Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(10/04/2014 20:12)90020 Wrote:  It's my understanding that St Helens will be getting some more deckers (rumour is brand new or cast offs from Speke) for exclusive use on the 10s! About time too!

This is a rumour I'm really struggling to believe, as much as I'd love it to be true. With the approximately 20 Enviro400s due this summer for Speke to replace just over 21 ELC Myllennium single deckers, there won't be any decker cast-offs. Unless this order proves to be much larger, there won't be any deckers freed in the near future. Of course, even if the B7TLs were released from Speke, with their Euro III engines, they're surely getting too dated in terms of emissions to be used on the QBP 10 corridor.

The fact remains though that this is arguably Merseyside's most overcrowded bus route. When I lived in Kensington, buses would leave completely full at all times of the day, including in the late evenings. I would have upgraded this route ahead of the 79: deckers have been desperately needed for years and the Pulsar order for it was simply inadequate. Let's hope better capacity buses are provided in the near future.