Green LCT Buses

rangieowner · Post by **rangieowner** » Thu 06 Nov, 2008 12:24 pm

Most folk on this thread are slagging First Leeds and some are applauding Arriva! these few obviously don't use the 163/166 Arriva services which are unreliable at best! they tried to run a 10 mins service during which i and many others on one occasion, waited over 2 hours for a bus!! and regularly had to wait as one, two or even three buses missed! and only when people complained to the YEP and they published an article on the matter did Arriva do anything! They have mucked about with the bus routes so much they have managed, probably at great expense, to simply swap the two routes over, so the 166 takes the old 163 route and vice versa! Now they run a 15 minute service over the two routes but you can almost predict when a bus is gonna miss! If First were to run an alternative sevice to the 163/166 Arriva would lose hands down! Yes First Leeds has it's share of problems (i actually like the purple slugs) but don't make Arriva out to be any better cos they are blatently not, They lost the trains, maybe it's time they lost some bus routes too!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BigHonk · Post by **BigHonk** » Fri 05 Dec, 2008 3:41 pm

iansmithofotley wrote: Hi Parksider,Here is the information:Route No. 9 (Ring Road).Ring Road Halton to Ring Road Farsley.Route No. 28 (Central Bus Station to Long Causeway).Eastgate, The Headrow, Woodhouse Lane, Otley Road, Weetwood Lane, Long Causeway. Inwards buses via Cobourg Street and the Merrion Centre.Route No. 45 (Stanks to Wortley).Pendas Way, Stanks Drive, Stanks Lane North, York Road, North Parkway, Seacroft Avenue, Seacroft Crescent, Brooklands Avenue, Bailey’s Lane, North Parkway, Kentmere Avenue, Boggart Hill Drive, Easterly Road, Roundhay Road, Gledhow Valley Road, King Lane, Stonegate Road, Monkbridge Road, Shaw Lane, Otley Road, North Lane, Kirkstall Lane, Bridge Road, Wyther Lane, Armley Ridge Road, Cockshott Lane, Stanningley Road, Armley Ridge Road, Wortley Road, Whingate, Upper Wortley Road, Dixon Lane, Whitehall Road. On reverse route, buses ran from Gledhow Valley Road to Roundhay Road via Harehills Avenue and Harehills Lane and via Pendas Way, Kelmscott Crescent and Kelmscott Green.I won’t accept the prize because I cheated – I have a list of 1960's Leeds Bus Routes in a 1968 edition of Austick's ‘Tellway’.Ian. In the 70's, some number 9's went all the way from Miggy to past Croggy ! (or were they 8's).Anyone remember when we had proper Night Buses. you paid double fare, but if you worked shifts you got a pass that entitled you to pay normal fare.For a time in the 60's a bus went up Ash Rd, Headingley Mount and down St Annes Rd to Shaw Lane en route to somewhere, was it a 73 ?

simong · Post by **simong** » Fri 05 Dec, 2008 5:13 pm

rangieowner wrote: Most folk on this thread are slagging First Leeds and some are applauding Arriva! these few obviously don't use the 163/166 Arriva services which are unreliable at best! they tried to run a 10 mins service during which i and many others on one occasion, waited over 2 hours for a bus!! and regularly had to wait as one, two or even three buses missed! and only when people complained to the YEP and they published an article on the matter did Arriva do anything! They have mucked about with the bus routes so much they have managed, probably at great expense, to simply swap the two routes over, so the 166 takes the old 163 route and vice versa! Now they run a 15 minute service over the two routes but you can almost predict when a bus is gonna miss! If First were to run an alternative sevice to the 163/166 Arriva would lose hands down! Yes First Leeds has it's share of problems (i actually like the purple slugs) but don't make Arriva out to be any better cos they are blatently not, They lost the trains, maybe it's time they lost some bus routes too!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been suffering from Arriva for the last couple of months trying to get to White Rose in the morning. Funnily enough the new information boards at the Neville Street stop seem to have bucked them up a bit.On the routes, I think that First and Arriva have a gentlemen's agreement on territory: First have Leeds, Bradford and Calderdale and Arriva have Wakefield and Kirklees, and probably make their money on the routes that pass through the White Rose.

rangieowner · Post by **rangieowner** » Fri 05 Dec, 2008 6:02 pm

simong wrote: rangieowner wrote: Most folk on this thread are slagging First Leeds and some are applauding Arriva! these few obviously don't use the 163/166 Arriva services which are unreliable at best! they tried to run a 10 mins service during which i and many others on one occasion, waited over 2 hours for a bus!! and regularly had to wait as one, two or even three buses missed! and only when people complained to the YEP and they published an article on the matter did Arriva do anything! They have mucked about with the bus routes so much they have managed, probably at great expense, to simply swap the two routes over, so the 166 takes the old 163 route and vice versa! Now they run a 15 minute service over the two routes but you can almost predict when a bus is gonna miss! If First were to run an alternative sevice to the 163/166 Arriva would lose hands down! Yes First Leeds has it's share of problems (i actually like the purple slugs) but don't make Arriva out to be any better cos they are blatently not, They lost the trains, maybe it's time they lost some bus routes too!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been suffering from Arriva for the last couple of months trying to get to White Rose in the morning. Funnily enough the new information boards at the Neville Street stop seem to have bucked them up a bit.On the routes, I think that First and Arriva have a gentlemen's agreement on territory: First have Leeds, Bradford and Calderdale and Arriva have Wakefield and Kirklees, and probably make their money on the routes that pass through the White Rose. I aknowledge the fact that Arriva has first dibbs on Wakefield territory, but i don't think Kippax and Allerton Bywater could even be remotely considered as Wakefield or Kirklees!!!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Fri 05 Dec, 2008 10:59 pm

BigHonk wrote: In the 70's, some number 9's went all the way from Miggy to past Croggy ! (or were they 8's).For a time in the 60's a bus went up Ash Rd, Headingley Mount and down St Annes Rd to Shaw Lane en route to somewhere, was it a 73 ? For many years in the 1970s/80s services 8/9 were actually a complete circle, taking two hours for a full round trip either clockwise or anticlockwise - but since then the former full "Ring Road" service has been drastically curtailed and re-routed often, as for example in Pudsey, diverted off the Ring Road via Farsley and Richardshaw Lane.My very first duty as a one man operator in 1970 was on the Ring Road - in those days numbered 9 in both directions. At that time it ran entirely on the Ring Road but the full extent of the route was only from Middleton Garage forecourt to the "Skyliner" at Whitkirk. Some of the busy peak hour short extras were a pain - grossly tightly timed and you had to alter the alphabetical destination blinds from "Bradford Road" to "Whitkirk" - quite a twiddle on stiff gearing.The service up Ash Road and St. Anne's Road WAS the 73, from Greenthorpe to Long Causeway - later altered to Moor Grange via Morris Lane/Spen Lane.

Trojan · Post by **Trojan** » Sat 06 Dec, 2008 12:05 am

BigHonk wrote: Anyone remember when we had proper Night Buses. you paid double fare, but if you worked shifts you got a pass that entitled you to pay normal fare. I remember the Morley night bus, I think it used to leave from by the Post Office in City Square, and instead of Meadow Lane and Elland Road, it went up Beeston Hill and then down Wesley Street, and then to Morley - it was double fare and I think it used to take about 45 minutes - as opposed to 20 minutes for the 52/53

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 06 Dec, 2008 9:22 pm

Trojan wrote: BigHonk wrote: Anyone remember when we had proper Night Buses. you paid double fare, but if you worked shifts you got a pass that entitled you to pay normal fare. I remember the Morley night bus, I think it used to leave from by the Post Office in City Square, and instead of Meadow Lane and Elland Road, it went up Beeston Hill and then down Wesley Street, and then to Morley - it was double fare and I think it used to take about 45 minutes - as opposed to 20 minutes for the 52/53 That's right Trojan - when the night buses were at their most extensive and best they all started from Infirmary Street and City Square, and went by slightly different routes from their daytime equivalents. The purpose of these well thought out arrangements was to cover as many areas as possible with an economically reasonable number of vehicles and staff.

Bramley4woods · Post by **Bramley4woods** » Sun 07 Dec, 2008 12:55 am

[quotenick="BLAKEY"] BigHonk wrote: The service up Ash Road and St. Anne's Road WAS the 73, from Greenthorpe to Long Causeway - later altered to Moor Grange via Morris Lane/Spen Lane. Would that be from "The Gamecock" Blakey ?A name to conjur with in that neck of the woods if ever there was one !

Arry Awk · Post by **Arry Awk** » Sun 07 Dec, 2008 1:18 pm

BLAKEY wrote: georgie wrote: drapesy wrote: I remember the 45 - it was a strange route that seemed to take for ever. I know it took in Wortley, on Lower Wortley Lane - Kirkstall Bridge Road, Shaw Lane in Headingley and Lidgett Lane in Moortown. exactly where it started and finished I've no idea!!! I think it later becme the 95 - perhaps with a modification to the route? The '45' started outside the Capitol in Meanwood and went via Headingley, Armley Ridge Road, Whingate and down toOldfield Lane. This was the service I used in 1946 when I was working in Armley aged 14 The 45 had a long and varied history, with many route and number changes. It originally ran from Kellet Crescent (Dixon Lane) to Meanwood Capitol. By the time I drove on there in 1969 - 73 it was a very long and enjopable route. It started at Wortley Ringways and then via Whingate, Headingley, Meanwood, Stonegate Road, King Lane, Gledhow Valley Road, Easterley Road, Boggart Hill, Kentmere Avenue, Seacroft (old bus station) to Stanks Kelmscott Green. A small hourly diversion (one bus in three) via the Askets was numbered 64, and the main route later renumbered 95.Until it became one man operated in the late 1960s only a relatively small number of drivers, those with "all types" licences, could work on there as it was operated with live gearbox and clutch buses. The last generation of these, somewhat strange but functional. had centre doorways and smoking only in the rear saloon and various "standing" allowances in one part and another. There were 2 Guy Arabs, 3 AEC Reliances and 3 Leyland Tiger Cubs - hills like Cockshott Lane were a nightmare. A further similar pair came later but with semi automatic (2 pedal) gearboxes.All that remains of the route now is the 38 - this has been extended from Ringways to the White Rose Centre but severly curtailed at the eastern end to Moortown and Oakwood. How times change eh ??I have two very interesting photos of a Blackpool Corporation single decker at Headingley in The War - headlamps masked for the black out - which was on loan to LCT and was on the 45 route to Meanwood. Talking of Cockshott(OUCH!)Lane, I used to get the 45/38at Amen Corner during the period from '81 to '94 when I worked in Armley. One snowy morning,around 7am, I caught the bus atThe Ancestor pub. The bus was crowded and it didn't like theSlippery road. Once under way,we got as far as the Armley Ridge Road junction where the incline steepens, and it just refused to go forward up Cockshott. Driver politely (Was that you,Blakey?)asked everyone if they'd mind getting off and walking up to Stanningley Road!!! Some of us (Idiots!) walked behind pushing the bus at about 2mph. We were totally cream crackered by the time we staggered back aboard. I got to work in a very soggy state!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 07 Dec, 2008 4:52 pm

[quotenick="Bramley4woods"] BLAKEY wrote: BigHonk wrote: The service up Ash Road and St. Anne's Road WAS the 73, from Greenthorpe to Long Causeway - later altered to Moor Grange via Morris Lane/Spen Lane. Would that be from "The Gamecock" Blakey ?A name to conjur with in that neck of the woods if ever there was one ! Yes indeed it was the Gamecock - and that was the terminus also !! LOL LOLSingle deckers only of course because of the low bridge in Henconner Lane - NOT that that has deterred a good many double decker drivers over the years, resulting in several "open toppers" - just a shame we're not at the seaside where they would have come in useful.ARRY 'AWK - no not guilty mi' lud - I didn't ask you to get out and walk up Cockshott Lane. Joking apart though Arry - I know you meant to help, but you really were most unwise in that particular location to go anywhere near the back of the bus - if it had halted again and begun to slide back one of you could easily have slipped down and been under in no time. No doubt the bus was an AEC Swift - a sad breed which were capable of skidding on a dry level road - and frequently did.