The Big Lemon

[nick291]

I do wonder what that Public Inquiry that the Big Lemon had was about. There was no information other than the vague sections that were being considered for disciplinary action. Does a formal detailed report get published anywhere? If so then where can this be viewed?

Usually it would be on the government website IIRC for the office of the traffic commissioner.

 

[Titfield]

The results were announced in this morning's Western area N&P:



There is no formal written decision yet, but that may take a while to be published.

The Traffic Commissioner has relatively few sanctions he can choose from:
Revocation of the licence
Suspension of the licence for a period of time.
Curtailment (reduction in number of vehicles which can be operated) for a period of time.
Having repute tarnished is a bit like a yellow card in football. Do it again and the licence will be revoked.
The only time a fine can be imposed is for bus punctuality failures.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Oct 2025 ==

Usually it would be on the government website IIRC for the office of the traffic commissioner.

The decision should be on there but I couldn’t find it. Unusual. I will have a dig around. The decision may have been appealed but I don’t think that would prevent its publication especially as the sanction is relatively light.

 

[izvor]

Having repute tarnished is a bit like a yellow card in football.

A yellow card for Big Lemon would be a bit of an own goal, wouldn't it?

 

[WibbleWobble]

Would this be an issue for the Traffic Commissioners though? Smoking in the workplace, including company vehicles, is a local authority enforcement matter, so the video should be submitted to the authority enforcement team where the offence took place. They can fine both the driver (£50 on the spot or up to £1000 if it goes to court) and the business can be fined if they are seen not to take appropriate action.

 

[Titfield]

Would this be an issue for the Traffic Commissioners though? Smoking in the workplace, including company vehicles, is a local authority enforcement matter, so the video should be submitted to the authority enforcement team where the offence took place. They can fine both the driver (£50 on the spot or up to £1000 if it goes to court) and the business can be fined if they are seen not to take appropriate action.

It is a driver conduct issue and falls within the remit of the Traffic Commissioner.

Such events may also call into question whether the Transport Manager is carrying out their role effectively in maintaining continuous and effective management of the operation.

 

[t rex]

Latest arrival for the big lemon bristol is a Mercedes sprinter bf67wgo on the k1 in Keynsham and they also got bf67wgu on the 2v seen in Midsomer Norton

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 1 Dec 2025 ==

Another recent arrival in bristol is higer steed big949 on service 40 cribbs causeway to Avonmouth

 

[nick291]

Not the best photo, but BIG949 on the evening peak run of the X91(15/12/2025)

 

[markymark2000]

Does anyone know what happened/is happening with Big Lemons licence being cut? IT was meant to happen on 1st September according to Notices and Proceedings (quoted in post #54) but there seems to have been no disruption at all since then on such scale that would suggest the punishment happened.

 

[nick291]

Does anyone know what happened/is happening with Big Lemons licence being cut? IT was meant to happen on 1st September according to Notices and Proceedings (quoted in post #54) but there seems to have been no disruption at all since then on such scale that would suggest the punishment happened.

I'm not sure, could be that they appealed?

 

[Bungle965]

Not the best photo, but BIG949 on the evening peak run of the X91(15/12/2025)

I'll take your word for it!

 

[DaveLondon]

Does anyone know what happened/is happening with Big Lemons licence being cut? IT was meant to happen on 1st September according to Notices and Proceedings (quoted in post #54) but there seems to have been no disruption at all since then on such scale that would suggest the punishment happened.

It was cut at least for a period. A number of vehicles are being operated on the discvs of another operator. Look out for the "On Hire To" stickers.

 

[Marcus Fryer]

The X10 has been a free bus service since 5 December, until 24 December..

The Big Lemon

Friendly, affordable bus and coach services in Brighton & Hove, using zero-emissions electric buses, powered by renewable energy and owned by the local community

thebiglemon.com

 

[Hophead]

It's about time they updated their website, given the shift in their principal area of operations.

 

[Citistar]

From what i've read, the X10 already has capacity problems when the smaller vehicles get used on it, so perhaps running it for free to encourage even more usage isn't the best of ideas unless they're going to consistently provide adequate capacity.

 

[Marcus Fryer]

From what i've read, the X10 already has capacity problems when the smaller vehicles get used on it, so perhaps running it for free to encourage even more usage isn't the best of ideas unless they're going to consistently provide adequate capacity.

Today I had a trip on Solo EV at 11:19 from Cribbs Causeway to Portishead which left Cribbs with 9 on board and picked up another 5 in Sheepway. The return journey at 13:18 was on E200 YX17 NRN, which was almost full as far as Cribbs. Many of the passengers on both journeys would have travelled free anyway as they were either seniors or children.

 

[Citistar]

Today I had a trip on Solo EV at 11:19 from Cribbs Causeway to Portishead which left Cribbs with 9 on board and picked up another 5 in Sheepway. The return journey at 13:18 was on E200 YX17 NRN, which was almost full as far as Cribbs. Many of the passengers on both journeys would have travelled free anyway as they were either seniors or children.

At least you had sensible vehicles on there today. There were reports from Portalzed last week of people being left behind by journeys operated by a Higer during the morning towards Cribbs (and also the driver refusing to have standing on, but i often find reports of that to be unreliable).

 

[joeeoj6]

At least you had sensible vehicles on there today. There were reports from Portalzed last week of people being left behind by journeys operated by a Higer during the morning towards Cribbs (and also the driver refusing to have standing on, but i often find reports of that to be unreliable).

I was on one of these journeys, 9.15 from Yatton. A few empty seats after Clevedon and only 4 standing passengers allowed from Portishead

 

[nick291]

I was on one of these journeys, 9.15 from Yatton. A few empty seats after Clevedon and only 4 standing passengers allowed from Portishead

Quite unacceptable really, they need to start taking passenger concerns and experiences seriously. I'm not expecting them to magic a full size decker out of nowhere, but a boost in bus capacity is definitely needed!

 

[tfw756rider]

What happened to using cooking oil? That's my last impression of what made this CIC unique. Electric buses are hardly innovative now.

They stopped using cooking oil years ago. It is all just electric or normal diesel now. I have a feeling it might be to do with the fact that newer diesel buses have engines which do not handle cooking oil well. When they first started all of their buses were very old cheap second hand vehicles from the 1990s (and even a couple from the 1980s too) with very old engines. I understand these older engines can work with cooking oil much easier. Putting used cooking oil in newer diesel buses is much harder and less successful.

Another factor was a lack of suppliers able to supply small-enough quantities of biodiesel:

Thanks for the explanation and link, too bad that they just completely ignored me when I attempted to contact them to ask about this. I can't stand companies that are "uncontactable". You'd have thought that a company supposedly "like this" wouldn't be "like that".

 

[stadler]

Thanks for the explanation and link, too bad that they just completely ignored me when I attempted to contact them to ask about this. I can't stand companies that are "uncontactable". You'd have thought that a company supposedly "like this" wouldn't be "like that".

That does not surprise me at all that they failed to reply to your question. Unfortunately their customer service has never been particularly good. About a year ago i was on one of their rail replacement buses which decided to drop off us at the edge of Lewes a twenty minute walk from the station so that the driver could get back to the depot earlier. I then emailed Big Lemon the following day to complain and they failed to answer. I also phoned them and nobody picked up or replied to the voicemail. I too hate companies that can not be bothered to send a reply.

 

[tfw756rider]

That does not surprise me at all that they failed to reply to your question. Unfortunately their customer service has never been particularly good. About a year ago i was on one of their rail replacement buses which decided to drop off us at the edge of Lewes a twenty minute walk from the station so that the driver could get back to the depot earlier. I then emailed Big Lemon the following day to complain and they failed to answer. I also phoned them and nobody picked up or replied to the voicemail. I too hate companies that can not be bothered to send a reply.

I'm sorry to hear about that - so much for "community interest"... I've also read about their drivers of theirs being aggressive - yeah, such "community interest"...

 

[joeeoj6]

73 plate Iveco on the 9.15 x10 today. Judging by the size of it they'll be leaving people behind again

 

[Citistar]

The Iveco is RJ73FXT.

There was this message on Facebook earlier today. It would appear to suggest that despite having well over 30 vehicles in their depot, less than ten of them are in working order. This was after a lot of excuse making earlier in the week on Tuesday when the weather was cold, despite no other operators in the area having any discernable problems with their morning runouts.

 

[tfw756rider]

The Iveco is RJ73FXT.

There was this message on Facebook earlier today. It would appear to suggest that despite having well over 30 vehicles in their depot, less than ten of them are in working order. This was after a lot of excuse making earlier in the week on Tuesday when the weather was cold, despite no other operators in the area having any discernable problems with their morning runouts.

View attachment 195587

What would be the point of calling them if they don't answer the phone?

 

[stadler]

The Iveco is RJ73FXT.

There was this message on Facebook earlier today. It would appear to suggest that despite having well over 30 vehicles in their depot, less than ten of them are in working order. This was after a lot of excuse making earlier in the week on Tuesday when the weather was cold, despite no other operators in the area having any discernable problems with their morning runouts.

View attachment 195587

You should have a look at their Brighton and Hailsham depots. Both of them look more like scrapyards than bus depots. Dozens of broken buses and buses stripped for spares or long term out of use. So having ten buses out of thirty working at their Bristol operation does not surprise me at all. There was a period just over a year ago in Brighton where they had only 4 working buses and 16 broken out of use buses in their Brighton depot. That means 80% were out of use. That is why they always had so many cancellations until they lost their Brighton contract. Their maintenance is appalling. I have never known a bus company to have so many vehicles out of service.

 

[8257rp7795]

You should have a look at their Brighton and Hailsham depots. Both of them look more like scrapyards than bus depots. Dozens of broken buses and buses stripped for spares or long term out of use. So having ten buses out of thirty working at their Bristol operation does not surprise me at all. There was a period just over a year ago in Brighton where they had only 4 working buses and 16 broken out of use buses in their Brighton depot. That means 80% were out of use. That is why they always had so many cancellations until they lost their Brighton contract. Their maintenance is appalling. I have never known a bus company to have so many vehicles out of service.

The Optare Solo SR EVs seem to be the most problematic ones as only 3 (BCK, AWF & FZN) are currently in use in among the 8 at Bristol. Enviros are slightly better with 4 still in service (NSK was very sluggish on the 20 and NRY has tracking issues), while NSO is stripped for parts and NRU&NSU not having MOTs renewed.

 

[nick291]

You should have a look at their Brighton and Hailsham depots. Both of them look more like scrapyards than bus depots. Dozens of broken buses and buses stripped for spares or long term out of use. So having ten buses out of thirty working at their Bristol operation does not surprise me at all. There was a period just over a year ago in Brighton where they had only 4 working buses and 16 broken out of use buses in their Brighton depot. That means 80% were out of use. That is why they always had so many cancellations until they lost their Brighton contract. Their maintenance is appalling. I have never known a bus company to have so many vehicles out of service.

It's funny that one, because next door at Compass Bus in Brighton their vehicles are well turned out!

 

[Citistar]

The Optare Solo SR EVs seem to be the most problematic ones as only 3 (BCK, AWF & FZN) are currently in use in among the 8 at Bristol. Enviros are slightly better with 4 still in service (NSK was very sluggish on the 20 and NRY has tracking issues), while NSO is stripped for parts and NRU&NSU not having MOTs renewed.

Scrapping eight year old, pretty much industry standard buses? When Faresaver have buses from the same batch which are turned out smartly in service every day? Perhaps they should consider employing a mechanic.

 

[nick291]

Scrapping eight year old, pretty much industry standard buses? When Faresaver have buses from the same batch which are turned out smartly in service every day? Perhaps they should consider employing a mechanic.

Starting to see why the TC curtailed their O license now

 

[DaveLondon]

Starting to see why the TC curtailed their O license now

It was only curtailed for a limited period if I remember correctly and that period finished. Some vehicles are (or were) running on the discs of another operator as they have more work than discs!