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Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Bus News

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Council 510 approaching Toton Tram at 930am today empty. i4 Stapleford heading Nottingham 1245pm empty. Rainbow 1s passing me in Nuthall around 130pm-230 reasonable loadings. Rainbows 1s again in Nuthall around 630pm reasonable. Of note at 628pm the 555pm ex Nottingham passed me at Nuthall Church. At 633pm the 605pm ex Nottm was waiting time at Temple Drive. The 615pm ex Nottm was sat at Woodland Drive at 634pm - 10 minutes early. There is far too much slack in the timetable coming out of Nottingham in the afternoon with buses regularly sat at Temple Drive for 5-10 minutes or even longer!
 
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I’m surprised that Trent Barton have not announced any more timetable changes for the beginning of August. I would have thought that some of the hourly services, like the Amberline, Black Cat, 90 and 141 would be restored to hourly by now. Continuing to run only every 2 hours, with very limited services at peak times, is not going to encourage passengers, especially from the villages, back onto the buses. It doesn’t help that these considerably reduced timetables are not advertised at bus stops.

My observations from seeing buses passing through Hucknall during the middle of the day, are that the Threes are running every 10 minutes with very few passengers and yet the 141 is getting quite busy. The 141, 90 and Black Cat all provide alternative local journeys for parts of the Threes route. The Threes are running every 10 minutes direct between Hucknall and Nottingham and yet the large new housing developments off Papplewick Lane and Bestwood Village are only getting about 6 buses a day on the 141 route.

Amberline always empty when I see it in Kimberley/Nuthall on its current 90minute frequency.
Papplewick Lane has the C2 every hour 7 days a week for tram connections at Hucknall. Bestwood Village has 9 buses a day on the 528 to Bulwell etc for connections.
 

43055

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Also, Mango Card is apparently getting its own app, with users getting an email about it.
Got the e-mail last night titled mango is on the move. Makes me feel like the cards will eventually be ditched for the app and then the init ticket machines can go.
 
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Got the e-mail last night titled mango is on the move. Makes me feel like the cards will eventually be ditched for the app and then the init ticket machines can go.

Is there no card system available with their new ticket machines? Not everyone wants everything preloaded on their phone and I regularly saw people turned away when trying to pay contactless due to lack of signal!
 

43055

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Is there no card system available with their new ticket machines? Not everyone wants everything preloaded on their phone and I regularly saw people turned away when trying to pay contactless due to lack of signal!
The picture on the email had a QR code on a phone which you scan when you get on and off the bus - Maybe that code is individual like the card numbers and saves loading it each time? The email also talks about being able to top up and manage the account through the app. I personally not seen people struggling with contactless yet - unlike the trains.
 

Robertj21a

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Might it also have been the automatic trip that after so many contactless uses you must reenter your PIN?

I thought the need for PIN input was always suppressed for bus ticket machines (as they have no means of inputting PINs)?
 

Volvo142

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With the exception of routes F1 and 3, Arriva Derby returns to pre-Covid service levels from Monday 10th August seven days a week.

The 3 remains suspended and the F1 will return with a reduced timetable on weekdays only.
 

43055

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Trent Barton will be returning most routes to normal timetables this Sunday for most routes that are currently running revised services. The keyworth will continue to run a reduced timetable of every 20 mins.
 
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Still be a few Trent routes with revised services - Connect Hucknall no Sunday buses (except C1/2). Comet Hourly with no Sunday service. Sixes still no Belper shorts. Skylink Nottingham still no buses to Sutton Bonnington & Loughborough. Good to see the other routes returning to normal though. Kinchbus also reinstating but yet again - 9 still hourly with no Sunday service and no Sunday service on the 2. Wonder if these 'missing' bits will ever reappear?
 

43055

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Still be a few Trent routes with revised services - Connect Hucknall no Sunday buses (except C1/2). Comet Hourly with no Sunday service. Sixes still no Belper shorts. Skylink Nottingham still no buses to Sutton Bonnington & Loughborough. Good to see the other routes returning to normal though. Kinchbus also reinstating but yet again - 9 still hourly with no Sunday service and no Sunday service on the 2. Wonder if these 'missing' bits will ever reappear?
I personally don't see the Belper shorts coming back for a while in the sixes. I can't comment on the other routes. To me it seems like the city routes are picking up faster than the 'out of town' routes as I have seen a couple arriva buses with bus full on the front but the 4 villager buses that I sore on Saturday had less than 3 people on and I have never really seen any more than that at any other time.
 

edwin_m

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Had a ride on one yesterday. A distinct lack of luggage space compared with previous vehicles used on the route. Going to be fun when flights get back to normal !
How many air passengers use the Skylinks? In my occasional use with various incarnations the two Nottingham routes, most of the passengers are airport employees. Indeed when it was first introduced by NCT with subsidy from the airport, the stated reason was to provide access to jobs for people in deprived areas like Meadows and Clifton.
 

Roilshead

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How many air passengers use the Skylinks?
Well, when I took my one trip from EMA to Nottingham on the Skylink that runs via Clifton (can't remember its TrentBarton name) there was a good load - at least half-full - and everybody bar myself was an air passenger . . . possibly atypical, but?
 

edwin_m

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Well, when I took my one trip from EMA to Nottingham on the Skylink that runs via Clifton (can't remember its TrentBarton name) there was a good load - at least half-full - and everybody bar myself was an air passenger . . . possibly atypical, but?
It's been variously Skylink Clifton and Skylink Express, plus the period when the Red Flyer did something similar. The last time I used it, it still took the excruciatingly slow diversion through the Clifton estate, speed bumps and all. Maybe now it's reverted to the more sensible route via the A453 it's a bit more attractive to air passengers who aren't public transport nerds.
 

cnjb8

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How many air passengers use the Skylinks? In my occasional use with various incarnations the two Nottingham routes, most of the passengers are airport employees. Indeed when it was first introduced by NCT with subsidy from the airport, the stated reason was to provide access to jobs for people in deprived areas like Meadows and Clifton.
Well, when I took my one trip from EMA to Nottingham on the Skylink that runs via Clifton (can't remember its TrentBarton name) there was a good load - at least half-full - and everybody bar myself was an air passenger . . . possibly atypical, but?
It's been variously Skylink Clifton and Skylink Express, plus the period when the Red Flyer did something similar. The last time I used it, it still took the excruciatingly slow diversion through the Clifton estate, speed bumps and all. Maybe now it's reverted to the more sensible route via the A453 it's a bit more attractive to air passengers who aren't public transport nerds.
The Solars were branded for Skylink Clifton to represent the route through the middle of Clifton but they may have been rebranded to Skylink Express to reflect the route using the A453 to bypass (sort of) Clifton.
Many people on this forum including me.
Can't you call us bus enthusiasts?
 

43055

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Had a ride on one yesterday. A distinct lack of luggage space compared with previous vehicles used on the route. Going to be fun when flights get back to normal !
How many air passengers use the Skylinks? In my occasional use with various incarnations the two Nottingham routes, most of the passengers are airport employees. Indeed when it was first introduced by NCT with subsidy from the airport, the stated reason was to provide access to jobs for people in deprived areas like Meadows and Clifton.
I would imagine they are the same size as the blue skylink seeing that they are type of vehicles now. Personally I find that the yellow skylink has a good mix of airport passengers, airport workers and local passengers at the Derby end of the route.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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I can't speak for you but I need to include myself in the collective description, as it was me that made the journey. And I don't consider myself a bus enthusiast.

I fully get you!

There's a difference in focusing on the bus itself (with the extreme being the proper rivet counters) and then those who are interested in the management and operation of public transport (of which buses are a major part).

When I'm travelling on a bus, I'm usually concerned with stuff like a) vehicle design - does it "create desire" as Ray Stenning would suggest, b) operational observations (e.g. loadings, fare taking and ticketing, etc), c) infrastructure (e.g. what bus lanes are there and do they work, are they enforced) and d) marketing and communication of information (either electronically or physically and e) the scenery!

Expand it further and it's about the holistic use of public transport, whether it links with rail, metro, coach or ferry (or in many a European city - a funicular).
 

GusB

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Could we please stay on topic and not get bogged down with what constitutes a nerd, please?!
 
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Andy Pacer

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I would imagine they are the same size as the blue skylink seeing that they are type of vehicles now. Personally I find that the yellow skylink has a good mix of airport passengers, airport workers and local passengers at the Derby end of the route.
Quite a bit of passenger traffic for the fast Loughborough to Leicester section too.
 

ChrisC

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I’ve just received an email from Trent Barton informing me that the new Mango app will be available to download from this Sunday 30th August. It also states that mango cards will be phased out by the end of October. I thought that might happen. I suppose that I will have to get used to it but I much prefer a smart card following a bad experience when using an Arriva Bus app a few years ago. By the afternoon my phone battery was getting worryingly low. I had to delay my journey and spend an hour in a coffee shop recharging the battery.
 

tramboy

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There had to be some evolution of mango coming, which became more inevitable when trentbarton plumped for Ticketer machines to give them contactless functionality last year. The current "Heath Robinson" arrangement of ETMs at the front of the bus isn't something that could go on for ever.

Mango as a smart card is a proprietary init product, so the movement to an app solves two issues in one go - firstly, they hadn't got any mobile ticketing solution (with "hugo" only being a travel planning app), and secondly should/will in theory allow for the init machines to be removed from buses, leaving just the Ticketer equipment.

I would hope, however, that they invest in some Ticketer "touch out" boxes to replace the init versions, as it's silly having to touch out a contactless card with the driver which only slows the service down - defeating the object of paying that way in the first place!
 

markymark2000

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There had to be some evolution of mango coming, which became more inevitable when trentbarton plumped for Ticketer machines to give them contactless functionality last year. The current "Heath Robinson" arrangement of ETMs at the front of the bus isn't something that could go on for ever.

Mango as a smart card is a proprietary init product, so the movement to an app solves two issues in one go - firstly, they hadn't got any mobile ticketing solution (with "hugo" only being a travel planning app), and secondly should/will in theory allow for the init machines to be removed from buses, leaving just the Ticketer equipment.

I would hope, however, that they invest in some Ticketer "touch out" boxes to replace the init versions, as it's silly having to touch out a contactless card with the driver which only slows the service down - defeating the object of paying that way in the first place!
Ticketer accept Pay as you Go smartcards as the Cheshire Travelcard can be used on Arriva and D&Gs ticketers meaning surely they could just bring in new cards for those who want them instead of an app? Yes it means new cards still but new cards are surely better than forcing people go to app based. Apps are not reliable, phones break and die and therefore aren't available 100% of the time for travel. A smartcard is a physical item holding your travel pass so it is much more trusted by passengers. I rarely use apps for any travel including day tickets because as soon as my phone dies, I officially have no ticket to travel.
 

satisnek

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I've just received the same email too - of course it was inevitable but it's a shame that when I'm eventually allowed to start enjoying my life again there'll be no more Mango cards! I don't have an Android/Apple phone and even if I did, my opinion is that replacing a passive RFID card (or a paper ticket!) with something reliant on battery power is neither clever nor rational. Oh well, it'll be the equivalent of a rather steep fare increase for me - but at least we still have the zigzag ticket. It was fun while it lasted!
 

Robertj21a

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Ticketer accept Pay as you Go smartcards as the Cheshire Travelcard can be used on Arriva and D&Gs ticketers meaning surely they could just bring in new cards for those who want them instead of an app? Yes it means new cards still but new cards are surely better than forcing people go to app based. Apps are not reliable, phones break and die and therefore aren't available 100% of the time for travel. A smartcard is a physical item holding your travel pass so it is much more trusted by passengers. I rarely use apps for any travel including day tickets because as soon as my phone dies, I officially have no ticket to travel.

Do you not carry any other charging unit with you ?
 

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