(13 Jun 2015, 7:49 pm)Jimmi wrote I'm fed up with Belmont and them allocating MAX and Sapphire spares to whatever they please.
I have made some excuses for them appearing on other routes but I have had enough, this really angered me tonight...
Arriva North East: 1323 / YX10 EBN by Jimmi's Bus Photos, on Flickr
Where was the two spares? 1595 was on the 61/62 and lord knows where 1417 was
This is the fifth recorded non Sapphire working on the 7 in the last fortnight on this forum, four of them seem to have been to Darlington being unable to allocate all the Sapphire buses to the 7 for whatever reason. Also why does every other depot get two Sapphire spares whilst Darlington have to make do with one spare and Darlington have a PVR of 8 on the 7.
Although this bus has charging points and e-leather seating (which is not very comfortable) I don't believe they have WiFi (unless they have been fitted since I last rode one) and there is no announcements either. Also looks pretty busy too due to this being a smaller bus.
Don't get me started on 1415... although I haven't seen any odd workings on the X12 in the last week or so, this may mean Belmont have had all 6 Gemini's on the X12 so 1415 hasn't been required on there.
An E200 is clearly unsuitable for the 7, given that it's recently been upgraded to deckers to match the demand.
(13 Jun 2015, 8:03 pm)MrPottski wrote 1415 was on the 6 again today. One of Darlington's deckers has had "issues" recently, so the spare has being used on the 7. When one goes bang, no spare to cover. I do have to admit though, allocation is one of the worst jobs, Darlington do manage to get it done most of the time on run out, it's only when issues arise later that you have branded vehicles go walkies. For instance, if you have already allocated the spare Sapphire to, say, an X75/6 due to a breakdown, then another Sapphire also has issues, pulling the spare off the X75/6 to get it back on the 7 will be virtually impossible. In an ideal world, we would have a limitless engineering budget, so breakdowns wouldn't happen, and branded vehicles would always be where they should be.
I don't think it's been on the X12 at all this week. It spent the majority of the week on the 56/57 in Durham, having been allocated first thing on a morning, and still running into the early evening. I've said it before, but it's pointless having a branded spare, when it's potentially going to be in Bishop Auckland or Hartlepool when it's required on the X12...