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First Group: General Discussion

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TheGrandWazoo

TheGrandWazoo

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GaryMcEwan said:
Christ they could have pulled buses from elsewhere. The only place they Tridents are good for is the scrappy...
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And they are.. Marshall Darts from Cymru (though most have now gone after <6 months service) and R/S reg Pointer Darts from Hants/Berks. In comparison, the W reg Tridents are quite modern :D

Problem is... Who releases good kit??
 
Strathclyder

Strathclyder

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GaryMcEwan said:
I feel sorry for Devon & Cornwall and Bristol seeing as they now have the ex Glasgow 329XX Trident bombs. Why on earth they are still being used is an absolute mystery to me...
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Glasgow still has a handful of the 329XX Tridents. No telling how much longer they'll last. A few months, give or take.
 
Strathclyder

Strathclyder

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GaryMcEwan said:
It was probably 32988 that you saw rather than 32998...
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Yeah, I think you're right. A trick of the light, I think....

Staying with First Glasgow, what is the oldest bus in revenue-earning service at the moment? (Excluding the driver training fleet.)
 
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GaryMcEwan

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Strathclyder said:
Yeah, I think you're right. A trick of the light, I think....

Staying with First Glasgow, what is the oldest bus in revenue-earning service at the moment? (Excluding the driver training fleet.)
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I would say it's the two N reg Oly's that are doing the rounds...31435 and 31449. They seem to be quite regular on the 38/A.
 
Strathclyder

Strathclyder

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GaryMcEwan said:
I would say it's the two N reg Oly's that are doing the rounds...31435 and 31449. They seem to be quite regular on the 38/A.
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31435 (N946 SOS) has apparently been withdrawn. That would leave 31449 (N960 SOS) as the only Olympian in Glasgow's fleet.
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alexf380 said:
Are there any R-reg darts left at Overtown/Blantyre?
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I think they're all gone. Haven't seen one in ages.
 
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V

Volvodart

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http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/latest_news/?id=012061

First Bus Wins Ryder Cup Coach Contract

Wednesday 17 September 2014

First Bus, the UK’s leading bus operator, confirmed today that it has won a contract to provide around 260 coaches during The 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

First will provide the transport for Ryder Cup officials, the media, sponsors and VIPs. It will also run coaches for most of the event’s hospitality packages. First will begin its operations on Monday September 22 and will have transported around 10,000 passengers by the time the event comes to a close.

Antonia Beggs, Operations Director for Ryder Cup Europe, said: “We are delighted that First Bus will manage the transport of The Ryder Cup Family and our VIPs. First has a track record of providing transport solutions at major events and we’re especially delighted to have on board a company whose routes are firmly placed in Scotland.”

Managing Director of First Bus, Giles Fearnley, said: “We are proud of our Scottish heritage and the important role we play connecting people and communities up and down Scotland every day.

“We’ve got a great team working on our Ryder Cup contract and have been planning for the event at Gleneagles for almost a year. The Ryder Cup is one of the world’s leading and most popular sporting occasions so it is really exciting to be involved. We’re well prepared and very much looking forward to the event teeing off.”

First Bus is part of Aberdeen based transport operator, FirstGroup. Another of FirstGroup’s companies, First ScotRail, is running scores of dedicated trains to transport golf fans to and from the Ryder Cup. Up to 7,500 people each day are expected to arrive at Gleneagles by train, the largest number ever carried to a Ryder Cup event. The station has been upgraded and made fully accessible, with a new access road and improved facilities, as part of a collective investment involving Perth & Kinross Council and Transport Scotland.
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ian1944

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Many would doubt that "leading bus operator" claim. And "routes firmly placed in Scotland" is just naff - don't they have proofreaders?
 
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overthewater

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90019 said:
Third hand info unfortunately, but I've been told by a very reliable source that Musselburgh depot is now on borrowed time and will soon be for the chop.
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Its been claimed Lothian are looking at a Dunbar route. I doubt the Muss depot will disappear before this point in time.
 
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thealexweb

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90019 said:
Third hand info unfortunately, but I've been told by a very reliable source that Musselburgh depot is now on borrowed time and will soon be for the chop.
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I saw a 'to let' sign on the side of the Musselburgh depot a few months ago. The sign has since been removed.
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ian1944 said:
Many would doubt that "leading bus operator" claim. And "routes firmly placed in Scotland" is just naff - don't they have proofreaders?
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As far as Edinburgh is concerned First are hanging on for dear life. I see the 108 nearly every day, near empty double decker even at rush hour, meanwhile packed Lothian 30s passing it every 12 minutes...
 
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F Great Eastern

F Great Eastern

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Aircoach in Dublin will shortly take delivery of a further six Plaxton Panther 3 coaches following on from the 10 delivered early in the year.

However it is not all rosy in the garden since posts on several forums have portrayed the company as allegedly having issues when it comes to maintenance and a high level of breakdowns for a few months now and that the recently appointed fleet manager has walked out after just two months.
 
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ian1944

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90019 said:
Third hand info unfortunately, but I've been told by a very reliable source that Musselburgh depot is now on borrowed time and will soon be for the chop.
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If Muss went and LB took over the Dunbar and North Berwick services, it might be worth their while to keep the garage at the latter as an outstation to save dead mileage to/from Edinburgh, though there's no tradition of garaging outside the city as far as I know.
 
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thealexweb

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ian1944 said:
If Muss went and LB took over the Dunbar and North Berwick services, it might be worth their while to keep the garage at the latter as an outstation to save dead mileage to/from Edinburgh, though there's no tradition of garaging outside the city as far as I know.
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Lothian has a depot in Portobello. Its about fiveish miles from First's Musselburgh depot.
 
90019

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overthewater said:
Its been claimed Lothian are looking at a Dunbar route. I doubt the Muss depot will disappear before this point in time.
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From what I'm hearing, the next expansion is looking like Livingston next year, which would tie in with the rebranding from East Lothian to Lothian Country.
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thealexweb said:
Lothian has a depot in Portobello. Its about fiveish miles from First's Musselburgh depot.
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There's actually two - Marine and Seafeld, which are only about three or four hundred yards apart, though Seafield is an engineering depot.
When Lothian Country expand further, they're going to need to get their own depot, as there isn't enough space at Marine.
 
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overthewater

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90019 said:
From what I'm hearing, the next expansion is looking like Livingston next year, which would tie in with the rebranding from East Lothian to Lothian Country.
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I really can't see that happening, maybe not until next October. (Personnel I think Lothian have mist the boat on this)

It would only be possible if Lothian bought the Musselburgh depot, which would free up space at Longstone and Marine.

Lothian is pretty short at the moment and the new 25 buses due shortly will only just cover the current network.

Just for East Lothian, extra 10 buses needs to be found. Do Lothian have plans to buy 10 second hand buses?
 
tbtc

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90019 said:
From what I'm hearing, the next expansion is looking like Livingston next year, which would tie in with the rebranding from East Lothian to Lothian Country
Click to expand...

Pure off-topic fantasy, I appreciate, but how would you tackle West Lothian (from an LB perspective)?

Twenty years ago, there were three corridors:

9: Edinburgh to Livingston like the SMT 27/28
64: Edinburgh - Gyle - Broxburn - Bathgate (similar to the SMT 16/17/18, but I don't think these served the Gyle?)
63: The Jewel - Edinburgh - Gyle - Broxburn - Pumpherston - Livingston (the eastern end being an attack on the Edinburgh Coach Lines 333)

...the 63 was later amended to follow the 64 route as far as Bathgate (but then to Whitburn?) - my memory is a little sketchy!

...but in those days there were no Edinburgh - Broxburn - Livingston daytime services (all Livi services ran via the A71 in the daytime), the train service to Livingston South/ Livingston North/ Bathgate was nothing like as good as today...

The "simple" option would probably be a decent frequency from Edinburgh to Livingston via Broxburn - maybe every fifteen minutes - diminishing marginal returns toward Fauldhouse/ Whitburn etc...

...or a "frequent" simple service from Livingston to Bathgate via the Hospital and Deans - the 21/26/27/28/800/X14 are fairly frequent on this general corridor, but there's not one simple frequent service (a bit like the way that First's simple frequent 22 from Rotherham to Barnsley found a market against the multitude of half hourly Stagecoach services in the Dearne Valley).

Which do you reckon would work better?

(pre-tram it'd have been better, could have interworked with the X48)
 
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DunsBus

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tbtc said:
Pure off-topic fantasy, I appreciate, but how would you tackle West Lothian (from an LB perspective)?

Twenty years ago, there were three corridors:

9: Edinburgh to Livingston like the SMT 27/28
64: Edinburgh - Gyle - Broxburn - Bathgate (similar to the SMT 16/17/18, but I don't think these served the Gyle?)
63: The Jewel - Edinburgh - Gyle - Broxburn - Pumpherston - Livingston (the eastern end being an attack on the Edinburgh Coach Lines 333)

...the 63 was later amended to follow the 64 route as far as Bathgate (but then to Whitburn?) - my memory is a little sketchy!

...but in those days there were no Edinburgh - Broxburn - Livingston daytime services (all Livi services ran via the A71 in the daytime), the train service to Livingston South/ Livingston North/ Bathgate was nothing like as good as today...

The "simple" option would probably be a decent frequency from Edinburgh to Livingston via Broxburn - maybe every fifteen minutes - diminishing marginal returns toward Fauldhouse/ Whitburn etc...

...or a "frequent" simple service from Livingston to Bathgate via the Hospital and Deans - the 21/26/27/28/800/X14 are fairly frequent on this general corridor, but there's not one simple frequent service (a bit like the way that First's simple frequent 22 from Rotherham to Barnsley found a market against the multitude of half hourly Stagecoach services in the Dearne Valley).

Which do you reckon would work better?

(pre-tram it'd have been better, could have interworked with the X48)
Click to expand...

The 9 and the 64 also both served Armadale in 1994. :) The 63 and 64 did serve the Gyle, apart from certain Monday-Friday peak journeys to Edinburgh (a.m.) and from Edinburgh (p.m.) which omitted the Gyle and ran as services X63 and X64. The extension of the 63 to Whitburn via the 64 route as far as Bathgate happened in September 1994, operating as the 63 during the day, X63 during the peaks and as the 63A at nights and on Sundays.

This lasted just over three months until the truce with SMT was declared a few weeks before Christmas that year, with SMT cutting half of its City Sprinter minibus network and Lothian withdrawing the 9 and 64 entirely, while the 63 was curtailed to operate between Brunstane and the Gyle. Service 18, which back then ran from Cameron Toll to South Queensferry, was also curtailed at the same time to operate between Cameron Toll and Barnton.

However, Lothian does currently have one minor involvement in West Lothian, the 109 staff bus between Livingston and Longstone which is registered as a normal service. This was a private service until the 9 started in 1991, when it became available for the public to use. The 109 explains West Lothian Council's minority (0.4%) stake in Lothian Buses.

I would assume that if LCB do expand westwards to Livingston then the 109 service number is the obvious choice.
 
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