Warrington's Own Buses

[Valandil]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
When they were first bought, they were found out on 3/23/23a/25/25c quite a lot, but I thought that they had been displaced elsewhere since.

I've had an ALX400 on the 2 in the past (came off a morning peak 19), so it's quite plausible that they might sometimes find themselves on the 22, since they interwork, but I've never seen that myself.

I'm actually surprised that they haven't gone onto the 20/21: the Eclipses seem to be fit to bursting a lot of the time now.

[RSTurbo50]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
The 20 and 21s are nightmares, always full and at a maximum. You are right, they should definitely utilise the deckers on these routes....

[Nicholas]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
The deckers were primarily purchased for the Leigh routes, as there are elements of the routes where longer buses would not fit but they needed to increase capacity, whilst a frequency increase could not be justified.

With the 20/21, WBT could look at increasing the frequency. At the moment the peak service runs every 12 minutes as opposed to the off-peak service which runs every 10 minutes. Perhaps a 7/8 (or just 8) minutes frequency would work. But the 16/16A is the same, there are more buses off-peak than there are in the peak period.

Edit: It appears that WBT are trying to operate services with the same PVR all day, which means peak frequencies are compromised in order to cater for the extended running times, whereas other operators would increase the PVR in order to maintain peak frequencies

[Jack]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
I have never noticed a decker on the 22 to Vulcan, always a Dart or Cadet/Merit.

[M60lad]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
Isn't there a low bridge somewhere on 22/420 route to Vulcan? I've ridden the route from Warrington-Earlestown in the past so its not that part of the route that's the problem so I'm guessing the problem could be on the Earlestown-Vulcan section of route

[JimmyMac]

RE: WBT Network Warrington

(10/08/2012 12:01)Nicholas Wrote:  It appears that WBT are trying to operate services with the same PVR all day, which means peak frequencies are compromised in order to cater for the extended running times, whereas other operators would increase the PVR in order to maintain peak frequencies

Yes, Arriva seem to use similar techniques to provide extra running time in the peaks (which is perhaps not a surprise given where the new MD at Warrington worked previously)

[JimmyMac]

RE: WBT Network Warrington

(11/08/2012 06:47)M60lad Wrote:  Isn't there a low bridge somewhere on 22/420 route to Vulcan? I've ridden the route from Warrington-Earlestown in the past so its not that part of the route that's the problem so I'm guessing the problem could be on the Earlestown-Vulcan section of route

There is a low bridge near Vulcan (under the WCML just north of Winwick Junction) but the 22 does not pass under it.

[RSTurbo50]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
Iv driven one of the Deckers whilst doing my route training at Warrington and we used one of them whilst learning the 22 to Vulcan...

[gilesbus1]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
The Vulcan route was served by deckers anyway prior to 2000 it was Dominator operated usually at at that time and numbered 420.

[Valandil]

RE: WBT Network Warrington
There was a decker on the X99 today.
Is that usual? -- on the promo, it shows a single-deck vehicle.
Though to be honest, if it fit with the contract, both the X99 and the X18 could be Solo operated they get so little custom :P

The rear display just showed '99', which isn't great since there's a different service 99 (more often called 'O2'), also heading in the same direction!