Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

(24/01/2013 12:10)MX12CFE Wrote:  I think if some of the R WVRs are still in good condition then they could be P&Pd and allowed to continue in service in my opinion. I travel on buses every day and only very occasionally has someone with a pram or wheelchair got on i think some step entrance buses should be retained to provide a bit of variety especially for the enthusiast i remember when the atlanteans, titans, olympians and metrobuses were in service and they were 20-30 years old before they ran their final service journeys.

Its not about variety for the enthusiast, its about what does the job and what is best for the paying customer, step entrance vehicles aren't, it's as simple as that. With smaller companies, it may be different, but with large companies like Arriva, enthusiast and depot preference doesn't really come into it.
While I agree to some extent with regards to age not representing quality, I don't believe that this should determine what stays in the fleet and what doesn't. It would be incredibly hard renew and keep track of the fleet with random vehicles and varying age carrying on in service. There are rare exceptions such as 7533 which stay in service because of book value rather than condition, but overall I'd say Arriva's fleet renewal policy is a very efficent one that does have it's faults, but involves consistent investment to the fleet. The only thing I could suggest is that it is perhaps a bit wasteful scrapping R reg Darts which could have possibly been sent elsewhere when older vehicles are still in operation in other subsidiaries.