How many of redcars fleet is currently off the road? 

Redcar every year have the same issue consistently and poor reliability and maintenance of its fleet?

(27 Oct 2022, 12:51 pm)Ryland wrote How many of redcars fleet is currently off the road? 

Redcar every year have the same issue consistently and poor reliability and maintenance of its fleet?

Nothing to do with maintenance they maintenance is absolutely perfect  

Redcar current issues are due to a high number of vehicles being involved in RTIs recently.

Not really fair to claim what you are suggesting around failing engineering, with absolutely no proof.

(30 Jan 2023, 6:58 pm)RobinHood wrote Redcar current issues are due to a high number of vehicles being involved in RTIs recently.

Not really fair to claim what you are suggesting around failing engineering, with absolutely no proof.

I always have think Redcar maintenance as always been 100%spot on    and yes the amount of ryc and 7405 been fire damage I truly think redcar are trying there absolutely best to keep things moving

From bus tracking
Currently off the road at Redcar/ whitby17 in total
1434 broke down yesterday
1561
1563
1570
2862- Whitby
2863- Whitby
2870-whitby
2871-whitby
4705
4706
4713
7405- fire damage
7406-RTC
7424
7425
7426
7609

(06 Apr 2023, 11:32 am)Ryland wrote From bus tracking
Currently off the road at Redcar/ whitby17 in total
1434 broke down yesterday
1561
1563
1570
2862- Whitby
2863- Whitby
2870-whitby
2871-whitby
4705
4706
4713
7405- fire damage
7406-RTC
7424
7425
7426
7609

7425 is tracking as 7401 (as is the true 7401)
7405 is due for MOT this or next week so should be back soon. 7406 is away for repair.
2870 was back out this afternoon and managed 1.5 trips on the 96.


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Could 7401-06 be replaced with extra E400MMCs tagged onto the next Northumbria order?

Or maybe if Blyth get OM934 StreetDecks, some OM936 StreetDecks also tagged onto that order.

Whitby / Redcar should've had some of the new minibuses Darlington got, to replace the Solos.
After all, Whitby's Solos are just as old, and when spare are often required on longer routes as well as the 95 and 96, so surely newer replacements would be at least as needed there as Darlington.

(07 Apr 2023, 7:40 am)tvd wrote Whitby / Redcar should've had some of the new minibuses Darlington got, to replace the Solos.
After all, Whitby's Solos are just as old, and when spare are often required on longer routes as well as the 95 and 96, so surely newer replacements would be at least as needed there as Darlington.


There would be a excellent choice on the 95 and More at use instead of the. 3 to morden which was fine with solos 

2866 is tracking on the x4 today

(07 Apr 2023, 7:06 am)L469 YVK wrote Could 7401-06 be replaced with extra E400MMCs tagged onto the next Northumbria order?

Or maybe if Blyth get OM934 StreetDecks, some OM936 StreetDecks also tagged onto that order.

Are Blyth not getting a batch of electric double deckers for the 43/44/45?

1410 now covering for redcar and is on the x4

(07 Apr 2023, 12:49 pm)Ryland wrote 1410 now covering for redcar and is on the x4

Helping to dupe a Whitby working on the X4 from Stockton - due to Whitby helpfully allocating 2866 this morning.......

(07 Apr 2023, 7:06 am)L469 YVK wrote Could 7401-06 be replaced with extra E400MMCs tagged onto the next Northumbria order?

If anything, any order for new deckers soon is required for the Durham County operation - let's not forget Darlington now have decker-operated boards on 1/5/5A/X1, 7s, X26 and X66 but still only have 7 E400s. Add to the need to replace the B7s and you're looking at a need for new stock.

(07 Apr 2023, 7:40 am)tvd wrote Whitby / Redcar should've had some of the new minibuses Darlington got, to replace the Solos.
After all, Whitby's Solos are just as old, and when spare are often required on longer routes as well as the 95 and 96, so surely newer replacements would be at least as needed there as Darlington.

There's a difference - Darlington's town work is commercially operated, whereas the 96 is tendered and the 95 has been cut back from half hourly to hourly which suggests it's not doing that great to support any investment.
It should be noted that originally, Stockton were due to gain some of those E200s for the extension of the 7 as they originally foresaw issues with parked cars around Kirklevington Village - in the end, the issue was more to be found in Yarm Station's car park but that has now been sorted.

(07 Apr 2023, 7:40 am)tvd wrote Whitby / Redcar should've had some of the new minibuses Darlington got, to replace the Solos.
After all, Whitby's Solos are just as old, and when spare are often required on longer routes as well as the 95 and 96, so surely newer replacements would be at least as needed there as Darlington.

All the Solo's need replacing. The sheds at Ashington are just as bad and the microfleet at Darlington could do with replacement aswell. There's breakdowns at Ashington nearly daily lately and that's really not exaggerating either. They can get away with it though as the next board is just replaced with a Pulsar or Decker.

Not to mention they had a Decker on the 553 aswell since 2601 and 2602 were both VOR yesterday.

They're becoming as bad as their older brothers, the Metrorider's, at the end of their life imo.

(07 Apr 2023, 8:05 pm)Storx wrote All the Solo's need replacing. The sheds at Ashington are just as bad and the microfleet at Darlington could do with replacement aswell. There's breakdowns at Ashington nearly daily lately and that's really not exaggerating either. They can get away with it though as the next board is just replaced with a Pulsar or Decker.

Not to mention they had a Decker on the 553 aswell since 2601 and 2602 were both VOR yesterday.

They're becoming as bad as their older brothers, the Metrorider's, at the end of their life imo.

Was actually using 2601 using 7554s ticket machine, seen it at Gosforth yesterday morning

(07 Apr 2023, 8:54 pm)EastCoastMXZ1751 wrote Was actually using 2601 using 7554s ticket machine, seen it at Gosforth yesterday morning

Ah that's fair my mistake that one, took it for face value since 2601 is unreliable at the best of times.

What is the ratio of the PVR of the MiniBus services to the amount of Solos they've got?

(07 Apr 2023, 1:03 pm)Kuyoyo wrote If anything, any order for new deckers soon is required for the Durham County operation - let's not forget Darlington now have decker-operated boards on 1/5/5A/X1, 7s, X26 and X66 but still only have 7 E400s. Add to the need to replace the B7s and you're looking at a need for new stock.

Would 7541-52 if they were replaced to bring all of Ashington in line not be an option?

Still a bit of a grey area replacing these as unknown how the X21 & X22 will fare when the ABTL opens next year and whether there'll be a frequency reduction.

At the moment, it's currently:
- 16x E400MMC (72 reg) - X14, X15, X18, X20
- 3x E400MMC (72 reg) - X21/X22
- 12x E400MMC (17 reg) - X21/X22

So if the 7541-52 (17 reg) were replaced, would still leave no spares as such, but would give maybe 3x-4x spares if the X21 & X22 got reduced to every 30 minutes each.

(07 Apr 2023, 11:31 pm)L469 YVK wrote Would 7541-52 if they were replaced to bring all of Ashington in line not be an option?

Still a bit of a grey area replacing these as unknown how the X21 & X22 will fare when the ABTL opens next year and whether there'll be a frequency reduction.

At the moment, it's currently:
- 16x E400MMC (72 reg) - X14, X15, X18, X20
- 3x E400MMC (72 reg) - X21/X22
- 12x E400MMC (17 reg) - X21/X22

So if the 7541-52 (17 reg) were replaced, would still leave no spares as such, but would give maybe 3x-4x spares if the X21 & X22 got reduced to every 30 minutes each.

ADC need new deckers much much more than Ashington need 6 year old MMCs replacing... 

The allocation of the E400s is, much like the Blyth/Walkergate situation, nowhere near that strict either. All decker boards are E400, on paper there's literally no differentiation between the 14 plates, 64 plates, 15 plate, 17 plates and 72 plates in an allocation sense. The MMCs will be allocated to the Morpeth express routes ahead of the older E400s, which are more likely to find themselves on the 35, but that's about it.

(08 Apr 2023, 12:02 am)mb134 wrote ADC need new deckers much much more than Ashington need 6 year old MMCs replacing... 

The allocation of the E400s is, much like the Blyth/Walkergate situation, nowhere near that strict either. All decker boards are E400, on paper there's literally no differentiation between the 14 plates, 64 plates, 15 plate, 17 plates and 72 plates in an allocation sense. The MMCs will be allocated to the Morpeth express routes ahead of the older E400s, which are more likely to find themselves on the 35, but that's about it.

I would like to see some new deckers at Durham County but I can't see it any time soon, think best we can hope for is yet more cascades from Northumbria.

To some extents, a decker order may be better for the Blyth to Newcastle routes and the like as they'd likely be used all day, every day whilst Durham County (subject to allocations on the day) generally don't put deckers out on an evening or on Sundays, certainly Darlington at least, X93/X94 is about the only decker service that does. I also question more and more if Belmont services really need as many deckers as they do and wonder if most journeys on the likes of the X46 could cope with Pulsar's, naturally still need deckers for the morning peak from Stanhope to Framwellgate Moor (X46 may be a case of being like the Langley Park 20's and X5/X15 where it has light loadings off peak but gets rammed with schools/peak traffic?)

(08 Apr 2023, 6:57 am)Jimmi wrote I would like to see some new deckers at Durham County but I can't see it any time soon, think best we can hope for is yet more cascades from Northumbria.

To some extents, a decker order may be better for the Blyth to Newcastle routes and the like as they'd likely be used all day, every day whilst Durham County (subject to allocations on the day) generally don't put deckers out on an evening or on Sundays, certainly Darlington at least, X93/X94 is about the only decker service that does. I also question more and more if Belmont services really need as many deckers as they do and wonder if most journeys on the likes of the X46 could cope with Pulsar's, naturally still need deckers for the morning peak from Stanhope to Framwellgate Moor (X46 may be a case of being like the Langley Park 20's and X5/X15 where it has light loadings off peak but gets rammed with schools/peak traffic?)

Not think you's will get some ex London stock soon instead? There's going to be a lot of DB300's in particular going free and I'm not sure who'll want them as Arriva are the only people who really bought them on mass. 

Diesel buses are pretty much banned nowadays from new contracts down there give or take. 

Can't see anything coming from up here unless it's the 57 plate Enviros but not sure that's really much of an improvement tbh. Also can't see any orders for the Blyth Expresses the B&T railway could really cripple some routes if they don't do something to build trust as it's rock bottom around here lately.

I'm not sure there's need for 8 buses an hour from Blyth to Cramlington even if there was only a 15% reduction to say train - it's enough to be double to single tbh.

Or 14 buses from Cramlington to Newcastle mostly Deckers if there's few passengers coming from the Blyth end.

There should transfer the pulsars spare at Stockton which is a few to redcar as perm to be honest 1560.73 should be at Stockton as 95% it's them that is the problem mainly 1564

(11 Apr 2023, 7:22 am)Mark66t wrote There should transfer the pulsars spare at Stockton which is a few to redcar as perm to be honest 1560.73 should be at Stockton as 95% it's them that is the problem mainly 1564

What spare Pulsars at Stockton? Stockton only have enough spares to cover their own PVR
As for the Streetlites, the original April 2020 cascade plan had Stockton gaining Redcar’s Pulsars in exchange for 1550-9 to standardise the depot’s fleets. Of course, this changes long before the first lockdown happened (and at one point before that, 4 of Redcar’s Pulsars were to be refurbished to Sapphire standard for the X4 to allow the majority of the Streetlites to be focused on the X3/X3A/64/64A boards.

However redcars main issue atm does reflect the reliability of solos, deckers and pulsar.

Pulsar 1408 has returned to darlington from Redcar currently on 1/5/5a/x1

Am not surprised Redcar have issues with their buses. I was waiting for an X4 the other day, after a breakdown a replacement bus was sent out to Redcar Clock.
The doors on the new bus wouldn't close, so the driver and two other members of staff were kicking, pulling and tugging at the floor and the door itself, and probably made the fault much worse than what it was to start with. Needless to say, that bus also had to be sent back to the yard.
But their actions in front of a large number of passengers didn't look good.

Are Redcar running dupes on the X4? 
Seen pairs 2 or 3 times over the last couple of weeks. 
Appreciate there's works at various points on the route, but that can't be the sole reason they're running as they are. Surely?

(21 Apr 2023, 10:56 pm)Andreos1 wrote Are Redcar running dupes on the X4? 
Seen pairs 2 or 3 times over the last couple of weeks. 
Appreciate there's works at various points on the route, but that can't be the sole reason they're running as they are. Surely?

They don’t have enough drivers to run the normal service never mind running duplicates. Usually it’s because of the state of the fleet meaning buses are losing more and more time each trip. Temsas and Lythe Bank don’t go together well, and several Streetlites are ‘63 only’ too…


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(22 Apr 2023, 12:27 pm)tyresmoke wrote They don’t have enough drivers to run the normal service never mind running duplicates. Usually it’s because of the state of the fleet meaning buses are losing more and more time each trip. Temsas and Lythe Bank don’t go together well, and several Streetlites are ‘63 only’ too…


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That was what crossed my mind to be honest. But with the number of times I've seen it, means it's probably happening other times too. 

A Pulsar and Streetlite were following each other around Quarry Roundabout on Thursday evening Boro bound. 
The time prior, would have been a weekend or two back and although I can't remember the allocation, there were two together southbound around Brotton.