paddington
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There were 3 passengers on the 0225 service to Oxford I took this summer.
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End of the X90 Coach Service
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There were 3 passengers on the 0225 service to Oxford I took this summer.
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The whole of London becomes a 'Euro 6 zone from 26/10/2020, so either the transfers in are short term only or they are going to be upgraded?
Robertj21a
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Too early for most London clubs etc
SouthEastBuses
On Moderation
It will be so sad to see the end of the X90. The coaches are amazing, and both London and Oxford won't be the same without the X90 
Depends if they take the opportunity to increase prices in the absence of a competitor. Clearly they shouldn't increase them too much or they may lose their price advantage over the railway.
On Sat 16th November, while walking from Victoria to coach station, I saw a 69 plate Mercedes Tourismo parked up, doing an X90 service, all branded up, so if they have got brand new coaches, are they still stopping the service or will they go on the airport services?
SouthEastBuses
On Moderation
They will go on the Airport routes.
plebb11
On Moderation
Some coaches are moving to carousel buses to operated service 102 extension to Heathrow airport
Mentioned earlier. I don't know how suitable they will be for a local bus service.
SouthEastBuses
On Moderation
Won't be suitable at all, to be fair. In my opinion, a coach on a local bus service is a ridiculously stupid idea. Coaches, in my opinion, are designed for long distance services, or for fast express services (for example a route that is 41 miles long with only 12-15 stops).
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Can't imagine they'd be too bad, we always used to have coaches on the 685 up here and loading times were fine.
The big advantage of a coach is luggage space, which is always needed on a Heathrow service. It's where the 724 falls down.
SouthEastBuses
On Moderation
I mean, you can always put a luggage space at the front of the bus near the driver (like the 724 Citaros do). But then the slight issue is that it will reduce seats.
Depends on how many old ladies with shopping trolleys use the Wycombe to Uxbridge section.
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
The 685, going to Hexham, had plenty of old ladies and shopping trolleys!
It's not that long ago that the standard dual-purpose NBC bus was actually a Leopard coach. Wasn't a problem then.
It's finding the balance. The big luggage racks take up a lot of space and you lose seats.
There's no reason why it can't work, though obviously Go are only trying it because they've got the spare coaches. Be interesting to see what happens.
When Go did similar up here, "upgrading" services like the X1 with old NatEx coaches they had lying around, it did promote growth. When the growth was established, new buses came in.
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Bwsbro
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Go North East are trailing a panther low floor coach on their X9/X10 Newcastle to Middlesbrough service. Wonder if they might cascade some spare coaches north??
The 724 isn't really an airport coach service though - it's more of an express bus service where Heathrow is the most logical western terminus, bearing in mind over the years the 724 had High Wycombe, Windsor, Slough and (as the 524) Watford as its western terminus. If there was that much demand for extra luggage space it would have been incorporated in the vehicles - but it hasn't for over 20 years, suggesting its not the problem you think it is.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Very interesting given that the X10 has had, almost since its genesis, double deckers on it. Of course, it now has the X9 and it's a while since I had a run out on those routes so wonder how it fares with capacity.
Jordan Adam
Established Member
Any chance this thread could be renamed "End of the X90 (Oxford) Coach Service"?
It's just i saw this on the main threads page and thought it was another X90 service!
It's just i saw this on the main threads page and thought it was another X90 service!
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
IIRC when they first launched the X9 they used rebranded ex-NatEx coaches they had lying around.
The 724 is a bit of an odd one. When I've used it to Heathrow it's needed more luggage space, but north of Watford you probably wouldn't use it to Heathrow and so the Citaros are fine.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
They did indeed use ex NatEx stuff for the X9. Mind you, I think they were very quickly replaced (in a matter of months) because of capacity and reliability issues. Think they were replaced with B7TLs before the B9TLs were cascaded in and then the current fleet.
As regards the 724, I always regarded it as a longer distance bus service with lots of overlapping flows that just happens to finish at Heathrow. However, in its earlier days, it was indeed promoted as an Airport service https://www.flickr.com/photos/isars...-QGKvPH-25ZjubQ-HqVG4X-25ZjqZ9-25HpkiX-JX34QU albeit with bus shell RP Reliances.
darloscott
Member
The X9 and X10 are very busy interurban routes that have really outgrown what double deck vehicles can offer, indeed they've suffered reliability issues with the current fleet (B5TL) rather quicker than previous batches of vehicles. Equally they can't really allocate coaches to it due to capacity issues, the current demonstrator is going to be limited in journeys it can actually operate due to it only having 53 seats rather than the 75+ the double decks offer. This time of year especially the double decks struggle to cope and often leave people behind. The only way they could buy coaches for it realistically would be Plaxton's double deck Panorama offering, but there is currently no demonstrator I gather. Single deck coaches like the Panther LE being trialled would require a doubling of the frequency and therefore operating cost.
SouthEastBuses
On Moderation
X9 and X10 would work well with Scania Enviro400 MMC / City buses. They cope very well on fast routes that the X9 / X10 has.
Slightly off-topic, but Stagecoach has revealed its new timetable for the Oxford Tube from Monday 6th January. It is quite clearly a response to the withdrawal of the X90.
The PVR will increase from 25 to 31, to cater for the increase seven Van Hool Astromegas are being transferred in from Stagecoach West Scotland where they have recently been displaced from Megabus work - the vehicles are reported to be 50233, 50235, 50244/5/6/7 and 50250.
The new timetable features "express" journeys. These will operate via Marylebone and will not stop at Notting Hill Gate, Shepherd's Bush, Hillington Station or Lewknor Turn but will serve the former X90 stops at Marylebone and (on request) White City. These journeys operate at certain times only and are clearly aimed at commuters and the tourist day trippers. In effect they are timetabled relief journeys - which is hugely ironic, as that was how the X90 came into being in the first place!*
https://www.oxfordtube.com/extuploads/oxford_tube_from_06_january_2020.pdf
* at the time numbered 190, the route commenced in the late 1970s as timetabled express relief journeys along the newly-constructed M40 motorway, supporting the traditional COMS 290 and 390 routes between Oxford and London. The route quickly proved popular and soon became a regular-interval service.
The PVR will increase from 25 to 31, to cater for the increase seven Van Hool Astromegas are being transferred in from Stagecoach West Scotland where they have recently been displaced from Megabus work - the vehicles are reported to be 50233, 50235, 50244/5/6/7 and 50250.
The new timetable features "express" journeys. These will operate via Marylebone and will not stop at Notting Hill Gate, Shepherd's Bush, Hillington Station or Lewknor Turn but will serve the former X90 stops at Marylebone and (on request) White City. These journeys operate at certain times only and are clearly aimed at commuters and the tourist day trippers. In effect they are timetabled relief journeys - which is hugely ironic, as that was how the X90 came into being in the first place!*
https://www.oxfordtube.com/extuploads/oxford_tube_from_06_january_2020.pdf
* at the time numbered 190, the route commenced in the late 1970s as timetabled express relief journeys along the newly-constructed M40 motorway, supporting the traditional COMS 290 and 390 routes between Oxford and London. The route quickly proved popular and soon became a regular-interval service.
Not a fan of the new express journeys I'm afraid - when I travel into London I usually change onto the Metropolitan line at Hillingdon, avoiding the pain of rush hour A40 traffic, whilst travelling home it's sometimes more convenient to travel to Hillingdon via Uxbridge if I'm in West London. Luckily the journeys I tend to make are unaffected, but if I'm travelling home in the afternoon peak, I'll have to wait longer at the rather grim coach stop near Hillingdon station.
tripleseis
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notadriver
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How does the coach fare against the train on similar routes such as London to Cambridge or London to Stansted / Gatwick airport ? They always seem busy.
I'm not sure I'd describe them as similar.
Coaches to Cambridge are disappearing.
A decade ago they were hourly. There's now gaps of more than 2 hours. They're also getting slower. A peak service now takes 2h45 to Victoria vs a train to Kings Cross taking less than an hour. It's a long way to the M11 from central London.
To Stansted there's a lot more coaches. National Express run several services serving lots of parts of London and is the only one of these destinations with coach competition.
There's trains to Gatwick every few minutes from Victoria as well as services from other parts of London. There's 2 coaches an hour from Victoria. They have no handy motorway to go along.
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