I don't mind if I have to get two buses, as long as both services are frequent. When its a less frequent route its very risky, especially if your going to work.
This has been discussed on this forum before. There is no suitable on-street terminal point for the south side sector as Holland Street, Douglas Street and Renfrew Street across from the former the Scottish Television Studios are all taken up by other services. Splitting the route would be detrimental financially as operating costs would increase and revenue and passenger volume would take the hit which isn't ideal given the current climate.
Running buses every 5 minutes to Clarkston in today's climate I'm afraid is way OTT.
I remember the Kelvin Central service 3 group of services with Dennis Dominators and the Strathclyde's Buses 66A and 66B with LO types (Leyland Olympians) running under Kilbowie Road railway bridge. I can also remember some Central SMT double deckers going under that bridge.
Strathclyde's Buses Leyland Atlanteans and Volvo Citybuses were regularly used on the 7 and 58 to Dumbarton and Balloch during the early years of deregulation. Unfortunately I'm unable to locate any photos.Seat-belted Volvo Olympians appeared on the 206 from time to time when Dumbarton had a allocation of them, primarily for school work (linked image from the MSE062 Flickr collection). B9s appearing on it, while odd in the route's day-to-day operations, is hardly a new thing.
First Glasgow - N949 SOS (31438)
While the rest of the Olympian's get a Saturday off, VO49 is captured out and about at Dalreoch train station whilst working the 206.www.flickr.com
And the other major operators in the area over the years (McColl's, McGill's etc) have all used deckers on routes that passed through the town: McGill's with the 204X and McColl's with their local services in competition with First.
But that will only add further costs ie bus station stance charges whilst removing travel opportunities.
The top of Hope Street beside the stop where the 6/6A stop currently is an option that isn't taken. The north end wouldn't need to be every 10 mins like pre-Covid either so you'd have made savings. Arguably every 15 mins off peak is enough for the 6 between the city centre and Clydebank. I've used it a lot over the years and the south side has always been busier.
That is not a suitable terminus as other services use that stop frequently. To comply with regulations the words Bus Stand have to be painted on the road. If you cut the Clydebank end to every 15 minutes you'll cause an issue with bunching on Great Western Road if the Drumchapel service remains at every 10 minutes.
The 6A stops at it but that's pretty much it other than the 6. To be quite honest I'd probably reduce the 6A a bit too as that's the same as the 6 from what I've seen over the years. If the 6/6A were reliable passenger numbers probably would be far better but I've seen them get quieter each year despite using them a lot. There's been more than a handful of times I've waited 40/50 mins on a 6 because they get behind schedule and can never make it up
But that will only incur an increase in operating costs, quite substantially I'd imagine, and this can only be offset by an increase in revenue which reflects that. You've also got to consider the 6 and 6A relationship on GWR and the 4/5/6/7 in the southside.
That's why I've mentioned frequency cuts in what I've suggested. I'm amazed the 6/6A never had them pre-pandemic to be quite honest because even at peak times when I've used the 6 it wasn't always that busy and beyond Anniesland it was exceptionally quiet at times.
Frequency cuts may reduce running costs but then you also risk losing passengers which in turn lowers revenue thus the reduced running costs become obsolete.
I've always wondered why they changed the no 20 to a 6a. Anyone on here explain the logic?
I think it was just to fit in with the 6 more than anything but then the 21 was a thing. The 21 could have been a 17 to fit in with the 18 and it would have made sense
as part of simplicity to simplify the network
Yes, that one dosent make sense as its a separate route to the 6. If it was the 6A would run to East Kilbride.
They had some good ideas with certain things but they could have did so much more with the renumbering of routes.I thought it might be so that in the branding literature and timetables they could, correctly, claim that the service ran at "up to ten minute intervals". This was only true in respect of the portion of the route that they both shared ie city centre to Anniesland. Misleading but probably not so much as to be regarded as duplicitous.
I thought it was unfinished. Least there has been stability in the network though no innovation or new routes since.I don’t think very much of Simplicity made sense
There was quite a few of them on the 2 today, I’ve posted a picture that I got today
