Transdev Blazefield

[Andyh82]

They said the withdrawal of the late X43s would only be temporary, but accidentally revealed to an enquiry on Twitter that there are no plans to bring them back.

Must say I'm surprised that recovery has been slow for CityZap, especially considering the massive investment it's recently had.

Or is it really because if there is a shortage of drivers at York/Malton, it’s the obvious one to cut back. They can’t cut the York tenders, and Coastliner is only hourly east of Malton and west of Malton can provide a similar service to Cityzap. You’d also not cut the City Sightseeing either.

 

[RustySpoons]

Also changes at Harrogate, Blackburn and Rosso including large changes in Rochdale and expanding out to Oldham. Team Pennine's 83, 83A, 84 and 84A will also become the Denby Darts D2 and D3 from the 16th May.

We're making some changes to our timetables

Further temporary changes to our timetables to improve our reliability during the ongoing national shortage of drivers

www.transdevbus.co.uk

We're making some changes to improve reliability in Blackburn

Buses will still run as regularly, though travel times have changed to help us improve reliability throughout the journey.

www.transdevbus.co.uk

Changes in Rochdale and Bury from 24 April

Following a renewed partnership with Transport for Greater Manchester.

www.transdevbus.co.uk

More flights on Denby Darts from 16 May

Denby Darts D2 and D3 will replace the 83, 83A, 84 and 84A buses between Denby Dale and Huddersfield.

www.transdevbus.co.uk

Our Saturday 59 journeys will be running 5 minutes later than they do now to improve the link with Pendle Wizz.
There are no further changes at the moment.
We will link to the new temporary timetables here as soon as they are ready.

That'll hopefully open up new journeys from East Lancs. Really hope this service carries on performing well to the point it can run throughout the week and not just Saturdays.

Or is it really because if there is a shortage of drivers at York/Malton, it’s the obvious one to cut back. They can’t cut the York tenders, and Coastliner is only hourly east of Malton and west of Malton can provide a similar service to Cityzap. You’d also not cut the City Sightseeing either.

Possible I suppose. Though they've always been honest about services being cut due to driver availability. Quite worrying they've actually stated it's because of low passenger numbers.

 

[AB93]

Must say I'm surprised that recovery has been slow for CityZap, especially considering the massive investment it's recently had.

Or is it really because if there is a shortage of drivers at York/Malton, it’s the obvious one to cut back. They can’t cut the York tenders, and Coastliner is only hourly east of Malton and west of Malton can provide a similar service to Cityzap. You’d also not cut the City Sightseeing either.

Possible I suppose. Though they've always been honest about services being cut due to driver availability. Quite worrying they've actually stated it's because of low passenger numbers.

Was it ever that busy in the first place? Not in my experence.

 

[RustySpoons]

Was it ever that busy in the first place? Not in my experence.

It's a strange one. It either seems to be absolutely rammed, or it's carrying fresh air. Same with the MancZap when it ran, though that did mostly carry fresh air.

I have to admit I was surprised that it could justify the ADLs after only running for 5 years.

 

[dodecahedron67]

Whenever I've been on the cityzap it's been pretty empty, maximum of 15 people/bus since september I'd say

 

[JetBlast]

Must say I'm surprised that recovery has been slow for CityZap, especially considering the massive investment it's recently had.

People won’t use the service because they have invested in new buses.

If working from home is now becoming the norm there will be no need to commute anymore so would lose passengers. I don’t know how many of them fall into this category but could be a reason.

 

[Deerfold]

The change to the 59 is welcome and is exactly what I suggested when the original timetable was released - it makes it possible to connect from the 66 Dalesway service without adding another 30 minutes onto the trip. I'm looking forward to being able to use it this summer.

 

[RELL6L]

I have reported on the “trips” thread about my visit to Yorkshire on Thursday and how
1) two of my intended four Transdev journeys were cancelled, one with no notice the other with plenty;
2) when I arrived at Ripon there were two 36s on the stand, one half an hour late, the other on time.

I’ve now looked at the 36 in more detail on BusTimes and it appears most short 36s between Leeds and Harrogate have been cancelled, at least since Thursday, and Transdev’s own website shows virtually all cancelled today! And this week was school holidays- what will next week be like?

I would add that the bus I saw in Ripon running 30 minutes late stayed out all evening on its working running late, eg the 22.15 from Leeds left 19 minutes late.

From every 10 minutes to every 30 minutes with considerable and unpredictable late running- how to undo years of good work in a short period!

 

[SCH117X]

Road works in Killinghall have as usual caused chaos this week with 36s to and from Ripon heavilly delayed and I would imagine the two at Ripon were actually half an hour and a hour late rather than one being on time. That could explain the no notice as a working was that late it took up the time of a later service. 24s have been diverted away from village in order to maintain the timetable. A knock on effect was drivers avoiding the road works and going via Knaresborough with consequential lengthy queues into Starbeck meaning route 1 and Connextions X1 whatevers were also knocked for six time keeping wise. The fact it was school holidays could have contributed to the issue as a number of drivers presumably had leave pre booked.

 

[Goldfish62]

I have reported on the “trips” thread about my visit to Yorkshire on Thursday and how
1) two of my intended four Transdev journeys were cancelled, one with no notice the other with plenty;
2) when I arrived at Ripon there were two 36s on the stand, one half an hour late, the other on time.

I’ve now looked at the 36 in more detail on BusTimes and it appears most short 36s between Leeds and Harrogate have been cancelled, at least since Thursday, and Transdev’s own website shows virtually all cancelled today! And this week was school holidays- what will next week be like?

I would add that the bus I saw in Ripon running 30 minutes late stayed out all evening on its working running late, eg the 22.15 from Leeds left 19 minutes late.

From every 10 minutes to every 30 minutes with considerable and unpredictable late running- how to undo years of good work in a short period!

From what I'm told by contacts, Transdev Blazefield seem to be struggling a lot more than some other operators with staff recruitment and retention.

 

[RELL6L]

Road works in Killinghall have as usual caused chaos this week with 36s to and from Ripon heavilly delayed and I would imagine the two at Ripon were actually half an hour and a hour late rather than one being on time. That could explain the no notice as a working was that late it took up the time of a later service. 24s have been diverted away from village in order to maintain the timetable. A knock on effect was drivers avoiding the road works and going via Knaresborough with consequential lengthy queues into Starbeck meaning route 1 and Connextions X1 whatevers were also knocked for six time keeping wise. The fact it was school holidays could have contributed to the issue as a number of drivers presumably had leave pre booked.

No, I know BusTimes isn’t perfect but I’m happy that it’s right here. The late one left Harrogate 29 minutes late and arrived at Ripon 29 minutes late. Fair point that drivers might have booked holidays. The 36 cancellations appear to have got worse as the week went on.

 

[Deerfold]

Transdev Keighley are restoring frequencies to a lot of routes and improving the distance between the 67 and the 502. There's some losses, with much of the K10 route disappearing, with the 67 taking some of it up. The K13 and K17/K19 will be combined into a new hourly K4.

The 662 Shuttle remains at lower frequencies.

Changes to buses in Keighley from 15 May

We have worked in partnership with Metro to bring you improvements across our town network

www.transdevbus.co.uk

The Keighley Bus Company
Changes to buses in Keighley from 15 May

We have analysed current travelling patterns in Keighley as well as new trends since the impact of recent lockdowns. However, we are also keen that we build you a network that is fit for the future.

That’s why we have put in considerable effort alongside our partners at Metro (the West Yorkshire Combined Authority) to develop a well-considered update to our routes and timetables. Metro continue to support many of the evening and Sunday buses in Keighley, plus Keighley Jets K10-K19.

As you’ll see below, a number of timetables will increase and in some cases, we will double the amount of buses on some routes. Let’s look at the changes route-by-route.

K1 to & from Laycock

We will increase back to running every 30 minutes (currently hourly) Monday to Saturday.

K2 and K3 to & from Braithwaite

Frequency will be increased from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday. There are no changes to evening or Sunday journeys.

K5 to & from Thwaites Brow

We will increase back to running every 30 minutes (currently hourly with some extras) Monday to Saturday. Evening and Sunday buses will run hourly.

K6 to & from Fell Lane

Frequency will increase to every 30 minutes (currently hourly). Evening and Sunday buses will run hourly.

K7 to & from Oakworth

There are no changes to the K7 which will continue to run every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday and hourly evenings and Sundays.

K9 to & from Bracken Bank

Minor changes to the evening timetable. The K9 will continue to run every 15 minutes Monday to Saturday and hourly evenings and Sundays.

K10 to & from Spring Bank, Ingrow and Oakworth

The K10 will no longer run. The 67 will serve Spring Bank every hour as a replacement with K7 and K9 continuing to run to Oakworth and Ingrow.

K11 to & from Exley Mount

Times will change but we will continue to run every hour (Monday to Saturday)

K12 to & from Blackhill

Times will change but we will continue to run every hour (Monday to Saturday)


K13 to & from Riddlesden and K17/K19 Bingley and Cullingworth

These routes are replaced by the new, simpler K4 which will run from Keighley to Cullingworth serving Parkwood Street, Thwaites, Riddlesden, East Morton, Bingley, Harden and Wilsden. K4 will run every hour (Monday to Saturday). Buses from Cullingworth are timed to meet trains to or from Leeds at Bingley Railway Station where possible following customer requests. The section of the K19 along Dalton Lane is covered by Aireline 60 every 30 minutes. The section of the K17 on Royd Ings Avenue and Larkholme Lane will no longer be served, with alternative stops on Bradford Road. This section is used by an average of four customers per day and the change allows us to provide an enhanced service elsewhere.

Keighley Jets K14 to K16 to & from Worth Valley Villages

No changes to these buses.

67 and Team Pennine 502 to & from Cullingworth, Denholme and Bradford or Halifax

The 67 will have a new timetable so between Keighley, Cullingworth and Denholme, the 67 and 502 will be more evenly spread, running every 20-40 minutes during the day. The 67 will run in and out of Keighley through Spring Bank, offering residents there a direct bus to Bradford, as well as new evening and Sunday buses too.

We will provide new timetables shortly. Please check back soon. In the meantime, if we can help with any further queries, just contact us on Facebook or Twitter.

 

[johntea]

I suspect the Cityzap would be quite a bit more popular if it stopped by Leeds rail station, although even then these days Northern will happily sell you a £5.50 advance each way on the route which is a quid cheaper than Transdev! (the argument about how advances limit your flexibility is a bit weaker these days considering you can still book them 5-10 minutes before departure!)

The '1' service seems to be struggling quite a bit in terms of a frequent, reliable service still too, I noticed they only seem to use 1 rather than 2 stands at Harrogate Bus Station for those services now too

 

[Ken H]

I suspect the Cityzap would be quite a bit more popular if it stopped by Leeds rail station, although even then these days Northern will happily sell you a £5.50 advance each way on the route which is a quid cheaper than Transdev! (the argument about how advances limit your flexibility is a bit weaker these days considering you can still book them 5-10 minutes before departure!)

The '1' service seems to be struggling quite a bit in terms of a frequent, reliable service still too, I noticed they only seem to use 1 rather than 2 stands at Harrogate Bus Station for those services now too

I have never understood why the express service to York does not go onto Scarborough. The stopper via Seacroft and Tadcaster could connect at York for the few from those places to east of York. Quicker journies for Leeds- Scarborough

 

[Andyh82]

It’d have to be much more popular as you’d need to add an extra bus onto the PVR to extend to Leeds railway station.

I’m not sure why that would make it more popular though

 

[Ashly_Jethro]

I’m not sure about Rosso but Lancashire seems to be doing quite well in regards to routes running as expected. I have seen the odd cancellation on the bus station screens but aside from that, all my journeys within the past 6+ months have been unaffected. Wonder why Yorkshire seems to be struggling so much in comparison

In regards to Zap, I’ve heard some rather nasty rumours about it and that the writing’s on the wall. Extremely concerning given the massive fleet investment. I know they’re putting focus on Coastliner and that’s understandable with it covering more area, but for the same reason, I can see how that can be damaging to zap, let’s hope it doesn’t join its MCR sister in the history books…

 

[Andyh82]

From what I'm told by contacts, Transdev Blazefield seem to be struggling a lot more than some other operators with staff recruitment and retention.

Actual inside knowledge or because Transdev publish cancellations so everybody countrywide including all those who love to stick the boot in knows they are short whereas First and Arriva don’t publish cancellations so only the people queuing on Vicar Lane for the 5:12 2 to Roundhay know that they are short?

There are similar discussions daily on the North East bus forum where Go North East are seen as being in a much worse state than Arriva NE or Stagecoach NE, but it’s the same situation where only GNE publish daily cancellations which is why I am skeptical

 

[RustySpoons]

Actual inside knowledge or because Transdev publish cancellations so everybody countrywide including all those who love to stick the boot in knows they are short whereas First and Arriva don’t publish cancellations so only the people queuing on Vicar Lane for the 5:12 2 to Roundhay know that they are short?

There are similar discussions daily on the North East bus forum where Go North East are seen as being in a much worse state than Arriva NE or Stagecoach NE, but it’s the same situation where only GNE publish daily cancellations which is why I am skeptical

Not always, there's still times when journeys don't run and prospective customers aren't warned, either on Twitter or their website.

In regards to Zap, I’ve heard some rather nasty rumours about it and that the writing’s on the wall. Extremely concerning given the massive fleet investment. I know they’re putting focus on Coastliner and that’s understandable with it covering more area, but for the same reason, I can see how that can be damaging to zap, let’s hope it doesn’t join its MCR sister in the history books…

It is quite worrying. I suppose running with the current MMCs it needs to bring in a lot more money to justify the massive investment. Using the previous Volvos which were already paid for the main costs it needed to cover were staff wages and fuel. I wonder if the MMCs would have been better suited going to Coastliner instead, and the ex Witch Way B9s would have been better suited for CityZap?

 

[Bayum]

Road works in Killinghall have as usual caused chaos this week with 36s to and from Ripon heavilly delayed and I would imagine the two at Ripon were actually half an hour and a hour late rather than one being on time. That could explain the no notice as a working was that late it took up the time of a later service. 24s have been diverted away from village in order to maintain the timetable. A knock on effect was drivers avoiding the road works and going via Knaresborough with consequential lengthy queues into Starbeck meaning route 1 and Connextions X1 whatevers were also knocked for six time keeping wise. The fact it was school holidays could have contributed to the issue as a number of drivers presumably had leave pre booked.

Today there was a massive emergency response at Harewood House which hasn’t helped issues.
Roadworks within Harrogate itself have been causing havoc across the town.

 

[Delenn]

I wonder if the MMCs would have been better suited going to Coastliner instead, and the ex Witch Way B9s would have been better suited for CityZap?

Is it financially viable to re-trim the inside in Coastliner blue? (Obviously an outside paint job is viable). They have been struggling with reliability and parts recently (although it has improved a lot of late), but we seem to have 2 Transdev branded vehicles permanently at the moment. I was originally thinking some of the outgoing 36 branded ones, but if they do have spare CityZap vehicles, could be them too.

 

[northernchris]

Transdev Keighley are restoring frequencies to a lot of routes and improving the distance between the 67 and the 502. There's some losses, with much of the K10 route disappearing, with the 67 taking some of it up. The K13 and K17/K19 will be combined into a new hourly K4.

The 662 Shuttle remains at lower frequencies.

Changes to buses in Keighley from 15 May

We have worked in partnership with Metro to bring you improvements across our town network

www.transdevbus.co.uk

I think mostly the changes are positive, more buses on the K1, K2/3, K5 and K6, evening and Sunday buses to Spring Bank and a simplified K4 which will improve access to rail services from Riddlesden, Cullingworth, Harden and Wilsden. It should require the same number of buses overall too. It's a shame Harewood Road is left unserved, diverting the K16, even at only a handful of journeys a day, would be better than nothing and saves duplicating the much more frequent K7 between Keighley and Oakworth.

Leaving the Shuttle as it is is wise. Yesterday was particularly bad for cancellations on this route, from mid morning to late afternoon at least 1 round trip was cancelled each hour, and at one point it was down to half hourly

 

[RELL6L]

Actual inside knowledge or because Transdev publish cancellations so everybody countrywide including all those who love to stick the boot in knows they are short whereas First and Arriva don’t publish cancellations so only the people queuing on Vicar Lane for the 5:12 2 to Roundhay know that they are short?

There are similar discussions daily on the North East bus forum where Go North East are seen as being in a much worse state than Arriva NE or Stagecoach NE, but it’s the same situation where only GNE publish daily cancellations which is why I am skeptical

I accept this point and credit Transdev in publishing their cancellations, absolutely. But the 36 was every 10 minutes to Harrogate not long ago and now it’s largely- unofficially- every 30. When the passengers vote with their feet who will be to blame?

 

[52290]

As one who lives close to what is possibly the most westerly bus stop on the Transdev Blazefield empire, Leyland Earnshaw Bridge on the 153 Little Hot Line route, I haven't yet encountered a cancellation.
Incidentally a journey on Transdev from my stop to Scarborough, the most easterly stop?, would take 9hr 15 mins with four changes. I remember a driver talking about this to a woman last year saying it would cost about £8.50.

 

[Ashly_Jethro]

I wonder if the MMCs would have been better suited going to Coastliner instead, and the ex Witch Way B9s would have been better suited for CityZap?

With zap not being an overly rural route, I would even go as far to suggest renewing Coastliner with the MMCs and cascading (with heavy refurbs) the B5s to zap as the 36 ones aren’t done so badly in comparison.

 

[Leeds1970]

I suspect the Cityzap would be quite a bit more popular if it stopped by Leeds rail station, although even then these days Northern will happily sell you a £5.50 advance each way on the route which is a quid cheaper than Transdev! (the argument about how advances limit your flexibility is a bit weaker these days considering you can still book them 5-10 minutes before departure!)

Leeds /York city zap being extended to Leeds rail station would probably not increase passenger numbers, at the moment the vast majority of Zap passengers and increasingly so on the 36 are oap pass holders. and this is something I cannot see changing anytime soon.
With regard to driver shortages the situation in West Yorkshire is so bad that the operators have effectively joined forces and are now advertising and collaborating through the combined authority.
As others have pointed out Arriva and First are both cancelling lots of services. On Saturday afternoon 3 concurrent X84's were cancelled from Leeds but people only seem to take issue with Transdev

 

[RustySpoons]

I wonder given the current driver shortage and reliability issues affecting the Coastliner fleet if they'll be running the summer 'express' services again? Think it's safe to say that last years summer timetable was somewhat disastrous with breakdowns and missing journeys.

 

[duncombec]

Actual inside knowledge or because Transdev publish cancellations so everybody countrywide including all those who love to stick the boot in knows they are short whereas First and Arriva don’t publish cancellations so only the people queuing on Vicar Lane for the 5:12 2 to Roundhay know that they are short?

There are similar discussions daily on the North East bus forum where Go North East are seen as being in a much worse state than Arriva NE or Stagecoach NE, but it’s the same situation where only GNE publish daily cancellations which is why I am skeptical

There are always two forces in play determining what an operator can publish in advance.

The first one, for those operators actually bothering to tell the public what is cancelled (Transdev, GNE, some Stagecoach East Kent depots via twitter), are the "pre-planned" cancellations - duties the controllers already know at the start of service that they can't cover. These are the sort of cancellations they don't want to have to announce, because they want to be fully staffed.

The second are those that come up on the day: late running journeys, driver not back from another route, driver has to go sick (especially afternoons, i.e. "no driver to take over the bus"). These may not be so easy to make public, as who updates the website? If the controllers are trying to allocate vehicles and drivers, perhaps trying to make sure a service that has had a gap for a while gets a driver, they probably aren't worried about filling in form 87B and sending it to marketing to go on the website. These are the sort of cancellations that, were it not for 'type 1', we'd just shrug off as annoying, and have existed well before Covid.

Although noone here is suggesting this (at least I don't think they are), it will never be possible to include every cancelled journey on a website list, because it just won't happen that it can be cancelled early enough. Personally, I'd rather know what definitely won't run and hope about the rest rather than the operator pretending everything is just fine and dandy when they have upwards of 15 uncovered duties that they know about the night before.

 

[Goldfish62]

Actual inside knowledge or because Transdev publish cancellations so everybody countrywide including all those who love to stick the boot in knows they are short whereas First and Arriva don’t publish cancellations so only the people queuing on Vicar Lane for the 5:12 2 to Roundhay know that they are short?

There are similar discussions daily on the North East bus forum where Go North East are seen as being in a much worse state than Arriva NE or Stagecoach NE, but it’s the same situation where only GNE publish daily cancellations which is why I am skeptical

You sound quite defensive. Sorry to disappoint you, but my information is not based on any sort of unfounded bias or because I "love to stick the boot in".

Actual inside knowledge from a tendering authority that deals with multiple operators across its extensive territory.

 

[Delenn]

Is it financially viable to re-trim the inside in Coastliner blue? (Obviously an outside paint job is viable). They have been struggling with reliability and parts recently (although it has improved a lot of late), but we seem to have 2 Transdev branded vehicles permanently at the moment. I was originally thinking some of the outgoing 36 branded ones, but if they do have spare CityZap vehicles, could be them too.

Further to this, I drove past the Coastliner depot tonight and we have 3 Transdev branded vehicles including the 70 plate one.

 

[Twb1979]

Has anyone sighted 2779 which was the Witchway B9 that was involved in the heavy collision with the Range Rover a couple of years back on the X43? Some sources are saying it’s at York now, this is apparently destined for Coastliner once (if) it’s repaired.

Also with a large % of the Harrogate fleet set to be replaced by electrics, has anyone got any thoughts on potential cascades of vehicles that might take place within the various Transdev brands?