Spotted in Clapton: a notice at a bus stop announcing "double deck
buses and a more frequent service for Route 38 - starting Saturday 14
November".

It says the N38 frequency will increase to a bus every 12 minutes; no
mention of the daytime frequency.

There's also a line drawing of what looks like an Enviro 400, but that
could just be representative.

- martin

"martin" wrote in message
...
Spotted in Clapton: a notice at a bus stop announcing "double deck
buses and a more frequent service for Route 38 - starting Saturday 14
November".

It says the N38 frequency will increase to a bus every 12 minutes; no
mention of the daytime frequency.

There's also a line drawing of what looks like an Enviro 400, but that
could just be representative.

From http://www.londonbusroutes.net/changes.htm

70 new double deckers introduced (mixture of 56 10.4m DB300/Gemini 2 DL
and 16 9.9m Trident/Enviro400). Frequency increased to every 2-3 minutes
Monday to Friday peak hours, 3-4 Monday to Saturday shopping hours, 5
Sunday shopping hours and daily early evenings. On Mondays to Fridays
(except evenings) alternate buses will terminate at Hackney Central
station.

Peter Smyth

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:

It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis
plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!

Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych
to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is
pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up
since they were "debendified".

The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing
bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense
remaining as bendies anyway.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:31 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:

It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis
plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!

Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych
to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is
pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up
since they were "debendified".

The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing
bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense
remaining as bendies anyway.


But sense doesn't come into it - this is Boris's hobby-horse.

In article ,
(Bruce) wrote:

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:47:31 GMT, (Neil
Williams) wrote:

On Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:11:42 +0000, Paul Corfield
wrote:

It's a mixed fleet - mostly Wrightbus Gemini 2s on VDL DB300 chassis
plus some Enviro 400s. Only 72 buses to replace something like 47!

Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych
to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is
pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up
since they were "debendified".

The stupid thing is that, even if you agree with the idea of removing
bendies, those two routes are the ones that would have made more sense
remaining as bendies anyway.

But sense doesn't come into it - this is Boris's hobby-horse.

Now there's a thought! How about hobby horses to replace bendies?

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Neil Williams wrote:

Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych
to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is
pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up
since they were "debendified".


I did eventually, after a few days, catch a four-in-a-row of 521s, but
they've been on diversion recently which has mucked up the timings.
Cellar collapse in Procter Street, or something. Two-in-a-row is so
common as not to be worth a second glance. Generally by the time they
reach about St. Pauls heading east there are single-digit passenger
loads on each one, too.

the 38, the original announcement read as if the off-peak frequency
was unchanged from bendies - is that still the case? Note that this is
the first time ever that someone's tried to run the 38 with single-door
boarding double deckers, and thus pretty much counts as a Boris
transport innovation.

*popcorn*

Tom

Tom Barry wrote:

the 38, the original announcement read as if the off-peak frequency
was unchanged from bendies - is that still the case? Note that this is
the first time ever that someone's tried to run the 38 with single-door
boarding double deckers, and thus pretty much counts as a Boris
transport innovation.

It ran for years with RMs, and I suspect for years before that with RTs,
STLs, LTs or STs - I think they were all single-door boarding double
deckers!

Peter Beale

On Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:45:49 +0000, Peter Beale
wrote:

It ran for years with RMs, and I suspect for years before that with RTs,
STLs, LTs or STs - I think they were all single-door boarding double
deckers!

And in these days of Oyster, probably no slower at boarding, either.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"Neil Williams" wrote:

Having been working near Tower Bridge and having walked from Aldwych
to there every day last week, it is quite noticeable that there is
pretty much always a Red Arrow or two in sight whenever you look up
since they were "debendified".

That's more or less the reverse of my morning walk, and I concur with your
Red Arrow sightings. The Thames Path on a crisp autumnal morning is an
uplifting way to start the day, and normally only about 5 minutes longer
than waiting for a 521 or 17 at London Bridge then crawling down Cannon
Street.

Chris

On 8 Nov, 19:11, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 8 Nov 2009 09:46:22 -0800 (PST), martin

wrote:
Spotted in Clapton: a notice at a bus stop announcing "double deck
buses and a more frequent service for Route 38 - starting Saturday 14
November".

Correct

It says the N38 frequency will increase to a bus every 12 minutes; no
mention of the daytime frequency.

At weekends it is x12 on each leg so every 6 minutes Picc Circus to
Walthamstow. The N38 has always been double deck.

The frequencies for the daytime service are increased at all times I
think. Up to every 2-3 mins or so in the peaks.

Note that only half the service on M-F (not evenings) extends beyond
Hackney Central to Clapton Pond. *This is a break with the more usual
"all buses run end to end" approach to TfL services although there have
always been exceptions (186, 221).

Wasn't that more "all routes will be shortened to improve reliability
statistics", with the result that routes that had included stopping
short of the end of the route no longer did so, and new overlapping
routes got created (eg 36 into 36 plus 436)?

The 208 still runs in overlapping sections though.