Arriva Buses Wales - Rhyl Depot

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Rhyl Depot
Spent the week in Talacre as previously said, the following are my general observations:

The 1 (Open Top Service) can't really be faulted the buses always turned up on time, the drivers were always very friendly and the buses themselves, all but one being Leylands when I had the pleasure, couldn't be faulted! The only suggestion I do have is that the service would benefit from an increase in frequency to every 20 minutes because as I found out staying in Talacre, it did make for a long wait sometimes, as well as the service only starting at 10pm from there, it was a bit of an inconvenience. I'm considering heading back again this week for the day to photograph the last 2 open toppers I didn't manage to this week, those being C212 GTU, and E227 WBG. Normally I wouldn't bother, but with this being possibly their last season in service, I'm keen to get pictures!
Furthermore, this seems possibly the only service which had a consistent allocation, with only 2 oddities being spotted during the week, those being T110 GGO on Sunday or Monday, and an MPD at one point as well.

Elsewhere, the allocations are varied at best, that not being a good thing. It included a 51 branded Dart on the 12, the 51 itself ranging from MPDs to DLAs (A route which this time last year was ran using Pulsars and 10.7m Darts, so overcrowding was apparent sometimes), and lastly a Pulsar on the 11/X11 when the back up Gemini was on the 12, both of which being on their respective routes all day. Not much of a back up!

The 12 is a route which desperately needs sorting, the punctuality is nothing short of diabolical. Buses were commonly 10 minutes late, with 2 arriving in Rhyl for example at once, and them leaving 5 or so minutes apart. DLAs are commonly allocated which helps to deal with the massive loads that the service inevitably gets, however they were often allocated on consecutive duties, meaning the much needed extra capacity wasn't spread very well across the board. Furthermore they all desperately need the gearbox seeing to if 4142 S282 JUA is anything to go by. We were very literally crawling up the steep hill on the approach to Llandudno, it would have been much quicker walking alongside, with many passengers commenting to similar effect. On flat sections performance was average and downhill made for a very enjoyable minute or two, screaming at the top of the revs. Overall, I'd say DLAs themselves aren't bad buses for the route, but they could really do with extra speed. This would no doubt help slightly improve reliability and punctuality.
Overall the route itself could do with a double deck allocation and an increase in frequency to at least every 10 mins!

The above are just my observations, hope they are of interest to someone, somewhere! :P