Messages

Even more confusing as both clockwise and anti-clockwise are both number 40

Actually, it should be less confusing now, although I do reckon one (or both) of the spilt services should have been given a different number (say, 39 for north and 41 for south to remove confusion with the current 40).

Until now, passengers had to understand which direction was clockwise or anti-clockwise and that wasn't so easy - at many places, it would have been fairly obvious from the side of the road the bus was on but it always made me think twice at places like Glenfield Hospital and Beaumont Centre.

Presumably, the new services will show actual final destinations (40N Glenfield Hospital and General Hospital, 40S Beaumont Centre and Hamilton Centre) which should make it easier to recognise the correct bus.

... And I wouldn't be surprised if that new logo as seen on 578 isn't going anywhere.

I saw 2009 on the Melton FoxConnect on Friday, that has the new Centrebus logo 'strip' like 578.

Further service changes have been announced for April.
......
74 reduces to daytime frequency of 30mins (but with enhanced frequency at peak times -  a bit like the 13). I wonder if they plan to inter work the 16 & 74 together again? (Like they did in the past).

I reckon that's unlikely, as the 16 runs to/from Haymarket Bus Station and the 74 runs to/from St Margaret's Bus Station so the buses would need to run back and forth between the two bus stations.

The timings don't fit either, for example, during Mon-Fri daytime the 16's arrive in town at xx05 and xx35 (with departures back on the 16 at xx15 and xx45) while the 74's arrive in town at xx20 and xx50 (with departures back on the 74 at xx25 and xx55).

I did notice that the website states that for the 74: "Following a review a new Monday to Friday timetable will be introduced" - no mention of the reduction in frequency. The 74 route was reduced to every 30 mins (on Mon-Fri) during last summer's school holidays and I travelled on a couple of daytime journeys which left St Margaret's with standing passengers so I'm not sure about the wisdom of reducing the Mon-Fri frequency all year round.

Arriva North West 2672 (CX58 EUO) and 2673 (CX58 EUP) were both still working around Runcorn on Friday 20th December 2024. Did they stop off at Derby en route?

EDIT: There may be some confusion caused if looking at Bustimes.org. It shows both the new 3767 and 3768 as transferred from Arriva Derby to Arriva Midlands but a closer look shows that what is actually happening is the registrations are also changed, from FJ13FYM and FJ13FYW, which were Arriva Derby's vehicles which transferred to North West a year ago. I think it is because the ticket machine codes are being re-used.

EUO was from Derby

Arriva North West 2672 (CX58 EUO) and 2673 (CX58 EUP) were both still working around Runcorn on Friday 20th December 2024. Did they stop off at Derby en route?

North West 2672 CX58 EUO is now Midlands 3767 and working out of Thurmaston (127's on 2nd January)

North West 2673 CX58 EUP is now Midlands 3768 and working out of Hinckley (73's etc on 2nd January)

The First Leicester website (along with other First Bus webpages) has been updated to a new style including the new 'first bus' logo.

Interestingly, the First Group corporate website still has the previous logo although the new 'first bus' logo is shown in the links for 'first bus' and 'first travel solutions', so presumably the corporate logo is not changing.

[Please note that the shuttle service won't operate 1 November - 31 March.]

Yes, still running at the moment. I assume until end of half term? Saw one myself on the shuttle

According to the East Midlands Airport website:

"We have a free pick up or drop off option at our Long Stay car park. This car park is free for up to 60 minutes. Long Stay 2 is a 15 - 20 minute walk or a short shuttle bus journey from the terminal. Please note that the shuttle service won't operate 1 November - 31 March.
Our free shuttle bus operates 24 hours a day, every day. With shuttle buses every 20 minutes, it's a quick journey from the car park to the terminal doors. When returning, the Pick Up zone is just outside of arrivals."

The driver shortage is over so it's time to get rid of boards that require buses running as little as 15 minutes late from terminating early on the last run of the day in order to get back to the depot within driver hours. Or at least I assume it's poor diagramming pushing hours to the limit rather than a lazy driver that caused the 17:40 50 to Narborough to terminate at Fosse Park due to the driver needing to get back to the depot on time.

While not arguing that what happened was customer-friendly, the decision was presumably made for a good reason. Are we sure there was no problem with the vehicle?

By the time it arrived at Fosse Park, the 1740 Leicester - Narborough was running 17 minutes late, which could potentially have meant the driver might be close to exceeding his hours if he continued to Narborough then back to depot, especially if there were any further delays on his empty trip. The 1800 Leicester - Narborough was less than 5 minutes behind the 1740 at Fosse Park so, apart from having to change buses, the impact on passengers would have been minor.

4750 has reportedly been withdrawn due to a collision, leaving only twelve Pulsar Geminis remaining.

4750 is showing on bustimes.org, tracking currently on route 48 (departure from Leicester at 1135). It has not tracked for a couple of days but if it was just a minor 'bump' that would make sense.

Alternatively, the ticket machine may have been transferred into a different vehicle without the vehicle number being changed - so, has anyone viewed any of these journeys to be able to confirm which bus is actually working them?

Rail replacement until the weekend,specifically the trams.

That would be 35179 which is a Leicester-branded Streetdeck currently in Sheffield.

Pscar05's post had it the other way round - a Sheffield-branded Streetdeck in Leicester. If that's so, any ideas what that might have been?

[joint]

... apparently we are not able to have the electric busses due to planning problems with the ports (seen on Instagram the land owner isn't allowing the electric chargers to be installed)

Serious thought -

According to the news item on the Leicester Buses website, the Arriva electric double-deck buses were (partly?) funded by a joint bid to the Government's Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme by Arriva UK Bus and Leicester City Council.

These things normally require the money to be used only for the stated purpose (in this case, electric buses for Leicester) otherwise the grant has to be re-paid, so I am not sure that Arriva can just send them elsewhere - or what Leicester City Council would do if they did try to do that.

[4426]

Thurmaston depot's ticket machine numbering strikes again!

Bustimes has Arriva Merseyside 4426 (MX09 LXH, although the reg has now been removed) tracking on Midlands route 127 today. Having viewed one of the journeys, I can confirm that this is actually Midlands 4425 (YX64 VPF). Merseyside 4426 is not on the list of buses due to transfer to Midlands, possibly because it is in a special livery for a local children's hospice in Merseyside, and it has also been tracking on Merseyside today so clearly hasn't moved.

In addition, 4424 (YX64 VPE) is still active in Leicester although it doesn't seem to have tracked as itself since 19th January. It is actually one of two vehicles tracking as 4435 - 4435 is the one on route 127 while the 4435 which has been tracking today on routes 84 then 49 is actually 4424.

[4435]

Former Arriva North-West 4419 (CX58 GBV) is now in service with Arriva Midlands at Thurmaston - it has been renumbered 4435 and was viewed on Saturday (23rd December) on route 48.

4427 (MX09 LXJ) is also now in service - ironically, in light of the previous comments about 4428, when viewed on Saturday morning (again on route 48) 4427's destination display was ... stuck on 'reversing'!

4433 looks like a dodgy swop, according to Bustimes hasn't earned a penny in a month

I think 4433 is getting an undeserved reputation for unreliability, maybe based on the tracking data on bustimes.org.

Yesterday (Wednesday 29th), the tracking data suggests that 4433 worked the 0750 route 48 from South Wigston to Leicester but it has not reported all the way to the city centre, just at a few stops in South Wigston. It then shows no other work for the day.

BUT - I travelled on 4433 yesterday on the 1012 route 48 from Leicester to South Wigston. This is part of the same timeboard as the 0750 from South Wigston and the remainder of this timeboard seems to be missing from Wednesday's tracking record, so it's probably that the tracking equipment is faulty rather than that the vehicle keeps breaking down.

The bus sounded in perfectly good fettle on the trip to South Wigston.

It's always started and finished in Humberstone Gate, maybe it because it's moved stops

Sorry, I have to disagree.

The August 2022 timetable leaflet shows route 17 as Charles Street (Stand CD) - Highfields - Charles Street.

It moved to Humberstone Gate East in April 2023.