Review Of The Year - Dundee Area Bus Forum Style
This review I originally wrote for the Forum, but I've posted it here for you to all "enjoy". Non-members interested in joining the Forum, take a look here first! My own personal Review Of My Year will follow, probably tomorrow.
2006 marked the first complete year of the Forum, and brought many changes to the bus operations in our area.
Naturally, following the takeover of the Traction Group, much was expected from Stagecoach during 2006. Vehicle wise, few could be surprised at the end of the MCW Metrobus. The five that were new to Perth depot in 1988 (SM12-16) saw their last this Spring, although the last one managed to stay a bit longer on a school run in Blairgowrie. The Tridents that replaced them were not the start of a mass influx, but only the third part of Stagecoach Scotland to receive brand new Tridents. Elsewhere in Strathtay, further old stock was culled, but there were no major changes to the network - except where dictated by councils and contracts. In that regard, the Forfar area saw the doubling of the Monday-Saturday evening service to Dundee, and the BRDG-funded extension of the daytime service 27 from Arbroath through Forfar to Orchardbank & Kirriemuir. Passengers noticed the new colours, but the fleetname was (at least initially) the biggest surprise. The Arbroath network was relaunched and rebranded as The Round O, and new Day and MegaRider tickets were introduced here. The Dundee area saw the replacement of the rarely spoke of ZoneCards with the Tay MegaRider, and the extension of the existing Super MegaRider meant it could now be used from Marykirk or Northwaterbridge to Glasgow or Edinburgh... but initial purchasers of these picked up driver apathy on the other side of the Tay!
Speaking of which, the Fife area of Stagecoach had not been forgotten. No fewer than four separate BRDG schemes were introduced during the course of the year. Services 37, 39 and X1 between Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy were treated to new MAN single deck easy access buses with CCTV. Service 99/99A/99B between Dundee and St Andrews was radically overhauled, with an increase from three to four buses an hour, new evening and a complete Sunday service, replacing the partial one bus shuttle ran until now. New MAN's were delivered here too. Service 78 to High Valleyfield was increased from three to four buses an hour, using new Solo's. The 78 did get a boost to the passenger numbers when First pulled out of their half of the 14/14A, and Stagecoach extended some 78's via Low Valleyfield and Culross to Kincardine, Alloa & Stirling. This meant that the Solo's were quickly outgrown on most journeys, and Darts began to arrive. The final scheme in this selection was the introduction of the second direct service (in recent years) between Edinburgh Airport & Fife - AirDirect 747. The branded Optare Solo's run up to every 30 minutes, providing useful links for RBS Gogarburn, the Airport and surrounding industries, to/from Ferrytoll and Inverkething. Through ticketing was developed to/from Stagecoach Express from day one, and to/from trains soon after. Other service changes at Fife were largely in West Fife. Service D7 has became a series of different destinations after Abbeyview, Service 74 had a two-hourly extension to Falkirk, and Services D3/D4 were increased from four to six buses an hour. Vehicles at Fife were a handful of Solo's and Darts, but the biggest change was the introduction of lift-equipped Volvo/Plaxton Profiles on the X24/X26 routes.
Stagecoach Perth saw little change, largely as tendering by P&KC was pushed back, meaning new contracts start in January 2007. The Perth City open top tour came to an end, but an interesting alternative was provided using some vintage vehicles from the company stock, on a Sunday local service around the city. Perth lost its link with the Bluebird administration during the year, but remained on their operator licence. A new commercial summer service 502 provided summer links from Perth/Pitlochry over Glenshee to Ballater/Aberdeen, using minibuses from each end. Up north, the Aberdeen - Stonehaven and Stonehaven - Montrose improvements started, with more new branded MAN's, and a bus to Stonehaven up to every 15 minutes. It did mean buses heading to Montrose would have to do a town circuit of Stoney as well, resulting in two buses following each other during the evenings! Stonehaven's work on the 8/9, 24 and 103 has largely been transferred to Strathtay Montrose, and some of Meffan's work was similarly transferred to Forfar depot.
Travel Dundee made little change during the year, following the introduction of the Bus Concordat in the city. In November, Services 9x/10x were doubled to a bus every 15 minutes all day - which contributed to the doubling of the service (in the last four years) between Dundee City Centre and the Technology Park, from four to eight buses an hour off-peak.
In terms of infrastructure, the most noticeable issue of 2006 was the cessation of Dew Pitchmastic (sic?) contractor for the Fife Bus Interchanges project, who went belly-up in the Spring. The partially-rebuilt stations at St Andrews, Leven, Kirkcaldy (Glenrothes was almost done) had to lie in situ throughout the summer, until the work was retendered.
The new Link Road at the Tech Park is now complete, the local neds have now left the switch box alone, and the drivers now know which angle to drive at to activate the thing... but, the work on the side of Ninewells is ongoing until next year, meaning the full potential of the road is still to be seen.
Services between Fife and West Lothian have been a recurring theme this year. Blue Bus of Shotts had registered a commercial service (in time for the school holidays) X58, between Livingston, Ferrytoll, Dunfermline, Glenrothes and St Andrews, but were unable to start because of an issue with the authorities. The idea was then abandoned. The existing peak-time service X90 of E&M Horsburgh between Dunfermline and Livingston was due for retender, but West Lothian Council did not renew the tender, due to low passenger numbers. The reliability had been a bit questionable over the years, but may be worth another shot once the A8000 work is finished. So, at the start of the year, we had one direct bus from Fife to West Lothian, almost had two, then had none - and then, had another one.
One of the more interesting set of introductions was a network by Fishers Tours, called Scottish Express. The idea was to provide new links to/from Arbroath, Monifieth, Carnoustie and Dundee, to various points. The new Scottish Executive concession travel scheme allows those who qualify free travel, and as a result, the potential was there. As a result, fortnightly services (one different destination each weekday, changed on alternate weeks) saw services to Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Oban, Pitlochry, Jedburgh, Ayr, Fort William, Callander, Inverness, and Largs. These developed into duplicates on some occasions, and the company responded to passenger demand by introducing seat reservations. For the winter, the passengers were consulted once more, which resulted in some Forfar/Brechin pick-ups being introduced. For the winter, destinations included Livingston (see above), Stirling, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Again, these services proved popular, and some of the winter journeys demanded two coaches on some days.
Long-distance services by the Citylink/Megabus joint venture were under the watchful eye of the Competition Commission's enquiries for much of the year. One interesting development, however, was the introduction of an east coast Megabus.com service, which took an Inverness - Edinburgh service (adding an extra stop at Ferrytoll, to pick up the Cowdenbeath driver who took the bus on), and extending it to Newcastle, Scotch Corner, Meadowhall (near Sheffield), to London. This then also added to the Newcastle - London and Leeds - London services. The Fife-based drivers didn't seem to take to Newcastle too well, but some have stuck with it, and solidified the service. An interesting development at the end of the year was the introduction of Edinburgh - Dundee "direct" joint venture journeys. These were "unadvertised treats" to the passengers, and even the electronic displays were not so discreet in heralding the arrival of an "M90 Edinburgh/M9 Duplicate Service".
School service retendering in Angus brought the expansion of Strathmore Travel and Rowan Travel, to their maximum size. Travel Dundee's "Wisharts" unit also won a double decker for Forfar Academy, and topped this by taking the Arbroath minibus services 37, 46, 49, 50 from Strathtay. JP won a few bits and pieces with school runs, adding the Tuesday 120, 121 services to the Friday ones they already operate, and winning the "best value" contract for a new service from Gowanbank and Restenneth Priory to Forfar, which then extended to Tesco, and provide more buses for Turfbeg. The temptation to number the service 151 was not taken (this time), and it became 114. Further up Strathmore to The Mearns, and Nicoll's operation didn't seem to have their problems to seek. Having surrendered four school runs in the summer (two more in the autumn) and given up a lot of commercial work, the company remained on a handful of tendered services, plus the commercial 8/9 and some 113's between school runs. Towards the end of the year, Laurencekirk station plans passed yet another hurdle, meaning another interchange at the north-east of our area (like Dunblane in the south-west?) will eventually be possible.
In Perthshire, 8th January 2007 marks the commencement of the council's new tenders. In brief, new services from Stanley to Bankfoot via Stewart Tower (33) are to start, and there is also to be a Saturday extension of Service 71 (to be operated by Strathtay's Blairgowrie depot) beyond the unnatural terminus at Tarvie Road End, to Pitlochry. Crieff Travel and Pegasus Travel will both expand, the former now taking Service 47 from Crieff to Stirling, and the latter winning most of Service 17 between Perth and Gleneagles via Dunning - amongst others.
While the initial fanfair around the introduction of free concession travel has died down, there are more developments to look forward to into 2007. Further tendering, more BRDG schemes, as well as an election or two around the corner, will all add spice to the mix.
(and then there was a thank-you bit etc.)
2006 marked the first complete year of the Forum, and brought many changes to the bus operations in our area.
Naturally, following the takeover of the Traction Group, much was expected from Stagecoach during 2006. Vehicle wise, few could be surprised at the end of the MCW Metrobus. The five that were new to Perth depot in 1988 (SM12-16) saw their last this Spring, although the last one managed to stay a bit longer on a school run in Blairgowrie. The Tridents that replaced them were not the start of a mass influx, but only the third part of Stagecoach Scotland to receive brand new Tridents. Elsewhere in Strathtay, further old stock was culled, but there were no major changes to the network - except where dictated by councils and contracts. In that regard, the Forfar area saw the doubling of the Monday-Saturday evening service to Dundee, and the BRDG-funded extension of the daytime service 27 from Arbroath through Forfar to Orchardbank & Kirriemuir. Passengers noticed the new colours, but the fleetname was (at least initially) the biggest surprise. The Arbroath network was relaunched and rebranded as The Round O, and new Day and MegaRider tickets were introduced here. The Dundee area saw the replacement of the rarely spoke of ZoneCards with the Tay MegaRider, and the extension of the existing Super MegaRider meant it could now be used from Marykirk or Northwaterbridge to Glasgow or Edinburgh... but initial purchasers of these picked up driver apathy on the other side of the Tay!
Speaking of which, the Fife area of Stagecoach had not been forgotten. No fewer than four separate BRDG schemes were introduced during the course of the year. Services 37, 39 and X1 between Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy were treated to new MAN single deck easy access buses with CCTV. Service 99/99A/99B between Dundee and St Andrews was radically overhauled, with an increase from three to four buses an hour, new evening and a complete Sunday service, replacing the partial one bus shuttle ran until now. New MAN's were delivered here too. Service 78 to High Valleyfield was increased from three to four buses an hour, using new Solo's. The 78 did get a boost to the passenger numbers when First pulled out of their half of the 14/14A, and Stagecoach extended some 78's via Low Valleyfield and Culross to Kincardine, Alloa & Stirling. This meant that the Solo's were quickly outgrown on most journeys, and Darts began to arrive. The final scheme in this selection was the introduction of the second direct service (in recent years) between Edinburgh Airport & Fife - AirDirect 747. The branded Optare Solo's run up to every 30 minutes, providing useful links for RBS Gogarburn, the Airport and surrounding industries, to/from Ferrytoll and Inverkething. Through ticketing was developed to/from Stagecoach Express from day one, and to/from trains soon after. Other service changes at Fife were largely in West Fife. Service D7 has became a series of different destinations after Abbeyview, Service 74 had a two-hourly extension to Falkirk, and Services D3/D4 were increased from four to six buses an hour. Vehicles at Fife were a handful of Solo's and Darts, but the biggest change was the introduction of lift-equipped Volvo/Plaxton Profiles on the X24/X26 routes.
Stagecoach Perth saw little change, largely as tendering by P&KC was pushed back, meaning new contracts start in January 2007. The Perth City open top tour came to an end, but an interesting alternative was provided using some vintage vehicles from the company stock, on a Sunday local service around the city. Perth lost its link with the Bluebird administration during the year, but remained on their operator licence. A new commercial summer service 502 provided summer links from Perth/Pitlochry over Glenshee to Ballater/Aberdeen, using minibuses from each end. Up north, the Aberdeen - Stonehaven and Stonehaven - Montrose improvements started, with more new branded MAN's, and a bus to Stonehaven up to every 15 minutes. It did mean buses heading to Montrose would have to do a town circuit of Stoney as well, resulting in two buses following each other during the evenings! Stonehaven's work on the 8/9, 24 and 103 has largely been transferred to Strathtay Montrose, and some of Meffan's work was similarly transferred to Forfar depot.
Travel Dundee made little change during the year, following the introduction of the Bus Concordat in the city. In November, Services 9x/10x were doubled to a bus every 15 minutes all day - which contributed to the doubling of the service (in the last four years) between Dundee City Centre and the Technology Park, from four to eight buses an hour off-peak.
In terms of infrastructure, the most noticeable issue of 2006 was the cessation of Dew Pitchmastic (sic?) contractor for the Fife Bus Interchanges project, who went belly-up in the Spring. The partially-rebuilt stations at St Andrews, Leven, Kirkcaldy (Glenrothes was almost done) had to lie in situ throughout the summer, until the work was retendered.
The new Link Road at the Tech Park is now complete, the local neds have now left the switch box alone, and the drivers now know which angle to drive at to activate the thing... but, the work on the side of Ninewells is ongoing until next year, meaning the full potential of the road is still to be seen.
Services between Fife and West Lothian have been a recurring theme this year. Blue Bus of Shotts had registered a commercial service (in time for the school holidays) X58, between Livingston, Ferrytoll, Dunfermline, Glenrothes and St Andrews, but were unable to start because of an issue with the authorities. The idea was then abandoned. The existing peak-time service X90 of E&M Horsburgh between Dunfermline and Livingston was due for retender, but West Lothian Council did not renew the tender, due to low passenger numbers. The reliability had been a bit questionable over the years, but may be worth another shot once the A8000 work is finished. So, at the start of the year, we had one direct bus from Fife to West Lothian, almost had two, then had none - and then, had another one.
One of the more interesting set of introductions was a network by Fishers Tours, called Scottish Express. The idea was to provide new links to/from Arbroath, Monifieth, Carnoustie and Dundee, to various points. The new Scottish Executive concession travel scheme allows those who qualify free travel, and as a result, the potential was there. As a result, fortnightly services (one different destination each weekday, changed on alternate weeks) saw services to Aberdeen, Kirkcaldy, Oban, Pitlochry, Jedburgh, Ayr, Fort William, Callander, Inverness, and Largs. These developed into duplicates on some occasions, and the company responded to passenger demand by introducing seat reservations. For the winter, the passengers were consulted once more, which resulted in some Forfar/Brechin pick-ups being introduced. For the winter, destinations included Livingston (see above), Stirling, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Again, these services proved popular, and some of the winter journeys demanded two coaches on some days.
Long-distance services by the Citylink/Megabus joint venture were under the watchful eye of the Competition Commission's enquiries for much of the year. One interesting development, however, was the introduction of an east coast Megabus.com service, which took an Inverness - Edinburgh service (adding an extra stop at Ferrytoll, to pick up the Cowdenbeath driver who took the bus on), and extending it to Newcastle, Scotch Corner, Meadowhall (near Sheffield), to London. This then also added to the Newcastle - London and Leeds - London services. The Fife-based drivers didn't seem to take to Newcastle too well, but some have stuck with it, and solidified the service. An interesting development at the end of the year was the introduction of Edinburgh - Dundee "direct" joint venture journeys. These were "unadvertised treats" to the passengers, and even the electronic displays were not so discreet in heralding the arrival of an "M90 Edinburgh/M9 Duplicate Service".
School service retendering in Angus brought the expansion of Strathmore Travel and Rowan Travel, to their maximum size. Travel Dundee's "Wisharts" unit also won a double decker for Forfar Academy, and topped this by taking the Arbroath minibus services 37, 46, 49, 50 from Strathtay. JP won a few bits and pieces with school runs, adding the Tuesday 120, 121 services to the Friday ones they already operate, and winning the "best value" contract for a new service from Gowanbank and Restenneth Priory to Forfar, which then extended to Tesco, and provide more buses for Turfbeg. The temptation to number the service 151 was not taken (this time), and it became 114. Further up Strathmore to The Mearns, and Nicoll's operation didn't seem to have their problems to seek. Having surrendered four school runs in the summer (two more in the autumn) and given up a lot of commercial work, the company remained on a handful of tendered services, plus the commercial 8/9 and some 113's between school runs. Towards the end of the year, Laurencekirk station plans passed yet another hurdle, meaning another interchange at the north-east of our area (like Dunblane in the south-west?) will eventually be possible.
In Perthshire, 8th January 2007 marks the commencement of the council's new tenders. In brief, new services from Stanley to Bankfoot via Stewart Tower (33) are to start, and there is also to be a Saturday extension of Service 71 (to be operated by Strathtay's Blairgowrie depot) beyond the unnatural terminus at Tarvie Road End, to Pitlochry. Crieff Travel and Pegasus Travel will both expand, the former now taking Service 47 from Crieff to Stirling, and the latter winning most of Service 17 between Perth and Gleneagles via Dunning - amongst others.
While the initial fanfair around the introduction of free concession travel has died down, there are more developments to look forward to into 2007. Further tendering, more BRDG schemes, as well as an election or two around the corner, will all add spice to the mix.
(and then there was a thank-you bit etc.)
posted by Suzy Scott @ 21:42
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