Nottingham 'Bus War'

[trentside]

Some recent activity on the registrations front for Yourbus.

It appears that the 229 is to gain the number Y29 from 21st October, while an amendment has been submitted for the Y28 which is due to start from the same date between the Victoria Centre and Ilkeston Road. They've also registered the 101 Eastwood town service currently operated by Doyles (presumably related to the 229/Y29 amendment).

On another front (outside the city) it appears that Marshalls of Sutton on Trent have registered a commercial service between Newark and Elston via Farndon as the 91 - running hourly Monday to Friday, due to start from 29th October. This appears to compete directly with Premiere's 54 service and will give Marshall's a bus through Farndon every half hour.

 

[MCR247]

Stagecoach are really dirty atm by the looks of things with pronto. Atm it is 2 buses per hour that are TB and 2 that are Stagecoach right? From Monday it looks like Stagecoach are going to run 4bph? With the extra 2 being 5 mins in front of TB?


Personally I agree with someone on their fb page that they should pull out of pronto and run a 'rapid 3'

 

[trentside]

I have a feeling this relates to TrentBarton now running more buses per hour between Mansfield and Sutton - since the increasing of the Threes to run every 10 minutes. This is competing head on with The Miller (1) service Stagecoach run - one of their key routes in Mansfield.

 

[MCR247]

Saw a solo EV yesterday.

And what do you think of the new 34 livery?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...5852444645.115223.144269959645&type=1&theater

TBs press release says 8 solo EVs have been bought, 4 for centrelink. Does anyone know where the other 4 are going?

Ooh and there was an Enviro 200 demonstrator by the station this morning..?

 

[trentside]

Saw a solo EV yesterday.

TBs press release says 8 solo EVs have been bought, 4 for centrelink. Does anyone know where the other 4 are going?

Apparently TrentBarton only have four Solo EVs, I believe these are supplied by the City Council so it is possible that the others are for use on MediLink or other City Council funded routes.

 

[MCR247]

Ah ok

 

[Heinz57]

I noticed yesterday whilst at the airport that a couple of the ex-rainbow 4 solars were on the skylink.

They still wore the R4 colours, and the outlines of the branding could be made out. They wore a new and probably temporary sticker branding saying 'I'm helping out on the skylink'. So is this a tempory thing perhaps during the busy period? Or something a little more? I don't know anything about TB expecting more skylink buses, or of any in repairs.

On an un-related note, I seen one of the new Alestrees in Derby last week, the new livery and branding looks nice!

 

[trentside]

The ex-R4 Solars are on loan to Kinchbus to cover for their Plaxton Centros which are currently being refurbished and repainted.

 

[tbone]

Pronto is ridiculous, Stagecoach seem to have a bus in the bay in Victoria permanently, meaning Trent Barton can't get there buses in. There seemed to be inspectors from both Trent Barton and Stagecoach in Victoria too. I travelled on a Trent Barton pronto that was running directly behind a stagecoach one (partly to make a point) and it was well loaded!

I also tried out the Solo EVs, they're very nice from a passenger perspective, it'll be interesting to see how efficient they are though!

 

[Heinz57]

The ex-R4 Solars are on loan to Kinchbus to cover for their Plaxton Centros which are currently being refurbished and repainted.

Ahh right cool, thanks!

 

[Ginga]

A few changes to Redflyer.

From the 1st of October it will Depart from Friar Lane Five minutes before Skylink.

The 7:25am trip from Nottingham is listed as "may be operated by a stepped entrance coach"

The 00:50 trip from Friar Lane is dropped and replaced by a trip at 01:20.

The next one after that is at 2:50 then every hour till 04:20. It is then every 30 minutes till 07:55.

 

[bb21]

The next one after that is at 2:50 then every hour till 04:20. It is then every 30 minutes till 07:55.

You mean 0250, 0350 then 0420?

 

[Ginga]

yep

One run on Red 9 could also use a coach.

 

[bb21]

Well the way they are scheduled at the moment, it is almost impossible for the night runs to keep to time. 30 minutes each way is simply not enough.

A 90-minute headway will allow the driver to have a small rest in between each journey.

 

[ARedFlyer]

So 8:55 , 9:55 etc? Suppose it makes sense. Beats the Skylink on departure and
any dead time is used at the Airport, which is better for the workers who were complaining about lateness on the current timetable. There will be very little or no dead time at Friar Lane.

 

[MCR247]

Ah apparantly some hybrids are on order by NCC for localink buses

 

[tbone]

Interesting to note that in Trent Barton's latest blog entry says that Nottingham is good because of the 'healthy competition', an interesting take!

 

[ARedFlyer]

Anyone know why you sometimes see a Red Flyer sitting on the road at the side of the Casino, or as I seen the other night sitting outside the old Beatties store? Mount Street isn't it? I've seen this on a few occasions. Bit odd seeing their big white coach sitting there menacingly.

Also why do they and TB Skylink consider peak time to be between 4am and 8am? A bit strange that. Is it because of flight departures/arrivals?

 

[starrymarkb]

Anyone know why you sometimes see a Red Flyer sitting on the road at the side of the Casino, or as I seen the other night sitting outside the old Beatties store? Mount Street isn't it? I've seen this on a few occasions. Bit odd seeing their big white coach sitting there menacingly.

Also why do they and TB Skylink consider peak time to be between 4am and 8am? A bit strange that. Is it because of flight departures/arrivals?

Probably a large wave of flights - if it's anything like Bristol 6-8am is a constant stream of departures...

looking at the EMA departures there are about 10 holiday charter flights (ie 200 seats each) due out between 7:00 and 7:30 - that'll be your answer

 

[Deerfold]

Also why do they and TB Skylink consider peak time to be between 4am and 8am? A bit strange that. Is it because of flight departures/arrivals?

It's also likely to be when a lot of staff start their shifts. They'll mostly need to be there a couple of hours before the band of flights starts.

 

[Ginga]

Redflyer is being withdrawn from November 18th. More details will be released next week.

 

[ARedFlyer]

Fully withdrawn? Sad

 

[MCR247]

One of the old centrelink solos seems to have swapped LED (front, side and back?) screens with the one of the new electric ones? Anyone know why?

 

[tbone]

One of the old centrelink solos seems to have swapped LED (front, side and back?) screens with the one of the new electric ones? Anyone know why?

The 02 plate ones have always had all round LED screens whilst they've been on centrelink, if that's what you mean?

Yourbus are due a number of streetlites, both wheel and door forward varieties, alongside the second hand citaros that are now going into service. Perhaps some of these will be used on the new Nottingham routes?

Premiere are now trying to keep the RedFlyer by getting regulars to pay more on the proviso that the price will go down if it makes a profit. It's currently losing £1,000 a week, so don't expect it to last!!

 

[MCR247]

The 02 plate ones have always had all round LED screens whilst they've been on centrelink, if that's what you mean?

Hmm this is really hard to explain. The 12 plate electric solos have newer LEDs and for example the rear LED scrolls Centrelink, whereas the 02 reg have Centre-link in a small font seperated onto two lines. The electric ones also use two lines on the front LED. The older ones don't. Except for some reason the LEDs from a new one seem to have been put into an old one and v.v. Was just wondering if there was any reason for it

£1,000 per week?! Ouch.

 

[trentside]

Yourbus are introducing a new smartcard, known as 'Genie' - it will act as an electronic purse similar to Mango and Oyster. I can't find any more details at the moment, but you can register and have one sent out to you by post;

http://www.catchyourbus.co.uk/genie/index.html

 

[MCR247]

NCT have posted that they are launching a new route and destination with details being given next week...

 

[Deerfold]

NCT have posted that they are launching a new route and destination with details being given next week...

Where have they posted that?

Ooh, while looking I did notice that Trentbarton will now sell a discounted return to EM airport for anyone coming into the city centre by NCT or NET. Odd that that's not obvious on thier own website!

 

[MCR247]

https://twitter.com/NCT_Buses/status/253736184570839041

Also on facebook

 

[Deerfold]

https://twitter.com/NCT_Buses/status/253736184570839041

Also on facebook

Ah - I do find it annoying when companies don't put things like that on their own websites! Especially when I can't access social media sites from work