(24 Apr 2022, 6:13 pm)mb134 wrote Isn't the X21 PVR 9? Without spares in the same spec/livery a missing B5 is always going to be noticeable - and with a reasonably high vehicle requirement it's always likely that one will be off the road.

MOT preparation, vandalism, regular servicing inspections, and accident damage repair are all reasons a vehicle could be off the road relatively long term without being linked to actual vehicle reliability. Couple that with apparent increased waiting times for parts, and the B5s being oddballs in the GNE fleet, it means that minor defects can potentially keep them off for longer than on more common vehicle types where there are possibly more parts kept in stores.

That said, realistically a PVR of 9 should probably have a branded spare, and I agree it's not a good look when you're trying to push the new X-Lines brand in the #betterthanever campaigns when there are Voyager deckers (that aren't even clearly GNE buses - especially with the "contract bus hire" taglines which gives the impression they've been hired in) operating the service on a regular basis. Have the Voyager B9s had USBs fitted, or seat retrims?

The fact that the two generic X-Lines 'Spares' now form part of the PVR for the X21 really does show how little they seem to care about it now. 20% of the allocated vehicles don't meet the promised spec of the route (assuming they're still promising tables, which they were last time I checked), so should I really expect anything better from whatever they have laying around to shove on the route?

I honestly wouldn't mind if the Voyagers were the same spec, but they're not. The seats, while tolerable, aren't the most comfortable for a 2 hour journey, there's no USB/sockets, no tables. I believe there's NSA, but it doesn't always work.

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk