Unusual bus allocations

Started by Bus 503, August 12, 2018, 11:26:04 AM

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Bus 503

I have noticed some odd things happening this weekend.
There are ARTICs in service as well as PR2s but (anecdotally) very few normal-length Scania K320UBs, and there seems to be more Scania L94UBs in service today than last weekend.
There are also some Irisbuses in service today too.
I find it very odd that some of these bus types that haven't been used on weekends (e.g PR2s) for years are being used today.

Barry Drive

The reason may be revealed later. Few (or no) Tuggeranong K320UBs, but some from Belconnen including 657 & 658.

Busfanatic101

I did notice artics on 300, and for the first time I know of on 966, but just assumed it was an isolated glitch. Interesting it was seen across the network.

triumph

Definitely something going on. Artic on 906 this morning, then cought 3 L94UBs in succession during today's journey. Saw a number of PR2s, with at least one on a rte 300. Irisbus 303 and 308 seen in City. Noted Bustech and Volgren rigids in use too. Buses were moving about in the Belconnen Depot. Buses ridden came from both depot allocations. All very unusual. Anyone spot a STAG or a PR3?

Bus 400

Quote from: triumph on August 12, 2018, 10:09:21 PM
Definitely something going on. Artic on 906 this morning, then cought 3 L94UBs in succession during today's journey. Saw a number of PR2s, with at least one on a rte 300. Irisbus 303 and 308 seen in City. Noted Bustech and Volgren rigids in use too. Buses were moving about in the Belconnen Depot. Buses ridden came from both depot allocations. All very unusual. Anyone spot a STAG or a PR3?
474 & 114 were both in service today.

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Sylvan Loves Buses

#5
Well I spoke to a driver yesterday and he said it was due to the refuellers not being available until today, but very interesting that the choices would be to go with Renaults though. They haven't been on weekends (excluding the Belco tour) for like 10 years now or something.

Barry Drive

Quote from: Sylvan Loves Buses on August 13, 2018, 10:17:14 AM
They haven't been on weekends (excluding the Belco tour) for like 10 years now or something.
Not quite 10 years. 2010/11 was around when Belconnen Depot would have had enough MAN and Irisbuses to run all low floors on weekends, excluding the occasional Renault artic for special events.

Can't remember which year it was, but there was at least one occasion when Renaults had to operate on a Sunday due to destination updates.

triumph

The use of non-disability compliant buses at the weekend would have made some customers very unhappy, particularly with services that run at hourly (or longer) intervals. That Transport Canberra gave little or no warning in their web site (was anything on Twitter, Facebook, etc?) implies that the cause was sudden and unexpected.

Sylvan Loves Buses

I don't remember which year it was either, but all I can remember of the last time I rode a weekend serviced Renault was with my mum on the way home on 962 doing a 962.

triumph

Quote from: Sylvan Loves Buses on August 13, 2018, 10:17:14 AM
Well I spoke to a driver yesterday and he said it was due to the refuellers not being available until today, but very interesting that the choices would be to go with Renaults though.


Recently spoke with a driver who believed that the use of unusual buses last weekend was due to an 'industrial issue' resulting in refueller unavailability. Buses with fuel were used and as the weekend progressed, buses low on fuel needed to be replaced by buses with fuel. Apparently many of the Renaults had been refuelled earlier, so were an obvious resource.

Busnerd

Unsure where to post but I'm sure a certain someone will move it if he sees fit :P


Have noticed there appear to be some artics out today (Saturday) presumably due to three large events on today, Yes! Fest, Spilt Milk & the concert at the arboretum thisevening.

Toyota Camry

673 & 674 are both running route 200 today. I am unsure if these artics will appear on any suburban routes; they may be operating modified shifts confining them to routes 200, 300 & 938.

King of Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on November 17, 2018, 11:17:29 AM
673 & 674 are both running route 200 today. I am unsure if these artics will appear on any suburban routes; they may be operating modified shifts confining them to routes 200, 300 & 938.

Saw 515 heading out on a 936 earlier via Transittimes, so I very much doubt they've modified shifts just to keep artics off suburban routes.

Busnerd

I saw another on a suburban run, forget which one, but would assume that some drivers who had a few 300's on their shifts were allocated artics. I posted a number of photos of artics out yesterday on the Bus Australia Facebook page.

triumph

Quote from: Busnerd on November 18, 2018, 05:53:54 PM
I saw another on a suburban run, forget which one, but would assume that some drivers who had a few 300's on their shifts were allocated artics.

It is likely that ACTION has allocated artics to some 300 runs (but, of course, just as the Uni semester finishes). Have recently had regular trips City to Belconnen about 4pm Sunday (but not this or last Sunday). It is common for the bus to be overfull, even leaving passengers behind at Marcus Clark and Barry Drive stops. Drivers usually immediately report that on the 2 way radio. Perhaps this has given rise to the sensible allocation of artics.

Busnerd

I doubt it, no doubt they were only in use due to the three large events on over the weekend, I expect all services on weekends to continue to be rigids unless special events are on.

Toyota Camry

It seems that Belconnen depot has now dispatched some Renaults; there is presently one en-route to Gungahlin Place in service, as is Irisbus #308.

Busnerd

Saw an Irisbus in service at around 1pm and noted 958 heading empty to the city around an hour ago too.

Sylvan Loves Buses

There was an Iris at Tuggeranong around that time, was tempted to ride it, but was waiting for 654 which never actually serviced anything when the driver finished his meal break :(.

My first sighting of the Renualt's was at 4:50pm. Was rather disappointed really, was really hoping to ride a few more than 4 today, oh well.

Toyota Camry

It seems that the Renault PR100.3s are taking a break at the moment, as is much of Canberra's population; perhaps they too are down the coast. None are believed to have operated since prior to Christmas; or potentially even earlier.

It is looking like none will operate until January 14th at the earliest; possibly not until as late as January 29th if they are not used in the school holiday roster.

Sylvan Loves Buses

112 was on duty doing an Xpresso (which is pretty much what most of the Belco Renault's were doing that day) on the 27th while I was in the city that afternoon. There was also a PR2 at Tuggeranong after lunch on the 28th.

Sylvan Loves Buses

According to NXTBUS, there's one arriving in Belconnen now (4pm) on a suburban route.

Busnerd

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 01, 2019, 10:55:37 PM
It seems that the Renault PR100.3s are taking a break at the moment, as is much of Canberra's population; perhaps they too are down the coast. None are believed to have operated since prior to Christmas; or potentially even earlier.

It is looking like none will operate until January 14th at the earliest; possibly not until as late as January 29th if they are not used in the school holiday roster.

Have seen 2x PR100.3's running in service today, one just went past my place a few minutes ago.

Toyota Camry

112 operated on routes 12, 15 and 259 today; I travelled on it operating route 259. I will not be revealing which services it operated; this is due to the censorship policy on this site.

Sylvan Loves Buses

It would seem based on what I've seen, researched, phoned for and read so far; only Belconnen shift drivers are using Renaults at this time until the normal timetables resume. Guess the Tuggeranong drivers aren't 'MAN' enough to drive some real french steel.

Busnerd

Also caught 959 on a 40 on Wednesday, it then operated a route 9 shortly after.

Toyota Camry

Now that the hot weather has ceased, there are multiple Belconnen PR100.2s running services today; I have noticed two during the last 60 minutes.

Toyota Camry

537 will be commencing a trip on route 80 within the next hour, a very rare utilization of an artic on this route; due to this site's censorship policy, I will not be revealing which service.

Busfanatic101

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 09, 2019, 02:53:48 PM
537 will be commencing a trip on route 80 within the next hour, a very rare utilization of an artic on this route; due to this site's censorship policy, I will not be revealing which service.
I'm not sure artic usage like this one on a route service on a weekday day is worth reporting. They generally are widely used across the whole network (except 101). STAGs on unusual routes may be of interest, but not artics.

Toyota Camry

There are numerous routes that are never regularly serviced by artics; these include 12, 26, 80 and many Xpresso services.

Bus 503

There is a route 4 trip covered by a STAG in the morning peak, which is something that only happens during the reduced summer holidays timetable.

King of Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 10, 2019, 07:45:46 PM
There are numerous routes that are never regularly serviced by artics; these include 12, 26, 80 and many Xpresso services.

The 12 and 26 do actually have a few artic trips normally.

Toyota Camry

Quote from: King of Buses on January 11, 2019, 08:26:19 AM
The 12 and 26 do actually have a few artic trips normally.
I believe you are confusing the 12 and 15; there is normally one artic that makes it to Spence Terminus during the afternoon peak, operating as route 315.

King of Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 11, 2019, 12:26:45 PM
I believe you are confusing the 12 and 15; there is normally one artic that makes it to Spence Terminus during the afternoon peak, operating as route 315.

No.

triumph

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 11, 2019, 12:26:45 PM
I believe you are confusing the 12 and 15; there is normally one artic that makes it to Spence Terminus during the afternoon peak, operating as route 315.
Whilst there is quite a lot of dead running along Copland Drive, there seems to be a general pattern of interchange at the Spence Terminus between routes 12 and 15 and perhaps derivatives.

Sylvan Loves Buses

Dunno why, but for some reason a 316 decided to take an extra lap around Livingston Avenue on its way to Tuggeranong this morning. I also noticed the ARTBUS is now in front of The Canberra Theatre.

Bus 503

509 was operating route 953s in the late morning today (Sunday).

Toyota Camry

Quote from: Bus 503 on January 20, 2019, 08:34:18 PM
509 was operating route 953s in the late morning today (Sunday).
It shows the ineptness of the government in delivering a bus service to Moncrieff that just six months after the service commencing, the service has had to be be boosted to articulated vehicles to meet capacity demands; it looks like this corridor could be an ideal future rapid service.

Busnerd

But does having a high capacity vehicle on a run instantly mean that run warrants it? Or is it that the driver does a 200 before and a 200 after and a 953 in between (As an example) I highly doubt the 953, or even it's weekday counterpart would warrant an articulated vehicle, hence the need for better rostering on weekends, allowing 200 and/or 300 only shifts where those are the only runs the driver does so the capacity is allocated to the busiest routes and not ending up on meandering suburban loops that carry 12 people.

Toyota Camry

53 and 953 is a high importance route in the network; along with the 3, 11 & 200, it is one of the only bus services that is guaranteed to be operated by low floor, air conditioned buses at all times. It is not believed that an Irisbus Agoraline, Renault PR100.2 or Renault PR100.3 has ever operated on this route; it will be interesting to see if the replacement service maintains this priority in the new network, as is combining with parts of nearby routes that offen suffer older vehicles.

Sylvan Loves Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 21, 2019, 06:34:35 PMIt is not believed that an Irisbus Agoraline, Renault PR100.2 or Renault PR100.3 has ever operated on this route...

The 3 and 200's certainly have over the years.

King of Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 21, 2019, 06:34:35 PM
53 and 953 is a high importance route in the network; along with the 3, 11 & 200, it is one of the only bus services that is guaranteed to be operated by low floor, air conditioned buses at all times. It is not believed that an Irisbus Agoraline, Renault PR100.2 or Renault PR100.3 has ever operated on this route; it will be interesting to see if the replacement service maintains this priority in the new network, as is combining with parts of nearby routes that offen suffer older vehicles.

High importance? Umm... I'm fairly sure the 53 only has a full low floor allocation because it was introduced at a time when 40 new buses were added to the fleet. The 953 would be because it is a weekend route and they only run low floors on weekends (except in emergencies, as seen last August). I have seen a PR100.2 run 53s on at least one occasion, and I've seen an Irisbus on both 53s and 953s before, too.

I'd very much doubt the new network equivalent of the 53 would be solely low floor operated (depends what HASTUS spits out, I guess - but I'd very much doubt it's a requirement to run only low floors on such a service). I can see them trying to keep Renaults off Rapids in the new network (in terms of scheduling), but unsure how that will go (even if they achieve 100% low floor allocations on Rapids, I'm sure a Renault will appear somewhere it probably shouldn't sometime - it always happens). The R3 (because it services the Airport) might be more realistic of a goal for 100% low floor allocations though.

And FYI, the 200 itself (not including the 25# peak routes) is not fully low floor operated. I know of at least one trip that is allocated a PR100.2/PR100.3.

The 11 and 81 I believe are the only routes which are "required" to always be operated by low floors.

Toyota Camry

It was announced in 2005 that all 300 series routes would be fully low floor, wheelchair accessible and have bike racks available at all times, at the time, the only buses meeting the task were 20 Irisbus Agoralines and 50 Scania L94UBs; 14 years later, despite the delivery of hundreds of extra suitable buses, they have given up on trying to achieve this goal.

Busfanatic101

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 22, 2019, 10:24:54 AM
It was announced in 2005 that all 300 series routes would be fully low floor, wheelchair accessible and have bike racks available at all times, at the time, the only buses meeting the task were 20 Irisbus Agoralines and 50 Scania L94UBs; 14 years later, despite the delivery of hundreds of extra suitable buses, they have given up on trying to achieve this goal.
Of all the routes, the 300 series would be least impacted by not being 100% low floor/ bike rack during peak as the next service is right behind. Such a commitment is counterintuitive unless the whole fleet meet those criteria. Having to wait an extra hour for a suburban service is much worse.

Northside

Quote from: Toyota Camry on January 22, 2019, 10:24:54 AM
It was announced in 2005 that all 300 series routes would be fully low floor, wheelchair accessible and have bike racks available at all times, at the time, the only buses meeting the task were 20 Irisbus Agoralines and 50 Scania L94UBs; 14 years later, despite the delivery of hundreds of extra suitable buses, they have given up on trying to achieve this goal.

I'm not sure how they thought they were going to achieve this. Back then, artic buses were prevented from having bike racks installed due to legislation. This has changed recently, but I haven't seen any progress on rolling out bike racks on the artics. So until recently that aim was impossible without removing artics off this route (a dumb idea).

Bus 400



Quote from: King of Buses on January 21, 2019, 09:43:02 PM

The 11 and 81 I believe are the only routes which are "required" to always be operated by low floors.

AFAIK, the 62/962 are a low floor required run. This is due to the ACT Government  wheelchair repair & mobility hire place at the old Village Creek Primary School.

But it does help out a certain passenger on the run as well.


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King of Buses

Quote from: Bus 400 on January 22, 2019, 05:55:02 PM

AFAIK, the 62/962 are a low floor required run. This is due to the ACT Government  wheelchair repair & mobility hire place at the old Village Creek Primary School.

But it does help out a certain passenger on the run as well.


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Yeah, I'm fairly sure it isn't. Certain trips may or may not "require" accessible buses though, which is the case with a number of specific trips across the network, I believe.


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triumph

Ref reply 11 by triumph 1/2/19, and 12 by Bus 503 4/2/19 in What Bus Did You Catch. (I don't know how to copy between topics.)
I rather think that, as the subject of missing Volgren bendys seems to be developing, it is more appropriate now to this topic, but as it is under 'Playground' general category perhaps it should be under Bus Discussion as it is not really a 'play' subject. Administrator guidance might be needed please.

Again today, though keeping a lookout, no Volgren bodied bendy buses sighted. As for last Friday kept a particular lookout.

Last rode a Volgren bendy on 14/1/19. By 22/1/19 I had become vaguely aware of no sightings which seemed unusual, and then started to take a closer interest.

Bus 503 thinks there might be something in it. I now do too, and wonder if the movement of 910, 911, and 935 back into service is relevant? (Has anyone actually sighted any of these three Renaults in use?)

Sylvan Loves Buses

Quote from: Toyota Camry on February 04, 2019, 09:36:07 PM
It seems that this site's censorship policy has reached new levels; it is now no longer considered acceptable to state which route that 940 operated on today. For those who did not see the previous post, you are informed that it was a very unusual sighting.

It's never been acceptable to state what route a driver's shift commences due to privacy policies, I was merely commenting on the same exact text you've said multiple times now, there's no need to rehash the obvious.
Besides, I can't really see (myself at least) how a 200 being operated by a 2 is unusual, I see them all the time (esp the 250's). If a 3 was operating it, then sure. Looking through these comments I'm noticing quite a few mentions of MAN and Euro's operating on the weekends, what perplexes me is I see those particular buses on the weekends I go out on all the time. Thought this topic was for the more rare sightings, whatever then...

Busnerd

I would say a 200 operated by a PR100.2 is an unusual sighting, Don't think I've ever seen a high floor on a 200.

If it was on a 25X service then that's very common, most of those peak service runs are all high floors or Irisbus.