Messages

[it's your own fault]

LOL through disbelief - your original point was this, verbatim:

"if you can't spot that it says 59 on the front of the bus (or the back, or the side) then it's your own fault"

I find that offensive, like I find your flippancy towards people with a disability offensive.    (Sorry Tony and Admin.).   

I wasn't born with perfect vision - and I've had operations to sort it - but as far as you're concerned that birth defect was my fault.

Erm... actually that was in response to someone mentioning a 59 bus on a differently branded bus who thought it was the the branded number in circulation instead of the 59, so...  again... as I said, a blind person wouldn't have seen the branding either so I don't understand the need to bring that up. I'm not sure where I condemned anybody with disabilities exactly. It seems like you're trying to best to be offended and argue?

Why should they be used in the week during the day. Tridents and E400 are both very common on the 29.

It's been mostly single deckers recently.

One man's snide is another's irony.  Do you happen to know the prescription of Stevie Wonder's contact lenses?

As Tony says, visual impairment takes all sorts of forms.  Greater awareness of this does everyone a favour.  Awareness and patience.

Well "Stevie Wonder"  wouldn't have seen the branding either so that is irrelevant to the original point.

5515 is on there, or at least had been this morning. Not sure of its whereabouts since then.

Yeah ironically I saw one about 20 minutes of posting this, but this was a rarity today. Most days you don't see it. Sundays are well and good but what about during the week at busy times..

And what glasses help people with dyslexia see the numbers in the right order?

There's many people around who cannot read a destination display easily

Well I'd imagine that those people would maybe ask the driver or something if they were having difficulty in knowing what route it is?

How come the Hybrids are never being used to help out the 29? I'm on yet another packed single decker right now. They seem to get put on the 24 regularly when that route is practically all deckers as it is

I'm sure the Eye Hospital guys would be interested to hear your progressive views.  8)

Well there's always glasses or contact lenses. No need to be snide.

Personally I'm not sure about these proposed changes. If I lived on one of these routes and commuted into the city every day I'm not sure I'd be that impressed with having to change buses along the way.

Yep, I agree with this.

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2016/08/30/passenger-stabbed-in-face-by-robber-on-number-74-bus/ someone has been stabbed on 74 Soho on Sunday morning

Bloody hell, I have to get that bus on a daily basis! It's incidents like this that will probably see night buses withdrawn.

Correct, the 'spare' Hybrids are used on the 24, also a Harborne route, with the bulk of them on the 22/23.

The original question by MasterPlan is reasonable. The B5s spend 99% of their time on Harborne routes; of every vehicle type in the current fleet, they probably stray the least. For most batches of buses for a specific route or group of routes, it's not unusual for 70 to 80% to be branded, with the B5s it's only 50%.

Yeah exactly. There doesn't seem to as much that are branded as with others. And as you say they get used on the 24 and 29 as apares.usually so it's still Harborne.

I think I understand where you're coming from.. I believe (when) branding is smart, clear & legible - it serves as a really helpful tool for the operator's customers. On the other hand, I'd also say that branding should be kept to a minimum.

As you've mentioned, they can still be used on other routes. However, you wouldn't believe the amount of times buses off their branded routes has caused confusion amongst people. My *stubborn* friend had refused to believe me when I said that the 24 was not running at an "Every 7 Minutes" frequency - claiming he saw it on the bus; turns out it was a 14 branded bus..

I seem to remember this article (prior to the introduction of Platinums) about a someone who had caught a 59(?), thinking it was the 957 because of the branding...

To be honest though, if you can't spot that it says 59 on the front of the bus (or the back, or the side) then it's your own fault in all honesty. Branded buses on other routes isn't exactly a new thing anymore. As for the 24 scenario, again it clearly says "14" next to the every 7 mins, so I don't understand what the problem is there either. I guessed that maybe eventually most routes would be branded in some fashion, but maybe not. Which is a shame, because as you say, when it's done properly it looks smart.

This would make branding become irrelevant and unhelpful. Also, if you made all buses branded, then what would spare buses be branded for?

I didn't think the Hybrids were 'spares' though? I thought Tridents, E400s were used as spares.

Buses are all allocated to routes, yes, but I don't think that calls for every single bus of the same calibre to be branded for strictly one/ a set of route(s). It's like saying why isn't all the Enviro 400Hs all branded for the 1? Because they're bound to show up on another route now and then. Maybe less so at BC but hybrids have appeared elsewhere; including the 14(E), 97, 957, etc..

Yeah but they can still be used on other routes if they're branded, as you see it all the time. Just figured they would be is all. The only other routes I've seen them on are 126 and once on the X64.

Harborne branded ones are exWN hybrids.

5510-5518 was sent over to BC and the other way round for 5401-5409 (BC to WN) - someone correct me if i'm wrong but some red branding had been recycled from when the Volvos were branded for the 1 back in Wolvo.

But why aren't 5501-5509 branded too? As they're only meant for Harborne use.

There is no mention of removing 'Wednesbury' in your above reply

I didn't think I had to, as it was pretty obvious what I meant.