howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
good news for bus users, stagecoach are bring in new easy access double decker buses on the dover to lydd route.
starting on april 5th, the service will still run every 20 minutes during weekdays until early evening.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
howard,is that more than 15 miles.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i saw that on the news brian, a loophole that very few knew about, has been closed.
funnily enough the route used to run all the way to hastings, but brussels decreed it exceeded drivers hours.
so the alternative was to have a driver ready by the side of the road ready to take over when the time was reached, or simply make the journey shorter.
my understanding is that the customers are not affected, the schedule changes just allow for a bus to go the last leg of the journey from lydd.
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
i understand that howard,but with canterbury at 16 miles it takes the pee a bit unless you change at lydden.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
it only applies to national express and park and ride schemes.
all our local services have stops about a mile at most apart.
Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
Nice buses, they're also on the 16, 17 and Canterbury Triangle routes.
http://www.alexander-dennis.com/enviro400/intro.htm
See, I'm not just a train nerd!
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
seen them terry, they run from ashford to folkestone and back.
very smart and state of the art, the town will look brighter with them, in addition to being perfect for wheelchair and baby buggy users.
Terry Nunn- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Guest 682- Registered: 19 Jan 2009
- Posts: 146
Quite right Howard - new low floor double deck vehilces on the Dover Lydd service - they will be based at the Folkestone Garage.
This will be another big day for bus travel in out area - I met with the Leader of Hastings Borough Council last Sunday and tyhey are also looking froward to this development as they already have a similar partnership working arrangement that Dover will have in a few days time.
After the launch of the new buses the event really involving Dover will also take place with the Managing Director of Stagecoach, the County Council Cabinet Member and myself taking part - a joint press release is being prepared.
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,018
Yes great news ,however these buses are not manned by our local drivers .WE have Canterbury drivers covering the 15a and all buses via Folkestone are manned as I said by Folkestone .We shoiuld be looking to keep the local drivers .
Guest 682- Registered: 19 Jan 2009
- Posts: 146
The new 15A and increased services on the 13 and 14 routes (between Canterbury and Deal via Sandwich) are the former Canterbury Park & Ride vehicles and drivers thus they are based in Canterbury.
The Dover to Lydd service has been based at the Folkestone depot for many years - so no difference.
The number of Dover drivers should, and this is an issue purely for Stagecoach, therefore be Status Quo.
I understand that bus drivers are hard to get so shouldn't think any employer would make drivers in one depot redundant only to re-employ them in another.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
no dover drivers will be affected, they are always looking for more.
the increase in journeys along the coast and to deal and canterbury means that drivers would be recruited whereever they are.
bus travel is one of the few growing industries at present.
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
Having worked within the industry since 1981 I can not remember drivers being made redundant.
I always remember being at the meeting when Stagecoach took over and was told then "The nearer you are to the steering wheel in your job the safer you are" and it has always turned out that way.
The new buses are all in place and they look great and I am sure a vast improvement as long as we can try and stop the vandals who think it is great to graffiti everything that looks new.
Guest 682- Registered: 19 Jan 2009
- Posts: 146
This investment by Stagecoach on 15 new low floor easy access double deck vehicles is most welcome - I was privilaged to look over one at the official launch on Friday at a rather foggy Battle of Britain memorial site. The buses came into service this morning and it is possible to travel from Dover to Hastings - new timetables are available.
I had an interesting discussion with the new Managing Director at Stagecoach for this area about future bus provision in the Dover District - some revolutionary ideas and we will be meeting him soon.
The day also marked a major step forward for bus travel in the Dover District with the signing of the Dover Quality Bus Partnership which is a formal agreement to advance the experienec of bus travel even more. The new MD signed for Stagecoach, the Cabinet Member signed for Kent County Council and I was the one present for Dover District Council.
Back at the latter part of 2003, just after I was given the portfiolio, I rang the then Managing Director at Stagecoach and asked how we could improve buses and bus services in the Dover District - I was fed up with seeing new vehices in neighbouring areas and didn't want to see Dover left out - there was complete silence - 'Paul?' I asked and he slowly said that he was surprised what I was asking for reasons I won't go in to.
It was a long hard slog at first convincing our potential partners that we were serious and committed to see services improve and of course we were also dealing with the extensive lobbying to get the high speed train extended to Dover at the same time. After diary date clashes and other unaviodable happenings we all met and since then our working with Kent County Council as the public transport provider and Stagecoach as the principle bus service provider has continued to improve. This led to the successful Kick-start bid that saw the Diamond Services start in July 2006 closely followed by the Heart Services later that year. The frequency of the Diamond routes has now been vertually doubled following the increase in the number of people using the service.
We didn't stop there - new easy access buses were on the roads but we needed to go further providing shelters wherever possible, more raised kerbs to help with the access and the 'Clearways' to enable the buses to get close to the kerbs for parents with buggies and wheelchair users to get onto the bus - not popular with some but last time I asked about 30% of people in our District do not have access to a car - this figure will possibly grow with the recession and pressure from the Government is to make bus travel a better alternative to the car for environmental reasons. The Quality Bus Partnership will deal with this.
At the launch, DDC Officers and I also spoke with the KCC Cabinet Member regarding taking forward the business cases for the £5.4millions for transport improvements in Dover that have been selected as bids in the Community Infrastructure Fund mentioned in another thread - 'Keeping on track for another multi-million pound regeneration boost'.
Guest 682- Registered: 19 Jan 2009
- Posts: 146
For some reason the above was posted twice so I am deleting the second one
Terry Nunn- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
Yes Nigel, at one stage Dover was the Anus Mundi in the bus world. What a revelation it was to see all the shiny new buses in Thanet. Canterbury are also re-equiping and branding the local services as "Arrow", just like our "Heart".
What's the score with the MB 907's on the 63 and 68 routes? The Optare Solo's are no wider than the proverbial corporation dustcart so why can't they be used?
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Terry Nunn- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
Meant to say 709, dyslexia rules, K.O. ?
Terry
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
