Las Vegas Baby! Trip to Strip

Whilst in Las Vegas in October 2019 I had a need to make some evening journeys for which I expected to be using Uber (as the buses, even the Strip-Downtown Express, are ridiculously slow!).  However I saw a new demand responsive service, Trip to Strip, promoted by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, and being a sucker for demand responsive travel, off I went.....

Strip Downtown Express ('SDX') in one of its faster sections, heading away from the Strip.

Trip to Strip operates in an area broadly covered by down town Las Vegas (the Old Town), the Strip, airport and Premium Outlets South.  To use it you need to down load the app, at which point you discover the software is that of Via Van, and is almost identical in format to Go Sutton, which also used Via Van technology. 

Excellent, service booked and it's eight minutes away. Gives me time to get from the 18th floor of the hotel to the pick up point.

And three minutes later its arrived, I'm being harassed by text message and then by the driver calling me.  (Note the message sent 18 minutes before the clock time!) 

And here is the van.  Rather than pull on to the hotel forecourt, I am directed to the nearest bus stop.  Talking to the driver, I learn that some hotels and casinos allow them on the forecourt and some don't, but mine does, qv.  As can be seen in the app screen print, the app knew exactly where I was, but that wasn't the pick up.....

This service is operated by a Ford Transit van, configured with seats configured in a 'U' shape.  It is also step entry, unlike low floor vans that tend to be used in the UK.  At the front is a cool box of chilled water and bucket for [cash] tips.  At my first destination the driver knows a better drop off location than the one her sat nav advises, but it was handy she pointed out the official drop off as that was the pick up for my next trip. With the same driver.

Much like my other demand responsive experiences, the two drivers I had on Trip to Strip were  unwavingly positive about the service and the customer reaction.  I remember my Chariot driver explaining just how popular the service was, driving around in the PM peak with just me on board.  It seems bus drivers don't have a great grasp of the customer volumes required to break even but do develop positive relationships with their [few] customers!

I think the low ridership/revenue on demand responsive transport is also responsible for the expansion in service area.  Just as Go Sutton expanded their service area, Trip to Strip was also keen to tell me I could go all the way south to M Resort/St Rosa Parkway (a road well known to me en route to the Henderson airport!). 

The target market for Trip to Strip is clearly people who would otherwise use Uber, Lyft or similar service. This is demonstrated by their marketing which highlights 'no surge pricing': at busy times Uber etc will apply surge pricing, which is better known as market forces.  In my case at least, they won!

When I returned to the hotel, on my third Trip to Strip trip of the evening, the driver dropped me off on the hotel forecourt.

My ride back was with another super enthusiastic driver.  The Ford Transit this time had three rows of seats and a wheelchair lift in the rear.  The Americans are generally quite unsubtle about their wheel chair lifts, and this one is no different - a huge lift simply folds out.  The driver was very keen to talk about Trip to Strip, demand responsive buses, Ford Transits or indeed any other subject (maybe hadn't seen a customer for a while) but was also conscious that the app expected him to move off to his nominated parking position.

So another lightly used demand responsive service ticked off.  Uber is a global brand, where customers expect to use the app and get a ride anywhere (ish) in the world.  Locally based DRT requires local knowledge and local apps.  As in so many places DRT seems to be used as an alternative to addressing the real public transport problem: traffic congestion and bus journey times.  I suspect its another questionable use of taxpayers money.  Still, can't fault the positivity of the drivers!

Belkommunmash in the UK?

This week saw the annual bus and coach trade show at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre.  One stand really stood out for me, and that was Belkommunmash, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of electric and trolley buses, based in Belarus.  This is the first tine I have seen or heard of them at a western European trade show.

Belkommunmash did briefly gain some notoriety a few years when their trolleybus products were mentioned in the same breath as the now cancelled Leeds trolleybus project.  I think some Leeds concillors visited the Belhommunmash factory but can't find a link to it.

Belkommunmash are trading as BKM Holdings (in their words, "easier to say") and had brought with them a right hand drive version of their E420 electric bus.

The BKM approach to electric buses is on-going charging via pantograph/overhead wire and supercapacitor, gaining around 25km of range from a 6-7 minute charge, rather than the plug-in electric buses more common in the UK, which require longer charging (overnight) for a whole day on the road.  Whilst this requires roadside infrastructure and some accurate parking, the amount of infrastructure required is far less than installing charging equipment for every bus in a bus garage, which in the UK is typically 100-200 buses.  That's a lot of plugs!

BKM Holdings were represented at Coach & Bus 2019 by both their own staff and those of the Belarussian Embassy in London.  The right hand drive E420 will be trialled in Nottingham (not sure which operator) in the near future.

The right hand drive E421.  Modern looks reminiscent of the Wright Streetcar?

The bus is wheel forward.  Whilst buses such as the WF Wright Streetlite and Optare Solo rely on the driver contorting themselves round to serve passengers, in Eastern Europe a bus is more likely to be crew operated and therefore driver/passenger interaction is usually less.

The wheel forward layout means the cab entry and cash tray is behind the driver.  See previous blog post on the Yutong Citymaster for how this is handled with OPO buses in Skopje.  

Interior of mainly 2+1 seating.  For a 12m bus it has very few seats, 27 in total.

Curious emergency exit location, on the floor.

Cab of the BKM E420

A quite amazing central display for the driver,  ADL eat your heart out with all the information here.

The drivers line of sight has quite an intrusive CCTV monitor.  However I'm sure that can be moved.....

In Belkommunmash's home market, this is an earlier body shape of the E443, articulated super capacitor trolley bus operating in Minsk, Belarus,

The charging point in a Minsk bus station.  Knew there'd be a value to this photo one day!  It can be seen that the contact area for the pantograph on the bus is quite small so required precise docking.  However this technology is increasingly been used in countries such as Poland and the Netherlands.  Whilst quite large, this facility takes up much less space than individual charging points for each bus.

BKM's vehicle description

Rear view of the BKM E420

Above all else, the enthusiasm of the BKM Holdings staff stands out!  Their demonstrator vehicle is a right hand drive version of a vehicle built for the eastern Europe market where crew operation and off bus ticketing is common.  Therefore a fundamental redesign of the front axis and cab layout to a more traditional British door forward design is probably necessary for wider acceptance. 

However in the short term I am sure that the UK interest will be around the reliability of the vehicle and supporting infrastructure.  Does the charging set up and charge time/operating time suit British city conditions?  What's the risk of it running out of charge, and how easy is it to recover should that happen?  Is there sufficient charge to finish a rounder then run to and from a depot, or is some depot charging equipment necessary too? 

Overall, is this a viable competitor vehicle and technology to the plug-in electrics supplied by ADL/BYD and Caetano, and how does it stack up against potential competitors from Europe or China (e.g. Yutong, who must be due a UK bus breakthrough soon!).  London wants a fully electric bus fleet: it will need some competition in suppliers.....

New in London 3: London Overground Class 710s

Transport for London has ordered Bombardier Aventra units, the successor to the highly successful Electrostar, for operation on London Overground.  The first route is the Gospel Oak-Barking (GOB) line, somewhat belatedly after a botched electrification necessitating multiple extended line closures in 2017, followed by failure to certify the new Class 710s for operation.  Fault lies largely with Network Rail and Bombardier, respectively.

Things got even worse at the beginning of 2019 when the existing train fleet, eight 2-car Class 172 diesel trains were gradually returned off-lease, to take up a new life in the West Midlands with their enhanced timetable starting in the May 2019 timetable change. Despite an abundance of spare Class 313/4/5/6/7/8/9 electric trains available, including some which could have been a simple sideways move from TfL Rail (who's Aventras, named Class 345, did work) instead three Class 378s were stolen from elsewhere on the Overground network, shortened to four carriages (from five) and pressed in to service.  Three trains replacing eight is never going to be great for reliability but at least they all had four carriages.

Londonist
Islington Gazette
City AM

Fast forward to July 2019, and a year and a half late the Class 710s finally entered all day service, and have delivered a quarter hourly electric service on the Gospel Oak-Barking.  As the successor the Class 378 Electrostars there isn't much to tell them apart....but here's the differences....

The 710s come with a much ,ore stylised front end and a menacing amount of shiney black paint and glass.  Wonder how good that will look in a few years...not very would be my guess.

The step up in to the train remains.

There are new arm rests. No idea if any research in to the ergonomics of these was carried out but they aren't very comfortable.  The seating moquette is also new, choco-mint-orange maybe?

It feels like the 710s have longer sections of longitudinal seating but maybe that's just the impression given by a lightly loaded train.

The ends of the train have tip down seats (once again TfL policy for trains and buses being so radically different). At the end are two USB chargers in each side.  I'd be impressed if there was ever anyone sat in the end seat charging two devices at the same time!

The end, close up.

USB chargers are also curiously placed in the carriage connections, again in pairs.  The seating layout does not lend itself to USB chargers unless they were in the ends of the armrests, however to use these chargers you'd need to be standing.  It feels like USB chargers have been added to claim that they are there rather than with any ability to practically use them.

Dot matrix screens in the 378s have given away to flat screens showing next stop and connection information.

There are also electronic screens for advertising along the bodysides.  However in this case the free on-train wifi is being advertised.

Despite the platform extensions there are still some stations (it seems) where some doors cannot be opened, where there was insufficient space to extend the platform to four carriages long.

One of the nice things about the GOB is the view as it trundles along at first floor height.

The GOB is a very busy freight railway: here's a DB Schenker Class 66 (still in EWS colours) hauling a cartic train.

Gratuitous Class 710 photo.

So....710s....very similar to 378s....they do feel quite sporty and quick off the mark, which can only be helpful when they get on to busier lines.  They retain one of the basic problems of the 378s: insufficient doors, but have gained potentially lightly used USB phone chargers.  The interior displays appear to be common to the TfL Rail/Elizabeth line Class 345s which gives some consistency for the customer.

Class 710s are coming soon to the Euston-Watford Junction DC Lines, and then the West Anglia routes out of Liverpool Street.  Displaced 378s from the DCs should bolster North/East London Line services, and then the Class 315/317 EMUs will be replaced, and probably scrapped, on the West Anglia services.  They will be a very common sight at Liverpool Street with Abellio Great Anglia also ordering a load of Aventras for their Southend main line service.

London Northwestern - do they care?

One Saturday evening in August I happened to arrive at Euston at about 2250.  On a nearby platform I found a single LNW class 350, the 2305 departure to Northampton, rammed to the gills (noting that leisure travellers will generally not crowd themselves on a train the way commuters will).  Customers milling around on the platform, turtle gates deployed across the platform entrance, British Transport Police drafted in to keep the peace, and around a hundred customers turned away and told to come back for the next one.

London Midland (operated by Go-Via) and London Northwestern (operated by Abellio) are successive franchisees to run local services up the West Coast Main Line.  Both are way too cheap to pay the lease/operating charge to run their late night services as 8-car trains, despite 8- or 12-car being commonplace throughout the day.

LNW should try to be a bit more customer focussed where LM clearly were not. Network Rail and the British Transport Police need to be a strong joint force for whichever bit of LNW thinks 4-car trains are adequate. On most of the railway, off peak is where the capacity and growth is.  On LNW they don't appear to care about this segment of the market.

Ten minutes before departure and the single Class 350 is full.  People on the platform who can't get on,

Utterly ridiculous site of the platform being barriered off because LNW don't care about providing sufficient capacity.  It's London - it's popular! It's sunny - it's even more popular!  

London Northwestern should ensure the police officers who have to deal with crap completely of the TOCs making are well compensated.  The police are not here to deal with commercial issues and poor planning or cheapskate operations.

And still more customers arrive, just to be turned away and told to try for the next one.

New in London 2: GoSutton

Time for another demand responsive minibus service.....

In the spring of 2019 Transport for London launched it's Go Sutton demand responsive transport trial.  It is focussed on [some of] the borough of Sutton, which is south of the Tube network and has no other TfL managed/contracted rail services, although it is in the running for an extension to the Croydon-centric tram network. But that might end up being a bus.

With Go Sutton operating for a few months, on 6th August it was time to give it a go.  Go Sutton is primarily booked via a dedicated app, on which you need to register and store payment details.  There is a call centre option available too, which presumably reflects the fact that some users may be less tech-savvy: a standard fare of £3.50 is charged but whilst completely unintegrated with any other TfL or London ticketing scheme, concessionary pass holders can travel for free.

The operation of Go Sutton is contracted to a combination of Via Van and Go-Ahead buses.  It looks like Via Van are behind all the tech and the public facing elements of Go Sutton: even the Go Sutton website looks the same as the Via Van corporate site. Upon looking to book a Go Sutton service, the app will tell you when you are within the operating area, which despite being Go Sutton is not the whole of the borough of Sutton, and has the curious northern boundary of the River Wandle.  This is either to prevent over-use or competition with buses to, the Underground southern terminus at Morden. Maybe. Or maybe it's just because traffic is bad on the A24.

Despite being on the wide A317 when we booked Go Sutton, we were directed to a local residential street.

Through here.....

And we can track where the van is......

And after the two minute walk, our remaining eight minute wait was spent on this street corner in suburbia.  The ten minute wait time was accurate, and I recall reading is about average.

Go Sutton van/van derived minibus approaches through the tools of flourishing local enterprise.  The driver would be wearing full Go-Ahead London bus drivers' uniform, and not a flash of Go Sutton visible.

Or van/van derived minibus was a brand new 19-plate Mercedes Sprinter.  I believe Go Sutton also have some from Stagecoach's failed Little & Often experiment.   It comes with ten high back leather seats, which are quite comfortable and generously spaced for this type of operation.

There is a low floor entry and wheelchair ramp and space.  There are also three tip down seats in the low floor area: tip downs are no longer permitted on TfL's buses (those that remain are glued/screwed upright) ..... but positively encouraged on TfL's trains!  I failed to check whether these ones actually folded down, but as I suspect the vans are leased not owned, they probably do.

Many passenger verisons of the Mercedes Sprinter have another row of seats, creating the more usual zero leg room minibus experience.  I assume that the USB chargers are a standard fit, so this slightly weird arrangement results from the removal of a row of seats and evenly spacing the others.

The app allows you to follow progress and see an ETA.

Text messages allowed interaction with Go Sutton (unsure whether this would be a real person or a bot)

Conclusion: on the basis of this one sample journey, deliberately chosen to be cross-borough and taking us to somewhere useful, Go Sutton works.  Our vehicle was spotlessly clean, which may not be a good sign if it's hardly used, smart driver and well driven, everything worked exactly how and when the app said it would.

It is however quite expensive. A local bus fare is £1.50, and with a slightly longer walk at each end would only have taken thirteen minutes.    I do wonder whether our route 'through the houses' really did save any time.  The Mercedes Sprinter is a bouncy machine and doesn't have the robustness of a bus over speed bumps, even driven as cautiously and as well as ours was.

The bus alternative

Returning to the fare, of £3.50 and then £2 for each additional rider on the trip.  Transport for London has one of the simplest and best integrated ticketing schemes in the world, which works across nearly all public transport including franchised train operators.  To develop a service outwith all of that seems a bit counter-productive.  The failed Slide Bristol noted that demand responsive transport "...can only operate smoothly when they are fully integrated with the public transport network...".

And that takes me back to demand responsive transport. In this blog I have previously considered that such a model can never make any money: I was writing about Chariot at the time. Since then the demand responsive coach service Sn:ap has considered itself to be so successful it lacked the funds to carry on: anecdotal evidence suggested a small number of people were riding in lightly loaded modern well-specified coaches. I suggested that Chariot's model was ostensibly for commuters, but didn't allow booking at a regular time. Oxford's Pick Me Up service (also using Via Van technology and Go-Ahead bus operations) has fallen foul of this too, but has recently expanded its fleet (curiously, the press release gives no detail on ridership!).

Transport for London is proposing another demand responsive transport trial in the borough of Ealing, whilst National Express has just bought the West Midlands' social transport minibus fleet, and can't be long before it too, in the West Midlands conurbation, feels the need to try a demand responsive service.....despite having had its fingers burnt with a brand new fleet of Sprinters before!  

More 'new things in London' to sample!