Jordan Adam
Established Member
The E400EVs are the same height as the 68/19 plate E400MMCs, both are one inch over the maximum permitted height under the Busby Bridge.
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First Greater Glasgow
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voidwxrranty
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even the E400’s are always quite close to hitting the bridge when going up towards Busby Station.
I've used the 6 in and out of East Kilbride a lot and it's only recently that I noticed just how close the roof of them is to the bridge. It would probably be safer to make the 6 all single decker but the main issue is that the south side of the route is far busier than the west end of the route. Peak time is probably the only exception due to how many schools it goes close to or by.
The route should probably have been split when Simplicity occurred but if you were to do it now then Caledonia would make more sense for the southern end and they're too short on drivers to run it so you'd need other services to go the other way as well as some vehicle movements to make it work.
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JumpinTrainz
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Is the 6 actually still busy? I know it’s quietened down a lot over the years. It’s similar to the 4 which used to be a really busy route and was part of Streamline along with the 62 at one stage but in recent years it fell off a bit
From what I've seen of both the 4/4A and the 6 lately, the 4/4A are busier in the west end purely because of Glasgow University and the 6 is busier on the south side of the route. During the off peak, the 6 could easily be every 20 minutes from Clydebank to City Centre. The issue is the 15 minute frequency is probably needed on the south side.
Yes, the 18 was originally a Springburn-Glasgow Cross-Burnside tram route:
(Link is to the Glasgow Chronicles Facebook page showing a photo of trams at Burnside tram terminus)
www.facebook.com
Thanks to you both for the info
@Kris EK. Amazing info and photo, thanks. Didn’t realise Burnside had more services than just the 18 running through it!
@Albarman - thanks for the info too!
Will Citybus/West Coast Motors service 15 increasing to every 30 mins impact the 4 in the west end?
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It might slightly but I don't really see it doing that much. The 4/4A have definitely increased a lot in terms of passenger numbers on the west end and I'd not be surprised if that continued to be the trend as long as First avoid cancellations on the route. The changes on the 5th coupled with constant hiring actually seems to be working very well at the minute and I can see First continuing to hire so that some services can get back to their pre-covid frequency.
It's early days yet to predict which ones deserve an increase although I have a few in mind that I think could do with one but I wouldn't say the 4A going back to every 30 mins would be that big a shock if passenger numbers continue to grow at the rate they have over the last few months.
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It’s interesting to see Cumbernauld now served by 3 big operators, Stagecoach, First and now McGills with their Midland Scottish operation. They don’t compete directly though, leaving each other to different parts of the town.
I wonder if McGills will look to take more of the market in the long term around the Glasgow area? I guess their immediate priority is recruiting drivers and upgrading their fleet for their recently acquired operations in order to settle down, but maybe longer term they might fancy looking at WCM/Citybus as their 15 and 17 operate in old Midland areas and maybe partly complement the Midland X10 within the city.
Interestingly SC have never managed to make progress in Glasgow, with just their X19 operating wholly within the city. They seem happy though with their X25 and their Ayrshire express services.
I guess McGills would be pleased if they can gradually oust Lothian in West Lothian as more of a priority. But maybe more interesting times lie ahead longer term around Glasgow too.
I wonder if McGills will look to take more of the market in the long term around the Glasgow area? I guess their immediate priority is recruiting drivers and upgrading their fleet for their recently acquired operations in order to settle down, but maybe longer term they might fancy looking at WCM/Citybus as their 15 and 17 operate in old Midland areas and maybe partly complement the Midland X10 within the city.
Interestingly SC have never managed to make progress in Glasgow, with just their X19 operating wholly within the city. They seem happy though with their X25 and their Ayrshire express services.
I guess McGills would be pleased if they can gradually oust Lothian in West Lothian as more of a priority. But maybe more interesting times lie ahead longer term around Glasgow too.
Given that Streetlites occasionally appear on the 1s now, I'm not really surprised that 44463 has now too. In the off peak, some of the 1s can end up busy enough to have people standing so I dread to imagine what the peaks are like. The 1C and 1D are definitely worth double deckers at peaks.
On another note, have management just stopped bothering inputting any cancellations at any depots? The "they're last minute excuse" wasn't acceptable anyway but even more so now given that there are less of them. I've noticed a couple of services showing as cancelled but there have been times where I've went for a bus and it's not shown despite not showing as cancelled.
It would also help if every tracker was working too to be fair. The E300s especially seem to be the worst for it at the minute. Last Friday, 3 different buses I went for didn't track but turned up and as a result I missed 2 of them because I didn't know they were actually running.
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ScotRail158725
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A number of the new to the 38 batch of Enviro 400 MMCs are heading south to South Yorkshire. 34379/81-83/86 all lined up at Overtown to be collected
AndrewTaylor95
Member
Wonder if these will be replacing other deckers for the CAZ starting at the end of the month.
JumpinTrainz
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I hate to see newer buses leave the fleet but unfortunately that’s the way of it and Glasgow has seen a lot of investment so it’s only fair other areas are balanced out.
Still I’d rather see more B9TLs go over E400MMCs.
They're not heading to South Yorkshire, Andy Metcalfe (head of fleet management at First Group) has said so.
Bus Lightyear
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That old saying Swings and Roundabouts comes to mind. Not long ago First Glasgow received around 10 66-reg E400MMCs from First Edinburgh and in 2009 some 08-reg Volvo B9tls were transferred up from First South Yorkshire, all of which I believe are still in service.
Where are they going?
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I don't know, he didn't say. He ruled out Essex but that's it.
I do wonder what the fleet here would look like had it not been for the low emission zone to be honest. I feel that we would have got some investment but nowhere near as much as we have had in Glasgow and the surrounding areas. I do feel like masses of cuts have helped cascade older buses too though despite the unfortunate circumstances of covid and Brexit ultimately being the causes for said cuts.
ScotRail158725
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Turns out its further South than Yorkshire. Essex is ruled out so Eastern Counties, Wales or West of England is what is now comes down to
Essex are getting the buses from the X11
90sWereBetter
Member
Eastern Counties is a good shout, the Purple Line in Norwich still requires a replacement fleet for its Presidents and with the ex-Yellow Buses E400MMCs slowly trickling into service another batch of the same type makes sense for commonality.
JumpinTrainz
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It’s the ex-FSE E400MMCs branded for the 41 that are going to Essex
Dfatcontroller
Member
As per a post on Facebook, 34380 is currently in Aberdeen due to problems with Hydrogen filling station.
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Dfatcontroller
Member
The facebook guessing game has it narrowed down to Hampshire/Dorset/Berkshire.
duffers2324
Member
Thanks for that info @Volvodart as i was visiting Aberdeen yesterday and seen 34375 and 34385 and thinking i cant leave Glasgow without something that reminds me of Glasgow and speaking of Hydrogen, i did use one of the Hydrogen buses on the 20 and was fair to say they could shift.. I also made it a case to travel on some of our native at the time E500's on the 1 and 2 as well as a first for me anyway using First Citaro O530G on the 2 and getting off at the back door
so all in all quite an interesting mix although i will say that i was very surprised to see the bendys as i had thought they had done away with them.
so all in all quite an interesting mix although i will say that i was very surprised to see the bendys as i had thought they had done away with them.