HTL Buses

[Nicholas]

RE: HTL Buses

(27/04/2016 11:37)CX06 EBK Wrote:  To be honest I think looking at it from the real world, and not from a bunch of regulations, most people are just glad a bus has shown up that is low floor, warm and comfortable rather than worrying about how old it is. I have driven V980 XUB across various routes and never one has a real world passenger complained about its age, I have had more passengers complain about the much newer Sprinters by comparison.

Another point, V980 XUB is just a spare bus that is not allocated to a fixed contract, although it does see use 95% of the time on the Speke Circular, in the evening it can be found on a few different duties, usually the 141/36, 196/147 and occasionally the 17B. Real world thinking dictates a bus that is reliable and meets existing DDA laws that turns up and takes people from A to B is much better than no service because of some arbitrary 15 year old rule that if Merseytravel had such a problem with it running across all their tendered networks, would have been onto HTL by now over it.

Let's not forget, Stagecoach Merseyside have been using an X reg Optare Solo on the 192 lately which also falls foul of this arbitrary 15 year old rule but again, it provides a service and I guarantee you passengers do not care how old it is, it is low floor, warm, comfortable and gets them from A to B. What more do passengers want? Again, if Merseytravel had such issues, HTL and Stagecoach would be informed by now.

If it is anyhthing like TfGM, then they would be notified... and fined for breach of contract. In the case of TfGM, bus station supervisors log buses that are used on tenders which is then fed back to the head office.

At the end of the day, if they keep using buses they shouldn't, then they risk losing the contract and could affect gaining future work.

Yes, a bus is a bus and most passengers won't care, but they would if buses kept breaking down because of their age.