TerritoryTransit Scania Artics

[Darwin bus lover]

TT's artics days are numbered. I spoke to one of the co-ordinators who was on duty at the new Woolworths Darwin City bus stop and I've been informed only 1 artic, 122 I assume is going to be used, and sparingly from now on and neither Arctic's are allowed to depart from the city, they are allowed to run inbound to the city provided it does not then continue on an outbound route. Along with this 120 is now only to be used for emergencies. 123 has been returned from Mandorah and another bus has will be sent at the start of next School term.

[Merc1107]

... I've been informed only 1 artic, 122 I assume is going to be used, and sparingly from now on and neither Arctic's are allowed to depart from the city, they are allowed to run inbound to the city provided it does not then continue on an outbound route. Along with this 120 is now only to be used for emergencies.

Over the past four years just using one has been pretty normal for the most part, although is there any specific rationale for not using them on trips out of the city now? Are the new facilities for buses on Cavenagh St. inadequate for large vehicles?

Shame about 120, although it was to be expected. In theory it or 121 are next in line for replacement.

[Darwin bus lover]

The new Woolworths Bus stop is indeed to small. To give an idea of how much it's been reduced 2 rigid buses can barely fit into the space without blocking the entrance to woolworths. So I do understand why the artics would not be allowed to operate there anymore as it would hold up the trailing bus or block the entrance to woolworths.

After spending a solid 5+ hours during the am and pm peak observing the buses running in and out their is already a few problems to note,

1) where the front bus stops is too far away to set of the sensor so the bus then needs to move foward, but only by about 20 cms meaning a lot of drivers over shot the front bay so they'd be on the sensor.

2) if 3 buses arrive at once (1st and/or 2nd arriving late with the 3rd on time) the 3rd buses has to wait in a small section before the woolworths entrance which during peak times has cars entering constantly. This meant many times the co-ordinators had to run down and ask the cars to wait so the bus could enter the lane.

3) because there is only 2 bays whichever bus arrives first uses the front bay and the trailing bus uses the 2nd bay. Due to this passengers can't tell prior to them arriving which bay the bus will stop at meaning the congregate at the 2 small benches and wander up when it arrives, delaying the second bus.

4) when 2 buses are there at the same time the 2nd bus can not depart until the first bus does. This means for instance if an o4 is being followed by say an i7 the i7 will have to wait for all the passengers to board the i4 before they can leave, delaying and often heavily the i7.

Aside from these the bus stop is actually doing alright. It's not amazing and very unorganised as is everything in Darwin but over time I'm sure these issues will hopefully be resolved.

[Merc1107]

That definitely explains why they've had to impose that restriction, then.

It doesn't look like any new timetables have been uploaded yet, and there was supposed to be a reschedule to smooth out the departures from the city to prevent bus congestion, so this presumably hasn't occurred yet?

[Darwin bus lover]

The new timetables haven't been uploaded yet but the buses are running to them. They are mostly during peak times but ensure that there is at most 2 buses going out at once (that pass woolworths). The exception is when an i14C departs as they can have 3 buses leaving then. No orbital links have been affected. Most of the changes are 2 mins delay e.g. the 1035 o8 now departs at 1037 except for the 1715 o8 which leaves now at 1719 this is the largest change that I've found so far.. None of the changes have made services run earlier so there is no chance of missing the bus (due to timetabling anyway).

Aswell morning i/o9 services now arrive 1 minute later. E.g. the 0545 i9 now arrives at 0616 rather then 0615, very minor but none the less different.

The changes are on the Bus tracker however so it is possible to view them there. The Darwin departures actuall came in a few weeks ago, as a trial I guess but they officially started on the 28th.

[Bus-1809]

Can the artics not be timetabled to leave the city on trips where no other buses are departing at the same time, (ie: so that they have the stop to themselves and therefore aren't blocking the Woolies entrance?

[Bus-1809]

121 has been allocated fleet number 1370 with Torrens Transit & will enter service at Morphettville depot