I've only been to St. Mary's once and that was a long time ago but I do remember that the match ticket included free local travel (in my case on First 8 from West End, if that helps to date it - at this time they ran through the city on to Lords Hill). Anyway, is this still the case, does anyone know? That ought to help disperse the supporters, though I suspect the local buses could quickly become overwhelmed.
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WibbleWobble
Member
That one helps in being a five minute walk to one of the main bus termini and also has a Metro station right outside.
There's also the A167(M) running through the central area which will help in getting non-football traffic out of the way.Cardiff, on the other hand, is like Southampton - I've sat in long queues of traffic heading towards the city centre when there's a fixture taking place at the Principality (simply because I wasn't aware).
No, but Bluestar does offer discounted day tickets to ticket holders.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Exactly as it's in the centre. St Marys is peripheral (cos the land was cheap) and hard to access by public transport.That one helps in being a five minute walk to one of the main bus termini and also has a Metro station right outside.
But it does have the railway running nearby. Wonder why there hasn’t been a proposal to reopen the St Mary’s station, or one next to the Northam depot?
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Not wishing to stray into rail territory (and the various infrastructure reasons why it might not) but it's not like, for instance, the Coventry Arena where as well as the arena, there are other potential traffic sources. Apart from St Marys, there's a concrete plant and some "ladies of the night", and so the financial case is difficult to justify.
DaveHarries
Established Member
I saw this evening that in the VOSA Bus Service registrations that there were entries from GoAhead (Swindon) for route and timetable changes to Service 1/1A/1B (Middleleaze / Ramleaze / Hillmead - Great Western Hospital) and Service 5 (Haydon Wick & Orbital Shopping Park - Park North). So I have had a look at the new timetables on TravelineSW for both routes and the journey times look frankly silly. For example:
- For Services 1, 1A & 1B the last journey from Hillmead to Swindon Bus Station (Service 1B) is currently timed to take only 31 minutes (dep. 2309, arr. 2340) but the new timetable has the same journey dep. 2309, arr. 0041 which is a journey time of 92 minutes! In the same group of routes the journey time from New College to Great Western Hospital is timetabled to take anything from 20 minutes to 25 minutes even in late evening (presently timetabled for a maximum of 7 minutes). The same applies going the other way too with some overly long travel times: the 0640 Great Western Hospital, currently timed to take only 26 minutes to Link Centre, is timed to arrive 0800 which is a journey time of 1hr 20min.
Similarly daft journey times are on Service 2 with, for example, the 1750 from Swindon Bus Station timed to take 26 minutes to Fairfax Close instead of 7. I note that the new TT includes 7 minutes from Fairfax Close to Maitland Road - the next stop - on all journeys. Again some very odd journey times going the other way: the last journey from Swindon takes 73 minutes to Covingham Square and the last journey from Covingham to Swindon shows at 84 minutes end-to-end.
In fact all the Swindon town routes appear to have very long end-to-end journeys. Either a lot of typos or some very lengthy detours / reroutings! No doubt the corrections will be made before the new timetables start on 02nd December but nothing on the Swindon Bus website yet.
Dave
- For Services 1, 1A & 1B the last journey from Hillmead to Swindon Bus Station (Service 1B) is currently timed to take only 31 minutes (dep. 2309, arr. 2340) but the new timetable has the same journey dep. 2309, arr. 0041 which is a journey time of 92 minutes! In the same group of routes the journey time from New College to Great Western Hospital is timetabled to take anything from 20 minutes to 25 minutes even in late evening (presently timetabled for a maximum of 7 minutes). The same applies going the other way too with some overly long travel times: the 0640 Great Western Hospital, currently timed to take only 26 minutes to Link Centre, is timed to arrive 0800 which is a journey time of 1hr 20min.
Similarly daft journey times are on Service 2 with, for example, the 1750 from Swindon Bus Station timed to take 26 minutes to Fairfax Close instead of 7. I note that the new TT includes 7 minutes from Fairfax Close to Maitland Road - the next stop - on all journeys. Again some very odd journey times going the other way: the last journey from Swindon takes 73 minutes to Covingham Square and the last journey from Covingham to Swindon shows at 84 minutes end-to-end.
In fact all the Swindon town routes appear to have very long end-to-end journeys. Either a lot of typos or some very lengthy detours / reroutings! No doubt the corrections will be made before the new timetables start on 02nd December but nothing on the Swindon Bus website yet.
Dave
Back to the "bus bunching" theme, I've now seen on three separate occasions in the last month or so, three Bluestar 2 journeys arriving together just after 1700 at Southampton city centre. Presumably at this time of day the inbound journeys are subject to delays quite often. Not sure if all three then form outbound 2 journeys; if so, I hope there is a decent turnaround time!
The inbound arrivals are widely spaced too: 1623, 1638 and 1700 - so one presumes the 1623 arrival is relatively often severely delayed!
The inbound arrivals are widely spaced too: 1623, 1638 and 1700 - so one presumes the 1623 arrival is relatively often severely delayed!
MasterSpenny
Member
This batch is said to be getting reregistered to the following (not sure if any carry the following registrations yet)
73 Registration Buses and Coaches | The Bus Forum
With just over two weeks to go before the new 73 registrations hit the road on 1st September, this thread will be to record buses and coaches entering service with the new registrations.
OptareOlympus
Member
Morebus convertible B7TL 1821 has been seriously damaged in a tree strike near Castlepoint this evening. The roof has been destroyed and ripped off. Emergency services are at the scene.
Any news coverage etc? That’s a shame, they’re nice old barges those!
OptareOlympus
Member
Image shows 1821 with roof torn off.
Could we have a link to the source of this information, please?
OptareOlympus
Member
It's internal from me. Local press may be reporting by now, feel free to search if Reach is your kind of dross.
Open top 80
Member
It's been reported in the Bournemouth Echo
OptareOlympus
Member
Depending how badly damaged the rest of the bus is (if it is still straight), it might now be converted to permanent open top and stored until the summer season in the New Forest.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Of more importance, only one person only slightly injured and received first aid (as per Bournemouth Echo)
Open top 80
Member
This bus was on West Way so it is probably the service 20 Poole .Westbourne/Castle Point bus
aliceh
Member
I get the 20 home, if I'd been working an hour later I'd have been on that one!
Statto
Established Member
Here's a BBC report on the incident
Passenger hurt as bus has roof ripped off in Bournemouth crash
The person suffered a wrist injury in the crash which saw the double-decker bus crash into a tree.
www.bbc.co.uk
The irony of the roof of the bus on the floor in the first image, with the ‘Drive carefully, especially at night’ advert.Here's a BBC report on the incident
Passenger hurt as bus has roof ripped off in Bournemouth crash
The person suffered a wrist injury in the crash which saw the double-decker bus crash into a tree.www.bbc.co.uk
What a terrible thing to say. It’s extremely unlikely that the driver was doing anything other than driving carefully.
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
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https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23963381.double-decker-roof-torn-off-bournemouth/
There are additional photographs "ripped off" seems a bit dramatic, more like sheared off.
It had just taken up service on route 20, last tracking point was at 1645 Moordown Haverstock Rd
Time will tell; given that it is an injury road traffic collision it’s likely that the police may choose to investigate. Hopefully there will be no charges to follow, but ultimately a driver has collided with a static object.
It looks that at the very least it’ll need a complete set of new upper deck seats as the tops have all been sheared off, so it might well be cannibalised for parts I suppose. It depends how much slack there is in the open topper fleet I would think, but they’ve now got all winter to sort a replacement if one were needed.
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
- Messages
- 1,907
An update is that a car was turning right, and the bus moved closer to the kerb to pass
Damage has been quoted as extensive.
The pressure on the open top bus fleet will come when the Summer timetable begins, and finally when the New Forest tour resumes, probably July 2024
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/n...apologises-roof-ripped-off-double-decker-bus/
Damage has been quoted as extensive.
The pressure on the open top bus fleet will come when the Summer timetable begins, and finally when the New Forest tour resumes, probably July 2024
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/n...apologises-roof-ripped-off-double-decker-bus/
Presumably, given the current fleet situation across GSC’s operations, the loss of one currently closed top decker is likely to be pretty inconvenient at the least?
To return to a popular rant; the Blue Star maps show the usual nonsense on the 1 this afternoon; as at 15:00 we have 1647 & 1644 running side by side southbound into Southampton on The Avenue, 1640 & 1643 leaving Winchester holding hands, whilst northbound 1641 & 1678 are within a few minutes of one another; 1645 is at least managing a solo run, northbound out of So’ton.
One wonders how long vehicles are left to run about like this - do BS controllers monitor the situation, or simply let them get on with it all day? I’d be interested to know!
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With a bit of luck, Oxfords (euro 6 compliant) Scania Open toppers might be available for transfer?
Surely it can just be made into a permanent open top bus?
Therefore the pressure is more on the closed top fleet in the winter rather than the open top fleet in the summer
The vehicle is already a convertible open topper, which may or may not have affected the ease with which to roof was torn off. Much will depend on the level of damage to the structure of the bus beneath where the roof is bolted on; as I noted above you can see in one of the images that the tops of the seats have all been damaged, and it isn’t clear at what height the bus was struck on the nearside - there may be significant damage below the window line. It’s an old vehicle, a 54 plate so dating from 2004/5.