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Stagecoach West/South West/South Wales - Fleet News & Discussion

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Mwanesh

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Megabus will be changing a few things on Monday 17 February. M36 from Plymouth will be replaced by the M38 which will now do Nottingham-Birmingham-Bristol-Exeter and Plymouth and vice versa. Passengers for Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will connect either in Bristol or Birmingham. The M6 will have Redwoods Travel operating some journeys. 3 or 4 coaches will be moving to Redwoods. The M6 will now also stop at Honiton. The cross country Cardiff to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will now call into Newport. The M14 from Gloucester will now serve Heathrow Airport. The M7 and M10 a few journeys will be calling at Hammersmith Bus Station.
 
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DaveHarries

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Megabus will be changing a few things on Monday 17 February. M36 from Plymouth will be replaced by the M38 which will now do Nottingham-Birmingham-Bristol-Exeter and Plymouth and vice versa. Passengers for Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will connect either in Bristol or Birmingham. The M6 will have Redwoods Travel operating some journeys. 3 or 4 coaches will be moving to Redwoods. The M6 will now also stop at Honiton. The cross country Cardiff to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will now call into Newport. The M14 from Gloucester will now serve Heathrow Airport. The M7 and M10 a few journeys will be calling at Hammersmith Bus Station.
Traveline leaving it rather late to put the new timetables up. The M36 and M38 TTs are shown as being valid from 04-Feb-2020.

Dave
 

extendedpaul

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Caerphilly and Kent
Megabus will be changing a few things on Monday 17 February. M36 from Plymouth will be replaced by the M38 which will now do Nottingham-Birmingham-Bristol-Exeter and Plymouth and vice versa. Passengers for Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will connect either in Bristol or Birmingham. The M6 will have Redwoods Travel operating some journeys. 3 or 4 coaches will be moving to Redwoods. The M6 will now also stop at Honiton. The cross country Cardiff to Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle will now call into Newport. The M14 from Gloucester will now serve Heathrow Airport. The M7 and M10 a few journeys will be calling at Hammersmith Bus Station.
Also from 17 February Megabus are linking with Berry's Superfast on journeys between London Hammersmith and Tiverton via Bridgwater and Taunton.

Faster journey times, but only from Hammersmith and higher fares.
 

embers25

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Several still serve Bristol not Honiton. The main change is that all M6 now serve Heathrow T5 with some also serving T23 but not all. That is a huge change.
 

Temple Meads

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Also from 17 February Megabus are linking with Berry's Superfast on journeys between London Hammersmith and Tiverton via Bridgwater and Taunton.

Faster journey times, but only from Hammersmith and higher fares.

Cheapest fare on the Berry's trips is £20 - 5 seats allocated to Megabus on each coach.

If you book directly with Berry's, it's also £20 and you don't pay the booking fee!
 

padbus

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There's an article on Devon Live about bus route numbers in Devon.
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/truth-behind-how-devons-buses-3858631

The full article includes several bus and tram pictures but for those who don't want to wade through all adverts and links, here's the text.

]
The truth behind how Devon's buses got their numbers

"When we are coming up with a route number, we like to go back to the root - if you’ll excuse the pun," laughs Graham Bailey, commercial manager at Stagecoach South West.

To the untrained eye, many of the bus numbers around Devon may seem a bizarre hodgepodge of random numbers and letters thrown together to cause as much confusion as possible. However, delve a little deeper into the subject and it turns out that there is a surprising amount of sense, thought and tradition that has gone into the numbering of buses which thousands of Devonians use every day.

How did it all start? As Graham explains, bus numbers around Exeter are rooted in the times when the city still had a tram service. When people say trams nowadays, most of us think of the likes of Manchester, Birmingham and even Seaton. However, back in the 1800s, these were horse-drawn affairs, with the Exeter Tramway Company - based on Longbrook Street - starting operations in early 1882. These lasted until 1905, when electric trams took over. Soon, more than 100,000 passengers were being transported around the city every week. In 1928, Exeter Corporation buses were gradually introduced and, such was their popularity, they soon replaced trams.

The trams that ran through Exeter until 1931 had employed letters to indicate their routes, and this tradition continued with the introduction of buses. This was to avoid confusion with the Devon General country bus routes, which had numbers. The first of these was the 1, which went to Newton Abbot, the 2 went to Teignmouth, the 3 to Tiverton and the 4 to Ottery St Mary.

It was not until the 1970s that there was a major shake-up of bus numbers, when the Corporation of Exeter's bus services routes were merged with Devon General in 1970. Devon General's bus operations were then transferred to Western National 1971 – although, somewhat confusingly, the Devon General name was kept. "As part of that, all routes in the area were renumbered according to area in May 1975," explains Graham.

"Some of it made sense - such as the 9 to Sidmouth, which became 339 - but some didn’t. For example, the Cullompton Service was 27 but came out as 374. Exeter routes all got 300 numbers while Torbay buses got 100 numbers. "They did their best to incorporate part of the old number so people could recognise them. When we are coming up with a route number, we like to go back to the root - if you’ll excuse the pun”.

The company then split four ways in 1983, and the route numbers were retained until the introduction of minibuses in the mid-to-late 1980s. Then they changed again. "They tried to keep the numbers as similar as possible without changing things too much, so the Exeter to Exmouth service went from 357 to 57 and it still is to this day. The service to Woodbury was 356 and it became 56," says Graham. The introduction of minibuses was seen as a major success, as they supplied cheap, quick and regular services across the city.

It was in the 2000s that we saw the amalgamation of numbers and letters on certain bus routes. It came about as variations on major routes needed something to identify them. "For example, the F service became the F1 and F2," Graham says. "The F1 served Savoy Hill in Exeter while the F2 served Summerway. They both serve the same route to the Beacon Heath area of Exeter but they needed a way to show easily where each was going to.”

Nowadays, Graham explains, the decision to change a bus route name is not taken lightly. "People can get very protective of their route so it has to be something big to change it completely," he says. "If we don’t have a big reason to change it, we don’t. Some people have used the same routes for years so we don’t want to change that unnecessarily. Whenever there is a change big enough to warrant changing the numbers, we will try and go back to the old numbers as often as possible. Our service to Ottery and Axminster has reverted to its old number of 4, while the service to Okehampton has gone back to its old number of 6. The Tiverton service, which is 55, will in May go back to its original service number of 3."

"We also try now to make a letter synonymous with where it is going," he continues. "The A goes to Alphington, the E goes to Exwick. It doesn’t always work because you run out of letters. The B was the Marsh Barton service, but now it goes to Exminster. However, The D still goes to Digby and the H goes to the hospital. Even the I goes to Ikea. We can’t always achieve that as you often have several places with the same letter. We often have a debate about which one it should be named after."

It is not just numbers and letters on a route that have serious thought put into them - even the names of some have meanings behind them. The open-top services have the same numbering logic applied to them, with the 122 incorporating parts of the 12 and 22 routes, while 222 has parts of the 2 and 22. Each open top 122 bus, which operates a Golden Hop summer service connecting St Marychurch, Torquay Paignton and Paignton Zoo, has its own distinctive 'hopping' animal which was chosen by school children in the area. These include the likes of Gary the Rabbit, Cango the Kangaroo, Chirpy the Cricket and Freddie the Frog, helping customers 'hop' from one destination to another.

"We don’t constantly review the route numbers," says Graham. "Twice a year we hold consultation exercises to make sure customers are happy with our routes. Changing route numbers can be disruptive, so we try and do it as little as possible.”

And what about if a new route is being introduced? How is it decided what number to give it?

"Any new routes will always cause a bit of a debate. What do you call a new route?" asks Graham. "We try and number them in areas where we can, and then go to the next logical number. We changed part of the network in Torquay. It was 31, 32 and 34 but we revised 32 and 34 into a big, circular service. We wanted to give it a new identity though so people would notice it so we went to 35. People would associate the old route with the old number if we didn’t change it, so it has to stand out. We also gave it an A and a C as it is a circular service – A for anti-clockwise and C for clockwise. We always try and avoid a 33 service though. Every time we have, it has been a complete disaster! I don’t know why. They are generally Torbay routes but they have never worked so we avoid it as a number now."

So there you go - that's how bus routes get their numbers, and why you won't see a 33.
 

iantherev

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Brecon Beacons
Stagecoach Cymru Enviro 200 36853 (CN 13 AZJ) is the first vehicle in the new local livery. Scania/Enviro 300 28733 (YN 15 KGF) is the first one in long distance livery (meaning that since July 2019 it has carried 3 liveries - Traws Cymru, swoops and now yellow).
 

DaveHarries

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The VOSA Bus Service Registrations for 12-Mar-2020 contain a good number of entries from Stagecoach Cymru all wef 03-May-2020. In Summary:

Cancelled:
13A/13C Aberdare - Cwmbach (most customers "preferring to use Service 113" according to website)

Timetable Changes:
7, 8 & 9 Aberdare Services (Reduction of Service to Hirwaun to every 12 minutes and reliability improvements)
23 Merthyr Tydfil - Twyncarmel (to improve reliability)
25 Merthyr Tydfil - Cenn Coed (reduced to every 20 minutes)
27 Merthyr Tydfil - Prince Charles Hospital (loss of Sunday service)
33 Merthyr Tydfil - Galon Uchaf (reduced to every 30 minutes; loss of Sunday service)
35 Merthyr Tydfil - Rhydybed (reduced to every 15 minutes; loss of Sunday service)
38 Merthyr Tydfil - Twynyrodyn (reduced to hourly)
79 Merthyr Tydfil - Bedlinog (to improve reliability)
95, 95A Aberdare - Perthcelyn ("Change of Service ID from 95A to 95")
99 Pontypridd Circular (to improve reliability)
113 Aberdare - Cwmbach (retimed for better connectivity with Service 60)
120, 130 Blaencwm / Blaenrhondda - Caerphilly (loss of 1716 Tonypandy - Porth on Service 130)
122 Tonypandy - Cardiff (frequency reduction to every 20 minutes, new timetable Mondays - Fridays)
131 Maerdy - Royal Glamorgan Hospital ("Maerdy to Hospital 1920" is the entry given: whether journey added or lost is unclear)
132 Maerdy - Cardiff (frequency reduction to every 15 minutes: timetable revised on all days)
137 Porth - Coronation Terrace (to improve reliability)
138 Porth - Trehafod (to improve reliability)
170 Blaenllechau - Clydach Vale (removal of trip for School movement)
172 Aberdare - Bridgend (change to evening journey to run 5 minutes later)
175 Clydach Vale - Porth (to improve reliability)


[/b]Route and Timetable changes:[/b]
60, 60A Aberdare - Pontypridd (60A to become 61; Service 60 rerouted via. Canal Road, Cwmbach)
X75 Merthyr Tydfil - Swansea (reliability improvements and reroute)
78 Merthyr Tydfil - Pontypridd (timetable & route changes; loss of Service 78A)
124 Cardiff - Maerdy (timetable revised to improve reliability; reroute in Tonyrefail via. Collena Road & in Cardiff via. Fairwater & Canton)
155 Porth - Ferndale (revised timetable to improve reliability; extension to Blaenllechau)

New timetables are on the Stagecoach website: there are also changes to Blackwood services 27, 50 & 50A from 03-Apr-2020.
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promo...tent=&utm_campaign=service-changes--swls#tab4

HTIOI,
Dave
 

Dai Corner

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New timetables are on the Stagecoach website: there are also changes to Blackwood services 27, 50 & 50A from 03-Apr-2020.

50/50A reduced to a combined frequency of every 30 minutes. It wasn't so long ago Newport-Caerphilly was every 15.
 

TheWalrus

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The VOSA Bus Service Registrations for 12-Mar-2020 contain a good number of entries from Stagecoach Cymru all wef 03-May-2020. In Summary:

Cancelled:
13A/13C Aberdare - Cwmbach (most customers "preferring to use Service 113" according to website)

Timetable Changes:
7, 8 & 9 Aberdare Services (Reduction of Service to Hirwaun to every 12 minutes and reliability improvements)
23 Merthyr Tydfil - Twyncarmel (to improve reliability)
25 Merthyr Tydfil - Cenn Coed (reduced to every 20 minutes)
27 Merthyr Tydfil - Prince Charles Hospital (loss of Sunday service)
33 Merthyr Tydfil - Galon Uchaf (reduced to every 30 minutes; loss of Sunday service)
35 Merthyr Tydfil - Rhydybed (reduced to every 15 minutes; loss of Sunday service)
38 Merthyr Tydfil - Twynyrodyn (reduced to hourly)
79 Merthyr Tydfil - Bedlinog (to improve reliability)
95, 95A Aberdare - Perthcelyn ("Change of Service ID from 95A to 95")
99 Pontypridd Circular (to improve reliability)
113 Aberdare - Cwmbach (retimed for better connectivity with Service 60)
120, 130 Blaencwm / Blaenrhondda - Caerphilly (loss of 1716 Tonypandy - Porth on Service 130)
122 Tonypandy - Cardiff (frequency reduction to every 20 minutes, new timetable Mondays - Fridays)
131 Maerdy - Royal Glamorgan Hospital ("Maerdy to Hospital 1920" is the entry given: whether journey added or lost is unclear)
132 Maerdy - Cardiff (frequency reduction to every 15 minutes: timetable revised on all days)
137 Porth - Coronation Terrace (to improve reliability)
138 Porth - Trehafod (to improve reliability)
170 Blaenllechau - Clydach Vale (removal of trip for School movement)
172 Aberdare - Bridgend (change to evening journey to run 5 minutes later)
175 Clydach Vale - Porth (to improve reliability)


[/b]Route and Timetable changes:[/b]
60, 60A Aberdare - Pontypridd (60A to become 61; Service 60 rerouted via. Canal Road, Cwmbach)
X75 Merthyr Tydfil - Swansea (reliability improvements and reroute)
78 Merthyr Tydfil - Pontypridd (timetable & route changes; loss of Service 78A)
124 Cardiff - Maerdy (timetable revised to improve reliability; reroute in Tonyrefail via. Collena Road & in Cardiff via. Fairwater & Canton)
155 Porth - Ferndale (revised timetable to improve reliability; extension to Blaenllechau)

New timetables are on the Stagecoach website: there are also changes to Blackwood services 27, 50 & 50A from 03-Apr-2020.
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promo...tent=&utm_campaign=service-changes--swls#tab4

HTIOI,
Dave

looks like a lot of reductions in South Wales. Surely that’s not a good sign.
 

martyjon

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62 to be merged with another service under a Gloucestershire C C contract.

Thanks for the info: I wonder which one.

Dave .

I am told 62 is to continue with operator HCT (or BCT as locally known) but is embroiled in a huge row as this operator is non unionised and therefore able to submit a lower tender bid. Also concerns that the operator only has the Parson Street depot which is an hour at least from the most northerly point of the 62 route even if help can be enroute within minutes of a call out. Time will tell.
 

carlberry

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I am told 62 is to continue with operator HCT (or BCT as locally known) but is embroiled in a huge row as this operator is non unionised and therefore able to submit a lower tender bid. Also concerns that the operator only has the Parson Street depot which is an hour at least from the most northerly point of the 62 route even if help can be enroute within minutes of a call out. Time will tell.
I haven't heard about requiring union recognition in a tender however it would have been specified when it was issued if this was an issue (there's ongoing issues with licensed operators complaining about section 19 operators tendering however this dosent apply here as HCT is a full operator). Again the location of the depot should have been part of the tender if the council was worried about it.
 

-Colly405-

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The 5 Stagecoach routes to Winterbourne Academy will not be running from Monday, and are replaced (certainly for Monday and Tuesday) by minibuses (details to follow on the Bristol Independents thread)...
 

MarkC

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Stagecoach SW cancelling all Sunday services from the 29th!
Where is this info please...it says school holiday service on website? What service will they be providing on other days? Does this include urban areas like Plymouth and Exeter?
 

Dai Corner

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Where is this info please...it says school holiday service on website? What service will they be providing on other days? Does this include urban areas like Plymouth and Exeter?

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/south-wales/urgent-service-changes-march-2020#tab1

Urgent Service Changes March 2020
Information for services over the next few days can be seen below.
The journey planner will not be working until Wednesday 25th March but we'll update the timetables listed below as soon as we possibly can. Please bear with us during this time.

Please click on your area below to see the service list with links


  • Sunday - Normal Service
  • Monday and Tuesday - Saturday Service
  • Wednesday onward - Special Timetables
  • Sundays - No service from 29th March (On Sundays)

I posted this in the coronavirus thread yesterday.
 

carlberry

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Ah right that is Stagecoach West I thought I hadn't seen anything down here in Devon re this
Stagecoach South Wales actually (Stagecoach West has got off quite lightly so far). Some of these are fairly drastic, for example the T14 being withdrawn cuts off places like Hay on Wye off completely!
 

embers25

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Apologies meant Stagecoach South Wales not Stagecoach SW....pretty poor on my part as Stagecoach SW are my local operator who really do seem to be soldiering on better than most currently. Had good news story today too as kids leaving school for the last time were giving their Stagecoach SW drivers gifts.
 

Marcus Fryer

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It would appear that every weekday since Thursday 26 March gold deckers (157xx) have been used for some journeys on the 77.
Is this a new thing since the service was reduced for coronavirus, or did it happen before?
 

CharlesR

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11 Apr 2019
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Gloucester is due Scania E400 MMCs soon. At least 20, no definitive number available. Buses are due to be displaced to North Bristol, apparently.
 

DaveHarries

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Gloucester is due Scania E400 MMCs soon. At least 20, no definitive number available. Buses are due to be displaced to North Bristol, apparently.
Interesting if true about the deckers coming to Bristol. TBH I can't see Bristol depot needing any more deckers than they already have - unless Stagecoach have plans that I don't know of.
Dave
 

CharlesR

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Messages
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Interesting if true about the deckers coming to Bristol. TBH I can't see Bristol depot needing any more deckers than they already have - unless Stagecoach have plans that I don't know of.
Dave

Those MANs could do with a rehoming, preferably the scrapyard.
 
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