Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

[anw2015]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
Thats a good point about the solos tbh! With the 37/8 regularly seeing 2298 which was B36F and managing well, it is a shame that the 37/8 aren't seeing a bit more of them!

The 33/A's did seem to be in the hands of solo SR's yesterday except for 2729 and 2489. I rode 724 and 721 to and from Widnes and from first impressions there nice but there nothing special. They both seem to have a good turn of speed and 724 was nice and cool with the air conditioning being on. Interior wise, like all of the optare products I've sampled, they feel very "cheap" inside and certainly don't feel like they've been built to last. From a passengers perspective there a massive improvement on the darts and paladins they've replaced. From a enthusiasts perspective there not a patch on the paladins but times have to move on I suppose!

It is a shame that the influx of the solos hasn't enabled the 20 and 320 to be converted back to 100% pulsar operation. Do these not make as much money as they used to, hence the downgrade?

(11/08/2012 11:22)CX54 DKD Wrote:  I thought the same Chris particularly, given that the 356 duty is, as I've said before, one of the only late duties in the depot not to be allocated a newer bus straight out. An SR graced the 37/38 on their first day of operation but on the duty which runs in around half 6. I also agree that the current allocation to the 35/A is surprising but with 678 still being over the pits and 680 on loan in Wythenshawe, that only leaves two standard Solos in service anyway and one of those, 676, is up in Speke today leaving just the 1! As the Darts do actually seat more than the B35F SRs, I'd guess that's why they're allocating the Darts to the like of the 36/A which can get full.

The 33/As are seeing pretty much a full contingent of Solo SRs now, which is a good thing given that's what they were primarily bought for, although the 32/As are still hanging on to some Pulsars. From what I've seen though, displaced Pulsars seem to be making their way onto 89s as opposed to anything else.

I want to stress that this is just what I've heard and I'm not guaranteeing it's 100% accurate or that the situation will play out this way but, supposedly, head office want everything on R, S and T registrations (with the exception of deckers) out by the end of the year. For St Helens alone, that would involve the withdrawal of a further 7 vehicles from the current fleet diminishing the Dart quota to 16. With that, I'd assume some replacements would arrive and allocations would see another minor shake-up on local routes.