(30 Nov 2016, 10:02 pm)omnicity4659 wrote The timetable is quite tight, I did a run on an E400 at about 7pm to see if Morpeth to Ashington is actually possible in 17 minutes....4 stops. 3 minutes late.I have noticed that the timetable, especially with Streetlites is quite demanding, so a few minutes is understandable. It's when I see one 11 minutes late at 11 in the morning that makes me question what's going on.
Every traffic light was green, roads were quiet, it was a 14 reg E400 with decent acceleration, reached top speed between Pegswood and Ashington, a handful of passengers, yet still running late?!
Traffic levels during the day and StreetLites 50mph limit cause the delays. Other buses running the service get delayed because the StreetLite in front (behind) is running late, so the bus behind (in front) gets all the passengers.
I never seem to recall B10BLEs having this much trouble running the service to time, or the Scania single deckers before them. Again, two or three minutes here or there, but the real issue does seem to stem from the allocation of Streetlites.
If it was possible, I'd try and get the X21 running independently from the 35 on evenings, Sundays, and Bank Holidays. There is nowhere near the amount of time needed in that 35 timetable to get a late running X21 back on time, especially when you consider decreased layover.