Thought i would create this thread for fleet questions (not to be confused with the "state of the fleet thread)
My question is this, I've noticed a few times that when I've been on a Streetlite and the bus has changed drivers, that they effectively "restart" the bus (turn the engine off and on), is there a reason for this?

It isolates it so it gets rid of most if not all the faults on the dash.

It may also be a safety thing. We've been told to turn the engine off when we get out the cab for any reason, even to change drivers or to load a wheelchair, following an incident in Manchester I believe where a bus served a stop and then rolled into the shelter or something like that. It's supposedly to force you to do your pre-departure checks.
Most of us don't.

(19 Mar 2025, 2:22 am)V514DFT wrote Thought i would create this thread for fleet questions (not to be confused with the "state of the fleet thread)
My question is this, I've noticed a few times that when I've been on a Streetlite and the bus has changed drivers, that they effectively "restart" the bus (turn the engine off and on), is there a reason for this?

The ignition has to be turned off to adjust the steering column/wheel.It won't adjust when ignition is on

I see, so not just limited to the Streetlites?

Go North East Streetlites need engine off but ignition on to adjust steering column (I'm sure Streetdecks are the same).

Arriva Streetlites, have a 'secret button' which sounds the horn to start the engine.

Some of GNEs ex Manchester buses have similar features (as did the second hand Citaros).

Another safety feature found on E400's (definitely the Arriva ones when I was there), when you engage reverse there is a yellow button that needs pressing or reverse won't engage. I believe older Tridents also had a similar feature.

(19 Mar 2025, 6:00 pm)morritt89 wrote Another safety feature found on E400's (definitely the Arriva ones when I was there), when you engage reverse there is a yellow button that needs pressing or reverse won't engage. I believe older Tridents also had a similar feature.

This is true for all Dennis buses unless fitted with certain Allison boxes.

An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops, it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it. The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again. For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

(20 Mar 2025, 9:22 am)xpm wrote An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops,  it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it.  The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again.  For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

Agreed, they were too hit and miss, and aged very poorly. You were more likely to get a nice Solar than a nice Citaro when they were nearer their end of life.

(20 Mar 2025, 9:22 am)xpm wrote An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops,  it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it.  The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again.  For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

Mercs were very temperamental I found. Maybe too complicated for a service bus. I agree about the brakes and personally didn't like the design of the brake pedal (or pedals in general for that matter). I wasn't fussed on the location of the handbrake either. 

People slate Streetlites for heavy steering, but at slow speeds (reversing out of a bus station for example), steering a Citaro was like trying to manoeuvre a barge and very heavy.