Hello,
There’s no live times for the following routes:
196 route - on all stops.
90 bus route
hi @neelamk - there are issues that we’ve reported to our colleagues in the iBus/Countdown team to look into the 196 and 298 which are missing predictions. These are under investigation.
I’ll raise the issue with the 90 with them now.
Thanks,
James
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I’ve been informed the 90 should be fixed by the iBus release overnight. We’ll check it out then and update you here.
Thanks,
James
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Unfortunately the data release did not resolve the issues with the 90.
The team are investigating again to see what’s happened.
Thanks,
James
Good morning - I’ve had some reports about the 298 bus missing countdown data. Is this still going to be resolved? nudge
It’s not just the 298. According to the history command on London Vehicle Finder, nothing has reported on the 299 since 11th December. At the time of typing nothing has reported for the 298 so far today. I did note three reports yesterday (the PVR is x), all from double deckers, not the contracted type as I understand it. The W9 is reporting 5 buses (PVR 7) and the 217 reporting 7 (pvr 11).
The common factor is … Sullivans. Maybe they have got an appalling staff or vehicle shortage. Or a lot of their kit isn’t working and seemingly isn’t being fixed. Or (for the 299 perhaps?) the schedule being work differs from that supplied to TfL. It badly needs a close look and some action.
A slight tangent but some of Sullivans 298s and 299s have been running without a destination blind for a long time. OK, they are short routes but buses do get turned short and if there is no destination blind and the bus isn’t shown on Countdown it’s not good. (It’s not unique to Sullivans - one of the regular 456 performers claims to be on route 100%, heading for destination Electric!)
I appreciate that a bus that is not reporting on Countdown or which has no blind is preferable to no bus at all but things should not be allowed to drift on for ever.
And today’s scores
298 - just 1 bus
299 - no buses (again)
217 - 10 buses
W9 - 3 buses
I did see one 299 today so there is some sort of service. It was turning short at Bounds Green; fortunately it was one of the buses with proper blinds.
Hi @mjcarchive - There’s an incident opened for the lack of buses on the 298 and 299. There may be a mismatch in duty cards to the schedule that’s currently being investigated with the operator.
I wasn’t aware of issues with W9 or 217. We’ll take a look into this with our colleagues who look after Countdown and let you know.
Thanks,
James
Thanks @jamesevans
I only looked at 217 and W9 because of the 298/299 issues and it may be a different issue.
I seem to recall reading about new 298 and 299 schedules expected in October or November but in the absence of new WTTs I assumed that was either dodgy memory or a postponement/cancellation. If there is a mismatch, presumably the only 298 trips that appear would be the few which happen to be identical (duty, times etc.) on old and new schedules.
True - it seems to be the same 2 buses that are logged on every once in a while though. Not sure if one or two drivers has the right duty card, but the others haven’t. That’s merely speculation though as we’re still waiting to hear back from the operator.
Thanks,
James
Noted that 299 is reporting four buses this morning. 298 still reporting none. Assuming 299 wasn’t miraculously sorted on its own overnight, that suggests that if the schedules are out of kilter, the 299 did not change on Saturdays but the 298 did. It also suggests that it is not a problem with the kit failing to communicate at all.
Who needs the GCHQ puzzle book with our very own Countdown conundra to tax our brains?
hi @mjcarchive - I’m not an expert on the scheduling system used by the operators but they have since submitted another schedule which should resolve this. I’ve bene told this will be in the next iBus release on 5 January.
Many thanks,
James
@jamesevans
Is it still the panto season? In that case “oh no, they’re not”.
Today shows no buses on the 299 and one on the 298 due at Potters Bar Tesco at 10:13. It is now 10:38.
10 buses are shown on 217 and 5 on W9.
Don’t get me started on these routes! 
We get a lot of customer feedback about them!
The schedule for 298 has been submitted and comes into effect on 20th January. We’re hoping this will resolve the (data) issues on that route.
For the 299, the operator is still having problems submitting the schedule. I’m trying to get an update on that but I’ve been told that the support team is looking into that.
I’ll speak to the team about the W9. From what I understand, the 217 looks about right with 5 buses in each direction.
Many thanks,
James
@jamesevans
What has Southgate done to deserve them? Submitting a schedule properly should be pretty basic stuff. As an aside, the 298 runs into Hertfordshire so that element should also be registered with (?) the county council.
It’s not a lot of use getting (unfavourable) feedback unless something happens as a result. The trouble with key performance indicators (thinking generally) can be that the contractor pays so much attention to them that anything else is ignored and (worst case scenario) the main point of providing the service is undermined.
I agree 217 looks reasonable. W9 a bit more iffy but it may reflect reality; one of the 299 drivers was very volubly banging on to anyone who would listen about lack of staff a few weeks ago to explain gaps in the service, though that could have been sickness, I suppose.
NextBus API is showing normal times (timetable not real time) for the 298 at Potters Bar Station and Southgate so the operator managed to provide a schedule somewhere.
Hi @misar - again, not too much of an expert around bus scheduling & iBus, but my understanding is that despite there being a schedule in place for these routes, there are some issues with the new duties that cause most buses not to be able to logged into iBus and therefore produce the relevant AVLs to generate predictions.
Many tanks,
James
one down…
We were getting a lot of customer complaints about 298 so glad it’s back. We’ll keep prodding about 299.
Many thanks,
James
299 appears to be back (having had new schedules last weekend, I think).
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