(08 Nov 2022, 9:37 pm)mb134 wrote It was wrapped for the Jubilee. When the wrap was removed Darlington resprayed the base of what it was in beforehand, assume the wrap may have left the paintwork in a bit of a state and a depot repaint into it's original base livery was deemed okay as a short term fix?

In that case, seems odd they didn't just paint it plain turquoise for the standard livery.

7401 is Durham County's poppy bus this year

Arriva North East 7401 (NK64 FSF) by Tony Kuy, on Flickr

Does anyone know if the repaints of Durham's pulsars has stopped? Just been looking on Bus Times and cant seem to see any that are off the road that haven't already been repainted

(08 Nov 2022, 10:37 pm)F114TML wrote In that case, seems odd they didn't just paint it plain turquoise for the standard livery.

It was a in house Darlington depot job. Know the engineer/handyman that spent three nights painting it, was supposed to be all over turquoise, but ran out of paint, rather than waiting for the paint to arrive they just repainted it into this livery for the time being, will be getting a full respray once they’ve finished on the majority of Darlingtons fleet

Mr French & everyone's favourite consultant of Desire are not impressed with Arriva spreading Christmas cheer... in February?! https://twitter.com/creatingdesire/statu...xVdgg&s=19

French also still isn't impressed with the allocations around Newcastle: https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/stat...AkpKw&s=19

(03 Feb 2023, 10:08 pm)Jimmi wrote Mr French & everyone's favourite consultant of Desire are not impressed with Arriva spreading Christmas cheer... in February?! https://twitter.com/creatingdesire/statu...xVdgg&s=19

French also still isn't impressed with the allocations around Newcastle: https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/stat...AkpKw&s=19

Notice French hasn't mentioned any of the rogue GNE allocations on his past few trips to the NE. The 6 today had a Durham Diamond and a couple of X-Lines vehicles if bustimes is to be believed. Not to mention the Quaycity Versas on everything but the Q3 for 5 months now, and the green X45/46 Streetdecks on the 'wrong' routes daily. Obviously the reasoning for this is that branding is not a priority now, similar to ANE - yet only one company gets slated on social media...

As for 7552, I imagine it's more likely due to a high VOR rate at Ashington. 7530/1 are off for refurb with nothing to cover, 7555 is still away with fire damage with a saloon covering, and 7524-6 are now gone (and will also be replaced with saloons). Even if they cover, pits are taken up with Blyth vehicles as their maintenance is also being done at Ashington while the depot works are completed. You're not going to lose service/stop routine maintenance so that some stickers can be taken off - that nobody bar spotters actually care about. Mr. Desire's decency seems to be on a similar level to some of his recent livery designs - would imagine his social media behaviour isn't the most appealing to potential clients.

(03 Feb 2023, 10:08 pm)Jimmi wrote Mr French & everyone's favourite consultant of Desire are not impressed with Arriva spreading Christmas cheer... in February?! https://twitter.com/creatingdesire/statu...xVdgg&s=19

French also still isn't impressed with the allocations around Newcastle: https://twitter.com/BusAndTrainUser/stat...AkpKw&s=19

Who's gonna tell him GNE's Santa Bus has been in that livery for years? Seen it a couple times being driven by engineers at not christmas time.

(03 Feb 2023, 10:59 pm)mb134 wrote Notice French hasn't mentioned any of the rogue GNE allocations on his past few trips to the NE. The 6 today had a Durham Diamond and a couple of X-Lines vehicles if bustimes is to be believed. Not to mention the Quaycity Versas on everything but the Q3 for 5 months now, and the green X45/46 Streetdecks on the 'wrong' routes daily. Obviously the reasoning for this is that branding is not a priority now, similar to ANE - yet only one company gets slated on social media...

As for 7552, I imagine it's more likely due to a high VOR rate at Ashington. 7530/1 are off for refurb with nothing to cover, 7555 is still away with fire damage with a saloon covering, and 7524-6 are now gone (and will also be replaced with saloons). Even if they cover, pits are taken up with Blyth vehicles as their maintenance is also being done at Ashington while the depot works are completed. You're not going to lose service/stop routine maintenance so that some stickers can be taken off - that nobody bar spotters actually care about. Mr. Desire's decency seems to be on a similar level to some of his recent livery designs - would imagine his social media behaviour isn't the most appealing to potential clients.

Don't always believe bustimes.org!

The ex Quaycity Versa are clearly spare buses, as are the green X45 StreetDecks - GNE have made no secret of this. It's not possible to repaint them all immediately, and probably not wise to do so given that passenger numbers are still recovering for the COVID lockdowns and further service changes might be needed.

(04 Feb 2023, 11:17 am)busmanT wrote Don't always believe bustimes.org!

The ex Quaycity Versa are clearly spare buses, as are the green X45 StreetDecks - GNE have made no secret of this. It's not possible to repaint them all immediately, and probably not wise to do so given that passenger numbers are still recovering for the COVID lockdowns and further service changes might be needed.

If it was one vehicle, yes, however the chances of all 3 being wrong are slim. 

If you'd bothered to read my full post, I added "Obviously the reasoning for this is that branding is not a priority now". At present though there's absolutely no difference to an ordinary passenger between the GNE route branded vehicles being used on other routes, and the 308 branded DB300s being on the wrong route. If anything, an ordinary passenger will probably pay zero attention to the 308 sticker on the side of a bus in comparison to a completely different coloured bus rocking up.

(03 Feb 2023, 10:59 pm)mb134 wrote Notice French hasn't mentioned any of the rogue GNE allocations on his past few trips to the NE. The 6 today had a Durham Diamond and a couple of X-Lines vehicles if bustimes is to be believed. Not to mention the Quaycity Versas on everything but the Q3 for 5 months now, and the green X45/46 Streetdecks on the 'wrong' routes daily. Obviously the reasoning for this is that branding is not a priority now, similar to ANE - yet only one company gets slated on social media...

As for 7552, I imagine it's more likely due to a high VOR rate at Ashington. 7530/1 are off for refurb with nothing to cover, 7555 is still away with fire damage with a saloon covering, and 7524-6 are now gone (and will also be replaced with saloons). Even if they cover, pits are taken up with Blyth vehicles as their maintenance is also being done at Ashington while the depot works are completed. You're not going to lose service/stop routine maintenance so that some stickers can be taken off - that nobody bar spotters actually care about. Mr. Desire's decency seems to be on a similar level to some of his recent livery designs - would imagine his social media behaviour isn't the most appealing to potential clients.

Didn't know the X18 E400s were getting a refurb, when 7530/31 back will 7529/32/33 or atleast 2 of them be off for refurb

(04 Feb 2023, 8:24 pm)EastCoastMXZ1751 wrote Didn't know the X18 E400s were getting a refurb, when 7530/31 back will 7529/32/33 or atleast 2 of them be off for refurb

7530/1 are back, believe 7529/32 have gone down now.

(12 Feb 2023, 9:41 pm)mb134 wrote 7530/1 are back, believe 7529/32 have gone down now.

I take it if 7541-52 are replaced as rumoured, all the Classic E400s will be shipped out of Ashington too?

(12 Feb 2023, 9:58 pm)L469 YVK wrote I take it if 7541-52 are replaced as rumoured, all the Classic E400s will be shipped out of Ashington too?

Why would they be? They need E6 buses to enter the CAZ, and some of 7526-33 are needed for routes which enter it. 

There's pretty much nothing in the 7541-52 rumours either.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N...47-2n7m3Tv

7531 after repaint (not my photo)

Darlingtons 7534 has turned up in faverdale returned fresh from repaint and refurbishment

(28 Feb 2023, 3:59 pm)ross13 wrote Darlingtons 7534 has turned up in faverdale returned fresh from repaint and refurbishment

1516/1518/7540 have also been sent for refurbishment and repaint

Im guessing 1440 isn't getting done

(28 Feb 2023, 11:14 pm)Stuartphin1639 wrote 1516/1518/7540 have also been sent for refurbishment and repaint

1516 sent from a friend of mine


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

1566 is now back at redcar

7522 (NK14 GFJ) has arrived at Blackburn Bus & Coach World for repaint over the weekend

(20 Mar 2023, 4:26 pm)busesofthenortheast wrote 7522 (NK14 GFJ) has arrived at Blackburn Bus & Coach World for repaint over the weekend

Went down once 7533 returned. 1542 is covering at Jesmondgate.

7556 has been repainted alongside 4803 with a new paint scheme.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N...DR-2hWwjFU

Photo credit to Chris Hinds on Flickr
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/)

(26 Mar 2023, 5:50 pm)NewcastleOne wrote 7556 has been repainted alongside 4803 with a new paint scheme.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N...DR-2hWwjFU

Photo credit to Chris Hinds on Flickr
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/)

Looks smart, glad to see a Blyth bus being done

(26 Mar 2023, 8:12 pm)EastCoastMXZ1751 wrote Looks smart, glad to see a Blyth bus being done

It was back at Ashington this morning apparently...

(26 Mar 2023, 5:50 pm)NewcastleOne wrote 7556 has been repainted alongside 4803 with a new paint scheme.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N...DR-2hWwjFU

Photo credit to Chris Hinds on Flickr
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/62607125@N08/)

The very green, 4803 is now in service: https://flic.kr/p/2opyyn9

There's much confusion as to why it's been painted green, heard a suggestion that it's not meant to be green!

Didn't something like that happen with GNE with 8329/8331.

As well several G2s stripes were painted at like a 65 degree angle instead of 70 or smth like that. Pretty sure that happened at Blackburn

7556 has been journey marked. Didn't see any photos of it anywhere

https://flic.kr/p/2osDKA7

(11 Apr 2023, 3:31 pm)Aaron21 wrote 7556 has been journey marked. Didn't see any photos of it anywhere

https://flic.kr/p/2osDKA7

Was sent down early March, returned around the 25th.

(11 Apr 2023, 8:45 pm)mb134 wrote Was sent down early March, returned around the 25th.

Think the little photos of it is cause it kinda came out of nowhere. Like 7556 has been repainted but not the rest of the ex max. I think 7522 is in journey Mark but nothing on where it is as hasn't been seen on the road for a while & hasn't been seen at Walkergate

(11 Apr 2023, 11:58 pm)Aaron21 wrote Think the little photos of it is cause it kinda came out of nowhere. Like 7556 has been repainted but not the rest of the ex max. I think 7522 is in journey Mark but nothing on where it is as hasn't been seen on the road for a while & hasn't been seen at Walkergate

It was the next Northumbria one to go logically, the 64 plates at Ashington had finished so work would always have started on the 15 plates next. 2 of ADCs 15 plates have been done (at least). 

7553/4 would have been behind 7522 in the queue at Walkergate, which you'd assume didn't go with the 14 plates due to decker availability at Walkergate (same with 7523 at Durham you'd think). 7553 has been off for some time with engine issues and has only just returned, so that'll likely make the trip once 7522 is complete. 7555 is off with fire damage at Thornton's, so you'd imagine that'll return repainted. 

7522 is away at the moment, was pictured down there on the 20th March. People have been updating the livery for the repaints on Bustimes pretty much as they depart.