Monday, 4 June 2018
IMPORTANT NOTICE
there is a known issue at Blogger that is stopping email notifications of comments which means I'm not receiving them to approve and publish. To that end I have decided to lift moderation restrictions until the fault is fixed. If you have submitted a comment in the last few days can I ask you re-submit it and it will be posted automatically. Obviously there will be some who take advantage of that but I'll delete offensive comments as soon as I see them. Thanks.
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Seen Martijn Gilbert has a new position. I thought he enjoyed Reading Buses. Suppose it's a case of "money talks".
ReplyDeleteI haven't managed to talk to Martijn yet about his reasons but I doubt it was money. Martijn is highly ambitious and maybe thinks he has taken Reading as far as he can. I know he has roots up in that part of the world, and let's face it - if you like challenges they don't come any bigger than Go-Ahead right now.
ReplyDeleteI wish Martijn all the best as he's one heck of a nice bloke, and if anyone can turn Go-Ahead around it's him. My only fear is coming from a municiple operation to one where shareholders have to be kept happy, if Martijn feels one hand is tied behind his back will his drive and enthusiasm last. We'll see, but now I have the excuse to pop up to Newcastle, a city I love, to find out!
Go Ahead will be much bigger challenge. It has a very diverse range of businesses and it is to big to run hands on so you need good management teams in each business. Different parts of the group in my view need a different management style difficult to achieve in a large corporate group. One size does not fit all
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ReplyDeletekeep restrictions lifted, you're just giving in to my abuse by having to approve them.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the same type of abuse I was getting the other day because I asked a simple question.
ReplyDeleteI know nobody knows the exact answer, but in your opinion, how long do you think Konectbus will last?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe once the park and ride contract ends, they either won't renew it or First will come in with a competing bid, and the end would be within a year or so after that.
That's a toughie. We all thought Anglian would go long before they finally did, and Konect could suffer the same long, painful death. What I'm not seeing from Konect at the moment is any effort to build the business, create new markets, or encourage passenger growth. It's still cuts on more cuts.
ReplyDeleteThat is sad, because what cannot be in any doubt is the enthusiasm of some of Konect's front line staff to maintain a cheerful, reliable service, but, as was the case with Anglian, support from up on high seems minimal to say the least. So we'll have to see.
One problem Konect has is the high level of cancellations due to breakdowns. This should not really be happening and this is under the control of Konect and can only be down to poor maintainance
DeleteYes I've noticed that, which doesn't do much to encourage passenger confidence.
DeleteFirst Bus
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be all up in the air with First Bus at present but things do not look good They reported a huge loss which resulted in Tim O'Toole resigning so I guess things may go on hold until they get a new boss. It does though look as if they are looking towards breaking the Group up
I bet they may now be wishing they had not declined the Hedge fund offer
No news from Clacton yet but I guess there is a 60 day consolation period which I thing they are into day 36
Phased introduction of Suffolk school transport changes recommended for September 2019
ReplyDeletePlanned cuts to free school transport in Suffolk have been recommended to go ahead in phases from September 2019, it can be revealed.
Figures from the county council said more than £21million of taxpayers’ money would be used this year to get 12,700 pupils to and from school – a figure the council said was unsustainable.
t would mean that from September next year children aged 4-16 starting at a new school or moving school will only have funded transport to school if their nearest is over two miles away (for those under eight) or three miles away for those aged 8-16.
The council confirmed that those already at a school getting free school transport would continue to do so until the end of their time at that school.
I'm pretty sure those were the rules when I was at school back in the dark ages - you had to be 3 miles or more from your school to get a free pass. Of course, being Kent with the selection system they couldn't insist on the nearest school bit.
DeleteThey are still the rules although for whatever Suffolk started to pay for free travel for those not entitled to it which is what they are now withdrawing
DeletePersonally I think the current scheme is daft. Why should some get free travel just because they live over a certain distance from the school. Why not charge everyone for the first two or 3 miles with the council paying any extra excess
In the survey of course every parent that currently got free travel for there children was not happy to pay hardly surprising but equally why should council tax payers subsidies their children's travel. There are means tested schemes for those genuinely poor and need help with travel costs
As I understand it SCC will invest some of the money saved in improved public transport as well as trying to move away from dedicated school services. Currently they spend a small fortune on taxis
When my wife was at school, her house was just over the "limit". The houses at the other end of the street were just within it. The bus stop was in the middle. So some had free transport and some didn't - but they all got on and off at the same point!
ReplyDeleteYes, that seems fair! Was the bus stop inside or outside the limit?
DeleteJust inside, I think. But some of the people who lived at the "beyond the limit" bit of the street were nearer the stop than some who lived "inside"! It would have been easier to draw the boundary at the end of the street and include everyone.
ReplyDeleteBus network shrinks with 3,000 routes axed in just eight years
ReplyDeleteMore than 3,000 bus routes have been cut in the last eight years, analysis reveals.
The bus network has shrunk to its smallest size for 28 years – with more than 134million miles of routes lost over the last four years alone.
The dramatic decline across England and Wales, which has isolated many rural communities, has been compared to the Beeching railway cuts in the 60s.
In a damning report, Professor David Begg also warned that rising levels of congestion could ‘destroy’ the bus sector, with some journeys ‘close to walking speed’.
Six in ten public transport journeys are taken by bus, with more than five billion made every year – three times that by rail.
Rural areas have been hit hard. They lost their rail services with Beeching and now they are loosing their bus services
Can't argue with any of that.
DeleteCLACTON UPDATE
ReplyDeleteFirst have now confirmed that their Clacton depot will close on July the 28th
Braintree outstation will close on the same date, with drivers transferring to Chelmsford.
DeleteAlso, not reported, is that drivers terms and conditions will be changed effective from 29th July relating to travel time between Chelmsford and Colchester depots and their respective bus stations. A settlement offer has prevented any further union involvement.
Whilst this all will make First Essex leaner, i'm not sure this will help First's woes widely reported, as Transpennine Express and overseas operations seem to be the main culprit of their financial problems.
I believe First have handed back the contract for the 352 which operates out of Braintree. It is an evening only service. Chelmsford to Halstead
DeleteYet more rail problems
ReplyDeleteA cracked rail has been found at Liverpool Street . Apparently it is a special kind of rail and has to be made to order and cannot be obtained until October. Quite why the rail cannot be welded who knows. It appear to be only affecting peak train at present.
Sounds as if it is some kind of cast crossing in pointwork. These are made specifically to uniquely fit into the track geometry, possibly in manganese steel, so a design would have to be made, a pattern constructed, a casting made and finally fettled before being fitted. Clearly that would take some time as it isn't an "off the peg" item ... but why that long?
ReplyDeleteYou do have to wonder why they don't have spares for busy points like these, then re-order the spare when used, or is that just me thinking to logically again?
DeleteI think it is, actually. These pieces (assuming I am thinking of the right thing) aren't standard "bits" but designed uniquely for the specific location. One might think that the manufacturers would at least keep the pattern so as to easily replicate the casting. However that would require storage space. Perhaps - and I don't know if this is true or not - these pieces fail so rarely that it's not felt worthwhile to retain the capacity to easily remake them. I do wonder what the temporary repair is - building up with weld metal and imposing a severe speed restriction?
Delete(I saw this dome on tramway crossings in central Lisbon back in the late 70s when it was thought that the system would close in the short term. They got that wrong - some lines stayed open, one has recently reopened and there are plans for extensions and new vehicles).
East Yorkshire factory wins £1.5bn Tube train deal
ReplyDeleteNot sure how they will be able to air condition them . There is no real space for air con kit. I suspect it will be more forced air cooling than aircon
An East Yorkshire factory has won a £1.5bn contract to build new Tube trains for London Underground.
Transport for London (TfL) said the 94 trains will be designed and built by Siemens Mobility at its planned £200m facility in Goole.
The new trains are expected to start running on the Piccadilly Line from 2023.
The trains will be 20 feet (6m) longer than current ones and will have fully air-conditioned carriages and improved accessibility
More to the point, where would the hot air extract ed from the carriages go? Into the tunnels, which heat up, so requiring more powerful air conditioning, which pumps more heat into the tunnels ... And, to make things worse, you lose most of the cool air when the doors are opened, so have to start from scratch each time.
ReplyDeleteApparently one idea is to use an updated version of the old icebox system, whereby air is forced over ice, cooling the air (and ultimately melting the ice). But that would be difficult: where would you put all that ice, how would you discharge the water and restock with ice?
Apparently Ken Livingstone put up a tasty prize for a solution to this conundrum about 10 years ago, but no-one has ever won it!
Very interesting article here: https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2017/06/10/cooling-the-tube-engineering-heat-out-of-the-underground/
ReplyDeleteIt does just mention aircon in a sentence but most of the article where it covers tube trains is about forced air cooling. I cannot see how they can fit any effective air con into a tub train. It would need some pretty impressive aircon unit to cool down a carriage. They would also add weight and increase power consumption which in themselves can increase the heat
DeleteThe most promising approach might be to have aircon in the ventilation shafts and force that cool air through the trains