Short-notice bus allocation changes

[nw1]

Have noticed, both first-hand and via bustimes, that Bluestar have had a number of allocation updates recently, unconnected to any timetable change.

For example, in the second half of last week and today, the 20 has been increasingly moving to double-deck operation and on both Friday and today the main off-peak workings are all double-deck; a single decker operates a couple of morning journeys but this then switches to the 15. A few weeks ago 4 out of 5 were single deck, then for a couple of weeks 3 out of 5.

Another Bluestar change which appeared to take place at the end of Oct was a move from single-deck to double-deck on one of the 10/13/14 diagrams.

I'm guessing that these diagrams have proven to be busy (the 20 always seems to be busy, for example - not sure about that particular 10/13/14 diagram) and a decision was made to switch to double-deck at short notice. Even still, quite surprising as Bluestar are having to borrow a lot of vehicles.

My main point though is: are these short-notice alterations commonplace (not just across Bluestar and Go-Ahead but across all operators)? Is it usual for workings to be updated away from published timetable revisions?

 

[Martin2012]

This seemingly happened here in Bristol a couple of months ago with the 72 route that had been using Streetlites, switching to using double deck vehicles. In turn, the Streetlites that were on the 72 now seem to be on the 36.

Going back a while now but I seem to recall that 15 years ago the Bristol to Portishead routes were mainly allocated double deckers and the Bristol to Chipping Sodbury route single deckers but in mid June 2009 this was swapped around.

Not sure what the reason was for that to be honest but I understand that in the years that followed there may have been issues with using double deckers on the Portishead route due to low hanging trees? Not sure if that necessitated a swap.

 

[WAB]

My main point though is: are these short-notice alterations commonplace (not just across Bluestar and Go-Ahead but across all operators)? Is it usual for workings to be updated away from published timetable revisions?

Some operators will put out anything at random - Arriva are known to be quite bad for this, but First Leeds also put out singles on decker routes, seemingly at random.

 

[nw1]

Some operators will put out anything at random - Arriva are known to be quite bad for this, but First Leeds also put out singles on decker routes, seemingly at random.

Bluestar seems to be pretty good for keeping allocated vehicles as they are. You occasionally get substitutions but they seem to be the exception rather than the rule. For instance, single-deckers on the 1 are incredibly rare. Can happen, but only when there's severe disruption. You can generally tell this, as a number of Bluestar routes are mixed single/double, but specific journeys seem to keep to their expected vehicle type.

The exception is perhaps the 20 which can be a bit random at times, though one of the 5 off-peak diagrams (swaps with other routes happen around the peaks) has been consistently double deck for a while. The other 4 used to be mostly single deck - however there does seem to be a progressive move towards double-deck operation. I'm guessing that it's Bluestar's aim to make the 20 a mostly double-deck route when vehicles are available; the loadings would probably justify this.

Also the 10/13/14 diagram I mentioned above seemed to change, at end of Oct, from 100% single-deck to 100% double-deck. Guessing at some point in the day it includes a busy school or commuter journey which had a tendency to be overcrowded when it was single-deck.

I'm not sure where the displaced single-deckers off the 20 are going though. Haven't noticed any other route correspondingly shifting from double-deck to single-deck.

 

[dodecahedron67]

Allocations aren't tied to timetables in any way - operators are free to run whatever buses they like on their routes, as long as they comply with relevant legislation (PSVAR etc.)
Changing the allocation can be an easier "quick fix" to overcrowding/under usage, given the lengthy notice period needed to alter a timetable

 

[Martin2012]

Allocations aren't tied to timetables in any way - operators are free to run whatever buses they like on their routes, as long as they comply with relevant legislation (PSVAR etc.)
Changing the allocation can be an easier "quick fix" to overcrowding/under usage, given the lengthy notice period needed to alter a timetable

What about a situation where overcrowding occurs on a route where deckers physically can't be used (eg due to a low bridge) so extra journeys are required? Can short notice dispensation normally given to alter a timetable in that case or does the operator have to get round it by running 'duplicates'?

 

[dodecahedron67]

What about a situation where overcrowding occurs on a route where deckers physically can't be used (eg due to a low bridge) so extra journeys are required? Can short notice dispensation normally given to alter a timetable in that case or does the operator have to get round it by running 'duplicates'?

Dupes if immediately needed, but if continually needed then a short-notice/emergency change would probably not get any objections to it and could get crammed through in 2/3 weeks...

 

[nw1]

Bluestar seem to be updating their diagrams very regularly at the moment - essentially each school holiday and half-term. Beginning of Jan saw significant revisions as did yesterday.

Wondering if the use of computers to calculate diagrams (if it happens?) has meant they are now updated more often, while previously someone had to sit down and work it out on paper.

 

[Cesarcollie]

Bluestar seem to be updating their diagrams very regularly at the moment - essentially each school holiday and half-term. Beginning of Jan saw significant revisions as did yesterday.

Wondering if the use of computers to calculate diagrams (if it happens?) has meant they are now updated more often, while previously someone had to sit down and work it out on paper.

Minor point….. ‘diagrams’ is a railway term. I’ve never known a bus company use it.

 

[nw1]

Minor point….. ‘diagrams’ is a railway term. I’ve never known a bus company use it.

Fair enough, just so used to the term that I use it interchangeably for rail and bus. "Workings" is the bus term?

 

[ACBest]

Yep, we use bus workings. You’ll sometimes hear them referred to as ‘car lines’ too.

 

[Roger1973]

Bluestar seem to be updating their diagrams very regularly at the moment - essentially each school holiday and half-term. Beginning of Jan saw significant revisions as did yesterday.

Does it change each time, or do they just have a school days and a school holidays set of schedules that has a different vehicle schedule in school holidays, even if most of the timetables stay the same? Sometimes it's more efficient to keep the 'school buses' out to do a few journeys on regular services on school days (usually in terms of making the driver duties work) but in school holidays you can do the whole thing with fewer buses.

Or it may be that allocations matter less in the school holidays and they can shuffle buses around for maintenance without having to be sure that the high capacity double deckers go on specific bus workings.

Wondering if the use of computers to calculate diagrams (if it happens?) has meant they are now updated more often, while previously someone had to sit down and work it out on paper.

Yes, all but the smallest operators will use something computerised to do their timetables, vehicle schedules and driver duty schedules / rotas - the same data will feed through to electronic bus service registrations, data for real time systems, BODS (bus open data service) and so on.

So it's arguably less work to make changes, but there's still a need to issue new documentation, running boards and / or duty cards, and update engineers so they know how many miles to expect each bus to do, and so on.

But it is computer assisted rather than the scheduler pressing a button and the computer doing it all for them. And depending on who's doing it, it may involve doing a rough draft on paper or in a spreadsheet first. Some schedules programs are better than others at letting you play around with a 'car graph' on screen.

Graph here being a fairly long established term - in the days before computers, you could get graph paper designed for scheduling, with the horizontal axis being time and the vertical axis being either buses or crews / drivers (or both) - I have a couple of sheets acquired from a former workplace.

As an aside, there's some live bus schedules office action (using the term 'action' loosely) in the British Transport Films 'All That Mighty Heart' (1963) around 12.20 - 12.50, the final shot involving someone drawing diagonal lines is someone putting a duty schedule to bus workings. It's in a few places on You Tube, including here.)

Minor point….. ‘diagrams’ is a railway term. I’ve never known a bus company use it.

Yep, we use bus workings. You’ll sometimes hear them referred to as ‘car lines’ too.

I think I've heard the term 'diagrams' used for vehicle schedules in respect of buses, but I can't remember where, and would agree it's a rarity.

Bus workings, car lines, vehicle schedule, bus schedule and probably other terms exist. They do for most things, and will vary from one operator to another (or between different garages / depots / sites of one operator, especially where that operator incorporates more than one historic operator.) None of them is really 'correct', it just annoys people in one place when they get someone new who's worked for an operator who uses different terms...