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Transdev Blazefield

Andyh82

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19 May 2014
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Plans have changed due to new contract wins and due to Covid

At the time they put the Captain Tom vinyls on 240 which made sense what with it being the newest standard livery full sized bus in the fleet I doubt they knew they would then be moving the fleet around to launch the Flyer network a few months later
 
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RailUK Forums

Man of Kent

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Mighty impressive then.

How are they so well capitalised? It's not an area known for its wealth or is that the secret to running a popular and thus profitable bus service?

I'm not suggesting bad play nor trying to slag off Blackpool - I don't know the region.
A massive loan from the sole shareholder. A quick reading of the accounts suggests it is around £14m.
 

SCH117X

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Plans have changed due to new contract wins and due to Covid

At the time they put the Captain Tom vinyls on 240 which made sense what with it being the newest standard livery full sized bus in the fleet I doubt they knew they would then be moving the fleet around to launch the Flyer network a few months later
It was actually gaining the 784 that caused 240 to have be rebranded; as two additional vehicles were needed at Idle - suppose the oddity was moving Volvo B7RLE 1825 their rather than another Versa, or maybe that is planned with 1825 moving as that Versas replacement at Burnley or Blackburn.
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Somerset with international travel (e.g. across th
Plans have changed due to new contract wins and due to Covid

At the time they put the Captain Tom vinyls on 240 which made sense what with it being the newest standard livery full sized bus in the fleet I doubt they knew they would then be moving the fleet around to launch the Flyer network a few months later
Those Captain Tom vinyls must have cost tens of pounds :rolleyes:
 

SCH117X

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Also on his twitter a electric E200 MMC is going on trial at Harrogate for the 1's for a possible future investment.
In use today ( a 33 seater) - as a 40 seater is the maximum offering on the current frequency that would be 32 fewer seats / hour with a replacement fleet of 40 seat E200EVs.
 

JetBlast

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12 Aug 2010
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217
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Australia
Does anyone know why they are still running the old York Sight Seeing busses please? I would have thought they would have been removed from the fleet now the replacements have arrived.
 

Tempest3K

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16 Feb 2015
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154
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York
Does anyone know why they are still running the old York Sight Seeing busses please? I would have thought they would have been removed from the fleet now the replacements have arrived.

Believe the older vehicles are being kept on for now to provide extra capacity if needed, suspect they will start to disappear after half term as things wind down....
 

duncombec

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3 Sep 2014
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776

It's noticeable that on the page linked to from the tweet (https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/rosso/25-october-we-are-no-longer-operating-b3-and-91-services), that Transdev actually provide helpful information for the customer as to who will be providing the service going forward

The B3 is being replaced by 494 which will be operated by Tyrers, and we understand the times will be similar to the B3. The Sunday service will still be operated by Arriva. The TfGM website has all the details that are available so far for the 494.

The 91 will be replaced by the 512 (Farnworth to Bury) which will have a change in route between Radcliffe and Bury to cover the roads served by the 91. This will be operated by Vision Bus. The TfGM website has all the details that are available so far for the 91.

before continuing with some fairly detailed information on System One tickets

Rosso tickets won’t be valid on the 494 or 512, but you can use System One Tickets on all services in Greater Manchester. System One Smartcards are paper and smart multi-bus operator and multi-modal travelcards for use in and around Greater Manchester. The ticket types are split into Adult, Student, Young Person and Junior, offering great value if you need to use more than one operator in your journey.

So often this is missing when local authority contracts change hands, and in fact even normally when evening and/or Sunday services are provided by another operator - all you are told is "another operator will provide this service", sometimes with the even worse "contact x Council for details".

The only thing I can find to criticize on this page is that they link to the TfGM front page, rather than the service change pages where the new timetable can be downloaded (at least for the 494 - the 512 doesn't seem to be up yet).
 

RustySpoons

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It's noticeable that on the page linked to from the tweet (https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/rosso/25-october-we-are-no-longer-operating-b3-and-91-services), that Transdev actually provide helpful information for the customer as to who will be providing the service going forward



before continuing with some fairly detailed information on System One tickets



So often this is missing when local authority contracts change hands, and in fact even normally when evening and/or Sunday services are provided by another operator - all you are told is "another operator will provide this service", sometimes with the even worse "contact x Council for details".

The only thing I can find to criticize on this page is that they link to the TfGM front page, rather than the service change pages where the new timetable can be downloaded (at least for the 494 - the 512 doesn't seem to be up yet).

To be commended. Like you say it's all too easy for an operator to just ignore a service that's passing to another operator. Especially helpful that they've pointed out the SystemOne tickets, which could be helpful to passengers who usually connect to another Transdev service. However not so helpful if they connect to services that run outside the System One area.

It's a shame councils don't look at the bigger picture when tendering routes that are currently part of an existing network
 

Alexbus12

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19 Jul 2018
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387
To be commended. Like you say it's all too easy for an operator to just ignore a service that's passing to another operator. Especially helpful that they've pointed out the SystemOne tickets, which could be helpful to passengers who usually connect to another Transdev service. However not so helpful if they connect to services that run outside the System One area.

It's a shame councils don't look at the bigger picture when tendering routes that are currently part of an existing network

They have done in other areas of GM. If you look at the GMCA minutes, for example, the 584 commercial/ subsidised route has been cut from 4 operators, to two for the exact reason of simplifying both ticketing and the subsidised network with no changes to the subsidised times.
 

duncombec

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3 Sep 2014
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776
However not so helpful if they connect to services that run outside the System One area.

Good point, but it looks as though the only routes from Bury that go outside the System One area are the 481/483 north of Edenfield, and presumably they have decided (or know?) that the majority of passengers on those routes look to Bury for their main centre, rather than the more northerly towns in Lancashire.
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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At 12 o clock Burnley & Pendle announced that there'd be no changes to the number of buses they're running.

The image below is a screenshot from the Burnley Bus Company's Twitter feed - twitter.com/burnleybuses

The text reads:
In response to news about some restrictions changing in and around Lancashire and Manchester, we can reassure you that there will be no changes to the number of buses we're running.
Screenshot 2020-10-16 at 21.52.17.png

Then at 2 o clock they announced that there'd be changes to the number of buses they're running.

The image below shows another tweet from the same source. The text reads:
Some journeys on #Mainline & #Witchway are changing from 18th Oct.

One Mainline and two Witchway journeys with low customer numbers are being removed and an extra Mainline journey is being added to provide more seats at rush hour.

Screenshot 2020-10-16 at 21.57.24.png


I initially thought it'd be the current last evening journeys on both services, as with none existent nightlife and so many people working from home there'd be no recreational nor commuters travelling. But turns out it's peak time services that are being removed, with an extra journey from Hapton at morning rush hour.

Somewhat frustrating considering passenger numbers had been slowly building up over the past few weeks, but it is what it is I suppose! Things are going to have to get worse (again) before they can get better, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are more service reductions in the near future.

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Andyh82

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They are removing one of the lightly used additional peak time round trips on the Witchway so they can deploy the decker on a busy Mainline trip, sounds perfectly sensible to me. There is an alternative ten mins either side of the removed trip.

The first tweet was obviously because rumours had probably started that they were going into a lockdown skeleton service so they needed to quash it, and isn’t linked to this very minor change on the Witchway
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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That makes sense, considering a decker wouldn't be able to do the full journey from Accrington because of the low bridge in Huncoat.

I believe there had been loading issues (even pre-lockdown) with this service in the morning peak so even with the current restrictions it must still be struggling.
 

SCH117X

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Full text from https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/burnley/service-updates

On Witchway we're removing the 3.45pm fast bus from Burnley to Manchester, and the 5.20pm fast bus from Manchester to Burnley from 18 Oct. These trips aren't heavily used right now, and there are plenty of free seats on the buses which leave immediately before and after these. Removing the bus and driver from these journeys, means we can put a double decker bus on one of our busiest Mainline journeys, to make sure we can offer seats to more customers.

For Mainline, we're removing the 7.45am M2 bus from Burnley to Padiham. This bus is also not heavily used, and there are plenty of free seats on other buses leaving immediately before and after.

We're also adding an extra departure from Hapton to Burnley on Mainline M1 at 7.56am, to help make sure we've got enough seats on board to carry everyone who wants to make that journey.
 

158756

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That makes sense, considering a decker wouldn't be able to do the full journey from Accrington because of the low bridge in Huncoat.

I believe there had been loading issues (even pre-lockdown) with this service in the morning peak so even with the current restrictions it must still be struggling.

There should be a bus from Hapton 10 minutes earlier, but in the post-lockdown timetable it's schools only during term time, which then creates a 15 minutes gap on the main route from Padiham to Burnley in the middle of the morning peak. So I'm not surprised it's crowded, but I'd have thought the extra bus would be better used filling the gap.
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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There are 6 Blackpool Transport B7RLEs on loan for Rosso school services, some based at Queensgate and others at Rochdale. Not sure how long they're on loan for, or if they're for additional services or replacing vehicles short term.
 

M60lad

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31 May 2011
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The Centros/B7RLEs have also had Transdev logos/names temporarly put over their Blackpool Transport logos but still carry the Blackpool Transport Paladium Branding.

I haven't seen them though on Bustimes.org so don't know what their tracking as when they are in use.
 

philthetube

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5 Jan 2016
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It appears to not be down to the bus, hope all are ok.

Sunday afternoon, one seriously injured, driver appears ok.
 

scosutsut

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Ouch sore one. Hope all make a speedy recovery, the B9TL too!

I will resist temptation to damn the Range Rover driver, as you don't know the circumstances, what looks like complete negligence could be far more complex and doesn't require or benefit from anyones public judgement.
 

Strathclyder

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12 Jun 2013
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I will resist temptation to damn the Range Rover driver, as you don't know the circumstances, what looks like complete negligence could be far more complex and doesn't require or benefit from anyones public judgement.

Beat me to it. As tempting as it is to immediately assign blame with incidents like this (I'll concede that I've been guilty of this myself in the past), doing so only serves to sew the seeds of confusion & misinformation and frankly contributes nothing to proceedings. The best thing we can all do is wait for the official accident investigation to bear it's fruits. Lastly, and most importantly, I'm relieved that no-one was killed and that the injured recover as painlessly and as quickly as possible.
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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Going off the way the RR pulls out to the centre line on the road before making a turn at a guess I'd say they confused the centre road markings for the Give Way line - it's effectively a rutted path that it pulls out from so there are no road markings on there.
 

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