Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs

[mr t]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
Are there any more ex London deckers due in the near future? We have always had batch after batch sent up since Arriva took over, but with these withdrawals there will be no ex London stuff in service anymore, leaving lots of depots short on deckers, even if they were only for use on schools or peaks or rail reps, which will impact on normal depot allocation like happened in the most recent Lime Street replacements

[33109]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
Suppose it depends on the age of them as isn't the withdrawal age at arriva around the 15yr old mark?

[Barney]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs

(26/10/2017 18:23)mr t Wrote:  Are there any more ex London deckers due in the near future? We have always had batch after batch sent up since Arriva took over, but with these withdrawals there will be no ex London stuff in service anymore, leaving lots of depots short on deckers, even if they were only for use on schools or peaks or rail reps, which will impact on normal depot allocation like happened in the most recent Lime Street replacements

I agree. Arriva London has sent hundreds of deckers to the provinces over the years, the first ones on Merseyside being the ex-Grey Green F***TML Volvos and later DAFs from the S*** JUA batch but that policy now seems at an end. Presumably, Arriva prefers to sell mid-life deckers to dealers such as Ensign rather than cascade them to the regions. I wonder why?

[childwallblues]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
4170 was on the 52 yesterday.

[mr t]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
There must be some batches down there that have finished on older contracts in recent years

[gka472l]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs

(27/10/2017 12:24)mr t Wrote:  There must be some batches down there that have finished on older contracts in recent years

A lot of stuff seems to be getting sold outside Arriva now, plenty of VLA's & VLW's gone......

[mrailman200]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
4173 on the 414's today

[33109]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
As I've said above age is probably a factor as arriva withdraw stuff at around 15yrs old.

Even the volvo B7s winsford got from southport are 12yr old now as their on 55 plates so only have in theory 3yrs left.

[Metroline1511]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs

(26/10/2017 18:23)mr t Wrote:  Are there any more ex London deckers due in the near future? We have always had batch after batch sent up since Arriva took over, but with these withdrawals there will be no ex London stuff in service anymore, leaving lots of depots short on deckers, even if they were only for use on schools or peaks or rail reps, which will impact on normal depot allocation like happened in the most recent Lime Street replacements

I doubt there will be many if any ex-London buses being cascaded soon. VLWs are being sold while Gemini integrals are being redeployed for other tender gains such as routes 99, 103, 175 & 269.

The only possibility I can think of are some VLAs of 2005 vintage being released recently from route 370 and in January from route 142.

[Robas]

RE: Arriva North West DLPs & VLWs
I also think emissions standards are having a lot to do with the London Bus cascade policy. The vehicles currently being withdrawn in London by Arriva are predominantly Euro 3 compliant - and are generally 11 to 14 years old.

With the general aim of improving air quality, especially in the larger towns and cities (such as Liverpool), spending money on refurbishment and conversion to single door of these older, less fuel efficient vehicles, just to replace existing slightly older Euro 3 vehicles, may not be an attractive proposition. Hence the cascades have stopped for now.

New London contracts generally specify new Hybrid, Euro 6 or even electric only vehicles (or cascades of other clean emission vehicles made surplus from the loss of a tender). This policy is quite quickly removing older Euro 3 vehicles from the capital. Additionally, some modern Euro 5 vehicles are now being converted to Euro 6, as by Sep 2020 only buses that meet the Euro 6 spec will be allowed to operate in the Low Emission Zone.

Therefore, only once Euro 3s are eliminated, does it seem the possible for cascades/refurbishments re-starting. An early candidate, for example could be the first 08 plate Enviro 400/Tridents, which I believe are Euro 4.