-
Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Bus News
- Thread starter GusB
- Start date
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
tram21
Member
joieman
Member
Yep, I saw 906 in Loughborough town centre the other day.
bussnapperwm
Established Member
- Joined
- 18 May 2014
- Messages
- 1,510
It's a pity Trent are also allergic to deckers as well as they could be an alternative to coaches on the Red Arrow
Trainman40083
Member
They still run coaches on Red Arrow. Okay maybe 3. When you look, several operators have taken coaches off such work. Go North East on Newcastle to Middlesbrough, possibly Stagecoach East on Oxford towards Cambridge. I would have thought high spec deckers were the answer, but it will never happen. Still, Red Arrow looks after most of the Derby based Mango single deckers. Maybe they will get new vehicles in 2026/2027
I appreciate I may have been very lucky, but I used 20+ Trent Barton services over the last four days and every single bus I wanted turned up with the longest delay of 10 minutes. I even managed a coach on the Red Arrow!
I'm in no doubt the are suffering issues, and certainly heard a grumble waiting for a Sixes. But I found them perfectly fine in the real world
I do wonder if the Red Arrow issues are being hidden by layover, at least at the Victoria end, as I noticed my departure arrived before the missing bus was supposed to go (which I didn't want anyway) So nothing looked missing
I'm in no doubt the are suffering issues, and certainly heard a grumble waiting for a Sixes. But I found them perfectly fine in the real world
I do wonder if the Red Arrow issues are being hidden by layover, at least at the Victoria end, as I noticed my departure arrived before the missing bus was supposed to go (which I didn't want anyway) So nothing looked missing
Last edited:
Trainman40083
Member
I think you are lucky. Buses missing on X38, Swift, Mickleover, 6.1, 6.2, Red Arrow just for a start. I'd wager over time, potential passengers who have a choice of mode will make a change. And that won't end well. Maybe they will send more buses to Kinchbus.
tram21
Member
From looking at upcoming licence changes:
Upcoming service changes:
Nottingham City Transport, 31st March: Timetable Changes to 17, 30, 35, 36, 77, 78, 79. No details yet.
Trentbarton: Trentbarton Website
Kinchbus: As seen above, Skylink Derby will go every 15 minutes.
Marshall's, 7th April: Withdrawal of 91, 856, 857 (potentially introduction of DRT)
Upcoming service changes:
Nottingham City Transport, 31st March: Timetable Changes to 17, 30, 35, 36, 77, 78, 79. No details yet.
Trentbarton: Trentbarton Website
Kinchbus: As seen above, Skylink Derby will go every 15 minutes.
Marshall's, 7th April: Withdrawal of 91, 856, 857 (potentially introduction of DRT)
Spot on - the next phase of NottsBus On Demand will be replacing these.
SSmith2009
Member
tram21
Member
Do you have any information about this?
On the Trentbarton service changes side of things, it's an extremely odd set of changes. I'd be interested to see what 'minor changes' are, and the Keyworth reduction should hopefully improve the service to make it more reliable, however to make Skylink Derby every 15 minutes in a company that doesn't have enough buses to run its current service?
Its almost like the people making the decisions have never been to Kinchbus's depot? Unless some major bus transfers occur, the problems will get worse!
Last edited:
Trainman40083
Member
Yes interesting re Kinch Skylink Leicester. I think 2hrs 10 mins after leaving Derby, that bus leaves Leicester. 13 buses currently in yellow, inc recent 128. So, I'd have thought every 15 minutes would need, say 25% more buses. Maybe they will get 127 , off since June after a RTA. Maybe two from another route. But the issue remains, KB seems to struggle to run a full timetable on some town routes most weekdays. I guess that won't change. But then, Skylink makes the profit, and profit attracts investment. I would think several routes, maybe Keyworth makes less money, so goes less frequent to try and maintain the service.
cnjb8
Established Member
128 is going to Kinch following the PVR reduction on Skylink Nottingham a few months ago
Indeed you would of thought like I said above that 128 is used to release the unbranded buses for the town routes which are regularly cancelled. Now it seems need 3 more buses. Looking at bus times today one of the diagrams was also uncovered with both 107 and 108 out covering for the branded vehicles. The 5, 9 and 11 all seem to have missing buses as well!
The new swift timetable is on traveline SW. The 2310 from Derby now moves back to 2330 with the 0030 becoming 0040 on Fridays and Saturdays. The former also now finishes at Ashbourne bus station on Fridays and Saturdays before returning to Derby.
Given the often mentioned shortages of vehicles & drivers at Wellglade as a whole where are the extras going to be coming from for the Skylink Derby service?
Trainman40083
Member
Maybe the group are chasing the money, leaving less profitable routes to others, or lesser frequency. But you mention shortages of vehicles and drivers. Add in mechanics..They don't seem to have stock of parts. Okay they talk of extended lead times, but the usual action is to hold safety stock to cover that. Maybe they have no money for that either. But one thought. I'm wondering what might happen to passenger numbers if and when the £2 fare ever ends? Maybe the repainting starts all over again.
SSmith2009
Member
Maybe a new fleet is on order or some of the threes versas as a stop gap?
tram21
Member
I think in the long run it won't have much of a difference, but in the short term it'll take a lot to get used to higher fares again!
Look at these Skylink Derby prices
But then again the caps are pretty low so if you're making two journeys it's still good value!
Attachments
At the moment the Skylink Derby service increase is needed - it's often rammed. Like others i question where the vehicles are going to come from. I was on an Optare Solo of all things a few weeks ago on that route. Better than nothing turning up of course, but no luggage space at all and it was crush loaded.
No wonder a Zig-Zag isn't valid on Skylink Derby!I think in the long run it won't have much of a difference, but in the short term it'll take a lot to get used to higher fares again!
Look at these Skylink Derby prices
But then again the caps are pretty low so if you're making two journeys it's still good value!
tram21
Member
Its similar on the Skylink Express for a much shorter distance!
Nottingham to EMA on SNX:
adult mango£6.75
adult single£7.50
adult zigzag£7.60
family return£23.80
student mango£6.00
travel contactless£7.50
young explorer£1.00
young mango£4.77
young single£5.30
young zigzag£5.30
adrianjohnson
Member
Zig-Zag is for trentbarton routes only and Skyline Derby is a kinchbus route. To use Zig-Zag on both companies, it's the Zig-Zag Plus. trentbarton - fares & tickets
Robertj21a
On Moderation
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 7,520
It's just not right to ignore the timetables on Kinch 9, 11, 12 etc because there aren't enough buses (or drivers) - and then increase the frequencies on Skylink.
It's about time that someone like Centrebus or Vectare was asked to take over the Kinchbus local routes and let Trent run the Derby Skylink.
derbybusdepot
Member
- Joined
- 17 Dec 2015
- Messages
- 103
Cancellations on Kinch 11, 5 and skylink this morning, as there are most days.
With them needing 4 extra buses on skylink in little over a month's time, what will change? Bear in mind full service has been rare for years due to various issues.
Question is, should frequency increases really be allowed? There is plenty of evidence to show they consistently fail to operate registered services, surely the last thing they need to do is take on more.
With them needing 4 extra buses on skylink in little over a month's time, what will change? Bear in mind full service has been rare for years due to various issues.
Question is, should frequency increases really be allowed? There is plenty of evidence to show they consistently fail to operate registered services, surely the last thing they need to do is take on more.
Attachments
SSmith2009
Member
Vectare would be a good shout for competition on the town routes 5/11/12 with those merc minis they have.
Robertj21a
On Moderation
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 7,520
I wonder if Kinchbus is being gradually wound down anyway ? - with plans for new electrics on Skylink (yet to be finalised) isn't that likely to get operated from a new installation at the Derby end ?
Why is that more likely?
zakky1.0
Member
Oh believe me, it’ll be based from Loughborough with the plans that are in the works for the garage, limited on what I can say but kinchs’ depot will be having some upgrades…
Trainman40083
Member
I thought the proposal for Skylink was hydrogen buses.
Robertj21a
On Moderation
- Joined
- 22 Sep 2013
- Messages
- 7,520
Only because Derby could probably make better use of such facilities, now and in the future. Kinchbus has relatively little work other than their Skylink.