Arriva North West - Southport Depot

[thomasl1231]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
A little something that I forgot to mention...Volvo B7TL 4104 CX55EAM was having a few difficulties on Tuesday heading up the hill into Wigan Bus Station! It looked like it'd broke down going up the hill then rolled back into that side road - how amusing haha!

[PO62 MKA]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot

(21/08/2013 23:23)thomasl1231 Wrote:  A little something that I forgot to mention...Volvo B7TL 4104 CX55EAM was having a few difficulties on Tuesday heading up the hill into Wigan Bus Station! It looked like it'd broke down going up the hill then rolled back into that side road - how amusing haha!

Oh dear bet that was rather embarrassing for the driver Bet they were not too impressed either

[skemnational]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
These b7s are vastly becoming a joke now arriva need to get a grip with the 375/385 this route takes £1000s of revenue a week and buses are constansly braking down on here,last week there was 1 b7 decker on wigans as the rest were knackered.

[SLTRegular]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
I Agree it seems to affect the 395 loadings and common bunchings within the three routes as well which ain't good. the three routes should have a common vehicle type as well i don't think pulsars on the corridor is helping anyone this relates to SH using them as well. i would also recommend the 375/385 being atleast half hourly til 10ish the loadings justify it i think

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
The 395 being operated with B44F sized vehicles is hardly a new thing though. In fact, is that not what Skem's 59 plate Pulsars were purchased for? Interesting that's become the issue now St Helens have the route... The issue with the capacity now being more of a problem does seem to stem from the decrease in capacity on the 375/385 coinciding with the decline in reliability of the B7s.

What I always found interesting was that there never seemed to be such an issue with the reliability of the DLAs whilst allocated to Skem. As I've suggested before, I suspect this could be partly due to having an adequate fleet of spares - only having the same number of deckers as the PVR of the 375/385 was always going to be a big problem, given how demanding the route is, with anything but brand new vehicles which you'd expect to be more reliable. It's a shame that the DLAs aren't being used to sub ahead of single deck vehicles though. Particularly during the holidays when there should be enough of them lying around to provide cover even if another were to fail down route. The only way I can really see capacity being met as required, daily, on that corridor now, by Arriva, would be through investment in new vehicles for the route which can meet the required levels of reliability. Something that you would thing should be more than justifiable given the revenue figure skemnational has given.

Edit: As an aside, don't expect to see larger vehicles on the 352/395 any time soon; the loadings don't justify it on the 352 and there's no evening/Sunday work on the 395 anyway.

[Phil]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
I could be wrong but the B7s at Speke don't seem to be having the same problems as the Southport bunch.

[skemnational]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
I have a feeling that the B7s will end up as school buses and on locals soon,with the dla's getting close to withdraw age.

[DEM777Y]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
I wonder if the 375/385 would justify the Sapphire treatment? Thinking about it, I'm sure I heard a whisper a short while back that the General Manager has put a bid in for funding for hybrids.

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
Skem had quite a few problems with their own DLA fleet. I only use the 375/385 for recreational purposes, but on 2 occasions, the DLA I was on was changed at the depot. On one occasion it broke down as I boarded it at Ormskirk, and on another occasion 4060 arrived late at Southport, and went out NIS to catch up time.

It would be fair to say that in general, buses on the 375/385 suffer due to the nature of the route.

[Vbg111v]

RE: Arriva North West - Southport Depot
The B7's are becoming a regular sight on the 43/6 and other local routes. The Link branded Pulsars filling the gaps on the 375/85. If that's what is going to be the 'norm', then Arriva need to de-brand them as its confusing for passengers. The 375/85 does deserve new stock though, it's a very profitable route. Maybe it needs some competition......