Stockton often loan Enviro 300s to Hartlepool when they're short of vehicles.
Today 27175 is on service 1

I've had a mixture of rude and polite drivers recently, although I travelled on the X12 today and the driver was behaving as if nobody else existed. We passed several buses from both Arriva & Go North East and drivers waved, although the driver didn't wave back.

I've always wondered why certain drivers don't reply to a friendly wave when they observe, especially when it is drivers from the same company and depot?

I remembered reading a sign on the cove of Arriva's Sapphire buses that they have a no-quibble money back guarantee, has anyone actually taken advantage of this?

According to their website 

Our Sapphire customer charter sets out our commitments on things like reliability, punctuality, frequency and cleanliness and guarantees you your money back if you’re not satisfied

Clearly from other threads, and my past experience, they don't live up to this, so I'd be interested in seeing what would happen if one tried to claim a refund.

(18 Jul 2020, 4:42 pm)mb134 wrote Given that the B7RLE was available until 2013 I wonder if operators regret, looking back, opting for L94s and then Omnicities over sticking with one standard chassis/body type throughout.

Personally I don't think they would regret it. The markets shifted towards the late 2000s/early 2010s anyway to more lightweight and more fuel efficient vehicles, when reducing fuel consumption was all the rage for green credentials, so I think the shift towards the Versa and Streetlite rather than sticking to a "heavyweight" B7RLE option was going to be inevitable anyway. We saw that with the Citaros, a large number being ordered 2007/2008 and then only 1 small batch in 2010 and 1 small batch in 2013, the last "heavyweight" single decks ordered. Even in most other large companies there was a focus shift from the "heavyweight" offerings of MAN, Volvo and Scania to the "lightweight" full size single decks in the VDL Pulsar and the ADL Enviro 300, and then towards the Streetlite and E200MMC.

I think there's a passenger appeal element to it as well. Stagecoach for example have been quite good at just ordering the same old, and at times it gets to a point where a typical passenger cannot tell a brand new bus from say a 7 year old bus of the same type. Using Manchester as an example, a 64 plate E400 looks exactly the same as the 06 plates they had, so the investment in new buses would go unnoticed to a typical passenger and it becomes almost utilitarian. If GNE had done the same by sticking with Wright then you'd have had the same situation, but they changed to buying something completely different that stood out from the crowd, something that gets noticed as being a new bus to the typical passenger, especially at the time when GNE were introducing all of the different route brands. As a commercial operator you want it known that you are investing in the services to bring improvements, and nothing shows your investment better than the vehicles the passengers board.

The B7RLE wasn't available until 2003 either. Volvo replaced the B10BLE with the rather unpopular B7L, which wasn't very successful at all and was axed after only 2 years effectively. I'd take a guess that a commercial decision was taken at the time, based on knowledge they had then, to order the proven Scania L94UB for their full size single deck offering for 2001-2004 deliveries, rather than switching to the unproven B7L with its smaller engine in the same full sized bus. They had been buying B10BLEs so an unproven drop in engine size could have brought some doubts to real world suitability?
Scania replaced the L94UB with the similar K230UB for Euro4, which Wright still built on, but GNE had made the commercial decision to order the Omnicity rather than sticking with the Solar for standardisation.

Apologies for the long and slightly off topic post 

Durham County Council have now posted details of the effect that the works will have on bus services:

It is worth mentioning that a Bus gate will be installed from the Quarryheads lane roundabout to the Margery Lane/A690/Crossgate traffic lights.

Arriva North East services 6, 56, 57, 57a, 58 and X12 (and the Scarlet Band 57X):
Will divert via Quarryheads Lane, Margery Lane, and the A690 between Whitechurch (the South Road/Stockton Road crossroads) and Durham Bus Station. As such stops on Church Street, New Elvet and Leazes Road will be omitted, in addition, southbound journeys will now operate via North Road omitting Millburngate. As a partial replacement, some existing (presently unused) bus stops at the eastern end of Quarryheads lane (near the above mentioned crossroads) will now be served. There will be no timetable changes for these services (only route changes). 

Go North East services 40B, N21 and 59:
The 40B (when it resumes operation) will run to a revised timetable operating directly between the Rail Station and University Mountjoy centre serving stops at Quarryheads Lane and Stockton Road (and thus presumably omitting North Road/Bus Station). At present there are no details as to how the N21 and 59 will be affected. The N21 will presumably run to the same diversion as ANE's service 6 (as described above) when it returns, as for the 59, it will be interesting to see whether the service runs via Whinney Hill and Church Street to join Quarryheads Lane or if Whinney Hill will be omitted. 

Scarlet Band services S1 and PR2:
Service S1 will divert from Claypath direct via the A690, Margery Lane to Quarryheads Lane where it will rejoin the route at South Road, omitting stops on Church Street and New Elvet. Due to the extent of the diversion this service will have a revised timetable. 

Service PR2 is being reinstated from the 20th July, at which point it will serve all stops between Howlands Park and Ride and New Elvet before extending to serve Old Elvet, where it will terminate, thus allowing vehicles to turnaround near the Crown Court. In essence the PR2 will act as a sort of temporary shuttle bus running down Church Street and New Elvet to replace the services temporarily withdrawn from those stops.

If the evening X30 interworking patterns are changed going down the line so that it interworked with another Consett service, could the evening 6A journeys not be operated by Chester Le Street interworking with the 25?

5207, 5208 & 5209 now been withdrawn

I don't want to sound a bore or an arse here but can we please have some rules on here to attempt to keep posts on topic.

Every thread lately dives in the same, Arriva run antique buses even the known the same posters have been told numerous times how Arriva's investment policy works and it's getting a little bit tedious. If it's not that then it's petty discussion about how people don't like the seats, NSA's don't work, Arriva is worse in some way all without substance to the original thread.

It's getting a bit boring having to scroll through pages on the same drivel so can we please have new rules on this and a thread or threads created somewhere where all the off topic posts get moved into it ie. Arriva Rants, X21 discussion, broken NSA's etc.

I'm sure some will agree with this, thank you.

Does anyone if the E200 are still due to have the cant rail lights fitted? I know they were supposed to be retrofitted on to the Green Arrow branded ones with corp already having them fitted

From the fleet news:

The seasonal Toon Tour service is not yet running, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this; open-top format Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TLs 3997 (897 EYX) and 3998 (794 EYD) have been reinstated at Percy Main, and 3999 (574 CPT) at Riverside. As these vehicles are something of a novelty; they are expected to be used on frontline core commercial work on sunny days, with the aim of creating some happiness and fun during the current pandemic.


Never expected to see them in service this year at all.