2022: Elizabeth's year

Most heads of state and prime minsters we had in a long time.

The year of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.

The year of the opening of the Elizabeth Line.

The year of her passing, rest in peace.

Through storm, through heatwave, through war in Europe, we've left from 2021, via 2022 to 2023.

Postscript: Initially typing the above I was bored to type more but less said the better.

Note: Usage of any photos on this blog isn't permitted where no name is present (meaning it's mine, ©Unorm), or an All Rights Reserved symbol © is present. If you desire to use a photo, you must contact the original author. In my case, you should contact my Flickr. 

Whereby a name is stated and no © is present, the photo is Some Rights Reserved and may be used in accordance to the license. 

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Bifurcated buses

Branch lines.

Wikipedia
Central Line map

Look at the Northern Line, to the south it has Battersea Power Station and Morden. To the north it has Edgware and High Barnet/Mill Hill East.

Branches.

   Or even other lines with many destinations on one end, then all converge to one at another, Metropolitan at Aldgate for example.

Branches.

Current 166 and 466

The tube can do it, some buses used to bifurcate (on some routes, like 32 with journeys from Grahame Park Estate, or N25 to Hainault/Harold Hill, N109/N159 to Coulsdon/New Addington), why not buses in 21st century?

The answer is standardisation above all else. 

Perhaps there's still scars from confusion of the past (e.g 137 not running on evenings/Sundays but 137A extended from Clapham to Oxford Circus on evenings/Sundays) with suffixes on hundreds of bus routes with variations of all kinds, making it a must for you to know the structure of your bus routes (beyond if they run or don't run) in order to not have a bad day/evening.

Out of our 549 daily routes, there's only 5 examples of two routes in one contract (e.g 389/399). 

Quite impressive as it is excessive. Efficiency loss as well from a few factors. Imagine counting +1 on your calculator for every number, with the very rare +2 from the 389/399 example. Ridiculous oversimplification, but you have a little idea now.

The EL1/EL2 from 2010 until 2016 did count. A shared service between Ilford and Thames View Estate, where EL2 diverted further to Dagenham Dock. Obviously no more shared service from 2016 onwards as both routes had sharply increased in frequencies, then EL2 diverted to Becontree Heath instead of Ilford.

The objective is simple: Smarter distribution of buses with the least passenger inconvenience.

Preferably, without reducing frequencies on core parts of a route, compared to completely reducing frequencies haphazardly for the sake of costs..

Spreadsheet link of historical bifurcations.

E-branding + Bus branding short history

Imperfect representation of 52 and N52 once upon a time

A quick idea that popped into my head when I thought of the lack of displays on the offside of buses (except on RV1's hydrogen Citaros) which are found often but not commonly in mainland Europe.

How about combining the E-ink displays used in Waterloo Bridge bus stop which don't require maintenance of changing the stop timetables (in this case, route branding) with the problem of route branding whereby only one [set] of route[s] is advertised?

Electronic-branding, in the form of e-ink route branding.

Example: A 155 bus goes on 118. Displays 118 as usual. The branding changes into 118.

See where I'm going with this?

All this because I dwelled too long on 322's blindset at Battersea (QB) confined only to 322 and me staring at 315s a bit too intently.

261's express Tube/Elizabeth Line feeder

Yay! 100th uploaded post!

The 261 getting an additional route in the form of X239 which runs parallel from Grove Park to Lee, then via 202 to Blackheath and runs fast to Canary Wharf connecting with the DLR Jubilee and Elizabeth lines.

It didn't take me long to think about how X239 is truly a tube feeder, which also doubles as extra capacity for 261 which will be very great for it.

The style of express works well, long-past the tried-and-true method on X53 X68 and X72 of which only one remains (since a tube line didn't kill it), born from 68's overcrowding itself. All three serving areas with no rail (Thamesmead or Upper Norwood or Thamesmead).

I've already done an Expressa and Expressa 2 before so this is a defacto Expressa 3.

In short: Replicating X239 with other tube lines, where possible adding capacity to routes that need it.

Operation Remove Garage Terminators

I don't advocate for the title, but it is clickbait. Get baited.

Or maybe own garages' forecourt stands (if not garage itself) so every garage terminator route can be like 33, a free-for-all.

Self explanatory. The post is more of an excuse for collecting data I could reference easily, without having to go through a bunch of sources post-haste.

2023 Edit: 171 has since been kicked out of standing inside Catford (TL) so runs out-of-service to Downham and runs back to stand outside Catford (TL) adding up to 15 minutes of time to schedule. Sorry I guess?
 

Interworked routes

As usual I watch transport videos on YouTube, I watch Not Just Bikes regularly and watched his video on Switzerland's trains. Which cites an article on The integrated timetables of Switzerland, an article by Jokteur.

So I've decided to see how much of the bus network is integrated timetable-wise, between bus routes and bus routes with train connections, if London has any. No doubt outside London there are cases, especially with low-frequency routes, though the easily changed train timetables does make keeping on track of connection guarantee a work and a half, though that's a work the Netherlands and Switzerland are proud to do, in order to achieve over 90% train punctuality and especially over 90% connection guarantee nationwide.

Connections between buses and trains also accounted for.

So what can the creator of the trains, United Kingdom, offer for it's capital London?

Spoiler alert: I overfocussed on buses.

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Also, a non-mandatory part 1: Interworked iBus-display-ETM

Interworked iBus-display-ETM

Electronic Ticketing Machines we had since the 80s in Britain, of course rolled out over time since the first iterations had poorer reliability.

Displays have been electronic by way of Dot Matrix Indicators since the 80s-90s in Britain, though few buses in London adopted them as London Transport tested the tech and then turned tail.

These were Leyland Titans (T929 T1000 T1002 T1005) as well as a Renault PR100.2 (RN1).

I was eventually going to make a post like this, the thought to write it now came about as I pondered over the iBus changes that I made a post on as well as discussions in chats.

Edited screenshot of BBC's video
Current cab setup

So we'll be seeing our current setup [ETM, inside blind controls, driver iBus screen, interior iBus displays]

Then comparing them to other bus setups (not dissimilar to roasting your budget gaming PC setup), where frankly the rest are either a lot better than us, or not worse than us. Britain falling behind is an internal motto it seems.

iBus changes 2021

Another short post update of something I've been holding back, but now I have the intention to release as footnotes for my upcoming 2022 Year roundup, similar to ULEZ diesel workings in my 2021 roundup.

Of course I can't start this without a thumbnail or chipping in an experience of my own.

This is definitely not going to be a rant
"West Norwood, Rosendale" versus "Norwood, Bus Garage"
both now only "West Norwood"

History of the 68

Short post with the video doing the heavy lifting.

History of the 68 (1905-2022)

As shown in the video uploaded to my channel, above. This is an updated version of what I've done for the 2 family (2/82/322/432) a few years ago, taking in some feedback and overall upgrade to design.

The 68 168 196 468 X68 and N68 in one GIF.

Ordinarily I would at least make the post long enough but I have exhausted energy into shaping the design and executing it, so as they say; a picture speaks a 1000 words. Though in my case, I've made a 4 minute video and a GIF to boot.

Trains in South London - lacking in substance

I'm gonna attempt to be Adam Something, don my poundland-bought Wendover Productions logistics hat, and spell out to you like a 5-year old what more than several Jago Hazzard's and Geoff Marshalls could, because I will dive deeper than- [redacted].

I've only started this post as, quite literally, was being called spoilt for choice and made out like I'm the bastion defacto Lord of South London. I wish I was as things would go my way and I would genuinely do for the better for me and the people. However that is not the case and I've decided this post is literally to spite that man, so here's a kind 'f*** no' for that very indigenous male. Even though by the time this post is uploaded, it's been nearly a year since... the things I do to prove a point but be late in delivering from perfectionism and laziness.

As for the enjoyed readers and other people of London and outside London, enjoy the below, as I make use of a rant and turn into constructive words and criticisms and facts to the best of my ability.

Tube map without Tube

Definitely didn't publish this the same day Wendover Productions uploaded a video on Europe's plane-like trains experiment...

Crystal Palace through routes double run

Exactly as the long title suggests, having routes 249 432 and 450 double run through the bus station, could it work?

It worked for the 97/357 in Walthamstow, it works for Stratford and multiple routes, can Crystal Palace have some itself?

Crystal Palace map
Bus Station is stop D
Last stop for terminating routes is stop A (122/202/363) and stop C (others not 3/227)

Central London Bus Review 2022

Since it's such a long winded consultation, as well as the site being less convenient to read and access maps, there's been a lot to take in. As well as the official notice being ominous. The following day, Abellio, Arriva and Go-Ahead provided employee notices whereby stating they'd lose 135 drivers (Arriva) and 350 drivers (GAL) respectively, both having discussions with Unite to maintain jobs. Cut short, the operators were best displeased with the consultation, so it seemed anyway with really similar wording to TfL's own one.

Fret not, enthusiasts on The Bus Forum have simplified it. There's a document Inner London with the changes simplified, thanks to user YX10FFN.

Read those and come back to hear my thoughts.

If you need a map to properly understand, Mike Harris (the legend behind many historical maps who also makes recent maps) created a Central London map of what the consultation entails.

Perhaps enter a petition, (here's one for Southwark), even if it might not save it in reality.

Many articles surfaced. Ham and High regarding 24/31 and Southwark News regarding the 12/78. As well as Brixton Buzz regarding the 45. 

Time is ticking in thoroughly as 12 July is the limit, leaving a short time window for any build up of controversy or complaints.

The reason for the post being more than a week after it became live was because I delved into calculations using my spreadsheet.

PVR changes, route length changes, stand changes, corridor buses per hour changes. Nothing more than that though. 

In short, the corridor changes in Central and the City.

Without further ado, I'll go from South to East to West to North.

Tube extras

Originally this post was spurred out of thought of the frequency cuts and the possibility of making extras instead as short workings. Caveat however, I've already covered that. Linky linky.
So instead, I've spun this idea differently. The different routes we've had tube extras on.

Celebrating the Elizabeth Line inauguration even if it means on the 6th June there's a strike.

   Things have gotten rather weird as during the 1 and 3 March 2022 strikes, a lot of unusual extras have happened, I will briefly cover them but it is likely I would have missed some.

For starters, extras that are of the norm since before 2022, some have changed destination over the years or route altogether:

Routes 322 and 432: 2015-2022

It's been seven years of Stockwell (SW) on both routes, the 432 having for the first time left Norwood (N) since it split from route 2. Whereas 322 makes it's return to the depot, for the first time as a high frequency route with it's contractual frequency increase back to pre-2005 levels before Stockwell (SW) had the route for their 2005-2010 reign.

I'll be giving my armchair report as a local, whilst giving in some factual data from TfL's performance data sheets to back up some of what I say, but cannot be used to translate one experience to the numbers TfL provided.

It's the 2015-2022 time I will no doubt focus on, the first time 322 ever had a 2 year contract extension, the same could be said for 432 though is not impressive given how relatively trouble-free the route has been compared to it's angsty ancestor in a little body.

Briefly, for context. Before 2015...

Had 30 April 2005 went differently

Could it have happened?

This is certainly a rant, you are now warned.

Quirks and trials and improvements

Fake A2
Electrically Three

As usual reading on The Bus Forum and reading posts (rarely ever reply), I stumble on a link and I just read it. Happens to talk about London and buses, how it took a turn for the worse to put it bluntly.

I happen to stumble upon a particular sentence that sparked my idea for this.

"A developer can access bus arrivals but not what facilities are available, how crowded the bus is or how the network is used."

Immediately reminded me of the trial on 59 using HV132-152's CCTV screens...

Note: Usage of any photos on this blog isn't permitted where no name is present (meaning it's mine, ©Unorm), or an All Rights Reserved symbol © is present. If you desire to use a photo, you must contact the original author. In my case, you should contact my Flickr. 

Whereby a name is stated and no © is present, the photo is Some Rights Reserved and may be used in accordance to the license. 

2021 Behind Us

So, as this is typed in advance on New Year's day 2021. What has changed? How has the sphere evolved? The changes we've been expected has happened but how did it pan out? I type this with the future me finishing this post with the final touches. Last year I dived straight into it from laziness but now I've decided I should try and up the ante. For now this is just filling in space to perhaps add a photo to the side and make it align better. This and that, covid happened and was still a thing but a vaccine has been made. The 481 I damn envy a lot.

It doesn't take much to realise a lot happens in a year, with transfers and rare workings as well as other news happening from time to time. So I direct you to UK Bus News for more in depth month roundups.

Let's roll.

December Postscript: Original title Ampere-2021 but I changed my mind literally last minute.

October Postscript: Initially typing the above I was bored to type more but less said the better.

April Postscript: lol Ampere Next.

Note: Usage of any photos on this blog isn't permitted where no name is present (meaning it's mine, ©Unorm), or an All Rights Reserved symbol © is present. If you desire to use a photo, you must contact the original author. In my case, you should contact my Flickr. 

Whereby a name is stated and no © is present, the photo is Some Rights Reserved and may be used in accordance to the license. 

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