04 March 2012

Sneak Preview!

Very special thanks to Brian George and Plymouth Citybus for permission to bring you this sneak preview of the new buses which will shortly be arriving with Plymouth Citybus. The buses will of course receive a full set of fleet names etc. before they get placed into service so they will look even better. The first few are expected at Milehouse by the end of next week. 

 

Plymouth Citybus WA12ACO Plymouth Citybus WA12ACO Plymouth Citybus WA12ACO


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    • 33 comments:

      1. Offside destination display, now thats something new!

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      2. That's what I thought! I can see how it would be useful though, if you're walking up to the bus from the other side of it, then you can see if it was the bus you wanted or not.

        I can't see the use of the rear destination display; if there's a double decker behind it then it's useless as you can't see what number it is.

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      3. Sorry Tom, but what are you on? The rear destin is very useful if you are coming up behind the bus. You cant call it useless just because there might be another bus in the way.
        The side destination is useless if there is something in front of it. In fact the front destination would probably be useless if it was parked right up behind a double decker.

        The more displays the better - and this seems to be a great set of displays especially the full size on at the rear.

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      4. I'm saying if you're walking up to the bus from behind, and there's a bus, right behind it, then it will block out the rear display.

        Either way we view it, the displays must've cost Citybus a lot of money!

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      5. Again, I don't think the destination display is an issue. There would be more of an issue if the destination display was at the top of the bus like on 99% of darts and Citaros. However, because it's in the middle, it'll still be visible through the windscreen of whatever bus happens to be in front. A bit of a contrived example I admit, but still feasible.

        And anyway, if the back of the bus is blocked from vision, there's still the destination information on the side. That's one of the reasons why a lot of buses have a nearside destination display nowadays.

        I'm more curious as to how useful that offside destination display would be. Can't really figure out the need for it nor can I think of any other examples of offside displays in the UK. I'd be very interested to hear the reasoning behind it.

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      6. * Rear destination display, whatever bus happens to be behind. I haven't had enough tea yet!

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      7. Tom, Totally Wrong re Dest Blinds.

        Blinds are completely necessary on several sides of the Vehicle. It informs Customers of the Dest of the Bus, speeding up Loading Times. The More Info on the Extern, the Better!

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      8. Good to see Citybus keeping their customers informed.

        As I see it Tom, the more blinds the better.

        At least they have blinds, unlike Targets bit of paper!

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      9. "Can't really figure out the need for it nor can I think of any other examples of offside displays in the UK. I'd be very interested to hear the reasoning behind it."

        The only example of an offside display on a UK bus that I can think of was a trio of Bristol LHs, that were used by LT on a council supported service in the late 70's

        http://www.flickr.com/photos/londonstreetscenes/4265542719/

        "The indicator on the side was intended to show late running. It would show "Bus no. 1 running late" or "Bus no. 2 running late". Although the timetable showed whether bus no. 1 or 2 was operating each particular journey, the display would only have been of use if you were waiting for a bus and one happened to pass in the opposite direction!"

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      10. Go Ahead have previously specified off-side destination screens on their Wilts and Dorset deliveries. A number of vehicles in the current fleet have such features

        Citaro:
        http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderer30/5111419763/

        Eclipse:
        http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbbuspics/4998933858/

        Myllennium
        http://www.flickr.com/photos/59115230@N06/5436185773/

        Full width rear destination screens are also a common feature of GA fleets with GNE, B&H, GSC and OBC fleets all making use of such displays.

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      11. I'm in aggrement that 'the more blinds the better', I just think the rear one looks a bit strange and could be easily blocked. But I'll get used to it!

        Anyway, on a different note, I think they certainly look very stylish, modern, maybe a bit Enviro 200/300 like. I look forward to seeing them on the road.

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      12. Question is, who will be the first to catch a photo of them in the depot?!!?

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      13. Me + 43A will be having a 'competition; to See Who Gets all 12 for Haulage First!!!!

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      14. Citybus have come on in leaps and bounds with the way they communicate to their customers. Shame the knockers on here can't see any positives with providing additional customer information in the way of larger and additional destination displays. As someone already said better than the illegal bits of paper or the unreadable electronic binds favored by Target. These new vehicles look superb, cant wait to see the interior as I expect Citybus will have done something special in that area as well. Lets have some positive thoughts on this serious investment which will hugely improve the fleet age profile. I don't see any other operator spending money in Plymouth.

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      15. I wouldn't say I had a negative view on it at all, it's a huge investment by Citybus and I'm sure that even non-enthusiasts/elderly passengers will notice that they're new and will appreciate them.

        AFAIK Target use tatty bits of paper due to their destination blinds not working, they could at least make the bits of paper a bit clearer!

        Looking back on it now, I just thought the rear blind looked a bit odd when I first saw it. Having given it some thought, I can now see the benefit of it more. I can also understand why they've placed one on the offside, if you're walking up to a street e.g. Royal Parade directly side-on, having not seen the front display, then it would be useful. One thing though, if the font used is actually that size shown in the pictures, I can't see that going down well with elderly passengers. I'm almost completely sure Citybus will make it fit the whole screen once the buses have 'properly' arrived and been painted etc and they can program in their own routes, rather than a generic display from the manufacturer.

        On a different note again, all N-reg SLFs are still in service and I doubt any will be withdrawn before all 10 new Volvos enter service.

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      16. Listen Tom, you've embarrassed yourself, now shut up!

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      17. It'll probably be the single-line, squished-up font that Citybus currently uses, which suits LED signboards a LOT more than it suits flipdots! Try reading the current signboard for the 28 from a distance!

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      18. I know, the font Citybus uses suits the LED boards much better than the older flipdot boards. The 28 should really just say 'Derriford'. I saw a 28A saying 'Derriford Hospital' the other day instead of just 'Derriford'.

        I think the Citaros displays are the easiest to read, though having said that reading 'Plympton St Maurice 22' from a distance on a Citaro isn't exactly easy! Some buses seem to display 'Sandy Road 22' as it's outbound display though, which can be read from a huge distance!

        The font used on the Enviros destination boards are also fairly 'slim and stretched', even 'City Centre' with a two-digit number is very 'narrow'. I don't think they can even display a three digit number; 142 was on the 28B/29/34 last Sunday and it just displayed '28' instead of '28B'. I'm getting boring and carried away now so I'll stop before people reading lose the will to live...

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      19. The Enviro's have no issue displaying 43A City Center, or 43A Saltash.

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      20. I'll re-phrase that, it was probably a fault with whoever programmed it in that forgot to put the 'B' at the end.

        They are legible, but do appear a bit 'thin'. But everyone has their own opinion!

        I haven't been into the city much in the week, so are the Enviros on the 43A Monday-Friday, then on Saturdays these go to the 40/41 and the 43A has B7s?

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      21. One hopes that Plymouth City Council resurfaces the roads on Biggin Hill, Uxbridge and Lakeside Drives else the vehicles could start to suffer from the damage of large pot holes on these roads!

        I would still have preferred Optare Versas. The First D&C Volvo's are so slow on hills.

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      22. Just being a little nit-picky here, but what's going on with the non-standard rear licence plate? I understand it can't go in the usual position behind the rear window because of the full width destination display that Tom took such offence to, but surely Wright could have found a more aesthetically pleasing solution then just screwing it on at the bottom and adding some ugly lights they found in the parts bin to satisfy the legal requirements.

        Strangely, on earlier examples of this model also fitted with full rear displays, Wright has done a much nicer job of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdominator14/3739556278/

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      23. Apologies for the double post, but I've just found the answer to my question. The design has been amended to make it more resemble the Streetlite's rump: http://www.flickr.com/photos/buses7675/5922669092/

        Having not having seen one in real life yet, I'm honestly not sure if that's a good thing or not!

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      24. Can I Just say as i have had a few people message me asking if the "Tom" getting riped to bits on here is Me(Tom Pearce)

        ITS NOT

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      25. @Nick

        The location of the number plate at the bottom is now standard on all new buses, as are the orange sidelights down the side, because of the new EU regs ECWTA.

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      26. any news on these? thought a few were due at milehouse by the end of this week. that may b by sunday rather than the working week but it seems unlikely they would arrive on a weekend

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      27. i had a quick peek over the wall yesterday @ milehouse and couldnt see any of them. they may be hiding em away though!!

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      28. None here yet. First few are due THIS week sometime

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      29. WA12 ACX was in the depot today, spotted it about 45mins ago reversing out of the garages next to the spray shop. Citybus Livery partly done. No fleet number yet either.

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      30. WA12 ACX arrived at 6am today

        3 others arrived at 17.03pm.

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      31. i have heard that fleet numbers will be 100 to 109.

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      32. ^^ I've also heard they will start at either 100 or 101. Though there is a possibility they'll start at 95, following on from 94, WA56OZU, the last Citaro.

        Thanks to Anonymous at 20.10, surely once the rest are here, it can't be long before they enter service! Don't suppose you managed to get the registrations of them though? I came across this, which has some possibilities:

        http://findplate.altervista.org/uk/index.php?prefix=12&firstletter=W&secondletter=A&nosep=&paging=2

        Search for WA12-ACN, and that may well be the first one. This set of registrations goes up to WA12 ACZ, which is 11 buses, so there may be a mistake there!

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      33. Tom, I wouldnt take anything from that website as its just a list of plates - nothing to suggest they even exist on anything at all.

        I am sure it wont be long before we get the full registration list!

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