First Greater Glasgow

[PaulMc7]

The issue may well be that all of those 240s are pretty full; it's a really busy route.

This is the problem with cutting buses short with no notice. You risk enraging an awful lot of people who have already waited a long time just to make them swap bus mid-route.

 

[lastbus]

From Sunday 26th there will no longer be a starter rate at First Glasgow. New drivers will be on the same rate as a senior driver.

 

[lastbus]

Do First Glasgow have controllers that can intervene to turn buses. They’ve got all the tracking technology, so they know that buses are running around in 3s or 4s. Last Friday afternoon I saw 4 240s charging into town mid-afternoon. Just checked the app and there is a 42 minute gap until the next bus, but 3 of them are running on top of one another through Motherwell – no doubt they’ll chase each other all the way into town. I’m used to I-bus in London changing the destination of the bus mid-route – is it beyond First to cobble together a way to regulate the service.

First Glasgow have a central control room who’s job is to regulate and turn late running buses. Unfortunately they aren’t very good at it.

 

[PaulMc7]

From Sunday 26th there will no longer be a starter rate at First Glasgow. New drivers will be on the same rate as a senior driver.

Here's hoping this goes well and fixes the shortage of drivers. I've got more hope than optimism mind you although amazingly my work bus ran the full route every day this week.

 

[Trnsprt4Sctlnd]

I’ve noticed a lot of the Kirkintilloch routes & the 89 are being swamped with 75 & 38 City Branded buses, surely with all the extra vehicles spare they could be painting them to a standard livery en masse?

(Attached photo of 75-Route Branded ADL400 MMC)

 

[PaulMc7]

I’ve noticed a lot of the Kirkintilloch routes & the 89 are being swamped with 75 & 38 City Branded buses, surely with all the extra vehicles spare they could be painting them to a standard livery en masse?

(Attached photo of 75-Route Branded ADL400 MMC)

I'm surprised the 88 and 89 haven't ever been branded together to be honest. The 88 was in the Overground days but nothing since. The 38 and 75 both have 2 sets of branded buses currently and both are on reduced frequencies so probably loads spare that would cover a few services.

 

[ScotRail158725]

I’ve noticed a lot of the Kirkintilloch routes & the 89 are being swamped with 75 & 38 City Branded buses, surely with all the extra vehicles spare they could be painting them to a standard livery en masse?

(Attached photo of 75-Route Branded ADL400 MMC)

The 38 & 75 branded MMCs are the Caley North routes allocations along with whats left of the 65 plate MMCs, that is until the 65 plates all move to Blantyre this next week or so

 

[route101]

I’ve noticed a lot of the Kirkintilloch routes & the 89 are being swamped with 75 & 38 City Branded buses, surely with all the extra vehicles spare they could be painting them to a standard livery en masse?

(Attached photo of 75-Route Branded ADL400 MMC)

Been the case for a few years now.

 

[Deerfold]

Do First Glasgow have controllers that can intervene to turn buses.

Outside of London turning buses short is frowned upon by the Traffic Commissioner in all but the most extreme circumstances.

 

[92002]

Outside of London turning buses short is frowned upon by the Traffic Commissioner in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Doesn't seem to bother Lothian, who regularly have part route services. Even advertised on the vehicle.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

I think the plan is to debrand the ex-38/75 branded E400MMCs which have been replaced by E400EVs and allow them to cover Kirky routes. Someone said before the remaining 65 plate E400MMCs are going to Blantyre.

There will be a lot of buses to debrand and they’re still trying to paint buses from Olympia so I imagine there’s a big back log. Not to mention a lot of buses need de-branded as the new electrics have been introduced in previously branded routes.

 

[Jordan Adam]

How have you deduced that?

Can't comment on what it's like now but 69122 was always a decent bus in it's Aberdeen days, albeit out of the four B7RLEs that Aberdeen "stole" from Glasgow in 2006 69110 was probably the best one. With that said the native Euro4 examples have generally aged much better than the Euro 3s and Ex-FSE examples.

I think the plan is to debrand the ex-38/75 branded E400MMCs which have been replaced by E400EVs and allow them to cover Kirky routes. Someone said before the remaining 65 plate E400MMCs are going to Blantyre.

There will be a lot of buses to debrand and they’re still trying to paint buses from Olympia so I imagine there’s a big back log. Not to mention a lot of buses need de-branded as the new electrics have been introduced in previously branded routes.

There always is a backlog, it doesn't help that Caledonia repaint all First vehicles in Scotland. There's plenty of vehicles that haven't had a repaint for almost a decade when the life expectancy of the paint jobs is usually around four to five years. It also doesn't help that they keep repainting vehicles and transferring or withdrawing them soon after!

 

[JumpinTrainz]

Can't comment on what it's like now but 69122 was always a decent bus in it's Aberdeen days, albeit out of the four B7RLEs that Aberdeen "stole" from Glasgow in 2006 69110 was probably the best one. With that said the native Euro4 examples have generally aged much better than the Euro 3s and Ex-FSE examples.

There always is a backlog, it doesn't help that Caledonia repaint all First vehicles in Scotland. There's plenty of vehicles that haven't had a repaint for almost a decade when the life expectancy of the paint jobs is usually around four to five years. It also doesn't help that they keep repainting vehicles and transferring or withdrawing them soon after!

I’ve never understood why Aberdeen and FSE don’t have a facility to paint buses. The extra mileage must be crazy - more so to Aberdeen!

I feel like First could cut their repaints down also if they were to adopt a more uniform livery. I like the idea of the local liveries and route branding but honestly it’s so time consuming and those repaints must be costly. They can’t keep up with the repaints at the rate their buses are being cascaded. Glasgow’s E400MMCs are to be debranded from the 38 and 75 branding while all of the 34/34A E200MMCs needed to be debranded also (which they’ve already started). They’ve started to debrand some more of the shorter E200MMCs for Lanarkshire local routes.

It’s made worse by - as you say - First not having a long term plan as to which buses get painted. Instead they repaint buses and they are moved away a year (sometimes less) later. It just doesn’t make sense. There’s not a proper system for it. So many buses have had to be repainted in recent years it just seems like a massive waste of money. There’s also rumours that the 61 is to see new E400EVs so that’ll be more buses to debrand.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I’ve never understood why Aberdeen and FSE don’t have a facility to paint buses. The extra mileage must be crazy - more so to Aberdeen!

At least in my lifetime i don't recall Aberdeen having facilities to paint buses. In the "Barbie Days" Aberdeen would usually send buses to an external contractor near Forfar for repaint, while early Olympia repaints were done either at Livingston or Ferrymill Motors.

I feel like First could cut their repaints down also if they were to adopt a more uniform livery. I like the idea of the local liveries and route branding but honestly it’s so time consuming and those repaints must be costly. They can’t keep up with the repaints at the rate their buses are being cascaded. Glasgow’s E400MMCs are to be debranded from the 38 and 75 branding while all of the 34/34A E200MMCs needed to be debranded also (which they’ve already started). They’ve started to debrand some more of the shorter E200MMCs for Lanarkshire local routes.

It’s made worse by - as you say - First not having a long term plan as to which buses get painted. Instead they repaint buses and they are moved away a year (sometimes less) later. It just doesn’t make sense. There’s not a proper system for it. So many buses have had to be repainted in recent years it just seems like a massive waste of money. There’s also rumours that the 61 is to see new E400EVs so that’ll be more buses to debrand.

I don't really think having local liveries or branding is the issue, it's just a lack of forward planning. A lot of the vehicles new in 2018 would theoretically be due a repaint in the next year anyway.

 

[stevenedin]

I’ve never understood why Aberdeen and FSE don’t have a facility to paint buses. The extra mileage must be crazy - more so to Aberdeen!

I feel like First could cut their repaints down also if they were to adopt a more uniform livery. I like the idea of the local liveries and route branding but honestly it’s so time consuming and those repaints must be costly. They can’t keep up with the repaints at the rate their buses are being cascaded. Glasgow’s E400MMCs are to be debranded from the 38 and 75 branding while all of the 34/34A E200MMCs needed to be debranded also (which they’ve already started). They’ve started to debrand some more of the shorter E200MMCs for Lanarkshire local routes.

It’s made worse by - as you say - First not having a long term plan as to which buses get painted. Instead they repaint buses and they are moved away a year (sometimes less) later. It just doesn’t make sense. There’s not a proper system for it. So many buses have had to be repainted in recent years it just seems like a massive waste of money. There’s also rumours that the 61 is to see new E400EVs so that’ll be more buses to debrand.

I agree. I don’t know why they do t just have a uniform livery again. It was fine when they had the Olympia livery and Barbie livery as they were mostly the same across the UK. Now they are messing it up everywhere by having all sorts of colours which doesn’t allow buses to be able to transfer.

If they remove route branding altogether that should help a lot. FSE have route branded buses for routes which don’t even exist anymore or not in their existing form (i.e. 23/X23 and 600).

 

[Observer]

I’ve never understood why Aberdeen and FSE don’t have a facility to paint buses. The extra mileage must be crazy - more so to Aberdeen!

Larbert used to have a paint shop before it all went to Glasgow but in its last few years the quality had gone downhill at times, quite a few buses were put out unfinished back when Olympia was the livery, missing stripes and all that.

I can't recall any examples at the moment, I think there was a 09 plate Volvo but I'm sure those buses have been redone in a subsequent livery (the current one or the previous two tone blue) or transferred at this point.

 

[PaulMc7]

Covid definitely has highlighted the problem with branding too many buses but to be fair nobody could have predicted how much of an impact it would have so I won't bash them too much.

For me, the main issue is having buses branded for routes that cover the same areas on each other's route. The 2 and the 3 are getting really bad for it again and it is definitely confusing a lot of people especially at Partick as one is always very close to the other.

The 2 is seeing just about everything that Scotstoun has to be honest though. Branded buses from the 77, E400s and any other double decker Scotstoun has makes it very unpredictable as to what you will actually get.

 

[singlemalt]

First Glasgow have a central control room who’s job is to regulate and turn late running buses. Unfortunately they aren’t very good at it.

Thats an understatement

 

[adrock1976]

The 38 & 75 branded MMCs are the Caley North routes allocations along with whats left of the 65 plate MMCs, that is until the 65 plates all move to Blantyre this next week or so

If I have interpreted this right, are the North routes the ones that used to be run from the garages at Possilpark and Parkhead?

Also on a sidenote, what division does the 87 (Glasgow - Auchinairn via Springburn Centre) come under now, and which part of the company (Number 1 or 2)? When it was the 45 this was a former Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde Buses route, with the Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth, and Cumbernauld routes being the former KCB (is that the Number 2 company?).

 

[Bus Lightyear]

Also on a sidenote, what division does the 87 (Glasgow - Auchinairn via Springburn Centre) come under now, and which part of the company (Number 1 or 2)? When it was the 45 this was a former Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde Buses route

I can remember when it was the Alexander's Midland 177 from Buchanan to Auchinairn Woodhill via Springburn by-pass.

 

[ScotRail158725]

If I have interpreted this right, are the North routes the ones that used to be run from the garages at Possilpark and Parkhead?

Also on a sidenote, what division does the 87 (Glasgow - Auchinairn via Springburn Centre) come under now

North is Possil and Cumbernauld not Parkhead, Parkhead is east.

And the 87 is North

 

[JumpinTrainz]

North is Possil and Cumbernauld not Parkhead, Parkhead is east.

And the 87 is North

When Cumbernauld shut in 2013 the X3 and X5 moved to Parkhead Depot for a time before it closed and merged with Caledonia.

 

[ScotRail158725]

The 476xx Streetlites are in service at Dumbarton today, on the 206

 

[PaulMc7]

The 476xx Streetlites are in service at Dumbarton today, on the 206

I do wonder how long it'll take for one of them to end up on a 1 of any sort given what allocations can be like. Dumbarton has had less room to mess up than most to be fair given there's far less variety compared to the other depots.

On the subject of that, I spotted an X87 in Buchanan Bus Station and it was an electric single decker branded for the 9/9A.

 

[adrock1976]

North is Possil and Cumbernauld not Parkhead, Parkhead is east.

And the 87 is North

Many thanks.

 

[Trnsprt4Sctlnd]

If I have interpreted this right, are the North routes the ones that used to be run from the garages at Possilpark and Parkhead?

Also on a sidenote, what division does the 87 (Glasgow - Auchinairn via Springburn Centre) come under now, and which part of the company (Number 1 or 2)? When it was the 45 this was a former Glasgow Corporation/Strathclyde Buses route, with the Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth, and Cumbernauld routes being the former KCB (is that the Number 2 company?).

Caley North predominantly consists of Ex-Cumbernauld routes.

a few routes which spent time operating from cumbernauld were the x3, x4, x5, 18, 36, x80, x85, x86, x87, 88, 213 and a few assortments of SPT work at the time.

The 89 was introduced when all routes moved to caley, essentially replacing the 24 & 27 which was operated by Midland Bluebird via Kilsyth to Glasgow, at one point the 89 & x86 were in theory competing with the 24 & 27, but it was simply a planned operating for Midland Bluebird to pull the 27 and partially the 24(which now operates in part as the current Larbert Route - 35).

The x4, x5 & x80 were withdrawn because they said at the time they weren’t commercially viable because stagecoach was absorbing the passenger load in Cumbernauld, however from what I remember these routes did ok.

Caley North currently operates the x3, x85, x87, 87, 88, 89, 89B, M3 & 128, if your a North or East driver, I have seen drivers driving all of these routes, many ex-parkhead & Cumbernauld drivers have learnt many routes.

 

[scosutsut]

I do wonder how long it'll take for one of them to end up on a 1 of any sort given what allocations can be like. Dumbarton has had less room to mess up than most to be fair given there's far less variety compared to the other depots.

Was literally just thinking that, seeing how often Eclipse's appear(ed) on the one.

 

[JumpinTrainz]

Was literally just thinking that, seeing how often Eclipse's appear(ed) on the one.

It’s inevitable. The B10BLEs and Marshall darts took their shot. I had got a dart all the way to Helensburgh. I genuinely considered getting off it was horrendous

 

[PaulMc7]

Was literally just thinking that, seeing how often Eclipse's appear(ed) on the one.

It’s inevitable. The B10BLEs and Marshall darts took their shot. I had got a dart all the way to Helensburgh. I genuinely considered getting off it was horrendous

A lot of the longer routes have seen darts to be honest. The 2, 3 and 6 went through a phase when one would appear on each per day in 2018/early 2019 from what I seen. It's a good time seeing the oldest buses being phased out. From E300s onwards, passenger comfort has certainly stepped up massively.

Sitting at the back downstairs on the new electric double deckers is the only thing I tend to avoid now because even though I'm no giant, my head is still smashing the ceiling at some point getting off.

 

[GaryMcEwan]

Is Blantrye having trouble again with staff shortages and/or sickness? The 18 and the 263 have been absolutely chronic this week with buses not turning up.

Fully appreciate that Covid is still rampant and putting things down the swanny, but having to wait nearly an hour for an 18 in the evening peak is taking the biscuit just ever so slightly.