I can see both sides of it tbh. Bit of a difference between a hospital service and an Eaglesham one though. Yeah the hourly frequency is maybe even too much but at the same time low frequency does put some people off using a bus. First could really do with consulting the public in Glasgow more tbh. They do it in other areas and Mcgills and Stagecoach both do a lot of it. Customer relations might also help them more bring some people back
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Ways to improve the First Glasgow Network
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I can see both sides of it tbh. Bit of a difference between a hospital service and an Eaglesham one though. Yeah the hourly frequency is maybe even too much but at the same time low frequency does put some people off using a bus. First could really do with consulting the public in Glasgow more tbh. They do it in other areas and Mcgills and Stagecoach both do a lot of it. Customer relations might also help them more bring some people back
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Just realised too. When the 6 goes back to its normal timetable after the summer one there will be 25 buses an hour between Yoker and Clydebank.
Think I've got some rework ideas for this.
1- Make 1D Clydebank to Mountblow only except peaks
2- Reduce the 2 to every 10mins
6- Reduce to every 12mins
Then introduce QEUH-Clydebank service every 30mins
Not sure what could be done with the M11 though
Down from 25 buses an hour to 19
Think I've got some rework ideas for this.
1- Make 1D Clydebank to Mountblow only except peaks
2- Reduce the 2 to every 10mins
6- Reduce to every 12mins
Then introduce QEUH-Clydebank service every 30mins
Not sure what could be done with the M11 though
Down from 25 buses an hour to 19
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Another possible suggestion I have is making the 3 run City Centre to Govan only every 15/20mins and replacing the Drumchapel to City Centre section with a new every 15/20mins service.
Main reason for the suggestion is how terrible the reliability on the 3 currently is. I don't see this happening though
Main reason for the suggestion is how terrible the reliability on the 3 currently is. I don't see this happening though
Yeah , dont get why it goes to go such a long route .
Yeah it's horrendously long. Over 2 hours too
The CQ1 was funded by West Dunbartonshire Council. The timetable was arranged to provide an hourly service using a single bus which couldn't have been achieved if it stopped everywhere between the two points. What was provided was probably the best compromise given the available funding.
True. Definitely wasn't the best idea for bringing in customers
Anyone got any ideas for anything they could do in order to create new cross-city links to shopping centres etc?
West Regent Street, Holland Street and Douglas Street aren't great to terminate at so I had a think for an idea or two.
Combine the 10 and 19/19A so it's Silverburn to Easterhouse/Robroyston and my other idea involves the 18 by extending it to Summerston again and taking the Maryhill Road beyond Sandbank Street section back off of the 8 to reduce the route length of that. Gives another link to the West end too if the 18 takes its old route.
On the subject of the 8 though another idea I had was to extend the 34A to Partick and take the QEUH section off of the 8 too and start the 8 from Partick
West Regent Street, Holland Street and Douglas Street aren't great to terminate at so I had a think for an idea or two.
Combine the 10 and 19/19A so it's Silverburn to Easterhouse/Robroyston and my other idea involves the 18 by extending it to Summerston again and taking the Maryhill Road beyond Sandbank Street section back off of the 8 to reduce the route length of that. Gives another link to the West end too if the 18 takes its old route.
On the subject of the 8 though another idea I had was to extend the 34A to Partick and take the QEUH section off of the 8 too and start the 8 from Partick
Gingerbus1991
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I'm assuming it's just drivers assumptions given that they have the Stop-Start facility.
Yeah could just be easy confusion
Anyone got any ideas for changes they could make to the buses from Kirkintilloch, Torrance and Bishopbriggs? They all go to Buchanan Bus Station and have done for what feels like forever. Could even use the 89 to combine with the 10 as an alternative to my 10+19/19A idea
Chances are the people that use the buses from Kirkie, Torrance and Bishopbriggs only really want to go as far as the City Centre so extending the routes would be pretty pointless.
They've never really had a chance to want anything else tbh. Been the same as long as I can remember
There's also the fact that a lot of people in Kirkie etc etc will have a car as these areas aren't exactly poverty riddled. So if they wanted to go to places like Silverburn or Braehead I doubt they'd choose sitting on some manky Enviro or Gemini for 1hr or more as they'd most likley drive in their own car(s).
Yeah that's true. I think there could be more buses combined with others to create new options for people without making the routes massive. Areas with a lot of buses need a bit of variation
Voyager lad
Member
I must say as someone who lives in Kirkie without my own car, I would like to see more extended routes etc, even if it just meant extending routes out to Charing Cross, although I would like to see some extensions out to Braehead or Silverburn. I think Woodilee should start being served as the village does have bus stops just no services. If more express services could be introduced, I think a service running Charing Cross - City Centre - M8 - M80 - Woodilee Village - Kirkie - onward destination and thus avoiding Auchinloch and Lenzie would be very useful. Tickets are also very expensive so even just introducing specific day returns on services like the X85 would be useful
Yeah the X85 and X87 could be extended a bit. Neither journey is particularly big and I agree about Woodilee. Houses popping up left, right and centre there and in Moodiesburn
tbtc
Veteran Member
The 3 is a really odd route.
Just when you think that First have settled on "chop longer routes" as a policy, so that the successor services to the long running 44/62/66 are much shorter than they used to be - or services are chopped in the city centre like the 6A which replaced what used to be... the 20 IIRC? The Paisley service no longer running cross city)... but then they introduce a ridiculously long route that really ought to be three services:
- Drumchapel - City Centre
- City Centre - Silverburn
- Silverburn - Govan
It seems designed to be unreliable. And it's not even like a "long, but in a straight line" service, where you can at least grudgingly accept that it's a direct way of getting from one side of town to the other - like the 2 (which, whilst a slow way of getting from Airdrie to Clydebank is at least pretty much a straight line between the two towns). Can you think of a longer way of getting from Patrick to Govan than sitting on a 3 all the way via Shawlands etc? It's almost like a figure of eight, just missing a short section from Drumchapel down to Jordanhill and through the tunnel!
I know that cross-city routes face reliability issues (and that the "country" services are relatively long as they are, just getting as far as Buchanan) but one reason to justify some "extension" is that the competing train doesn't penetrate the city too well - whereas a bus that ran through to (say) Argyle Street might offer something that ScotRail don't. But as things stand, the train to Queen Street is closer to a lot of the city centre destinations than the bus can provide.
The 90 is practically 2 hours from Partick to Govan and overall 2 hours 14 mins to Braehead from Partick yet the 77 is 17mins from Partick to Braehead. Even with the Airdrie section being cut the 2 will still be 1 hour 50mins. The 60 is 2 hours as well and the 60A is just under 2 hours. There's a few chops that could be made effectively that they won't do unfortunately. Yeah the train is a nightmare for going cross city. It usually consists of having to run between Glasgow Central and Queen St
Another long route is the 8. 2 hours and 15mins from QEUH to Parkhead
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The station link bus is useful here; albeit, the traffic can be a bit of a nuisance.
Agree with you on all points!
The sensationalist news headlines get very tiresome after a while, The one that tickles me is "vital" - its an adjective SPT like to use.
https://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news...einstate-vital-citybus-15-west-end-bus-route/
http://www.spt.co.uk/2013/11/spt-secures-vital-bus-services-within-renfrewshire/
http://www.spt.co.uk/corporate/2008/06/spt-invests-in-vital-bus-services-2/
If services are "vital" enough then surely a decent amount of people would be using them to make them commercially viable rather than having to use scarce public funds?
That's not to say I would leave people Isolated without a bus service- I strongly believe that within the realms of commercial viability bus services should be as comprehensive as possible, but if a bus is carrying one or two concessions at considerable loss- how can that be justified on existing cost bases and the fiasco that is the concession card scheme? Especially when in other places much more lucrative demand is outstripping supply.
Eaglesham will never justify more than what it already has to either Glasgow or East Kilbride. It's a small reasonably well off large village, plenty of cars littering the streets - and well connected by main roads and motorways. It only had the decent service it used to have to Glasgow as a hangover from the Clydeside days and the bus war at deregulation, and then the days when GCT and Strathclyde Buses flooded the route to stave off further competition. When it comes to East Kilbride especially any journey time or frequency would never be competitive with the convenience of the car and theres no way you could even half fill a bus without making it go round the houses in East Kilbride like the 395 currently does.
Clydebank - like it or not, there will never be another direct bus to the QEUH. The SPT criteria for interchange is complied with. Buses every 7/8 minutes on the 2 that travels though the majority of Clydebank to Partick to connect with the 77 every 10 minutes to the Hospital. Or take the train from Dalmuir, Clydebank, Yoker, Singer or Drumry to Partick and connect there.
When it comes to First taking off the 2 from Airdrie- everyone knew it was going to happen at some point. It's very difficult to compete with the train to Airdrie and Coatbridge- it's faster, more frequent and runs all day and all night long. The only time the 2 will be really missed is when the trains are off and there's not much alternative to get from Glasgow to Coatbridge and Airdrie. The fact that it's survived this long is good going.
Personally I do think every area should have at least one bus but I also think with that there would be tons of areas with buses that are one an hour or worse due to such low usage. If they ever decided to get new buses put on the 2 and make it all decker I could see the frequency going every 10mins and I could see the 6 being every 12mins eventually too. I think there's a lack of balance because some areas have an absolute overkill level of buses whereas some have next to none.
For example Yoker will have 25 an hour when the 6 summer timetable ends yet even though Ruchill has a lot of student accommodation it only has 2 buses an hour and the 90 doesn't even go directly by the student accommodation
This was the only ideas I could come up with regarding calming down on the overkill plus I've suggested other things here and there that would maybe make another hospital bus work. I'm surprised First only run the 8,16,34A,77 and 90 through QEUH considering the size of it. Not a surprise either though that it's the branded buses to it that have been the busiest I've seen. I think if First push on more with branding and promotion it could help them bring in more passengers too. People stick with what they know and sadly First buses aren't always easy to familiarise yourself with especially if you're new to Glasgow
Ah Ruchill, it's odd now the areas been regenerated and it hasn't got its city centre link back. A Half hourly service along one of the many potential route corridors into town, timed around other services so it's not on top of something might meet it's costs and might even turn a profit.
Yoker and the Barns Street area has always had a crazy amount of buses going up and down it. Must be a double edged sword living there- great bus services- dont need to wait long, then on the other hand you have all these buses in an almost constant procession filtering through the traffic calmed streets littered with cars and your house is also on the flight path to the airport.
Yeah I suppose there's quite a lot of services near Ruchill so that might make them hold back on putting something in. For reliability more than anything the 1s need to come out of there and just operate direct along Glasgow Road. Considering the accessabilty of the vehicles normally on the M11 I'd even maybe swap that with them. The 2 and 6 could carry Whitecrook on their own though
Reliability and punctuality would fall through the floor if you were to make the Kirky routes run through the City Centre. Andrew Jarvis on twitter tonight saying it took a 267 half an hour to get through the city centre. Running Kirky buses to the bus station keeps them well insulated from any chaos the City Centre brings in relation to traffic.
The X3 and 55 used to be interworked at Buchannan bus station and reliability at times would suffer. Try explaining to someone why their 55 to Braehead is late- traffic on the A80 when the bus was an X3 or why their X3 to Cumbernauld was late- football match chucking out at Ibrox when their bus was a 55. The worst interworkings were the 255 with the 109/119.
The worst I ever remember was being on a 21 when there was a Scotland game at Hampden. Bus was stuck under the bridge at Glasgow Central for 30mins because of fans on the road into the train station. Could First use the likes of High St and Saltmarket as ways to bypass the traffic? I know at peak times it would be tough but surely it would be quiet enough during the day. I definitely wouldn't interwork anything as much as First do if I was in charge. The 1 and 1A swapping over at Balloch even causes problems and on a Sunday the 1/1A/1B swap into 1Cs and vice versa too so the 1C to Drumchapel is almost always late because the 1s for reliability really suffer. I'd maybe try to move away from terminating buses in the city centre unless it's in Buchanan Bus Station. I've seen more disruption caused by terminated buses covering the bus stop when something else tries to stop
Gingerbus1991
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The white paper that's been laid out by GCC has stated that some sort of congestion charging alongside the Emission penalties will possibly be used, this will have an impact on the cars within the city centre.
I hope this happens soon. They need to target Taxi drivers with that too especially on the likes of St Vincent Place and Ingram St. Argyle St can also be problematic although that's more by deliveries than anything
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