Mr Hornby today tweeted a photo of 2 Rossobus Solos going away for scrap to PVS and said 6 newer Solo SRs were incoming.
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Transdev Blazefield
- Thread starter RustySpoons
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Mr Hornby today tweeted a photo of 2 Rossobus Solos going away for scrap to PVS and said 6 newer Solo SRs were incoming.
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peterblue
Member
Reported from AH that the Witchway and Cityzap new vehicles will be in public service from 13th December
Which is the date that CityZap recommences.
RustySpoons
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To be honest there aren't any laws saying you can't travel, all the travel restrictions are advisory only.
Having said that I believe all buses still have capacity restrictions, so if you did wan't to travel I'd travel outside of peak times when people will be relying on getting a seat to commute.
peterblue
Member
Travel will be allowed from December, it will only merely be "discouraged". Any restrictions won't be heavily enforced, plenty of people use the bus to travel to the nearest town even now.
Does anyone know what this is please?
RustySpoons
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Misplaced priorities
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
So what is it then?
Another brand, Transdev are short on them....
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Yes, but for what?Another brand, Transdev are short on them....
Ashly_Jethro
Member
My guess is something to do with merch. Something that has been talked about a lot since the launch of the masks.
peterblue
Member
I believe that is right. They've got a few mask variations out now; this seems to be the next logical step.
RustySpoons
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Judging by the 'Boutique' name, and as Ashly mentioned above somewhere, I'm guessing it's Transdev branded clothing/merch and the like.
I know it's something that has been mentioned over the years, but with the industry the way it is I'm not sure it's the correct time to be spending money on what is essentially a needless project.
Or it could just be the collective name for their range of face masks, in which case fair enough!
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There's been a couple of hints towards the full livery on the incoming E400s for the Witch Way.
From Burnley's Twitter - https://twitter.com/burnleybuses/status/1332682854514483200?s=20
Only a couple of weeks now until they're on the road it seems, 13th December. Hard to give a proper opinion on the livery and branding from the small rendering but it does look quite impressive.
From AH's Twitter - https://twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1332615404498333696?s=20
A close up of the new 'Wella Witch' (she srikes an uncanny resemblance to the Wella logo). She's lost her broomstick, but it does give a much more grown up appearance than Blondie Witch did.
I'm not so sure on the 'Witchway' being one word, it just doesn't look 'right' to me. Or maybe it's just because it's all roman text, rather than bold...
Going off some of the discussions on Twitter between AH and others it looks like the X43 route number may be dropped too. It will be a shame if it is, despite the Witch Way (sorry, Witchway) brand being more than 15 years old now there are still plenty of people who still refer to it as 'The X43'. I think X43 is as important part of the brand as Witchway.
There hasn't been much revealed of the CityZaps yet, aside from a couple of sneak pics, but the colours are the same as the outgoing fleet.
'Sky Class' seems to be the tag line for both the Witches and the Zaps, so that hints that both fleets will be the same spec and feature wise, just with different colouring, obviously.
Not long to wait though, and I'm genuinely intrigued by these. A lot more than I was for the Versa's and E200s and whatever else has arrived over the last few years.
Something else that hasn't been mentioned on here, and quietly went under the radar elsewhere. The '9' service in Burnley that runs direct to Accrington via the Network 65 Business Park has returned to it's original route. Due to major road works it was reduced from an hourly service to only run twice in a morning and twice in an afternoon and ran via the M65.
Unfortunately it still runs at the same reduced frequency. It's hard to see it returning to it's former hourly service unless it is extended (possibly direct to Blackburn from Accrington, following the old X41/M&M Coaches 46/Blackburn Travel 1/Pilkingtons 21/Stagecoach X59/whatever else used to run direct to Blackburn) in an attempt to drum up more passengers.
It's a shame but I think it's withdrawal could be expected, a lowly patronised service that was heavily reduced is unlikely to recover.
I know it's something that has been mentioned over the years, but with the industry the way it is I'm not sure it's the correct time to be spending money on what is essentially a needless project.
Or it could just be the collective name for their range of face masks, in which case fair enough!
---------
There's been a couple of hints towards the full livery on the incoming E400s for the Witch Way.
From Burnley's Twitter - https://twitter.com/burnleybuses/status/1332682854514483200?s=20
Only a couple of weeks now until they're on the road it seems, 13th December. Hard to give a proper opinion on the livery and branding from the small rendering but it does look quite impressive.
From AH's Twitter - https://twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1332615404498333696?s=20
A close up of the new 'Wella Witch' (she srikes an uncanny resemblance to the Wella logo). She's lost her broomstick, but it does give a much more grown up appearance than Blondie Witch did.
I'm not so sure on the 'Witchway' being one word, it just doesn't look 'right' to me. Or maybe it's just because it's all roman text, rather than bold...
Going off some of the discussions on Twitter between AH and others it looks like the X43 route number may be dropped too. It will be a shame if it is, despite the Witch Way (sorry, Witchway) brand being more than 15 years old now there are still plenty of people who still refer to it as 'The X43'. I think X43 is as important part of the brand as Witchway.
There hasn't been much revealed of the CityZaps yet, aside from a couple of sneak pics, but the colours are the same as the outgoing fleet.
'Sky Class' seems to be the tag line for both the Witches and the Zaps, so that hints that both fleets will be the same spec and feature wise, just with different colouring, obviously.
Not long to wait though, and I'm genuinely intrigued by these. A lot more than I was for the Versa's and E200s and whatever else has arrived over the last few years.
Something else that hasn't been mentioned on here, and quietly went under the radar elsewhere. The '9' service in Burnley that runs direct to Accrington via the Network 65 Business Park has returned to it's original route. Due to major road works it was reduced from an hourly service to only run twice in a morning and twice in an afternoon and ran via the M65.
Unfortunately it still runs at the same reduced frequency. It's hard to see it returning to it's former hourly service unless it is extended (possibly direct to Blackburn from Accrington, following the old X41/M&M Coaches 46/Blackburn Travel 1/Pilkingtons 21/Stagecoach X59/whatever else used to run direct to Blackburn) in an attempt to drum up more passengers.
It's a shame but I think it's withdrawal could be expected, a lowly patronised service that was heavily reduced is unlikely to recover.
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peterblue
Member
I suspect there is not huge demand between Accrington and Burnley direct by bus - the good folk of Accrington would look towards the closer (and better served) Blackburn for shopping necessities. Furthermore, the 9 route doesn't serve anywhere substantial not served by other, more frequent routes. Its sole purpose is to serve the Network 65 business park in the peaks for regular commuters. There is also the M1 between the two towns, albeit it is a very slow all-stops route as it carves into the local roads of Hapton, Huncoat and Padiham villages.
Around 5-10 years ago Transdev had the X41 direct between Blackburn and Accrington (onto Manchester) and I remember them operating another route as well - I can't remember the number - coordinating with the X41 to provide an every 15 min frequency along that corridor. Now all buses run via Oswaldtwistle. This makes sense financially as the short 5min diversion via Oswaldtwistle serves a lot more people.
RustySpoons
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It's a lot longer than 5 minutes, but like you say from a business point of view it makes sense to run it this way. It would't be cost effective to have a bus and a driver running the direct route between Accy and Blackburn. It wouldn't carry enough passengers to pay for itself, as proven when they ran the 46 for a short time after M&M closed up shop.
The only way it could possibly pay for itself is if another service was extended - using the 9 as an example. If it was extended to Blackburn it would recreate the fast link between Accy and Blackburn, plus it'd create a few new bus links and a quicker bus to Blackburn for people from Burnley, and wouldn't take many passengers away from the 152 as they run different routes. As it stands the 9 is nothing more than a commuter works service serving Network 65.
That'd be my idea anyway!
Stan Drews
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The 6/7 is currently scheduled to take 28 minutes for the Blackburn - Accrington section of the route.
I‘m fairly sure the X41, when it last covered the slightly more direct route between the towns, was scheduled for 25 minutes.
RustySpoons
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I cant recollect the time saving, although it is definitely takes longer than 5 minutes for the Ossy section. You'd struggle to drive it in that time.
I've only caught the X41 once from Blackburn. The bus was full leaving Blackburn and most of the passengers got off before Accrington but after Ossy, so it was useful. Although that could have just been that one journey on that particular day, but judging by the discontent when it was withdrawn I don't think it was.
But as I said in my previous reply, it'd be difficult to make it pay as a service on its own.
Stan Drews
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The only remaining direct services are college routes 59 & 852, which are scheduled to complete the direct section in 4 mins, whilst the frequent 7 is allowed 9 mins between the same stops following the deviation via Ossy.
A full X41 from Blackburn was certainly very unusual based on the passenger numbers prior to its truncation. In my experience discontent is seldom related to facts, when bus services are being reduced or withdrawn.
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RustySpoons
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I never knew the 59 still ran! Is that the Stagecoach service?
You're not wrong there!
markymark2000
On Moderation
Yes. It only runs to Accy at college times.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
If "Boutique" is just some online merchandise store, then I'd agree that there are more important things to be concerning themselves with. The London Underground has a brand that all manner of foreign tourists might flock to...not certain that anyone except the most ardent Transdev supporter will be concerned about their merch.
That being said, I think Transdev do more positive stuff than most businesses and these tasters from AH etc certainly do whet the appetite. Which way you spell Witchway or Witch Way is no biggie and I think the imagery is very eyecatching. It's a fitting refresh and part of the evolution from the red and cream, through black, silver and red, and the current black and grey. It does look like a more sophisticated product and I'll look forward to sampling it when circumstances allow; mind you, in 2020, I have a bit of a backlog in travel.
I've not experienced the e200mmc in Blackburn but the Versas are decent machines. Certainly, the spec and presentation are much better than most other firms.
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Metro have posted that Cityzap will have "a route and timetable change to operate via Pontefract Lane, and serve Bell Wood Roundabout bus stops, for the Amazon Warehouse on all journeys." https://www.wymetro.com/plan-a-journey/travel-news/bus-travel-alerts/service-updates/
peterblue
Member
It's still running! Every 30 mins between Preston and Blackburn. There's one return journey a day, at college times, going further.
Alex Hornby has just posted a video on twitter showing off the new Witchway buses. They look very smart. https://twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1334842440239501322
It includes tables, armrests and even a mini library with some books to read
It includes tables, armrests and even a mini library with some books to read
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TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
I think I could live without the mini library but have to say that those are good looking machines. Look forward to sampling when I've time and it's prudent to do so. Definitely a step change from the already good product.
A very impressive promo video - assume it's done by Best Impressions and the same firm who did the Voltra one for Go North East as their are some similarities.
philthetube
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Mini library sounds like an invitation to be travel sick
buslad1988
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You’d assume the mini library won’t be in use until later next year with coronavirus. Encouraging people to pick up and handle books then place them back is asking for trouble surely?!
Stan Drews
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The library idea has been in place on the 36 (at Harrogate) for several years, and seems to be popular with many of the regulars over there.
RustySpoons
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Agree with TGW regarding the library. It's a good idea, but will likely be ignored by the majority.
As for everything else, it looks brilliant. Well, aside from the alternating orange headrests.
I think these could genuinely be game changers, in the way the 2003 era 36 was. Some shots on that video look like they've been taken from a business class seat on a plane rather than a bus.