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?
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?