National Express

[freetoview33]

Liverpool-Manchester-Leeds shuttle one am peak journey has a 5 minute turn around, most have 20 minute turn around.

Can anyone explain this one!

531: Newcastle - Plymouth arrives in Bristol at 15:05 and departs again for Plymouth at 16:00

and then

532: Newcastle - Paignton arrives in Bristol at 17:05 and departs again at 17:30.

Any idea why one service needs to have an additional 30 mins time waiting at Bristol? My idea first of all was Drivers breaks but the 531 has a 25 min stop at both Leeds and Birmingham (not 55) and the 532 has a 30 min stop at Leeds at 25 min at Birmingham. So surely it can't just be a break. Maybe Traffic and Break? But still other services of similar length don't seem to be as effected at that time of day.

 

[Statto]

Can anyone explain this one!

531: Newcastle - Plymouth arrives in Bristol at 15:05 and departs again for Plymouth at 16:00

and then

532: Newcastle - Paignton arrives in Bristol at 17:05 and departs again at 17:30.

Any idea why one service needs to have an additional 30 mins time waiting at Bristol? My idea first of all was Drivers breaks but the 531 has a 25 min stop at both Leeds and Birmingham (not 55) and the 532 has a 30 min stop at Leeds at 25 min at Birmingham. So surely it can't just be a break. Maybe Traffic and Break? But still other services of similar length don't seem to be as effected at that time of day.

According to the timetable it is for a break, some journeys breaks are longer than others, also extended break could well be to connect with other coaches, most of the time breaks are at service stations rather than bus & coach station

 

[Martin2012]

I hope I'm not nit picking but the Paignton-Newcastle service you are referring to is the 530

The 532 service runs from Plymouth-Edinburgh. On the journey up to Edinburgh it seems to stop in Bristol for about 15-20 minutes and I think its scheduled for about 40-50 minutes stop in Birmingham at both ends. However I do remember one instance on the northbound journey when the coach was late in to Digbeth and it seemingly left straight away without having a stopover.

Does the fact that this service has two drivers reduce delays to the service if its running late, in that the second driver can take over if the first one goes over his legal limit before needing a break?

 

[starrymarkb]

I hope I'm not nit picking but the Paignton-Newcastle service you are referring to is the 530

The 532 service runs from Plymouth-Edinburgh. On the journey up to Edinburgh it seems to stop in Bristol for about 15-20 minutes and I think its scheduled for about 40-50 minutes stop in Birmingham at both ends. However I do remember one instance on the northbound journey when the coach was late in to Digbeth and it seemingly left straight away without having a stopover.

Does the fact that this service has two drivers reduce delays to the service if its running late, in that the second driver can take over if the first one goes over his legal limit before needing a break?

Yes, though in practice they swap at each stop

 

[Martin2012]

Thanks for confirming that. I've only really done the section of the route between Bristol and Birmingham and as there are no intermediate stops the same driver has remained at the wheel throughout the journey. The time I did the whole journey up to Edinburgh and back I sat at the rear of the coach and so I didn't take notice of where the driver swaps occurred.

I did do a return trip on the 336 between Bristol and Exeter last year(run by the same operator as the 532). I sat in the front seat in both directions and I'm pretty sure the same driver stayed driving the coach throughout the journey whilst the second one sat in the crew seat.