• 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!

Will X5 (Stagecoach) Bedford to Oxford service ever return to 2 services per hour?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

CBlue

Member
Joined
30 Mar 2020
Messages
799
Location
East Angular
I hope so. They appear to be dragging their heals and wanting to do the bare minimum.
With the upheaval every bus and coach business has experienced over the past year I'm hardly surprised they're being cautious about increasing service levels - especially as ridership has yet to return to anything approaching normal on most services. It's a commercially operated service, and as much as I'd rather see an increase in service frequency too, Stagecoach are under no obligation to do so unless it pays its way and can be staffed effectively.
 

Megafuss

Member
Joined
5 May 2018
Messages
640
I hope so. They appear to be dragging their heals and wanting to do the bare minimum.

This is the same company that at the start of lockdown made the conscious decision to terminate the X5 at Buckingham instead of Bicester and therefore denying essential journey to Oxford by changing to the S5! (Later introduced)
 

cnjb8

Established Member
Joined
26 Feb 2019
Messages
2,113
Location
Nottingham
About 3 or 4 X5 Elites are being swapped for South West E400MMCs. A lot more MMCs have appeared on the route recently.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Ianno87

Veteran Member
Joined
3 May 2015
Messages
15,215
Wow, that is a downgrade. Bus seated? Gold standard would be OK I suppose but the loss of the toilet is bad.

The toilet is less of an issue now the route is only Bedford-Oxford (so ~2 hours for anybody doing end to end).
 

overthewater

Established Member
Joined
16 Apr 2012
Messages
8,155
The question has to be, does the route not justify the cost of getting Panoramas, and thus are these deckers the only way forward to increase capacity?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,540
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
The toilet is less of an issue now the route is only Bedford-Oxford (so ~2 hours for anybody doing end to end).

True, though there was always time to use the one at Bedford due to the long layover.

Yes I believe.

No, just regular Stagecoach MMCs from South West and Bedford's existing allocation.

Quite a downgrade. Giving up for when East-West Rail kills it dead?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

CBlue

Member
Joined
30 Mar 2020
Messages
799
Location
East Angular
It's a shame they're downgrading from coaches to bus seated E400 MMCs. The ex-Peterborough MMC's at least had high back seating to the newer standard Stagecoach spec in use at the time, along with the pair of new to Bedford 69 platers.

Bedford depot have struggled with availability of the Elites ever since they took delivery. I imagine they found what is effectively a long distance touring coach an absolute nightmare to operate on a service which is half local bus route half regional express! Volvo's i-shift gearbox can be temperamental if drivers abuse it, and certainly some drivers at Bedford never seemed to master the technique of driving them properly. Add to that the "legendary" Plaxton build quality* and you have a recipe for disaster.

*East took delivery of some E400 Scanias around the same time to Gold spec that were built at Scarborough. They started rattling and falling apart within weeks!
 
Last edited by a moderator:

TheGrandWazoo

Veteran Member
Joined
18 Feb 2013
Messages
19,969
Location
Somerset with international travel (e.g. across th
It's a shame they're downgrading from coaches to bus seated E400 MMCs. The ex-Peterborough MMC's at least had high back seating to the newer standard Stagecoach spec in use at the time, along with the pair of new to Bedford 69 platers.

Bedford depot have struggled with availability of the Elites ever since they took delivery. I imagine they found what is effectively a long distance touring coach an absolute nightmare to operate on a service which is half local bus route half regional express! Volvo's i-shift gearbox can be temperamental if drivers abuse it, and certainly some drivers at Bedford never seemed to master the technique of driving them properly. Add to that the "legendary" Plaxton build quality* and you have a recipe for disaster.

*East took delivery of some E400 Scanias around the same time to Gold spec that were built at Scarborough. They started rattling and falling apart within weeks!
Interesting as the Elites are now coming up to 7 years old - older than the vehicles they replaced. Be interesting to see what they do with East-West rail allegedly on the scene in a couple of years.
 

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
Nice to see this service has finally returned to 2 services per hour/every 30 minutes.

Just to point out that they've been operating a half hourly service for a few weeks now indeed I used it in July to travel to MK they were operating a half hourly service so it's not a recent thing.

Pity about the downgrade though of the vehicles but guess that's progress?
 

CBlue

Member
Joined
30 Mar 2020
Messages
799
Location
East Angular
Are the South West E400MMCs still able maintain the speed and timetable of the X5 coaches?
The ex-Peterborough 67 plate E400MMCs on the 905 don't seem to have any trouble keeping to time between Cambridge and Bedford which includes two long stretches of dual carriageway running at 62mph.
When the coaches ran the full length of the route I found they were horribly sluggish on the stopping sections. The E400s should offer faster boarding and better acceleration with little difference in the speeds they can achieve.

A shame however that some plusher 'deckers couldn't have been sourced!
 

cnjb8

Established Member
Joined
26 Feb 2019
Messages
2,113
Location
Nottingham
It would be fine as Gold spec, or has Stagecoach now completely abandoned that?
Yes it’s been abandoned completely. They also said they’d retain the X5 livery but that must be scratched with the MMCs replacing the Elites
 

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,545
Location
Elginshire
As we have established that the X5 is now back to running at a two bus per hour frequency, this thread will terminate here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top