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First Greater Glasgow

Busman84

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9 Sep 2019
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131
Location
East Kilbride
It's the reliability of a lot of services that's killed bus use tbh especially in Glasgow. The train being decent plays a part too but if the buses were even remotely reliable even outside of peaks they would be more used.

I can get the 1s, 2 and 6 from 3/4mins away from my house and the 3 and X4 are about 10 mins away yet out of them only the 1C and X4 outside of peaks are even remotely reliable. Very often ends up 3/4 2s and 6s within 10mins due to bunching up both ways. Feel for drivers in that situation too because they take the worst of the blame from customers but it's 100% not their fault.

It might be costly but adding back in more recovery time and more drivers with more buses might be the only way to stop the decline going forward although a lot of what I read and hear from people is that they're done with buses for good unless the train becomes a disaster or car cost goes up so massively they can only afford bus.


Also all the depots had timespare (drivers sitting spare) throughout the entire day. That was cut 10 years ago and only in mornings there is timespare usually 5am spare. Come the afternoon/evenings there’s nobody spare. So if a driver goes home sick or has extended meal break so be it the bus comes off the road. Back 10 years ago if a late shift collapsed, bus broke down or extended meal break no bus would need to come out of service.

Plenty of people are done with the bus now. Most places in Glasgow now wait longer for a bus compared to 10/15 years ago as many services cut. If 2 are traveling together over a short distance then getting a Private Hire could also be cheaper and drop you right at the door of your destination..
 
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RailUK Forums

lastbus

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9 Sep 2018
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1,001
It's the reliability of a lot of services that's killed bus use tbh especially in Glasgow. The train being decent plays a part too but if the buses were even remotely reliable even outside of peaks they would be more used.

I can get the 1s, 2 and 6 from 3/4mins away from my house and the 3 and X4 are about 10 mins away yet out of them only the 1C and X4 outside of peaks are even remotely reliable. Very often ends up 3/4 2s and 6s within 10mins due to bunching up both ways. Feel for drivers in that situation too because they take the worst of the blame from customers but it's 100% not their fault.

It might be costly but adding back in more recovery time and more drivers with more buses might be the only way to stop the decline going forward although a lot of what I read and hear from people is that they're done with buses for good unless the train becomes a disaster or car cost goes up so massively they can only afford bus.
The problem is they can’t get drivers.
 

PaulMc7

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9 Jul 2019
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4,029
Also all the depots had timespare (drivers sitting spare) throughout the entire day. That was cut 10 years ago and only in mornings there is timespare usually 5am spare. Come the afternoon/evenings there’s nobody spare. So if a driver goes home sick or has extended meal break so be it the bus comes off the road. Back 10 years ago if a late shift collapsed, bus broke down or extended meal break no bus would need to come out of service.

Plenty of people are done with the bus now. Most places in Glasgow now wait longer for a bus compared to 10/15 years ago as many services cut. If 2 are traveling together over a short distance then getting a Private Hire could also be cheaper and drop you right at the door of your destination..

Yeah I've seen it with the 2 a couple of times being cut off because of a driver having to finish early. Got the bus from Baillieston about a month ago and it only ran to Glasgow Cross due to the driver having an emergency to attend to. Yeah taxi works out well too hence why the night bus use here has also suffered so much. Will be interesting to see how things go
 

Scott mac

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24 Apr 2018
Messages
229
This confirms the number of buses coming as per what I said *Although this says between 75/80*. Once I know what is being ordered I will post the info. ADL will no doubt be the choice but remember that FIG need as many E6 vehicles as they can get with their budget. Wouldn't rule out more wright vehicles joining the fleet just yet :)
This is good to see but a wonder if they will brand these this time as clearly branded buses isn't working for Glasgow
 

Scott mac

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24 Apr 2018
Messages
229
Here we go again... :rolleyes:

How do you know "branded buses isn't working for Glasgow"?..
Am seeing it every day Monday 38 on a 2 65 on a 2 41 on a 60 3 201 on the 21 9 on a 6 2 on a 34 and a 7 happened the last time when the down the overground and look what happened their scrap it
 

Jordan Adam

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12 Sep 2017
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Aberdeen
Am seeing it every day Monday 38 on a 2 65 on a 2 41 on a 60 3 201 on the 21 9 on a 6 2 on a 34 and a 7 happened the last time when the down the overground and look what happened their scrap it

Branding still works when a vehicle is off route. Overground wasn't scrapped, it was just phased out when Olympia came along in 2012.
 

JumpinTrainz

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30 Jul 2018
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1,654
This is good to see but a wonder if they will brand these this time as clearly branded buses isn't working for Glasgow

If the rumours are true and the 9 sees new buses I think they’ll naturally continue on the pink front branding. We might see them start to repaint the 9 branded B7RLEs at Scotstoun and debrand them that might be a huge clue.

I think they’ll eventually brand the Kirky routes (using 65 plate E200MMCs no doubt) with a joint branding for the 87, 88 and 89 as it would be too route specific surely to individually brand them.

I would say the branding is a good idea but buses definitely stray far too often. I’ve saw far too many branded buses on other routes so perhaps they could go easier on th routes they are branding perhaps. I thought the 1 would have been done by now given it’s such a key route and all the fleet are pretty uniform and about the only ones based at the one depot.
 

LT02 NVV

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12 Nov 2019
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272
Location
Glasgow
Sorry for not being active, This morning I Seen a First Glasgow Trainer and a Renown On the 1C in Drumchapel.
 

awsnews

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Joined
13 Mar 2019
Messages
315
https://bustimes.org/vehicles/170655 Is true, Cause I SWEAR it was on the 1C.
Don't rely on bustimes.org to prove anything, it isn't anywhere near accurate enough for that. 61609 is still around and in regular service but doesn't show up on bustimes so it is quite possible it was on the 1c or even 61653. One of the morning workings from the city is quite often a Renown. 61604 is currently operating from Scotstoun so would be less likely as their morning 1Cs are normally double deck.
 

PaulMc7

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9 Jul 2019
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4,029
Don't rely on bustimes.org to prove anything, it isn't anywhere near accurate enough for that. 61609 is still around and in regular service but doesn't show up on bustimes so it is quite possible it was on the 1c or even 61653. One of the morning workings from the city is quite often a Renown. 61604 is currently operating from Scotstoun so would be less likely as their morning 1Cs are normally double deck.

Not been out early enough lately to notice but even a month or 2 ago the majority of the 1Cs I seen between say 7am and 9am were always single deckers. Even a year or 2 back I used to always see the 8:08 one at Scotstoun and it was very rarely a double decker. Might have changed now tbh although I've seen more single decker 1Ds now too than there used to be
 

SarahDFIG

Member
Joined
9 Jan 2019
Messages
381
This is good to see but a wonder if they will brand these this time as clearly branded buses isn't working for Glasgow
Unfortunately the branded vehicles end up anywhere and regardless will continue especially with larger depots, that's just the way it is. The branding is more of an advertisement for the route than the bus being dedicated for that particular route. 9/9a should be receiving new vehicles this year depending on the order containing singles. No details yet regarding that
 

PaulMc7

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9 Jul 2019
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Anyone ever wonder what First would be like in Glasgow if they had solid competition for say the last 8/10 years?

There's not really much of it when you look at the network with the exception of Coatbridge and Airdrie.

Stagecoach with the 4 and X19 then the Cumbernauld services
Mcgills with the 38
West Coast Motors with the 15/17
Whitelaws have buses from Hamilton to EK
JMB with the 41 and 56

Its not really a lot when the network here is actually fairly big and Glasgow is the city with the highest population in Scotland. I do feel though like it would maybe be a good thing as First would need to step their game up massively but then I fear it would just end up with a lot of areas given up to competition and domination of other areas
 
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Jordan Adam

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12 Sep 2017
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Aberdeen
Anyone ever wonder what First would be like in Glasgow if they had solid competition for say the last 8/10 years?

There's not really much of it when you look at the network with the exception of Coatbridge and Airdrie.

Stagecoach with the 4 and X19 then the Cumbernauld services
Mcgills with the 38
West Coast Motors with the 15/17
Whitelaws have buses from Hamilton to EK
JMB with the 41 and 56

Its not really a lot when the network here is actually fairly big and Glasgow is the city with the highest population in Scotland. I do feel though like it would maybe be a good thing as First would need to step their game up massively but then I fear it would just end up with a lot of areas given up to competition and domination of other areas

Lets not forget that First also have to compete with the railways... Out of all the cities in Scotland Glasgow by far has the most competition.
 

PaulMc7

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Lets not forget that First also have to compete with the railways... Out of all the cities in Scotland Glasgow by far has the most competition.

Yeah wasn't forgetting that. Was meaning solely from a bus use point of view though
 

Jordan Adam

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Aberdeen
Yeah wasn't forgetting that. Was meaning solely from a bus use point of view though

But a bus point of view is irrelevant as the train still offers direct competition on many corridors and other cities in Scotland don't have as comprehensive of a network. For example within Aberdeen there's only two train stations. Aberdeen and Dyce, suburban rail stations are pretty much nonexistent unlike in Glasgow. If you're going to make an argument about a lack of competition then you need to include all public transport options.
 

PaulMc7

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But a bus point of view is irrelevant as the train still offers direct competition on many corridors and other cities in Scotland don't have as comprehensive of a network. For example within Aberdeen there's only two train stations. Aberdeen and Dyce, suburban rail stations are pretty much nonexistent unlike in Glasgow. If you're going to make an argument about a lack of competition then you need to include all public transport options.

Even when you add in the train tbh there's still not a great deal of competition unless you're going to the city centre. The train lines don't really follow bus routes for a long period of time. Sections of bus routes are covered by the train but very rarely the full route is directly followed by a train line
 

Jordan Adam

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Even when you add in the train tbh there's still not a great deal of competition unless you're going to the city centre. The train lines don't really follow bus routes for a long period of time. Sections of bus routes are covered by the train but very rarely the full route is directly followed by a train line

But that's irrelevant again as it's still competition. Most of the money to be made is on routes in to the city centre. Wherever there's a train service it's going to take large numbers of passengers from bus operators even if the train doesn't follow the same route as the bus, provided they both somehow get from point A to point B (doesn't matter what route they take just so long as they both go from those two locations) there's competition and you could list almost an endless amount of examples in Glasgow where that is the case.
 

PaulMc7

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But that's irrelevant again as it's still competition. Most of the money to be made is on routes in to the city centre. Wherever there's a train service it's going to take large numbers of passengers from bus operators even if the train doesn't follow the same route as the bus, provided they both somehow get from point A to point B (doesn't matter what route they take just so long as they both go from those two locations) there's competition and you could list almost an endless amount of examples in Glasgow where that is the case.

That's my point about competition though. The trains even in the city centre are very limited to where you can go with them and that's something the bus needs to take true advantage of. Even in most areas outside the city centre the bus is way more accessible than the train and very often a train station is located at an end of an area and barely directly in the middle so First could easily take advantage of that but as bus competition is so limited there's nothing really pushing them so that's why I mentioned bus competition more than anything. There's plenty of potential in Glasgow but a lack of acting on that and the constant cuts really don't help
 

route101

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16 May 2010
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10,594
Theres deffo something up with branded buses off route . Ive seen more unbranded buses on the 61 including singles and older deckers.
 

Zakforbes4

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15 Nov 2019
Messages
111
Location
Glasgow
Just wondering what is the 74A all about seems like a strange route I think it's a school run but why number it 74A if anyone knows it would be great
 

Jordan Adam

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Aberdeen
Just wondering what is the 74A all about seems like a strange route I think it's a school run but why number it 74A if anyone knows it would be great

I think you to some extent answered your own question. :p

Indeed it's a school run, reason it uses the 74A number is because it follows the similar route to the 74.
 

JumpinTrainz

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30 Jul 2018
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I don’t see the YN08 plate B9TLs about much anymore. I saw one which was sporting the new livery and looked like it had the seats retrimmed inside but how many did Lanarkshire have? Once the E400MMCs appeared on the X11 they sort of vanished.
 

lastbus

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9 Sep 2018
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I don’t see the YN08 plate B9TLs about much anymore. I saw one which was sporting the new livery and looked like it had the seats retrimmed inside but how many did Lanarkshire have? Once the E400MMCs appeared on the X11 they sort of vanished.
1 or 2 on the X11 most days.
 

69036

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4 Feb 2019
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56
All 9 YN08s still running, 2 at Caley now and the rest are usually found on the 21 or Hamilton runs. 2 in the new livery now
 

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