(13 Mar 2016, 8:15 am)Dan wrote Comments regularly crop up on this forum and others regarding the quality and presentation of Go North East's fleet, but I would certainly suggest that some people seem to be wearing those rose tinted glasses, based on my five-minute experience of Arriva Durham's fleet yesterday.About half of the 22 rear displays are working properly. Big'un will know exactly which! It's a miracle if any of the sockets work and I've given up trying with the WiFi. 1595 doesn't have any NSAs even though at least one of the other sapphire spares does. The NSAs are full of bad spelling and worse pronunciation and don't even work on a section of the route that crosses over itself.
I managed to spot "Sapphire" ADL Enviro400 7538 with an odd coloured panel and missing branding on the front of the bus, two "Sapphire" VDL Pulsars with odd coloured panels (one was 1524, with a rear offside corner panel a darker blue compared to the rest of the bus), Lowlander 7444 which was looking incredibly tatty, and Solo 2823 which was looking tatty and missing sections of paint on the front of the bus.
Not forgetting the fact that some of the "Sapphire" Wright Streetlites on service 22* still only display a route number on the rear destination display, despite being fitted with a full-size rear display. Arriva have gone to the expense of purchasing a large LED display, so it's pretty poor that the company's electricians haven't bothered to change the switch setting to allow the correct information to be shown. It's a two minute job!
* I didn't catch any fleet numbers, but I'm sure Big'un and BLM will know!
So yes, there isn't a lot of sparkle!
Unlike some of the ashington sapphire fleet, the streetlites are reliable, cope well with the trickier bits of the route and keep time, though. That is a massive improvement on what we've had.
7444 looks as you'd expect for anold bus that's not been painted but some of those y reg lowlanders are caked in filth inside, including on the seats. The 08 reg solos look pretty shocking and have done for a couple of years. They're really nippy vehicles, so I don't know why they've been allowed to become such a mess when they have a good few years in them, yet.
(13 Mar 2016, 8:15 am)Dan wrote Comments regularly crop up on this forum and others regarding the quality and presentation of Go North East's fleet, but I would certainly suggest that some people seem to be wearing those rose tinted glasses, based on my five-minute experience of Arriva Durham's fleet yesterday.About half of the 22 rear displays are working properly. Big'un will know exactly which! It's a miracle if any of the sockets work and I've given up trying with the WiFi. 1595 doesn't have any NSAs even though at least one of the other sapphire spares does. The NSAs are full of bad spelling and worse pronunciation and don't even work on a section of the route that crosses over itself.
I managed to spot "Sapphire" ADL Enviro400 7538 with an odd coloured panel and missing branding on the front of the bus, two "Sapphire" VDL Pulsars with odd coloured panels (one was 1524, with a rear offside corner panel a darker blue compared to the rest of the bus), Lowlander 7444 which was looking incredibly tatty, and Solo 2823 which was looking tatty and missing sections of paint on the front of the bus.
Not forgetting the fact that some of the "Sapphire" Wright Streetlites on service 22* still only display a route number on the rear destination display, despite being fitted with a full-size rear display. Arriva have gone to the expense of purchasing a large LED display, so it's pretty poor that the company's electricians haven't bothered to change the switch setting to allow the correct information to be shown. It's a two minute job!
* I didn't catch any fleet numbers, but I'm sure Big'un and BLM will know!
So yes, there isn't a lot of sparkle!
Unlike some of the ashington sapphire fleet, the streetlites are reliable, cope well with the trickier bits of the route and keep time, though. That is a massive improvement on what we've had.
7444 looks as you'd expect for anold bus that's not been painted but some of those y reg lowlanders are caked in filth inside, including on the seats. The 08 reg solos look pretty shocking and have done for a couple of years. They're really nippy vehicles, so I don't know why they've been allowed to become such a mess when they have a good few years in them, yet.