Arriva North West and Wales.

[Y961 XBU]

Might aswell get this feed started.

Arriva St Helens

St Helens have really been struggling for Buses this week, This has resulted in 5 Buses being loaned in them being

DAF Cadet 2423 X423 AJA from Birkenhead
DAF Cadet 2426 X426 AJA from Birkenhead
DAF Myllenium 2451 Y451 KBU from Speke
DAF Myllenium 2453 Y453 KBU from Speke
Wright Pulsar 2 3068 MX61 AWZ from Green Lane

Service Changes
from 27/7/14 Service 10 from St Helens - Liverpool via Carmel College will be reduced to a 15 Min Frequency (Service Change credit to Arriva Facebook) I think this change is a joke considering you often get full standing loads on this service, apparently Stagecoach are going to do something about this with their 10C but we will soon find out.

Arriva Speke Depot

All remaining Mercedes-Benz Citaro Bendie Buses have been withdrawn. After 2 caught Fire and 3 gained major faults they decided to discontinue operating the Bendies, Since there has been a Temp PVR drop over the Summer they can afford to that but something will have to come in to replace them before the end of the Summer.
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Arriva Rhyl Fleet Update:

3991 S288 JUA is the 2nd Open top DLA to Enter Service.
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Last night Arriva Birkenhead put Plaxton President Y48 ABA on their Nightbus N450 Service!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/68287403@N06/14575889681/
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Arriva Bolton Fleet Update:

with all Sapphire Buses apart from 2997 due to Enter Service in the Morning the castcades have began

Wright Commander's 2504, 2505, 2506,2507,2508, 2511 are all parked up in St Helens and are to transfer to Speke to officially replace the Bendie Buses

Wright Pulsar 1's 2670,2671,2673,2674 and 2675 are parked up in St Helens and are to Transfer to Green Lane to replace V Reg Buses (This should leave only 3 V reg Buses on the road at Green Lane)

 

[83G/84D]

Was at Chester yesterday and noticed a few of the 2!2xx Park & Ride liveried buses on service 32 in Frodsham St. Are there more P&R buses than required or a shortage of other buses?

 

[mbonwick]

Chester P&R is actually operated by Stagecoach.
If memory serves there are more P&R branded buses than required, so they do venture out onto other routes as they are used in a common pool with the other B7RLEs.

 

[plannerman]

Service 32 is Park & Ride.....

 

[childwallblues]

Commanders 2507/08 are both in service from Speke. 2504-06 have arrived and 2509-13 are due.

 

[83G/84D]

Sorry posted in wrong topic and didn't know the 32 was a P&R. Doh!

 

[Y961 XBU]

Commanders 2507/08 are both in service from Speke. 2504-06 have arrived and 2509-13 are due.

2504 was on the 78 Yesterday aswell!
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Wright Commander 2509 is now on loan to Arriva Runcorn, once the loan spell is over the Bus will then transfer to Arriva Speke as its long term loan at Bolton is over.

 

[childwallblues]

2505 was noted in service yesterday on the 80A.
2509 has gone on loan to Runcorn and was noted yesterday on the 79C.

 

[Y961 XBU]

Plaxton Pointer 2 2261 did 10A lates last night!
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2 surprises today, First of all Merseytravel have put some forthcoming timetables online and 2nd Arriva have in fact improved a Service!

from July 27th Arriva Green Lane are changing their 6/7/7A/7E Services

Service 6: Cut back to operate between Huyton and Liverpool (With Halton Transport doing the first round trip)

Service 7: both Buses are extended to Warrington Bus Station from Huyton Bus Station (This means there will now be a 30 Min Service between Warrington, Huyton and Liverpool. Currently its only an Hourly Service)

Service 7A (Evening Service) : Service cut back to Operate between Huyton and Liverpool only (Serivce 7 gives an Hourly Service from Liverpool - Warrington in the evening)

also worth noting that the 10B will start slightly Earlier to cover for the 6 on St Johns Estate. the 6 and 7 will no longer Interchange and looking at the Timetable it looks like the PVR has gone up by 1.

For once Arriva really seem to have made great changes to the Services!

Heres the Timetable: http://www.merseytravel.gov.uk/trav.../6 Liverpool - Huyton (from 27 July 2014).pdf

 

[Welshman]

This morning, I enjoyed a ride on one of Arriva's new Enviro 400 "Sapphire" buses on service 12 between Rhyl & Llandudno.

I was very impressed with the comfort, the relative quietness and speed of these new buses, and its an ideal way of seeing the North Wales Coast from the top deck.

A big improvement on what went before.

 

[krus_aragon]

This morning, I enjoyed a ride on one of Arriva's new Enviro 400 "Sapphire" buses on service 12 between Rhyl & Llandudno.

I was very impressed with the comfort, the relative quietness and speed of these new buses, and its an ideal way of seeing the North Wales Coast from the top deck.

A big improvement on what went before.

The new double deck buses are nice and shiny, but I have the impression that since their introduction, the extended loading times means that the buses tend to bunch up more often, despite the upgrade from 5 buses per hour to 6 buses per hour.

I also note with interest (particularly given the recent twitter drama) that while the new 5/5X/5C services announce the stops bilingually, the audible stop announcements are in English only on the 12s.

 

[Welshman]

The new double deck buses are nice and shiny, but I have the impression that since their introduction, the extended loading times means that the buses tend to bunch up more often, despite the upgrade from 5 buses per hour to 6 buses per hour.

I also note with interest (particularly given the recent twitter drama) that while the new 5/5X/5C services announce the stops bilingually, the audible stop announcements are in English only on the 12s.

That's true - the one on which I returned from Llandudno caught up the previous one [which had left 10 minutes earlier] by Abergele & Pensarn station, and the two then leapfrogged the remainder of the journey to Rhyl.

And I thought of the recent twitter drama too, when the introductionary welcome and final "thank you for travelling with Arriva Sapphire" announcements were in English and Welsh, but the individual stops were only announced in English. Which was just as well, for with the speed we were travelling, the announcements were almost continuous!

 

[childwallblues]

2505 was noted in service yesterday on the 80A.
2509 has gone on loan to Runcorn and was noted yesterday on the 79C.

It has been reported that 2512 is also on loan to Runcorn.

 

[Y961 XBU]

Arriva Rhyl Open Topper 3984 failed today with a nasty water leak, i informed the Driver at Prestatin about the leak yet he continued to Talacre and back to Rhyl by this point loads of Steam was coming out the back...

Rhyl's Pulsar 1 2651 also replaced a failed Gemini on the 11 in the afternoon aswell.
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Service changes:

27th July 2014:
10 - Liverpool - St Helens: Service reduced to every 15 Mins
10B - Liverpool - Huyton: Service starts slightly earlier

31st August 2014
10A - Liverpool - St Helens: Extra running time given, PVR will go up by 1 Bus
20 - St Helens - Earlstown: Service frequency will go from every 20 mins to every 15 mins
320 - St Helens - Ashton/Wigan: Service to Wigan will be increased to every 15 mins, the shorts to Ashton are withdrawn (apart from the Bychall High School trips). every other trip will interwork onto the 360 to Warrington
360 - Wigan - Warrington: Service frequency reduced from every 20 Mins to every 30 Mins

in the coming months services 33,89 and 329 in the St Helens area will be monitored.
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Arriva Bolton DLP's 4177 and 4185 are going to Winsford today on loan due to a high number of Breakdowns yesterday at Winsford.
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Due to a high number of VOR Buses at Winsford Bolton have sent the following DLP's
4170, 4175,4177 and 4180. as said in my last post 4185 was also sent to Winsford but picked up a fault and has returned to Bolton

All DLA's at Bolton Depot are now withdrawn.

 

[childwallblues]

The first of 19 Enviro double deckers 2557 and 2558 arrived at Speke Depot yesterday. Today saw the arrival of 2556 and 2559. They are for route 86/86A but no doubt they will appear on routes 79/82 from time to time.

 

[Y961 XBU]

The first of 19 Enviro double deckers 2557 and 2558 arrived at Speke Depot yesterday. Today saw the arrival of 2556 and 2559. They are for route 86/86A but no doubt they will appear on routes 79/86 from time to time.

the Fleetnumbers are in the 4 Series, 4556,4558 and 4559 and another are all parked at the reat of Speke Depot

 

[Stonesourscotty]

I have been travelling a lot on Brisbane Transport's amazing selection of Scanias recently and noted the fleet appears to have been fitted with the engine overheating mods that 1041-61 of Arriva NW had on my local routes. Shame England no longer has such beasts.. in fact my local route here is predominantly run by Scania and Volvo Tri Axle beasts

 

[Y961 XBU]

All remaining ALX 300's at Green Lane have now been withdrawn from Service.

a decent number of Depots seem to be short on Buses right now, i will summarise:

Arriva St Helens:
Daf Mylleniums 2451,2452 and 2453 on loan from Speke (these where ment to move over to Green Lane so might not return to Speke)

DAF Cadets 2423 and 2426 on loan from Birkenhead.

Arriva Birkenhead:
Daf Mylleniums 2456,2457,2458?,2459 on loan from Speke (again these where ment to move over to Green Lane so may not go back to Speke)

Wright Gemini 1 4208 on loan from Bootle

Arriva Runcorn:
Wright Commanders 2509 and 2512, these will pass to Arriva Speke once Runcorn release them.

Arriva Winsford have 4 DLP's on loan from Bolton Depot until the Schools go back, cant for the life of me remember the Fleetnumbers!
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Today should be the last Day Arriva St Helens operate Double Deck Buses with 4206 and 4207 due to move over to Speke today, A sad Day.

 

[childwallblues]

The first of 19 Enviro double deckers 2557 and 2558 arrived at Speke Depot yesterday. Today saw the arrival of 2556 and 2559. They are for route 86/86A but no doubt they will appear on routes 79/82 from time to time.

Enviros 2556-74 are due to go in service on Monday on routes 86/86A.

 

[Y961 XBU]

their fleetnumbers are not 2556- 2574, for starters 2556 and 2557 are cadets Y20 BLU and Y21 BLU

they are Fleetnumbers 4556 onwards
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Arriva Speke's new Enviro 400's have entered service today, my mate lives on the route so got the first duty being 4556 the first of the batch

 

[Y961 XBU]

There is an official notice up at Arriva St Helens Depot saying theres 26 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400's on order for the Depot, cant remember the last time New Deckers was bought for St Helens, its defo not been in Arriva's time (and they have ran the Depot for 14 years now!)

 

[childwallblues]

So that is 26 new deckers fot St Helens for routes 10/10A in addition to the reported 16 new deckers for Bootle for the 52/52A due in January.
Just how many new deckers are due next year given that there have been consistent reports of a number for Green Lane for route 15?

 

[Y961 XBU]

So that is 26 new deckers fot St Helens for routes 10/10A in addition to the reported 16 new deckers for Bootle for the 52/52A due in January.
Just how many new deckers are due next year given that there have been consistent reports of a number for Green Lane for route 15?

Arriva Facebook did confirm that Deckers are due for Green Lane next year for the 15 none match days and the 26/27 on match days however no number has been given, One thing that has me is when did St Helens Depot last get brand new New Deckers? for most of the last decade the depot has been 100 Percent Single Deck Operation so it must of been from MTL Days, It is about time St Helens got the Deckers it desperately needs!

 

[childwallblues]

There has been a chronic shortage of deckers throughout Arrivas reign when B Hind was the boss. The current boss seems to be much more in touch but it will take years to reverse the decline.

 

[Y961 XBU]

Its a good step forward, tbh the last couple of months Arriva have been getting a grip, more so in the St Helens area, the 10/10A are going to decker operation, the 89 and 329 are getting extra running time from the 26th October, they really are getting a grip at the moment

 

[Mutant Lemming]

http://www.bus-photos.net/picture/show/8349/StHelens-54-Nearside-View

The last double deckers for St.Helens ?

 

[Y961 XBU]

http://www.bus-photos.net/picture/show/8349/StHelens-54-Nearside-View

The last double deckers for St.Helens ?

Its not been that long, We had Deckers until 2003, i am to young to remember what they was called but we did have around 20 of them that where used on the 15/16 Eccelston - Town - Parr Circulars along with the 10C Town - Prescot and our School Contracts, then in the 2013-2014 School Year we won a number of Emergancy School Tenders, this ment DLA's 4014 and 4016 came for a while (along with 4097 as a loan for a spell) until they was withdrawn and replaced by Wright Gemini 1's 4206 and 4207 that where used until the end of the School Year, Enviro 4415 also made it here as a direct swap for one of our Pulsars for around 2 weeks, I now assume this came so the Depot could get used to it since some have now been ordered for us

 

[robertclark125]

One has to wonder if this may make Stagecoach buy more double deckers for Gilmoss.

However, full marks to Arriva, for having double deckers replacing double deckers, and also double deckers replacing single deckers where the demand requires it.

 

[Polo Mint]

What is happening to the single deckers they are replacing? Are they being used in Merseyside or will they be cascaded to other Arriva divisions in the country?

 

[Y961 XBU]

What is happening to the single deckers they are replacing? Are they being used in Merseyside or will they be cascaded to other Arriva divisions in the country?

Gossip at St Helens is saying that 9 of the Pulsars will depart to a different Depot (my personal guess is Birkenhead). this would leave 17 Pulsars that have been replaced of the 10/10A that will remain at St Helens so they can withdraw their V Plater and some of the X reg Buses (Darts, DAF Cadets and Renowns). Being said is the 89 Service will move to 100 Percent Pulsar Operation along with the 20 Service that did get Pulsar 1's bought new for it but never gets them, We will soon see closer to the time what ends up happening

Official Notice says the Deckers are due Jan 2015,

other Gossip also claims that Green Lane are due 28 Deckers and Bootle due 12.