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Transdev Blazefield

RustySpoons

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Transdev Blazefield is always a good source of discussion, and with a few different but quite specific threads I think it's better to have a dedicated thread to keep everything in one place.

In East Lancashire where I spend a lot of my time we've got Lancashire United and Burnley & Pendle, or Blackburn Bus Co and Burnley Bus Co as they prefer to be called as well as Rosso, with the latter operating from both Blackburn and Burnley depots as well as Rochdale.

Incoming 'soon' are a new fleet of ADL 200MMCs for Blackburn for the 1 route between Bolton and Blackburn. Not much has been announced yet, but they're apparently going to be 'game changers'. We shall see!

Meanwhile in Burnley we've seen the biggest change to the Mainline in many years. Instead of operating between Padiham and Colne every 7 or 8 minutes, the service splits at Burnley now. It makes it a lot easier to run and maintain a reliable service, although there have been quite a lot of complaints about buses running to capacity at rush hour.

There's also an increasingly eclectic fleet of buses operating on local services. As well as the B10BLEs, there's Dart MPDs, Tridents, Versas as well as a couple of MAN Enviro200s displaced from York, all operating in a variety of colours and liveries. How long they'll last I'm not sure. As good as the B10s are they aren't really suited to local work, being too big for a lot of the routes they operate. As to what will replaced them and when, well that's anybodies guess.

Over in Yorkshire there were a fleet of Streetdecks on order for the York depot to replace the tired B7TLs on CityZap, but with the ongoing financial issues at Wrightbus I'm lead to believe these are no longer coming, instead the order has been swapped to fleet of ADL 400MMCs, although nothing has been confirmed.

One thing Transdev seem to be good at is marketing their products to be 'amazing'. However in my own personal opinion they're only as good as other leading operators. I don't think there has been anything that's truly changed the game as much as Blazefield did back in the day. But that's just my opinion, obviously!
 
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RailUK Forums

Seehof

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I sent them an e mail to “[email protected] uk” regarding their new routes in York 24,25,26. When Arriva had them you could see via an App (theirs and York Bus) how late the bus might be and where it was so you could wait with confidence. Transdev have no such thing and having already waited 15 minutes for a 24 in Acomb that did not turn up, I am loathe to try waiting for this hourly service again. Ironically, we met someone at the station who told us it was 15 minutes late!
Do they not look/reply to e mails or is there another channel I could use to get them to consider this? They will lose passengers as a lot of people used the apps to see where the bus was. There is no real time info on stops either.
 

ag51ruk

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I sent them an e mail to “[email protected] uk” regarding their new routes in York 24,25,26. When Arriva had them you could see via an App (theirs and York Bus) how late the bus might be and where it was so you could wait with confidence. Transdev have no such thing and having already waited 15 minutes for a 24 in Acomb that did not turn up, I am loathe to try waiting for this hourly service again. Ironically, we met someone at the station who told us it was 15 minutes late!
Do they not look/reply to e mails or is there another channel I could use to get them to consider this? They will lose passengers as a lot of people used the apps to see where the bus was. There is no real time info on stops either.

There is a Transdev App that has live bus tracking, and appears to be showing lives buses for York on those route - the "Transdev Go" app
 

RustySpoons

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I sent them an e mail to “[email protected] uk” regarding their new routes in York 24,25,26. When Arriva had them you could see via an App (theirs and York Bus) how late the bus might be and where it was so you could wait with confidence. Transdev have no such thing and having already waited 15 minutes for a 24 in Acomb that did not turn up, I am loathe to try waiting for this hourly service again. Ironically, we met someone at the station who told us it was 15 minutes late!
Do they not look/reply to e mails or is there another channel I could use to get them to consider this? They will lose passengers as a lot of people used the apps to see where the bus was. There is no real time info on stops either.

You could always try Twitter, but it's hit and miss as to whether you'll get a reply or not. Sometimes they're on the ball, but other times they'll go quiet and you'll get no response.

The Transdev Go app does offer live bus tracking though.
 

Stan Drews

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I sent them an e mail to “[email protected] uk” regarding their new routes in York 24,25,26. When Arriva had them you could see via an App (theirs and York Bus) how late the bus might be and where it was so you could wait with confidence. Transdev have no such thing and having already waited 15 minutes for a 24 in Acomb that did not turn up, I am loathe to try waiting for this hourly service again. Ironically, we met someone at the station who told us it was 15 minutes late!
Do they not look/reply to e mails or is there another channel I could use to get them to consider this? They will lose passengers as a lot of people used the apps to see where the bus was. There is no real time info on stops either.
Yep, you need to get the Transdev Go app. It gives you all the info you need, including live bus locations etc.
See attached screenshot.
 

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SCH117X

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Burnley has just had its fleet of Darts doubled with the arrival of orange and yellow liveried 706 and 707 from Rosso albeit the livery was applied for their time at York working the "Little Explorer" 22 and 23. Both were new to Keighley in 2004 and previously had a spell in Lancashire at Blackburn between 2012 and 2016. That might indicate a decrease in use in B10BLEs on some routes.

They have done some original things that others copy like the sunroofs and bookshelf (aka "Library") on the 36 but Amazing does often seem to be overused when its really means Yet Another Old Vehicle Made As Good As New.

Completely underwhelmed by their response to the road closures around Harrogate for the cycling championships with the extent of diversions and cancelled routes outside of race times, and the lack of invention to get a bus to the other terminus somehow that has been evident before.
 

SCH117X

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Has been announced the free Sunday journeys on the Harrogate town electrics are to continue to the end of the year with a new sponsor having been found
A number of 'Rosso' Double Deck Volvo B7TL's operating School Runs in Harrogate this week.
Presumably due to the increase in vehicles needed to cover the park and ride services for the cycling championship
 

RustySpoons

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Has been announced the free Sunday journeys on the Harrogate town electrics are to continue to the end of the year with a new sponsor having been found

Good news.

Plenty of figures and stats from Transdev regarding 70% more passengers using the free buses, but has there been any reductions in traffic in town?

Is the Red4 still running free on Sundays?
 

RustySpoons

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Rosso's Rochdale depot have cancelled all/most of the services they operate and reregistered them under Burnley & Pendle's license.
 

Andyh82

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Rosso are introducing Fast Trax, a new Fast Bus between Bury and Rochdale from the end of the month

See the timetable here https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/images.transdevplc.co.uk/downloads/Trax Web tt OCT19.pdf

I like the clear notice about the type of buses they are going to be using

They have also announced the relaunch of all the Bury and Rochdale locals, with new B and R prefixed route numbers replacing the current 400s.

https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/rosso/changes-our-buses-saturday-27-october
 

Deerfold

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Andyh82

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Again they claim this change will make things simpler. I wonder how.
Because once people get used to the new numbers, it’s much easier to advertise a network numbered R1, R2, R3 etc etc than a random selection of numbers between 435 and 487

I wonder if they will ever take over the 6 to Kirkholt as it’s the only Rochdale local service that First Manchester now run. They have left a gap with no R6 although that may be either future planning, or just to reduce confusion
 
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markymark2000

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Because once people get used to the new numbers, it’s much easier to advertise a network numbered R1, R2, R3 etc etc than a random selection of numbers between 435 and 487

I wonder if they will ever take over the 6 to Kirkholt as it’s the only Rochdale local service that First Manchester now run. They have left a gap with no R6 although that may be either future planning, or just to reduce confusion
I am surprised they haven't tried that unless they know they don't have the vehicles to do it. With the B10s still running about, Transdev clearly aren't the best at getting more buses in. The 6 probably gets newer buses from First anyway than what they would get with Rosso haha
 

Andyh82

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I notice how they have covered up some cuts. The 441 currently runs 6 trips per day. It is changing numbers to the R9 and has only 2 trips per day.
TfGM cuts. The service was carrying less than 2 passengers per trip.

I am surprised they haven't tried that unless they know they don't have the vehicles to do it. With the B10s still running about, Transdev clearly aren't the best at getting more buses in. The 6 probably gets newer buses from First anyway than what they would get with Rosso haha
Rosso are bringing in second hand or dealer stock E200s for the new Rochdale network.
 

Alexbus12

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It's going to cause ridiculous confusion. They could have followed what Stagecoach did when they renumbered services in Wigan, and do it in blocks instead of all at the same time.. Feel sorry for the staff at TFGM over the next few months :lol:
 

158756

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TfGM cuts. The service was carrying less than 2 passengers per trip.

It won't improve at 2 trips per day. The 441 doesn't venture more than 10 minutes walk from another route, basically existing to serve two streets only 20 minutes walk from the town centre. Is a scheduled bus the best way to provide transport for a very small number of presumably elderly people here?
 

TheGrandWazoo

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It's going to cause ridiculous confusion. They could have followed what Stagecoach did when they renumbered services in Wigan, and do it in blocks instead of all at the same time.. Feel sorry for the staff at TFGM over the next few months :lol:

No it won't. There are loads of examples where much greater changes take place. Arriva renumbered virtually their entire Darlington network a few years ago.

This is FOUR routes in Bury and EIGHT in Rochdale. I'm sure that they'll have leaflets available in advance so that the passengers are informed.

I don't like operators arbitrarily renumbering services for the sake of it but if it's a relaunch and rebranding, you can see the point.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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It won't improve at 2 trips per day. The 441 doesn't venture more than 10 minutes walk from another route, basically existing to serve two streets only 20 minutes walk from the town centre. Is a scheduled bus the best way to provide transport for a very small number of presumably elderly people here?

Fair point. I guess it saves TfGM from the bad headlines and the obligatory photo of pensioners by a bus stop accompanying the story in the local rag.
 

markymark2000

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TfGM cuts. The service was carrying less than 2 passengers per trip.


Rosso are bringing in second hand or dealer stock E200s for the new Rochdale network.
I can understand there being cuts but they should say that and not just say 'the timetable will look different to current'. That isn't helpful to anyone.

It's good they are bringing in more buses but there may not be enough buses to cover the 6 as well.
 

Stan Drews

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I think the service reductions are all on TfGM contracted routes, so not down to Transdev.
However, I assume they’ll all be reversed when franchising kicks in!!
 

SCH117X

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This is FOUR routes in Bury and EIGHT in Rochdale. I'm sure that they'll have leaflets available in advance so that the passengers are informed.
And no doubt for a week before hand those they already operate will have an explanation of the route number change on the destination display.
 

JetBlast

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I really wish they would get rid of some of the old liveries at Rosso. Doesn't do much good for the brand.
 

RustySpoons

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I really wish they would get rid of some of the old liveries at Rosso. Doesn't do much good for the brand.

Queensgate has got quite the variety of liveries now too. Mainline, Burnley Bus Co, Witch Way, PotN, Transdev Go, all over ad for the defunct Transdev app, old York blue and blue, all over white, old Little Explorers....
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Queensgate has got quite the variety of liveries now too. Mainline, Burnley Bus Co, Witch Way, PotN, Transdev Go, all over ad for the defunct Transdev app, old York blue and blue, all over white, old Little Explorers....

It's one of the issues when you elect to go with route branding to that extent (rather than just having some vinyls on a standard livery). The arguments on that are long standing. TrentBarton, in the rare times I head through their territory, seem to execute it better than most.

Transdev aren't helped by the Rosso purchase and the understandable reticence to repaint older vehicles that will probably leave the fleet in a year or so.

Mind you, if you want to see colours, try Rotala in Kidderminster where there's a riot of colours from previous acquisitions and obsolete schemes on a very small fleet.
 

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