Try as I might, it’s impossible to ignore transport-related issues surrounding the olympics, particularly after the much-reported false start where US hurdler Kerron Clement complained his journey took a four-hour unintentional detour. Well, at least he saw (some of ) London.
An Irish-based Irizar pressed into London olympic service
For one thing, I’d half expected all eight prototype LT-class Wrightbus New Buses for London (New Bus for Londons?) to feature during the Saturday opening ceremony but with all that smoke, Mary Poppinses, nurses, sheep and chimneys, clearly there was room only for a single horse-drawn London General omnibus, itself a NO4L (New Omnibus for London) in its pioneering day. But, the General was actually then a French affair. LGOC started life in 1855 as a company capitalised in Paris as the Camapgnie Générale des Omnibus de Londres (Hibbs, 11969). There was mounting opposition to the virtual monopoly the French undertaking had quickly created and in 1859 it was naturalised as English LGOC. Foreign involvement in the capital’s bus services? Whatever next.
But it’s to an area with which I am more at home to which we must now turn. Weymouth is currently awash with incoming buses for olympic duties, from First and others, including many and varied Go South Coast liveries. The colourful bus scene eclipses the olympic sailing by far and the whole town is buoyed up (excuse the pun) by an olympic optimism. If it’s your passion, you have till 12th August to feast on this rare variety of vehicles but beware! There are already reports of security staff taking the wrong kind of interest in those photographing of buses.
Park & ride abounds from as far as Dorchester (and there’s even a “park & stride” site at Preston Beach Road with no buses but a 20-minute walk along the Esplanade). Aside from increased park & ride provision, First has upped some of its frequencies. Core service 1 from Portland to Weymouth is increased from every 10 to every 7½ minutes. The 2 Littlemoor - Broadway - Radipole - Weymouth is uplifted from every 12 to every 10 minutes. The 10/X10 from Weymouth to Dorchester is increased from every 20 to every 15 minutes with the addition of vehicles advertised with leather seats.
Indeed, First has produced an attractive “Sail into Weymouth by Bus” leaflet aimed at local-ish travel. It features a panel that pronounces that travel from Poole is cheaper than the train (and by some margin). A First day explorer gives unlimited access on First buses at £17.00 for a family of 2+3; this would cost nearly £45 from Poole to Weymouth by rail. Rail is quicker & more frequent (two per hour and between 35 & 45 minutes compared to 75 minutes by broadly hourly bus, though the bus gets you closer).
17 comments:
I thought First Games Transport were the official provider of buses/coaches to LOCOG? Yet interestingly, at the Olympic park itself in Stratford the hired-in buses bare liveries that are anything other than First! Further more, First aren't even named as a supplier to LOCOG in the Olympic park, even though other suppliers (but not sponsors) are acknowledge, such as GSK and.... G4S. http://www.flickr.com/photos/teflon/7645239512/in/photostream
Are First even supplying buses anymore to LOCOG... and if they are, why aren't there getting a mention for it when many others are?!
@ Ash - I'm not an expert on the various contracts but First are providing the spectator shuttle services and the longer distance coach services to the venues. Inevitably there are a lot of sub contractors. First's vehicles have only recently appeared as the shuttles only started the other day.
Stagecoach have the athletes & media transport contract and there are myriad numbers of their buses around Central and East London. Again there are lots of subcontractor vehicles. I am not certain what is going on inside the park but have seen Metrobus single decks and EYMS double decks on the telly! I shall find out more later this week when I venture through the security check.
I'm not sure whether Arriva are just sub contractors or have distinct work in their own right. I have seen some TGM vehicles knocking around the part of the park for staff and contractor travel.
@ plcd1 thanks for clearing that up. I go past the Olympic Park daily, and can confirm that the majority of buses are Stagecoach ones, and there are quite a few EYMS buses floating around too.
First's website has this to say about their contract:
2012 Games Park & Ride / Walk Service
We have Park & Ride / Walk services for:
Olympic Park
ExCeL
Weymouth and Portland
Lee Valley White Water Centre
Hadleigh Farm
Eton Dorney
Greenwich Park (for day 3 cross-country)
Football venues at City of Coventry, Hampden Park, and Old Trafford
I thought Stagecoach had the contract, certainly up here we've seen all the best buses from our fleet moved down to London for the games. And what a state they look too, with all the usual route branding left on the vehicles except for a bodged white sticker over the Stagecoach logo and fleetname.
Which actually leaves us with another point about the effects of the Olympics on bus customers. On my route the usual E400s, some only a year or so old, have been replaced by older buses hired in from other depots. So far we've seen ten-year-old Tridents from Dumfries, R-reg B10BLEs and R-reg Dennis Dart SLFs. That's not going to have a positive impact on people, such as families, who wouldn't normally use the bus but will do during the school holidays. Stagecoach have maintained them really well, but there's only so much polishing you can do on a bus that was made in 1997.
Stagecoach is the the lead operator for the Games Family services and as such they also operate the three temporary bus depots. LOCOG have also contracted in other operators for Games Family services because of the sheer number of buses required. Games Family buses can be identified as they have their fleet names removed.
First provide the spectator transport.
Using one of said spectator buses from Old Trafford to Manc Vic on Sunday, I saw the amusing spectacle of a Stagecoach Manchester bus with a First running board in the window.
Neil
... and TGM are still advertising in today's metro newspaper for drivers for 'late' Olympic contracts!
First are contracted to the ODA, not LOCOG. Though most of the buses operating out of the Olympic Park are subcontracted to other firms, elsewhere there is a greater First presence (there are about 200 buses running out of Barking, of which 50 are Ulsterbus vehicles)
David
I know you don't like Brian Souter's politics (and for the record, neither do I) but be balanced.
There's a few ALX400s in from Dumfries/Cumnock (about 5?) that have been drafted in and some of the reserve fleet has been mobilised.
However, you fail to mention the other vehicles that have arrived that are all 2-4 years old, again from Western or Yorkshire. I managed to see plenty of them this time last week on Blackett Street but you haven't?
We all know you don't like Stagecoach but please don't post such one sided views. We have a right, through forums like this, to air our views but we also have a responsibility to be fair and accurate in providing the information for others to read.
David,
I can't speak for the NE but the buses that Stagecoach has drafted in around the South, either from elsewhere or reserve all look well presented to me. Okay some are early low-floor and some are step but Stagecoach has clearly put a lot of time and effort in to this exercise and should, in my view, be applauded. The N-reg Olympians and R-reg Darts don't especially look old or knackered and are perfectly clean and serviceable. I wouldn't write off all 15 year old buses in any event - it's their condition that matters, internally, externally and the greasy bits that you can't see. Buses are designed for a life of 15/20 years. I know we live in a disposable age but drawing arbitrary lines like some local authorities and ITAs do, really is nonsensical.
As for the Olympic fleet, I assume you're having another pop at Stagecoach. Seeing them in real-life, few of them have 'bodged' white stickers, most (not all, I accept) have had the names covered very neatly with red, blue or white stickers as appropriate. Yes, some of the logos are part visible on the sides of deckers where the logo stretches onto the skirt but I wouldn't say they look a 'state'.
Hopefully the vinyls will be easily removed without causing damage to the paintwork, that would be my greater concern, not to mention the blue security tape that says 'LOCOG' that's been used to secure flaps and opening panels. In fact I saw a couple of non-Stagecoach vehicles where this blue tape had been removed (or should I say attempted to be removed) and it left a hideous blue residue. Heaven knows what it will do if it's left for six weeks and baked on by the sun :-(
The last Stagecoach N reg Olympians I travelled on were horrible, nasty, dreadful things which looked every inch of their 15+ years.
They looked even worse running alongside Enviro 400 deckers - even more so when Thanet depot were skimping on the standard of maintenance, sending buses out with whistling turbo's. But as the directors don't see these things, nothing was ever done.
Whilst the E400 deckers look nice internally, everything about them looks cheap, and it shows up a year or two down the line when you begin to see that they are built to price.
Mock First if you want, but their Wright products are still in decent condition some two to three years on from delivery.
At the two anonymouses:
I don't know if there's been some more tarting up since last Monday, when I was in London. The buses I saw on Whitehall had the route branding: one from South Shields (get to the beach) and one advertising the route from Morecambe and Heysham to Lancaster. The buses would have looked much better with Stagecoach branding left on, although I know that is a LOCOG edict.
As for the older buses in operation up here, as I said, they are well presented (apart from the one solitary B10BLE with a defective destination blind: they've used stickers instead). But the presentation doesn't hide their age, it doesn't hide the rattles and the shakes and the collected grime of 15 years hard service, and that's what I mean about there being limits to the amount of polishing a company can do. I think Stagecoach have done a good job making the reserve buses as presentable as they are, the engineers should be commended for that, but they are still blatantly reserve buses. Stagecoach know this too, with the apology notices in the window.
I have seen the imported E300s and E400s, but we don't have them on my route, we have the Tridents and the B10BLEs and the Dart SLFs (as well as the oldest of the usual Newcastle E400s). But interesting you mention the imported E400s: they're all running around with white stickers covering up the MegaRider prices from their original regions, because the prices there are lower ;o)
@ fence watcher:
The varying build quality between manufacturers is an interesting debate in itself. Wright do seem to make better buses than ADL or Optare, for whatever reason, but I wouldn't say First deserve much credit for that. First's Wright examples are, in my experience, usually much more battered than those operated by Arriva or Transdev. ADL buses generally seem to be mechanically good- it's rare to see one failed- but the internal build quality leaves something to be desired. Optare is, well, Optare.
"But interesting you mention the imported E400s: they're all running around with white stickers covering up the MegaRider prices from their original regions, because the prices there are lower ;o)"
Ok, so Dumfries is £11 whilst Newcastle is £12.50. So Newcastle is 50% more. However, it stretches to places like Westerhope (5 miles from city centre) whilst Dumfries version extends about 3 miles to Locharbriggs.
Therefore, they're different because the areas that they cover are different in size!
Alternatively, look at Bognor Regis and the cost is £16.60 and the scope from town centre to Elmer is only 3.6 miles. Does this mean that people in Sussex are getting ripped off.... No, probably more a reflection on the cost of employing drivers in that area affecting the cost base.
By not covering up the differing prices/IDs, Stagecoach allows people to make ill-judged comparisons without full understanding why price differences exist.
For 50%, read 15%.... Wonder how I keep my job at times!
Oh dear, all this carping.
Having seen both the buses in London/Windsor providing Spectator and "Games Family" transport, and toured some of companies in Stagecoach South I can honestly say that both First and Stagecoach have stepped up to the bar to provide not only these temporary high frequency Olympic services and the day to day bread & butter routes without any major issues. Yes, an old step entrance Dart or Olympian may slip out onto a route - but passengers appreciate any bus, that turns up on time, is clean and has a friendly driver.
Please stop this incessant whining - look at the bigger picture, and be proud of what has been done.
On holiday in Dorset this week, I used the Monkey's Jump P&R - a credit to First; a new B9/Wright, immaculately presented and well driven by an extremely polite and well-motivated driver. Shame that when we got to Weymouth there were some very tired First Olympians (H registered were the oldest examples) and step Darts on offer amongst others. First are certainly heading in the right direction at last but crikey have they got their work cut out.
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