West Yorkshire going for their own fleetnumbers then??New weaver electroliners.
(Photos from weaver network Facebook and WYCA article)
First look at new Weaver Buses as Mayor Visits UK Manufacturer
Tracy Brabin visits Wrightbus Factory to see West Yorkshire's new fleet of buses being assembledwww.westyorks-ca.gov.uk
The livery works better as a moquette!New weaver electroliners.
(Photos from weaver network Facebook and WYCA article)
First look at new Weaver Buses as Mayor Visits UK Manufacturer
Tracy Brabin visits Wrightbus Factory to see West Yorkshire's new fleet of buses being assembled
I recall paying such a fare with a £1 coin and getting the wonderful response from the driver "It says Yorkshire Rider on the side of this bus, not Yorkshire Bank"
That was my thought. In practice, will it work as an asset number of WYCA? I assume First will need to use their maintenance systems so it may be another number in there?
It's all subjective but I think the moquette is ok - better than the disjointed mess that is the livery!
I suspect they will for certain routes such as the 36 up Harrogate, if that comes under franchising, but you may want a more hard-wearing seat material for certain routes such as those with more antisocial behaviour.
I mean a leather headrest like is the standard spec on First’s electroliners that are used all over the roughest parts of Leeds
Yeah, it was just the Bradford opco, the 681/2 was operated by Bradford whereas the 576 and 570/1 were operated by Halifax. On the 576 you had to wave the card at them then buy a Bradford day ticket using cash. As you say, a lot of good ideas but they never really implemented any of them properly.
A bit harder to have the (e)leather headrests on the type of seat they’ve gone for, which are the one-piece moulds.
They are the body numbers (Wrights reference number) - just pure coincidence they start AY
I'm told they are required so they can be added to the Mayoral Authority's asset management system. I presume when they are allocated to operators and the MA no longer becomes responsible for tracking them the operators will be free to replace those numbers with their own fleet numbers
Yeah, First will no doubt allocate them a national number in their series for admin etc, be interesting to see if its displayed or discretely tucked away... Will be a tad messy I'm sure if there are two lots on display outside...
Wasn't that was long after Rider when the national numbers came in circa 2003/4? First being First not only did it piecemeal but most internal systems weren't setup to take them, so fuel and in some places radios had to keep "local I.Ds" for a couple of years. I always thought it was just a kneejerk come vanity project because Stagecoach had done it but it was done just totally the wrong way!
Leather headrests look alright for a while but eventually they wear and look awful. The headrests on a lot of the Transdev buses I use are cracked and peeling around the edges, they never seem to get replaced. Maybe they're waiting for franchising to take over so they don't have to spend the money doing it but they're a real mess now.
I think angle of the photo makes the panels look higher than they are, although they are bigger than what I have seen, but I have seen those on buses before and they don’t particularly feel like boxing someone off. It looks as though those panels have been put there in recognition of the fact that things that aren’t wheelchairs will be put in those spaces. The panels will mean that if those things slide about they don’t smack into people in the priority seats, whereas just metal bars means buggies or suitcases can slip or tip through a gap and hit people’s legs.First look at new Weaver Network Buses as Mayor Visits UK Manufacturer
Tracy Brabin visits Wrightbus Factory to see West Yorkshire's new fleet of buses being assembled
I’m not sure the main header image makes the buses look that nice on this page, as they’ve taken the photo with the dark green slab side front and centre.
Also are those frosted panels separating the seating from the wheelchair area normal? Surely it makes the wheelchair user feel boxed off from the rest of the bus?
I reckon that these new Weaver buses will be bound for Leeds, with the existing fleet being shunted off to other locations - which in turn may get rid of a few older buses, but in some cases the locations may not be in West Yorkshire itself. E.g. First may decide to move the Enviro400's to York to replace what's required there and Arriva may move some newer Enviro200's or Pulsars to Selby, Whitby or Derby to replace the more clapped out stuff there.New weaver electroliners.
(Photos from weaver network Facebook and WYCA article)
First look at new Weaver Buses as Mayor Visits UK Manufacturer
Tracy Brabin visits Wrightbus Factory to see West Yorkshire's new fleet of buses being assembled
No diesels will (or can) go to First York, it no longer has the fuelling facilities.
Yes, and there aren't really any older buses to replace apart from the Versas that are required for the 59, which deckers definitely can't be used for due to the low bridge on Leeman Road. As for the Metrodeckers, rumour has it they've been withdrawn permanently and the Repowers are staying until something more permanent is found (baring in mind these are rumours).
There will definitely be cascaded from Bramley to elsewhere in West Yorkshire once Bramley falls under Weaver Network. I believe Bramley's Electroliners will move to Bradford as electrification of First's Bradford depot is set to be completed around the same time as Bramley being franchised. Once Weaver Network moves in fully, the older buses from all over will be either scrapped or cascaded out of West Yorkshire to make room for newer Weaver Network spec buses.
It will be quiet difficult to bin off the Weaver Network in 2028. Bramley, Huddersfield & Dewsburg will have been franchised for a year at that point. Contracts for the remaining Tranches like in Calderdale will have already been signed most likely to start in Autumn 2028.
Just idly thinking about the absolute vast waste of public funds it would take to scrap any franchised network right close to launch, and return it to deregulation...
Huddersfield is confirmed to be getting the new vehicles within this document.
Are there any parties so opposed to franchising that they'd reverse it?
Worth saying the first laws to allow franchising were brought in by the then Conservative government.
No but for different reasons
Yeah... who'd have thought that George Osborne, the Conservative architect of austerity, would enact a policy of reregulation and away from market forces. A Damascene conversion.... or something else?
Public ownership is unanimously popular across voters for the majority of public services. Conservative voters are the most against it and yet it was the conservatives to allow bus franchising. Political suicide to reverse it.
And also the current Mayor got more than 3 times as many votes as any other candidate with 50.4% of the vote, second was just over 15%, so it's going to take something going horrendously wrong for her not to be re-elected.
