18 May 2016, 11:25 pm
#471
(18 May 2016, 8:44 pm)Malarkey Yet we have B7TL Presidents allocated to the Services on a daily basis, think the elderly residents of nearby Birtley would jump for joy if a Solar turned up instead of a Double Decker, fewer complaints for GNE to deal with.
There always seems to be at least B7TL President out on one of the Washington services when I've been over that way, usually the 82/82A from my observations. I'm imagining Washington have so many B7's free primarily as back ups for the X1. Is most of the complaints about the double deckers related to the low capacity downstairs? I would think this would be less of an issue on the likes of the 85 considering the downstairs capacity is similar to what you get on the MPD's. I sometimes used to hear grumblings from people on the Arriva Darlington 5/5A route in the past as one board used to be booked for a Enviro 400, so it doesn't seem to be just the people of Washington whinging about it.
(18 May 2016, 10:42 pm)Andreos1 The tightest parts traditionally were always on Dorset Avenue. Only the 23 serves that road now - whereas the 26, 721 and 777 all served it in the past. The rest of Barley Mow is fine and normally clear of parked cars too.
Parts of Vigo can be tight, particularly at the junctions with Portobello Road and as Vigo meets Barley Mow.
Going off topic slightly, but I've been on the 23 twice in recent months and on both occasions I've got the JH Coaches board on a Washington bound journey and there is somewhere on the route (think it's either London Avenue or Oxford Avenue) and on both occasions the Primo used on the service has had great difficulty squeezing through here due to some people who seem to think it's perfectly alright to park a van on one side of the road with a car parked on the opposite side of the road not much further forward than the van, the road.
