I think in the next year or two that Darlington depot will give up on the really bad Scania Omni's and purchase Streetlites for the X66/X67 X75/X76, keeping the decent Omni's for the X26/X27

(28 Feb 2016, 10:15 pm)JoshP wrote I think in the next year or two that Darlington depot will give up on the really bad Scania Omni's and purchase Streetlites for the X66/X67 X75/X76, keeping the decent Omni's for the X26/X27

Can't see that happening, I think they'll be staying where they are, probably for another 4 years which is when I think they'll get withdrawn.

(28 Feb 2016, 10:21 pm)UJimmi wrote Can't see that happening, I think they'll be staying where they are, probably for another 4 years which is when I think they'll get withdrawn.

They're just so tired and it doesn't matter what the engineers do the bus always finds a way to break down, I feel so sorry for mechanics I bet they get such a grilling over the state of them. The Omni's should never have been refurbished and Arriva should have purchased new vehicles for the X66/X67 in my opinion

(28 Feb 2016, 10:40 pm)JoshP wrote They're just so tired and it doesn't matter what the engineers do the bus always finds a way to break down, I feel so sorry for mechanics I bet they get such a grilling over the state of them. The Omni's should never have been refurbished and Arriva should have purchased new vehicles for the X66/X67 in my opinion

I'm pleased that the Omnicitys were refurbished as the seats on most of them were pretty worn and uncomfortable. The Omnicitys do seem rather tired, especially the ones that were pushed hard at Redcar on the 63 then the X93. Hopefully in a few years time new stock will be purchased for the X66/X67 and X26/X27/26A, or at least some decent cascades from somewhere.

And pretell what routes would the OmniCitys been allocated to instead of the X26/X27 and X66/X67 (and now X75/X76)? They are useless on town work, the routes they used to be allocated to have either been upgraded to Sapphire or MAX and/or converted to double deckers or worked by newer vehicles. The fact remains, they were the only suitable opinion for the Darlington MAX routes then and still are now. The only reason Stockton's X66/X67 turns are worked by Pulsars is because the Engineering Management at Doxford want the Omnis centered on one depot, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if 4653/9 don't eventually end up there as well as spares instead of 1406/16 (maybe with new deckers for X14 now it seems 1579-81 are the preferred allocation for the 418s on Sundays).

I've said that all along that 4653/9 will end up at Darlington, and then somewhere along the line 4660-4 will end up down here aswell but that's just my thoughts


But from what I have heard (might just be rumours) 5 omnicities will be on the move again sometime, as apparently Stockton are getting them back for a route up that way could be wrong but the information came from a reliable source and newer vehicles would be coming for either x26/7/26A or the X66/7

(28 Feb 2016, 10:40 pm)JoshP wrote They're just so tired and it doesn't matter what the engineers do the bus always finds a way to break down, I feel so sorry for mechanics I bet they get such a grilling over the state of them. The Omni's should never have been refurbished and Arriva should have purchased new vehicles for the X66/X67 in my opinion

4649 has to be the worst Omnicity with MAX X66/X67 branding. :s

(28 Feb 2016, 11:53 pm)Stuartphin1639 wrote I've said that all along that 4653/9 will end up at Darlington, and then somewhere along the line 4660-4 will end up down here aswell but that's just my thoughts

I couldn't agree more!

(29 Feb 2016, 12:25 am)Lee wrote 4649 has to be the worst Omnicity with MAX X66/X67 branding. :s

I agree. Been so happy that I haven't had that one on the X66/X67 much recently, it sounds rather rough.

(28 Feb 2016, 10:15 pm)JoshP wrote I think in the next year or two that Darlington depot will give up on the really bad Scania Omni's and purchase Streetlites for the X66/X67 X75/X76, keeping the decent Omni's for the X26/X27

4645 is definitely the best Omnicity on the X26/X27.

4646 is a close second, the rest of them all sound completely effed on there.

(28 Feb 2016, 11:53 pm)Stuartphin1639 wrote I've said that all along that 4653/9 will end up at Darlington, and then somewhere along the line 4660-4 will end up down here aswell but that's just my thoughts


But from what I have heard (might just be rumours) 5 omnicities will be on the move again sometime, as apparently Stockton are getting them back for a route up that way could be wrong but the information came from a reliable source and newer vehicles would be coming for either x26/7/26A or the X66/7

Hmm intresting.

The thing I wonder, if you were to take 4660-62/64 off the 85/685, what would be a suitable replacement for that route? Mind that said Pulsar's are becoming a much more regular sight on there, I saw two on there on Saturday. My other fear is based on current allocations, if the route were to be upgraded to MAX, how frequent would the appearances of non MAX spec buses be? It would especially be made worse by the fact that Jesmond don't have any MAX services at this time, so there wouldn't be much in the way of spare MAX specification buses.

(29 Feb 2016, 12:44 am)Jimmi wrote I agree. Been so happy that I haven't had that one on the X66/X67 much recently, it sounds rather rough.

That one is well and truly effed. 4656 is my personal favourite on the X66/X67.

(26 Feb 2016, 12:35 pm)MrPottski wrote 1906 looks to have left Darlington, saw it heading to Stockton this morning.

The scrapyard is where it should be heading.

(29 Feb 2016, 1:16 am)Jimmi wrote Hmm intresting.

The thing I wonder, if you were to take 4660-62/64 off the 85/685, what would be a suitable replacement for that route? Mind that said Pulsar's are becoming a much more regular sight on there, I saw two on there on Saturday. My other fear is based on current allocations, if the route were to be upgraded to MAX, how frequent would the appearances of non MAX spec buses be? It would especially be made worse by the fact that Jesmond don't have any MAX services at this time, so there wouldn't be much in the way of spare MAX specification buses.

The 685 will be gaining a unique brand due to it being jointly operated with Stagecoach, which won't be Max. I think it will be based on the current Scanias though, and I'd hope they would get their long awaited refurbishment as the interiors are looking very tired now.

I've not heard of Scanias being transferred to Stockton, indeed where would we use them? Our only other Max route is the X12 and I'm not sure they would want them on there... Having said that if the growth on the X66/X67 keeps going then I could see newer vehicles being brought in for that, however the X26/X27 are being hurt by poor reliability but I'm not sure how much of that is down to the Scanias and how much is due to the many roadworks on there killing the punctuality recently?

One thing is for sure though and that's the reliability of the Scanias is not what you would expect, but at 11 years old we'd be looking to get another 3-4 years out of them yet... Maybe they need to undergo a heavy maintenance program to iron out some of the issues affecting them? That would mean spending yet more money on them of course but I reckon it could be worth doing.

Possibly worth clarifying that there is no new vehicles allocated to the North East this year with only second hand cascades from elsewhere coming in so we're going to have to make do with what we've got, with only the odd older vehicles dropping out of the fleet, like the Cadets at Stockton. The branding schemes should keep happening though, with several, at various depots, on the horizon I gather.

(29 Feb 2016, 1:16 am)Jimmi wrote Hmm intresting.

The thing I wonder, if you were to take 4660-62/64 off the 85/685, what would be a suitable replacement for that route? Mind that said Pulsar's are becoming a much more regular sight on there, I saw two on there on Saturday. My other fear is based on current allocations, if the route were to be upgraded to MAX, how frequent would the appearances of non MAX spec buses be? It would especially be made worse by the fact that Jesmond don't have any MAX services at this time, so there wouldn't be much in the way of spare MAX specification buses.

Yeah there is that, but if all the scanias were to come to Darlington once replacements had been found for the 85/685 would it be possible to do this:

X66/7 - 4649/51/55/6/7
X26/7 - 4645/6/7/8 (rebrand 4643/4)
X75/6 - 4652/4/8

And then :

8/8A - 4650/3/9 and then maybe 4660/1/2 on the 12/12A and have 4664 as spare along with 1406 and 1416

Then have 4660/1/2/4 spare, send 1506/7/8/9/10/11 to Jesmond for 85/685 and then to replace 4653/9

Then repaint all the 14** pulsars and put them on the 1/5/5A/19

(28 Feb 2016, 10:49 pm)Kuyoyo wrote And pretell what routes would the OmniCitys been allocated to instead of the X26/X27 and X66/X67 (and now X75/X76)? They are useless on town work, the routes they used to be allocated to have either been upgraded to Sapphire or MAX and/or converted to double deckers or worked by newer vehicles. The fact remains, they were the only suitable opinion for the Darlington MAX routes then and still are now. The only reason Stockton's X66/X67 turns are worked by Pulsars is because the Engineering Management at Doxford want the Omnis centered on one depot, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if 4653/9 don't eventually end up there as well as spares instead of 1406/16 (maybe with new deckers for X14 now it seems 1579-81 are the preferred allocation for the 418s on Sundays).

21A?

Does anyone know which route the X12 is taking now the whole southbound of High Street West is closed? (up to the bus station now)

(29 Feb 2016, 9:05 am)Stuartphin1639 wrote Yeah there is that, but if all the scanias were to come to Darlington once replacements had been found for the 85/685 would it be possible to do this:

X66/7 - 4649/51/55/6/7
X26/7 - 4645/6/7/8 (rebrand 4643/4)
X75/6 - 4652/4/8

And then :

8/8A - 4650/3/9 and then maybe 4660/1/2 on the 12/12A and have 4664 as spare along with 1406 and 1416

Then have 4660/1/2/4 spare, send 1506/7/8/9/10/11 to Jesmond for 85/685 and then to replace 4653/9

Then repaint all the 14** pulsars and put them on the 1/5/5A/19

Id say gas buses from the 21 should move to the 8 allowing 4660/61/62/64 to form a full allocation to the 21

(29 Feb 2016, 6:30 pm)biglugs@yahoo.com wrote Id say gas buses from the 21 should move to the 8 allowing 4660/61/62/64 to form a full allocation to the 21

I don't, I highly doubt they'd make it use near-on 10 year old buses when the current ones are around 2/3 years old.

(29 Feb 2016, 6:12 pm)Ambassador wrote Does anyone know which route the X12 is taking now the whole southbound of High Street West is closed? (up to the bus station now)

It should be turn right at the traffic lights and follow the road around heading to to interchange.

X12 is going via Prince Consort Road in both directions