(08 Aug 2014, 7:57 pm)aureolin wrote I'm a bit behind after this week - what's the issue with the Sapphire E400s? How many vehicles affected? Is it a common problem across all?
Sapphire hasn't worked particularly well at Ashington, with vehicles that aren't to Sapphire specification being allocated daily. This is, of course, in addition to the fact vehicles were launched without branding, and some with issues too.
I don't know if the issues where Wi-Fi and power sockets weren't working have been fixed or not, but I'd definitely hope so, given that normal corporate liveried vehicles are appearing so frequently. I'm doubtful that the vehicle with destination display issues has been fixed either, which is also quite irritating, as this should have been fixed before it entered service.
We established that Ashington only has one spare vehicle to cover for a PVR of 15 - something which should realistically be covered by two vehicles, otherwise they're always going to encounter problems. I can't help but feel that this is somewhat short-sighted move by Arriva. Sapphire is allegedly an up-market premium bus service, yet Ashington has been left short of spares really...
ADL Enviro400 7504 is yet to enter service as far as I know, so that's Ashington's spare bus VOR...