Bendy buses. What do you think?

[Lardyboy]

We're having them foist upon us here in the Swansea area. It's been quite an adventure over the last 12 months or so in the city centre as it's been totally ripped up to make enough room for these buses on the existing roads. So it's now almost impossible to get into the centre itself if you don't know where you are going as roads that were two way are now one way, one way streets have been reversed, where you could turn you can't, you've got a dual one way section running parallel with a two way bendy bus section! The mind boggles!

Of course, the council have told us that these buses would carry more people, but they can't fill the single/double deckers that use the routes they are proposing already. So the obvious conclusion is that they are cutting back on the frequency of the services to these areas.

The best bit I've saved till last.

These buses were supposed to run from the city centre to The Mumbles. However the roads were too busy, and delays were envisaged because of the buses size. So the council decided to rip up part of the cycle track/promenade that runs along the front to Mumbles to allow the buses to bypass some of the worst sections. There was a massive uproar over that and the idea was quickly dropped. Here's the kicker though, when the buses got to Mumbles no one had thought about how they were going to turn around and get back! Marvellous! And as for the chaos the test run caused going up to Morriston Hospital, I can still hear the cursing now.

But then what do you expect from a council that ripped up the first passenger railway in the world in favour of the car !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Keith Oates]

Those photos are good MP, it certainly looks like a handful to move around streets etc. I wonder how much they cost when compared to a modern double decker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tdr1nka]

Slightly OT I know, but we have a similar example of 'lack of' town planning for buses in Crystal Palace in Sarf London.

There had been compliants for years by local residents about busses being left on stand on the main parade and so what was billed as 'Europes Biggest On Street Terminus/Depot' was planned and built to elieviate the problem.
The b*gger of the whole deal was that it was designed only for single decker busses and is in fact too small to take all the double deckers busses it was supposedly designed to take off the main road.

T x

 

[simoncc]

I don't like them. They lumber about causing a big obstruction to my cycling especially at junctions. At when they are stationary they take twice as long to nip past on the outside so a much bigger gap in oncoming traffic is required before I can do it on a narrow road.

 

[Terminator]

Don't like bendy buses.Must be hard work for the drivers though so they have my utmost respect.

 

[domd1979]

Bendy buses are no wider than any other modern (rigid) bus - the legal maximum width is 2.55m. They are wider than the Routemasters they replaced though.

Speed of boarding/alighting has improved a lot with cashless boarding, but there's a lot of difference between an articulated bus with three wide entrance/exits and a double deck with one entrance and one exit. The staircase on a double deck slows down loading and unloading. Artics are designed for much greater loadings, although they rely on a greater proportion standing.

I don't like them at all. Fortunately there are none on my regular routes but they do traverse them and when you see them side-on it must be said they are far too long. They are very wide as well. I recognise the sticker on the back of them and on the rare occasions I have come across them I stay well back, only overtaking when they are at a stop and then they have never caught up with me.
I can't see what the problem would have been with upgrading the double deckers with a new fleet. Someone said about the speed of people getting on but with the advent of the Oyster card in London, the speed of entry on all buses has greatly improved in my experience. The majority of passengers have some sort of pass or pre-paid ticket these days.
The "seventy-free" (very good, I shall remember that) goes up Essex Road in Islington. I cannot think of a road less suited to the things than the Angel end of Essex Road

 

[domd1979]

In London where the majority of the UK's articulated buses operate, the bus network is controlled by Transport for London. They specify the network down to every last detail (including the interior layout of buses, and the type of bus to be used) and take all the revenue risk.

The greater number of passengers has largely come about through the introduction of the congestion charge. Introduction of artics isn't about revenue generation - its about dealing with a much larger volume of passengers.

With train operators, they're largely on reducing subsidy profiles over their franchise terms, or in some cases have to pay the DfT for the pleasure of running trains. Obviously in the case of TOCs more passengers at higher fares is in the interest of their bottom line. London bus operators don't have any revenue risk, and their operating margin is substantially lower than bus operations elsewhere in the UK.

...whereas bendy-buses are cattle-class throughout. Just like the trains in fact. More passengers means more fares means more revenue ....

 

[Arch]

I'd quite like a go at driving one of the things.

So would I, I'd like to have a go at driving most things - but not round most of York! Those FTR's BTW, are not bundy buses apparently, they are 'futuristic streetcars', or so it said in the paper. I've never been on one, but a frien dsaid he saw one breakdown once, when two people simultaneously tried to press the 'open door' button from outside, not realising that's for emergencies only, and the whole engine shut down. And from what I've heard you have to have the exact money to travel, and you get a discount for booking ahead via mobile phone, so you pay more if you just realise you need to hop on one - which I think goes against the convenince of using a bus somewhat. And I think there was a bit of hoo-ha when they came in, because the council wanted to ban on-street parking on some of their routes, because the damn things are bigger than the normal single deckers they replaced and couldn't negociate roads with parked cars. Dunno how that ended up...

I can't say about London, but I think the bendies in York are pretty pointless. Granted there are a couple of routes that double deckers can't use, due to going under the arches of the city walls, but the same walls are part of the reason our central streets are so narrow - making bendy buses really difficult to cater for. And as we don't have the whole Oystercard thing, I don't think boarding and so on can be much faster, if at all.

 

[CotterPin]

Some of them work well in London on the longer, straighter roads out in the suburbs. The 149 starts out in Edmonton, North London, and the first part of its route is fairly direct through Tottenham and Stamford Hill. Only when it hits the City do things get a bit messy. Similarly the 29 from Wood Green works well to the Euston Road but when it gets to the West End...

Maybe they should only be used as feeder buses?

 

[zimzum42]

The 453 has got the worst deal I think. An awful little bit at Marylebone Station where it goes on stand, lots of tight turns in residential streets.

Straight bit along Marylebone Road until another mess as it turns left at Gt. Portland Street to go round the one way system, down GPS itself, then a right left to get to Portland Place with plenty of tight turns......

They have basically given up at some corners and flattened out the kerbs.....