(06 Jul 2015, 5:39 pm)tyresmoke wrote Where are we at with the repaints?
Frequenta gen - 2843
Frequenta base - 2830, 2832, 2833, 2835, 2849, 2866
Arriva minus cowhorn - 2854, 2855

(06 Jul 2015, 5:28 pm)tyresmoke wrote Well now Arriva have launched it I suppose I can tell you all a bit more about it 

Frequenta will be our new high frequency brand, to be launched initially in Darlington but will eventually be used at other depots around the North East.

(06 Jul 2015, 8:56 pm)S813 FVK wrote I can see Durham's 64 joining the Frequenta brand too.

(06 Jul 2015, 5:28 pm)tyresmoke wrote Well now Arriva have launched it I suppose I can tell you all a bit more about it 

Frequenta will be our new high frequency brand, to be launched initially in Darlington but will eventually be used at other depots around the North East. Services to be branded in Darlington are 2, 3/3a/3b, 4, 9/10, 13a/13b


Once rolled out at Darlington, the next routes to be included are Stockton's 7 and 15, along with Redcar's 63.

(07 Jul 2015, 10:31 am)buss14 wrote the frequenta service might go well on jesmonds 84A bus and the 55

(07 Jul 2015, 10:45 am)Jimmi wrote That's unlikely to happen especially on the 84/84A because as well as being a Nexus service it also only runs hourly and I think the point of the Frequenta brand is for frequent services, all the Darlington services that will be branded run at least every 10 minutes.

(07 Jul 2015, 1:54 pm)9920up wrote A couple of thoughts about "Frequenta". I can see the thinking for the 10 minute frequency services. The 3/3A/3B are only a combination from the town centre to Skerne Park giving the "required" frequency. But each individual section operates half hourly on the other side of the centre ie the 3 to Mowden, the 3A to Harrowgate Hill and the 3B to Fitzwilliam Drive, where there's no correlation or common ground other than the sub route number. This gives a strange juxtaposition of making half hourly services qualify for the "Frequenta" brand, not easy to explain away.
Also, the 9/10 continues to be made up in strength by the 13xx series Darts. Are they too for the branding (bet they wouldn't dare!) or will they just be another anomaly in the system?

(06 Jul 2015, 6:57 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote It has happened before..............Bet only a few people knew this, But there was a service years ago operated by Redcar which went to Leeds stopping at York on the way.
operated by DAF SB220s

(07 Jul 2015, 4:31 pm)Cock Robin wrote Was it Redcar or Loftus?

(08 Jul 2015, 9:05 am)John_R wrote 1461 is now at Darlington and is currently on the 1 which left Darlo at 9:45

(07 Jul 2015, 2:55 pm)Jimmi wrote It is a bit rubbish having 'frequenta' on the 3/3A/3B when parts of the routes only have a bus every half hour.

Did wonder about the Darts and I highly doubt they will become 'Frequenta' and it will look rather terrible if they continue to make up a large amount of the allocation on the 9/10 especially as I think Frequenta buses will have WiFi and I highly doubt they will bother fitting WiFi to these old sheds. One problem is if you don't put the Darts on the likes of the 9/10 what can you put them on, you can only really have them on the 8/8A and they were previously allocated to this service but I imagine part of the reason they were booted of this service because they were rather unreliable and other than the 8/8A they can only really be used on services that will fall into the Frequenta brand.

(08 Jul 2015, 9:50 am)9920up wrote This has all the makings of a horrendous mash up of brands. virtually every vehicle Darlington has will be dedicated which is OK if you have high availability.
Given the Solos are go anywhere substitutes with regular outings on X66, X26, 1/5/19, and anything else where the frequent services are robbed to support vehicles shortages elsewhere, Frequenta will become a very confusing brand.
As for the Darts, they are now 16 years old, surely the word scrap must enter into the equation. plan for their removal must be somewhere in the offing.

(08 Jul 2015, 9:23 am)tvd wrote Loftus used to do the X3 which went on a Saturday, from Easington to Leeds via York.

They also did a Saturday service over to the Lake District, Kendal I think but I cant remember the service number.

Shame both of those bit the dust, I can't imagine Arriva today trying anything at all like that.

(08 Jul 2015, 9:05 am)John_R wrote 1461 is now at Darlington and is currently on the 1 which left Darlo at 9:45

(08 Jul 2015, 10:00 am)South Tyne Lad wrote How long did it take from Easington to Leeds? Im guessing 4 hours or something.

there's a few photos of the Lake District service and yes it did go to Kendal. At least that was operated by a coach!

4 hours on a DAF SB220 would be alright for me, Imagine a Dart on that service.

(08 Jul 2015, 2:31 pm)MrPottski wrote 2830 is now Frequenta branded for the 3 services.

(08 Jul 2015, 2:52 pm)Jimmi wrote 2832 is also Frequenta 3/3A/3B branded - it's operating service 4 today!

(08 Jul 2015, 11:25 am)Mark P wrote A forced visit to the loft earlier gave me a good excuse for a rummage through some boxes......

The X3 timetable from 9 Sept '95 looked like:
0810 Easington
0842 Guisborough
0905 Middlesbrough
0933 Yarm
1015 Thirsk
1055 York
1140 Leeds
Return journey departing Leeds at 1705 arriving back at Easington at 2030.

The X95 timetable from 25 May '96 looked like:
0810 Loftus Depot
0835 Guisborough
0900 Middlesbrough
0930 Darlington
1125 Keswick
1240 Kendal
1320 Morecambe
Return journey departing Morecambe at 1535 arriving back at Loftus at 2045.

Another one I'd forgotten all about was the X19. The timetable from 22 June '96 looked like:
0900 Saltburn
0915 Redcar
0940 Guisborough
0958 Stokesley
1030 Thirsk
1110 York
Return journey departing York at 1630 arriving back at Saltburn at 1825.

(08 Jul 2015, 2:31 pm)MrPottski wrote 2830 is now Frequenta branded for the 3 services.