It may simply be a coincidence that it is the Whitby bus - no where north of Malton has a Sunday bus to or from Leeds so perhaps the fact it is morning only trip means its purpose is to offer an earlier summer bus from Leeds to York rather than a through bus to Whitby.
The 0923 from York is 30 minutes before the first arrival from Leeds, so in order to give people from Leeds access to a day out on the moors they have to start the bus back from Leeds.
There is an 840 at 8:30am that leaves Thornton-le-Dale for Leeds on Sundays, serving Pickeing, returning to Pickering and Thornton-le-Dale at 16:40 from Leeds. The Monday-Saturday evening return (which leaves Whitby at the same time as the Sunday return) terminates in Tadcaster, not York.
Surely the 843 would have capacity issues from York with connecting passengers coming off the 840 if it were to have capacity issues from Malton?
No. A large proportion of passengers from each service will be getting off in York, I would be surprised if more than half of them were continuing beyond.
Paul Turner, Transdev Blazefields Commercial Manager, posted on Facebook last week that 13 of them had arrived at Blackburn so two more were still awaited to form the Flyer fleet. They are to have a vinyl livery applied before entering use. As for the two that had been earmarked for the X99 no details yet have emerged on where they will be going.
Which depot runs that journey ex Whitby? Rawcliffe?
Yet a large proportion would also board the 843 in York, after all, York-Leeds is the busiest section of the Coastliner.
Yes. It's the same vehicle that runs the 9:23am York-Whitby. It does one return journey between Whitby and Malton, and another between Malton and Thornton-le-Dale before returning to York.
As I said before, it doesn't even have to be Whitby, it could be anywhere north of Malton that the 843 doesn't serve, eg Pickering or Thornton-le-Dale. On the flip side, they don't even have to be starting in Leeds, they could be coming from Tadcaster (where the Monday-Saturday evening return off Whitby terminates), Copmanthorpe or Seacroft.
It may be the busiest section overall, but at 8pm on a Sunday? I suspect not.
Or it could just be to make more capacity between Leeds and York because the first Sunday morning bus was very busy in the summer last year. You seem convinced because morning trip isn't mirrored in the evening that its somehow wrong or illogical, whereas as others have pointed out they may well know exactly what they are dong and why and it may have nothing to do with Leeds to Whitby or (Companthorpe to Flamingo Land, or Tadcaster to Eden Camp etc etc). Just because you don't get it doesn't mean its the wrong thing to do!
So that’s your answer. There’s little to no saving in truncating it at Malton, and you’d have a potential overload if you did. It has to run to York so run it in service.
Does the Sunday 840 to Whitby use the same driver for the entire trip currently and if so, would another driver be needed to take it from Leeds? Looking at timings, it is currently possible for one driver to operate it due to breaks in Whitby, this may not be the case with the service starting in Leeds.
Summer Sunday night out in York and then catch the Coastliner home? I've noticed loadings on morning/evening Coastliner journeys on Sundays are getting busier with the warmer weather.
As I said before, it is certainly inconvenient. Would you want an extra 15 minutes added to your already long journey home? I understand ponts being made by others, but any extra capacity on Coastliner is welcome. The hourly service on Sunday is frequently full and standing, I've witnessed time and time again people be left behind in York on a Sunday, having to wait another hour to get to Leeds. From Transdev's perspective, yes, it makes sense to do this, but not from the perspective of someone living beyond York Station who now has their journey home extended by a 15 minute wait.
Whose journey is now 15 minutes longer?
Anyone traveling from North of Malton to West of York will have a journey up to 15 minutes longer on return than on their outbound journey.
I'd suspect that a bus leaving Rawcliffe at 0715 (?) would have a jockey driver to do the additional Leeds bit.
That same vehicle currently operates a trip to Thornton-le-Dale, leaving Malton at 13:57, and arriving back in Malton at 15:12.
Yes, just inconvenient for those traveling past York. I suppose it would be possible to make the trip worthwhile for Transdev if the 843 timetable was shifted around, possibly also allowing the vehicle to operate a revenue earning service to Leeds in the morning so it doesn't run empty. This would also allow the bus to return to York from Leeds in revenue earning service. But clearly this was something Transdev didn't want to do.
The vehicle might but the driver won’t.
The reasons why they don’t are sensible.
That must be a Malton driver that does that though? Otherwise where would the York driver get his break?…
Hence why I said it would be possible if Transdev adjusted the 843 Sunday timetable but this isn't something they wanted to do for whatever reason.
Obviously a second driver is needed to operate the current service. What could be done is this:
Think about it.
So what is the current driver working? The York driver can't cover the whole day of driving so a Malton driver has to help out at some point.
You aren't obliged to use it.
What they don't want to do is to have different running times in the high summer period from the rest of the year – an additional section of journey is fine, because anyone who can catch a Coastliner bus for the other 10½ months of the year sees no change – but running buses differently would mean that those regular passengers would find that their bus wasn't running at the regular time for 6 weeks, which would be confusing and unhelpful. So it has to be something that works all year round.
As I said at 17:39 yesterday...
In relation to having a 15 min wait time, that isn't ideal. However, it provides a bit of contingency in case the 840 gets delayed in traffic. It really is the least worst option.
Having looked at the 843 timetable, the bus 15 minutes later only waits at Stonebow for 4 minutes, and Stonebow is usually where a driver change occurs so its not really possible to reduce it.
I suppose once timetables are printed, Transdev needs to communicate that for those traveling onwards, a 15 minute connection onto the 843 is available, like is done with the 840 at Malton on Sundays with the Thornton-le-Dale shuttle. Just by adding some sort of arrow to the 843 departure or something like that. It would be a way of communication with passengers as to what is happening and why. To be fair, Transdev is quite good at adding details like this to their timetables.
www.transdevbus.co.uk
www.transdevbus.co.uk
www.transdevbus.co.uk
Transdev is also holding a consultation regarding proposed changes to the 1 in Burnley:
Sorry, we can't find this page!
The only feedback I sent in was perhaps look at a new bus stop on Rossendale Road near the pedestrian cut-through through to Fenwick Street. Otherwise, as per current bus stop locations, a person would be forced to walk up the seemingly quite steep hill to the Usha Indian Restaurant or walk to Cog Lane. A new bus stop in this location would significantly reduce the inconvenience for existing passengers. Otherwise, I agree, quite sensible proposals.
Was on it earlier. Still says Harrogate on the inside rear of both floors, but externally, other than legals, it is blank.