(22 Mar 2022, 6:13 am)Storx wrote It's because the Hybrids are unreliable and are on work that's way too long / hard for them. There's 6 of them off the road atm.
(22 Mar 2022, 11:30 am)Train8261 wrote Moving the Volvo B5LH to Consett hasn't been the best idea
I'm not sure I agree that it wasn't 'the best idea'. Go North East needed to upgrade capacity on service 16, which allowed some peak-time resource to be taken out (more cost effective). On average there are normally three Hybrids off the road at any given time, so three spares are allocated (6064, 6069, 6070). They also didn't meet the requirements for the CAZ, so had to be moved out of Newcastle city centre (though the council are now considering an exemption given the number of these that Stagecoach operate into the city).
There are more off the road at the moment, but this mainly relates to the shortage of labour across the industry. Volvo, like most sectors, are short of staff - this means the buses go to Volvo and wait to be repaired. We're jumping to conclusions if we assume it's because the work they're on is too strenuous for that type of vehicle; most drivers comment and say that they are much better than the Streetlites previously allocated.
Last week there was four ADL E400s off the road - are we going to suggest that they are allocated to work that's too strenuous?