(27 Apr 2014, 7:15 am)VolvoMarkII wrote I believe Stand 1 is not used by any service permanently as it is not DDA compliant. As such, when the bus station was refurbished, they could not do any work to level the stand out at passenger boarding point to get compliance, due to the shops and infrastructure underneath.
Arriva decided to operate from Stand 8 to align the Guisborough (and at the time) Whitby directional services together, as ensure compliance with the DDA going forward. However, due to the loads, last year the X93 was delaying the 5/5A - so this year it will share Stand 9 with Service 9 which presumably has smaller bulk loads from the bus station in comparison to 5/5A.
I believe the turnaround time at the end of the routes has increased from 8 minutes at each end (last year summer timetable) to around 15 in Scarborough and 20 in Middlesbrough. The short workings do not interwork with the long workings either. The timetable all year around is therefore standard from May, with additional trips 'dropping in' over the summer. This is one big improvement in my eyes.
Lets be honest though, is the timetable really the issue? The Omnicities seem to cope with it. Its only since the E400's and the B7's arrived that people keep pointing fingers at the timetable more. Its fairly evident that the vehicles are the problem and Arriva do need to address that going forward. However, like debated many times, the X93 probably could use new kit, but unless someone can build buses at the click of a finger, they needed to do something to replace the E400 in the short term...
Gonna go all Davey Bowyer on people now :p - In the entire Arriva UK fleet, there must have been something more suitable than these b7 Geminis.
Regional management, must be aware of the issues competitors have had, running long distance routes, using cascaded vehicles with the same engine.
Without sounding too pessimistic, I was waiting for comments to appear on the forum on how the vehicles would perform on the hills and now one has appeared, I ain't shocked.
Additional time may have been added to the timetable and it sounds like it is needed - but at what cost?
Day trippers having less time in their chosen destination and stuck on a struggling bus, there and back by the sounds of it.