(03 Dec 2015, 9:14 pm)Jimmi wrote Today I decided to brave the cold, damp weather and venture on an outing in parts of Yorkshire today.
0747 5A Home - Darlington Tubwell Row (Arriva North East: 1498)
0900 72 Darlington, Feethams - Northallerton, The Buck Inn (Dales & District: AE60 GRX)
1015 70 Northallerton, The Buck Inn - Thirsk, Market Place (Dales & District: YJ64 DXL)
1100 30X Thirsk, Market Place - Easingwold, Market Place (Reliance Motor Services: BF62 UYO)
1210 30 Easingwold, Market Place - Thirsk, Market Place (Reliance Motor Services: YJ51 NXK)
1317 70 Thirsk, Market Place - Ripon Bus Station (Dales & District: MX07 JOJ)
1455 159 Ripon Bus Station - Richmond, Market Place (Dales & District: MW52 PZB)
1625 29 Richmond, Market Place - Darlington, Houndgate (Dales & District: MX07 JOU)
1712 5 Darlington, Tubwell Row - Home (Arriva North East: 1426)
Starting the day off on service 5A and in typical fashion, it was late! Was quite busy with it being a peak time journey although I thankfully managed to get through it easily enough. From Coatham Mundeville onwards it seemed like although the 7 and 8 were both just in front of us, it seemed like there was a 1498 fan club out in force as it seemed like the 7 and 8 would just leave and then we had to pick up the passengers even though we were by far the busiest of the three. The end result was it arriving in Darlington around 10 minutes late.
After getting some drinks from Poundland I went for the 72 to Northallerton which as usual MCV Evolution AE60 GRX was the bus allocated to the service today. As the other passengers waiting for the 72 in Darlington Town Centre seemed to be off with the fairies I flagged down the bus in the correct place and jumped on first taking the backseat so I could stretch my legs out. This bus seemed to handle the route fairly well and the interior looked fairly warm and inviting, although I'm not sure how suitable the duel-door London style layout works in this part of the country, on a previous journey on this bus a wheelchair user boarded somewhere along the route and it was a right faff on as the other passengers first had to depart/board at the front and then the wheelchair had to get on through the centre doors and once the wheelchair eventually got into the wheelchair bay the driver had to take the passengers concession pass to scan it and hand it back to the passenger.
After a 20 odd minute wait it was time to get the bus to Thirsk and ex Leven Valley Solo SR YJ64 DXL operating this journey today, although every other time I've gotten this journey it has been StreetLite MX62 GUG, in some ways I was happy to get something different to a StreetLite although my seating choice wasn't the best as it was behind the rear wheel and the seats weren't the best as it was rather thin and plastic. Not a great deal else to say about this journey really and before I knew it, I arrived in Thirsk.
Next a operator who I had yet to sample, Reliance Motor Services. Volvo B7RLE? BF62 UYO was allocated to this journey and the driver was quite friendly when I boarded. First thing I thought when I sat down on this bus was that it had the same interior as the Go North East "Red Kite" Volvo B9TL's although not the same seats, so I imagine that this bus was bought from dealer stock. Quite a smooth ride and was pretty quiet especially as it wasn't a particularly busy journey. Arrived at Easingwold and I was thankful there was passengers boarding at Easingwold Market Place otherwise I may have missed the stop and ended up goodness knows where.
Not a lot to see and do in Easingwold it seems, there's a Co-Op and that's about it really so it was rather boring especially as in the 50 minutes I was here there was only another two buses to snap while I was here and I decided to head to the Co-Op to kill some time and bought a packet of Starburst. I saw three Reliance buses and non of them were the Volvo B8RLE demonstrator which is on-loan to them at the moment (the same one that Go North East trialled on the 20/20A earlier in the year) so was hoping that would be the 30 to Thirsk, so imagine my disappointment when a Cadet turned up! This had a rather unusual interior with bulky seats with moquette which looked like it belonged in an old people's home, although one concern I have is the interior as behind the front wheels there is two flip down seats on both sides so goodness knows how this bus is meant to carry wheelchairs, so I highly doubt this will be DDA compliant. Anyway this was a pretty smooth journey and then I arrived back in Thirsk at around 12:35 to wait for the 70 to Ripon.
The 70 was due to depart at 12:52 and it arrived at 13:17, yes that's right, it was 25 minutes late!!! As you can imagine I was not amused about this especially as when we got towards the 20 minute mark I did begin to panic a little and began to think it wasn't coming and I'd have to opt for the 14:00 Shaun's service 153 back to Northallerton then head onto Richmond on the 54 to return to Darlington. So was totally p***ed off by this point after being stood in the freezing cold for 45 minutes and wasn't best pleased with this Solo as it was one of a batch which has the seats which I can only describe is like the seat behind the drivers cab on Arriva's Pulsar's. So we arrived in Ripon just before 2pm due to the delay.
After spending around an hour in a rather cold and foggy Ripon getting some photos, I took my place in the queue for the 159 to Richmond and was a little surprised to have a 52 reg Solo operating this journey. I let Everyone get on before me and I pleased no-one occupied the backseats so I made my way for them, this bus has bulky seats and is fitted with seatbelts although whenever I get on a bus with these seats I can't help but notice nobody ever wears the seatbelts, well I say nobody, I do! especially nice having them on a route like this where the bus is being thrashed around twists and turns. Just before we left the driver of the 138/139 bus had a brief chat with the 159 driver and commented by saying "why do you get the racing car" and I was just sat there thinking "really?" but as we got further into the journey it seemed that he wasn't kidding, it was actually a pretty nippy bus and it was given a good thrashing, think I actually enjoyed this journey far too much than it is acceptable to enjoy a Solo.
Got off MW52PZB at Richmond Market Place and got myself a night shot before it headed back to Ripon which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, even though I have gotten better at night shots, the main issue being there was an issue with the destination screen where it only seemed to display the number/service for a few seconds before disappearing, but thankfully I managed. After this I made my way to my bus back to Darlington which was Dales & District Solo MX07 JOU on service 29, pretty quiet journey, in fact it was me and two other passengers, one got off somewhere along the route whereas the other also stayed on until Darlington. Not much to say about this run as I couldn't see anything as it was incredibly dark on this route although someone had more Christmas lights on thier house than Blackpool Illuminations. There was water dripping down from the emergency exit roof hatch.
The 29 arrived in Darlington at 17:07 so I thought I had missed the 5 home but I can always count on it being late, annoyingly it was another busy peak time journey so I had limited seating options so I ended up sat in the pushchair bay but moved to the seat behind the drivers cab somewhere down North Road. There was traffic between the Town Centre and Morrisons and someone was barring their horn when we got to Morrisons because the bus stopped to let passengers off and on the bus and there was some yellow markings on the road along with a shelter on the path, but what is this and why has the bus stopped there? Well it's called a bus stop you moron!
Despite the rather naff weather and the 70 turning up in Thirsk 25 minutes late, today was actually a pretty decent day out and when things go to plan I actually enjoy these sorts of trips out in Yorkshire as the routes are so much more enjoyable to ride then say sitting on the 21 stopping at every stop along Durham Road and I actually prefer taking and viewing fewer photos in places like Thirsk and Easingwold then seeing endless photos of buses in Newcastle all the flaming time.
Hope you enjoyed the review, you will be able to view some of my photos from today's outing on my Flickr tomorrow (Friday 4th December).
I have been into York three different occasions this week and although not specifically looking out for it, I have seen Reliance vehicles about - but there was no sign of the demo.
Tony mentioned it being there on Saturday I think it was. So if it has gone, it has just gone.
Hope you enjoyed heading somewhere different and away from the usual!