21 Aug 2016, 10:33 am
#419
(20 Aug 2016, 7:22 pm)stagecoachbusdepot This reminds me - been meaning to ask - what do Washington use their DDs on when the schools are off? Obviously 13 Red Arrows B9TL for the X1, but what about 3943 & 6011/27/28/29/32/42 - are they usually out and about in the summer, or just one or two on the 82 (plus the X88 weekends)?
3943 forms part of the weekday PVR of the X1, and the X88 on Saturdays.
The PVR for ex-London Volvo B7 does not drop during the school holidays as they are scheduled to run onto or off 'normal' public services (ie peak time X1s) - they are just in the depot for longer during the day, as they aren't allocated to the scholars services. The only difference is that there's no contractual requirement for these to be allocated double-decks when the schools are off, so if the Volvo B7 are required elsewhere, these running boards could be allocated single-decks. An example of this happening recently would be the appearance of a "Whey Aye Five 0" branded OmniCity on service 39 in Sunderland.
As I said before, the PVR of service 82 is 7 vehicles, but Washington currently only have use of five SB120s (8261-65), so two Volvo B7 are currently forming the PVR of service 82. That means Washington only have one spare Volvo B7 at present - which, at a weekday PVR of 15, is going to be allocated to service X1 on a daily basis. This is why Washington cannot release Volvo B9s for repaint, as they'd be short of a further double-deck for approximately three days.
