STA Observations - August 2017

Sydney / New South Wales Transport Discussion
OKO
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by OKO »

Mr OC Benz wrote:Sunday to Wednesday nights, a North Sydney bus operates a 151 up to Mona Vale. I believe it is then changed for an artic up there. Thursday to Saturday nights, a North Sydney artic is used instead.
The only time this occurs is when there is a problem with the N bus. Or even the V bus as their all nighter is in and out of F Depot twice.

Otherwise, the N and V Bus Ops finish the shift in the bus they started with.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Stonesourscotty »

Another day another Ryde breakdown 1830 broken down on the 518 this morning
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by OKO »

I understand 2004 from Y had a f̶i̶r̶e̶ thermal incident yesterday in Drummoyne.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Stonesourscotty »

Is it Normal for Metrobus vehicles to work schools for STA?
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Fleet Lists »

Yes
Living in the Shire.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by jpp42 »

City2surf uplift seems smooth. Not sure if this is new, but they had large numbers of police in Bondi Junction, directing traffic at Oxford & Grosvenor and Grafton & Grosvenor. Grosvenor was closed in both directions and inbound buses turning right from Oxford were able to use the whole roadway, including the southbound lanes, in order to quickly access the drop-off area on Grafton without queuing. It seemed this system was working well, even with the curb lane on Grafton partially blocked by an ambulance, attending to some unfortunate runner who seemed to have made it as far as here and then passed out.

The one thing that could be improved was there was no all-door loading at Bondi Beach. It takes quite a while to load an artic to crush capacity. Not sure the reasoning here.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Frosty »

Pretty sure last year they had that setup at Bondi Junction. Were they only boarding using the front door only ? I did see quite a few bendies including many red metrobus bendies from W, P & T. I must wonder how the queues were didn't see any deciding to use the 389 to save time. Must be the unions not allowing all door boarding there is door cameras on the artics anyways.

Bit weird noticed a Northern Beaches bendy sitting at Lee St layover this morning very odd ?
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by tonyp »

jpp42 wrote: The one thing that could be improved was there was no all-door loading at Bondi Beach. It takes quite a while to load an artic to crush capacity. Not sure the reasoning here.
Because TfNSW is militantly against it and they can't let any precedents slip through. There's been a toughening up on the Gong Shuttle. Drivers now slam the centre door shut as soon as the last passenger has exited through it, to stop "jumpers", whereas it was previously left open throughout the stop dwell. Moreover, the drivers are still having to count pasengers through the front door. This is not RTBU territory, it's TfNSW doing this. They don't seem to care how much they sabotage service or timekeeping, as long as they preserve their rigid procedures. The Gong Shuttle is exempt from timekeeping performance compliance (as is STA presumably). A couple of days ago I boarded one that was running 9 minutes late. No traffic problems, just the inefficiency at stops. How "fortunate" we are to be blessed with such a big-thinking, non-petty transport agency (not).
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by ed24 »

The Moore Park route 1 bus from Eddy Ave almost always allows rear-door boarding.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by tonyp »

ed24 wrote:The Moore Park route 1 bus from Eddy Ave almost always allows rear-door boarding.
Unsupervised?
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Stonesourscotty »

It didn't allow rear door loading on the 1 for the St George v Souths game
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by boronia »

tonyp wrote:
ed24 wrote:The Moore Park route 1 bus from Eddy Ave almost always allows rear-door boarding.
Unsupervised?
In pre-Opal days the loadings at Chalmers Sts were always supervised, and they had portable card readers, same for the UNSW buses.

I think there are still supervisors at eddy Ave, but they are probably not "door marshals".
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by jpp42 »

tonyp/Frosty - I understand about the rule that all door loading requires supervisors at the middle/rear doors, and this is still being done at the QVB and on Park St during afternoon/evening peak. Yes it would have required more staffing but I would think would be offset by the increase in throughput.

I waited about 20 minutes in the boarding queue, around 2pm, which is better than in the past, although this was probably after the peak demand which I would guess is around 11-12. Although the race itself does help spread out the demand quite a bit due to the staggered start and the limitations of how many people can fit through the start line at once.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Frosty »

I remember last year they had a hybrid all door boarding with the bendies & all door boarding with the rigid buses. I would say the busiest times are around 10:30 to 11:30. Though I saw there were people complaining about the queues at Bondi Jn towards Bondi Beach with most buses simply running Not In Service back to Bondi Beach from Bondi Jn. I've seen with rail replacements by STA all door boarding particularly along the Airport Line as often its impossible to get via the front due to suitcases in the way.

I guess this year was better since they may have used more bendy buses. maybe next year we could see double deckers on the X81 shuttles :lol:
ed24
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by ed24 »

Stonesourscotty wrote:It didn't allow rear door loading on the 1 for the St George v Souths game
I noticed at the AFL - and yes it was supervised.
burrumbus
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by burrumbus »

All utterly stupid and pedantic.TFNSW and STA should go to Melbourne to see how Skybus and Ryans work with all door loading with minimal supervision in Skybus operation and zero with Ryans.It works a treat with timekeeping with both operators spot on with intensive busy services.Just get into the 21st century !!
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by wattsstuart »

I can verify that at least on some busses all door loading occurred. I entered the back door of a artic on my way home from City 2 Surf yesterday. There did seem to be some issue with locations of temporary fencing which may have made it hard to do all door boarding on buses with different door arrangements?
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by tonyp »

The critical point is whether there was official supervision present. If there wasn't, that indicates some relaxation or collapse of existing rules. I've written to Constance about it a while ago - still haven't had a reply. No doubt my name is highlighted in TfNSW's system as a "difficult case", resistant to spin.

It's an increasingly difficult position for TfNSW to sustain when jurisdictions all around Australia are moving forward. "NSW is different" doesn't hold water.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by matthewg »

wattsstuart wrote:I can verify that at least on some busses all door loading occurred. I entered the back door of a artic on my way home from City 2 Surf yesterday. There did seem to be some issue with locations of temporary fencing which may have made it hard to do all door boarding on buses with different door arrangements?
I boarded the rear door of a rigid for my trip back up the hill. The marshal did bang on the centre door a few times before the driver opened it.
The gaps in the fencing were set for the rigid buses. Depending on where an artic stopped, one of the doors would be against the safety fence.

They were turning the buses over extremely rapidly and the bus queue was moving quite rapidly too, I think I waited less than 10 minutes from end of the queue to on a bus. In the past, I've waited 40 minutes or more.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by burrumbus »

tonyp wrote:The critical point is whether there was official supervision present. If there wasn't, that indicates some relaxation or collapse of existing rules. I've written to Constance about it a while ago - still haven't had a reply. No doubt my name is highlighted in TfNSW's system as a "difficult case", resistant to spin.

It's an increasingly difficult position for TfNSW to sustain when jurisdictions all around Australia are moving forward. "NSW is different" doesn't hold water.
More people should be resistant to spin,Tony !! If they were politicians of all persuasions wouldn't try it as often.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Sydney_Buses_CB60 »

Just saw 4961 on a V route - Has been transferred to V?
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by pgt »

Sydney_Buses_CB60 wrote:Just saw 4961 on a V route - Has been transferred to V?
Given the lists show it as being Newcastle, quite likely.
I had noticed a number of buses that appear to have come back from Newcastle per-se (as in the Volvo B10BLE ex Brookvale buses eg. 3882), complete with Newcastle advertising (well, the one that says that time-based tickets are no longer accepted still seems to be there).
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by tonyp »

After a pleasant week riding with Transperth and its polite, considerate drivers (private operational contracts of course), this was an oh-so-familar welcome back to Sydney last night - in Shiers Ave outside Qantas domestic at 11 pm:
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Apologies that it's a hasty shot on a mobile but I'll explain. This is a 400 stopped with its backside out blocking most of Shiers Ave. It's a 1.5 (!!!)-door Bustech that was so packed the windows were steamed up. The reason he's propped out there loading and unloading his passengers and not pulled into the stop (the "public bus" sign) is that he was having a dummy spit with a motorist who'd quickly stopped at the tail of the bus stop to pick somebody up and was leaving just as the bus turned up. So instead of letting him go, the bus driver decides to pen him in to "teach him a lesson", never mind his passengers having to get out the back door onto the road, plus the usual achingly-slow queue of boarders at the institutionalised "front-door-only".

That's only half the story for me. We'd been waiting ages for a Blue Emu bus because, as explained previously, they get in a terrible mess with large crowds because they're all jammed into the low floor and refuse to go up the stairs to the back, so stop dwells are a seething mass of people fighting to get out with their bags, even with 3 doors. So last night, I could see on the GPS screen that, instead of a regular headway, half the buses were in a conga down at the carpark (this happens regularly) and none up at the terminals (vice versa, under Murphy's law, if you're at the carpark). So when one finally comes, it gets packed out at Virgin and we at Qantas have to fight to get on. So last night, guess what, when our bus finally came, it got stuck for ages behind this STA hero having his prolonged "revenge". The photo is taken from the Blue Emu stop at Qantas.

I assume that if this was a private operation, this sort of behaviour would be a serious disciplinary or even sacking matter - or it wouldn't happen because the drivers are properly trained. For the STA it doesn't surprise me, it's been a roughhouse like this since DGT days. Roll on privatisation is all I can say.
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Re: STA Observations - August 2017

Post by Jurassic_Joke »

tonyp wrote:After a pleasant week riding with Transperth and its polite, considerate drivers (private operational contracts of course),

I take it then many of them speak good levels of English?

For me, I don't just see bus drivers as bus drivers - theres an element of customer service too in the role. Exact same with when you do your shopping at Woolies or Coles. I always say hello, 'morning, or whatever, and it irks me how many times I don't even get a reply back because it basically looks like they were hired straight off the street from some neighbouring country (i.e., level of english = bad). It's rude. A while ago, somewhere on the Northern Beaches, there was a courteous, young female driver where I said the usual Hello, but a conversation about the nice weather and golf ensued, (I sat in the front seat), she wished me a fantastic rest of my day and weekend when I got off at Manly and that was really nice! It's incredible how such a relatively little thing made my day. Made sure to send a compliment through Feedback2Go, just wish more of Sydney's bus drivers were like that, not passive, soul-sucked robots (including letting everyone get away with a free ride, but thats another story/category).
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