It's not unusual at the ends of the route for 3 or 4 buses to arrive together. Adding to congestion and driver needs.
Indeed, the only issue with that is that lower frequencies can be a turn off for potential new passengers. Ideally the 2 should operate every 10 minutes with deckers in "normal" times.
I am not familiar with the operation of route number 2 but when calculating the number of vehicles required, cognisance may require to be taken of what layover time is included . For example, in the Monday to Friday route 6 timetable applicable from 18 October 2015 until the COVID reductions, 26 vehicles were required as per the basic calculation, but due to the layover times ( 11 minutes at Clydebank and 15 at Calderwood ) the number of vehicles required for the basic 10 minute frequency was 28.
A round trip on the 2 off peak currently takes exactly 4 hours including layover. The 1013 2 from Baillieston for example gets to Faifley at 1204, it departs Faifley at 1214 getting back to Baillieston at 1402, it then departs Baillieston again exactly four hours later at 1413.
The reduction will most likely be permanent eventually.
Passengers are not particularly interested in what the service frequency of the 2 is. What they are interested in is that the service turns up on time. They can get on the vehicle and be seated and more importantly it arrives at the time expected on the timetable.
The 2 and 3 have been horrendously unreliable in the afternoon peak especially for years sadly. In the morning the 2 is okay most of the time between Faifley and Scotstoun but a mess afterwards. After work for me it's a lottery of when a bus actually turns up as the 2 and 3 can either be a 5 min wait or 45 but it changes by the day
To be honest I don't know how you could possibly keep to any timetable between Scotstoun and the city centre. You're either whizzing along or crawling at walking pace and that's in a car. It must be a nightmare trying to keep to your schedule.
I fully agree and that's why I'd split the routes of both the 2 and 3 so that the rest of the route doesn't get affected anywhere near as much as it does. Scotstoun and Partick lately have been constant roadworks with temporary lights that have taken 6-7 mins to get by.
Strangely this wasn't in the afternoon peak. It was just after lunchtime. The return back in the peak was fine.
I see buses only running to Scotstoun sometimes even in the morning on my way to work because there's no driver to swap over to. Bizarrely I had a 2 start at Anderston before towards Faifley but it's usually Scotstoun. I've also seen a 6 start at Hope St too randomly
No, the 2 & 3 will most likely be used by people going cross-city, it has been this way for years now, cutting those in half pushes people further away from a bus if it makes more hassle for them and that is particularly bad practice because it’s the easier option to swallow.
Splitting routes annoys people and makes travel more difficult and the cross city routes are actually used as such
Reliability issues pushes people away more from experience and especially now it's never been more essential that routes are reliable especially with the driver shortage as bad as it is.
There's no rhyme or reason to the traffic flows along Dumbarton Road even as far along as Yoker Ferry. I travel this road frequently at varying times of the day and you can never predict what lies ahead. I remember years ago (sometime in the 80's I think) there was a proposal to convert the old railway line running between the Clyde and Dumbarton Rd into a freeway from the Clydebank boundary connecting to the expressway at Castlebank St which would have solved a lot of todays problems but this was kicked into touch by the environmental lobby.
Splitting routes may not improve reliability though, in fact it would lead to a higher vehicle requirement and more buses in the city centre since those split routes would need to overlap. And those using the service for cross city connections would be put off traveling by bus as the need to change makes it less convenient.
I would disagree as at the moment you have a single point of failure however by splitting routes you introduce multiple points of failure.
You also take away problems from other parts of routes by splitting them. The 3 is a great example of this. If you split at Silverburn for example the Silverburn to Govan section gets a lot better which actually benefits people plus with the driver shortages which even with these coming changes there will still be a lot of IMO, you need reliability or people will just get cars or the train instantly.
Pretty much every route in Glasgow is over an hour. Even quick buses like the 41 can be 45 mins plus end to end.
when the 41 was split, now the 41 & 6A may run late into town but they both have 10 minutes layover each, that’s can surely be 20 minutes that could be reutilised if they were reconnected, it doesn’t always make sense to split routes.
Unless there is a significant increase in patronage then this is total fantasy island stuff. The industry is in a bad way as it is just now and goodness knows what it will be like in the next 5 years unless substantial public money is forthcoming.
With the exception of Buchanan Bus Station, where in the city centre would these buses terminate?
Sell to whom? Do you really believe they've got the authority to do that?
Yeah I did not think the last statement through, I mean the groups directors as a whole.
The lack of terminus points in the city center is very good point as Buchanan bus station is running at a fairly high capacity. There's limited alternatives and these are used already by the East Kilbride routes , the 10 and the 41
The West Regent Street one is reasonably quiet. Up Hope Street, then West Regent Street and Renfield Street. For that matter St Enoch Centre or Howard Street and Osborne Street too could handle things too. From the West the current route to Queen Street and Howard Street. From the East direct to there. In other words a city centre loop.
Shiny new 38449 on the 60 today.
The Howard Street one is really busy and I have more than once sat on 60s queued to get in to that stop.
There's also the St Enoch Centre, which is currently a taxi rank or Osborne Street for that matter.