First Greater Glasgow

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

Jordan Adam said:
Yes, however over the course of a day a bus on a hour long (end to end) city route will still be doing pretty much the same mileage as a bus on a 2 hour long (end to end) city route.

Yeah the mileage covered can end up a crazy amount. In an ideal world everything would have reasonably new buses but there's only so many they can bring from other operations

RailUK Forums

ScotRail158725 · 13 Sep 2019

PaulMc7 said:
Despite Lothian being in an interesting position I can see them being the ones that buy over First there. Hard to see it being anyone else

why would they buy first though when they more or less have copied their full network? its not like they need buses or a depot

Jordan Adam · 13 Sep 2019

ScotRail158725 said:
why would they buy first though when they more or less have copied their full network? its not like they need buses or a depot

If they didn't then Lothian would have to invest and expand extensively as the Lothian network at present isn't close to First's, to say Lothians network is a copy of First's is factually inaccurate, they basically run along the main corridors and send everything through Craigshill, that's pretty much it. If First stopped operating today there would be huge gaps.

Although we've veered far too off topic here!

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

Back on topic. Anyone know if the driver ballot that was in the news on Monday has occurred yet?

TheGrandWazoo · 13 Sep 2019

overthewater said:
Its still a bit dodgy if you get money for one area then send the buses away to somewhere else. Livingston has seen more older buses being shipped in.

However, was the money for one small geographic area (i.e. West Lothian)? Also, the vehicles they are getting are lower quality and not as green but it's not like they're getting some 2004 B7RLEs.

PaulMc7 said:
The way First have operated just reeks of complacency to be honest. Even with the likes of cost price for their service in Glasgow. As someone pointed out to me on Twitter we've had 3 price increases in 18 months. Small increases but when you add them up it's a lot. A lot of areas have no other bus alternatives either so it's just First or nothing and the cost of trains coupled with poor reliability doesn't help. I was thinking of it being a "cut your losses" drop of some areas. I can see Lothian taking up the likes of Stirling/Falkirk/West Lothian If First drop it more. I don't know anything about Aberdeen and it's a place I've never been too so can't comment on there

Not actually complacency but worse. As everyone knows (been mentioned ad infinitum), they have made some really bad business decisions and that effectively crippled the UK Bus operation; it never got the investment it needed. Glasgow, like many other areas, had to make do with a diet of knackered ex London deckers farmed out to the provinces whilst London got the vast majority of the available money.

Clearly the LEZ is leading to a policy of new vehicle investment and selected refurbishment of B9TLs. However, at least Glasgow is getting new vehicles - head to Leicester and they're having to replace about 40% of the fleet with a selection of cascaded 2009 Eclipses and 2013/2015 Streetlites.

JumpinTrainz · 13 Sep 2019

Jordan Adam said:
Hence why i mentioned it would make sense for the 23 branded E400MMCs at FSE to move to Glasgow and be branded for the 60. That aside it would be pointless getting new vehicles for the 61 for the exact reason you just said, it has the refurbished B9TLs. A decent refurbishment like on those B9TLs is pretty much as good as a brand new bus.

The B9TLs being branded for the 61 means nothing clearly given FSE are transferring buses which were only very recently painted for their 23 route. I think the B9TLs would be better suited to routes like the 10, 57 and motorway services while the E400MMCs are better for the 41, 60/60A, 61. Some could even make it on to the 2. Refurbished stock does look good but it’s still very obviously not new stock.

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

Seen more of the buses sent through from Livingston and they've part painted some and there's still a fully dark blue one. I must admit I do like the dark blue tbh

lastbus · 13 Sep 2019

PaulMc7 said:
Seen more of the buses sent through from Livingston and they've part painted some and there's still a fully dark blue one. I must admit I do like the dark blue tbh

They’ve not part painted any of them

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

lastbus said:
They’ve not part painted any of them

One I was on yesterday was light blue at the front dark at the back yet one of the ones I seen today were fully dark blue. Were they a mix when they came through?

JumpinTrainz · 13 Sep 2019

Not all were painted in FSE. Some are still in the two tone blue livery.

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

JumpinTrainz said:
Not all were painted in FSE. Some are still in the two tone blue livery.

Yeah I've not seen them all yet. Seen 3 today all on 60/60As. 2 2 tone and 1 fully dark blue

JumpinTrainz · 13 Sep 2019

PaulMc7 said:
Yeah I've not seen them all yet. Seen 3 today all on 60/60As. 2 2 tone and 1 fully dark blue

Hopefully this will be their new haunt then. The 60/60A could go a mixture of E400MMCs and E200MMCs/E300s. It doesn’t need to be fully decker operated.

PaulMc7 · 13 Sep 2019

JumpinTrainz said:
Hopefully this will be their new haunt then. The 60/60A could go a mixture of E400MMCs and E200MMCs/E300s. It doesn’t need to be fully decker operated.

Would still have it as mostly deckers tbh. Can be extremely busy between Clydebank and Drumchapel, Maryhill and City Centre then Parkhead and Shettleston most of the day from experience

lastbus · 13 Sep 2019

PaulMc7 said:
One I was on yesterday was light blue at the front dark at the back yet one of the ones I seen today were fully dark blue. Were they a mix when they came through?

Yes some are in the new FSE livery and some in the old. Also some were branded for the 23

alangla · 13 Sep 2019

Saw one on the 41 this morning. The scraped off branding was clearly visible

route101 · 13 Sep 2019

JumpinTrainz said:
The B9TLs being branded for the 61 means nothing clearly given FSE are transferring buses which were only very recently painted for their 23 route. I think the B9TLs would be better suited to routes like the 10, 57 and motorway services while the E400MMCs are better for the 41, 60/60A, 61. Some could even make it on to the 2. Refurbished stock does look good but it’s still very obviously not new stock.

Seen a few Geminis on the 2 of late , even seen the Strathclyde one

Scott mac · 13 Sep 2019

Buses that have left for Bristol 32620, 32621, 32622, 32623, 32625, 32670, 32677, 32681, 32683, 37183, 37185 mix of 54/ex first Scotland east 55 plates and 2 07 plates

Whiteway215 · 13 Sep 2019

Scott mac said:
Buses that have left for Bristol 32620, 32621, 32622, 32623, 32625, 32670, 32677, 32681, 32683, 37183, 37185 mix of 54/ex first Scotland east 55 plates and 2 07 plates

Any others due to head south?

Scott mac · 13 Sep 2019

Whiteway215 said:
Any others due to head south?

9 down south 9 from their to Livingston and 9 from that depot to Glasgow no sure about any more yet

AndrewTaylor95 · 14 Sep 2019

There is more movements this weekend I'm sure just not sure what's moving

SarahDFIG · 14 Sep 2019

*Edit Fleet Numbers now added*
Weekly update, most should have already happened.

Livingston to Glasgow
37137/43/44/45,37266/72 (to be repainted in due course)

Glasgow to WOE
15x B7TLs
32619/20/21/22/23/24/25/70/77/81/83
37181/2/3/5

Livingston to Glasgow
5x E400MMCs from Livingston (few more to arrive) (to be repainted in due course)

More fleet movements will be happening over this weekend/during the week.

alangla · 14 Sep 2019

Passed Caledonia earlier, there’s 3 Edinburgh branded E400MMCs in a line behind an airport E400 next to the M74

47550 · 14 Sep 2019

Passed 4x Gemini’s about 1.45pm today on the M56 heading out of Manchester. One was 37181, not sure about the others. Presumably on their way to Bristol.

Bradley · 14 Sep 2019

Is there anymore buses due to go to Bristol than the ones that was mentioned earlier.

route101 · 15 Sep 2019

Is caley not getting 12 plate deckers from down south>

GaryMcEwan · 15 Sep 2019

route101 said:
Is caley not getting 12 plate deckers from down south>

Apparently they're meant to becoming from Leeds.

lastbus · 15 Sep 2019

More fleet moves soon

Gla1 · 15 Sep 2019

Why is there so much on the move at the moment?

Are first Scotland east to receive new buses to replace the lost 6y enviro 400s?

scosutsut · 15 Sep 2019

Gla1 said:
Why is there so much on the move at the moment?

Are first Scotland east to receive new buses to replace the lost 6y enviro 400s?

Glasgow needs to meet LEZ requirements, the majority of moves are to meet that and come at the expense of areas not immediately under threat of introducing a LEZ.

Rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic springs to mind. Years of underinvestment coming back with big sharp teeth.

GaryMcEwan · 15 Sep 2019

Gla1 said:
Why is there so much on the move at the moment?

Are first Scotland east to receive new buses to replace the lost 6y enviro 400s?

I believe Scotland East are getting Streetlites from England to replace the E400s.

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