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First Greater Glasgow

route101

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I've been seeing some deckers on the 9/9A recently, is this meant to be happening, or is it just coincidence?

Always been a few deckers n the 9 . Dont think Scotstoun have enough to make the 9 all decker . Though i do think too many singles along PRW.
 
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route101

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Yeah possibly although there's a few I still recognise from a good 10/12 years ago that still drive services around where I stay.

Used to be the 42/62/66 with the 204/205/215/216 back in the day near me

Now the 1/1A/1B/1C/1D/1E and the 2 and 6

Yeah ,morning 31 i get often is the same driver , older one. The 31 often has the same drivers.
 

PaulMc7

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Seen one of the small single deckers that usually appear on just the 81, M11 and M60 on a 6 about half an hour ago. Felt strange but it's not the first time either.

On the subject of the 6 it's really bizarre how quiet it can be towards Clydebank from the City Centre at peaks. Last 4/5 times have been the same and off peak it's never that busy either. Definitely could be less than every 10 mins tbh.

I can understand people not using it though. Horrific reliability and it's never had the greatest of buses. Same with the 6A tbh.

Going back when the 66 first changed to the 6 I can always remember it being really busy at peaks all the time and even off peak it carried solid numbers. The 4/4A is the same. I remember when the 44 was every 10 mins to Knightswood and carried fair numbers most of the time. I get the idea of having an X4 being the express and them thinking it would follow how the success of the 1s has gone but the 2 things I've heard anytime the X4 is mentioned are that the circular route in Knightswood is off putting due to the reliability issues that come with it and the lack of a West end link
 

route101

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Seen one of the small single deckers that usually appear on just the 81, M11 and M60 on a 6 about half an hour ago. Felt strange but it's not the first time either.

On the subject of the 6 it's really bizarre how quiet it can be towards Clydebank from the City Centre at peaks. Last 4/5 times have been the same and off peak it's never that busy either. Definitely could be less than every 10 mins tbh.

I can understand people not using it though. Horrific reliability and it's never had the greatest of buses. Same with the 6A tbh.

Going back when the 66 first changed to the 6 I can always remember it being really busy at peaks all the time and even off peak it carried solid numbers. The 4/4A is the same. I remember when the 44 was every 10 mins to Knightswood and carried fair numbers most of the time. I get the idea of having an X4 being the express and them thinking it would follow how the success of the 1s has gone but the 2 things I've heard anytime the X4 is mentioned are that the circular route in Knightswood is off putting due to the reliability issues that come with it and the lack of a West end link

Yeah , been a bad week this week for roadworks and bus reliability . Last few timesi would get on a 6 in town , and it was a case of empty 6 follows full 6 in front .
 

PaulMc7

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Yeah , been a bad week this week for roadworks and bus reliability . Last few timesi would get on a 6 in town , and it was a case of empty 6 follows full 6 in front .

Yeah even off peak over where I stay they run like that. It's one of the most horrific services for reliability yet it's another they've not really done much with since Simplicity. Only thing I can think of is cutting it down to going every 30mins at night earlier.
 

Scott mac

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The next candidates for route branding are fairly obvious I’d say.
Branding for Glasgow Is a total waste of time it has never worked look at the overground and the now would have been better just buying new buses with no branding
 

Jordan Adam

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Branding for Glasgow Is a total waste of time it has never worked look at the overground and the now would have been better just buying new buses with no branding

Not this again... Branding isn't a total waste, it markets the service - effectively a mobile billboard. If it was really a waste then why would most companies still put lots of effort in to doing route branding. Also Overground was fairly successful on the whole, however we need to keep in mind Overground was more than just branding, it was a scheme which lead to core services being enhanced / improved and lesser services being cut back or integrated in to other routes. Having colour coded services also makes things much easier for tourists.
 

JumpinTrainz

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Branding for Glasgow Is a total waste of time it has never worked look at the overground and the now would have been better just buying new buses with no branding

Branding works when buses are kept to their branded route but this is something which in the past Glasgow has been horrible at given how many buses it actually has. It’s been made even worse by Caledonia, Cumbernauld and Parkhead all being merged since the Overground was introduced. So when you think of that - that’s 3 depots now in the one. Put on top of that maintenance, RTA’s, general breakdowns which can happen.... you get the drift.

I do think the branding looks terrific on The buses and definitely makes them more appealing. Even people I’ve been with who aren’t bus enthusiasts by any matter of means have commented on their appearance and if they are new buses despite them being 12 year old B9TLs!! I think when it’s good it’s good but it’s the difficulty of keeping buses to their route.
 

Jordan Adam

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I do think the branding looks terrific on The buses and definitely makes them more appealing. Even people I’ve been with who aren’t bus enthusiasts by any matter of means have commented on their appearance and if they are new buses despite them being 12 year old B9TLs!! I think when it’s good it’s good but it’s the difficulty of keeping buses to their route.

There's always going to be cases when branded buses go off route, it's not really a bad thing as the branding is still working in that it's marketing the route it's branded for. However better efforts do need to be made when it comes to FirstBus, it's pretty evident with the new vehicles that too many 38s were branded, and arguably it's the same with the 75.
 

Volvodart

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They should just have branded something like 60% of the buses on the route as they did originally in Aberdeen and, when they cared then, very few buses came to be on the wrong route. Generally all the branded buses went out first thing before they started to get short of buses.
 
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PaulMc7

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The problem that I find is that they done a lot so quickly and then now the 34s and 38s have had cuts so there's spares with branding still on them. The 38s still also have Easterhouse mentioned on their branding too when they don't even go there anymore. I know Glasgow Fort is technically in Easterhouse but it could lead to confusion for some. Would have made more sense to cut the 60/60A over the 38s at Easterhouse IMO.

Glasgow having such a big network has lead to the branded buses appearing everywhere but I think that's understandable due to maintenance etc. If I was in charge I'd definitely try and focus more on other methods of branding so people understand routes more easily and are aware of services.

Social media is First's biggest problem and I think if that was far more effectively used then people would be more inclined to use their services
 

Busman84

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They should just have branded something like 60% of the buses on the route as they did originally in Aberdeen and, when they cared then, very few buses came to be on the wrong route. Generally all the branded buses went out first thing before they started to get short of buses.

Would agree there. That means you would have a lot more newer vehicles out on other routes on Sundays. Instead 15 year old buses are out on core routes something you didn’t see years ago when depots would have as many new buses out as possible on Sundays.
 

JumpinTrainz

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They should just have branded something like 60% of the buses on the route as they did originally in Aberdeen and, when they cared then, very few buses came to be on the wrong route. Generally all the branded buses went out first thing before they started to get short of buses.

This sounds like a very effective way of doing things. Aberdeen always seemed to get it right over Glasgow
 

JumpinTrainz

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I’ve noticed a lot more variety on the 2 recently is this to do with E300s being taken off the road for repaint/branding?
 

Jordan Adam

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They should just have branded something like 60% of the buses on the route as they did originally in Aberdeen and, when they cared then, very few buses came to be on the wrong route. Generally all the branded buses went out first thing before they started to get short of buses.

Although you have to keep in mind in the early 00s when it was launched the Aberdeen fleet was almost entirely made up of new/nearly new B10BLEs with the only other vehicles being a handful of B7TLs, B7LAs, Olympians and K1GRT. So it was fairly easy to keep vehicles on their branded route as they were mostly identical in specification thus meaning there was no restrictions like there is now.

This sounds like a very effective way of doing things. Aberdeen always seemed to get it right over Glasgow

Currently they're not very good, repainted 37636 often ends up on the 19 while it's sisters are off route on the likes of the 3. It's the same with repainted 67783, it's often on the 17/18 when branded examples are off route. The E500s in particular are horrendous for operating off route. Imo back in 2015/16 they should've branded less E500s for the 1/2 and more Artics.
 

JumpinTrainz

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Although you have to keep in mind in the early 00s when it was launched the Aberdeen fleet was almost entirely made up of new/nearly new B10BLEs with the only other vehicles being a handful of B7TLs, B7LAs, Olympians and K1GRT. So it was fairly easy to keep vehicles on their branded route as they were mostly identical in specification thus meaning there was no restrictions like there is now.



Currently they're not very good, repainted 37636 often ends up on the 19 while it's sisters are off route on the likes of the 3. It's the same with repainted 67783, it's often on the 17/18 when branded examples are off route. The E500s in particular are horrendous for operating off route. Imo back in 2015/16 they should've branded less E500s for the 1/2 and more Artics.

I wonder if with the repaints they’ll debrand the E500s or whether they’ll want the 1/2 to be fully branded
 

route101

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Would agree there. That means you would have a lot more newer vehicles out on other routes on Sundays. Instead 15 year old buses are out on core routes something you didn’t see years ago when depots would have as many new buses out as possible on Sundays.

Notice a few things on a Sunday . Seen a 263 that was a 18 branded decker . Sunday brings out e300s for 263,240, 255 . Had 240 branded on 240 on sunday , does overtown loan this to Blantyre?

31 seems to change buses over , had a decker on the evening service yet was eclipses in the morning.

21 is streetlites on a sunday for whatever reason.
 

38A-Z

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The problem that I find is that they done a lot so quickly and then now the 34s and 38s have had cuts so there's spares with branding still on them. The 38s still also have Easterhouse mentioned on their branding too when they don't even go there anymore. I know Glasgow Fort is technically in Easterhouse but it could lead to confusion for some. Would have made more sense to cut the 60/60A over the 38s at Easterhouse IMO.

Glasgow having such a big network has lead to the branded buses appearing everywhere but I think that's understandable due to maintenance etc. If I was in charge I'd definitely try and focus more on other methods of branding so people understand routes more easily and are aware of services.

Social media is First's biggest problem and I think if that was far more effectively used then people would be more inclined to use their services

Do the 38s have Easterhouse on the branding? I thought it was just Giffnock through to Alexandra Parade branded so they can be used on any 38/A/B/C/E, so covers any of them going to Eastwood Toll, Newton Mearns, Spiersbridge, Easterhouse, Chryston , Baillieston and Barlanark.

I don’t see the branding being a major issue being used on other services tbh. If they had branded route numbers on the front of the bus then that would cause confusion but the numbers and routes are on the side so I guess it makes sense to use them on other services. The confusion would be for people running to catch the bus rather than people at the bus stop.
 

PaulMc7

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Do the 38s have Easterhouse on the branding? I thought it was just Giffnock through to Alexandra Parade branded so they can be used on any 38/A/B/C/E, so covers any of them going to Eastwood Toll, Newton Mearns, Spiersbridge, Easterhouse, Chryston , Baillieston and Barlanark.

I don’t see the branding being a major issue being used on other services tbh. If they had branded route numbers on the front of the bus then that would cause confusion but the numbers and routes are on the side so I guess it makes sense to use them on other services. The confusion would be for people running to catch the bus rather than people at the bus stop.

Swear I've seen one with it. Might have misread it. The problem with the 38s is the amount of variations and not to mention the really stupid thing First do towards Shawlands by making them all 38s and 38As at peak and even on a Sunday it's changed to be like that too.

Even having just the 38/38A and then 36/37/39 being the Rouken Glen to Chryston/Barlanark/Baillieston variants would be so much easier. Also, at times they run them from completely different places too. From Newton Mearns during the week at peaks but more so in the morning most of the 38s go to different places so that probably adds to the confusion.

I always say the same about the 1s too.

Leave it at a 1/1A as their both Balloch services then X services for the current 1B/1C/1D and even a X206 for the 1E as it covers Bonhill, Jamestown, Haldane and Balloch.

Don't know what the 1C/1D could be though. The X3 is taken already so something like an X60 maybe and the X6 could be the 1D as the 6 used to run to Mountblow
 
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lastbus

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Notice a few things on a Sunday . Seen a 263 that was a 18 branded decker . Sunday brings out e300s for 263,240, 255 . Had 240 branded on 240 on sunday , does overtown loan this to Blantyre?

31 seems to change buses over , had a decker on the evening service yet was eclipses in the morning.

21 is streetlites on a sunday for whatever reason.
Blantyre has its own 240 branded vehicles as they share the 240 with Overtown Mon-Sat.

The 18 decker on the 263 must run off an 18 board as the 263 and 240 interwork on a Sunday and the 240 cannot have deckers on it.

The 21 is to be operated by single deckers on a Sunday now to save money on fuel I believe.
 

Jordan Adam

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Blantyre has its own 240 branded vehicles as they share the 240 with Overtown Mon-Sat.

The 18 decker on the 263 must run off an 18 board as the 263 and 240 interwork on a Sunday and the 240 cannot have deckers on it.

The 21 is to be operated by single deckers on a Sunday now to save money on fuel I believe.

From various photos i've seen it does appear the 18 branded deckers do get the occasional run on the 255/263/267, particularly on Sundays.
 

jazza374

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Blantyre has its own 240 branded vehicles as they share the 240 with Overtown Mon-Sat.

The 18 decker on the 263 must run off an 18 board as the 263 and 240 interwork on a Sunday and the 240 cannot have deckers on it.

The 21 is to be operated by single deckers on a Sunday now to save money on fuel I believe.
Just out of interest what is the reason for the deckers restriction on the 240?
 

smtglasgow

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I’ve often wondered about this, because the 240 is ludicrously busy at the Glasgow end and could do with the extra capacity. It must be one of the Bellshill rail bridges that’s causing the issue, but it seems to be a recent restriction (well, recent-ish). About 10 years ago First ran Gemini’s on the 201 at weekends (presumably for folk heading to EK) and about the same time Tridents cropped up fairly often on the 240. Going way back, there are pictures on Flickr of Central Scottish running Ailsa’s on the 240, so something (re-surfacing?) has happened in recent years. AFAIK the route in Bellshill has been the same for years.
 

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