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Transdev Blazefield

SCH117X

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From data on the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency there are "variations" coming on 5th September for all services serving Halifax except the 587 plus the 321 and 435, and also the start date of the new Huddersfield-Kirkheaton service which is listed as 262. Presumably ties in with the new Mellor Stratas turning up.
 
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Andyh82

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Apparently the Halifax variations are due to the work starting on the rebuilding of Halifax Bus Station. Many services are going to be evicted onto the street for a while.
 
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Deerfold

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From data on the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency there are "variations" coming on 5th September for all services serving Halifax except the 587 plus the 321 and 435, and also the start date of the new Huddersfield-Kirkheaton service which is listed as 262. Presumably ties in with the new Mellor Stratas turning up.
The 435 / 436/ 436A/ 437/ 437A seem to be turning into the X1.
 

61653 HTAFC

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The 435 / 436/ 436A/ 437/ 437A seem to be turning into the X1.
Hopefully the single number means an end to the variations... on the other hand, the X prefix suggests sticking to main roads which suggests everything will follow the 436 route... but that cuts out Shelley College. Is the information about these changes (a) accessible to the public; and (b) understandable to those of us not already well-versed in bus industry terminology?
 

Deerfold

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Hopefully the single number means an end to the variations... on the other hand, the X prefix suggests sticking to main roads which suggests everything will follow the 436 route... but that cuts out Shelley College. Is the information about these changes (a) accessible to the public; and (b) understandable to those of us not already well-versed in bus industry terminology?
No details, no.
 

aswilliamsuk

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Hopefully the single number means an end to the variations... on the other hand, the X prefix suggests sticking to main roads which suggests everything will follow the 436 route... but that cuts out Shelley College. Is the information about these changes (a) accessible to the public; and (b) understandable to those of us not already well-versed in bus industry terminology?
I would suspect a simplification of the route is long overdue - the 484 that this came from was one route without much variation, after all, for many, many years - and even a simplification would be unlikely to omit Shelley College on appropriate school journeys.

It is pretty obvious so far that Transdev are having a good look at routes to see what can be improved quickly, but importantly also appear to be talking to passengers/communities involved to ensure that the changes benefit them (which is what they've done elsewhere, too).

A relaunch using refurbished Tempos in Team Pennine livery/spec will make quite the difference if the service provision is improved too.
 

JetBlast

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What ticket machines does Team Pennine use please? Did these get inherited from Yorkshire Tiger? Do they accept contactless?
 

61653 HTAFC

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What ticket machines does Team Pennine use please? Did these get inherited from Yorkshire Tiger? Do they accept contactless?
The ones in the "new" buses look very similar to the ones Tiger had most recently, and function in the same way. However I couldn't say for sure they're the exact same machines, as since the change I've not used any of the legacy vehicles so I don't know if they've been changed.

I would suspect a simplification of the route is long overdue - the 484 that this came from was one route without much variation, after all, for many, many years - and even a simplification would be unlikely to omit Shelley College on appropriate school journeys.

It is pretty obvious so far that Transdev are having a good look at routes to see what can be improved quickly, but importantly also appear to be talking to passengers/communities involved to ensure that the changes benefit them (which is what they've done elsewhere, too).

A relaunch using refurbished Tempos in Team Pennine livery/spec will make quite the difference if the service provision is improved too.
I remember the 484, it used to run through to Leeds on and off. It was Arriva for a long time, and still was when it changed to the 435 around a decade ago. Huddersfield Bus Company aka Centrebus Holdings took over and at some point switched around 40% of the journeys to the 436 which omits Skelmanthorpe.
The late night services didn't last long after Arriva finished, maybe a year. In Arriva days the evening runs were often deckers branded for the 110 and were generally well-used. Now, outside of the school times it's "one man and his dog".
A simplified route and timetable with all buses serving Skelmanthorpe could well bring passengers back, I hope they make a success of it. Not keen on the X1 number but that's just a personal preference. D2 (or whichever number is next after the 83/84 get the treatment) would be better IMO.
 

Bristol LHS

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Saw Tiger-liveried solo 189 on a Thorntons low-loader heading North on the A1 on Thursday. They’re certsinly cracking on with the refurbs.
 

M60lad

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One of the Rochdale B7s 1719 was out yesterday on 502 Halifax-Keighley so not all of them have gone to Waterloo.

It will be interesting to see what happens in September when the Schools go back. I'm sure these loans are only able to happen as Rochdale don't actually need them at the moment so they would just end up being parked up most of the time during the School Holidays.
 
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SCH117X

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Probably the Mellor Stratas will be in service with Team Pennine by the time the Schools go back allowing for a shuffle of adequate vehicles.

The loaned B7s (fleet numbers 1717-1721) have all gone to Waterloo bar 1719 (and 1720 briefly)
 

Leedsbusman

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Probably the Mellor Stratas will be in service with Team Pennine by the time the Schools go back allowing for a shuffle of adequate vehicles.

The loaned B7s (fleet numbers 1717-1721) have all gone to Waterloo bar 1719 (and 1720 briefly)
The Mellor Stratas are still expected in October and have never been scheduled for September. There are seven Enviro 200MMCs incoming and three Optare Tempos away for refurbishment that will release the Rosso buses back home.
 

aswilliamsuk

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The ones in the "new" buses look very similar to the ones Tiger had most recently, and function in the same way. However I couldn't say for sure they're the exact same machines, as since the change I've not used any of the legacy vehicles so I don't know if they've been changed.


I remember the 484, it used to run through to Leeds on and off. It was Arriva for a long time, and still was when it changed to the 435 around a decade ago. Huddersfield Bus Company aka Centrebus Holdings took over and at some point switched around 40% of the journeys to the 436 which omits Skelmanthorpe.
The late night services didn't last long after Arriva finished, maybe a year. In Arriva days the evening runs were often deckers branded for the 110 and were generally well-used. Now, outside of the school times it's "one man and his dog".
A simplified route and timetable with all buses serving Skelmanthorpe could well bring passengers back, I hope they make a success of it. Not keen on the X1 number but that's just a personal preference. D2 (or whichever number is next after the 83/84 get the treatment) would be better IMO.
It goes a long way back before Arriva - it was the sole West Riding incursion into this corner of West Yorkshire for many, many years too (presumably hence the 4xx number, which historically was longer services across the eastern side of West Yorkshire). My school days in the first half of the 90s would normally mean I'd see the afternoon 484 stopping at the-then Shelley High - the 484 was solidly Olympian in those days, with a Lynx very rare indeed.

I guess the problem for the host of operators who've tried in the area is that the geography isn't great for bus operation, and - all things being relative - most of the villages south-east of Huddersfield are relatively affluent, meaning car use is high and bus usage perhaps not as high as it could be. The lack of cross-border links doesn't help, either - the likes of Clayton West and Denby Dale in particular are closer to Barnsley than Huddersfield, and perhaps even Sheffield/Meadowhall is a more likely shopping destination - while for Shepley and Denby Dale, first choice has long been the car and then the train (which for all its long-standing faults, the Penistone Line has a loyal passenger base, and a regular hourly service).
 

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It goes a long way back before Arriva - it was the sole West Riding incursion into this corner of West Yorkshire for many, many years too (presumably hence the 4xx number, which historically was longer services across the eastern side of West Yorkshire). My school days in the first half of the 90s would normally mean I'd see the afternoon 484 stopping at the-then Shelley High - the 484 was solidly Olympian in those days, with a Lynx very rare indeed.

I guess the problem for the host of operators who've tried in the area is that the geography isn't great for bus operation, and - all things being relative - most of the villages south-east of Huddersfield are relatively affluent, meaning car use is high and bus usage perhaps not as high as it could be. The lack of cross-border links doesn't help, either - the likes of Clayton West and Denby Dale in particular are closer to Barnsley than Huddersfield, and perhaps even Sheffield/Meadowhall is a more likely shopping destination - while for Shepley and Denby Dale, first choice has long been the car and then the train (which for all its long-standing faults, the Penistone Line has a loyal passenger base, and a regular hourly service).
Certainly in Skelmanthorpe (8 miles from Huddersfield, 9 from Barnsley and Wakefield) it's only those a certain age that even think of Barnsley for the sorts of shopping trips that large towns* (as opposed to cities) are suitable for. Barnsley hospital is used by many from the area though, and the lack of public transport is an issue that could do with addressing. Perhaps Transdev will have the will, resources and desire to fix this, whereas Tiger and their predecessors only half-heartedly tried.

*= Wakefield despite having city status is in the same boat as Barnsley and Huddersfield in terms of draw. With the train Meadowhall is easier to get to than Leeds for the bigger trips.
 

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Has anyone been on a Team Pennine bus yet? Is it better than Yorkshire Tiger was? Any reactions from other passengers?
 
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61653 HTAFC

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Has anyone been on a Team Pennine bus yet? Is it better than Yorkshire Tiger was? Any reactions from other passengers?
I described my initial experiences from the first week upthread, but only on the D1 which has probably had the most attention so far. I'm writing this post on one of the loans from Lancashire on service 435. Though a temporary loan, it's clear that there's a significant step up in quality, though I've still not seen if the legacy vehicles that haven't gone for refurb yet have had much improvement in terms of cleanliness. Though given the state of the fleet in the last few weeks of Tiger it's a case of if you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig!
 

RustySpoons

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I described my initial experiences from the first week upthread, but only on the D1 which has probably had the most attention so far. I'm writing this post on one of the loans from Lancashire on service 435. Though a temporary loan, it's clear that there's a significant step up in quality, though I've still not seen if the legacy vehicles that haven't gone for refurb yet have had much improvement in terms of cleanliness. Though given the state of the fleet in the last few weeks of Tiger it's a case of if you put lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig!

Tweet from @Vitto_p
Sometimes what you have is perfectly fine! This cove panel was badly soiled and we assumed needed replacing. With a bit of elbow grease the team have it looking brand new again.

Screenshot 2021-08-09 at 16.44.40.png

Looks like they're upping the rather low standard Tiger had for cleaning...
 

Andyh82

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New Holmfirth Explorer, HuddsQuick and KirkheatonQuick brands from September


We said we’d make buses better, and here we are to tell you what we’re up to from September. There are improvements to routes and timetables, new buses on the way and more as we continue our transformation of the former Yorkshire Tiger operation into our new TeamPennine company.

There’s more fab and easy to remember brands being introduced alongside our already popular DenbyDarts buses. HuddsQuick is the new brand for our nippy, town buses in Huddersfield, Holmfirth Explorer for our handy, leisure link across the rolling Yorkshire countryside to Wakefield and CalderCountry is our new name for our new Mercedes midibuses in Halifax which will arrive before October, too.
 

61653 HTAFC

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New Holmfirth Explorer, HuddsQuick and KirkheatonQuick brands from September

All sounds like positive stuff. I have slight reservations about the letter prefixes, but at least they haven't gone down the route of names instead of numbers, and that's a personal taste thing rather than a real problem. On the other hand, we've seen fancy branding before which all fell apart within a year or so, but Transdev as a company seem to have more staying power than Centrebus or Tiger.

I had assumed that the 319 not running through town to the infirmary was a temporary thing with the roadworks on Westgate, and the loss of that link is a slight negative, but I'm not paying so it's easy to criticise without all the facts: in K-Line days the three cross-town services for HRI (319/360/366) were great for keeping First on their toes, but that was 20 years ago and times have changed.

Without going too far off-topic, Arriva seem to come in for a lot of criticism on this section of the forum but their core West Yorkshire operations seem pretty sound to me as a semi-regular passenger, particularly in the North Kirklees area. Certainly the 231/232 Huddersfield to Wakefield routes seem in better hands than they were under (also Arriva-owned, ironically) Tiger.
 
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RELL6L

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Well that's spin on the X1! Renumber it with an X, simplify it and make every journey go via the slowest route, taking about 10 minutes more on most journeys! Not actually much change. Daytime buses have about 35 minutes in Wakefield, some will be for breaks but drivers don't need a break every 2½ hours - are they going to do anything else there?
 

Andyh82

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Well that's spin on the X1! Renumber it with an X, simplify it and make every journey go via the slowest route, taking about 10 minutes more on most journeys! Not actually much change. Daytime buses have about 35 minutes in Wakefield, some will be for breaks but drivers don't need a break every 2½ hours - are they going to do anything else there?
The current service has a layover of about 50-55 mins every hour at Wakefield. They've attempted to run it with 2 buses before rather than 3 and can't unless they went to 'every 80 minutes', so there isn't much they can do

Using an "X" is breaking all the established rules, it stands for eXplorer not eXpress like every other use of the letter in West Yorks!
 

61653 HTAFC

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Well that's spin on the X1! Renumber it with an X, simplify it and make every journey go via the slowest route, taking about 10 minutes more on most journeys! Not actually much change. Daytime buses have about 35 minutes in Wakefield, some will be for breaks but drivers don't need a break every 2½ hours - are they going to do anything else there?
Better to serve places where there's actually a decent population (Skelmanthorpe, around 5k) to support the service than a hamlet of around 100 (Kitchenroyd). To be fair if the D1 is anything to go by, the better vehicles should improve journey times: I assume the D1 is still broadly using the timings of the previous 233 because the new buses seem to often have to pause for time compared to the old ones which breathlessly used to crawl up Far Dene and "Red Hill" (between Kirkburton and Shelley).

Using an "X" is breaking all the established rules, it stands for eXplorer not eXpress like every other use of the letter in West Yorks!
I have my reservations about that, but to be honest I'll put that aside if the service improves... and it would be hard to make it any worse!
 

Leedsbusman

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All sounds like positive stuff. I have slight reservations about the letter prefixes, but at least they haven't gone down the route of names instead of numbers, and that's a personal taste thing rather than a real problem. On the other hand, we've seen fancy branding before which all fell apart within a year or so, but Transdev as a company seem to have more staying power than Centrebus or Tiger.

I had assumed that the 319 not running through town to the infirmary was a temporary thing with the roadworks on Westgate, and the loss of that link is a slight negative, but I'm not paying so it's easy to criticise without all the facts: in K-Line days the three cross-town services for HRI (319/360/366) were great for keeping First on their toes, but that was 20 years ago and times have changed.

Without going too far off-topic, Arriva seem to come in for a lot of criticism on this section of the forum but their core West Yorkshire operations seem pretty sound to me as a semi-regular passenger, particularly in the North Kirklees area. Certainly the 231/232 Huddersfield to Wakefield routes seem in better hands than they were under (also Arriva-owned, ironically) Tiger.

The 319 hasn’t served the Infirmary since February 2017.
 
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SCH117X

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Using an "X" is breaking all the established rules, it stands for eXplorer not eXpress like every other use of the letter in West Yorks!
Except Wetherby where you have conneXions with their X70 (leaving aside any X school buses).
 

Deerfold

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Except Wetherby where you have conneXions with their X70 (leaving aside any X school buses).
And the X52 from Ilkley to Harrogate. The X84 isn't very express, either though there's a small (poorly advertised) limited stop section.
 

Roilshead

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The X84 isn't very express, either though there's a small (poorly advertised) limited stop section.
Which will do its usual trick this September of catching-out freshers at Leeds Beckett University who, wanting the Beckett Park campus from Leeds, stay on past the Headingley Arndale stop and find themselves a couple of miles up Otley Road outside Lawnswood School.
 

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