One of my friends had a house warming "get together" yesterday, but we had to leave by 23:00 as her parents didn't fancy having a group of 17 - 19 year olds having too much to drink and potentially ruining the new house. I was a little worried that I'd wake up with a stinking hangover in the morning, and this would put me off going out during the day, but thankfully this was not the case and I managed to wake up sharp and get out of the house at 08:00am.
As with previous outings, I'd have preferred to use the bus from my house to Newcastle but unfortunately I did not wake up early enough to opt for this (longer) alternative. Thankfully there wasn't any issues on the Tyne & Wear Metro system and I caught my connection to the 08:45 685 service as planned. On boarding, I was really impressed by the coach-style seating. The last time I saw the seating in the flesh was when the vehicle visited Stockton Depot for the Stagecoach North East Open Day. I personally think that the Stagecoach interior colourscheme is bright and inviting; what's more, the seats are always comfortable (although sometimes lack legroom). The 685 service is a very scenic route and I find it quite relaxing to use, but the service is incredibly long and I think it is a shame Stagecoach did not go against the grain by including the provision of power sockets on board its two 64-reg ADL Enviro300s. The Wi-Fi worked brilliantly, and, as Three's signal is not the best on the A69, I managed to catch up on some of the TV programmes I missed last night. Once we left Hexham, the bus really started to get busy. Things got worse later in the route towards Carlisle, after a large group of walkers boarded the bus. I originally had two seats to myself, but this changed by Brampton and I was left with a woman sat on top of me (well - that is exaggerated just a tad!)
Upon arrival in Carlisle, I let Sean (northern156) know of my whereabouts and asked if he would want to play tour guide for me in Carlisle later in the day. He was happy to meet up, but was otherwise occupied for the first half of the day. To kill time, I dropped Josh (CumbrianJosh) a message, to ask if he was driving on this dark and dreary day. He was, which was brilliant news, and he told me the time he would next be back in the city centre with a new Solo. During the interim period, I took a few photographs and wolfed down a much-needed Greggs.
As someone who is bombarded with Stagecoach ADL-manufactured buses in the North East, I was looking forward to try out something new. I'd never been on a Stagecoach Optare Solo SR in the past, but the native Solos in the Cumbria fleet that I had sampled in the past didn't overly impress me. The pleasant "new bus smell" was evident as soon as I boarded my first new Euro6 Solo SR, but not quite as prevalent as I had initially expected. I made my way to the back of the bus and was impressed by how spacious it was. Sadly this was not the case for other seats on the bus, as legroom did seem to lack elsewhere. Indeed; matters are made worse by the fact that these vehicles have a smaller capacity than the one year old ADL Enviro200s they replace, and customers often seemed to have to stand. I dread to think what it is like on a weekday peak time, if there was standees on a Saturday just after noon.
In all of my visits to Carlisle, I have never decided to use any of the buses there apart from those heading into the Lake District. I decided to use service 76 to compare the new Optare Solo SRs to the old ADL Enviro200s. I must say I prefer the latter, though Sean did seem to disagree. It will be interesting to see how long these new Solos last in Carlisle; after all, I don't think many would have predicted last year's new buses to be replaced after a year. In terms of performance: even on their first day in service, some didn't sound particularly healthy. One had issues with its doors, and they all had incredibly squeaky brakes. Let's hope Stagecoach engineers get the WD40 out so that those a mile down the road cannot hear it arriving when it decelerates!
I had seen my favourite Scania OmniCity earlier in the day, and planned to get it back to Newcastle later in the day on the 685. Bizarrely, 4663 has been the bus allocated the past two times I've been to Carlisle and it was third time lucky today. It has an abundance of power and is so warm - although I realised the latter feature is better during the winter months rather than the summer months, as the sweat was dripping off my face in Carlisle Bus Station! Was no bother as soon as passengers opened up the windows and the driver put his foot down though. A nice pleasurable ride as always (well, when most passengers abandoned ship at Brampton!) Kudos to the driver who left Hexham 12 minutes late and arrived into Newcastle on-time. Jimmi probably got sick of my Michael-style control room updates every other minute, but never mind...
My journey log for the day is given below:
0806 Metro: Stadium of Light to Haymarket - Tyne & Wear Metro 4074
0845 685: Newcastle to Carlisle - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 27142
1140 76: City Centre to St Anns Hill - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47956
1155 76: St Anns Hill to Durranhill - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47956
1250 76: Durranhill to City Centre - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47957
1310 60: City Centre to Sainsburys - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47941
1400 67: Sainsburys to Cumberland Infirmary - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 37097
1415 60: Infirmary to West Tower Street (via Sandsfield Park) - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47959
1450 61: West Tower St to London Road - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 47945
1513 104: London Road to Carlisle - Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire 37125
1610 685: Carlisle to Newcastle - Arriva North East 4663
1832 Metro: Haymarket to Stadium of Light - Tyne & Wear Metro 4026
Very appreciative of Sean's help today in guiding me around Carlisle - we must do it again in the future. Anyone who can handle the two-hour journey on the 685 is more than welcome to join! If Jimmi can do it from Aycliffe, anyone can... He is getting back at 21:00 tonight - rather him than me!
Thanks as ever for reading, and I am keen to read what you all got up to today too.
