Swansea Metro

[anthony263]

I just want to make an annoucement that the swansea metro has no been delayed til june although the bus route will start operating from may 2009 using low floor buses although this will mean that some of the step entrance buses will be re-instated to cover for the low floor vehicles.

I have been informed that 3 FTR vehicles have been spotted at Fforestfach.

Most of the infrastructure is now in place the last bit is due to be finished by the end of this month.

1 of my freinds has been offered a job as a customer host so i have been able to get some information.

I know Bristol city council is going to be keeping an eye on what happens in Swansea s they plan their own ftr routes, although Swansea council are now planning to introduce some trams to the city including a route running from mumbles to Swansea marina to provide connections to the ferry to ireland which is to be re-started soon.

 

[anthony263]

2 FTR'S have arrived from luton and are regularing running around swansea on driver training & route learning. The conductors have yet to be trained and the route is due to start in june 2009 just as the quadrant bus station is closed for rebuilding with buses terminating at points all over the city centre which is going to cause caos especially for students & staff traveling between swansea university & swansea metropolitan university.


i have had a proposed timetable for the swansea metro.

with regards to the trams for swansea campaigin the councilers are looking at the option of using low floor parry people movers as it will cost £300 million less thatn using the normal trams like those in manchester etc

hopefully the scheme will get the go ahead adn could lead to more tourists coming into swansea especially since the first route likely to be opened on such a scheme is along the old mumbles railway route

 

[F Great Eastern]

What are they running at Luton airport now then?

 

[anthony263]

Thatwa what i want to know i know 2 of the 3 ftrs that are up at ravenhill depot although only 1 is actually working since the other 2 decided to pack up.

i believe they still have at least 3 vehicles for use at luton.

 

[F Great Eastern]

They had four at Luton I believe of which three had to be in service at any one time, so if two are gone how do they have enough?

 

[anthony263]

dont know unless there is only 1 from luton and first have nicked the other 2 ftrs that are down here from york or somewhere else. i didnt hear that luton was getting new vehciles as the ftrs there are the ones that were purchased specially for the swansea metro

 

[anthony263]

The swansea metro is due to start next monday althouh there will be only 1 FTR in service with some of the low floor vehicles purchased for the swansea unibus covering the journey diagrams, meaning that some old step entrance buses will have to drafted in to cover for some low floors buses which have been temporally transfered to swansea


news report is below:

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/news/Bendy-bus-hits-streets/article-1023897-detail/article.html

 

[F Great Eastern]

Apparently Luton are losing their FTR's shortly and Luton are getting the bendys that have just been replaced with 08/09 models at Dublin Airport.

 

[anthony263]

Some shots from todays opening event.

the ftr is proving very popular although only 1 was actually carrying passengers with buses covering the other diagrams.

a lot of people got on and tried looking for a ticket machine to pay before realising that there was a conductor onboard

here is the link:

http://anthonyjohn550.photoblog.me.uk/c1693184.html

 

[veoliaboy]

Nice photos anthony, i am sad that i had to work on monday as i would have liked to get a trip on a FTR.

Since i got to take a school trip down from Mountain Ash to the grand theatre in Swansea next week i will try and see if i can get a trip on the ftr as i have 3 hours off in Swansea

 

[OMGitsDAVE]

All of this came around because of the FTR's in York. That service saw a 10% increase on passengers - which Swansea took into account.

 

[Mojo]

All of this came around because of the FTR's in York. That service saw a 10% increase on passengers - which Swansea took into account.

Very clever. As with most bus improvement schemes people are taken in by the glossy literature and try out the bus for a bit. A lot of them then realise after all that it's "just a bus" and return to their cars.

One of Bristol's Showcase corridors reported a ridership increase of I think either 19% or 29%. Less than four years later passenger figures are back below what they were when the thing started :roll:

It seems also that the "Ftr" has been replaced on evening journeys by conventional buses due to... lack of demand http://www.transportxtra.com/magazines/transit/news/?ID=15939

 

[DJ_K666]

Maybe the FTRs would eb a good idea to operate the service whilst track is laid. It`s mostly a promenade these days so there shouldn`t be too many obstructions...

I haven`t sampled a PPM yet but they`d probably be a good idea, even a 2 car articulated one...

 

[anthony263]

Aparantly there has been an inccident where one FTR was hit by a car and jack knifed