North East Buses

(08 Nov 2014, 9:09 am)John_R wrote [ -> ]I've just seen 4805 leaving Faverdale in the direction of A1M on the back of a low loader.

4805 is now back in service

Will Arriva refurbish the 05-plate Darts at some point? Was on one at the weekend and it seemed a bit tired, can't remember the exact fleetnumber though

(10 Nov 2014, 8:08 pm)mb134 wrote [ -> ]Will Arriva refurbish the 05-plate Darts at some point? Was on one at the weekend and it seemed a bit tired, can't remember the exact fleetnumber though

They're due to be disposed of shortly... maybe next year? Book value lower than the Cadets I am told (!)

(10 Nov 2014, 8:29 pm)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]They're due to be disposed of shortly... maybe next year? Book value lower than the Cadets I am told (!)

Oh, that's genuinely pretty surprising! Externally they look quite smart, and with a recover of the seats they would be okay internally as well!
Even more when you consider that some of the 1999? examples are still going!

Any idea if they would be replaced from elsewhere in the Arriva fleet, such as the E200's for the 64? Or with brand new vehicles?

1510 also has a rear advert for Newtons Solicitors and is in a different style to the one applied to 1511.

Are the 3 Ashington  Streetlites  allocated to  any of the 6 diagrams or are there 3 diagrams that are allocated specifically to Streetlites ?

1476 is on sapphire service 7 again today

1476 is on sapphire service 7 again today

Where was this and what time?

November Fleet Movements

Ashington

In: 7514-7 from MAX Refurbishment, 1579-81 new to fleet
Out: 7440/53-6 to Durham, 4501 to Stockton, 4513 to Redcar

Durham

In: 7440/53-6 from Ashington, 1574-8 new to fleet
Out: 7435 to Yorkshire Tiger, 7459/61/2/4 to disposal, 2803/4/5/7/8 to Darlington

Darlington

In: 2803/4/5/7/8 from Durham
Out: 4644/5/57 to Blackburn (MAX Refurbishment), 1616/7 to disposal

Redcar

In: 4513 from Ashington, 1103/4 moved from Whitby (PVR reduction, 2827/28 move onto Whitby Town network)
Out: 211 to Yorkshire Disposal, 1743/1651 for disposal (as a result of 1103/4 moving to Redcar from Whitby)

Whitby

Out: 1103/4 to Redcar (end of Whitby Park & Ride)

Stockton

In: 4501 from Ashington
Out: 4039 to disposal

Removed from Fleet

1207/14 to Yorkshire (along with 211)
7432/3/5 to Yorkshire Tiger (all but 7435 already moved)

Added to Fleet

1320-8 from Southern Counties (E200s) - seating presently marked as B34F up from B32D however it remains to be seen when they appear what seating they will be (in comparsion, 1301-3/5-7/9/13/5 are B40F and 1304/8/10-2/4 are B38F).

1320-8 from Southern Counties (E200s) - seating presently marked as B34F up from B32D however it remains to be seen when they appear what seating they will be (in comparsion, 1301-3/5-7/9/13/5 are B40F and 1304/8/10-2/4 are B38F).

If those Enviro 200s come back with 34 seats I will sending more complaints to Arriva about overcrowding on the 64.

What a waste seeing 7453 - 56 going to Durham. Two of them would be ideal extra buses for the Summer X93.

(11 Nov 2014, 10:49 am)DaveyBowyer wrote [ -> ]What a waste seeing 7453 - 56 going to Durham. Two of them would be ideal extra buses for the Summer X93.

Except they won't match the spec of the B9TLs so it's likely that they will get similar MAX deckers for the summer season.

(11 Nov 2014, 9:48 am)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Where was this and what time?

It left Darlo at around 11:10

(11 Nov 2014, 10:51 am)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]Except they won't match the spec of the B9TLs so it's likely that they will get similar MAX deckers for the summer season.

Just guess you've got to balance retaining the same spec with having vehicles which will cope and not breakdown. I'd anticipate that any route details would be removed prior to this happening, too.

(11 Nov 2014, 1:16 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]Just guess you've got to balance retaining the same spec with having vehicles which will cope and not breakdown. I'd anticipate that any route details would be removed prior to this happening, too.

I don't think they'd bother for the short periods that they will be on there, you're probably looking at July/August mainly when the kids are off. Ironically its when other parts of the network are quieter, which helps in moving resources around.

Thanks to the driver on the 1337 Service 7 from Darlington operated by Belmont depot who whizzed past Harrowgate Hill Ashleigh House at 1347 and didn't wait time there even though it was supposed to, so now I have to get service 8 which goes nowhere near where I live. I am not impressed. Even more angry as it was the journey that was allocated 1476 too, so I'm really not ****ing happy.

Now have the displeasure of 1306 on the 8 with the seats with zero leg room which has caused me to put my legs on the seat. Also it is very loud yet very slow.

It's late too!

Saw the 1115 X21 from Park Lane earlier and sadly it was only carrying one passenger. 4814 was the EcoCity.

1647 on the 5, is it really acceptable to allocate a 16 year old ex London Dart that is making a terrible knocking noise, heating on full pelt making me choke or maybe that's because it smells like burning. Why are we getting buses that are bad enough on the 9/10 round Darlington just so the X66 can have OUR!!! better buses because its buses are away getting refurbished, seriously some of the buses on the 5/5A are about 16 months old, yet we are presently getting 16 YEAR OLD buses that are not suitable for the 1/5/5A. Arriva you have let us down once again.

A Vxxx DNL MPD was NIS with a fitter behind the wheel, heading towards Durham from Darlington (on the A1) this morning.

(11 Nov 2014, 2:51 pm)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]A Vxxx DNL MPD was NIS with a fitter behind the wheel, heading towards Durham from Darlington (on the A1) this morning.

Possibly 1724 as I saw that with a fitter heading in the direction of A1 this morning before 9.

Just had a quick look through some comments/posts on the ANE Facebook Page and there are a couple of posts from the last week by two different people saying that Arriva are seemingly putting the Omnicities on peak time X15/18runs, surely they have enough E400's back to put those on?

(11 Nov 2014, 2:49 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]1647 on the 5, is it really acceptable to allocate a 16 year old ex London Dart that is making a terrible knocking noise, heating on full pelt making me choke or maybe that's because it smells like burning. Why are we getting buses that are bad enough on the 9/10 round Darlington just so the X66 can have OUR!!! better buses because its buses are away getting refurbished, seriously some of the buses on the 5/5A are about 16 months old, yet we are presently getting 16 YEAR OLD buses that are not suitable for the 1/5/5A. Arriva you have let us down once again.

YOUR buses?

Why don't you just relax a little. You know why the buses are allocated slightly surprisingly at the moment. It's only temporary. How the depot allocate their vehicles, is up to them, not you.

Darlington are usually pretty good, so a conscious decision to use Pulsars on the X66 is probably down to a reason, my guess, reliability.

I'll ask Arriva to give you a ring in the morning to make sure their allocation suits you... Sod anyone else.

(11 Nov 2014, 5:20 pm)RobinHood wrote [ -> ]YOUR buses?

Why don't you just relax a little. You know why the buses are allocated slightly surprisingly at the moment. It's only temporary. How the depot allocate their vehicles, is up to them, not you.

Darlington are usually pretty good, so a conscious decision to use Pulsars on the X66 is probably down to a reason, my guess, reliability.

I'll ask Arriva to give you a ring in the morning to make sure their allocation suits you... Sod anyone else.

Problem is the Darts aren't suited to the 1/5/5A or X66 and there has been lots of complaints from people about the allocation of old Darts to these services and will affect reliability on the 1/5/5A and the 5/5A can't keep to the timetable as it is and allocating bus that are well past it going up hills will make it the reliability even worse as older buses are more prone to brake downs too and to make matters even worse Walting Road is closed in Bishop Auckland so the 5/5A are diverted so slow old Darts are going to be no use at keeping to the timetable. I don't see how it is fair how the regular passengers of the 1/5/5A should have to suffer these old Darts while the Pulsars are allocated to another service and when the MAX refurbishment is done will we get the benefits of the MAX features, no we have to suffer horrific allocations and breakdowns and being late just so the service which has buses missing get to have decent buses. I will say Darts and Prestiges are not ideal on the X66 so they aren't using them on there but it still seems unfair that another service has to suffer while the X66 gets investment.

Also 4007 on the 8 yesterday, what if a wheelchair user wanted to travel from Chilton Lane to Darlington but couldn't board the bus as there was no ramp to allow them to access to board the bus so they either go home or have to wait an hour as there is no other service that runs there

(11 Nov 2014, 2:06 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Now have the displeasure of 1306 on the 8 with the seats with zero leg room which has caused me to put my legs on the seat. Also it is very loud yet very slow.

It's late too!

Well, it has been at Redcar. It was lucky to get out alive.

(11 Nov 2014, 5:50 pm)Cock Robin wrote [ -> ]Well, it has been at Redcar. It was lucky to get out alive.

Was terrible before it went to Redcar.

(11 Nov 2014, 5:39 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Problem is the Darts aren't suited to the 1/5/5A or X66 and there has been lots of complaints from people about the allocation of old Darts to these services and will affect reliability on the 1/5/5A and the 5/5A can't keep to the timetable as it is and allocating bus that are well past it going up hills will make it the reliability even worse as older buses are more prone to brake downs too and to make matters even worse Walting Road is closed in Bishop Auckland  so the 5/5A are diverted so slow old Darts are going to be no use at keeping to the timetable. I don't see how it is fair how the regular passengers of the 1/5/5A should have to suffer these old Darts while the Pulsars are allocated to another service and when the MAX refurbishment is done will we get the benefits of the MAX features, no we have to suffer horrific allocations and breakdowns and being late just so the service which has buses missing get to have decent buses. I will say Darts and Prestiges are not ideal on the X66 so they aren't using them on there but it still seems unfair that another service has to suffer while the X66 gets investment.

Also 4007 on the 8 yesterday, what if a wheelchair user wanted to travel from Chilton Lane to Darlington but couldn't board the bus as there was no ramp to allow them to access to board the bus so they either go home or have to wait an hour as there is no other service that runs there

Perhaps they should have swapped some Darts with B10BLE's from Stockton or Redcar, they could handle the X66 day in day out no problem.

(11 Nov 2014, 5:20 pm)RobinHood wrote [ -> ]YOUR buses?

Why don't you just relax a little. You know why the buses are allocated slightly surprisingly at the moment. It's only temporary. How the depot allocate their vehicles, is up to them, not you.

Darlington are usually pretty good, so a conscious decision to use Pulsars on the X66 is probably down to a reason, my guess, reliability.

I'll ask Arriva to give you a ring in the morning to make sure their allocation suits you... Sod anyone else.

The COO Darts were supposed to be fit for the scrapman years ago when they left Stockton!

(11 Nov 2014, 5:53 pm)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]Perhaps they should have swapped some Darts with B10BLE's from Stockton or Redcar, they could handle the X66 day in day out no problem.

Aye, may have been good having Stockton's B10BLE's on the X66 and kept the Prestiges on some of Stockton's local services.

They've got 4501/11/3 coming down imminently - not too late to send them to Darlington temporarily and Darts or Prestiges to Redcar/Stockton.