Took a trip to Luton yesterday to check out the Luton to Dunstable busway. Three companies operate on the busway, Arriva, Centrebus and Grant Palmer. I only used Arriva and Centrebus because Grant Palmer don't accept Plusbus, although Grant Palmer do accept the Hip Hop joint ticket for Luton and Dunstable.
I first used Arriva's 'A' service from the airport to Houghton Regis, operated by 12-reg Wright bodied Volvo single deckers. They have a lot of luggage space, comparable to an airport car park service, as the route is used as a feeder for the 757 service from the airport. From what I could see, the 757 is still well used, despite the requirement to change buses at Luton station and the existence of the National Express A1 service. This may be mainly because of Terravision branded tickets bought on the plane or at foreign airports which can only be used on Green Line. Most of the people I saw using the airport to Luton station section were using it as a connection to Green Line. There is a short section of bus only road between the airport and the station.
The busway is guided west of Luton. There is a steep gradient on immediate departure from the station and the route gives elevated views of the town centre at 50 mph. The ride quality on the Arriva buses is comparable to that on the Cambridgeshire busway.
The guided busway skirts the eastern edge of Dunstable town centre so most of the busway routes do a loop of the town centre and there is almost a full bus lane along the circuit, which seems to work well. This loop system means that part of the guided busway from Houghton Regis to Dunstable is only used by the half hourly Centrebus 'E' service from Luton to Toddington, which doesn't serve Dunstable town centre, so I took that bus from Luton to Houghton Regis and back. Not to Toddington as that is outside the Plusbus area. For completeness I also did the Centrebus 'B' route to the Downside Estate.
I was disappointed at the poor standard of vehicles used by Centrebus on the busway. I would have thought there would be a Quality Partnership on the busway requiring minimum vehicle standards. Centrebus are using Omnitowns transferred from Leicester which are about 6 years old, but they shake so bad that they feel a lot older and the interiors are worn out. What's more strange is that Centrebus use newer Optare Tempos on their other Luton services. Grant Palmer use 10 year old Scania Omnicities new to Metrobus. They seemed to be in OK shape.
The registrations used on the Centrebus services, for some reason, have been recycled from scrapped 1992 Olympians new to Yorkshire Coastliner (e.g K2 YCL, K4 YCL). What's the point in that?
I first used Arriva's 'A' service from the airport to Houghton Regis, operated by 12-reg Wright bodied Volvo single deckers. They have a lot of luggage space, comparable to an airport car park service, as the route is used as a feeder for the 757 service from the airport. From what I could see, the 757 is still well used, despite the requirement to change buses at Luton station and the existence of the National Express A1 service. This may be mainly because of Terravision branded tickets bought on the plane or at foreign airports which can only be used on Green Line. Most of the people I saw using the airport to Luton station section were using it as a connection to Green Line. There is a short section of bus only road between the airport and the station.
The busway is guided west of Luton. There is a steep gradient on immediate departure from the station and the route gives elevated views of the town centre at 50 mph. The ride quality on the Arriva buses is comparable to that on the Cambridgeshire busway.
The guided busway skirts the eastern edge of Dunstable town centre so most of the busway routes do a loop of the town centre and there is almost a full bus lane along the circuit, which seems to work well. This loop system means that part of the guided busway from Houghton Regis to Dunstable is only used by the half hourly Centrebus 'E' service from Luton to Toddington, which doesn't serve Dunstable town centre, so I took that bus from Luton to Houghton Regis and back. Not to Toddington as that is outside the Plusbus area. For completeness I also did the Centrebus 'B' route to the Downside Estate.
I was disappointed at the poor standard of vehicles used by Centrebus on the busway. I would have thought there would be a Quality Partnership on the busway requiring minimum vehicle standards. Centrebus are using Omnitowns transferred from Leicester which are about 6 years old, but they shake so bad that they feel a lot older and the interiors are worn out. What's more strange is that Centrebus use newer Optare Tempos on their other Luton services. Grant Palmer use 10 year old Scania Omnicities new to Metrobus. They seemed to be in OK shape.
The registrations used on the Centrebus services, for some reason, have been recycled from scrapped 1992 Olympians new to Yorkshire Coastliner (e.g K2 YCL, K4 YCL). What's the point in that?