Bus Conductors on West Midlands Buses

[Steveminor]

For safety the driver is told to stay in his cab, now what is the poor conductor to do he won't have anywhere to hide when today's troglodytes decide they want to attack someone purely for doing their job.
No in today's society it simply would not be safe to re-introduce conductors, the only option would be 2 police officers on each bus, which again wouldn't be "cost effective" or start using cattle trucks for some of the rougher routes ( as was once suggested to me by a NX inspector )

[Westy]

Anyone watching the Routemaster series on BBC TWO?

Dunno how London operations compare to WM operations, but some of the bus drivers have a patience of a saint.

[Trident 4609]

Anyone watching the Routemaster series on BBC TWO?

Dunno how London operations compare to WM operations, but some of the bus drivers have a patience of a saint.

Yes i've been watching it. It was about night buses on Tuesday.

If you look qt Birmingham you have one night service at an hourly frequency but you look at london and they have over 100 night service with one service (N25 ithink) being every 6 mins.

[Stuharris 6360]

Anyone watching the Routemaster series on BBC TWO?

Dunno how London operations compare to WM operations, but some of the bus drivers have a patience of a saint.

Yes i've been watching it. It was about night buses on Tuesday.

If you look qt Birmingham you have one night service at an hourly frequency but you look at london and they have over 100 night service with one service (N25 ithink) being every 6 mins.

They got that one wrong on the tv, the most frequent night bus is the N29 on Friday and saturday nights which leaves Trafalgar Square every 3 Minutes.

[bwsau cymru]

well with the introduction of swift to nxwm routes and this talk of conductors why not extend it to
"if they are going that far why not go all the way and introduce the borrismaster to brum?"

[Steveminor]

 "if they are going that far why not go all the way and introduce the borrismaster to brum?"

Now wouldn't that be funny especially if it was a smaller operator who introduced them

[Stuharris 6360]

"if they are going that far why not go all the way and introduce the Borismaster to brum?"

Now wouldn't that be funny especially if it was a smaller operator who introduced them

Believe me you wouldn't like Borismasters in Brum.

I went to London to try them out when they were launched on route 24 last weekend to basically see whether they had improved since the original 8 were produced.

Unfortunately they haven't, firstly despite them being launched as the new alternative to the old Routemaster with Hop On - Hop Off available, the "Conductors" (i use the word conductor, although they don't collect fares) won't allow anyway to jump on or off except at a bus stop. At a bus stop, only an oyster card holder can board at any door, other tickets must be shown to the driver.

Despite it having an open back door during peak times, the bus has very few windows for ventilation with none on the upper deck. There is air conditioning, but it still gets really hot on the upper deck.

To me the bus is a total failure!!

[Steveminor]

"To me the bus is a total failure!!"
So when do Diamond get theres?

[Tony]

well with the introduction of swift to nxwm routes and this talk of conductors why not extend it to
"if they are going that far why not go all the way and introduce the borrismaster to brum?"

First problem is TfL have copyrighted it. No-one other than Wrights is allowed to build them for a few years, and Wrights are not allowed to sell them to anyone else

[winston]

"To me the bus is a total failure!!"
So when do Diamond get theres?

Sometime never, as Diamond seem to be shy splashing the cash on new buses

[Kevin]

All they need to do re. conductors is what I've experienced in Holland - zero tolerance spot checks, far more often than you see them at the moment. Can be cruel to foreigners or people who are genuinely clueless and have no idea where theyre going etc, but by christ it works

[andyr]

At a cost of over £345.000 per unit i doubt any operator would consider it a viable option. Having travelled on a numbet of them my opinion is they are nothing special. The lower deck is ok but upstairs is far low and clostraphobic. (yes i know spelt incorrectly). Perhapes with Wrights being so busy building these lame ducks the abvantage as been given to ADL for other orders.

[Stuharris 6360]

At a cost of over £345.000 per unit i doubt any operator would consider it a viable option. Having travelled on a numbet of them my opinion is they are nothing special. The lower deck is ok but upstairs is far low and clostraphobic. (yes i know spelt incorrectly). Perhapes with Wrights being so busy building these lame ducks the abvantage as been given to ADL for other orders.

It`s actually £354,000 per unit, which is a disgrace considering that two staff are needed if the rear door is to be open.

I watched the programme on BBC2 on Tuesday night, where they showed these buses running on route 38, what they failed to say is that since the filming, TFL have removed the financing for the 2nd man (conductor) and the buses are now running conventionally with the rear door closed.

[Dylan4579]

WHAT?????????!!!!!

[winston]

At a cost of over £345.000 per unit i doubt any operator would consider it a viable option. Having travelled on a numbet of them my opinion is they are nothing special. The lower deck is ok but upstairs is far low and clostraphobic. (yes i know spelt incorrectly). Perhapes with Wrights being so busy building these lame ducks the abvantage as been given to ADL for other orders.

It`s actually £354,000 per unit, which is a disgrace considering that two staff are needed if the rear door is to be open.

I watched the programme on BBC2 on Tuesday night, where they showed these buses running on route 38, what they failed to say is that since the filming, TFL have removed the financing for the 2nd man (conductor) and the buses are now running conventionally with the rear door closed.

Another white elephant....

Why not just buy standard Hybrid double deckers @ approx £300k each and save Tfl around £54k per bus