I shall be in Middlesbrough and east Yorkshire next week. I am hoping to ride a MAX Volvo B9TL on route X93 or X94 from Middlesbrough through to Scarborough. I am willing to catch route X4 to Whitby and connect with a Volvo B9TL there if it makes all the difference. Mind you, it might not as route X4 takes so much longer to reach Whitby.

Looking on Flickr, I have seen occasional other buses from Redcar garage on route X93. My most likely buses are the 8.50 X94, 9.20 X93 or 9.50 X94 from Middlesbrough.

As far as any of you know, is one of the above journeys definitely operated by Whitby garage and therefore (barring anything unforeseen) a Volvo B9TL?

I thank any of you who can let me know!

(12 Sep 2020, 6:01 pm)Metroline1511 wrote I shall be in Middlesbrough and east Yorkshire next week.  I am hoping to ride a MAX Volvo B9TL on route X93 or X94 from Middlesbrough through to Scarborough.  I am willing to catch route X4 to Whitby and connect with a Volvo B9TL there if it makes all the difference.  Mind you, it might not as route X4 takes so much longer to reach Whitby.

Looking on Flickr, I have seen occasional other buses from Redcar garage on route X93.  My most likely buses are the 8.50 X94, 9.20 X93 or 9.50 X94 from Middlesbrough.

As far as any of you know, is one of the above journeys definitely operated by Whitby garage and therefore (barring anything unforeseen) a Volvo B9TL?

I thank any of you who can let me know!

On paper, the X93 journey should be a B9 as this operates to/from Whitby, while the two X94 journeys would be operated by B7TL's or something else as they start/finish at Middlesbrough and hence are operated by Redcar. 

In reality this is not the case, as Whitby is an outstation of Redcar it seems to be a lot more fluid. For example last week (excluding Tuesday where trackers weren't working in the morning) the 8:50 was run by a B9 3 days and a B7 one day, and the 9:50 was also run by a B9 3 days but also a Pulsar one day. Whereas the 9.20 was only run by a B9 2 days, a B7 the other day and a Temsa the other. So it'll probably be a case of being lucky as to what turns up on the day!

When I did 4 days on the 18 last week it connected with the 0750 X94 in Guisborough from Middlesbrough on the school holiday times, and three days out of four that was a B9, the other being a B7, and that's a Redcar bus. Pulsars have been used a fair bit on the 0850 and 0950 in recent weeks. 0920 pretty much nailed on a decker but often 7424 can appear on that one.

On Bus Times (which for some reason, isn't showing any Arriva vehicles on the map and the main fleetlist page shows the last tracked times as around 2-half 2 yesterday but the vehicle pages do have their tracking data from today) lists today's X93/X94 allocation as
Departures from Middlesbrough
0750 X94 (Redcar working): B7 7426
0850 X94: B9 7402
0920 X93 (Whitby working): B7 7424
0950 X94: Pulsar 1436
1020 X93: B9 7406
1120 X93: B9 7401
1220 X93: B9 7404
1320 X93: B9 7405

7425 is showing as last being used last Tuesday (1st September) while 7403 was out on the early X94 working yesterday.

(12 Sep 2020, 6:23 pm)peter wrote On paper, the X93 journey should be a B9 as this operates to/from Whitby, while the two X94 journeys would be operated by B7TL's or something else as they start/finish at Middlesbrough and hence are operated by Redcar. 

In reality this is not the case, as Whitby is an outstation of Redcar it seems to be a lot more fluid. For example last week (excluding Tuesday where trackers weren't working in the morning) the 8:50 was run by a B9 3 days and a B7 one day, and the 9:50 was also run by a B9 3 days but also a Pulsar one day. Whereas the 9.20 was only run by a B9 2 days, a B7 the other day and a Temsa the other. So it'll probably be a case of being lucky as to what turns up on the day!

(12 Sep 2020, 6:42 pm)tyresmoke wrote When I did 4 days on the 18 last week it connected with the 0750 X94 in Guisborough from Middlesbrough on the school holiday times, and three days out of four that was a B9, the other being a B7, and that's a Redcar bus. Pulsars have been used a fair bit on the 0850 and 0950 in recent weeks. 0920 pretty much nailed on a decker but often 7424 can appear on that one.

Thank you both for preparing me that the B9TL is not guaranteed on any specific journey.  I admit I did not allow for Whitby being an outstation to Redcar.  Fortunately, allowing for onward connections by East Yorkshire buses, I can afford to leave Middlesbrough by 10.20 at the latest.  So, I intend to aim for the 8.50 on the basis of a potential wait but a likely (though not certain) opportunity to ride a B9TL in the end.  I am certainly ignoring the X4 now.

Thank you @Kuyoyo for your report too. Sorry I've only just spotted it.

Ecocity 4814 was on the 9/4s this evening

63 branded Pulsar on the X4 this afternoon. 
Not sure what the crack is with the X3, but there seems to be more and more Streetlites appearing as opposed to the Temsas.

Darlington’s 0622 is currently on the 13:03 service 1 from Bishop Auckland to Darlington which in turn should be the 14:00 X1 to Tow Law unless it gets swapped over

(14 Sep 2020, 6:20 pm)Andreos1 wrote 63 branded Pulsar on the X4 this afternoon. 
Not sure what the crack is with the X3, but there seems to be more and more Streetlites appearing as opposed to the Temsas.

X3 will be a mix of Streetlites and Temsas - not sure what the total PVR for X3/64 is but the X4 is 8 so that only leaves 5 Streetlites spare (if they're all out) so the balance will be made up of Temsas.

(15 Sep 2020, 5:15 pm)tyresmoke wrote X3 will be a mix of Streetlites and Temsas - not sure what the total PVR for X3/64 is but the X4 is 8 so that only leaves 5 Streetlites spare (if they're all out) so the balance will be made up of Temsas.

I have a combined PVR of 11 for the X3, X3A, 64 and 64A. There's 14 Streetlites at Redcar so that actually leaves 6 available for the X3 group, with the remaining 5 running boards made up of Temsa's (in reality there'll be more Temsa's as it's unlikely every Streetlite will be on the road at once.)

614 17A

For anyone looking to find 614, it’s on 17s today - currently on the 1000 from Middlesbrough to Kingsmead.

1436 on the 62 today

I caught route X93 on Thursday as planned. As I was offered an earlier breakfast at Premier Inn at Middlesbrough, I caught route X4 to Whitby (Streetlite 1562) in case it gave me more choice there. When I arrived there was an X94 worked by a Silver Gemini branded for Whitby Park & Ride. The next bus was an X93, the 9.20 from Middlesbrough, which was a Volvo B9TL as hoped (7406)!

I did see a MAX former London VLA too.

1437 on the X3 earlier.

7445 on the 57/57A as part of an eventfull 7 days

(21 Sep 2020, 8:06 pm)GNE6312 wrote 7445 on the 57/57A as part of an eventfull 7 days

It's not that rare to have a decker on the 57/57A (it's 7510 on today); as there seems to be 2 minis off the road (again) - which is common tbh. They badly need something to replace 1800/1801 and 3 Solos which are battered at Ashington.

Blyth tend to like putting Gemini's and Pulsars on their random runs (One of the Max Gemini's was on the other night, yet they had a 308 Gemini on the X7 - not to confuse people).

0622 currently on Sapphire 7 16:17 from Darlington
4650 on Sapphire 1/5/5A/X1 16:10 from Darlington
4649 on Sapphire 1/5/5A/X1/86 16:20 from Darlington

7508 on 47 yesterday.

One of the reasons I came to Middlesbrough last week rather than this week was in case the route X93 Volvo B9TLs were used on the rail replacement service between Middlesbrough and Whitby. Maybe this service has not been operated by Arriva or has used other vehicles instead.

(26 Sep 2020, 12:35 pm)Metroline1511 wrote One of the reasons I came to Middlesbrough last week rather than this week was in case the route X93 Volvo B9TLs were used on the rail replacement service between Middlesbrough and Whitby.  Maybe this service has not been operated by Arriva or has used other vehicles instead.

I've seen Stanley Coaches in the area and there was a Levante the other night displaying rail replacement. Didn't see who's it was.

The Rail Replacement between Middlesbrough and Whitby hasn’t had any Arriva involvement - mainly been Compass Royston and Go North East with appearances from York Pullman, Stanley Travel and Coatham.

(22 Sep 2020, 10:22 am)Storx wrote It's not that rare to have a decker on the 57/57A (it's 7510 on today); as there seems to be 2 minis off the road (again) - which is common tbh. They badly need something to replace 1800/1801 and 3 Solos which are battered at Ashington.

Blyth tend to like putting Gemini's and Pulsars on their random runs (One of the Max Gemini's was on the other night, yet they had a 308 Gemini on the X7 - not to confuse people).

Seems the deckers always seem to be allover. The X7 dupes have been 308 or X10/X11 deckers rather than B7s like I expected.

(26 Sep 2020, 1:12 pm)Andreos1 wrote I've seen Stanley Coaches in the area and there was a Levante the other night displaying rail replacement. Didn't see who's it was.

(26 Sep 2020, 1:22 pm)Kuyoyo wrote The Rail Replacement between Middlesbrough and Whitby hasn’t had any Arriva involvement - mainly been Compass Royston and Go North East with appearances from York Pullman, Stanley Travel and Coatham.

Thank you for telling me who has operated this rail replacement service.  It's nice to know for the record anyway.

(26 Sep 2020, 3:10 pm)GNE6312 wrote Seems the deckers always seem to be allover. The X7 dupes have been 308 or X10/X11 deckers rather than B7s like I expected.

Ah Blyth has always been like that, it's because they swap things around in Blyth to keep things on time rather than having a bus on time sitting around for 10 minutes for it's next run while the 308 is 10 minutes late coming in, they'll just send that out on the 308 instead and the late 308 goes on the X7 or whatever. Works well really rather than some rather interesting allocations. Deckers on 1, singles on the peak 308 runs after promising double figure times not to do it etc.

I was talking about the 57/57A there though, there's some random runs that Blyth seem to run. Does anyone actually know what's the pattern for the 57A is as it appears there's like 3 random runs Blyth do then Ashington do the rest. Then Sundays are different again with Blyth running 1 bus and Ashington the other.

(26 Sep 2020, 6:14 pm)Storx wrote Ah Blyth has always been like that, it's because they swap things around in Blyth to keep things on time rather than having a bus on time sitting around for 10 minutes for it's next run while the 308 is 10 minutes late coming in, they'll just send that out on the 308 instead and the late 308 goes on the X7 or whatever. Works well really rather than some rather interesting allocations. Deckers on 1, singles on the peak 308 runs after promising double figure times not to do it etc.

I was talking about the 57/57A there though, there's some random runs that Blyth seem to run. Does anyone actually know what's the pattern for the 57A is as it appears there's like 3 random runs Blyth do then Ashington do the rest. Then Sundays are different again with Blyth running 1 bus and Ashington the other.

Blyth do the nightime 57, they don't do any through the day (except Sunday).

(27 Sep 2020, 8:39 pm)Driver9*** wrote Blyth do the nightime 57, they don't do any through the day (except Sunday).

I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

(27 Sep 2020, 11:00 pm)Storx wrote I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

Probably to get vehicles back to the depot. Do you know the arriva boards for these.

(27 Sep 2020, 11:00 pm)Storx wrote I don't believe they do now, I live on the route and it's definitely Ashington doing evening runs lately, Blyth seems to drop in and does a random few buses at around 7pm though during the week anyway.

https://bustimes.org/services/57a-north-...2020-09-21

Seems very random but assume there's some logic behind it.

Yeah evening runs are all Ashington, bar that Blyth run as the two Ashington evening boards go off for driver breaks. 

From memory it's the 0649 57A to Whitley Bay and 0652 57 to Whitley Bay that eventually run onto the evening runs - though if they've been allocated anything unsuitable for the evening runs they are swapped in the evening when they return to Ashington for the driver break.

(28 Sep 2020, 8:45 am)mb134 wrote Yeah evening runs are all Ashington, bar that Blyth run as the two Ashington evening boards go off for driver breaks. 

From memory it's the 0649 57A to Whitley Bay and 0652 57 to Whitley Bay that eventually run onto the evening runs - though if they've been allocated anything unsuitable for the evening runs they are swapped in the evening when they return to Ashington for the driver break.

It looks like one of the blyth runs uses 1502, is a pulsar standard for the 57/57A. 
Also that long gap is a bit strange especially with scholars and works around that time.