I am not a member of Bus Users UK (the National Federation of Bus Users) but nor am I someone who feels they are constantly having a go at the industry. I am grateful to one of its members for occasionally slipping me a copy of its quarterly periodical.
This photo from the Spring 2007 NFBU journal struck me. It’s of Royal Parade in Plymouth. I wonder how many NFBU members realised the white bus is a MAN/MCV demonstrator. Anyway, the shot seems very busy as, indeed, the Royal Parade always appears to be. I remember it equally so during my visits there in the early 1980s.
But what this picture really brings home is the difference between then and now, something I think most of us don’t always think about, because the change has been gradual. 2007 sees the single deck (or SLF midibus) dominating the scene. 30 years ago, it would’ve been the Leyland Atlantean double deck. 30 years ago, so far as I recall, a fifth of Plymouth’s fleet was single deck (and guess the type of single decks? Yes, the Leyland National) and this proportion was in decline in a declining fleet, come Plymouth City Transport's Market Analysis Project.
It’s a sad reflection on the industry, or rather the decrease in passengers at peak times, that the seating capacity of its workhorses has effectively halved in this 25 to 30 year period. Then, Royal Parade would've featured double deck bodywork with up to 77 seats by Park Royal, Roe, Metro-Cammell and East Lancs. Now, 90 per cent of the fleet is single deck (or mini/midibus) as the Pointer dominates, with seating capacity not dissimilar to the lower decks of the Atlanteans of old; the overall fleet size is almost as it was in 1982.
Sadly, I have no picture taken 25-30 years ago either to match that of the NFBU's or to prove my point.
Thursday, 3 May 2007
Single Decks Rule
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Brighton & Hove Buses on the otherhand never ever seem to buy single deck buses and the percentage of double deckers must be at least 90% if not more. I think single deckers are rarely used, possibly on a few regular routes but mainly for school runs.
The latest Omnidekkas used on Metro 25 are MASSIVE:
http://www.buses.co.uk/history/fleethist/images/omni901.jpg
I guess it is no coincidence that B&H Buses are one of the few with increased ridership.
Brighton & Hove do seem to be in the minority though. Outside London there are so few double decks these days even in some large urban areas.
Whoooa...there is a danger here of false conclusions from limited evidence....
If you dramatically increase frequency at the same time as decreasing vehicle size you very often achieve a large overall RISE in passenger numbers - clearly you have to be careful when it comes to time-critical peak journeys but it CAN be made to work.
I have personal experience of this, but rather than quote my own experience, let me blow someone elses trumpet:-
Take as an example the Stagecoach South Service 23 from Leigh Park to Southsea, which as part of a Quality Partnership with the local council has been dramatically increased and instead of double deckers on a lower frequency is now running with low floored darts on a 10 minute frequency.
In the same area Service 21 has been increased from an half-hourly Double Deck route to a quarter-hourly low floor dart route.
The same operator is experimenting in a more rural area with its Link 51 route between Chichester and Selsey, on which it has recently increased frequency from half-hourly to quarter-hourly employing B10Ms instead of Olympians...
And similarly on it's route 52 to East Wittering (increased from irregular twenty minute operation to quarter hourly) employing low floor darts.
If a cost/profit conscious operator like Stagecoach can contemplate such large increases in operating costs, then tactics like this MUST surely be significantly increasing the market...
I know its a bit late :|
The current trend at TWM is replacing on VERY-busy routes i.e 16,37,97 the double deckers with single decks, at the same time telling everybody that passenger numbers are increasing... Its pure madness!
Post a Comment