Quote from: Glenfieldmathk1 on October 06, 2023, 08:04:03 PMThe saffrons appear to be leaving now. Today just 3 remaining in service. I guess issues with electric singles have been ironed out. Although still 2 not been in use since June?The big problem on both the 15 and 54 is headway. There isn't sufficient bus priority in Leicester to deliver a reliable and robust 7/8 minute headway without bunching occurring. This is exacerbated if you have a nonchalant driver with a tardy attitude to right time running. What you end up with is single-deck (1) in front being loaded to the gunnels - that increases unloading time and dwell time at stops is increased. Single-deck (2) behind has an easy ride and catches up the bus in front, increasing the gap with the bus behind. Single-deck (3) then gets a hammering and so on and so forth...
Still a lot of customers unhappy along the 13/14/18 routes that buses are too full / and are being left behind. Twitter team say it's being monitored.. but like one complainant was saying how can they monitor how many are being skipped past at bus stops? Wondering how the 54's getting on too..
It's not good really axing so many double deckers. Even potteries now has more double deckers. Which the old MD said Leicester was in a good position compared to pmt.. so why would they put more doubles there than in Leicester?
In addition, hands-on, frontline service delivery isn't there to deal with any problems and keep the service running reliably. This isn't a problem unique to First.
Customers are key to sorting this out through regularly communicating and complaining to the company.
On the face of it, there are fewer political strings attached to PMT than Leicester. In Stoke, passenger numbers on certain routes have grown and the company has reacted in a positive way, by bringing in other double-deck resources from elsewhere; the two, reasonably new, StreetDecks from York. Fair play to them that they've used something reasonably youthful rather than procuring life-expired / semi life-expired double-deckers. There was a fair deal of commitment to get the electric ball rolling in Leicester and maybe someone did act with a touch of haste (who knows) with opting to go for so many saloons - there's nothing to say that, in time, if the loadings do become regularly too much for single-decks, they can't go elsewhere in group and be replaced by electric deckers. Like I said at the start though, bus priority and front line delivery needs to improve exponentially. With Sunak's comment about not wanting a 'war on motorists', I cannot see Leicester ceasing to be a traffic ridden place, where car drivers believe they have carte blanche to ignore traffic regulation orders, any time soon.