ScotRail158725
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Lothian seem to treat it like a school route by putting the worst from the depot on
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Lothian Buses and ECB Discussion
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VioletEclipse
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They prefer to use their newer stock for their key services, and to have their image being brand new, or reasonably new bus, not a 14 year old bus almost at the end of it's life, mostly noticeable when there is a special service (98/X99 for example) when the newest stock is there for the day and many other routes get slightly older stock than normal.
FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
I can see some of the moved B7's being used by Marine to make the numbers up (ie 5 of them), the rest should be stored though pending sale/future use
VioletEclipse
Member
That would make good sense, I guess we'll see what happens with route allocations tomorrow, both services 11 and 16 should be mostly XLBs I would think.
300th post, whoop. I do post a lot...
Lothian285
Member
Lothian's social media seems to suggest they will just be on service 11 tomorrow.
FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
Thing is though unless they get rid of the Marine runs the 11 will continue to have standard buses on it, I agree though just the 11 tomorrow with the 16 presumably on Saturday given the date coincidence
Lothian_Bus
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I thought the Marine runs on service 11 stopped last year?
Lothian285
Member
There are also two journeys a day from Ocean Terminal that turn into service 15 at Elm Row. I wonder if these journeys will be operated by E400 XLBs or not?
ScotRail158725
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Marine car park is literally almost full. Only enough room for 3 more rows of 2. Wonder where the drivers will park
FlybeDash8Q400
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They reduced it, but there are still a few
Lothian_Bus
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Ok will look out for that today.
Lothian_Bus
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Now on service on the C134.
Old Passenger
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All the No. 11 buses seem to be on the new Enviro400XLB buses today. I'm just a passenger, but here are a few thoughts.
These buses are fast or rather, they have good acceleration, the seats are comfortable, they don't rattle and they are smooth, i.e. the suspension seems comfortably soft. However, I found I banged my head off the ceiling when I went to sit in the seats just in front of the engine. (My height is 175cm or 5'9"). In addition, above the new additional seats over the forward of the two rear wheel arches there is a grab handle on a strap. I banged my head on that as well. Also, the ventilation fan at the back of the lower deck is excruciatingly loud. (This is not a aggravation found just on these buses.) There are solutions to this, but I guess the engineers never travel by bus.
I suspect for the driver there are other difficulties. Firstly these buses are long. In my area there are at least two corners where the driver will have to choose between going up on the pavement or going on the wrong side of the road. That could easily have been predicted. Secondly, the driver now has to get out to operate the wheelchair ramp manually. On other buses this is operated by a control in the cab. I mentioned this to the driver and he said the powered ramps were always breaking down. This seems to me to be a pretty lame solution to that problem. Thirdly, the mid-bus exit door is back. I seem to remember this was done away with many years ago to prevent fare avoidance. I can't see any new measures to avoid this happening in the future. Additionally, this exit means I have to make a detour to thank the driver, which I always do (and so does my grand-daughter!).
Two more general points: firstly, these buses are pure diesel, not hybrids. I'm surprised anyone still makes such things. Surely hybrids have a fuel consumption advantage, let alone all the environmental stuff. Secondly do we really need bigger buses? The key feature for the passengers on any bus service is frequency, less so capacity. If all these new 130-passenger buses had been instead twice as many 70-passenger buses, run with twice the frequency, there would have been more happy customers. I know, twice as many buses need twice as many drivers, so we can see what the motives are here. However, what's a bus service for, making a profit or serving passengers? Answers please on a postage stamp...
These buses are fast or rather, they have good acceleration, the seats are comfortable, they don't rattle and they are smooth, i.e. the suspension seems comfortably soft. However, I found I banged my head off the ceiling when I went to sit in the seats just in front of the engine. (My height is 175cm or 5'9"). In addition, above the new additional seats over the forward of the two rear wheel arches there is a grab handle on a strap. I banged my head on that as well. Also, the ventilation fan at the back of the lower deck is excruciatingly loud. (This is not a aggravation found just on these buses.) There are solutions to this, but I guess the engineers never travel by bus.
I suspect for the driver there are other difficulties. Firstly these buses are long. In my area there are at least two corners where the driver will have to choose between going up on the pavement or going on the wrong side of the road. That could easily have been predicted. Secondly, the driver now has to get out to operate the wheelchair ramp manually. On other buses this is operated by a control in the cab. I mentioned this to the driver and he said the powered ramps were always breaking down. This seems to me to be a pretty lame solution to that problem. Thirdly, the mid-bus exit door is back. I seem to remember this was done away with many years ago to prevent fare avoidance. I can't see any new measures to avoid this happening in the future. Additionally, this exit means I have to make a detour to thank the driver, which I always do (and so does my grand-daughter!).
Two more general points: firstly, these buses are pure diesel, not hybrids. I'm surprised anyone still makes such things. Surely hybrids have a fuel consumption advantage, let alone all the environmental stuff. Secondly do we really need bigger buses? The key feature for the passengers on any bus service is frequency, less so capacity. If all these new 130-passenger buses had been instead twice as many 70-passenger buses, run with twice the frequency, there would have been more happy customers. I know, twice as many buses need twice as many drivers, so we can see what the motives are here. However, what's a bus service for, making a profit or serving passengers? Answers please on a postage stamp...
Jordan Adam
Established Member
They won't rattle as they're brand new, give them a few months and they'll start rattling about.
The issue with corners is one we all saw coming.
Regarding thanking the driver that's not really an issue with the bus, out of anything going down to the front to thank the driver and then exiting at the rear door is probably the worst thing you could do. Most people don't thank the driver when using the rear door. We've got Artics up here with doors in the rear and typically i just give a wave down to the front when getting off, the whole point of the second door is to speed up loading/unloading going down to the front to thank the driver will first off distracted them but also ruin the benefits of the second door. Again with the artics here i've never in almost 20 years witnessed anyone using the rear doors to fare dodge, personally speaking i think it's one of these issues which is more isolated to London than it is the rest of the UK.
I think Lothian's management touched on this recently, but on the whole diesel buses are just as environmentally friendly as hybrids are and they're much cheaper to run. With many of the Hybrid on the market right now you actually find they're worse on fuel consumption a few years down the line compared to the diesel counterparts.
the E400XLB's are a cost saving measure but i think they've went a bit overboard, it's clear to me "Mr Hall & Co" wanted to brag about having 100 seats and their egos wanted to profit off a buzz over the vehicles. Standard 12 metre tri-axle deckers would have been far better.
Darklord8899
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I assume not, I believe those journies are run from Marine....
I'm sure there will be someone who can give a definitive answer though....
VioletEclipse
Member
The Trident is now back at the depot, wonder if it escaped the depot for a short period due to a B7TL breaking down and it being the closest available bus
1078 was out on the 11/15 run today so could well be all 400XLB on the 11 https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelst138/47346486181/
overthewater
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I still think there are on the wrong routes, and would have been better on the 25 or even 44.
Auld reekie
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Totally agree.
ScotRail158725
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571-590, 1051-1062 And the ECB B5s all had major rattles/loose interior grab poles etc.. on thier first day
Lothian285
Member
698 went on the X44 this evening. I wonder when the actual last day of the Tridents will be...
Jordan Adam
Established Member
I recall sampling some of the 18 plate B5s last year when brand new and the level of rattles on them was appalling (they were only a few weeks old at the time).
ScotRail158725
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They are made badly. They're on my local, the 8, which i use almost everytime i get the bus and its fair to say the build qaulity is ****. I get 571-590 aswell on my local which also rattle etc.. but not as bad
Video from yesterday, managed to catch 698 on the X44, would have got more but there was these six wheeled things jumping in front of my lens
Also on the subject of standard buses on 11, 2 out during the peak yesterday, 817 making a mess of things on south st davids street
Also on the subject of standard buses on 11, 2 out during the peak yesterday, 817 making a mess of things on south st davids street
Gingerbus1991
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They don’t actually look as big as some poeple initially thought.
Jordan Adam
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Cameras tend to make "big" stuff look small.
Darklord8899
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Saw a couple on the 16 this morning.
I saw one of the E400LXB's on the 16 at lunch time as well
90019
Established Member
The build quality fell off a cliff at some point during 2017.
The 17 plate Geminis are pretty decent, but the 18 plate ones are awful. When someone walks down the upper deck, it flexes and creaks like it's about to collapse, and if you're downstairs you can see it flexing.
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