Arriva North East: Rare & Odd Workings - September 2020

[Andreos1]

One of the reasons I came to Middlesbrough last week rather than this week was in case the route X93 Volvo B9TLs were used on the rail replacement service between Middlesbrough and Whitby.  Maybe this service has not been operated by Arriva or has used other vehicles instead.

I've seen Stanley Coaches in the area and there was a Levante the other night displaying rail replacement. Didn't see who's it was.

[Kuyoyo]

The Rail Replacement between Middlesbrough and Whitby hasn’t had any Arriva involvement - mainly been Compass Royston and Go North East with appearances from York Pullman, Stanley Travel and Coatham.

[GNE6312]

It's not that rare to have a decker on the 57/57A (it's 7510 on today); as there seems to be 2 minis off the road (again) - which is common tbh. They badly need something to replace 1800/1801 and 3 Solos which are battered at Ashington.

Blyth tend to like putting Gemini's and Pulsars on their random runs (One of the Max Gemini's was on the other night, yet they had a 308 Gemini on the X7 - not to confuse people).

Seems the deckers always seem to be allover. The X7 dupes have been 308 or X10/X11 deckers rather than B7s like I expected.

[MetrolineGA1511]

I've seen Stanley Coaches in the area and there was a Levante the other night displaying rail replacement. Didn't see who's it was.

The Rail Replacement between Middlesbrough and Whitby hasn’t had any Arriva involvement - mainly been Compass Royston and Go North East with appearances from York Pullman, Stanley Travel and Coatham.

Thank you for telling me who has operated this rail replacement service.  It's nice to know for the record anyway.

[Storx]

Seems the deckers always seem to be allover. The X7 dupes have been 308 or X10/X11 deckers rather than B7s like I expected.

Ah Blyth has always been like that, it's because they swap things around in Blyth to keep things on time rather than having a bus on time sitting around for 10 minutes for it's next run while the 308 is 10 minutes late coming in, they'll just send that out on the 308 instead and the late 308 goes on the X7 or whatever. Works well really rather than some rather interesting allocations. Deckers on 1, singles on the peak 308 runs after promising double figure times not to do it etc.

I was talking about the 57/57A there though, there's some random runs that Blyth seem to run. Does anyone actually know what's the pattern for the 57A is as it appears there's like 3 random runs Blyth do then Ashington do the rest. Then Sundays are different again with Blyth running 1 bus and Ashington the other.

[Driver9***]

Ah Blyth has always been like that, it's because they swap things around in Blyth to keep things on time rather than having a bus on time sitting around for 10 minutes for it's next run while the 308 is 10 minutes late coming in, they'll just send that out on the 308 instead and the late 308 goes on the X7 or whatever. Works well really rather than some rather interesting allocations. Deckers on 1, singles on the peak 308 runs after promising double figure times not to do it etc.

I was talking about the 57/57A there though, there's some random runs that Blyth seem to run. Does anyone actually know what's the pattern for the 57A is as it appears there's like 3 random runs Blyth do then Ashington do the rest. Then Sundays are different again with Blyth running 1 bus and Ashington the other.

Blyth do the nightime 57, they don't do any through the day (except Sunday).

[Storx]

Blyth do the nightime 57, they don't do any through the day (except Sunday).

I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

[ASX_Terranova]

I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

Probably to get vehicles back to the depot. Do you know the arriva boards for these.

[mb134]

I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

Yeah evening runs are all Ashington, bar that Blyth run as the two Ashington evening boards go off for driver breaks. 

From memory it's the 0649 57A to Whitley Bay and 0652 57 to Whitley Bay that eventually run onto the evening runs - though if they've been allocated anything unsuitable for the evening runs they are swapped in the evening when they return to Ashington for the driver break.

[ASX_Terranova]

Yeah evening runs are all Ashington, bar that Blyth run as the two Ashington evening boards go off for driver breaks. 

From memory it's the 0649 57A to Whitley Bay and 0652 57 to Whitley Bay that eventually run onto the evening runs - though if they've been allocated anything unsuitable for the evening runs they are swapped in the evening when they return to Ashington for the driver break.

It looks like one of the blyth runs uses 1502, is a pulsar standard for the 57/57A. 
Also that long gap is a bit strange especially with scholars and works around that time.

[mb134]

It looks like one of the blyth runs uses 1502, is a pulsar standard for the 57/57A. 
Also that long gap is a bit strange especially with scholars and works around that time.

Anything can turn up on the Blyth run from what I've seen. With it just being the one run I'd imagine it's just whatever is easy to take from the depot, as there certainly doesn't seem to be a set board for it. 

The gap in Ashington workings is only for driver breaks. One board comes off the 17:55 57 to Ashington, then goes back out onto the 19:57 57A to North Shields. The other comes off after the 18:25 to Cramlington, then back out onto the 20:57 57A to North Shields. The Blyth run does the 18:57 to North Shields and return (essentially covers the gap between the 18:25 and 20:57 Ashington runs).

[Storx]

Yeah evening runs are all Ashington, bar that Blyth run as the two Ashington evening boards go off for driver breaks. 

From memory it's the 0649 57A to Whitley Bay and 0652 57 to Whitley Bay that eventually run onto the evening runs - though if they've been allocated anything unsuitable for the evening runs they are swapped in the evening when they return to Ashington for the driver break.

Yeah thought so thanks for that explains the random Blyth bus dropping in, surprised they don't just run the whole thing rather than having a Ashington bus coming down to take over for 2 / 3 runs. The 57 hasn't half got around the depots though, Blyth -> Jesmond -> Ashington -> Ashington / Blyth

Also for those who like rare workings it seems all 3 Solo's at Ashington have decided they fancy a break today and 7510 and 1579 are out.