26 Sep 2016, 7:23 pm
#497
(26 Sep 2016, 3:57 pm)Dan I don't think low-floor coaches would be appropriate for the Tyne Tees Xpress.
Adrian and I were at Showbus yesterday, and we had a snoop around one of Trent Barton's new coaches used on the Red Arrows service. The driver was answering questions about the coach and one of the things he told us was that the wheelchair lift takes ten minutes to operate. If a wheelchair user wished to use the Tyne Tees Xpress, it would add 20 minutes onto the journey time (10 mins for the wheelchair user to get on, then 10 mins for the wheelchair user to get off). The current timetable does not allow for this sort of increase in journey time.
In addition to this, this type of coach costs approximately £100,000 more per vehicle. That would be an additional £700,000 to replace all six branded Volvo B9TLs and 6084. Although they may last ten years on this route, they may not. There's always a degree of uncertainty in buying new vehicle types as it's impossible to tell what they'll be like later down the line, but it's an expensive gamble if the coaches aren't still completely reliable after ten years in service.
When they do need to be replaced; you'd then have the issue of which route you'd cascade them to, as Hexham wouldn't be able to accommodate anything larger than the former National Express tri-axle Scania Levantes that they're now using on scholars contracts. It would be difficult to sell them given they'd accumulate a very high mileage in ten years.
Myself personally I would purchase 6 Plaxton Elite i's as they can seat up to 75 Passengers, 71 Upperdeck and 4 Lower with 1 Wheelchair which doesn't require a lift which takes 20 Minutes to get a wheelchair user on and off, as it has roll on/roll off accessibility, alternatively you have the Van Hool TDX Astromega.
