All Blyth new transfers have entered service on the following routes today

1407-X7/X8/X9
1461-X10/X11 (board thst does a round trip on the 308 to start off)
1462-X7/X8/X9
1463-X7/X8/89
1475-2/X16

Although thought to be withdrawn commanders 1401/2 have went to Ashington both on the 35/X21/X22

And 1768/69 have gone to Durham

1768 is on the 49/49A/57/57A (or however it goes)
1769 is on the 56

They're not very Sapphire!

According to Bustimes 1768 and 1769 have transferred from Blyth to Durham - it must be quite a while since an MPD was on the streets of Durham!

Yes they’re both at Durham


Arriva North East 1768 / NK05 GWG by kieron mathews, on Flickr

Arriva North East 1769 / NK05 GWJ by kieron mathews, on Flickr







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So it seems the transfers have all been done but does anyone actually know what the reason behind it as the 1/2 are still ran by the minibuses and 1401/1402 aren't withdrawn either, are they actually for the expresses or was it actually about giving Blyth newer buses rather than the 2 ex London deckers.

It seems it's more like.

Blyth
Out: 7609(7485)/7610(7487)/1401/1402/1768/1769
In: 1407/1461/1462/1463/1475/1409?

Durham
Out: 1461/1462/1463/1475/1409?
In: 7485/7487/1768/1769/1579/1580

Ashington
Out: 1407/1579/1580
In: 1401/1402

Only really 2 big bus gain for Blyth rather than the 8 that's needed for the 1/2.

So it seems the transfers have all been done but does anyone actually know what the reason behind it as the 1/2 are still ran by the minibuses and 1401/1402 aren't withdrawn either, are they actually for the expresses or was it actually about giving Blyth newer buses rather than the 2 ex London deckers.

It seems it's more like.

Blyth
Out: 7609(7485)/7610(7487)/1401/1402/1768/1769   
In: 1407/1461/1462/1463/1475/1409?

Durham
Out: 1461/1462/1463/1475/1409?     
In: 7485/7487/1768/1769/1579/1580

Ashington
Out: 1407/1579/1580   
In: 1401/1402

Only really 2 big bus gain for Blyth rather than the 8 that's needed for the 1/2.

Blyth still have a small "don't send me to Newcastle" rota, which will be minibuses. 

1401/2 only appear to be at Ashington because their engineers can't work out how to get the rest of their buses to stay on the road for more than a week. 1401 was taken off the X20 early on this morning and replaced by an E400. 7445 is spending another day on the X14, having done the first southbound X18 from Belford to Alnwick via Seahouses this morning (balls of steel whoever allocated that), while 7484 is doing its thing on the Sapphire circuit as per.

Blyth still have a small "don't send me to Newcastle" rota, which will be minibuses. 

Does it really matter if its minis on those boards, there's lots of depots which are fine without minis for newer drivers such as all Stagecoach NE depots (Exept Stockton) have no minis with their smallest buses being atleast E200s aswell as Riverside depot with GNE and even arriva NE's own Stockton depot.

Blyth still have a small "don't send me to Newcastle" rota, which will be minibuses. 

1401/2 only appear to be at Ashington because their engineers can't work out how to get the rest of their buses to stay on the road for more than a week. 1401 was taken off the X20 early on this morning and replaced by an E400. 7445 is spending another day on the X14, having done the first southbound X18 from Belford to Alnwick via Seahouses this morning (balls of steel whoever allocated that), while 7484 is doing its thing on the Sapphire circuit as per.

Yeah that's fair answers my question.

Seems like Ashington has borrowed the person who does Blyth's allocations recently they've been all over the place the past few weeks. Noticed there's 2 Enviros including a 64 plate on the 57 today yet like you said 7445 is on the X14.

Does it really matter if its minis on those boards, there's lots of depots which are fine without minis for newer drivers such as all Stagecoach NE depots (Exept Stockton) have no minis with their smallest buses being atleast E200s aswell as Riverside depot with GNE and even arriva NE's own Stockton depot.

 It isn't to do with that. Minibus rotas, AFAIK, have a lower pay rate. As soon as a conventional vehicle goes on that driver is then paid full whack.

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Yeah that's fair answers my question.

Seems like Ashington has borrowed the person who does Blyth's allocations recently they've been all over the place the past few weeks. Noticed there's 2 Enviros including a 64 plate on the 57 today yet like you said 7445 is on the X14.

Think it's more to do with vehicle availability than anything else. 7530 is on there today I think and, given its recent perfomance, that is likely due to it being local work only. Generally if you see an Ashington MAX vehicle on 'local' work (i.e on the 35 if that goes standalone again), it's because it can't be trusted to go further or is running in a new major component. See 7514 and 7555's large 35 stints at various periods as examples.

 It isn't to do with that. Minibus rotas, AFAIK, have a lower pay rate. As soon as a conventional vehicle goes on that driver is then paid full whack

They should just allocate the full size bus regardless may aswell show the Justification of reducing the frequency of the 1/2. If they're still putting solos on they may aseell have had them every 20 mins

There's been a few transfers involving Jesmond recently as well.

2822 has returned to Jesmond and has been working 553 and other services today.
2856 has returned to Darlington after a long stint, possibly on loan.

7425/26 have both returned to Redcar (?) and have seen service on the X93.

There's been a few transfers involving Jesmond recently as well.

2822 has returned to Jesmond and has been working 553 and other services today.
2856 has returned to Darlington after a long stint, possibly on loan.

7425/26 have both returned to Redcar (?) and have seen service on the X93.

Seems to be a swap between 2822 and 2856 - 2822 had gone down to Darlington at the start of February. Either a loan due to Darlington's shortage or perhaps Arriva have had the common sense to return 2856 with the rest of the batch.

Blyth seem to be using a minibus as a fleet car for driver change overs on the 58

1409 is now at Blyth and has spent its first , it's tracking as 1501 which is abit inconvenient as 1501 is tracking as itself so there's 2 buses tracking as 1501 unless Blyth sort 1409s ticketer out overnight. 1409 was actually one of the pulsars new to Blyth in 2009 (1408-14) which means it's now returned to its original depot.

Jesus why is Blyth getting so many Pulsar

Mini Dart 1760 has turned up at Redcar though not in use yet


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Mini Dart 1760 has turned up at Redcar though not in use yet


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Possible to replace 1759. Seen it yesterday coming down the a174 looked like it had it's display board removed

Possible to replace 1759. Seen it yesterday coming down the a174 looked like it had it's display board removed

For use on staff shuttle.

I'm brand new to this Forum, so I hope I'm not repeating info nor am I in the wrong place.
Recently seen active in Darlington are 2856 and 7518. Transfers or loans ? Or do they just need to stretch their pistons !

I'm brand new to this Forum, so I hope I'm not repeating info nor am I in the wrong place.
Recently seen active in Darlington are 2856 and 7518. Transfers or loans ? Or do they just need to stretch their pistons !

7518 made the transfer to Darlington late last year if I remember correctly, think it was either due to an extra decker being needed for capacity on a certain board or due to a board transfer between the two depots.

Not sure on 2856, looking at Bustimes data I'd assume it transferred from Jesmond in anticipation of the April service changes.

7518 made the transfer to Darlington late last year if I remember correctly, think it was either due to an extra decker being needed for capacity on a certain board or due to a board transfer between the two depots.

Not sure on 2856, looking at Bustimes data I'd assume it transferred from Jesmond in anticipation of the April service changes.

7518 like you say was for extra capacity on the 1/5/5a school time boards - released from Durham after they swapped the 58 reg E400's for the B7 Gemini's

2856 was released from Jesmond after Arriva lost the contract for service 6 in Newcastle - replaced 2822 at Darlington which was on loan from Jesmond due to vehicle shortage.

Can an Arriva Blyth driver confirm why the 1 and 2 still have mini buses on yet the Pulsar bar two are on the Express routes

Can an Arriva Blyth driver confirm why the 1 and 2 still have mini buses on yet the Pulsar bar two are on the Express routes

Because the Pulsars will be covering for deckers which are off the road.

Because the Pulsars will be covering for deckers which are off the road.

That shouldn't be the case though!

That shouldn't be the case though!

What would you like them to do instead? 

Only 2 Blyth deckers look to be VOR at the moment, and one of those has an MOT due soon. 

The reality is that deckers are needed for duplicates, and the single deckers are being used on quieter runs. Funny that there's no comment on GNE using a Versa and 04-plate Omnidekka on the 21 today, you'd assume due to a few (much younger) StreetDecks being off the road.

What would you like them to do instead? 

Only 2 Blyth deckers look to be VOR at the moment, and one of those has an MOT due soon. 

The reality is that deckers are needed for duplicates, and the single deckers are being used on quieter runs. Funny that there's no comment on GNE using a Versa and 04-plate Omnidekka on the 21 today, you'd assume due to a few (much younger) StreetDecks being off the road.

I aint saying its bad. I'm just saying that ever since they have been transferred to Blyth. Yet once they are all yet to appear on the 1 or the 2

Can an Arriva Blyth driver confirm why the 1 and 2 still have mini buses on yet the Pulsar bar two are on the Express routes

I'm not sure if they were actually brought to Blyth for only the 1/2. They've replaced 1401/1402 to Ashington and 7485/7487 to Durham instead. There hasn't been a PVR decrease on any of the expresses and 2 extra buses were never enough for the 1/2/X16 (PVR 8) without more buses.

Yea. Its just I heard that the 1 and 2 wrre going to be bigger buses since they had the VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2 on them for a while

I'm not sure if they were actually brought to Blyth for only the 1/2. They've replaced 1401/1402 to Ashington and 7485/7487 to Durham instead. There hasn't been a PVR decrease on any of the expresses and 2 extra buses were never enough for the 1/2 (PVR 8) without more buses.

2 MAX Pulsars are currently on the 1/2 in their place, in fairness. I'm also not sure 1401/2 should be at Ashington, I know the former transferred back last week before failing on an X9. Ashington do seem to trust 1402 a fair bit mind, been sent out on the X14 a few times now. 

The Solos were kept for the "please don't send me to Newcastle" rota on the 1/2, so I'd guess the 1/2 allocation will ultimately depend on that.

2 MAX Pulsars are currently on the 1/2 in their place, in fairness. I'm also not sure 1401/2 should be at Ashington, I know the former transferred back last week before failing on an X9. Ashington do seem to trust 1402 a fair bit mind, been sent out on the X14 a few times now. 

The Solos were kept for the "please don't send me to Newcastle" rota on the 1/2, so I'd guess the 1/2 allocation will ultimately depend on that.

Not a clue with 1401/1402 I thought they were withdrawn tbh then they've come back from the dead.

Mind I wouldn't take much from MAX buses being on the 1 and 2, Blyth just don't bother with allocating the right bus on the right route and tbh havn't even attempted remotely recently. At first there was some half arsed attempt to get the 308 ones on the 308 and X10/X11 ones on there but lately it's just throw anything on anything. Think it's more how they're in the depot what goes onto what, noticed 7410 was one of the first buses out on Tuesday doing the 05:30 X7.

I aint saying its bad. I'm just saying that ever since they have been transferred to Blyth. Yet once they are all yet to appear on the 1 or the 2

 the 1 & 2/X16 were fully pulsars on Saturday. 1475 was on the 1 on Saturday with 1407/63 spending their Saturday operating the 2/X16 with the other boards being operated by 1501-5. Until the evening journeys which were operated by DB300s.

Has 1760 entered service at redcar or gone somewhere else as I couldn't see it yesterday when I passed the depot