Thought i would create this thread for fleet questions (not to be confused with the "state of the fleet thread)
My question is this, I've noticed a few times that when I've been on a Streetlite and the bus has changed drivers, that they effectively "restart" the bus (turn the engine off and on), is there a reason for this?

It isolates it so it gets rid of most if not all the faults on the dash.

It may also be a safety thing. We've been told to turn the engine off when we get out the cab for any reason, even to change drivers or to load a wheelchair, following an incident in Manchester I believe where a bus served a stop and then rolled into the shelter or something like that. It's supposedly to force you to do your pre-departure checks.
Most of us don't.

(19 Mar 2025, 2:22 am)V514DFT wrote Thought i would create this thread for fleet questions (not to be confused with the "state of the fleet thread)
My question is this, I've noticed a few times that when I've been on a Streetlite and the bus has changed drivers, that they effectively "restart" the bus (turn the engine off and on), is there a reason for this?

The ignition has to be turned off to adjust the steering column/wheel.It won't adjust when ignition is on

I see, so not just limited to the Streetlites?

Go North East Streetlites need engine off but ignition on to adjust steering column (I'm sure Streetdecks are the same).

Arriva Streetlites, have a 'secret button' which sounds the horn to start the engine.

Some of GNEs ex Manchester buses have similar features (as did the second hand Citaros).

Another safety feature found on E400's (definitely the Arriva ones when I was there), when you engage reverse there is a yellow button that needs pressing or reverse won't engage. I believe older Tridents also had a similar feature.

(19 Mar 2025, 6:00 pm)morritt89 wrote Another safety feature found on E400's (definitely the Arriva ones when I was there), when you engage reverse there is a yellow button that needs pressing or reverse won't engage. I believe older Tridents also had a similar feature.

This is true for all Dennis buses unless fitted with certain Allison boxes.

An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops, it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it. The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again. For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

(20 Mar 2025, 9:22 am)xpm wrote An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops,  it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it.  The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again.  For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

Agreed, they were too hit and miss, and aged very poorly. You were more likely to get a nice Solar than a nice Citaro when they were nearer their end of life.

(20 Mar 2025, 9:22 am)xpm wrote An annoying feature of the citaros were the brakes - no two vehicles were the same in terms of effort and skill required to bring the bus to a comfortable stop, and with the ‘halt’ brake feature enabled as default this often led to jerky starts and stops,  it could be overridden by a switch in front of the park brake, which personally I preferred as it made for smoother driving, but it became a serious no-no at riverside with the switch security corded shut, and threats of disciplinaries for anyone disabling it.  The switch was also useful if you had a vehicle with bouncy closing doors where they reopen due to ‘too sensitive’ edges when preparing to pull away With the halt brake on you cannot pull away until they were fully closed, with the halt brake disabled you could pull away whilst they were closing, and in a majority of cases it stopped the doors from bouncing back open again.  For all there were many fans of the citaros I pretty much despised them, like driving a breeze block and nowhere near the manoeuvrability of a scania solar.

Mercs were very temperamental I found. Maybe too complicated for a service bus. I agree about the brakes and personally didn't like the design of the brake pedal (or pedals in general for that matter). I wasn't fussed on the location of the handbrake either. 

People slate Streetlites for heavy steering, but at slow speeds (reversing out of a bus station for example), steering a Citaro was like trying to manoeuvre a barge and very heavy.

I thought this was the appropriate thread to put this in. Im on the 65 passed through hetton and seen a white E400 MMC on the X1. Couldn’t recognise the moquette. Is this another bus on loan to Washington or is this a permanent addition? Looked a canny bit longer compared to the existing fleet, 11.5s maybe? Maybe they should consider acquiring some at riverside for the X21 boards lol!

(01 Apr 2025, 5:27 pm)ALavery wrote I thought this was the appropriate thread to put this in. Im on the 65 passed through hetton and seen a white E400 MMC on the X1. Couldn’t recognise the moquette. Is this another bus on loan to Washington or is this a permanent addition? Looked a canny bit longer compared to the existing fleet, 11.5s maybe? Maybe they should consider acquiring some at riverside for the X21 boards lol!

They currently have 3 Enviro 400 MMC on loan at Washington, along with 6 Enviro 200 MMC, these are all on loan for the next 2 - 3 months. Hopefully giving them time to sort out issues with vehicle shortages which have gone on over the last few months. 

Shame they aren't buying them permanently. Would be ideal for X21, and they could then transfer the 20 plate streetdecks to Washington to go with rest of batch there.

(01 Apr 2025, 6:38 pm)Arriva7446 wrote They currently have 3 Enviro 400 MMC on loan at Washington, along with 6 Enviro 200 MMC, these are all on loan for the next 2 - 3 months. Hopefully giving them time to sort out issues with vehicle shortages which have gone on over the last few months. 

Shame they aren't buying them permanently. Would be ideal for X21, and they could then transfer the 20 plate streetdecks to Washington to go with rest of batch there.

Would be very easy to sort Riverside's issues out on the X10 & X21 if GNE woke up and realised Whickham & Dunston don't need three buses per hour which is more than double the pre Nov 2019 capacity! Would also save a lot of the remote reliefs in Stanley too.

Definitely do-able! Only minor route change would be X70 via Lobley Hill Estate instead of X32.

If Angel StreetDecks end up on the Cobalts or 56, some B9TL's on X20.......then use 6308-14 & 6356-63 on X32/X45/X70/X73. 

Then bar x6 E400MMC kept at Consett for the X30/X71 (low height PVR of x4 with x2 spare), the rest go to Riverside for the X10 & X21 with mixed use on both services.



GNE could even transfer the X30/X71 to Riverside with 1 X21 board per hour interworking with the X30/X71, allowing reliefs / meal breaks in Gateshead. That would keep all the E400MMC together. 

Driver 1 - GHD > WA > GHD
Driver 2 - GHD > NCL > CON > NCL > STA > NCL > GHD

Then with something temporary on the X66 until EV's arrive, all E200MMC to Consett with Consett regaining the 12 which would interwork with the 6.

(03 Apr 2025, 9:32 pm)L469 YVK wrote Would be very easy to sort Riverside's issues out on the X10 & X21 if GNE woke up and realised Whickham & Dunston don't need three buses per hour which is more than double the pre Nov 2019 capacity! Would also save a lot of the remote reliefs in Stanley too.

Definitely do-able! Only minor route change would be X70 via Lobley Hill Estate instead of X32.

If Angel StreetDecks end up on the Cobalts or 56, some B9TL's on X20.......then use 6308-14 & 6356-63 on X32/X45/X70/X73. 

Then bar x6 E400MMC kept at Consett for the X30/X71 (low height PVR of x4 with x2 spare), the rest go to Riverside for the X10 & X21 with mixed use on both services.



GNE could even transfer the X30/X71 to Riverside with 1 X21 board per hour interworking with the X30/X71, allowing reliefs / meal breaks in Gateshead. That would keep all the E400MMC together. 

Driver 1 - GHD > WA > GHD
Driver 2 - GHD > NCL > CON > NCL > STA > NCL > GHD

Then with something temporary on the X66 until EV's arrive, all E200MMC to Consett with Consett regaining the 12 which would interwork with the 6.

You seem to have an obsession with sending 6308-14 to Consett, surely you want something more reliable than these B5s on those routes, the interiors need a good tidy up, the tables look a mess and i bet most of the sockets dont work, your probably better off with some B9s on them for reliability  630 6308-14 8-14

I’m not sure why you’d take the unreliable and tatty interior Angel Streetdecks which can’t handle your most profitable route and sound like they’re going to explode along Chester Moor dual carriageway…

and put them on the 309 when the current fleet on there is absolutely fine and in a much better interior condition…what logic is applied? (Same with the 56)

The streetdecks are probably only good for the 51/52/93/94/S2 world

(05 Apr 2025, 9:00 pm)Ambassador wrote I’m not sure why you’d take the unreliable and tatty interior Angel Streetdecks which can’t handle your most profitable route and sound like they’re going to explode along Chester Moor dual carriageway…

and put them on the 309 when the current fleet on there is absolutely fine and in a much better interior condition…what logic is applied? (Same with the 56)

The streetdecks are probably only good for the 51/52/93/94/S2 world

Other than a short stretch between Benfield Road and Station Road as well as a bit of the Coast, there's not much 'fast' running especially on the 307.

Unrelated and I can’t remember if I asked this before but why not GNE do an experiment with double door usage as it seems quite useful and the door is just sitting there.Like maybe for 1 day they just test out to see whether dual door operation could help

(06 Apr 2025, 9:28 am)L469 YVK wrote Other than a short stretch between Benfield Road and Station Road as well as a bit of the Coast, there's not much 'fast' running especially on the 307.

Either way, the B9s are nice buses with nice interiors and if they can keep on top of maintenance are perfectly suited to the Cobalts. What's the point in swapping them for buses that aren't even that much newer now. The Streetdecks are going to be 8 years old this year.

(06 Apr 2025, 10:35 am)BusEnthusiast.com wrote Unrelated and I can’t remember if I asked this before but why not GNE do an experiment with double door usage as it seems quite useful and the door is just sitting there.Like maybe for 1 day they just test out to see whether dual door operation could help

at one time in the early to mid 70's over half the buses with Northern and the PTE were dual door

(06 Apr 2025, 10:35 am)BusEnthusiast.com wrote Unrelated and I can’t remember if I asked this before but why not GNE do an experiment with double door usage as it seems quite useful and the door is just sitting there.Like maybe for 1 day they just test out to see whether dual door operation could help

It's pointless as a fair chunk of bus stops just don't support dual door so it's just confusing for passengers. 

Dual door vehicles shouldn't be in service as their not wheelchair accessible for the same reason.

(06 Apr 2025, 10:35 am)BusEnthusiast.com wrote Unrelated and I can’t remember if I asked this before but why not GNE do an experiment with double door usage as it seems quite useful and the door is just sitting there.Like maybe for 1 day they just test out to see whether dual door operation could help

And how do you propose they work that in bus stations? Or deal with the time lost when passengers don't realise that, just for this one day, they didn't need to walk to the front to alight, anyhow? Or stopping at the bus stops that have enough raised kerb for the front doors, but not the central doors as well, meaning passengers can't safely get on and off at the same time (we're not all young and agile)? Or have railings either side of the bus stop?

Our stations and roadside infrastructure are not set up with dual door use in mind.

(06 Apr 2025, 11:01 am)deanmachine wrote Either way, the B9s are nice buses with nice interiors and if they can keep on top of maintenance are perfectly suited to the Cobalts. What's the point in swapping them for buses that aren't even that much newer now. The Streetdecks are going to be 8 years old this year.

It's not the age but more so the fuel economy. GNE have previously tried (but failed) to improve fuel consumption on the Volvo B9TLs with GKN mods. 

If the StreetDeck can deliver a rumoured 9mpg as opposed to a rumoured 6mpg from the B9TL, that's quite a significant increase. Not forgetting some of the scheduled workings attached to 307 & 309 boards including the 353.

Obviously there's other valid arguments that the 51/52/93/94 might be better suited for StreetDecks. We don't have the access to the numbers that GNE do.

(06 Apr 2025, 10:35 am)BusEnthusiast.com wrote Unrelated and I can’t remember if I asked this before but why not GNE do an experiment with double door usage as it seems quite useful and the door is just sitting there.Like maybe for 1 day they just test out to see whether dual door operation could help

They did, with the pink Angels and it was a disaster. 

Money was spent updating bus stops in low fell and Birtley. 

Nobody used the middle doors, they couldn’t be used at Durham or Newcastle terminus (even when the 21 at the time served pilgrim st) and the buses disappeared fairly sharpish

(06 Apr 2025, 6:42 pm)L469 YVK wrote It's not the age but more so the fuel economy. GNE have previously tried (but failed) to improve fuel consumption on the Volvo B9TLs with GKN mods. 

If the StreetDeck can deliver a rumoured 9mpg as opposed to a rumoured 6mpg from the B9TL, that's quite a significant increase. Not forgetting some of the scheduled workings attached to 307 & 309 boards including the 353.

Obviously there's other valid arguments that the 51/52/93/94 might be better suited for StreetDecks. We don't have the access to the numbers that GNE do.

Surely that's an argument for the 51/52/93/94 instead which also has B9TL's and doesn't need any extra power, at all, since they potter around at 30mph for the majority of the route...

They'd also be an upgrade on the ex London junk floating around now, whereas the Cobalt ones are a better quality so for those routes would be a downgrade.

6333 has returned to service today since November, if bustimes is accurate of course