North East Buses

They're going to need a hell of a lot of new buses in 5 or so years time when the Pulsars and Temsas need replacing, not to mention deckers and Solos. They haven't had continous investment like GNE and Stagecoach.

However from 2008 to 2012 we had alot of investment so a whole new fleet will be needed across the board of arriva north east

Arriva should take ideas from other Arriva companies up and down the country.

Optare Versa, StreetDeck, E200MMC, Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, Mercedes-Benz Citaro

(04 Oct 2021, 7:56 pm)Cock Robin wrote [ -> ]They're going to need a hell of a lot of new buses in 5 or so years time when the Pulsars and Temsas need replacing,  not to mention deckers and Solos. They haven't had continous investment like GNE and Stagecoach.

Must have missed the continuous fleet renewal at Stagecoach mind. They're in a worse place atm imo with buses which need withdrawing now nevermind in 5 years and there's nothing planned. Not to mention the majority of the fleet haven't been refurbished since new and are extremely outdated, regardless to what people thought of the Arriva refurbs.

They've also got an awful lot of 08/58/09/60/11/61 buses which will need renewing at the same and since some of them are cheap MAN rubbish they'll need replacing aswell.

Arriva has always ran it like that though, with a similar scenario between 2001 - 2007 where nothing was really ordered except it was much much worse than it is now with the leaking Scania's at Blyth which we're shot, Olympians still in the smartie interior and stuff like this https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8142/763...e9fefc.jpg running on frontline services. People would have a field day on here if it was back then.

Not to mention ex Darts from anywhere they could find them, Metroriders everywhere which were completely shot and Prestige's which the less said is better.

(04 Oct 2021, 8:18 pm)Train8261 wrote [ -> ]Arriva should take ideas from other Arriva companies up and down the country.

Optare Versa, StreetDeck, E200MMC, Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, Mercedes-Benz Citaro

Volvo Olympian, Dennis Dominator, Scania L113, Enviro 300. I can list random buses too.

(04 Oct 2021, 8:25 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]Must have missed the continuous fleet renewal at Stagecoach mind. They're in a worse place atm imo with buses which need withdrawing now nevermind in 5 years and there's nothing planned. Not to mention the majority of the fleet haven't been refurbished since new and are extremely outdated, regardless to what people thought of the Arriva refurbs.

They've also got an awful lot of 08/58/09/60/11/61 buses which will need renewing at the same and since some of them are cheap MAN rubbish they'll need replacing aswell.

Arriva has always ran it like that though, with a similar scenario between 2001 - 2007 where nothing was really ordered except it was much much worse than it is now with the leaking Scania's at Blyth which we're shot, Olympians still in the smartie interior and stuff like this https://farm9.static.flickr.com/8142/763...e9fefc.jpg running on frontline services. People would have a field day on here if it was back then.

Not to mention ex Darts from anywhere they could find them, Metroriders everywhere which were completely shot and Prestige's which the less said is better.

I think the big thing back then was the likes of N3** OTY and P4** CCU and M3** FTY were built to last.

If Arriva had a fleet of B9TLs and E400s (latter not used on any Alnwick X routes or X93), they'd be fine.

GNE have a large fleet of B9TLs and unless the EV bid is approved for the Cobalts & Angel (meaning perhaps StreetDecks cascaded onto the 27 or 56 with some B9TLs cascading elsewhere within GNE or GAG), they'll likely be run in frontline service for 12-15 years.

ANE ordering new vehicles for the X15/X18, X21/X22 and X93 would be a good starting point. Plenty of decent cascades available from these down.

In turn, the cascades would upgrade the X14 (newer E400), X20 (B9TL), 43/44/45 (newer E400) and 308 (E400MMC voith).

(04 Oct 2021, 10:08 pm)L469 YVK wrote [ -> ]I think the big thing back then was the likes of N3** OTY and P4** CCU and M3** FTY were built to last.

If Arriva had a fleet of B9TLs and E400s (latter not used on any Alnwick X routes or X93), they'd be fine.

GNE have a large fleet of B9TLs and unless the EV bid is approved for the Cobalts & Angel (meaning perhaps StreetDecks cascaded onto the 27 or 56 with some B9TLs cascading elsewhere within GNE or GAG), they'll likely be run in frontline service for 12-15 years.

ANE ordering new vehicles for the X15/X18, X21/X22 and X93 would be a good starting point. Plenty of decent cascades available from these down.

In turn, the cascades would upgrade the X14 (newer E400), X20 (B9TL), 43/44/45 (newer E400) and 308 (E400MMC voith).

Not sure on the OTY batch at Blyth like they we're bloody awful. You couldn't sit on the seats near the windows splits when it was raining from water pouring in and they used to absolutely stink of damp. Horrid buses by the end and some of them were with withdrawn early at 13 year old, shocking build quality. The Gemini's and Pulsar's are much better built machines imo and will last awhile yet. The Commanders lasted 18 year without any real bother and could've easily lived on in service.

Can't argue against the Olympians though but they we're seriously outdated by the end especially on the X21/X22, that said I wouldn't purchase new buses for it though and would focus personally on the likes of the X66/X67, X26/X27 which are crying for investment and the X15/X18 due to the problem's with reliability.

It's the Solo's which need replacing imo as they're life expired pretty much now (usually 12 year for a minibus) and they're falling apart some of them, 2809 in particular for being extremely unreliable (potentially the worst bus in the North East).

(04 Oct 2021, 10:25 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]Not sure on the OTY batch at Blyth like they we're bloody awful. You couldn't sit on the seats near the windows splits when it was raining from water pouring in and they used to absolutely stink of damp. Horrid buses by the end and some of them were with withdrawn early at 13 year old, shocking build quality. The Gemini's and Pulsar's are much better built machines imo and will last awhile yet. The Commanders lasted 18 year without any real bother and could've easily lived on in service.

Can't argue against the Olympians though but they we're seriously outdated by the end especially on the X21/X22, that said I wouldn't purchase new buses for it though and would focus personally on the likes of the X66/X67, X26/X27 which are crying for investment and the X15/X18 due to the problem's with reliability.

It's the Solo's which need replacing imo as they're life expired pretty much now (usually 12 year for a minibus) and they're falling apart some of them, 2809 in particular for being extremely unreliable (potentially the worst bus in the North East).

The fact that the last of the MPD's have only just been withdrawn at 16 years old suggests the Solo's will be around until about 2024.

(04 Oct 2021, 10:25 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]Can't argue against the Olympians though but they we're seriously outdated by the end especially on the X21/X22, that said I wouldn't purchase new buses for it though and would focus personally on the likes of the X66/X67, X26/X27 which are crying for investment and the X15/X18 due to the problem's with reliability.

It's the Solo's which need replacing imo as they're life expired pretty much now (usually 12 year for a minibus) and they're falling apart some of them, 2809 in particular for being extremely unreliable (potentially the worst bus in the North East).

Think the Omnis based at Darlington could be gone by end of this year/start of next once the 3 ex Tiger OmniLinks land (one snapped with it's new paint job today so shouldn't be long) and think most of the remainder will go once the refurbishment of the gas buses at Darlington is complete.

Solos is an interesting one because of CAZ, can't seem them paying to convert what will be 14 year old life expired Solos for it, not convinced even transferring Darlington's 11 year old Solos would be worth it either and likely will depend whatever else happens to services, think frequency cuts with larger buses like what's happened with the 1 & 2 already is possible again.

A decker order, ideally for X15/X18 would probs be enough to sort out the worst of our problems, just really the 20 year year B7TLs that are an issue and even then depends how you look at it as to whether it's a major issue or not, maybe another Northumberland route if they're willing to splash the cash but I doubt it. I can't much major investment really occurring until about 2024 when the oldest Pulsars and VDL Geminis hit 15 years of age.

(05 Oct 2021, 10:41 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Think the Omnis based at Darlington could be gone by end of this year/start of next once the 3 ex Tiger OmniLinks land (one snapped with it's new paint job today so shouldn't be long) and think most of the remainder will go once the refurbishment of the gas buses at Darlington is complete.

Solos is an interesting one because of CAZ, can't seem them paying to convert what will be 14 year old life expired Solos for it, not convinced even transferring Darlington's 11 year old Solos would be worth it either and likely will depend whatever else happens to services, think frequency cuts with larger buses like what's happened with the 1 & 2 already is possible again.

A decker order, ideally for X15/X18 would probs be enough to sort out the worst of our problems, just really the 20 year year B7TLs that are an issue and even then depends how you look at it as to whether it's a major issue or not, maybe another Northumberland route if they're willing to splash the cash but I doubt it. I can't much major investment really occurring until about 2024 when the oldest Pulsars and VDL Geminis hit 15 years of age.

Yeah your probably right. Was just reading the Arriva London forums there and supposedly they're expecting some buses to be coming up here (rumours atm) with T288 - T300 without a route soon which are all 61 plate Euro 6 Enviro 400's plus some Gemini's on the 349 which have been recently replaced by Borisbuses.

They could certainly be the answer which would see of the rest of the current ex London stock with a potential upgrade to the 306 so the Pulsars from there and the X16 can do the 52, 53, 55 etc. Would just leave the 51 and 46 to be Solo operated within the LEZ. 

There's also some electric buses heading soon down there which is going to leave more buses up for release aswell. No doubt it's where they're going to come from eventually.

(05 Oct 2021, 10:41 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Think the Omnis based at Darlington could be gone by end of this year/start of next once the 3 ex Tiger OmniLinks land (one snapped with it's new paint job today so shouldn't be long) and think most of the remainder will go once the refurbishment of the gas buses at Darlington is complete.

Solos is an interesting one because of CAZ, can't seem them paying to convert what will be 14 year old life expired Solos for it, not convinced even transferring Darlington's 11 year old Solos would be worth it either and likely will depend whatever else happens to services, think frequency cuts with larger buses like what's happened with the 1 & 2 already is possible again.

A decker order, ideally for X15/X18 would probs be enough to sort out the worst of our problems, just really the 20 year year B7TLs that are an issue and even then depends how you look at it as to whether it's a major issue or not, maybe another Northumberland route if they're willing to splash the cash but I doubt it. I can't much major investment really occurring until about 2024 when the oldest Pulsars and VDL Geminis hit 15 years of age.

Assuming the 2/2A PVR is going to remain at 5 as it is now, then that leaves 5 free to be allocated to the X66/X67 and 3 to be allocated to the X21. There's enough Streetlites to cover the 1/5/5a/X1 as well as the 8/8a, so that leaves enough Pulsars for the X26/X27 if that's going to remain at 4. And then I reckon the Omnilinks will end up on the X75/X76.

The PVR decreases on the likes of the 46 and 55 seems to have pushed Solo's onto other services allowing Pulsars to replace the Cross Pennine Omnicites and then perhaps the two X16 Pulsars will migrate over to Ashington to replace 4653/4664. So a full Omnicity withdrawal is definitely on the cards I reckon.

1411 and 1408 have both lost there Max branding and now have just the Arriva Logo

[quote pid="265936" dateline="1634739556"]

• &Train82611411 and 1408 have both lost there Max branding and now have just the Arriva Logo
  

[/quote]
Along with 1591 
Presuming 1590/2/3/4 have followed