Why is there such a gap between how the industry sees Brighton’s bus service and how the public there perceives it? Surely here, more than anywhere, Brighton’s subjects must appreciate what they have.
Not exactly. Brighton’s the latest town with the prospect of ex-London articulated Citaro buses. Just four are coming to assist student crush loadings on the 25 to the universities. They’re causing the usual apoplectic reaction. It’s an excuse to fling as much dirt in Brighton & Hove’s direction as possible. Misconceptions abound.
In the style of the Saturday Telegraph’s Honest John, Honest Busing answers the Brighton bendy & bus critics.
“Surely these buses would be more welcome on the coastal route no 12 where all the older bus pass holders can't get up the stairs of a normal double decker”
Ah, but you are rewarded with a lovely grandstand view on the 12. But, good idea, that way we can recycle about 15 Citaros rather than four.
“[Bendies] are not as spacious or comfortable as running more buses at busy times, like a decent, public-service bus company would do”
More buses at peak times mean fares need to cover additional costs—vehicles, the drivers, and more. Do ordinary passengers really want to pay for extra buses to carry students?
“What doesn't help on this route is that the service (along with many others) is, in my opinion, often unreliable, with late running and cancelled buses a regular feature”
Running bendies rather than extra buses will help, then.
“Get rid of single deckers, get more double deckers”
B&H has plenty of double decks, and new ones, too. Only young people who run riot upstairs really like them.
“Why not just run more normal buses along that stretch in peak times? Buses that do not need adapting, painting and rigging out”
OK, I’ll just nip down the back of the garage and de-cobweb some spare £180K OmniDekkas. And use the drivers who’re paid to sit on their hands all day.
“Bendy buses are only suitable for the wide, straight avenues and easy corners of Europe and the US”
Bendy buses go any place an ordinary 12m rigid can go. Indeed, artics are that bit more manoeuvrable.
“B&H buses are a complete and utter rip-off”
If you offer a quality service then you shouldn’t give your services away.
“Why can’t we have more competition?”
No doubt the market can bear competition but for the fact that B&H offers an all round quality service from early morning to late evening, at decent frequencies. B&H hasn’t left any gaps to fill. Where’s the scope for challengers other than those who might just cream off or hoover up during daylight?
“We need more of the Big Lemon type to come in”
See answer above. Wasn’t Lemon offering a “Me Too” sort of service? Even now, Lemon says it’s “strange but true” that its buses don’t terminate at Churchill Square between 1502 and 2130.
“We need more... who run on sustainable energy”
B&H’s newer, leaner buses run on low sulphur bio-diesel and carry more passengers per bus mile than Lemon.
“London got rid of [bendies] as they are a danger to other road users”
Where’s the real evidence?
“More left-overs for Brighton. Why can’t we have the new Routemaster too”
B&H has invested in new vehicles at least as much and probably more than any other English provincial bus operator. Why would Brighton want new Routemasters when its fleet of modern double decks is more than capable and safer? And will London get ’em?
“One wonders what Dr Lucas and Ms Mitchell [politicians] will say the first time a cyclist is squashed by one of these giants”
This is a commercial not political decision. It’s a fallacy to suggest bendies squash bikers. Where’s the evidence?
“Oh the joys of having so much control over the Council”
What’s it got to do with the council?
“Most of the buses on our roads are already too heavy and doing a fine job of breaking up the surface but then we have just had snow and frost and rain which will get the blame before anyone thinks it was the buses”
Heavy vehicles cause exponential damage to their axle weight but less than the number of cars they save. What about the considerably more trucks?
“Someone has to do something to stop this company from getting their own way. I think the most frequent bus should run every 15 minutes and the least frequent runs every 30 minutes”
As stated by a true motorist. Don’t expect the passengers to support this. Would you be happy with even longer jams as passengers revert to cars?
“Most of the time they are empty”
But not all of the time. Especially the 25, it seems. A bus will be emptier against the flow, between the peaks, at the far suburbs and in the evening. Tell you what, running duplicates on the 25 really would mean empty buses, though.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Brighton Q & A—Honest John
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6 comments:
A prophet hath no honour in his own country.
"B&H has plenty of double decks, and new ones, too. Only young people who run riot upstairs really like them."
I disagree. I like to enjoy the view from the top deck of a double decker, when I get the opportunity (not often these days!), and I don't run riot upstairs. As for whether I'm young....
Seriously, can anyone provide any answers to two questions regarding artics:-
1. What are the true operating costs of artics relative to double deckers, taking into account the maintenance of an extra axle and the turntable mechanism, fuel consumption, extra garage space, etc?
2. What is the true capacity? The theoretical maximum appears to rely on between 90 and 100 standing passengers, in what must inevitably be 'sardine-tin' conditions - which would clearly be inappropriate for a route like the B&H 12 referred to in the post.
No doubt there are certain situations where an artic may actually be a suitable, and cost-effective, solution; and perhaps this route to the universities is one such. I presume the reference to the 12 is really just 'tongue in cheek'!!
You are looking about 1.8 to 2.5ish MPG or there abouts on an artic, where as a decker can get you 5.5 to 6.9ish MPG ! a lot mroe fuel !
Some of the comments in the paper are likely to have come from The Big Lemon, or students on their Facebook, so I think we can safely assume some rather silly and biased statements.
Figures I've seen don't support anything like the variation in fuel consumption suggested by 'Anonymous' at 08.53 - he/she can't be comparing anything remotely like for like.
Even were Anonymous of 0853's fuel consumption figures accurate (and like Anon of 0907 I'm sceptical), this is only one cost associated with benbies. Is it cheaper to operate fuel inefficient bendies at peak times only, than operate a second bus to mop up? Total fuel consumed might be about the same (on Anon 0853's figures) but there are all the overheads associated with a second vehicle on the road, including driver costs.
Like most newspaper online comments, most posters seem to like to stir things up and post provocotive comments simply because they can do. Apart from some perhaps being put up to it by Big Lemon, I'd guess another swaythe are taxi drivers, given that Brighton seems to have more taxis on the roads than private cars and buses together.
In my experience, "all the older bus pass holders can't get up the stairs of a normal double decker” is simply not true. On the 12 they all seem to be upstairs.
As for “What doesn't help on this route is that the service (along with many others) is, in my opinion, often unreliable, with late running and cancelled buses a regular feature” assuming we're talking about the 25, the service already runs on five minute frequency (yes, *five*), with double-decks. How can anyone possibly tell that buses are late or cancelled?
In truth, it's a shame that a company as good as Go-Ahead has managed to buy rather than lease bendies so that it now appears to be resorting to twisting the arms of its subsidiaries to find uses for them... hence B&H looking to run them on the 25 (well, part of it, i.e. the straight, main-road bits).
Elsewhere, rumours abound that Arriva is having second-thoughts about bendies in Liverpool. Wherever one looks the whole bendy saga is an industry-wide PR disaster.
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