AlastairFraser

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Surprised (as its part of a big company, Go Ahead), that drivers didn't do route training before the routes started
There wasn't a huge amount of time between Arriva's closure announcement and Carousel's takeover, and a number of Arriva drivers chose not to transfer across to Carousel. So I imagine their training priorities must be on the routes closer to home.
 

PeterC

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There wasn't a huge amount of time between Arriva's closure announcement and Carousel's takeover, and a number of Arriva drivers chose not to transfer across to Carousel. So I imagine their training priorities must be on the routes closer to home.
Both I and friends have seen drivers being trained on the One last week. As from today the Hemel services take a different route between Chesham and Bovingdon. This morning one driver got totally lost and ended up going most of the way to Wendover before returning to Chesham via Great Missenden and taking the old route to Hemel. I caught the bus on the return journey, 50 minutes late, and gave the driver directions into Chesham.

Having real time tracking on bustimes.org is a great boon when services are hourly or less frequent. Curiously the return journey was tracking on bustimes as route 102 although both the bus stop and on board displays were correct.
 

AlastairFraser

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Both I and friends have seen drivers being trained on the One last week. As from today the Hemel services take a different route between Chesham and Bovingdon. This morning one driver got totally lost and ended up going most of the way to Wendover before returning to Chesham via Great Missenden and taking the old route to Hemel. I caught the bus on the return journey, 50 minutes late, and gave the driver directions into Chesham.

Having real time tracking on bustimes.org is a great boon when services are hourly or less frequent. Curiously the return journey was tracking on bustimes as route 102 although both the bus stop and on board displays were correct.
Now that is strange. I wonder if they moved some of the ex-Arriva drivers onto the flagship routes first to ensure that they run in some form at least.
 

johnsy112

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Relatively surprised by the loads seen on the 103 this morning peak, carrying at least 20 between Slough and Windsor (which id always assumed buses ran close to empty!). Many travelling were Windsor college students.
 

Mgameing123

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Relatively surprised by the loads seen on the 103 this morning peak, carrying at least 20 between Slough and Windsor (which id always assumed buses ran close to empty!). Many travelling were Windsor college students.
That’s a fair assumption which is what I also thought but I guess it’s good people are using the 103. Slough to Windsor really does have tight competition.
 

sturfc

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With the new service changes from September, Carousel have updated at least some of the leaflet and booklets available at the Bus Station, having seen new versions for the 1 group, 850 and the country services booklet (102,103,104,106,107,577,581,583).
 

K4016td

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My mum is a regular on Farnham Road to Windsor on 103 and she tells me the bus is often busy - even though it runs very hour it is direct, and given the situation around changeovers in Slough - it's a win-win since she only pays £2 instead of £4 to get there. What is not good enough is them running few minutes apart from First's X74, when Arriva was running 74 (back then both routes were every 30 mins) they managed to agree 15 minutes intervals for most of the day.
 

cactustwirly

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The 850 is interesting, it seems to be all deckers since the timetable change but less than half full.

I wonder how long it will last
 

RELL6L

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The 850 is interesting, it seems to be all deckers since the timetable change but less than half full.

I wonder how long it will last
Some journeys for school and college times are busy. It's not all deckers, there are 11 normal all-day buses with 6-7 Scania deckers, usually 4 E200s and sometimes one B7RLE. No Citaros for a while and no ADL E400s have, as far as I am aware, appeared on it at all.

Absolute carnage today with Handy Cross closed, a lengthy diversion, and massive delays in Henley. Some buses running 90 minutes late.
 

Jamiescott1

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Some journeys for school and college times are busy. It's not all deckers, there are 11 normal all-day buses with 6-7 Scania deckers, usually 4 E200s and sometimes one B7RLE. No Citaros for a while and no ADL E400s have, as far as I am aware, appeared on it at all.

Absolute carnage today with Handy Cross closed, a lengthy diversion, and massive delays in Henley. Some buses running 90 minutes late.
Don't forget 3 way temporary traffic lights on marlow high street.
I did marlow to henley return this afternoon. Both journeys on time (based on today's diversion timetable)
 

glennds999

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It will be nice for Chartridge and Ley Hill to get through services to Wycombe but I am sure that these changes are instigated by BucksCC primarily to further reduce the size of the local contract with Red Rose/Eagle. The council website still shows no future service changes and I am wondering what collateral damage there will be to the contracted routes
The changes to the one were instigated by Carousel, but we did work in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council to make it happen.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

I want to point out the all Sunday improvements are funded by Buckinghamshire County Council.
Not quite true I'm afraid. Whilst Buckinghamshire Council have part-funded some of the improvements, there are others which are wholly commercial.
 
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Mgameing123

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The changes to the one were instigated by Carousel, but we did work in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council to make it happen.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==


Not quite true I'm afraid. Whilst Buckinghamshire Council have part-funded some of the improvements, there are others which are wholly commercial.
Don’t try convince me 104 Sunday service is something not fully funded by Buckinghamshire.
 

glennds999

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Don’t try convince me 104 Sunday service is something not fully funded by Buckinghamshire.
The 104 is part funded, not fully funded. There are other Sunday improvements which are wholly commercial without funding from Buckinghamshire.
 

PeterC

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The changes to the one were instigated by Carousel, but we did work in partnership with Buckinghamshire Council to make it happen.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==


Not quite true I'm afraid. Whilst Buckinghamshire Council have part-funded some of the improvements, there are others which are wholly commercial.
My original comment was made before the publication of the revised Red Group timetables. At the time it seemed resonable to assume that Bucks were seeking to cull another vehicle from the contract.

The lack of publicity anywhere except the Carousel website didn't help. Local feeling against Carousel wasn't helped by the fact that it took over week before Red Rose drivers started driving their revised routes.
 

cactustwirly

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I'm surprised the 850 has lasted this long.

The last bus from Reading I've been the only passenger on a few occasions
 

Parebunks

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What do you guys think Carousel will be doing for their next timetable change?
In the radio interview Luke Marion (Carousel managing director) did after the Arriva takeover he mentioned Wycombe-Beaconsfield via Penn as an aspiration, which would presumably replace the 31 and 577. Would assume the rest will be largely determined by how the routes taken over from Arriva have performed, wouldn't say there seem to be any particularly obvious other tweaks.
 

sturfc

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Think there was mention of potential changes from January based on the data collected from running the services that Luke Marion stated in the second radio interview he did.
Not seen anything announced anywhere so I presume they are still gathering the data on what to do if anything. Safe bet is they are still dealing with the existing fleet, associated repaints, entry to service of the Flightline MMC's and changes at the depot.
 
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jackgwycombe

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Does anyone have any updates on what is happening with the depot? I read there has been some building work? Are they still considering moving to Cressex?
 

Mollman

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I'm surprised the 850 has lasted this long.

The last bus from Reading I've been the only passenger on a few occasions
You mean the service that they increased the frequency of only recently and are running a boxing day service on?
 

cactustwirly

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You mean the service that they increased the frequency of only recently and are running a boxing day service on?
Yes, the frequency is a bit of a stab in the dark, it's been hourly for decades
The buses are never more than half full, I'm surprised they haven't adjusted it to every half an hour and terminated the last bus of the day at Henley
 

sturfc

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Does anyone have any updates on what is happening with the depot? I read there has been some building work? Are they still considering moving to Cressex?
They have put some new fencing and gates which I have seen from passing, and the other building next to it, the company located there were moving out by the end of year. I believe they rented it from Go-Ahead (Carousel), who now wanted to use it themselves. Not sure if Cressex is still being considered if they are expanding the current facility, but I am sure someone will know more.
 

Mgameing123

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Yes, the frequency is a bit of a stab in the dark, it's been hourly for decades
The buses are never more than half full, I'm surprised they haven't adjusted it to every half an hour and terminated the last bus of the day at Henley
Well they have some competition from Reading Buses so it kind of makes sense.
 

Mark J

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Yes, the frequency is a bit of a stab in the dark, it's been hourly for decades
The buses are never more than half full, I'm surprised they haven't adjusted it to every half an hour and terminated the last bus of the day at Henley
No thanks!

I've been on the last bus from High Wycombe, at 9:30pm on a Saturday, a few times now.

Going all the way back to East Reading.

Certainly do not wish to see the 850 go back to the 800/850 days, where the last 850 from High Wycombe to Reading was around 5:30pm. That was ridiculously early.

I do agree the (hand-me-down Oxford Buses) double decker buses are a bit overkill for the route most of the time. However, I have been on a few single deckers in the last month, or so.

They are certainly an improvement over the clapped out Mercedes Benz buses that Arriva used to run on the route.

(I wonder if Arriva scrapped those clapped out buses, or just transferred them for use elsewhere?)
 
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43055

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(I wonder if Arriva scrapped those clapped out buses, or just transferred them for use elsewhere?)
Some of the Mercedes Benz Citaros have ended up as driver trainers at other depots.
 

sturfc

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An additional note regarding the old Cressex Arriva depot reference as a potential home for Carousel, drove past yesterday. Very much empty, closed up and no signage in place, just an on-site security van.
 

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