Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Liking the new destination layout, nice, simple and easy to read!

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Severe distruption this afternoon along the route of all services travelling via Park Road, Dingle Mount near Tesco. Road was closed off and cars were advised to keep left after turning left off Aigburth Road by a police car parked on the junction blocking the outside lane. There was no access to Gredington Street or Kedleston Street from what I could see, with a big Ambulance trailer Command Centre sort of thing, 2 normal ambulances, a few Police Focuses and a few Police Carriers as well. Looks like it may have been an incident near or at the Car Care centre.
Our X1 was pulled over by a man in Arriva Uniform in a white van parked 700 yards or so before the junction, he told the driver of the incident! We then observed a diversion, turning right at the end of Aigburth Road, left at Belvedere School and then following the road round, before turning left onto Upper Parliament Street and down to the road before turning right to rejoin the normal route. The outward bound bus half an hour later went a slightly different way, carrying on up past Upper Parliament Street, turning right and then left a bit further up and carrying on round bringing us up behind the old theatre ready to turn right back on to Aigburth Road. Overall it didn't affect reliability all that much, services were maybe 5 minutes at most coming into Liverpool ONE, but that was obviously made up when on the Fordy to Runcorn

Back to the buses! All 4 buses on the allocation were indeed 12 plate Pulsars. To give them their dues from what I seen there were no break downs, so they did incredibly well on what was for 3 of them their first day on a pretty demanding service in such heat! They seemed to be very well received by drivers, the only difficulty being the co-ordination between the handbrake and doors. My first driver on 3136 seemed to have no trouble, with just a constant beep going off while the doors were open, opening or closing if the handbrake was off. However the other 2 drivers I had later on had a bit of trouble, and when stopping and opening the doors without the handbrake on, they had to apply then un-apply the handbrake when the doors were closed before pulling off. Not a massive thing but in time that beeping will get on the nerves of some drivers and will sometimes lose time on the timetable, so I'm sure it's something that will be dealt with in due course.
Also of note is that neither the side or rear destinations were working on at least 3 of the 4 vehicles, with them displaying the single orange dot in the top corner, so perhaps just a case of reprogramming the destinations in may sort that.
When on all 3 of the buses, there was NO WiFi leading me to think that they don't seem to have in installed, or it is not working just yet.

Unlike a lot of other Pulsars, new or not, this batch, all be it small, seem to very consistent, being rattle and squeak free and overall, very solid indeed. Time will tell whether this changes! As said earlier all of them coped very well with the heat and the fast paced route. No over powering smell of 'new bus' like the Geminis, and no smell of burning or anything like that while the engine was 'worn in'. It seems like these have been specially tuned for this route, as they achieved rather high speeds effortlessly without even revving that high. They did rev high and some points now and again, and when they did they sounded excellent, with kickdown being regularly applied, in particular on 3136 on my first journey. The engines sound slightly different to the 09s, more like the 61s (something about these being Euro 5 is it?), they sound much better for it, a lot beefier and more powerful!

Passenger reactions were very positive indeed, with most if not all passengers clicking on that it was a brand new bus, all of them being very impressed with the upgrade. It certainly seems the upgrade is valued and appreciated by the vast majority of the passengers, with one particular remark being 'I've heard we were getting new bsues, I knew they were going to be good, but not this good!'

Sorry to go on a bit but I think I'm done now! Overall, a much improved service with much improved buses, starting to come around to Pulsars now (If they are pushed and revved a bit, and given a chance to open up their engines, they are excellent!)

(Final point, promise) As a result of the new Pulsars coming out, the rest of the Pulsars were allocated elsewhere, with at least 1 on the 82A and 1 on the 79C (The latter being MX09 LXZ). I seen only the 1 Wythenshawe Pulsar, that being 2938, while 2419 on the 3A or 3C, I forget which! No sign of any Marshalls though!

Find attached a picture of the near side and rear of 3136, showing the slightly different branding to the offside.

[childwallblues]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Pulsar 2952 on the 82a today, whilst 2953 is on the 79c.

[V671 DVU]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Credit to Ray Barber, 3137 has now arrived at Runcorn. Presume it'll take a few days to get branded up etc, then we should see it hit the roads of Merseyside!

[J654UHN]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
a tunnel collapsed under the car centre mate. part of the old overhead railway

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Seen it on the news after I posted it, I knew it was no small thing by the amount of ambulance and police stuff there!
You would have had a field day haha :P

[Ultralow]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
3140 has broke down in liverpool one and is now on tow.

[MPTE1955]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Didnt take long for one to break then did it, teething troubles.

[Ultralow]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
2528 is now on the X1 which must of took its place.

[K853 MTJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
No surprise really, brand new buses not even worn in chucked straight out onto a very demanding route, twas inevitable!
As MPTE says, only a few teething troubles, should be back out soon enough I'd imagine!