The Summer Park & Ride service is being reintroduced this year. Courtesy of a post on Facebook from BHCC...
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Brighton & Hove / Metrobus Discussion
- Thread starter 700007
- Start date
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
brightonbususe
Member
In case anyone missed it, Lewes Road Depot are having an open day today. There'll be a selection of buses - old and new - rides through the bus wash, you can see the tram under restoration plus more. https://www.buses.co.uk/open-day
MCRTransitYT
Member
Regarding the GB Kite Hydroliners, when are they expected (if they are) to return to service, or are Metrobus planning on acquiring more permanent buses instead of the plain white loaned vehicles
johncrossley
Established Member
According to this,
one of the short ones has been in service on Thursday, Friday and yesterday, unless it is one of those occasions where the registration transmitted by the ticket machine is inaccurate.
That looks very much an inaccurate ticket machine registration. I don't believe they have ever been seen on the 273 for exampleAccording to this,
one of the short ones has been in service on Thursday, Friday and yesterday, unless it is one of those occasions where the registration transmitted by the ticket machine is inaccurate.
The 10.00 to Brighton would not get there until after 11.00, so could not be at Tilgate for the 10.56, so it looks like an error.
Yeah. It absolutely is.
I do wonder on the wider point, if there comes a point when they cut their losses...
Brighton are due some more Electroliners, which would allow the remaining of the Geminis out longer term
johncrossley
Established Member
Do you mean getting battery electric buses instead? They claim that hydrogen is necessary because so much of their operation is 24 hour. Are they even able to tell Wright they don't their Hydroliners back? They've been out of action of 8 months now. Wright perhaps should be required to deliver battery buses plus pay for the installation of charging equipment given how long the hydrogen buses have been out of service. If they need more battery buses than hydrogen buses then that cost also should fall on Wright.
Presumably it is costing Wrightbus a lot of money already in meeting the costs of hired-in buses - I doubt they would want the additional cost of replacing 40 hydrogen buses with electrics, plus infrastructure. I'm sure they will want to find a technical solution. After all, the double deckers seem ok.
Yes, although they seem to like to take Sunday off.
johncrossley
Established Member
The hired buses are hardly an good replacement. They are diesel and mostly old. Wright are at fault here so need to come up with something decent that replaces the hydrogen buses.
Man of Kent
Member
- Joined
- 5 Jul 2018
- Messages
- 904
The majority of the buses on loan are 5 years old or newer.
At this point, if Wrights don't have a timescale for when they are back - they themselves may decide it's not worth it. My understanding is that they as the manufacturer are paying for the cost of the loan buses etc, so there is a significant cost already.
My first hand experiences certainly don't make it feel that way.
Mark L
Member
A cursory glance at the fleetlist on Bustimes - https://bustimes.org/operators/metrobus/vehicles - would confirm that your “feeling” is about right. Apart from a few Volvo/MCV eVoRas the majority of the loaned fleet is well past the first flush of youth.
I think the loaned-in vehicles come from two sources. Firstly, contributions from other GoAhead companies, who would obviously only pass out their older buses which are spare (and keep the best for themselves), and secondly, buses from leasing companies. This second group would be the newer buses, often in all white livery.
They have been seen on testing in the midlands: judging from the comments to various Facebook posted by someone I believe to be in Metrobus management, the modifications have been completed but they need to run something like 5000 miles in test first. Naturally, given the incident, they want to make sure they have extensive testing complete rather than rush them back and find the modification has not worked. Again, from said Facebook commentary, it appears they are expecting return now to be 'sooner' rather than 'later'.
Again from commentary seen a while ago so likely impossible to find and quote, I believe the issue is with a component of the system, rather than Wright themselves. The double-deckers use a component from a different supplier, which is why they have not been affected. In any case, I imagine once 'fault' has been found, there have been extensive discussions on compensation and what precisely it will be for. As a commercial agreement we won't find out, but Wright could well not be on the hook for anything.
Mark L
Member
If the faulty component was part of the vehicle as supplied by Wrightbus then they would very much be on the hook!
citybus2500
Member
Indeed, Wrights would be on the hook as far as Go-Ahead are concerned.
Whether Wrights have recourse to someone else is a different matter.
Was the component faulty, did it fail, was it fitted correctly, was it maintained correctly, was it actually suitable for the task in hand!
Good points: I should perhaps have said may ultimately not be on the hook for anything, in the sense that anything claimed from Wright by Metrobus would form part of any subsequent dispute between Wright and the supplier.
that1pepfan
On Moderation
This was B&H Loaned 412 BJ11XHN mis-tracking. It happened briefly with 6408 too which was B&H Loaned 408 BJ11XHH.According to this,
one of the short ones has been in service on Thursday, Friday and yesterday, unless it is one of those occasions where the registration transmitted by the ticket machine is inaccurate.
Mark L
Member
The wrangling will no doubt keep the lawyers in fine wines and caviar for a while.
Brightonblue
New Member
I suspect any dispute will be between the manufacturers and Surrey County Council as they own the vehicles.
But I suspect it was Metrobus who hastily arranged the hired-in buses from fellow Go Ahead subsidiaries, and local bus companies, because of their contracts. Did they then recharge these costs to Surrey County Council? Somehos I doubt it, so it may be a three-way (or more) discussion.
Mark L
Member
It’ll probably depend on the nature of the agreement under which the buses are leased to Metrobus.
izvor
Member
I understand through the grapevine that a couple of the single-deck hydros have been returned to Metrobus, with new batteries. Usual caveats apply!
As someone who lives on the route of the 10 this is excellent news. As much as the menagerie of random old buses with different logos was somewhat fun to see at first, they're all knackered and so much worse than the Hydroliners. They also can't use any of the guided bus ways, which have sat unused this whole time basically
I suspect there is something in it, as I've heard from several drivers that there are several with guide wheels fitted! They are needed. The existing fleet is absolutely struggling with breakdowns at the moment.