First Aberdeen

[Jordan Adam]

Although they should have waited until the official press release is done on the First website, Evening Express have done a post about the service improvements next month.

I should note a few errors.

• The 1/2 are not being reduced during the day on Sundays, just in the early evening.
• The 20 is not a slower route, it's just perceived as one due to the fact it serves Old Aberdeen, in actual reality it's the same length or faster.

Aberdeen community welcomes new bus service

Bus services are to change again in an Aberdeen community.

Residents of Dubford, in Bridge of Don, have been campaigning for a better service for the area for a number of years and created a group called Buses for Dubford.

Petitions to save services from being scrapped have been created in the past, with Aberdeen City Council also stepping in to help.

This year a leap forward was made for the group after a service change to the 20 meant the route would operate on a Sunday, as well as providing links to the city centre.

But it was deemed to be a longer, slower route, with First Bus bosses now revealing the 20 to Dubford and Shielhill will be replaced by a new service, the 1B.

It will take on the old route of the X40, again servicing the whole of King Street.

There will also be changes to the 8A timetable, following feedback from workers travelling to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, plus times for the 1 and 2 on Sundays, which operates from Danestone and Ashwood, will move to every 30 minutes.

A spokesperson for Buses For Dubford said: “We are pleased that First Aberdeen have taken on board our feedback to restore more direct and fast bus links to Union Street along the King Street corridor.

“This will give better access to Morrison’s for the Dubford and Denmore communities and hopefully see passenger numbers grow again particularly from the Park & Ride site.

“We would hope First will now look at resolving the issue of the number 1B and 8 services being timed to leave Dubford at the same time so as to give a more frequent service again.”

The changes are to be in place from January 27. The 1B will operate on a 30-minute frequency.

David Phillips, operations director at First Bus, said: “We do listen for feedback and this is an example where we have acted upon it.

“We have confidence that these changes will enhance bus travel.”

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/bus-moves-welcomed/

 

[Deltic1961]

Any plans for First Aberdeen to utilize the AWPR and if so in what capacity?

Thanks!

 

[Volvodart]

First do not operate services out as far as can use the AWPR.

 

[Blackpudding]

Just for the record Scania coach 23504, FJ56PFN, having been MOT'd in November has finally been taxed from 1st January 2019. It still retains the FJ56PFN reg. number at the moment.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Just for the record Scania coach 23504, FJ56PFN, having been MOT'd in November has finally been taxed from 1st January 2019. It still retains the FJ56PFN reg. number at the moment.

At long last!

Any plans for First Aberdeen to utilize the AWPR and if so in what capacity?

Thanks!

Unlikely as there's not in reality that much demand, and what demand there is has been scooped up by Stagecoach's 747 and 757. All that being said there is other links such as from Deeside to ARI and Aberdeen Airport which have demand but are not yet catered for.

 

[Jordan Adam]

The new timetables are now on the First website under the "forthcoming timetables" section. From what i can gather the changes route by route are as follows.

Note that all routes mentioned have "Minor time changes", but this summary is just the significant stuff.

• 1: Reduced to Half Hourly after 17:30 on Sundays
• 1A: Reverts back to pre April route, off peak journeys axed (i hope this is just a error in the timetable)
• 1B: NEW half hourly service replacing the 1A between Castle Street and St Machar and the 20 between St Machar and Dubford
• 2: Reduced to Half Hourly after 17:30 on Sundays
• 3/3A/3G: Reduced to Every 12 Minutes offpeak
• 8/8A: NEW 8A PM return journey from ARI to Dubford
• 11: Minor changes
• 12: No longer interworks with the 31
• 17/17B: Reduced to Every 10 Minutes on Saturdays, although all 17s now extend to Dyce.
• 18: Minor changes
• 19: Minor changes
• 20: Reverts back to pre April route, Evening & Sunday journeys extend to Guild Street
• 31: Registered as a Stand Alone service rather than a variation of the 3.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

It looks highly likely that Aberden will get a Low Emission Zone inspite of the Bypass maybe relieving some traffic from the city centre.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...with-illegal-levels-of-pollution-in-aberdeen/

 

[Jordan Adam]

It looks highly likely that Aberden will get a Low Emission Zone inspite of the Bypass maybe relieving some traffic from the city centre.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/f...with-illegal-levels-of-pollution-in-aberdeen/

The council have been considering pedestrianising Union Street (Buses & Cyclists only) and a few other side streets to Union Street. Personally i think this is a great idea, although i suspect it may get some backlash from the public. With Market Street and King Street the poor air quality is hardly surprising as these are on major roads to the Harbour which see very high HGV traffic. Gt Northern Road At the Haudagain Roundabout is of less concern as these figures are prior to the opening of AWPR and the new junction currently in construction there should help reduce what traffic there still is. Keep in mind that since these figures were release there has been a massive decrease in traffic thanks to AWPR.

A LEZ zone in Aberdeen won't be too much of a worry for First as most of the fleet meet Euro 5 emissions. By the end of the year only 13 vehicles in the fleet will be Euro 3 or "worse". So it's not as big of a concern as Glasgow is.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

Does an LEZ mean a higher level of Bus usage if people can't get there by car without it costing a fortune?

This is what Id be Interested to find out.

If course there will be public disagreement with this, particularly when you consider the high level of car usage nowadays, but I certainly don't think private car use should be a given to every corner of the city. Nor that of glasgow and Edinburgh either.

I recall sometime back the public voted a Congestion charge down in edinburgh, one of which having the public decide on this is rather odd, consider g many are the people who clog the streets up with the aforementioned car use, If trucks were all Euro6 and cars were heavily restricted of course it would lower the emission levels in urban spots.

First Glasgow are heavily playing on the public purse paying for there retrofits atm, something I don't think should happening, especially since alot of there latest purchases are used outside the zone.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Does an LEZ mean a higher level of Bus usage if people can't get there by car without it costing a fortune?

This is what Id be Interested to find out.

If course there will be public disagreement with this, particularly when you consider the high level of car usage nowadays, but I certainly don't think private car use should be a given to every corner of the city. Nor that of glasgow and Edinburgh either.

I recall sometime back the public voted a Congestion charge down in edinburgh, one of which having the public decide on this is rather odd, consider g many are the people who clog the streets up with the aforementioned car use, If trucks were all Euro6 and cars were heavily restricted of course it would lower the emission levels in urban spots.

First Glasgow are heavily playing on the public purse paying for there retrofits atm, something I don't think should happening, especially since alot of there latest purchases are used outside the zone.

I think making it "harder" to get in to the centre will help increase bus patronage, but probably only slightly.

I believe the council are considering a number of options now. 1: Close Union Street & King Street to cars from the junction of Chapel Street right down to where King Street meets West North Street. The other is just closing the Union Terrace to Broad Street section. Perhaps a street often forgotten about but Guild Street is awful for congestion right now. There's also plans recently been put forward to close the full length of it off to cars. Of course plans being put forward and the reality of them going ahead are two completely different things! Just look at how long it's taking them to sort out Union Terrace Gardens, even talks of AWPR can be traced back to the 60s!

Can't really comment on First Glasgow. But if a LEZ zone was put in place on Market Street (Most likely) it would affect the 3 (Streelites), 12 (B7RLEs compliant to E5) & the 20 (Unbranded singles). If one was put in on Union Street all services would be affected, further to that i don't actually think a LEZ zone on Union Street would solve the issue, closing it from Chapel Street down to West North Street is the only realistic option in my view.

This is quite interesting.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

That is a good concept of how things should look, its a very accurate photo of how many city dwellers like to just walk out on the road without looking lol

The biggest downside with deciding any “zone” on specific streets is motorists branching off onto smaller side streets to avoid the zone, if thats what you were meaning by name certain streets, then would this not clog up the smaller streets?

I would honestly include the south/north esplanade right upto just beyond the southern parts of kings street, including union street right along to the start of union grove and up to hutcheon street, of course giving residence in that area exemption.

Simply making one or two streets isnt going to make an impact on a scale that should be quite considerably larger.

 

[Jordan Adam]

That is a good concept of how things should look, its a very accurate photo of how many city dwellers like to just walk out on the road without looking lol

The biggest downside with deciding any “zone” on specific streets is motorists branching off onto smaller side streets to avoid the zone, if thats what you were meaning by name certain streets, then would this not clog up the smaller streets?

I would honestly include the south/north esplanade right upto just beyond the southern parts of kings street, including union street right along to the start of union grove and up to hutcheon street, of course giving residence in that area exemption.

Simply making one or two streets isnt going to make an impact on a scale that should be quite considerably larger.

It's a tough one to get right, having given it quite a good deal of consideration i'd probably do the follow...

Red: Buses, Cyclists Only. (Deliveries allowed between 23:00 and 06:00)
Blue: Taxi's, Buses, Cyclists Only. (New Taxi rank on Union Terrace to replace one at Back Wynd).
Yellow: "Special Restrictions", these would mostly be access only roads. For example the tiny yellow section of King Street at Castle Street would be to allow vehicles using the access only Shiprow (one way road) to exit via Marischal Street.
Purple: This one little blob would be a section of road that is removed.

 

[Gingerbus1991]

I am getting you @Jordan Adam a job at Aberdeen Council!!

 

[route101]

That is a good concept of how things should look, its a very accurate photo of how many city dwellers like to just walk out on the road without looking lol

The biggest downside with deciding any “zone” on specific streets is motorists branching off onto smaller side streets to avoid the zone, if thats what you were meaning by name certain streets, then would this not clog up the smaller streets?

I would honestly include the south/north esplanade right upto just beyond the southern parts of kings street, including union street right along to the start of union grove and up to hutcheon street, of course giving residence in that area exemption.

Simply making one or two streets isnt going to make an impact on a scale that should be quite considerably larger.

Im sure they done that on a street in Chester , was walking down thinking it was pedestrianised and nearly got knocked down by a bus.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Im sure they done that on a street in Chester , was walking down thinking it was pedestrianised and nearly got knocked down by a bus.

They've already done it with Broad Street, despite what the typical lot who moan about anything and everything say - it actually works.

Pair of E500s travelling on to the pedestrianised section on the opening day (01/08/18)

 

[alangla]

There’s a road in Dundee like that, the pedestrianised bit in the city centre crosses one of the main bus routes, but it’s not obvious that you’re walking onto a road until one of National Express’s finest thunders past at full pelt

 

[overthewater]

Im very Surprised there going to close of the purple bit, with its major one way system, I just cant see it happening.

It's a tough one to get right, having given it quite a good deal of consideration i'd probably do the follow...

Red: Buses, Cyclists Only. (Deliveries allowed between 23:00 and 06:00)
Blue: Taxi's, Buses, Cyclists Only. (New Taxi rank on Union Terrace to replace one at Back Wynd).
Yellow: "Special Restrictions", these would mostly be access only roads. For example the tiny yellow section of King Street at Castle Street would be to allow vehicles using the access only Shiprow (one way road) to exit via Marischal Street.
Purple: This one little blob would be a section of road that is removed.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Im very Surprised there going to close of the purple bit, with its major one way system, I just cant see it happening.

I believe the proposals involve rebuilding the North Bound part of the loop to allow traffic to travel in both ways. Thus reconnecting South College Street with Denburn Road. Guild Street in it's fully length would have two way traffic, albeit Buses & Taxi's only.

There’s a road in Dundee like that, the pedestrianised bit in the city centre crosses one of the main bus routes, but it’s not obvious that you’re walking onto a road until one of National Express’s finest thunders past at full pelt

Drivers are being very strict here to travel over it slowly.

 

[Swanny200]

I have always wondered what would happen if Union Street was pedestrianized, someone I know that still lives there says that it has had a wee resurgence of late (if meaning more shops open is classed as a resurgence). I don't know many places with so many shopping centres within such a small space while still having a busy main High Street. I remember before I left that the Market was just starting to die a death, the Trinity Centre was looking a wee bit rundown, the St Nicholas Centre was just a covered street or sorts and The Bon Accord Centre had been open a year, maybe more, now you have Union Square, you could probably walk between all 5 within 15 minutes of one another, if the old market is still open that is. I probably would only do it from His Majesty's Theatre, down Union Terrace and along Union Street as far as King Street and have Bridge Street limited to taxi's, buses and cyclists too.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I have always wondered what would happen if Union Street was pedestrianized, someone I know that still lives there says that it has had a wee resurgence of late (if meaning more shops open is classed as a resurgence). I don't know many places with so many shopping centres within such a small space while still having a busy main High Street. I remember before I left that the Market was just starting to die a death, the Trinity Centre was looking a wee bit rundown, the St Nicholas Centre was just a covered street or sorts and The Bon Accord Centre had been open a year, maybe more, now you have Union Square, you could probably walk between all 5 within 15 minutes of one another, if the old market is still open that is. I probably would only do it from His Majesty's Theatre, down Union Terrace and along Union Street as far as King Street and have Bridge Street limited to taxi's, buses and cyclists too.

St Nicholas & Bon-Accord are now merged and do pretty well.
Trinity Centre is the smallest but remains popular and is up to modern standards. Although they've still not found a solution for the dreadful stairs down to Guild Street
However the indoor market which god knows how is still open, can only be regarded as a s**thole, the whole place has this awful smell and it's to some extent lost it's appeal. Mostly people only go there now for the butcher.

Union Street often gets portrayed by the media as being full of empty shops, but the reality is that it's still very popular. And the number of vacant sites has definitely reduced in the past year or so. The opening of Marischal Square on Broad Street and the council moving in to Marischal College means that the Broad Street area has been totally transformed too. Then there's also sites like the old Capital Cinema which are now large and rather grand offices. There's still a good number of shops on George Street, King Street and Holburn Street, among other side streets which see good footfall too. I think what has been of major benefit to Aberdeen is the universities continuing to expand, every year there's loads of new student housing being built which will be a great boost to the local economy.

 

[overthewater]

Has there never been an accident on the awful stairs? There a Chinese takeaways in the S****hole, which still remains busy no idea why.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Has there never been an accident on the awful stairs? There a Chinese takeaways in the S****hole, which still remains busy no idea why.

There's been no accident in recent years that for sure, i think primarily because everyone hates them and really takes their time on them. What they really ought to do is take down the current bridge, and then put in a new one which can facility a pair of escalators and a lift.

The Indoor market has it's regulars, but besides the long standing popular butcher it's mostly "Cheap tat" shops. There is the shop next to the main door though which sells overpriced phone chargers. I generally just avoid the place as i can only regard it as "Rancidity at it's peak".

 

[goldisgood]

Oxford City Council are trying to get buses banned off Queen Street, which is a semi-pedestrianised street similar to the one that's been pictured because 'an accident is likely to happen'. The buses rarely go above walking speed. They've made the pavements out of the same material as the shopping centre floor which has recently been redeveloped, with little markings to show that it is in fact a road which buses use! Lots of people say that they are waiting for an accident to happen - it's hardly obvious to tourists that there will be a bus coming down the road, with even locals surprised sometimes. OCC fail to realise that the real danger is cyclists. I know nobody who has not nearly been injured badly by a cyclist skipping traffic lights, or failing to abide by no cycling rules, or simply going too fast on the pedestrianised routes. I'm not saying all of the cyclists are like this, but unfortunately many are.

 

[GusB]

I am getting you @Jordan Adam a job at Aberdeen Council!!

Keeper of the Crayons?

It's a tough one to get right, having given it quite a good deal of consideration i'd probably do the follow...

Red: Buses, Cyclists Only. (Deliveries allowed between 23:00 and 06:00)
Blue: Taxi's, Buses, Cyclists Only. (New Taxi rank on Union Terrace to replace one at Back Wynd).
Yellow: "Special Restrictions", these would mostly be access only roads. For example the tiny yellow section of King Street at Castle Street would be to allow vehicles using the access only Shiprow (one way road) to exit via Marischal Street.
Purple: This one little blob would be a section of road that is removed.

I'm interested to see why you would close that bit of Carmelite Street (the purple bit). Wouldn't that cause problems for buses coming in from Union Terrace and the dual carriageway to nowhere Denburn Road, or would you propose re-introducing two-way traffic over the bridge on Guild Street?

 

[Jordan Adam]

I'm interested to see why you would close that bit of Carmelite Street (the purple bit). Wouldn't that cause problems for buses coming in from Union Terrace and the dual carriageway to nowhere Denburn Road, or would you propose re-introducing two-way traffic over the bridge on Guild Street?

As i say, that idea there was including the proposals to redesign that little area.

From what i believe, the proposals include demolishing the tower block next to Guild Street Bridge (going to happen anyway). Then widening the North/Western ends of the loop to once again allow two way traffic. Guild Street in it's entire length would become two way with the bridge at least being Buses & Taxi's only. Carmelite Street could then probably be closed off, and create a nice public walkway up to "The Green" and the Aberdeen Market (which is also being proposed to be redeveloped).

 

[route101]

There’s a road in Dundee like that, the pedestrianised bit in the city centre crosses one of the main bus routes, but it’s not obvious that you’re walking onto a road until one of National Express’s finest thunders past at full pelt

Yeah , im careful at that bit now ha

 

[Swanny200]

St Nicholas & Bon-Accord are now merged and do pretty well.
Trinity Centre is the smallest but remains popular and is up to modern standards. Although they've still not found a solution for the dreadful stairs down to Guild Street
However the indoor market which god knows how is still open, can only be regarded as a s**thole, the whole place has this awful smell and it's to some extent lost it's appeal. Mostly people only go there now for the butcher.

Union Street often gets portrayed by the media as being full of empty shops, but the reality is that it's still very popular. And the number of vacant sites has definitely reduced in the past year or so. The opening of Marischal Square on Broad Street and the council moving in to Marischal College means that the Broad Street area has been totally transformed too. Then there's also sites like the old Capital Cinema which are now large and rather grand offices. There's still a good number of shops on George Street, King Street and Holburn Street, among other side streets which see good footfall too. I think what has been of major benefit to Aberdeen is the universities continuing to expand, every year there's loads of new student housing being built which will be a great boost to the local economy.

To be honest, I had a look at the Capitol and was disgusted at what they did to it, I loved that building and to have a massive office block protude out of the back of a 1930s art deco building looks horrible, but that is just my opinion, a lot of the old haunts are still derelict though, what plans are there for the old Bon Accord Baths for instance?. A lot of this regeneration should have taken place a lot earlier than now, Aberdeen has had so much potential since the 70s oil money came in. I was on street view earlier and did my old route from my old house in Altens to my Gran's in Mastrick along that whole route, I cannot say a lot has changed and I moved out of Altens in 1984, I know the new route was added in the 90's (Denburn Road), but other than that, there isn't much on the Mastrick to Cove route that I can see has changed.

 

[Jordan Adam]

To be honest, I had a look at the Capitol and was disgusted at what they did to it, I loved that building and to have a massive office block protude out of the back of a 1930s art deco building looks horrible, but that is just my opinion, a lot of the old haunts are still derelict though, what plans are there for the old Bon Accord Baths for instance?. A lot of this regeneration should have taken place a lot earlier than now, Aberdeen has had so much potential since the 70s oil money came in. I was on street view earlier and did my old route from my old house in Altens to my Gran's in Mastrick along that whole route, I cannot say a lot has changed and I moved out of Altens in 1984, I know the new route was added in the 90's (Denburn Road), but other than that, there isn't much on the Mastrick to Cove route that I can see has changed.

While i agree that Aberdeen has been slow in regeneration. I think in fairness there's lots of exciting developments in in the planning and building process right now. Perhaps the biggest is the new Exhibition centre next to the Airport. There's also plenty of large housing developments at Charleston, Chapelton, Muggiemoss, Stoneywood, Craibstone, Whitestripes, Dubford, Northfield/Heathryfold, Countesswells etc.

Anyway this is veering very off topic!

 

[Swanny200]

Didn't mean to take it off topic Jordan, the point I was trying to get around was that there were so many opportunities to make Aberdeen a great place for shopping with pedestrianization, the shops are all there, the Denburn Road link, should have made it a hell of a lot easier and then with decent support from First and Stagecoach with decent bus links, it could have been something of a first that could have been incorporated into other cities considering that Aberdeen technically had the money well before some of the other places that have done it since. It feels that now that it is becoming more of a student city, that now the work is being done if you know what I mean.

 

[Jordan Adam]

Service Changes - 27 January 2019

The following changes will apply from Sunday 27 January, for full timetables click here and select the "forthcoming" tab

Service 1:
Minor changes to route frequency

Service 1A:
No longer serves Hillhead of Seaton which will instead be served by service 20.

Service 1B (New):
Replaces service 20 from Dubford and operates same route to St Machar Drive then continues along King Street to Union Street and terminates at Bridge Street

Service 2:
Minor changes to route frequency

Service 3/3G/31:
Minor changes to route frequency

Service 8:
Minor amendment to departure times

Service 8A:
Additional journey implemented from ARI to Dubford in the afternoon

Service 11:
Minor amendment to departure times
Minor adjustment to route frequency

Service 12:
Minor amendment to departure times

Service 17/17A/17B/18A:
Service 17B re-routed via King Street and West North Street in both directions
Minor amendment to departure times
Minor adjustment to route frequency

Service 18:
Minor amendment to departure times

Service 19:
Minor adjustment to departure times
Minor amendment to route frequency

Service 20
Terminates at Hillhead of Seaton

Services 182 and 183
Terminate at Duthie Park in the afternoon.