Messages

Hi Simon

Is there any plans to improve reliability on the 226/W. Last few weeks I've noticed that some of the journeys (weekday peaks, Saturday off peak and Sundays) have a habit of running consistently late

Tom (the trainbasher)

I can offer a bit of input regarding reliability in peak periods from a driver perspective as I've driven the 226 route before....

The occasional late running at peak periods on Monday to Friday comes from the traffic between the hospital and Pensnett and also through Wordsley at the lights by The Cat pub. It's a weird one to be honest because one day you can go straight through the hospital and not hit any traffic and get straight over the lights at Wordsley, the other day you'll hit both the traffic at the hospital and the lights. On an evening you can also hit traffic at the Five Ways junction at Brierley Hill, again though that can be very hit and miss. You can also lose time coming out of Dudley if you catch all the lights wrong at King Street, I've had it happen to me before now that I've caught every set of lights on King street, those lights can easily put you 2-3 minutes down. On the other hand I've gone straight through the lights with them all on green!

The late running on a Saturday or Sunday I don't know because I've never driven the route on either day.

As a driver I don't feel it's a reliability issue as such, because if you only hit one or 2 sets of lights at Dudley or only a little bit of traffic at the hospital it's possible to keep it on time at peak periods, the problem comes from traffic delays no one can control.