johncrossley
Established Member
Can't they use an alternative site for hydrogen filling? What about the old Southdown depot?
Can't they use an alternative site for hydrogen filling? What about the old Southdown depot?
Not to mention the added dead mileage, duty costs to enable drivers/engineers to get to what may be a remote site from their route and impact on overall duty lengths and efficiency....See post #107. Great minds etc!
The Copthorne site is small - Southdown operated around 24 buses. Metrobus have almost 100 hydrogen buses in place or on order. I don't think that they could all be housed there, but they could call in to be refuelled perhaps, either mid duty (without passengers!), or at the start or end of the day.
The Copthorne site does not appear to be close to a school or railway, but there is obviously a cost in relocating the kit from Crawley.
Not to mention the added dead mileage, duty costs to enable drivers/engineers to get to what may be a remote site from their route and impact on overall duty lengths and efficiency....
Can i ask where you have heard that? Where is that rumour from? The current route 1 is a standard urban cross city route. An express version of that would not really make much sense at all.Does anybody have any information on the rumoured new B&H route 1X?
I can't speak for OP but have been following these rumours. From what I know, a (well-known and trusted) former managing director of B&H recently alluded to the 6 new 400s in the new standard livery (738-744) being ordered ahead of the rollout of a new 'city route'. These buses are fitted with different interiors to the coasters too, but are still single-door and fully diesel powered.Can i ask where you have heard that? Where is that rumour from? The current route 1 is a standard urban cross city route. An express version of that would not really make much sense at all.
38 of the new [E400MMCs] are destined for the hugely popular and frequent route 12/12A/12X wearing an updated livery featuring the ‘coaster’ brand and the now familiar green and blue colour scheme with later deliveries to be deployed on ‘sister’ coaster route 14 between Newhaven, Peacehaven and Brighton. The remaining six buses of the order will be deployed on a new city service.
Yes.You're referring to Roger French, I take it.
No it's happened quite a few times. There's also been multiple instances of Brighton & Hove liveried Omnidekkas running on routes, particularly the 410 I think.Short Scania Omnicity 6633 is currently operating the 410 ex Southdown service in full Fastway livery. Is this the first time a true Metrobus vehicle has operated a Southdown route (as opposed to the buses such as the Geminis which have transferred to Copthorne)?
Seems to only be a substitute, as an available vehicle. The relevant 410 ran from Redhill about half an hour late for the 1735 departure, seemingly after LK55AEA was unavailable. However, that later managed to run the 1935 from Redhill. It was working 100s earlier in the day. I saw a Brighton & Hove Scania Omnidekka double decker on the 400 earlier in Redhill, but this was running on a spare ticket machine.Short Scania Omnicity 6633 is currently operating the 410 ex Southdown service in full Fastway livery. Is this the first time a true Metrobus vehicle has operated a Southdown route (as opposed to the buses such as the Geminis which have transferred to Copthorne)?
I actually saw the Omnicity in Oxted working on the 410 towards Redhill at around 19.10 on Saturday evening, with complete destination display. If the Dart LK55AEA was available for the 19.35 from Redhill, it looks as though the Scania ran one round trip.Seems to only be a substitute, as an available vehicle. The relevant 410 ran from Redhill about half an hour late for the 1735 departure, seemingly after LK55AEA was unavailable. However, that later managed to run the 1935 from Redhill.
Yes they all have the Southdown blinds, and vice versa with Southdown buses on Metrobus routes (although that's never happened yet).How easy is it to reprogramme the destination displays, or do all Metrobus buses have a full set of Southdown displays?
It does seem a backward step having single door buses on the 1!Interestingly, there was a suggestion earlier in the year that the six e400 in the standard livery were for the 6, which was why they had single doors.
The latest edition of the Brighton Bus Watch newsletter mentions this new route 1X service so it seems that it is indeed happening.I can't speak for OP but have been following these rumours. From what I know, a (well-known and trusted) former managing director of B&H recently alluded to the 6 new 400s in the new standard livery (738-744) being ordered ahead of the rollout of a new 'city route'. These buses are fitted with different interiors to the coasters too, but are still single-door and fully diesel powered.
This information was from his blog post, and an unknown individual in the comments below stated this would be a '1x'. So definitely not a reliable source for what the route will be, but a new route of some kind does look plausible.
News has reached Brighton Buswatch of new route 1X, running between Brighton Marina and Mile Oak. Six new MMC buses, a follow on order from the 38 new coaster buses is understood to be intended for this service.
Ah yes i forgot about the 7X service. Considering that none of their other local city limited stop express routes have lasted long it does make me wonder why they are introducing the 1X service. I wonder how long the 1X will last. I seem to remember that they also introduced the i7 at the same time as the 7X and it lasted about six months too.They also pre COVID tried a 7X from the marina to the station. And it lasted six months...
For whatever reason (flexibility if transferring to another group company?) the Coasters are constructed to the Enviro 400MMC Low Height spec, B & H buses were always traditionally built to full height ('Highbridge' in old money).I did the Coaster today, so thought I'd share a few thoughts on the new buses. Extremely comfortable seats, pretty quite engine-wise and loved the huge windows. I also loved the super-vibrant colours used for the livery.
I was surprised how low the ceiling was on the upper deck (my head was skimming the ceiling) and already the lighter grey used for the glossy molded plastic was pretty scuffed and worn. Also couldn't quite work out if the engine was stop-start or not. It seemed to stop almost every time the doors opened but not always, and when we were in a queue in Cuckmere Valley, the engine was still running.
I was a bit surprised how many rattles there were for such new buses and there was a lot of creaking plastic noises too. I didn't like the location of the stop buttons at all (seatbacks on every other row rather than on poles). It caught a few people out and also someone hit one with their bag. The LCD screens with the stop information were quite poorly designed with an extremely small font which is a real backstep in terms of accessibility. I also found it quite stuffy because approx the first five rows upstairs don't really get any benefit of open windows.
Overall very nice buses, but I think the 10-year-old Geminis offer a better passenger experience and seem to be a bit more robust and built to a higher standard.
There are in Romsey, Lymington, Brockenhurst and Hythe.I note also that the latest batch of single door E400s to Bluestar are also low height (recent dual doors are Full height - there being no low bridge issues in Southampton), so maybe its a group policy decision?