Destination displays on National Express Duplicate coaches

[Martin1988]

Something I have been curious about for a while is the way that some operators that provide duplicates for National Express have the routes and service numbers programmed into their displays. Even routes which that particular operator is not normally contracted to work.

If anyone is able to answer I would be interested to find out, what is the most likely explanation behind dupe operators having the different services programmed in on their displays? Would National Express specify that they need to have all the services programmed in just in case or is it more likely the operator has added them as and when they've been required to work dupes?

Also, on several occasions including over the recent Christmas period, I've seen coaches operating duplicates for NX where only the destination which the duplicate is serving has been shown on the display(eg one operator which was duplicating the section of 324 between Birmingham and Exeter showed 324 Exeter on the display as opposed to Brixham where the service car terminates). Would all the different destinations served on each NX service be programmed in just in case the operator is ever required to work a dupe to that destination or is it more likely to be the case that that dupes tend to serve the same destinations each time and therefore these are the destinations programmed into the LED display?

 

[overthewater]

Dont Dups only operate on the most busiest section? I can remember a couple of summers back where 592 Glasgow to London Nat express had two dup but said two only stopped at London ie nothing in between. So it only had London ,with no Via...

The dup coaches know well in advance what being operated, know where it starting and where its stopping, and most times it never changes. So in your case most of the passengers are for Exeter, so why more money on carrying fresh air.

 

[howittpie]

Dont Dups only operate on the most busiest section? I can remember a couple of summers back where 592 Glasgow to London Nat express had two dup but said two only stopped at London ie nothing in between. So it only had London ,with no Via...

The dup coaches know well in advance what being operated, know where it starting and where its stopping, and most times it never changes. So in your case most of the passengers are for Exeter, so why more money on carrying fresh air.

The dupes from experience know where they are starting and finishing but do not always know what other stops they are serving. A recent example of this was the dupe on the 422 Burnley to London service. The crew on the dupe thought they were running non stop Manchester to London in Manchester they were told they needed to go via Birmingham the crew were shocked to say the least. This meant a long break in Birmingham as the service departs Manchester at 23.59 and Birmingham 03.00. At Birmingham they were told they had to go via Coventry as well as there were not enough seats on the service car.

 

[Flying Snail]

Something I have been curious about for a while is the way that some operators that provide duplicates for National Express have the routes and service numbers programmed into their displays. Even routes which that particular operator is not normally contracted to work.

If anyone is able to answer I would be interested to find out, what is the most likely explanation behind dupe operators having the different services programmed in on their displays? Would National Express specify that they need to have all the services programmed in just in case or is it more likely the operator has added them as and when they've been required to work dupes?

Also, on several occasions including over the recent Christmas period, I've seen coaches operating duplicates for NX where only the destination which the duplicate is serving has been shown on the display(eg one operator which was duplicating the section of 324 between Birmingham and Exeter showed 324 Exeter on the display as opposed to Brixham where the service car terminates). Would all the different destinations served on each NX service be programmed in just in case the operator is ever required to work a dupe to that destination or is it more likely to be the case that that dupes tend to serve the same destinations each time and therefore these are the destinations programmed into the LED display?

Once the displays are there it is a relatively trivial matter to add extra locations to them. It would depend on the type, some can take a manual entry, others require new destinations to be added with some form of external media (usb stick or memory card).

The Hannover units on all the service buses/coaches in my company only have 3 or 4 buttons but the route number and destination can be set independently. Route No. is just added manually, destination is a numeric code, I have a big book of the codes somewhere that can never be found on the odd occasion an unfamiliar destination is required.

It used to be the case that the route number could be any 4 character letter or number combination but most letters were removed a few years back. That may or may not have something to do with a coach or two seen with the route number replaced by a certain word starting in F when the destination was the rival county to the driver's home on the day of a major sporting event.

We have contractors that run some services and dupes of our mostly self-operated network, mostly they rely on paper stickers but any with working displays can get the file with the full range of destinations and program their equipment with it.

 

[anthony263]

Normally the dupes are booked to work over a certain section of the route. The NATEX driver on the actual service is the one who makes the decision and is effectively in charge of the dupe. Last Saturday I did the 1200 service 508 London - Haverfordwest and I had a dupe from Mainline coaches .

We had 76 passengers booked so since I needed to keep 12 seats free on my coach as I had a few to pick up at Reading/Calcot I put the 36 passengers for Swansea and 12 for Bridgend/Mc Arthur Glen on the dupe and told him he could run non stop to Bridgend. This was handy as those passengers for Swansea and Bridgend would reach their destinations early and it kept space onboard my coach.

 

[Martin1988]

Thanks to all of those who have taken the time to comment on this thread

 

[pitdiver]

During the time that I worked at NX the matter of where of where "Dupes" stopped was always a contentious subject. If you look at the word Dupe it implies that it duplicates or copies an original. It should therefore follow that the Dupe should stop at all stops. It was always felt it shouldn't be the the Driver of the Service Coach that decides where the dupe stops. They didn't have the current passenger figures. I can remember a number of occasions where a dupe did not stop where it should have done so creating problems where there was enough seats available on the service coach.

I know the counter argument is that if the dupe is full at the originating stop then it should run non stop. However for reasons that I won't go into this wasn't always the correct procedure. It should have been down to the Coach Station staff or Control to make those decisions.