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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Hail & Ride sections & conversion to Fixed stops

Writing this part of the post in post-mortem to what I have written months before below definitely felt like a blast, considering I tolled away weeks of time into a spreadsheet that would have been redundant if TfL didn't stop updating the quadrant maps (South East/South West and North East/North West) maps, and not hiding away every possible Spider Map whilst updating few into the more useless format of only containing parts of the routes in question.

Double Consultations

No

Two-in-one, the clickbait would be withdrawal of 168 and 271 but I prefer numbers and calculating any changes, whether I believe they were bad (such as 48's withdrawal) or perhaps positive (I can't mention something within the past 5 years) so without further ado:

One Sainsburys Shopper

There's only three articles which I'll link at the bottom as sources. No timetables of S11 nor S13, but maps in the 1990s by Mike Harris contain the route. No photos of buses at all. Only one photo of P15, with a few timetables archived.

So as far as history goes, these pair of routes (S11 and S13) has went under the radar. Though there are clues which are rather astounding.

School routes... expensive not?

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?

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.

Sutton Croydon done

absolutely definitely Purley in December 2019, zero doubts at all
disasters before November

Routes 439/S2 tender awards delayed back to coincide with other Sutton routes rather than being awarded not long ago around July wasn't suspicious per se as it was a sign of some change of plan in the consultation. Boy oh boy is there changes.

Sutton in 2009

Sutton

The people of Cheam and Ewell receive an uplift in service from every 30 but no Sunday service to every 20 plus a Sunday service, except it's no longer called 470 but will be S2, and won't go further than St. Helier. Whilst 470 was undoubtedly indirect to Morden (for the Northern Line) let alone Colliers Wood which it's the only route to link to from the areas it serves for now.

The S4 I'm surprised but equally not impressed that it was changed. From a perfect split with S2/S4 both terminating in Belmont to S4 being truncated west of Sutton but keeping it's eastern extension to Waddon Marsh it largely retains it's original routeing.

Vendetta against Short Workings

yo dawg I heard you liked speed lines

All of a sudden the thought was raised; instead of wholesale frequency cuts, shorten the offending Central sections on part-frequency. So my thought process from that became: "how would it look like?" Through maths and numbers, trying to deliver similar PVR cuts through the technique of short workings.

The frequency cuts we had in the end of August on the 28th and continuing on with September for 59/253/254 and 13 yet to come along with other potential victims. How would these sometimes drastic but reversible frequency cuts could've looked, had the capacity in outer London and apparently irrelevant inner London not be sacrificed for the woes of hard-hit Central London?

Better the Network 1.2, since it's an addendum not meant to be included in this series.

Expressa 2

Expressa 2 - Bus Upgrade Plan

I'd recommend you don't click this before reading the previous post Expressa, or this will be propaganda material no different to East Germany.

Upload postscript: If I do another long post like this I will commit seppuku.