Stagecoach North West Discussion

[Dallamlad]

Yes that all sounds about right. I'm guessing the Marshall will be on its way to Lillyhall as are the rest from Kendal. Apparently 20702 and 20699 have both been sold to Stevensons of Rochford in Essex.

I was thinking wouldn't it be nice to have an open top bus on the 755 service in the summer season. It could be quite nice sailing along the prom and on into the lakes on an open top. Those old Titans would do nicely but there getting far to old and have bin withdrawn for a reason. Nice idea in theory though lol

 

[cainebj]

it could have been 11100 (NIB 5232) which is awaiting disposal.
i got told that 11081 was moving from kendal temporarily, but could return. my source had no idea where it was going to. it is apparently while kendal sort out some space for tridents and the larger darts. the rest of the titans have or are supposed to be moving to lillyhall. i know there are at least 2 of them there. can't remember which ones they are. i think there is a picture on flickr of them.

 

[Dallamlad]

Oh I see well that makes sense as there's no ruddy space at Kendal. Will the Titans just be stored at Lillyhall in reserve as back up for the Tridents?

Your right about those Darts they are longer then Kendal's current Marshall's. I hope they replace Kendal's old Leylands Olys. Some of them are so so old. Mind you they only seem to be used for school services. We get them in the morning and in the evening on the way home. In fact are they reserved for private services only?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardo4eyes/3010326703/ Got a bit of damage as well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardo4eyes/3087459331/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardo4eyes/3088250008/

These photos are not my own.

 

[cainebj]

can't see the kendal oly's being replaced just yet. like lillyhall's H and K reg oly's, generally school work only (can be both school specials, or at sixth form, there is a 33C and 33D service which run at school times only), unless nothing suitable can be found for service, which will mean having to send them out. isnt often that happens though, as lillyhall has plenty of vehicles!

not sure if they will be stored as a back up or sold on. would make sense to keep them in operational reserve, but stagecoach aren't good at common sense! i'd imagine the ones in better condition will be kept. pretty sure i was told some of them are on lillyhall death row. but lillyhall being lillyhall, anything could end up being on death row! there are currently a few vehicles on there which are fully usable! seems to me like they use it as extra storage space for reserve vehicles!

 

[Dallamlad]

Yeah who knows what will happen we shall see!!!

yes your right about the Leylands they are geenrally used for school services and back up for puplic services. Still so dam old though lol. Good heaters though.

I think if some of those Titans are in good condition they should be kept! No harm in having a couple of back ups and i still like my 755 idea lol. Might pitch to the management at Lancaster lol

 

[cainebj]

you should :-P
they are pretty old, but being leyland, they are pretty strong. unlike the 709's! could be a while before we see the end of 709s! would be nice if the alexander PS's went too. i hate them! they are too rattly! steps can be a problem for some of the older passengers. takes them quite a while to get on and off, which annoys the driver and passengers!

just been thinking, not sure about in lancashire, but on the coaches in service at lillyhall, there is still the sticker at the front seats saying "this is a priority seat for the elderly and disabled". do they really think a disabled passenger will manage to get onto them!!! can't remember how many steps are on the lillyhall jonckheere's (havnt been on one for 3 or 4 years), but the expressliners have a few steep steps which would be impossible for disabled passengers!

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes by god i will lol and they are very strong old things.

We don't have coaches down here but all our other service vehicles have those stickers yes. We don't have any Mercs here anymore thank god. The only thorn in our side now is our two remaining B6's.

 

[mbonwick]

You may think I'm mad, but I actually think Kendal should have more older Olympians. My reasoning? Keep the new Tridents off the school routes; the kids make such a mess.
The Tridents were in perfect condition when they arrived from Manchester, and with in a few months they looked like the N regs they replaced that had never had a refurb!
I'm all for confiscating passes off kids wh cause problems...


You've got to remember that now all new buses ordered must be low floor, because of the DDA. This means that over time, all the 709Ds, Varios, B10s, Olympians, Darts (Not the Dart SLF...so anything after S reg sould be OK), Modulos(jocknheer) etc will have to go. Therefore there's little point keeping the Titans as an awful lot of Olympians will be being replaced in the coming years.

I'd guess the coaches are 4 steps from curb level, one onto the bus and then 3 steps.


20775 must have nearly donated all its useful parts now, it'll be off to the scrapyeard before long!

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes having the Leyland Olys makes sense now I've actually thought about ti its obvious. We rarely get a Trident for our school route but they are used and your right they do get messed up. It does depend on the service as some school services are worse then others.

Will all school buses have to be low floor as well?

Its worth keeping the Titans for as long as possible purely for reserve purposes. If one of the Tridents goes down then having a Titan as a back up may be an advantage.

 

[mbonwick]

Just browsing http://susannahmorrish.fotopic.net, I came across this comment

Apparently the Northwest is set to get new buses at the end of this year and at the begining next year so maybe we will see some new arrivals. Hope so. Those new Solos look good out and about.

The site is well worth a look, I think she's a STL driver who bought aB6 when it was withdrawn and is now doing it up.

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes I browse that site every day in fact I made that comment lol. Shes a Lancaster driver who as you said bought an old B6, Lizzie as shes called. They had it done up in old stile Stagecoach livery and now take her to rallies. I think they have bought an old coach 2.

 

[cainebj]

going off the coach i usually have for sixth form (not stagecoach) there is one onto the coach, 2 more to driver level, then 2 more.

most buses, including school buses, will at some point end up being low floor, hence the Alexander Dennis enviro 300 wheelchair accessible "s-kool" bus. i say "most" because they don't necesarilly have to be low floor, they just need to be wheelchair accessible. plaxton now fit wheelchair lifts to beaver's, which is at the rear of the vehicle, on the side.

on the titan thing again, there is nothing about the age of vehicles as far as i am aware that affects most of them. i seen somewhere that 1980 is the oldest that can be used, but i can't remember where i read this or what it applied to. the B reg ones will be 1984 / 1985. they should be kept. unfortunately, i don't think WTHT would take them on, as they havnt served workington. someone would take them on like. they seem to be strong buses!

i see what you mean with having older buses on school routes, but from past experience, a lot of pupils feel that an older bus is a wreck already, so it wouldnt matter if it got wrecked a little more. the majority of pupils will give more respect to a bus that is clearly newer. you only need to look at lillyhall buses to see this! the R reg olympians which have at some point been used on school work are in much better condition than the H's and K's, which get wrecked by pupils constantly! was similar when i was on stagecoach last year. people gave more respect to RBZ and VRR than 20107.

 

[mbonwick]

It's interesting what you say about respect. However I'm not sure this is the main thing. I think boredom is. Our tridents seem to suffer from little doodlings and burn marks, I guess from when the kids get bored and get out the lighters!

I don't see any point in keeping Titans. If an OT Trident fail, then Stagecoach would prefer to have a closed top Trident replace it.
It's better public image to have newer buses!

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes the school runs are tricky. I find that rather then "wrecking" the buses kids just make a mess. On my school bus stuff is thrown and things are spilled but chairs are not ripped, pols bent or windows smashed. On some of Kendal's old school runners (does anyone have any general info on these as they seem to be unique) kids or people have burnt away some plastic on the back of the seats. Yours right pupils do respect a newer bus or they do at Dallam anyway

Its a shame school buses will have to be low floor as the old B10s could have been converted to school runners and used solely for school runs.

The Titans are on the wya out whatever happens be it months or years so we shall see. Yes newer is better in terms of image but some people think the Titans match the landscape and the atmosphere of the lakes.

 

[mbonwick]

20710-2 were new to Manchester in 1992. They were originally B49F, moving up to Kendal around 2003/4. It was only a couple of months before they were converted.

 

[cainebj]

if stagecoach wanted to, they could still convert them for school runs, but i doubt they would. they would be more likely to convert newer alexander ps's (i.e. the R reg's which can be seen in carlisle), and keep the B10B's as back ups for low floor's. the older B10m's won't be expected to last much longer in service. will be a good few year before stagecoach is totally low floor.
on lillyhall buses, i have noticed that it is vehicles with CCTV that generally recieve more damage, which is usually just the back of seats being burned. isnt often you see damage on the rest, just empty crisp packets on the floor etc, which could happen to anything.

 

[Dallamlad]

So what made Kendal convert? Is it that they have a lot more school contracts then most depots? I would have thought it was very expensive to fit new seats, CCTV etc. Their good I like them and i think there should be more around but i guess the cost is the big put off. One thing i will say though is leg room is rubbish lol and trying to get down the gangway is hell haha

 

[cainebj]

sounds like what i had to put up with last year before the company went bankrupt and i got stagecoach
i had the "famous" 69'er (Ladybird Travel, Dennis Javelin Marcopolo Explorer, AIG9906, 69 seats), which was terrible for leg room and getting down the gangway. i was also on their DAF Ikarus, N504LUA, 66 passenger seats, and their Volvo B7R Plaxton Prima 70 seater, MKZ1562. pictures of AIG9906 and MKZ1562 are on their website (click on fleet, then the reg. no.). when stagecoach took over, they couldnt get us on one vehicle (deckers can't drive the route due to a bridge), so they used 20107 and usually one of the expressliners.

it will have been expensive. either demand was there, or they were pretty stupid and decided to waste some cash.

 

[Dallamlad]

Well I guess demand was there as they are dam useful and are proving a good investment. On routes like the 552 their great as the more people you can get on the less buses you need. They can only use single deckers on this services as there is a low hanging bridge so rather then using three conventional B10s you could use 2 school runners. However most of the time just one is a school runner and this is rare but it has happened.

I've got to pop out today and see whats what bus wise. They are running again today aren't they?

 

[mbonwick]

There's no real need for them on the 552, which runs Kendal - Arnside. In my experience its never full to the stage of needing the extra seats SchoolRunners proovide, and in any case, it is mainly elderly people who use it, so it is easier for them with a normal B10M.

 

[Dallamlad]

Its full at 3.30 where they used to have 3 B10s running the same service to fit all the kids on. they now only have 2 one is public and runs from Kendal via Heversham, Dallam School then on to Arnside. The other starts at Dallam School.

 

[mbonwick]

Oh, I thought you meant in general, not at school time

Anyway, did you get out for your recce? It's a Saturday service today I think.

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes sorry I didn't make myself clear lol your bang on about the general services sometimes a Dart will do but at school time they need a lot more seating capacity.

No I haven't been out yet having to revise much to my annoyance but I intend to take the dog down into Lancaster part way thought he day so will see what i can spot. I'll pass by the bus station on my way and see whats what.

 

[mbonwick]

ahhh...the dreaded revision! I'm supposed to be doing some for my mocks when I go back, but I see no point. These are mocks after all....

 

[Dallamlad]

Ah the joys of education lol I'm still working but will go for some air in a few hours it counts as my brake lol and of course mocks matter lol if u get hit by a Stagecoach bus and get put into a coma they will use your mock results as your final results woop lol but I'm sure all will be well so sod it

 

[driver9000]

I seem to remember hearing something along the lines of all normal timetabled bus services (Stage carriage) were to be low floor by 2015 Thats not a Stagecoach date but a national date. If it still stands then expect panic buying of anything without steps in December 2014

 

[mbonwick]

Could well be driver9000.

You've got to remeber that Stagecoach is years ahead of its competitors in terms of step-floor replacement.

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes they are well ahead have you seen Arriva! Whenever i see an Arriva bus in the NW I always think they look dirty, shabby and old. I can't stand the company and apparently they have a reputation for been appalling when it comes to rail travel. I think Stagecoach will meet that deadline no problem at all in fact they will beat it.

I have very strong loyalty to Stagecoach and always say to people who complain about them that we are lucky to have them as their better then Arriva and I'm not sure about First.

 

[driver9000]

Its sometimes a case of better the devil you know. Im not keen on large corporations running public services. Arriva arent that bad when it comes to running a bus service, Im very glad we arent in FirstBus territory (their nickname WorstGroup is well deserved) - Ive travelled on several of their networks, dirty and damaged panels are the norm. Go-Ahead are one of the top large companies these days in my opinion.

 

[Dallamlad]

Yes better the devil you know indeed but I must say I do proffer Stagecoach vehicles, branding and general image. I've only heard about First as you said they are rumored to be awful but I have no knowledge or experiences of Go-Ahead.