Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

[mathias]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Managed to get a ride on 6003 (SM15 HVZ) StreetLite 10.8m DF today.

Decent enough buses, but savage brakes. Very smooth ride too, but that may be due to the road surface in the Queensway tunnel rather than the bus itself.

As for seating capacity, BLOTW is wrong, the allocations sheet is wrong, and kuyoyo is right. These are B44F (similar to the North East examples) although these ones have a standee capacity of 25.
44/25, 38/31 or 38/30 and one wheelchair. Either way, the maximum capacity of these StreetLites is 69 passengers.
Compare this to the SB200/Pulsars and the standard capacity is 44 seats/28 standees, or 38 seats/36 standees (maximum capacity 74) so they can roughly carry the same amount of passengers, although the StreetLite does it a lot more efficiently.

Not only do these StreetLites have a lower kerbweight (7987kg), they also use a smaller 4.5 litre engine, and they re-use braking energy as well, so they'll be brilliant on the MPG.
In my opinion, they make the SB200/Pulsars look bloated and inefficient. The lightest Pulsars I've seen are the 12-plate examples that recently went to The Shires and the North East (8885kg), whereas the heaviest are some of Green Lane's Pulsar2s (9164kg).

So these StreetLites are roughly a tonne lighter than most Pulsars (898kg lighter than the 12-plates, 1177kg lighter than some GL examples) can carry almost the same amount of passengers, are shorter, newer and more efficient.
The Arriva accountants must be overjoyed with them!
Even if VDL produced their SB200 in RHD for Euro6, why on earth would Arriva buy them??

Looks like the Pulsar is dead. Long live the StreetLite!

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(13/08/2015 12:32)mathias Wrote:  Managed to get a ride on 6003 (SM15 HVZ) StreetLite 10.8m DF today.

Decent enough buses, but savage brakes. Very smooth ride too, but that may be due to the road surface in the Queensway tunnel rather than the bus itself.

These are StreetLite Maxes

I think that StreetLites are comfortable to travel on with decent legroom and bright spacious interiors. I think it helps if they've got Esteban Civic seats as well because I'm not a fan of Pratico seats which I find really uncomfortable. Hopefully Arriva North West decides to order some more StreetLites in the future

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(13/08/2015 07:56)childwallblues Wrote:  Stop moaning its FREE!

One it should be of usable quality if they are going to advertise it .

[SK15 GZG (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(13/08/2015 09:04)lcm453 Wrote:  On a thread relating to Arriva Orders for 2015/16 mention was made of 6 Enviro 400's numbered 4693 to 4698 for Laird Street. Does anyone have any further info on these, please?

I don't think Birkenhead are due any deckers until next year when the Myllenniums are withdrawn

(13/08/2015 15:39)wirralbus Wrote:  One it should be of usable quality if they are going to advertise it .

These things do happen. Nothing is perfect and on the contrary I have had very few problems using the free WiFi (which is an investment that Arriva have chosen to make to improve the passenger experience) on Arriva North West's vehicles. It is absolutely nowhere near as unusable as you are suggesting it is

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Probably something on 6000 needs tweaking on the Wifi then , mind you it was its first day in revenue service and as you say it is usually better , i will reserve judgement now till i come across another arriva vehicle with wifi.

[E400]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
I have used the WiFi on 6000 twice today without any issues. I think it's just luck of the draw with factors including antenna signal, other users, bandwidth usage etc - maybe it was just overloaded when you used it? But I agree with SL64 JDZ - Arriva's wifi offering is generally very good.

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Anyway back to the buses now , im really surprised that the Pulsars didnt suffer damage on some of the tight corners on the 487 particulary down in Neston Greenfields considering there length , the streetlites were getting periously close to some of the kerbs , and in Drake Road the streetlites had to go over at walking pace any faster and that bus would have touched the road over them humps , there bad enough in a car .

[R879 HRF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(13/08/2015 17:02)Enviro400 Wrote:  I have used the WiFi on 6000 twice today without any issues. I think it's just luck of the draw with factors including antenna signal, other users, bandwidth usage etc - maybe it was just overloaded when you used it? But I agree with SL64 JDZ - Arriva's wifi offering is generally very good.

The WiFi runs off mobile network and has a SIM card like a mobile phone. Therefore in areas not well covered by the relevant networks it will not work. I know they usually lose connection in the tunnels..

So overall so far they look to be going down well, but time will only tell how long it will be before they start going into slug mode and start to rattle to bits like other Wright products do on our awful roads!

Was it not mentioned a while back the 487 frequency is being upped this year?

[E400]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(14/08/2015 08:36)R879 HRF Wrote:  Was it not mentioned a while back the 487 frequency is being upped this year?

I'd certainly hope so, I used the 487 twice yesterday and it was absolutely packed both times; has been every other time I've used it, too.

Also, is the gangway narrower on the Streetlites? Not sure what it is, it just felt more squashed?

[Barney]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
[quote='R879 HRF' pid='78305' dateline='1439541406']
The WiFi runs off mobile network and has a SIM card like a mobile phone. Therefore in areas not well covered by the relevant networks it will not work. I know they usually lose connection in the tunnels..

I commuted through both tunnels for years and I must say that the strongest signal I could get on my phone was when I was actually under the Mersey. Perhaps Arriva use a specialist network provider that doesn't bounce its signal through the tunnels.