TfGM Bee Network - fleet discussion

[Leyland Bus]

I’ve noticed a picture of a Mellor Strata with a white bonnet and emergency exit but the rest is in yellow, who else is due some of these for Bee Network?

There has been some mutterings in the garage that GNW are to get some for Tranche 3 routes in Tameside as they're about the only thing small enough to fit round some of the routes, so watch this space...

 

[47550]

There has been some mutterings in the garage that GNW are to get some for Tranche 3 routes in Tameside as they're about the only thing small enough to fit round some of the routes, so watch this space...

According to the freedom of information request discussed earlier in the thread there are 4 Stratas and 3 Orion Plus that have been ordered by TfGM.

 

[mayneway]

Swap has been reversed now, 19481 is back at QR

Inspection was due on the solo hence why both returned to home depots.

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I'm guessing there is an issue with the small buses... The 480 is running with a DD MX09AOW at the moment.

Must be squeeze in some places.

There was an issue with the E200 allocated to the board this morning so one of the inspectors in Bury pulled a 97 to cover the hourly 480.

Tbh vision often ran deckers on it and Rosso also ran B7’s and occasional B9’s so it’s not really an issue.

I'm guessing there is an issue with the small buses... The 480 is running with a DD MX09AOW at the moment.

Must be squeeze in some places.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Oct 2024 ==

There has been some mutterings in the garage that GNW are to get some for Tranche 3 routes in Tameside as they're about the only thing small enough to fit round some of the routes, so watch this space...

All are currently operated using E200’s, Solos and in the case of stagecoach full size E400’s.

The 335 can be tight in Denton which is why stagecoach Ashton are still using the shorter ex Bluebird E200,

Given the issues Stagecoach and First are having with their Mellor’s it could be interesting to see how GNW fare.

 

[ic31420]

Given the issues Stagecoach and First are having with their Mellor’s it could be interesting to see how GNW fare.

What are the issues?

 

[W176 XMA]

What are the issues?

Battery drain, wearing through brake discs/pads really quickly, gearbox problems and more

 

[Goldfish62]

Battery drain, wearing through brake discs/pads really quickly, gearbox problems and more

Issues with the Merc auto gearbox on Sprinters seems to be a constant problem.

 

[mic]

Stagecoach Oldhams ex Go North west 13169 is now in Bee Network yellow and fully refurbished inside this is the 3rd one of this batch to be treated

also at Oldham 27945 is also refurbished inside but yet to be repainted

 

[M60lad]

There seems to be quite a few refurbished E300s at Oldham that have been refurbished now but are waiting to be repainted

Does anybody know considering the new law that's been brought in when Oldham's fleet (apart from BYDs) will have next stop announcements fitted? Surely the Solos should have it fitted considering how new they are and some of the MMC400s.

 

[mayneway]

Battery drain, wearing through brake discs/pads really quickly, gearbox problems and more

The battery drain issue was resolved however your right about the other faults. Also issues with ABS.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Oct 2024 ==

There seems to be quite a few refurbished E300s at Oldham that have been refurbished now but are waiting to be repainted

Does anybody know considering the new law that's been brought in when Oldham's fleet (apart from BYDs) will have next stop announcements fitted? Surely the Solos should have it fitted considering how new they are and some of the MMC400s.

There is a guy going around at the moment installing the software. He was at queens road last week installing it onto the MMC400’s. There was an issue with the Solos which is why they haven’t been activated yet.

 

[toms]

The battery drain issue was resolved however your right about the other faults. Also issues with ABS.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Oct 2024 ==


There is a guy going around at the moment installing the software. He was at queens road last week installing it onto the MMC400’s. There was an issue with the Solos which is why they haven’t been activated yet.

Someone’s gonna have to sort it out for Go North West’s fleet because there are so many problems with it. On the 200mmcs and 400Evs the announcements will just cut out, eg “this is the 524 service to bury via ra…” then just cuts out, next stop announcements work fine but the door announcements just cut out. Also on GNW’s 200mmcs you can barely even hear the announcements they’re so quiet and there’s almost always information screen blackouts and problems, diamond and Stagecoach have seemed to perfected it

 

[W176 XMA]

The battery drain issue was resolved however your right about the other faults. Also issues with ABS.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Oct 2024 ==


There is a guy going around at the moment installing the software. He was at queens road last week installing it onto the MMC400’s. There was an issue with the Solos which is why they haven’t been activated yet.

Its an issue that existed though, I work on them

 

[xitz2012@gmail]

There seems to be quite a few refurbished E300s at Oldham that have been refurbished now but are waiting to be repainted

Does anybody know considering the new law that's been brought in when Oldham's fleet (apart from BYDs) will have next stop announcements fitted? Surely the Solos should have it fitted considering how new they are and some of the MMC400s.

The 24 plate E400MMCs have them enabled now.

 

[Class 466]

Most of Stagecoach East Scotland’s Volvo B5LH ADL Enviro 400MMCs will be moving to Manchester shortly - not for Stagecoach though - they’ll be operated by Metroline.

No idea if they’ll transfer down and enter service prior to January to allow further SC vehicle cascades however

 

[mayneway]

Its an issue that existed though, I work on them

I spoke to Mellor many times and they always blamed the TFGM cctv equipment but it seems closing the door and locking it with the key completely shuts the bus down instantly and the battery lasts for days now.

 

[978wta]

Most of Stagecoach East Scotland’s Volvo B5LH ADL Enviro 400MMCs will be moving to Manchester shortly - not for Stagecoach though - they’ll be operated by Metroline.

No idea if they’ll transfer down and enter service prior to January to allow further SC vehicle cascades however

So have TFGM bought the B5LH Enviro 400s or Metroline?

 

[mayneway]

So have TFGM bought the B5LH Enviro 400s or Metroline?

Apparently TFGM were at one point over 100 deckers short for what they were providing for Metroline so these possibly might be TFGM.

 

[Mollman]

Most of Stagecoach East Scotland’s Volvo B5LH ADL Enviro 400MMCs will be moving to Manchester shortly - not for Stagecoach though - they’ll be operated by Metroline.

No idea if they’ll transfer down and enter service prior to January to allow further SC vehicle cascades however

Is the Scottish government happy with that or has the time limit expired for keeping them there?

 

[Volvodart]

Is the Scottish government happy with that or has the time limit expired for keeping them there?

It was usually 5 years but I am unsure about this specific case.

 

[GCH100]

Most of Stagecoach East Scotland’s Volvo B5LH ADL Enviro 400MMCs will be moving to Manchester shortly - not for Stagecoach though - they’ll be operated by Metroline.

No idea if they’ll transfer down and enter service prior to January to allow further SC vehicle cascades however

Its the first batch, the second batch remain with Stagecoach Scotland East. This has been expected now for quite a few weeks, there will be a gap amongst them, as one, 13042 was destroyed in a fire in Dundee last year. These are what are coming 13041 SJ15 PUY/13043 SR15 NKW, 13044-13058 SJ15 PVL/N/F/K/E/O/VML/TW/U/Y/V/UX/TX/Z.

 

[Dallamlad]

Its the first batch, the second batch remain with Stagecoach Scotland East. This has been expected now for quite a few weeks, there will be a gap amongst them, as one, 13042 was destroyed in a fire in Dundee last year. These are what are coming 13041 SJ15 PUY/13043 SR15 NKW, 13044-13058 SJ15 PVL/N/F/K/E/O/VML/TW/U/Y/V/UX/TX/Z.

Weren’t some of these converted to run on full Diesel or am I mixing them up with something else?

 

[mbonwick]

They're all still full hybrid.

It defeats the (original) point if the 17-plate B5LHs are staying in Perth - the whole point was to remove a completely non-standard (outside of London) vehicle type from the Stagecoach group.

 

[GCH100]

They're all still full hybrid.

It defeats the (original) point if the 17-plate B5LHs are staying in Perth - the whole point was to remove a completely non-standard (outside of London) vehicle type from the Stagecoach group.

Its not impossible that TfGM could get there hands on those as well, as presumably stuff from Stagecoach Manchester will replace the 15 regs at Abroath, so there is nothing to stop TfGM negociating with Stagecoach similarly for the others, particularly as Metroline is about 200 units short, all sorts of schemes will need to be hatched out to find the 200 vehicles.

 

[Class 466]

Its not impossible that TfGM could get there hands on those as well, as presumably stuff from Stagecoach Manchester will replace the 15 regs at Abroath, so there is nothing to stop TfGM negociating with Stagecoach similarly for the others, particularly as Metroline is about 200 units short, all sorts of schemes will need to be hatched out to find the 200 vehicles.

And the majority of the BZLs wont be here for Day 1 launch!

Theyre getting 62 out of 112 Enviro400Hs in Manchester already along with 36 from Stagecoach South Yorkshire, 20 Scania Omnicitys and at least 15 Volvo B9TLs from Queens Road - it's going to be a rather cobbled together fleet at this rate.

 

[47550]

Presumably there was a reason why the non standard Volvos were ordered for Stagecoach Scotland East in the first place ? They seem to be quite high mileage (done more than 500,000 miles each) so maybe that has also come into Stagecoach’s thinking on getting rid.

 

[mbonwick]

Presumably there was a reason why the non standard Volvos were ordered for Stagecoach Scotland East in the first place ? They seem to be quite high mileage (done more than 500,000 miles each) so maybe that has also come into Stagecoach’s thinking on getting rid.

Going slightly off topic here, but the reason they were ordered was the nature of the route demanded something that could do more than 39mph flat out (an E40Hs top speed at the time). The 17-plate batch were a follow on for a frequency upgrade. There may also have been issues with E400H leadtimes around that period, I can't quite remember - certainly delivery schedules were the reason Stagecoach London took 13001-32 which were Wright bodied B5LHs.
Really the route (73 Tayway) was never really suitable for hybrid operation, but as a flagship at the time it got the new, eco-friendly vehicles.

Back on topic, at a wild guess, the 62/112 E400Hs going to Metroline must mean Stagecoach are keeping 14 for Middleton (possibly swapping for the newer ones?) plus another 50....is that co-incidentally how many 13 plate E400Hs there are?

 

[Class 466]

Going slightly off topic here, but the reason they were ordered was the nature of the route demanded something that could do more than 39mph flat out (an E40Hs top speed at the time). The 17-plate batch were a follow on for a frequency upgrade. There may also have been issues with E400H leadtimes around that period, I can't quite remember - certainly delivery schedules were the reason Stagecoach London took 13001-32 which were Wright bodied B5LHs.
Really the route (73 Tayway) was never really suitable for hybrid operation, but as a flagship at the time it got the new, eco-friendly vehicles.

Back on topic, at a wild guess, the 62/112 E400Hs going to Metroline must mean Stagecoach are keeping 14 for Middleton (possibly swapping for the newer ones?) plus another 50....is that co-incidentally how many 13 plate E400Hs there are?

Middleton ones will be displaced by BZLs - the 50 staying with Stagecoach are for Stockport

 

[StagecoachBus1]

And the majority of the BZLs wont be here for Day 1 launch!

Theyre getting 62 out of 112 Enviro400Hs in Manchester already along with 36 from Stagecoach South Yorkshire, 20 Scania Omnicitys and at least 15 Volvo B9TLs from Queens Road - it's going to be a rather cobbled together fleet at this rate.

I'm not sure if its already been said, but what depot(s) will the Omnicitys and 15 B9s be going to?

 

[Hyebone]

along with 36 from Stagecoach South Yorkshire

This is the first I've heard about our hybrids going elsewhere. They're not even fit for purpose here! When we (Chesterfield) had 11716 on loan from Holbrook, they were begging for it back as it was one of their few reliable vehicles.

Have the Yorkshire hybrids been mentioned? Perhaps I've missed it

 

[mayneway]

I'm not sure if it’s already been said, but what depot(s) will the Omnicitys and 15 B9s be going to?

Hyde road!
Was told they will be stored until January then pressed into service on January 5th with Metroline.

 

[ajrm]

Going slightly off topic here, but the reason they were ordered was the nature of the route demanded something that could do more than 39mph flat out (an E40Hs top speed at the time). The 17-plate batch were a follow on for a frequency upgrade. There may also have been issues with E400H leadtimes around that period, I can't quite remember - certainly delivery schedules were the reason Stagecoach London took 13001-32 which were Wright bodied B5LHs.
Really the route (73 Tayway) was never really suitable for hybrid operation, but as a flagship at the time it got the new, eco-friendly vehicles.

There was no frequency upgrade; the 17-plate batch was bought for the Forfar to Dundee route.

Perhaps with a (battery) fleet upgrade on the way for the Tayway it makes more sense to get rid of the big batch from Arbroath which are up for replacement anyway, and leave the smaller batch at Perth.