Peak capacity to be reduced on the 507
TfL have released more information on the replacements to the 507. As of Saturday, 25th July (edited – had August originally!) 2009. The note, which is available here as a PDF, says:
- Brand new two door single deck buses will replace the current bendy buses on route 507.
- Passengers will still need a valid ticket before boarding through either door.
- A more frequent service will run during Monday to Friday morning and evening peak hours. Buses will run about every three minutes.
- New service on Saturdays and Sundays. Buses will run every 15 minutes during the early morning and every 12 minutes throughout the day.
My thoughts, in the same order as above:
New buses are indeed going to be replacing, at non-zero cost, the perfectly decent and relatively new bendies.
One of the objections to bendies was fare evasion. You only had to touch in if you were using pay-as-you-go Oyster; people with passes didn’t have to at touch in at all. Only 1% of journeys, according to this TfL FOI request, were made using paper tickets. Because not everyone had to pass the driver – you could board at any door – it was impossible to verify except when an inspector was on board. It will be possible to board through either set of doors on the 12m replacements; that problem (which didn’t really exist, largely as they were used by commuters who have Travelcards anyway) isn’t solved.
The service will be more frequent; every three minutes instead of every five during morning and evening peaks. Mercedes-Benz Citaros carry up to 149 passengers (source). Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts have a maximum capacity of 61. At three minute intervals, the smaller buses would need a capacity a fraction over 89 to match the bendies. That is a reduction in capacity on busy routes, meaning more people queuing on Mepham Street at Waterloo and, more problematically, on Terminus Place at Victoria.
The new service on Saturdays and Sundays is to be welcomed. As I have previously said, the bus is principally used by commuters but it passes three housing estates, a couple of schools and goes through residential areas.
This represents very bad value for money: relatively new buses are going to be replaced and capacity is going to be reduced. As many people, including Dave Hill, Christian Wolmar, Adam ‘Tory Troll’ Bienkov, MayorWatch and BorisWatch have said, scrapping the bendies is a bit of a daft thing to do and suggests that Mayor Johnson didn’t know much about the diverse London transport situation (not that I claim to in any great detail) before running for this office and has either not bothered to learn since or has realised he is trapped into silly, headline-grabbing populist policies.
xD.
July 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
TfL don’t use 149 as the estimated capacity for bendies, they use 120, which makes the replacements about the same capacity. The 149 is absolute crush-loading, which was later found not to be a great basis for estimating capacity. They went down to 100 for a bit, actually, before settling on 120.
The replacements are, er, Mercedes Citaros, the 12m non-bendy model, so they’ll be indistinguishable in ambience (that’s what the picture in the leaflet is) and IIRC the capacity figure is 70.
BTW, There’s a typo in your article, the real date is 25th July. There’s as yet no indication anywhere of how many of the new buses will be available for service as they hadn’t arrived in the capital yet.
Tom´s last blog ..That Boris EastEnders Appearance In Full
July 21st, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I bow to your superior knowledge – although the 507 is pretty bloody crush loaded in the mornings!
I didn’t realise they were going to use Citaros – don’t they use Darts for other single deck, non-artic routes? Even if the figures are 120 and 70, they represent a reduction in capacity.
Thanks for the corrections.
July 21st, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Enviro200s on our local route, plus some new and very nice Optare Versas but they’re configured about half-and-half seating and standing and have a total capacity in the low 50s. The 12m Citaros for the 507 will be substantially larger and presumably (although we haven’t seen any interior pics) have the same ratio of seats-to-standing (1/3 – 2/3) as bendies. In other words they’ll be identical inside. AFAIK only the RV1 uses Citaros in town, non-bendy ones are quite rare in London.
I do expect difficulties in the early days particularly if a large crowd off a single train coincide with the start of the 3 minute window – some of them may well be left behind where the bendy could have taken them, and therefore have at least a six minute wait. There’s something in telecoms called ’statistical multiplexing’ that may apply here and means that you don’t get the same quality of service by halving the bandwidth of each pipe and doubling the number of pipes. This particularly affects latency.
By the way, since I’ll not be able to come down, do take notes, pictures etc. of the first day, particularly if they haven’t managed to run it entirely bendy-free…
Tom´s last blog ..That Boris EastEnders Appearance In Full
July 21st, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Not sure I’ll be able to – I’m moving house on the Friday! I may pop my head into the area on the Monday, though, to see what’s happening.
Is statistical multiplexing (in layperson’s terms) the same as having twice as many columns with half the width taking up more space?
xD.
July 21st, 2009 at 7:31 pm
As a bicycle rider, bendy buses are of academic interest. Have they replaced the Routemasters yet?
jameshigham´s last blog ..[all or nothing] either fund them or get them out
July 21st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I’d say that buses affect all Londoners; the better the public transport provision, the less private cars on the road.
The Routemasters have all gone except for heritage routes 9 (Albert Hall to Aldwych) and 15 (Trafalgar Square to Tower Hill).
xD.
Dave Cole´s last blog ..Peak capacity to be reduced on the 507
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 am
The 15 sounds nice. Next time I’m in London.
jameshigham´s last blog ..[pub closures] sad but can we afford to drink now
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:40 am
Forgive this OT promotion but please support Man in a Shed’s “Silly Week” next week. Logos are available at his site.
jameshigham´s last blog ..[silly week] july 27th – now official