(10 Apr 2024, 9:30 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Seems sensible to opt for a leaner approach cutting out cosmetic steps that add time and cost to processes unneccessarily - arguably should never have been wasting time and money on that while cutting services etc ... but if only they were using the resource released as a result to address some of the more serious issues affecting the fleet, including vehicles looking in a shocking state (i.e. much worse than not just not having black window trims)

If they painted them in a fleet livery, then they would've never needed to be repainted in the first place.

Enviro's look terrible without the black imo, it's just cost cutting. The fact they're branding 13 year old junk, is embarrassing, especially considering these used to be London Bus red so they could've just done the blue and saved the messing about.

Even worse considering these are 5 years older than the buses on the same bus route 8 year ago.

Is the Wright build so bad that 6 year old buses are dropping like flies?

The Hybrids were equally troublesome so why go back to Wright? It’s poor management. They’ve either followed the cheaper deal, ignored the engineer or the engineer and procurement team are incompetent

(10 Apr 2024, 9:40 pm)Ambassador wrote Is the Wright build so bad that 6 year old buses are dropping like flies?

The Hybrids were equally troublesome so why go back to Wright? It’s poor management. They’ve either followed the cheaper deal, ignored the engineer or the engineer and procurement team are incompetent

Considering there's only 2 off the road at Washington, I want to place the bets that it's not a vehicle issue. Riverside is just a shambles in more than one way.

(10 Apr 2024, 9:30 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Seems sensible to opt for a leaner approach cutting out cosmetic steps that add time and cost to processes unneccessarily 

Yeah but they didn’t go Corporate, they’ve route branded them.  

(10 Apr 2024, 9:40 pm)Ambassador wrote Is the Wright build so bad that 6 year old buses are dropping like flies?

The Hybrids were equally troublesome so why go back to Wright? It’s poor management. They’ve either followed the cheaper deal, ignored the engineer or the engineer and procurement team are incompetent

Most of the issues with StreetDecks tended to be on the engine (Mercedes) side rather than the Wrightbus side.

I’ve mentioned before but there aren’t vast swathes of people behind the scenes, so your version of “engineering and procurement teams” is literally just one Engineering Director that has a personal preference, though this is changing in favour of a more centralised Go-Ahead model.

The previous Engineering Director favoured Wrightbus - not really due to cost but largely because of the availability of parts at the time (never recovered since they went into liquidation) - which is why GNE standardised upon a fleet of them.

The current Engineering Director (ex-Stagecoach) prefers ADL - but, to be honest and appreciating this isn’t a popular answer for the ADL fanboys on this forum, they are equally as poor for reliability (based on a % of those operated).

The most reliable buses I have experienced by far appear to be those built by Yutong, but a change in leadership at Go-Ahead means they will now be few and far between.


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(11 Apr 2024, 5:25 am)Dan wrote Most of the issues with StreetDecks tended to be on the engine (Mercedes) side rather than the Wrightbus side.

I’ve mentioned before but there aren’t vast swathes of people behind the scenes, so your version of “engineering and procurement teams” is literally just one Engineering Director that has a personal preference, though this is changing in favour of a more centralised Go-Ahead model.

The previous Engineering Director favoured Wrightbus - not really due to cost but largely because of the availability of parts at the time (never recovered since they went into liquidation) - which is why GNE standardised upon a fleet of them.

The current Engineering Director (ex-Stagecoach) prefers ADL - but, to be honest and appreciating this isn’t a popular answer for the ADL fanboys on this forum, they are equally as poor for reliability (based on a % of those operated).

The most reliable buses I have experienced by far appear to be those built by Yutong, but a change in leadership at Go-Ahead means they will now be few and far between.


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Is that not more to do with the inherent reliability advantages of an electric drivetrain rather than down to the particular manufacturer?

(11 Apr 2024, 5:25 am)Dan wrote The current Engineering Director (ex-Stagecoach) prefers ADL - but, to be honest and appreciating this isn’t a popular answer for the ADL fanboys on this forum, they are equally as poor for reliability (based on a % of those operated).

Also ADL are really expensive for what you get. Try finding a cheap second hand E200 that isn't absolutely f*cked.

As an example, just gone on coach & bus market. McGills want £45k for an E200. Or for an extra grand, you could buy;
B7TL ELC Myllenium
Optare Solo M850
Setra S416 GT-HD executive coach (ok that one's really cheap for what you get but still)
Ex-Dublin Volvo Olympian

Enviros simply aren't worth it. Now I'll admit the E200 is a 15 plate and the others are quite old, but even so, if you're a small operator I'd stay away from Enviros unless you can find a really cheap one, but should probably be prepared for the explosions bill.

(11 Apr 2024, 7:41 am)streetdeckfan wrote Is that not more to do with the inherent reliability advantages of an electric drivetrain rather than down to the particular manufacturer?

Possibly, but also aftersales support with Pelican is brilliant.


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Wonder what the Hydroliner and the Electroliner will be like for maintence etc, aswell the Evora they seem to be quite good

(11 Apr 2024, 8:25 am)F114TML wrote As an example, just gone on coach & bus market. McGills want £45k for an E200. Or for an extra grand, you could buy;
B7TL ELC Myllenium
Optare Solo M850
Setra S416 GT-HD executive coach (ok that one's really cheap for what you get but still)
Ex-Dublin Volvo Olympian

I'm not a fan of ADL, but you've picked some horrid buses there mind other than the coach since the Olympian is unusable due to DDA. 

Solo's are horrid little things and ELC's fall apart.

(11 Apr 2024, 12:36 pm)Storx wrote I'm not a fan of ADL, but you've picked some horrid buses there mind other than the coach since the Olympian is unusable due to DDA. 

Solo's are horrid little things and ELC's fall apart.

In fairness there's not much on C&BW at the moment, although there'll be plenty other buses elsewhere. Point is you can get a lot for the price of an E200. Weardale have a double deck omnicity on there for 25k. Elsewhere I know there's tridents going for sub-15k. Even if they don't last as long, you'd still get much more use out of them. Olympian could still have use, for example as private hire.

(11 Apr 2024, 1:35 pm)F114TML wrote In fairness there's not much on C&BW at the moment, although there'll be plenty other buses elsewhere. Point is you can get a lot for the price of an E200. Weardale have a double deck omnicity on there for 25k. Elsewhere I know there's tridents going for sub-15k. Even if they don't last as long, you'd still get much more use out of them. Olympian could still have use, for example as private hire.

Aye I had a look, the prices seem a bit allover, guessing there must be demand for midibuses and lack of demand for Decker's. The DB300's from London seem a bargain in comparison to some of Versa's and things on there.

The Solo SR's are rather expensive aswell.

(10 Apr 2024, 9:40 pm)Ambassador wrote Is the Wright build so bad that 6 year old buses are dropping like flies?

The Hybrids were equally troublesome so why go back to Wright? It’s poor management. They’ve either followed the cheaper deal, ignored the engineer or the engineer and procurement team are incompetent

The problem with the hybrids was the Volvo chassis not the Wright body.

Durham Diamond E400 6235 tonight. Looks like there's 3 or 4 at Consett now. 6232 is another.

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(11 Apr 2024, 7:19 pm)Tiger5105 wrote Durham Diamond E400 6235 tonight. Looks like there's 3 or 4 at Consett now. 6232 is another.

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Looks smart !

Was this an in house design or one of Ray’s specials?

It does continue to surprise me that in a revenue driven cost cutting world that GNE don’t take the advertising cash, they’d be a tempting proposition for any ad sales agency and it might help fund a few newer buses or as importantly, keep a few of the back room team at head office in a job

Quite possibly they've made a smart move here and put the route branding and the slogans on advert boards allowing them to swap and change them if needed rather than having the peel of the letters off the paint work.

(11 Apr 2024, 8:36 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Quite possibly they've made a smart move here and put the route branding and the slogans on advert boards allowing them to swap and change them if needed rather than having the peel of the letters off the paint work.

In the Martijn Gilbert era, Go North East moved towards fitting advertising frames to route branded buses with most of the branding contained within the frame itself. That way, when there was advertising income available, an advert would be displayed, and when there wasn’t, the company’s own product could be advertised instead.

This has been continued here, with vinyls inside the frame that will be covered in the event advertising is sold.


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(08 Apr 2024, 7:37 pm)Unber43 wrote All the ex-london buses ive been on are absolutely shocking.

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https://x.com/liamhall24/status/1777410323437265331 confirms tthey will have USBs, I hope the Drifters get them when they get repainted later this year (hopefully in the same livery)

It will be intresting if the Durham Diamond Livery has changed

Not just any USB charging, USB-C charging ports!!! That's about exciting as things get.

Only other plus is separate wheelchair and buggy bays, which makes up a fair number of the complaints in the promo post on Facebook page concerning much of the current ex London stock.

(12 Apr 2024, 11:41 am)Jimmi wrote Not just any USB charging, USB-C charging ports!!! That's about exciting as things get.

Only other plus is separate wheelchair and buggy bays, which makes up a fair number of the complaints in the promo post on Facebook page concerning much of the current ex London stock.

USB C ports are pretty essential these days, I struggled to find a USB A to C cable in the house the other day, pretty much everything is USB C now.

Doubt they've gone for USB PD ports though, would be nice if they had at least 20W ports to make them actually usable.

If they have a decent W they might as well not as save the money and not fit them.

https://flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/53685622559/

Are GNE expecting more of these? apart from this one.

(29 Apr 2024, 6:16 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote https://flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/53685622559/

Are GNE expecting more of these? apart from this one.

I hope not the 55XX streetlites at deptford are absolutely awful to drive with a foisty damp smell , extremely slow doors and 5527 even had a badly repaired accident damage on it which resulted in a metal on metal grinding noise constantly when bus was running.

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(29 Apr 2024, 6:16 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote https://flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/53685622559/

Are GNE expecting more of these? apart from this one.

Think there's 10 of them, looks to be replacing the Versa's at Deptford.

(29 Apr 2024, 7:49 pm)Michael wrote Think there's 10 of them, looks to be replacing the Versa's at Deptford.

Don't believe it's ever been mentioned they're for the Versa's. Think you're getting mixed up with 411-417 from Swindon which were meant to be coming up aswell (they're still in service there though).

(29 Apr 2024, 8:03 pm)Storx wrote Don't believe it's ever been mentioned they're for the Versa's. Think you're getting mixed up with 411-417 from Swindon which were meant to be coming up aswell (they're still in service there though).

Ah I could be, they've bought that many 2nd hand buses lately, can't keep up!

What happened to 5527 like?

(30 Apr 2024, 5:41 am)nova347 wrote What happened to 5527 like?

Believe it was damaged whilst at first bus and not repaired correctly before being sold on to GNE

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(29 Apr 2024, 6:16 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote https://flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/53685622559/

Are GNE expecting more of these? apart from this one.

Looks better with the Wright logo filled in.

6233 is out and about in Gateshead, any pics?