Bus full

[Steve3229vp]

Would splitting it at Erdington say be a good idea to improve reliability?
So 28 Erdington - Great Barr and new route say 98 - Erdington to Hearthalnds.

No, the 28 has a lot a local passengers on all of it's route. I would have an overlapped timetable as follows:
Scott Arms - Castle Vale/Chester Road every 15 minutes and Dyas Road - Heartlands Hospital every 15 minutes, both would give every 7-8 minutes between Dyas Road and Castle Vale/Chester Road. The biggest problem at the moment is that if there is an accident on the M6, the 28 is affected by the Castle Bromwich junction and the junction near the Scott Arms. My idea of an overlap timetable would be each service would mainly be affected by one of the junctions. The other reason is that buses would be less likely to be full on the main part of the route.

[John]

Its a joke even in the daytime and on Saturdays, the drivers just don't care and don't seem to not know that theres a reduced capacity and will just let them keep filling up.
Since its gone to every 10 minutes its more common you'll see 2/3 running in close proximity to each other in the peak times, the Walsall Road roadworks have made this near enough a joke as it can take at times 20/30 mins just to get to the Scott Arms. Still haven't bothered to update the branding to say 'every 10 minutes' even though you'll be waiting for much longer. The 10 minute frequency has just seen them bunch up a lot more.

But I think the single deck services are worse for overcowding than the services with double decks.

1. Remember the driver in France who got killed after asking someone to wear a mask. No way I am going to risk my safety asking people to put on a mask. We have no power at all to ask people why they are not wearing masks and I have no intention to ask anyone. I look after myself first and that means driving the bus and going home safely

2. Have you ever tried to say no to people getting on a already full bus? People don't listen to us at the best of times so they will get on regardless of whether the bus is full or not

Either of these been asked to people will 90% end up in the driver been told to F off or other abuse

[bususer28]

I'm agreeing here, if the drivers cared they wouldn't ram the buses up when they know its rammed

At no point is it fair to blame bus drivers. If you're not happy don't travel!

[Tony]

1. Remember the driver in France who got killed after asking someone to wear a mask. No way I am going to risk my safety asking people to put on a mask. We have no power at all to ask people why they are not wearing masks and I have no intention to ask anyone. I look after myself first and that means driving the bus and going home safely

2. Have you ever tried to say no to people getting on a already full bus? People don't listen to us at the best of times so they will get on regardless of whether the bus is full or not

Either of these been asked to people will 90% end up in the driver been told to F off or other abuse

Remember these people don't own to to doing any job, let alone one dealing with the public

[Jack]

It just begs belief really, a few times I've seen drivers challenge this the non-mask wearer has walked straight back off, just like most fare dodgers I understand the risk of assault but I'm pretty sure thats why the assault screen is existing let alone NX have covered the holes on the drivers door, so I'm not sure why its an issue really. If its not challenged then people are going to think it is okay to do...

Full bus scenario: again some drivers have sometimes stopped just before the bus stop to let off people on a crowded bus meaning they can't let alone fill back up and rammed and let the empty bus behind take the scale of people waiting at stops.

Remember these people don't own to to doing any job, let alone one dealing with the public

I don't remember why someones personal life has to be publicly shared on a forum!

[Westy]

If WMT hadn't changed it's policy back in the 90's,  to start buying more single deckers instead of continuing to buy more double deckers, would we be having this discussion?

[2206]

If WMT hadn't changed it's policy back in the 90's,  to start buying more single deckers instead of continuing to buy more double deckers, would we be having this discussion?

They've started to increase the number of deckers on the fleet, in recent years 55 and University routes converted to Double Decker plus B7RLE removed from Harborne & Cov Road so BC is all double deck.

The 28 route mentioned in this thread is one route that has a low bridge on it however, in Erdington. I think it'd need to at least be rerouted via South Road or Chudleigh Road, for deckers to run on there.

If there is 20 new hydrogens coming soon, could mean they can up the double decker fleet by another 20 maybe and replace some older 2006 B7RLE?

[Steve3229vp]

They've started to increase the number of deckers on the fleet, in recent years 55 and University routes converted to Double Decker plus B7RLE removed from Harborne & Cov Road so BC is all double deck.

The 28 route mentioned in this thread is one route that has a low bridge on it however, in Erdington. I think it'd need to at least be rerouted via South Road or Chudleigh Road, for deckers to run on there.

If there is 20 new hydrogens coming soon, could mean they can up the double decker fleet by another 20 maybe and replace some older 2006 B7RLE?

The 28 used South Road when it was double deck operated until 2007 when it was re-routed under Summer Road bridge. It was difficult getting up and down South Road 14 years ago, it would be even worse now.

[2206]

The 28 used South Road when it was double deck operated until 2007 when it was re-routed under Summer Road bridge. It was difficult getting up and down South Road 14 years ago, it would be even worse now.

Could go up South Rd one way and Chudleigh Road & Marsh Lane the other or use Chudleigh Road both ways, would that work?

[Mike K]

If WMT hadn't changed it's policy back in the 90's,  to start buying more single deckers instead of continuing to buy more double deckers, would we be having this discussion?

I doubt that the WMT policy of the 90s has any bearing on more recent times - those buses all passed through the system a long time ago. You would expect that vehicle procurement policy is driven by the routes the company operates / plans to operate and demand / capacity requirements for those services. This changes over time, as does bus usage, merging and consolidation of routes etc.

And the current global pandemic couldn't possibly have been foreseen by bus operators.

[PB2938]

Regarding single deckers I think the problem is the route which they was originally intended for then later converted to double deck. Some examples

AG 72 E200 in 2015 converted to Double deck June 2017

BC 21xx for 98 29 X64 then cascaded to Walsall/Wolverhampton

PB 16 65 934 in 2007/2008 later converted back to Double Deck.

YW 6 Scania in 2010 double deck by 2019.

[Busboy105]

Regarding single deckers I think the problem is the route which they was originally intended for then later converted to double deck. Some examples

AG 72 E200 in 2015 converted to Double deck June 2017

BC 21xx for 98 29 X64 then cascaded to Walsall/Wolverhampton

PB 16 65 934 in 2007/2008 later converted back to Double Deck.

YW 6 Scania in 2010 double deck by 2019.

The 6 should never have been single deck in my opinion considering how packed it was the second most frequent service on the Stratford Road corridor.
The 72 (I'm pretty sure) got a PVR upgrade in the latest East Birmingham consultation which allowed it to get double decked although it was a bit saddening to see that either the 71 or the 72 couldn't use the MMC's that were brought especially for them

[Tony]

I don't know what you're referring to with the 71/72 but it is rubbish

The reason the 6 was the most frequent Stratford Road service was because the frequency was increased to make it single deck. It was done because of the appalling vandalism that was happening on the route at the time

[Jack]

The 72 only went to single deck operation back in 2011 because of the extension to Birmingham which was cut back in 2017 meaning Deckers were allowed back. Whereas the 71 has always had to be single decks because of the Park Lane Bridge.

Another route that failed miserably was the 97 in 2007 to Omnilinks then back to Tridents in 2010, even when BC stupidly put B7RLE's on there during the day it would be packed.

Also the 907 was made Single Deck for a few months in 2010 alongside the 65 with Omnilinks transferring in and failing miserably, but I'm sure the 65 could actually go back to Omnilinks now, especially with the combined frequency with the 67 along the Lichfield Road, only problem is they both interwork now. Even now with PB having way more Omnilinks than required they still tend to creep onto Decker services at times...

The reason the 6 was the most frequent Stratford Road service was because the frequency was increased to make it single deck. It was done because of the appalling vandalism that was happening on the route at the time

Did that actually work? As the Omnilinks and the E200MMC's on the 6 had a fair set of vandalism when I caught them on the 6.

[2206]

The 72 only went to single deck operation back in 2011 because of the extension to Birmingham which was cut back in 2017 meaning Deckers were allowed back. Whereas the 71 has always had to be single decks because of the Park Lane Bridge.

Another route that failed miserably was the 97 in 2007 to Omnilinks then back to Tridents in 2010, even when BC stupidly put B7RLE's on there during the day it would be packed.

Also the 907 was made Single Deck for a few months in 2010 alongside the 65 with Omnilinks transferring in and failing miserably, but I'm sure the 65 could actually go back to Omnilinks now, especially with the combined frequency with the 67 along the Lichfield Road, only problem is they both interwork now. Even now with PB having way more Omnilinks than required they still tend to creep onto Decker services at times...
Did that actually work? As the Omnilinks and the E200MMC's on the 6 had a fair set of vandalism when I caught them on the 6.

I think its more to do with the 72 interworking with the 71, rather than the extension. As the buses allocated would have had to go under the Castle Vale bridge at some point in the day. The X12 replaced the Birmingham section and now uses double deckers.

55 and X20/X21/X22 both needed double decks as well, from my experience using them. The 55/94 routes get really busy, 4577 was very busy heading out of the City Centre yesterday when I used it for instance.

Single deckers to reduce vandalism probably would work a bit I would have thought, a lot of the faredogers and smokers tend to make for the back seats of the top deck.