Wellington bus bugbears

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#2017110 16-May-2018 19:28

allan:

freitasm:

Starlith:

Don't know if this is the right place but does anyone have any issues with the new bus routes or should I say binned bus routes. The Seatun 11 is gone so there goes my direct bus near the airport from Newtown. Why change something that isn't broken?

Looking at Johnsonville West (53) it seems like it will change soon (around the time Snapper comes to Newlands Coach Service) - Metlink tells me it will be better but looking at the route description, I doubt it. Let's see when it comes live in a couple of months.

I predict issues with the new No 1 North/South "spine route" from Johnsonville to Island Bay too. Not sure how they intend to maintain bus frequency when the inevitable accident / congestion occurs on the Ngauranga Gorge. Will be fairly frustrating if you are waiting in Lambton Quay to get to Island Bay.

Buses running through the middle of the CBD are also part of the problem. GWRC initially proposed scrapping lots of these to eliminate a lot of the congestion, but in the end simply seem to have increased them.

lchiu7

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#2023396 27-May-2018 15:04

With the onset of winter can I make a plea for those bus stops which are sheltered to have at least one window installed on them so you can see out for the oncoming bus without getting wet. For example

I have almost missed a but when it rushed by thinking there are no passengers waiting when they are actually inside sheltering from the elements. At least with the window we can see the bus coming and step outside.

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D1023319

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#2023512 27-May-2018 18:20

Typical for bus stop designer compency. The new stop in moxham avenue had to be modified to make passengers more visible.

jonherries

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#2023578 27-May-2018 20:33

WyleECoyoteNZ:
Oh, and the final bugbear for the day.

They've got a new color scheme for the side of the buses, but for some weird reason, it's going to stay the yellow on the front. A bit of consistency please, leaving the front as is looks like a half a$$ed job.

Agree - the lime/navy colours don’t match the yellow at all. But presumably it is easy enough to change as they already wrap the back/side and fronts of the buses for ad campaigns?

Also did I read correctly that they have binned the Wrightspeed motors and are going with a Chinese supplier?

Jon

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#2023594 27-May-2018 21:13

Personally I don't care about the colour. (Although I liked the yellow), It's the decals on the windows that annoy me.

They make looking out the window at nighttime a real pain and it's sometimes hard to tell where you are in the suburbs where it's dark.

jonherries:
WyleECoyoteNZ:
Oh, and the final bugbear for the day.

They've got a new color scheme for the side of the buses, but for some weird reason, it's going to stay the yellow on the front. A bit of consistency please, leaving the front as is looks like a half a$$ed job.

Agree - the lime/navy colours don’t match the yellow at all. But presumably it is easy enough to change as they already wrap the back/side and fronts of the buses for ad campaigns?

Also did I read correctly that they have binned the Wrightspeed motors and are going with a Chinese supplier?

Jon

wellygary

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#2023597 27-May-2018 21:14

jonherries:
WyleECoyoteNZ:

Oh, and the final bugbear for the day.

They've got a new color scheme for the side of the buses, but for some weird reason, it's going to stay the yellow on the front. A bit of consistency please, leaving the front as is looks like a half a$$ed job.

Agree - the lime/navy colours don’t match the yellow at all. But presumably it is easy enough to change as they already wrap the back/side and fronts of the buses for ad campaigns?

Also did I read correctly that they have binned the Wrightspeed motors and are going with a Chinese supplier?

Jon

Yip,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103869609/wellingtons-60-retired-trolley-buses-could-be-converted-into-fullyelectric-vehicles

looks like the Wrightspeed idea proved as useful as the Capstone turbine ones did on AUckland 15 years ago

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10650826

Good that they have walked away at an early stage and did not get to any deployment,

I've seen the prototype roaming round routes and it looks like it does seem to work well,

I'm guessing the big questions are range, cost and abilty to charge them

elpenguino

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#2023635 27-May-2018 22:10

wellygary:

jonherries:
WyleECoyoteNZ:

Oh, and the final bugbear for the day.

They've got a new color scheme for the side of the buses, but for some weird reason, it's going to stay the yellow on the front. A bit of consistency please, leaving the front as is looks like a half a$$ed job.

Agree - the lime/navy colours don’t match the yellow at all. But presumably it is easy enough to change as they already wrap the back/side and fronts of the buses for ad campaigns?

Also did I read correctly that they have binned the Wrightspeed motors and are going with a Chinese supplier?

Jon

Yip,

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103869609/wellingtons-60-retired-trolley-buses-could-be-converted-into-fullyelectric-vehicles

looks like the Wrightspeed idea proved as useful as the Capstone turbine ones did on AUckland 15 years ago

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10650826

Good that they have walked away at an early stage and did not get to any deployment,

I've seen the prototype roaming round routes and it looks like it does seem to work well,

I'm guessing the big questions are range, cost and abilty to charge them

Imagine if there was some way to distribute electricity to a moving bus, then you wouldn't need to charge them.

Maybe someone will invent that one day :-)

jonherries

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#2058459 18-Jul-2018 20:13

So apparently they built the new Wellington double deckers with “blue lights” inside so they would be easier on the drivers eyes at night...

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/105539193/blue-lights-in-wellingtons-new-bus-fleet-spark-complaints-on-twitter

antoniosk

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#2058469 18-Jul-2018 20:42

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/07/wellington-commuter-chaos-as-tranzit-takes-over-bus-routes.html

This would be funny if the content wasn’t so horrible. Swapping the bus drivers out with others who don’t know the roads? These aren’t little priuses being uber’d everyone, they have people on them and go through neighbourhoods.

Add political interference to the mix as well... what a mess.

Have to admit, the blue lights from a distance at night do make things look like a ravers worst nightmare come to life, doing 30kmh going to the wrong place...!

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sbiddle

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#2058470 18-Jul-2018 20:46

jonherries: So apparently they built the new Wellington double deckers with “blue lights” inside so they would be easier on the drivers eyes at night...

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/105539193/blue-lights-in-wellingtons-new-bus-fleet-spark-complaints-on-twitter

Not all of the buses have blue lights. They're a mix of blue and warm(ish) white depending on the individual bus, and apparently where it was manufactured. The buses came from multiple different manufacturers depending on the size.

Considering they've had buses in operation in Hutt Valley for a month with the blue lights and not a single person seems to have made a mention of it previously I would have to consider this a case of probably one person complaining and then everybody else jumping on the bandwagon.

I do feel it does remind me of being in a dodgy public bathroom somewhere in Europe where they've got the blue lights to stop junkies from being able to see their veins to shoot up!

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#2058471 18-Jul-2018 20:52

antoniosk: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/07/wellington-commuter-chaos-as-tranzit-takes-over-bus-routes.html

This would be funny if the content wasn’t so horrible. Swapping the bus drivers out with others who don’t know the roads? These aren’t little priuses being uber’d everyone, they have people on them and go through neighbourhoods.

Add political interference to the mix as well... what a mess.

Have to admit, the blue lights from a distance at night do make things look like a ravers worst nightmare come to life, doing 30kmh going to the wrong place...!

I do find it really ironic that the Tramways Union have historically always hated NZ Bus. Suddenly NZ Bus seems to be the good guys and Tranzit the bad guys as they've established a workforce that seems to apparently be heavily non unionised. Media really have to be careful about what they're going to report if they don't want to come across as impartial and bashing Tranzit for things that aren't their doing.

I really do have to wonder why it was considered smart to swap operators and totally revamp routes on the same day though, that's always come across to me as a disaster in the making and it would seem that's exactly what has happened.

alasta

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#2058472 18-Jul-2018 21:04

It's great to have high frequency services running at 10 minute intervals, but only if they are on time. It seems that buses operating these services are sometimes on time, and sometimes ranging from 5 to 15 minutes late, which results in them bunching up. On Monday evening I was on a double decker on the #1 route which was full, and within my line of sight there were two mostly empty double deckers on the same route going in the same direction!

It seems to me that they are running the timetables too tight, and consequently the lateness is compounding. I guess they wanted to maximise utilisation of buses by not having any leeway in the timetables - a good move for saving money but not for quality of service.

freitasm

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#2058515 18-Jul-2018 22:48

Yep, I saw three route 1 Churton Park buses, one after another on Willis St, on Tuesday (second day of change). Made me think whoever planned this timetable was on drugs.

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elpenguino

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#2058526 19-Jul-2018 00:02

Nah, that bunching is a well known phenomena which occurs everywhere I've ever waited for a bus.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18074-why-three-buses-come-at-once-and-how-to-avoid-it/

freitasm

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#2058528 19-Jul-2018 00:12

It annoys me that there are three Route 1 buses: Route 1 Newlands, Route 1 Johnsonville, Route 1 Churton Park (marked as such). Why not different route numbers if they're actually going to different places once they hit the Johsonville hub?

On the positive side, the old 53 that used to be only around Johnsoville (extended to Courtenay Pl only in peak times) now is the Route 1 Johnsonville and goes all the way to the hospital at all times (except for a couple of scheduled trips in the morning).

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