(03 Sep 2025, 10:03 am)Teessider2014 wrote The delays on the 36 are absolutely nothing to do with the yutongs - if anything the yutongs have improved reliability - much quicker pulling away from stops and junctions than the MAN’s and most E300’s previously in service.
The door opening/closing system is still slightly quicker than the E200MMC’s previously in use.
What you will actually find the route cause of delays on the 36 is the running time around Hartlepool, 95% of the time it is absolutely fine but that 5% of the time when you miss the lights at Greatham, struggle to get out of Owton Manor Lane, then hit the lights at Oxford Road, then struggle through the Town Centre before then hitting traffic at the Marina the buses funnily enough start to run late! The crazy amount of running time around Billingham heading back into Mbro plus the 5 minutes to go from one end of Stockton High Street to the other gets them back on time.
Strangely enough reliability on the 36 alone is around 96% on time so I don’t quite think the yutongs are causing the issues you claim they are??
By all means disagree but when I travelled on it 2 weeks ago it left the Marina only 2 minutes late by the time it got to Stockton High Street it was 20 minutes late. The one behind was also running 10 minutes late. A reason for this was due to capacity and people struggling to find somewhere to sit or stand. My experience is it’s made the service more unreliable if anything. That same day the 59 and 37 also running several minutes late as well.