Worth the wait, or worth waiting a bit longer?

Saturday 23rd November 2024

Passengers on TfL’s route 358 between Crystal Palace and Orpington finally got to travel on the much anticipated Irizar electric ‘tram style’ buses on Wednesday when seven of the 17 vehicles allocated to the route, operated by Go-Ahead London from its Green Street Green bus garage, hit the road.

Readers may recall I wrote about a journey I made exactly two years ago expecting at that time to compare the then allocated Mercedes Citaros on the route…

… as well as an occasional 13 year old Enviro 200…

… with the new Irizar ‘ie Tram’, which at that time I (wrongly) expected to be on the road within a matter of weeks.

Now, at last, two years later the days of sitting on hard uncomfortable seats to a rather odd layout (on the Citaros as described in that blog and see above) for over an hour are coming to an end as the new ie Trams enter service with their much improved comfort and on-board ambiance.

As is the way with these things there have been issues with getting the associated infrastructure installed, not least the pantographs at both the Crystal Palace and Orpington termini. These things are never straightforward.

Back in November 2022 (as well as since) I’ve expressed some scepticism about the ie Tram’s narrow entrance as well as the gangway in the first section of the bus…

… and also some surprise at the lower glass panels on the sides.

These may look eye catching and something very different, but knowing the tendency for side panels to receive ‘battle damage’ during a lifetime on busy urban roads with challenging driving conditions it does seem a risky development, but more significantly, there’s been a long tradition in the UK that where seated passengers’ legs are on view from outside the bus, then decency panels are deployed to prevent ‘gawpers’. I’ll be interested to see whether this becomes an issue.

Already I’ve heard from Clare Waters, Chief Executive of Bus Users UK, who was aghast to see the (above) photograph I posted on social media on Thursday indicating she’d be pursuing the matter with TfL.

After all the anticipation I was delighted to take a ride on route 358 on Thursday and see how these head turning buses perform in practice on the road.

And in case there’s any doubt following recent comments on my blog about the Thameside Fastrack, what follows is a description of what I found and experienced as a passenger and no criticism is intended of the hard working staff who I can imagine have spent months frustratingly trying to sort out all the myriad of issues that always come with a new type of bus, particularly one involving infrastructure and technological innovations.

The first thing that strikes you as the bus approaches is the unusual nature of the design. It reminded me of when the New Bus for London hit the streets for the first time. Its glazed staircase and rounded rear stood out from other box-type bus shapes that had been the standard design for decades. It’s the same with the ie Tram. The deliberate ‘tram like’ shape is like nothing else in London and draws attention for that reason.

It has echoes from the First Bus ftr articulated Wright StreetCar vehicles in the mid 2000s and the Van Hool ExquiCity articulated buses currently used on Belfast’s Glider route.

The 12 metre Irizar ie Tram bus is not a tram of course, and calling it a tram is just a gimmick. But if it attracts attention, which it clearly does, just by overhearing comments at bus stops and on board on Thursday, then it’s achieved its objective.

Inside, the seating is a huge improvement on what went before. The seats are not the most luxurious you can find on buses these days (check out my comments on the Go South Coast and Brighton & Hove examples) but for the London urban market they’re an admirable and practical choice.

The bus has 35 seats (compared to 36 in the Mercedes Citaros) with four sets of pairs of seats facing each other – one either side in the step-free first section and one either side in the rear section which involve a step up to reach.

The problem is, as you can see in the photographs below, whereas in the step-free section there’s space under both pairs of seats, by contrast in the rear section, being over the wheel arches, the space between the facing seat pairs is very restricted such that knees easily touch the person sitting opposite…

… although as there’s not enough room for two pairs of feet opposite each other on the floor, you tend to sit with legs askew which impacts the comfort.

I noticed some passengers sitting sideways and using the gangway for their legs…

… to avoid the awkwardness…

… and also on occasions strangers sat diagonally opposite each other leaving the other two seats empty thus reducing the capacity.

As an aside, as reported in my blog on Euro Bus Expo, these seat pairs also have a table on the ie Tram buses destined for Thameside Fastrack which will make it very challenging to get in and out of the window side seats.

Passenger feedback, either elicited or overheard ranged from very complimentary to concerns at the narrowness of the entrance and gangway with one ‘senior’ in Bromley extremely concerned whether she’d get her shopping trolley along the gangway at the front and not liking the idea of boarding through the centre door as an alternative.

A few passengers commented on the cramp conditions, especially as the buses we travelled on became very busy.

One passenger found a good use of the space behind the ‘priority’ facing pairs of seats to stow her shopping trolley so it was partly out of the way, but you can see there’s not a lot of room and passengers are reluctant to use the wheelchair space as they don’t want to stand in that area – there being no tip-up seats. It’s something older people in particular worry about as they tend to use shopping trolleys and these buses aren’t really suitable for them.

However, there are plenty of positives to highlight about these buses, which being electric, silently glide along, rattle free, including the doors as they open and close – rather like how CD trays use to do on top of the range players.

The electronic information signs are clear and there’s one in the cove panel above the space for wheelchairs showing how long the bus is expected to take to an upcoming timing point.

It’s a bit odd to show the status of Underground lines in deepest south London on the main sign and it might be more helpful to switch to a display of train departures at the many stations the route passes as some bus companies outside London now do very successfully as the bus approaches each one (eg in Reading).

Air conditioning is welcome albeit regular opening and closing of the doors can make it challenging to be effective…

… and usb sockets (two types) are now becoming common on buses in London.

The wood-effect floor is anti-slip…

… and there are pretty lights along the upper side panels.

All in all they’re nice buses but I note everyone is being tight lipped about how much they cost. Unsurprisingly there’s no price quoted in Irizar’s sales literature but I saw £700,000 quoted in the Evening Standard which, if true, sounds an awful lot of money for 35 seats when infrastructure costs have to be added on as well.

I appreciate route 358 has been chosen for the trial because pantograph top up charging at termini means buses on this lengthy intensive route don’t need to return to depot during the day for a recharge with the consequential need for costly additional buses to maintain the timetable. But it’s pushing it a bit to say, as TfL does in its press release “this means fewer buses are required on the route, bringing savings that can be invested into other areas of TfL’s network, in addition to the benefits of cleaner, greener travel.” There are no “savings” as the same number of buses and drivers are being used this week as last week.

Indeed, more than the impact of the new buses, the story of Thursday’s travels was dominated by the severe impact of temporary traffic lights, roadworks and general traffic conditions on the reliability and frequency of this extremely busy route scheduled to run every 12 minutes. Buses were being turned short at various points along the 15 mile route at Penge, Beckenham, Elmers End and Green Street Green as controllers battled to keep some semblance of service going.

Observations on Thursday showed this situation isn’t helped by buses spending six minutes under the pantograph at each terminus. One bus took its charge at Orpington all screened up for the next trip to Crystal Palace…

… only to then head off “Not In Service” – I’m guessing to run dead to somewhere along the route to mitigate its lateness.

Looking at route 358’s vehicle schedules most buses at Crystal Palace have eight minutes stand time in the peak increasing to 11/12 minutes off-peak and at Orpington 10-16 minutes in the peak and 18/19 minutes in the off-peak. When there’s late running, as the roadworks are currently causing, what had previously been eight minutes slack to help get the next journey away on time from Crystal Palace, is now taken up with manoeuvring the bus into position and lowering the pantograph for a six minute charge.

Bearing in mind the bus doesn’t need to top up after every journey (and obviously short turning buses are unable to wherever they turn), I was a bit surprised to see late running buses as early as 08:45 on Thursday taking a charge when they were already late for the next journey. This, together with the short turns, led to some long gaps in service and the inevitable crowded conditions on board and passengers thinking along the lines …. ‘it’s all very well to have a new bus, but what we want is a reliable service’. As I pointed out in the Fastrack blog, it’s all about expectation management.

It might have been better for the Deputy Mayor and others at Wednesday’s official launch to publicly acknowledge the serious impact roadworks in Upper Elmers End are having on the operational performance of the service and in view of the two year delay already experienced in getting the new buses on the road, announce the whole route will be upgraded in one hit with the new fleet of 20 buses entering service from Sunday 5th January 2025 when the roadworks have been completed. This really would make a high profile positive impact.

As it was, we waited at least 20 minutes for a bus at Crystal Palace – including while it had its charge at 09:00, and the driver needing help as to where he should park in the markers…

… as “it’s been three months since I was trained” and having left at 09:16, as we got very busy heading down Anerley Road within minutes after starting out came the announcement “the destination of this bus has changed – please listen for more information”.

It was to be curtailed at Green Street Green which made sense, as I guess the driver was coming off at the garage for a break with a relief driver taking over and also, by the time we reached Bromley, the bus behind had caught up and overtook…

… and a third one came by within a minute behind that…

… which we’d spotted earlier in the journey being turned at Elmers End.

It took us 67 minutes to reach Bromley South from Crystal Palace compared to the scheduled time of 50 minutes – and this was off-peak – reflecting the busy nature of the journey (because at least one bus was missing in front) and the roadworks at the Links Way/South Eden Park Road roundabout which is currently severed and subject to four-way temporary traffic lights …

… where buses on route 358 turn left on route towards Orpington.

To mitigate the impact of these, buses towards Crystal Palace were turning short at both Elmers End and Penge.

On arrival at Bromley South railway station we decided to avoid the upcoming wait at Green Street Green for another bus and switched to using Southeastern for a quicker journey to Orpington, having also stopped for a much needed refreshment and toilet stop. After arriving there we saw that third bus of the trio we’d seen in Bromley on charge which was the one I explained above then headed off “Not in Service”.

To add to the short turning experience, the return journey we took from Orpington…

… had a curtailment at Penge, also announced almost immediately we set off, but in the event it got further curtailed in Beckenham and just as passengers alighted the bus behind passed it leaving them to wait for the next bus after that. Luckily we didn’t experience that disappointment as we’d opted for catching the more direct route 227 to Crystal Palace by bailing out at Shortlands.

It’s in the context of the aforementioned operational challenges and for which I could see everyone was working hard to mitigate, I would offer the suggestion on future occasions to delay introducing a fleet of new buses while disruptive roadworks are in place, especially in the busy build up to Christmas (the roadworks are due to finish in a month’s time on 21st December), and especially when the introduction is already well over a year late. Sadly I don’t think passengers are going to experience these head-turning buses at their best over the next few weeks, which is a great shame. As the marketeers will always tell you, for a product or service to be successful all the ‘customer touch points’ need to be top quality and reliability is the number one major touch point for bus passengers.

In my November 2022 blog a number of commentators suggested route 358 should be split, as well as partly double decked, to help with capacity on this busy service. The route is very much one of two halves and my observations show there are few ‘cross Bromley’ passengers as a percentage of the whole. Splitting the route in Bromley and double decking the eastern/southern end to Orpington would then be possible and the western end to Crystal Palace, restricted to single decks because of the low bridge at Shortlands, could perhaps be increased in frequency to every 10 minutes. It needs it.

Obviously this is a non starter now the pantograph infrastructure has been installed but perhaps is something for consideration in the longer term.

My thanks to my good friend and travel companion, Geoff, for making the day’s travelling so enjoyable on Thursday despite the frustrations and do give his video about the new buses a watch on YouTube.

Roger French

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