I'll just point out the fact routes 673 685 689 were almost four times cheaper using the same buses as their main route they were joint bid with, whilst also sharing a schedule. As opposed to not sharing a schedule, and having it's own new bus.
The 689 accepted bid in 2018 was under £20K. Lowest single bid was £100K.
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Among my first posts on this blog was regarding capacity on 3/322, back then the 3 didn't sport microwaves on wheels and 322 was low frequency and is currently high frequency.
Though the question still stands. The answer would've been something along the lines of 'if it's not overcrowded then it's fine' with finer wording to make it less daunting. The question would naturally have been 'should there be extra provision for school capacity?' For the 3 it could be argued, I'm still of the opinion Croxted Road shouldn't have one route but I'm thankful in the climate the 3 hadn't received a frequency cut yet.
Whilst the 322 has the issue of vehicle size constraint.
So what does this have to do with school routes?
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| DLA273 (Y473UGC), Tulse Hill |
Enter 690, the only school route close to me for several miles. It's a route which has it's origins from nearly 90 years ago as the 5, being restructured into a 189 which on it's last days of life died to the common public as it became a school route from the girls school in Earlsfield then terminating at Brixton.
It's section to Norwood spawned off the back of the atypical garage journeys which became permanent through the decades until the current day, however it previously had live garage journeys to Walworth (WL) for a short time prior to moving to Norwood (N). This route was 689, identical to current 690 in every road except using Tulse Hill instead of Dulwich Road and Norwood Road north of Tulse Hill Station. The 689 died in 2011 on contract renewal, as the less favoured routeing between 689/690, and thus 690 kept the #689 running number whose duty entailed a first afternoon trip terminating at Clapham Common before running back to the school to go full route, with another bus covering one full trip. Not long after the Clapham shorts died, making it a 2 trip morning and 2 trip afternoon route. To throw a curveball not mentioned earlier, 689 did get cut to Tulse Hill briefly as the sole 689 was run from Brixton (BN) but returned to going further to West Norwood.
Then the pandemic gave a list of routes extra buses for social distancing, the 690 was one of them, Arriva London South's suite of school routes had extras from Abellio.
Then the question was brought to the table, with empty V690s frequenting Acre Lane. I myself observing nothing different from the Norwood end though...
...traditionally it's been the quieter end. At most there'd be a dozen but as time went one, a handful became a few, then barely visible, then a few again.
