Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
They will probably be begging to keep 2451 instead, seeing as that has seemed to be out all the time since it arrived on loan. That 2345 isn't the tidiest of vehicles, typically badly fading dull tyne bridge motif still there, on the plus point, that is probably on borrowed time being a V plater anyway.

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
Somebody out at St Helens seems to like the myllenium if it keeps on being presented for service .

I can safely assume then in the past they would have taken the entire batch if offered .

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
I'd expect more darts to arrive over the coming weeks...

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(09/07/2014 05:03)wirralbus Wrote:  I think we have touched this topic just recently in the Crosville Club , it seems this is a rather touchy subject to some forum readers.

It all boils down to depot budgets and profits,Speke makes a lot of money for Arriva so gets new stock often,it has a number of routes that need the decker capacity,cadets and darts did struggle here,these days on the 76 really is suited to single decks,every other Speke could do with deckers the large number of student passengers for 9 months of the year being a big reason,remember MTL put marshalls on the 79, full by Lord St when leaving the city centre,they were soon moved on once Arriva took over,cost of referbs etc is all costed by the amount a depot earns,these days i don`t think any near end of life bus is going to have thousands lavished upon it ,average vehicle age will be around 5 once the Enviro400s arrive. I`m sure St Helens would take all the Milleniums from Speke if they could and probably Speke`s Commanders will be moved on by the time the Milleniums are 15.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
If St Helens receive more darts, particularly the Green Lane ones, they will then have the vast majority of the X-ANC batch of darts. That is pretty unfortunate for drivers and passengers alike. There is however one or two decent ones but not many.

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(09/07/2014 09:17)MPTE1955 Wrote:  If St Helens receive more darts, particularly the Green Lane ones, they will then have the vast majority of the X-ANC batch of darts. That is pretty unfortunate for drivers and passengers alike. There is however one or two decent ones but not many.

They were nice when new but have turned into sheds over the years,bear in mind they have been hammered in all week service for 13 years,horrible seats on them too refreshed or not, it`s a shame seats from other withdrawn buses couldn`t have been salvaged to give these a bit more passenger comfort.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
To be honest, I never ever thought that they were nice, refreshed seats have been a bit more bareable though.

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
If not deckers on the 10/10A then what’s the solution? Increase frequencies? A possibility but on paper I can’t see how these can go any more higher than what they are now. Deckers or not what does need to be sorted out on Prescot Road is the ‘doughnutting’ problem where you can wait +10 minutes then a convoy of buses appear with the first few rammed packed and the others which usually don’t stop more lightly loaded. Generally deckers would solve the overcrowding and that problem on 10/10A and allow the current Pulsars to be used more effectively on the 8/9/10B. 10B too has a borderline case for deckers but probably not so much as the 10/10A in my view. Despite the QBP I do feel the Prescot Road corridor needs improving and it is a bit poor that the 10/10A arguably one the most profitable and highly used services on Merseyside is using unsuitable/clapped out Darts and totally unsuitable Solos which as is the case to anyone who has spent a few hours on that corridor can tell you Solos can sometimes can hit a load of 50-60 passengers in a 30 seat space. Not a pleasant experience.

SH generally needs a bit of investment and I think a re-launch of the 10/10A is long overdue as there has there has been no proper upgrade of the 10A since 1995 and MTL days and the Pulsars can operate all SH services just like Solos can find their way on the 10/10A. I’m sure driving staff at SH do raise this to management so if management do read this forum please consider deckers (even ex-London cast offs like the 9 year old VLA’s for example) for the 10/10A as along with 4-5 other Liverpool services they really do need them. If ‘luxury hybrid’ double decks can be operating on routes with half the passengers on there to fill a slimline Solo over in the Wirral then they definitely should be operating on the 10/10A IMO.

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(09/07/2014 09:43)Gillmoss 0324 Wrote:  If not deckers on the 10/10A then what’s the solution? Increase frequencies? A possibility but on paper I can’t see how these can go any more higher than what they are now. Deckers or not what does need to be sorted out on Prescot Road is the ‘doughnutting’ problem where you can wait +10 minutes then a convoy of buses appear with the first few rammed packed and the others which usually don’t stop more lightly loaded. Generally deckers would solve the overcrowding and that problem on 10/10A and allow the current Pulsars to be used more effectively on the 8/9/10B. 10B too has a borderline case for deckers but probably not so much as the 10/10A in my view. Despite the QBP I do feel the Prescot Road corridor needs improving and it is a bit poor that the 10/10A arguably one the most profitable and highly used services on Merseyside is using unsuitable/clapped out Darts and totally unsuitable Solos which as is the case to anyone who has spent a few hours on that corridor can tell you Solos can sometimes can hit a load of 50-60 passengers in a 30 seat space. Not a pleasant experience.

SH generally needs a bit of investment and I think a re-launch of the 10/10A is long overdue as there has there has been no proper upgrade of the 10A since 1995 and MTL days and the Pulsars can operate all SH services just like Solos can find their way on the 10/10A. I’m sure driving staff at SH do raise this to management so if management do read this forum please consider deckers (even ex-London cast offs like the 9 year old VLA’s for example) for the 10/10A as along with 4-5 other Liverpool services they really do need them. If ‘luxury hybrid’ double decks can be operating on routes with half the passengers on there to fill a slimline Solo over in the Wirral then they definitely should be operating on the 10/10A IMO.

The 10/10A had new buses only a few years ago, There isn`t much of an overcrowding issue on the prescot road corridor,it has plenty of buses per hour mainly Pulsars on all routes, The ASBO problem in some areas those buses pass thru means its very unlikely Arriva or Stagecoach would invest in deckers for these routes,i bet the cash fares and Arriva pass sales on the corridor is much lower than on cross river and South Liverpool services, i`ve seen the classic chuck a saveaway out the window to your mate happen on the 10s quite a few times,i bet a ticket clampdown on their would discover plenty riding on invalid tickets.

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(09/07/2014 10:00)FC Pictures Wrote:  I bet the cash fares and Arriva pass sales on the corridor is much lower than on cross river and South Liverpool services

Laird Street only makes the money it does because it's one of the most expensive depots in the merseyside area. A trip on the 464 half the journey can cost £3.50 for a single, and the child fare is almost as bad. Students allegedly don't exist on the Wirral either, and are charged full adult fare accordingly. A single fare through the tunnel is almost the price of a day ticket. Also they're the only operator bar independents that service tourist destination New Brighton and Wallsey.

Speke likewise has no competition anymore since stagecoach cut their dead milage and axed most of the Aintree based routes to Speke, Netherley, Halewood and Garston. They're the only operator bar HTL to serve the Airport, industrial parks, Hope Childwall Campus, Uni of Liverpool and walking distance to LJMU and Hope's city centre campuses. With the exception of the QBP 82/86, all services from Netherley, Halewood, Airport, Speke, Woolton and everywhere between to the City centre are only operated by Arriva.