First Greater Glasgow

[overthewater]

4 was curtailed back at the northern end with the x4 covers said parts.

 

[smtglasgow]

I don’t know why the 4 has declined so much – people in the south side taking the train? It’s still busy in the mornings, but gets very quiet during the day. I can see them introducing the 15 min Saturday/holiday timetable during the week. Outside University start/finish times, the northern part of the 4 can be pretty dead – don’t think many Hyndland folk use it for commuting. Funnily enough, I’ve seen a few X4’s recently all carrying decent loads. It seemed to take a long time for it to catch on with people, but I guess they’ve got used to it now.

 

[lastbus]

34361 on the 57

 

[JumpinTrainz]

34361 on the 57

Is this one of the new E400MMCs?

Seems odd they’re introducing them slowly into service rather than what they’ve did with the other new stock and did it after the launching day.

I reckon some will be used on the 38 but they’ll just be used generally around Caledonia’s stock in order to free up more B9TLs for ex-Parkhead routes.

 

[SarahDFIG]

Yes that's one of the new vehicles.

Non branded e400s are for any route. 38 branded are only for route 38 not the variations.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

I don’t know why the 4 has declined so much – people in the south side taking the train? It’s still busy in the mornings, but gets very quiet during the day. I can see them introducing the 15 min Saturday/holiday timetable during the week. Outside University start/finish times, the northern part of the 4 can be pretty dead – don’t think many Hyndland folk use it for commuting. Funnily enough, I’ve seen a few X4’s recently all carrying decent loads. It seemed to take a long time for it to catch on with people, but I guess they’ve got used to it now.

They must still be doing not bad passengers wise, recently seen that Glasgow No.1 and No.2 have made a collective profit of £11m last year I think.

But since 2009 when the e500s were bought that 10 years has changed alot, many more have purchased cars etc.

 

[Jordan Adam]

One of the major reasons for decline in buses offpeak is the increase in popularity of online shopping and home delivery from supermarkets.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

What’s the deal with route branding, does anyone know?

Besides the new deliveries does anyone know if there are any current routes to be branded. It was said that the 201 and 267 were to be branded. There was also talk of the 77 being rebranded (I’ve noticed the original Hospitals Connect livery is slowly dying out with those buses being the first to be relivered). Does anyone know what’s happening with that? I was hoping to see an orange front for one of the routes as it looks really good particularly on the E400MMCs.

 

[overthewater]

Its been said 77 is getting new stock.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

Its been said 77 is getting new stock.

Are we talking deckers here or still singles?

 

[overthewater]

This should give you a clue.

39 required for the 38 I believe

This year's 75 vehicles should be going here then possibly

38 = 39 e400s mmc
500 = 10 e400 city
77? = 14 e400 mmc
242 = 7 e200 mmc
254 = 5 e200 mmc

 

[SarahDFIG]

This should give you a clue.

77s not confirmed as per my post, said possibly.

77 is getting a change though but not sure what yet.

In terms of 201/267 branding it was put on hold.

 

[SarahDFIG]

Are we talking deckers here or still singles?

All 12 Singles this year are due for Overtown. 242/254

 

[Gingerbus1991]

What’s the deal with route branding, does anyone know?

Besides the new deliveries does anyone know if there are any current routes to be branded. It was said that the 201 and 267 were to be branded. There was also talk of the 77 being rebranded (I’ve noticed the original Hospitals Connect livery is slowly dying out with those buses being the first to be relivered). Does anyone know what’s happening with that? I was hoping to see an orange front for one of the routes as it looks really good particularly on the E400MMCs.

Supposedly helps with promoting and destinguishing certain routes, however I seen a 61 branded decker on an 89 just the other day not to mention the current routes which have branded deckers already on them have been routes that have been established for more years than I can remember, the only ones I see who have real benefit are those people with visual impairment as they can more easily distinguish the route with the colour, obviously doesn't matter if the buses aren't used on there own routes not to mention giving the supervising staff more difficulty in running the company with vehicle allocations, personally I think it makes the fleet look messy and incomplete but creating an air that those routes which don't get branded are of lesser importance.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

Supposedly helps with promoting and destinguishing certain routes, however I seen a 61 branded decker on an 89 just the other day not to mention the current routes which have branded deckers already on them have been routes that have been established for more years than I can remember, the only ones I see who have real benefit are those people with visual impairment as they can more easily distinguish the route with the colour, obviously doesn't matter if the buses aren't used on there own routes not to mention giving the supervising staff more difficulty in running the company with vehicle allocations, personally I think it makes the fleet look messy and incomplete but creating an air that those routes which don't get branded are of lesser importance.

I remember when buses were branded for the Overground back in the early 00s. The 61 at that time inter worked with the 54 so therefore it was impossible to brand them. The B10BLEs were branded for the 62 and some B7Ls for the 260/262/40 at that time. Even back then they struggled to keep buses to their branded route. B10BLEs branded for the 62 were turning up on the 40 or 61. I’d say it’s even worse now that Parkhead has closed and they have merged with Caledonia so that completely broadens our the scale as to where buses can turn up (like you said buses showing up on the 89 which are branded for a route in the east end).

I personally like the route branding I think it’s very eye catching and takes away the blandness of the new livery. It is eye catching and makes you look twice. Many people will start to associate the bus with the colour

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Unbranded 34361 is on the 10 this evening. Just seen it on St Vincent Street.

 

[Scott mac]

Yes that's one of the new vehicles.

Non branded e400s are for any route. 38 branded are only for route 38 not the variations.

Only 38 getting e400mmc branded above are getting new e400mmc

 

[lastbus]

Only 38 getting e400mmc branded above are getting new e400mmc

They have all to be used on the 38 where possible. It’s only the unbranded examples that have seen the road so far I believe. As far as I know there will be a launch and the 242/254,will be launched together.

 

[duffers2324]

Funnily enough, I’ve seen a few X4’s recently all carrying decent loads. It seemed to take a long time for it to catch on with people, but I guess they’ve got used to it now.

See this is what FIG are usually renowned for not doing, realizing sometimes they need to give a route a bit of time and possible publication for it to slowly start to take off and an example of this is the X51 Stagecoach service from Glasgow-Dunfermline via Livingston

That service spiralled off of the ex first 651 route from Livingston to dunfermline which "apparently" wasent doing to well and then they cut it so Stagecoach tested the waters by introducing a 51 "Shopper Service" at the weekends initially and as time went on popularity of the service grew so much so it was no longer this shopper service but an everyday service with an every 2hrs timetable and again the service continued to see good loads that they then improved the frequency to hourly this still being between Livingston and Dunfermline, it then did get a slight change in that a few peak journeys were dropped but it then became an X service so basically an Express service and has now been extended to Glasgow via Maxim and Harthill with still the hourly timetable and with brand new coaches as well and all this is about 3-4 years if reading the Stagecoach East Scotland thread right

All this though after First ran the X14/15 for years and were saying it was losing money on the route now i know circumstances may have been slightly different then as well seeing as first had Scotrail and FSE was in a bad way but would it be as bad now if First stuck with the route now they dont have scotrail and there has been a bit of cutting the deadwood at FSE but what is it Stagecoach do so differently that they can run an "Unprofitable" route in First's eyes and make a relative success at it. I say this as someone who has used the Glasgow-Livingston bus route all the way back from the time of SMT days up until now and having seen the numbers when i went through last week shows the demand is still there as i just see it as the best way for a centre to Centre link that the train cannot provide.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

Stagecoach have became far most established as the "express" operator of choice, First have never really went much further than what Stagecoach has achieved, Stagecoaches modern B13 and B11 coaches certainly have made a difference over Firsts tattered B7R Paragons.

I've said it many a time, the failings of FiG are not hard to sus out, I do think it was a mistake to let the cumbernauld services go, if stagecoach can find them profitable why could first not have done that.

 

[Volvodart]

The problem was with Cumbernauld depot and the work needing done there.

 

[alangla]

The problem was with Cumbernauld depot and the work needing done there.

Given that’s now Stagecoach’s home & they’re happy sending coaches & buses empty from there to Glasgow and Edinburgh, it must have been economic for them to do the work, offload Blochairn and swallow all the dead mileage each day

 

[Volvodart]

First were not making enough to justify the expenditure on the depot.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

First were not making enough to justify the expenditure on the depot.

I cant fully understand this, the 88 which was also run from cumbernauld had far higher dead mileage from cumbernauld depot, why could a cumbernauld service not run from caley?

 

[Volvodart]

As far as I remember the depot was loss making anyway.

 

[smtglasgow]

I’d guess that even Stagecoach won’t be making a fortune from their Cumbernauld express services. A bit like McGills and the X23, the service is skewed to the peaks with several buses only needed for one journey each way. When First ran things you used to see a procession of empty buses heading back up the M80 about 9am – whoever is running things, that’s not an ideal situation.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

First used to put so much into their Cumbernauld routes - there were so many to start with! X1, X2, X3, X4, X5 etc... I remember the B7TLs being new at that time and operating on these routes. They were Xpress branded. Now look at it. I believe there’s like 1 service and that’s the X3. Such a shame but they must have their reasons I guess.

 

[SarahDFIG]

Reported this morning

Overtown's Marshall Dart 41416 - Scrapped
Replacement Caetano Dart 43862 sent to Overtown

43862 was one of the many Caetano darts parked at Caley since arriving so nice to see it being put to use.

43856 also has now entered service after being stored at Caley since arrival.

Both vehicles still carry 52 plate regs.

41416 spent it's last day yesterday on the 242.

 

[route101]

The 4 used to be really busy if I recall. It had E500s on it when they were here and always got the newest stock alongside the 75. Then they started to cut it back and in recent years it tends to only be busy during peak times. Strange how some routes can go from being busy to just slowly getting quieter. I thought the 4 and 5 would have been contenders for new buses given the 65 plate E400MMCs were robbed from them in favour of express services. In my opinion I’d swap refurbished B9TLs with the E400MMCs for Express services then put them back on the 4 and 5 routes.

I think the E400mmcS were taken off as they were causing issues with stop start doors etc , the 5 was bunching up . Ive seen it on the 75 with the new buses 3 or 4 in a row. I think the main pick up of the 4 was carrying students from Newton Mearns/Clarkston to the Uni . I think the 38 to NewtON mearns is quicker .

 

[route101]

Yeah the X4 has been quiet when ive seen it , then again only seen it over Stockwell St .

Routes do need to mature , citylink air is now pretty busy was one.