Xplore Dundee

[kez19]

One broke down on first day and another broke down today. The Geminis are going to Bright Bus.

I’m curious but sending the Geminis to Edinburgh does that tie in with the Low Emissions Zones?

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One has temporarily returned untill the trident is fixed.

I think I know the one you speak of as there is a pic on Flickr of the bus taken yesterday (Gemini 2 not vinyled)

 

[Highland050261]

I’m curious but sending the Geminis to Edinburgh does that tie in with the Low Emissions Zones?

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I think I know the one you speak of as there is a pic on Flickr of the bus taken yesterday (Gemini 2 not vinyled)

Yes all of the 2010 Gemini been moved from McGill's and Xplore for Edinburgh LEZ and yes thats the one actually using the destination now.

 

[kez19]

Yes all of the 2010 Gemini been moved from McGill's and Xplore for Edinburgh LEZ and yes thats the one actually using the destination now.

I am only saying this as an opinion so if they are bringing in LEZ for Edinburgh and Dundee in 2024 (of course I am being specific to Dundee here - so what is the point in having these instead or are we expecting McGills/Xplore to give these buses the upgrade to comply?), if the buses don't comply what will Xplore do, get rid then get the Geminis back again?

I wish to point out i'm not keen on the whole LEZ thing but it seems a bit of a backward step to take.

 

[Highland050261]

I am only saying this as an opinion so if they are bringing in LEZ for Edinburgh and Dundee in 2024 (of course I am being specific to Dundee here - so what is the point in having these instead or are we expecting McGills/Xplore to give these buses the upgrade to comply?), if the buses don't comply what will Xplore do, get rid then get the Geminis back again?

I wish to point out i'm not keen on the whole LEZ thing but it seems a bit of a backward step to take.

LEZ stupid in my opinion. The E400 could be upgraded, but I think it maybe needs a brand redesign as there also a new design for Bright Bus out.

 

[kez19]

LEZ stupid in my opinion but the E400 could be upgraded but i think maybe brand redesign as there also a new design for bright bus out.

Unfortunately Xplore doesn't have any E400 in their fleet (they did with National Express but at a guess they took them away before McGills took over), I am aware however there is E400s at the Edinburgh that are Ex London buses.

As far as I see Xplore mostly has the Gemini 1 buses (I believe the slightly older Geminis are already operating in Edinburgh towards Glasgow) source:Flickr

 

[Highland050261]

Unfortunately Xplore doesn't have any E400 in their fleet (they did with National Express but at a guess they took them away before McGills took over), I am aware however there is E400s at the Edinburgh that are Ex London buses.

As far as I see Xplore mostly has the Gemini 1 buses (I believe the slightly older Geminis are already operating in Edinburgh towards Glasgow) source:Flickr

I was meaning the ones in Edinburgh - if they upgraded them to Euro 6 the could keep the Gemini 2 in Dundee.

 

[kez19]

I was meaning the ones in Edinburgh - if they upgraded them to Euro 6 the could keep the Gemini 2 in Dundee.

I thought the ones they got were already Euro 6?, I'm guessing thats not on the cards if they are getting the ones from Dundee.

 

[Highland050261]

I thought the ones they got were already Euro 6?, I'm guessing thats not on the cards if they are getting the ones from Dundee.

The E400s are Euro 5 the Geminis are upgraded to Euro 6.

 

[OptareLover]

I know it isn't really a big deal, but something I've noticed with Xplore is whenever they buy new buses, they are always route branded, but can never stick to their branded routes, especially on Sundays. What's the point of buying branded buses then?


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Also, something I've noticed with Xplore is the community got to decide "names" for their EVs, like Emma Lectric and Lightning McGreen.
A few months ago, they were all taken off which I think is quite rude!

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Does anyone know if 9903 has been scrapped yet? Because when I was on her on the open-top service, she had an oil leak in the middle of the Tay Bridge!! I'm not sure if she's just off the road or if she has permanently been replaced with 2905.

 

[kez19]

I know it isn't really a big deal, but something I've noticed with Xplore is whenever they buy new buses, they are always route branded, but can never stick to their branded routes, especially on Sundays. What's the point of buying branded buses then?


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2023 ==

Also, something I've noticed with Xplore is the community got to decide "names" for their EVs, like Emma Lectric and Lightning McGreen.
A few months ago, they were all taken off which I think is quite rude!

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== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 May 2023 ==

Does anyone know if 9903 has been scrapped yet? Because when I was on her on the open-top service, she had an oil leak in the middle of the Tay Bridge!! I'm not sure if she's just off the road or if she has permanently been replaced with 2905.

Off topic, but I also have a question - I'm new, how do you create forums?

The thing in all things branded, they need to get rid of the vinyls that say 5/9/10 they no longer interlink with one another, the 5 and 5a is a separate service to the 10 (they dropped the 9 a while back to make it simpler).

In terms of vinyls the 22 is the other as majority of services are 15 min daytime but on those buses it’s still advertised as 8 mins (whilst I get this was when National Express ran them), but come on McGills a bit of update needed at least (it’s false advertising!)

 

[OptareLover]

The thing in all things branded, they need to get rid of the vinyls that say 5/9/10 they no longer interlink with one another, the 5 and 5a is a separate service to the 10 (they dropped the 9 a while back to make it simpler).

In terms of vinyls the 22 is the other as majority of services are 15 min daytime but on those buses it’s still advertised as 8 mins (whilst I get this was when National Express ran them), but come on McGills a bit of update needed at least (it’s false advertising!)

The E400EVs for the 28 were bought as every 8 minutes, but the service has never been every 8 minutes since the buses were bought, which I think is shocking! False advertisement from McGill's once again.

 

[kez19]

The E400EVs for the 28 were bought as every 8 minutes, but the service has never been every 8 minutes since the buses were bought, which I think is shocking! False advertisement from McGill's once again.

I notice though the vinyls on the 28 service (the zero emission buses) have been removed on some and not but a guess is that the buses are being used on most services (similar to the hybrid buses that were brought in).

 

[OptareLover]

I notice though the vinyls on the 28 service (the zero emission buses) have been removed on some and not but a guess is that the buses are being used on most services (similar to the hybrid buses that were brought in).

Oh wow, I didn't notice that lol

 

[kez19]

Oh wow, I didn't notice that lol

If you look closely on them at the side it’ll say zero emissions (on the right it’ll say the route but as I say on some it’s removed), and on the back too (don’t ask me the buses that have them or not … I used to know the fleet like the back of my hand but since McGills it’s thrown me )

 

[OptareLover]

If you look closely on them at the side it’ll say zero emissions (on the right it’ll say the route but as I say on some it’s removed), and on the back too (don’t ask me the buses that have them or not … I used to know the fleet like the back of my hand but since McGills it’s thrown me )

From taking a quick look at Flickr, all of them still have the 28 branding except for 8500-8503.

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I'm surprised Xplore Dundee haven't got new buses yet to replace the remaining 54-plate Geminis.
I can't believe they're still running! (which is a good thing imo)

 

[tbtc]

(Replying to something here rather than the Moffat & Williamson thread)

Getting a little off topic, but aha! That's a fairly useful bus for me (follows the route of the old lettered 99s), but I never quite understood why it existed.

There are two 99x journeys, one is one of the buses that end up at Madras College in the morning/ need to be there in the afternoon (I don’t know if it’s one specific duty or could be the bus that has any of the Tayport/ Newport etc services) whilst the other is the vehicle that did the GF1 from Tayport to Greyfriars Primary School and therefore runs in a similar loop around Largo Road/ Kilrymont Road

I’m not sure why the morning 99x journeys serve some of central Dundee (train station, Caird Hall, Seagate… Of BusTimes is accurate) but the afternoon journey towards Fife expects passengers to walk over to the bus depot in Dundee to board?

Good use of marginal time, I guess, the buses would be running empty otherwise, i doubt the costs of running it are that high compared to “Not In Service”

Do any/many use it?

 

[Gaelan]

Do any/many use it?

I've taken it once (within St Andrews), and was the only one on the bus.

I’m not sure why the morning 99x journeys serve some of central Dundee (train station, Caird Hall, Seagate… Of BusTimes is accurate) but the afternoon journey towards Fife expects passengers to walk over to the bus depot in Dundee to board?

My only guess is that it has something to do with one-way loop the (Stagecoach) 99 does in Dundee: the Dundee-bound service "terminates" at the railway station before forming the StA-bound service, which then proceeds through the city centre to the bus station before going back over the Tay. But this doesn't quite match that behavior, as the city centre service is on the Dundee-bound direction - maybe trying to match an older version of the Stagecoach timetable? But I'm really grasping at straws here.

 

[OptareLover]

What's up with 8511's bustimes.org tracker?

For quite a long time now, it'll track for a wee bit in the morning then immediately turn off.

 

[Jordan Adam]

What's up with 8511's bustimes.org tracker?

For quite a long time now, it'll track for a wee bit in the morning then immediately turn off.

The ticket machine probably needs a new sim card.

 

[OptareLover]

They will most likely never do this, although I think their branding system needs to change due to false advertisement, wrong routes, etc.

• All of their buses don't need to be branded when bought. Just because the vehicles are *normally* on a specific route, Monday - Saturday mostly. Let me explain with the following example: Four have now been debranded, but when they were first bought, 12 buses were branded for the 28, when the maximum amount of buses on the 28 at one time is 8 or 9 I believe. On Sunday, there only needs to be four, so to actually keep to branded routes (on a Sunday at least), only four need to be branded for the 28; the other eight can just be the plain Electric Emerald livery with no Service 28 advertisement. The same applies to other branded routes
• Frequencies have declined; bus brandings need to be changed to avoid false advertisement. Example: Service 22's livery still says "Every 8 Minutes" when in reality, it's every 30 minutes on Sundays and every 15 or 20 minutes on the other days.
• Possible False Advertisement on Purpose. Service 28's new E400EVs were bought with the livery and false frequencies added. Monday to Friday: Service 28 runs every 12-15 minutes, Saturdays: every 20 minutes, and Sundays: every 30 minutes. At the time, the frequencies were the same, so there's no excuse for adding "Every 8 Minutes" to a new livery when the service isn't every 8 minutes! "Where Does it Say this?" at the rear of the bus, see 8506 -LB71OBU Flickr. Although this could be an easy mistake, but surely they read over their own livery?
• Emerald 5/9/10 livery adjustment; now there are many mistakes. 1) Service 9 hasn't existed for ages, remove that. 2) Service 10 is now a separate route from services 5/5a and do not connect. Livery should be adjusted to remove any marks of the Outer Circle route 10. 3) This isn't really necessary, but I think it'd be nice to add the 5a to the livery which currently doesn't get any credit.

As stated before, they will most likely never do this. Maybe I've been too picky and I am aware paint costs a lot of money.
But if I owned McGill's (Xplore Dundee) and could, I'd definitely do this, lol.

 

[OptareLover]

What happened to Xplore Dundee's "new" livery with the light green front which would replace the old standard dark green XD livery?
https://twitter.com/marcwinsland/status/1595419883105406977?s=46&t=EiLvRQ1ZS_eMGXYC3tECTA

New Xplore Dundee livery

 

[kez19]

They will most likely never do this, although I think their branding system needs to change due to false advertisement, wrong routes, etc.

• All of their buses don't need to be branded when bought. Just because the vehicles are *normally* on a specific route, Monday - Saturday mostly. Let me explain with the following example: Four have now been debranded, but when they were first bought, 12 buses were branded for the 28, when the maximum amount of buses on the 28 at one time is 8 or 9 I believe. On Sunday, there only needs to be four, so to actually keep to branded routes (on a Sunday at least), only four need to be branded for the 28; the other eight can just be the plain Electric Emerald livery with no Service 28 advertisement. The same applies to other branded routes
• Frequencies have declined; bus brandings need to be changed to avoid false advertisement. Example: Service 22's livery still says "Every 8 Minutes" when in reality, it's every 30 minutes on Sundays and every 15 or 20 minutes on the other days.
• Possible False Advertisement on Purpose. Service 28's new E400EVs were bought with the livery and false frequencies added. Monday to Friday: Service 28 runs every 12-15 minutes, Saturdays: every 20 minutes, and Sundays: every 30 minutes. At the time, the frequencies were the same, so there's no excuse for adding "Every 8 Minutes" to a new livery when the service isn't every 8 minutes! "Where Does it Say this?" at the rear of the bus, see 8506 -LB71OBU Flickr. Although this could be an easy mistake, but surely they read over their own livery?
• Emerald 5/9/10 livery adjustment; now there are many mistakes. 1) Service 9 hasn't existed for ages, remove that. 2) Service 10 is now a separate route from services 5/5a and do not connect. Livery should be adjusted to remove any marks of the Outer Circle route 10. 3) This isn't really necessary, but I think it'd be nice to add the 5a to the livery which currently doesn't get any credit.

As stated before, they will most likely never do this. Maybe I've been too picky and I am aware paint costs a lot of money.
But if I owned McGill's (Xplore Dundee) and could, I'd definitely do this, lol.

You raise valid points but I agree with you (mentioned back in terms of the services ie 10/28 and the branding). Thanks for putting the link in terms of thr 28 being "every 8 mins" up as even I didn't spot that but you did mention this above..

As in terms of the 5/5a/10 I wish they would just bring that back - the 5a/10 was a handy bus to use if for me had I missed a 17 or possible 33 to Whitfield (it may have been a bit longer but it was a bus that went fully round Dundee... Maybe McGills should use this as the Discover Dundee route?)

Its similar with the 22 branding as mentioned too (its still on the buses as every 8 mins) but nothing has been adjusted in terms of the previous owner (NX) but you would think of either altering the vinyls on these buses be frequency of example: 5/9/10 and "outer circle", they need tidied up.

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What happened to Xplore Dundee's "new" livery with the light green front which would replace the old standard dark green XD livery?
https://twitter.com/marcwinsland/status/1595419883105406977?s=46&t=EiLvRQ1ZS_eMGXYC3tECTA

If I am honest on that part I haven't seen any bus with that livery on it (yet nearly 6 months on... they could just alter that livery for the 22s just a minor patch up!), I would have said the only bus that had a refresher but for trainer services was 2412
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajrm1...kWfC12-2kJZRwW-2ioDEC8-2i82qtG-2fjLu57-ZLR1Fc (credit arjm1976)

 

[OptareLover]

I haven't seen any bus with that livery on it

You'd be correct in thinking that; none have been repainted and it has been 5 months since the New Year, when it was supposed to come out.

 

[kez19]

You'd be correct in thinking that; none have been repainted and it has been 5 months since the New Year, when it was supposed to come out.

You could really say in the last 5 months the only thing that’s happened is the new electric buses have had some of its vinyls removed (but nothing else repainted or at least updated vinyls to certain routes)

 

[ajrm]

(Replying to something here rather than the Moffat & Williamson thread)



There are two 99x journeys, one is one of the buses that end up at Madras College in the morning/ need to be there in the afternoon (I don’t know if it’s one specific duty or could be the bus that has any of the Tayport/ Newport etc services) whilst the other is the vehicle that did the GF1 from Tayport to Greyfriars Primary School and therefore runs in a similar loop around Largo Road/ Kilrymont Road

I’m not sure why the morning 99x journeys serve some of central Dundee (train station, Caird Hall, Seagate… Of BusTimes is accurate) but the afternoon journey towards Fife expects passengers to walk over to the bus depot in Dundee to board?

Good use of marginal time, I guess, the buses would be running empty otherwise, i doubt the costs of running it are that high compared to “Not In Service”

Do any/many use it?

It's a crew shuttle running as a registered service, for all the usual reasons.

 

[tbtc]

It's a crew shuttle running as a registered service, for all the usual reasons.

That’s fine, it’s just strangely routed as the morning journeys do a lap of the city centre (west past the train station to Nethergate, round Caird Hall to Seagate), as if it’s intended to drop passengers off in the city centre… But the afternoon bus just runs direct from the bus depot with no central stops for any Fife-bound passengers to board at… so it’s a bit like a regular service in the morning but more like just a crew shuttle in the afternoon, which felt a slight contradiction

On a related note, do the other school buses still lay over at Craigtoun (since the 99x used to start there instead)?

 

[OptareLover]

If they park the buses at Craigtoun still, do the drivers use the 99X Driver Shuttle service or something to get back to the depot?

 

[kez19]

In terms of route branding, when they went with the new green colour the only routes that got vinyled up were the 5/10 and 22. I was surprised at National Express (NX) not highlighting other routes on their buses as they did under the Travel Dundee brand. Even back then you had the Fintry Shuttle (32/33), Whitfield Hopper (15/17), Prime Line (22, 22C). Did NX fall out of love of rebranding routes just before McGills took over?

 

[Observer]

What happened to Xplore Dundee's "new" livery with the light green front which would replace the old standard dark green XD livery?
https://twitter.com/marcwinsland/status/1595419883105406977?s=46&t=EiLvRQ1ZS_eMGXYC3tECTA

You'd be correct in thinking that; none have been repainted and it has been 5 months since the New Year, when it was supposed to come out.

I think the best assumption would be they are more focused on dealing with the Scotland East repaints and getting stuff out of the various First liveries rather than anything from Dundee which is still fine.

 

[christopherrfc]

BX62 BJZ in new Xplore Dundee livery.

McGills Xplore Dundee ADL Enviro400 8975, BX62 BJZ ex-London United ADE58 and later ADE40458, Stagecoach East London 80458

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