Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

[sth77]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
716 was also out on the 10A this morning, noted arriving back in St Helens just before 11am. I think the allocator needs to be have a word with when full size buses, all be it Marshalls are on locals and Solo's are been put on longer routes.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(20/02/2013 19:23)sth77 Wrote:  716 was also out on the 10A this morning, noted arriving back in St Helens just before 11am. I think the allocator needs to be have a word with when full size buses, all be it Marshalls are on locals and Solo's are been put on longer routes.

Saw 716 myself, virtually a full load on the 10A before even arriving at Queen Square at around 12.30. Words fail me sometimes with allocations like this on what is likely Merseyside's most overcrowded mainstream bus route.

[Penny Return]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
Any marshall were possible at any depot should be kept on local work,they are not fit to
go on any distance route.

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(20/02/2013 19:23)sth77 Wrote:  716 was also out on the 10A this morning, noted arriving back in St Helens just before 11am. I think the allocator needs to be have a word with when full size buses, all be it Marshalls are on locals and Solo's are been put on longer routes.

It's an interesting one because previously vehicles, such as a Dart or Cadet, would have been pulled from locals to operate a Liverpool whilst that Solo would take up the place there. In an ideal situation, it would be a full-size vehicle which would have covered but it was notable that, a lot of the time, the substitution came from the 37/38 road. That kind of thing just doesn't seem to happen anymore though and, instead, it seems to be a case of throw out whatever is free!

Like wirralbus says, a bus is better than no bus even if it means that only half the amount of passengers are able to be carried besides which, I'd be surprised if an SR was allowed to leave the garage allocated to a 10/A anyway so likely not much the allocator (i.e. the shunters at St Helens) could have done. It would seem more likely that it's covering a breakdown to me.

Still, I'm very glad I wasn't subject to that allocation!

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
Yes but if that was on 10A earlier in the day and then chucked out on a 10 they will have had enough time to sort something out to ensure that a full size bus is used. A full round trip should allow this to be sorted, this is the same depot that had 7650 on the 10A the previous day.

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(20/02/2013 20:34)MPTE1955 Wrote:  Yes but if that was on 10A earlier in the day and then chucked out on a 10 they will have had enough time to sort something out to ensure that a full size bus is used. A full round trip should allow this to be sorted, this is the same depot that had 7650 on the 10A the previous day.

You'd hope so but if that was all that was available in the garage in the first place, it would suggest that there are more than a few vehicles off the road for whatever reason at the moment. These may be off with more than 'quick fix' jobs which would go some way to explaining these allocations. The 10/A aren't the only corridors suffering recently though with the 89 and 352/395 being a couple of others to have been allocated insufficient vehicles this week. Beside that, it's hardly as if St Helens are the only garage seemingly paying little attention to QBP requirements and until such a time that Merseytravel impose sanctions for breaching the requirements which they set out, it'll continue within all of the garages that have some participation in the scheme.

Like I said above though, it's a shame they seem more reluctant to pull stuff from locals in favour of an SR and send it out on the 10/A road. Renown 2714 has been needlessly trundling round on 37/38s today, for example.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(20/02/2013 20:42)CX54 DKD Wrote:  

(20/02/2013 20:34)MPTE1955 Wrote:  Yes but if that was on 10A earlier in the day and then chucked out on a 10 they will have had enough time to sort something out to ensure that a full size bus is used. A full round trip should allow this to be sorted, this is the same depot that had 7650 on the 10A the previous day.

You'd hope so but if that was all that was available in the garage in the first place, it would suggest that there are more than a few vehicles off the road for whatever reason at the moment. These may be off with more than 'quick fix' jobs which would go some way to explaining these allocations. The 10/A aren't the only corridors suffering recently though with the 89 and 352/395 being a couple of others to have been allocated insufficient vehicles this week. Beside that, it's hardly as if St Helens are the only garage seemingly paying little attention to QBP requirements and until such a time that Merseytravel impose sanctions for breaching the requirements which they set out, it'll continue within all of the garages that have some participation in the scheme.

Like I said above though, it's a shame they seem more reluctant to pull stuff from locals in favour of an SR and send it out on the 10/A road. Renown 2714 has been needlessly trundling round on 37/38s today, for example.

True, St Helens are not the only depot to break QBP's and I wasnt really suggesting that they were. Nearly all those involved with QBPs are breaching them, GL do it constantly on 10B's for example and yesterday stuck an X-ANC on the 14's, First done it all the time before the takeover on cross river services, Stagecoach use Solo's on 10C's, and I will stop there as there are others. All this aside mind,Like I said in an earlier posting though, I would have liked to have caught the SR just for the rarity of getting one.

[M113 YKC]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(20/02/2013 10:00)3111 Wrote:  

(20/02/2013 09:17)motormayhem Wrote:  The T*** PNB's thats left there is only 2324 thats ok out of them as the others are pretty sluggish and uncomfortable,much prefer the V*** DJC's any day.

I have 2324 on my 34 to Leigh at the moment! Definitely better than it was at Bootle, although so are the roads...!

I had X211 ANC (2211) on my return journey and this was also impressive - a smooth, warm ride was had. It also sounded nice. One of the best X-ANC Darts that I've had!

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
The problem is that St Helens simply dosen't have enough full size vehicles these days. The SR's at times struggle with the local services (32/33 in particular). There are too many popular longer distance routes like the 34, 320 and 352/395 where vehicles which are under capacity are making regular appearances. I definitely think the SR's were a mistake for the area - longer vehicles should have been bought (especially given the reductions which came in place on the 32/33 routes in September last year).

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
If the reductions in service hadn't have happened on the 32/33 and the SRs were kept more strictly to those routes alongside the lower capacity locals (i.e. the 35/As too) then I do think that their allocation to the garage would have been fine. Really, it should have been Versas as opposed to the SRs for the extra capacity they offer which is more like-for-like with the Darts they replaced. However, when you consider a £20k difference in price between the M970SR and the smallest Versa, it becomes painfully obvious why the decision was made as it was. Unfortunately, it's now the fare passengers suffering. I just dread to think the situation if more SRs were ordered to replace the likes of the Marshalls etc.