Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

(28/04/2015 05:28)childwallblues Wrote:  I second that wirralbus. We are lucky that the local Arriva MD has been able to put right the wrongs of the previous management which converted us to a single deck (nearly) operation.

One of the main reasons why the majority of Liverpool went to single deck operation was down to driver safety. Too many drivers were getting attacked at terminus' by thugs hiding upstairs and waiting for the drivers to get out their cab then rob ther takings. This was late 90s early 2000s. The introduction of CCTV on buses seems to of detered most people nowadays.

[Barney]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

(28/04/2015 12:46)Shaun821 Wrote:  One of the main reasons why the majority of Liverpool went to single deck operation was down to driver safety. Too many drivers were getting attacked at terminus' by thugs hiding upstairs and waiting for the drivers to get out their cab then rob ther takings. This was late 90s early 2000s. The introduction of CCTV on buses seems to of detered most people nowadays.

Driving a bus has never been easy and, yes, there has always been a hooligan element intent on making life even more difficult but I really would like to see some evidence to support your assertion. The only example of a driver being threatened and robbed at knife-point I can recall being reported in the local media occurred on a CMT single-decker in broad daylight which ended tragically for the poor driver.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
Plus, as I often say, other cities are far from immune from the same problem and many have a higher crime rate than Liverpool does, yet that hasn't affected the number of double deckers these cities operate.

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
I remember a driver of a 60 down in Aigburth dip (sure it was a Gillmoss driver so might of been GTL) getting stabbed in the head with a screwdriver, that was the final nail in the coffin for double deckers.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
How does the driver getting stabbed make it a final nail in the head for deckers, it's not like it couldn't have happened had the bus been single deck.

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
Because the thugs were hiding upstairs waiting for the drivers to get out of their cabs. You can see right down the bus on a single deck in your interior mirror and turning your head to haveva look down, whereas you couldnt through the old periscopes on a double decker.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
Oh right, I see, didn't know that they had been hiding upstairs, just thought it was an attack whilst in the cab somehow

[M60lad]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
The way I look at it now surely the drivers were asking for trouble by getting out of their cabs in the first place to confront the thugs I know if I was a driver I wouldn't have got out of my cab and I know what these thugs and kids used to get upto upstairs

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot

(29/04/2015 05:18)M60lad Wrote:  The way I look at it now surely the drivers were asking for trouble by getting out of their cabs in the first place to confront the thugs I know if I was a driver I wouldn't have got out of my cab and I know what these thugs and kids used to get upto upstairs

No mate, the drivers had finished the journey, at the terminus. You get out your cab, check your bus. The driver is unaware anyone is still on their bus. They havnt got out to confront anyone ad they thought the bus was empty.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Bootle Depot
There was never a final nail in the coffin for deckers on Merseyside anyway. Speke always retained a healthy allocation and so did Birkenhead. Gillmoss had plenty of deckers right up until Stagecoach took over and had the 'foresight' to replace them with dismal, diddy Darts.

Interestingly, the 60 was one of those routes that retained deckers as well - including some of the older examples without CCTV (H-GEVs, C-GTUs etc.) until at least the beginning of 2008.