Regarding the ex First/Stagecoach B9s that are now at HE and been hurriedly pressed into service I did notice one in Piccadilly Gardens this week showing Sorry, Not in Service on the front alternating with driver vacancies for Stagecoach on the front obviously including Stagecoach website, not bad really advertising for drivers and giving another companies details lol.
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TfGM Bee Network - fleet discussion
- Thread starter Leyland Bus
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Cavendish1
Member
- Joined
- 3 Apr 2019
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- 44
I quite agree. In Ashton, with the 216 and 219, for some reason the 1 is hardly readable till up close.
Also, the rear display of the 347 simply displays Haughton, no mention of the word Green.
mayneway
Member
Agree but in a lot of ways it’s to be expected.
Metroline will get a period of dispensation to smooth things out but it’s not ideal for the passengers!
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The B9’s have the older Deric controllers that update with a big 8 pin plug - Metroline most probably don’t have one so the destinations can’t be changed or updated. I’m sure one will be on its way up to sort the issues out.
They are programmed for all Hyde routes though and there’s other blank destinations that drivers can use.
Goldfish62
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 14 Feb 2010
- Messages
- 13,148
I'd certainly got the impression from those involved that T3 has been on a par with T2, ie a few problems but largely OK. I don't know how anyone can claim that T1 was in any way a smooth introduction! It was utter chaos for the first week or two.
-Colly405-
Member
I'm sure it'll be already posted somewhere in the 69 pages, but I've not been following this thread so just a link wood he helpful, but what's the overall PVR per operator now compared with pre-tranche 1?
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
So what is the plan then, for these horrendous B9 buses in silver and blue that I now have on my 38 Logistics - Piccadilly bus to work? They’re deafeningly loud, bumpy, very scruffy inside and also rather DARK inside too. Are they a stopgap while more nice electric/quiet yellow buses arrive? Or are they there long term, heaven forbid, and if so - dare I ask if they’re planned to be painted yellow and given an interior refresh anytime soon at least?
aswilliamsuk
Member
- Joined
- 10 Jul 2016
- Messages
- 530
There's around 100 new electric 'deckers still coming - BZLs and E400EVs - to Metroline Manchester, so the B9TLs should only be a stopgap to ensure that there can be a service in the meantime.
Leyland Bus
Member
A touch dramatic (which seems to be a common theme regarding B9 opinions) but the loud howling they make has been mentioned umpteen times in this thread... they really need sorting but you'll find that from an engineering perspective, the fans whirling all time means the engine is getting plenty of air and isn’t overheating... eventually, other issues will lead to them being fixed (bearings collapsing quicker being likely) so it depends how long they hang around. Even Stagecoach didn't really bother sorting them and some folk on here regard them as bus operating panacea, so you see my point.
I did see afew TfGM pages afew weeks back that showed paint and interior plans for the B9s but things move very quickly, so as with most things, I think just watch and see what happens...
mayneway
Member
Ironically The Hyde road drivers that were dreading driving them actually love them as prefer them to the new stuff.
I think to any non enthusiast bus passengers if they were painted yellow and had an interior tidy they wouldn’t even realise how old they actually are.
xitz2012@gmail
Member
It would certainly be interesting to see what those B9s would be like with a full Bee Network spec repaint/refurb!
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
I can't really see spending a chunk of money refurbishing 16/17 year old deckers as being good value for money.
Pyewipecarshed
Member
They wouldn't be the first people to do it. I could imagine them refurbishing some to continue as float vehicles for a couple of years at least. They're reliable enough and spare parts are easy to come by, particularly if they stripped the rest of them for spares.
As @mayneway says with a decent interior refit most passengers wouldn't know the difference.
TheSmiths82
Member
They are over the 15 year age limit anyway, so I think there is any chance of them being refurbished.
Pyewipecarshed
Member
But as TfGM own them could they grant themselves an exception?
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
But it’s the sound, especially as I’ve become so used to the electric buses on 35/36/37. Even the Enviros that dominated 38 before the takeover last week, which I considered the booby prize back then (I now eat my words) seemed much quieter.
Pyewipecarshed
Member
I'm not sure most passengers are bothered; they expect buses to be noisy and if they're not it's a bonus!!
Personally I've never liked the sound of B9s (anywhere, not just Manchester (cowers from lightning bolt unleashed by indignant fellow enthusiasts!))- to me they sound like a cantankerous old man having an argument.....err,err,err,err..!
TT-ONR-NRN
Veteran Member
I have to say although the buses in the city centre all look much smarter now (most, hopefully soon all) are uniform yellow, the fact they all seem to have completely different destination display fonts - even among buses of the same type - is irritating. I know it’s not a big deal but it really wouldn’t take much to standardise surely.
Some also still have orange destination displays too, which looks very dated compared to the white. I’m of the opinion they should update the external displays on Metrolink M5000s to be white too.
Some also still have orange destination displays too, which looks very dated compared to the white. I’m of the opinion they should update the external displays on Metrolink M5000s to be white too.
Pyewipecarshed
Member
It's an interesting point. TfL specify the appearance of destination displays, but does anyone know if TfGM do the same? Is there a standard appearance that operators should be working towards?
I suspect it be the GNW ex. London ones that if any would be repainted can't see the Ex First ones being done
1> If you want to have a look at what a refurbished B9 might look like I think it might be similar to what the former First/Go Northwest B5s are like now they've had their 3rd refurbishment
2> Regarding Metrolink getting white destination displays I wouldn't hold much hope to be honest as last year I asked about them getting up to date white Platform destination displays (PIDs) and the reply was along the lines of if it isn't broke why fix it.
2> Regarding Metrolink getting white destination displays I wouldn't hold much hope to be honest as last year I asked about them getting up to date white Platform destination displays (PIDs) and the reply was along the lines of if it isn't broke why fix it.
johncrossley
Established Member
If TfGM have specified a standard then the operators don't look like they've taken any notice!
py_megapixel
Established Member
Honestly that seems like an entirely reasonable response - when you consider all the problems faced by public transport in Manchester, the colour of the text on the departure boards is surely way down the list of priorities!
Leyland Bus
Member
All of the new buses and alot of the "newer" ones have destinations that are updated over the ether by TfGM* so there really shouldn't be any discrepancies between them, unless they haven't specified a style and that's down to the settings of the controller type perhaps?
*Reminds me of the incident at WN where the overnight update had gone wrong somewhere and those capable ended up with First Rochdale destinations!
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
I've seen some very good refurbs; Transdev did some Eclipses that were very nicely done. However, they were 11 years old NOT 16/17. The B9s that Brighton and Hove use on their Regency routes were also nicely refurbed but again, they were 9/10? In fact, weren't a number of the B9s retrimmed four/five years ago by GNW for the 135?
I can't think of many other refurbs of elderly vehicles (>15 yrs old) other than Routemasters (a very special case), the National Greenway programme, and some Western National VRs.
toms
Member
Metrolink have a point, there system in terms of blinds, announcements, station PIDs work absolutely fine as they are, won’t say the same for operating faults and stuff but PIDs are fine. Metrolinks tram blinds do not use Hanover nor mobitec so idk about them getting white ones because it’s an unknown company to me
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I think another thing to consider and if you take a look at Stagecoach’s fleet, some buses have different display sizes to the norm meaning fonts cannot always be the same to what is normally used, some Stagecoach buses have a range of different fonts on
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Citibus
Member
Metrolink really do need bigger PIDs, with more display lines, at city centre stops where multiple routes use them (going off topic)
toms
Member
Technically it’s not going off topic as metrolink is owned by Bee Network/TfGM
Not to sure how many have been done but was surprised to see 6155 (one of the former Queens Road Orbit B7s) on 36/37s in Manchester yesterday complete with Bee Network interior (Don't think it had next stop screens though).
Does seem Go Northwest are doing things the opposite way round to Stagecoach whereby their repainting vehicles first then sending them to be refurbished.
Does seem Go Northwest are doing things the opposite way round to Stagecoach whereby their repainting vehicles first then sending them to be refurbished.
mayneway
Member
All depends who GNW are using for the work.
Stagecoach are using Birkenhead for the paint and Anston for the retrims. It makes total sense to paint first then retrim.
GNW used to use Thorntons who would do the repaint and retrim in one go.
The B7’s look great though to be fair and I certainly miss driving them.
TheSmiths82
Member
Just driven back from work. My work is a Stagecoach Stockport are and I live in the Metroline area. I counted how many buses I could see painted yellow and I saw four (out of about 25 odd other buses) in my entire 10 mile journey (through Didsbury). There were a few Diamonds on school routes without any Bee Network sticker, one even had a brake light that was out. The only Stagecoach I saw that was yellow was on the 192. Do operators have a time limit to get all their fleet painted yellow?
Incidentally most of Stagecoach's stock apart from the brand new buses on the 192 seem to be really old, seen a few MX08's and other old oddities. Are Stagecoach suffering from fleet issues, do you have any more on order? It just seems they have had nearly a year to get things ready and their fleet looks like a random mess. Also looking at comments from the general public people seem to moaning about the Trafford Centre - Stockport services and blaming Metroline, when this is a Stagecoach service.
Incidentally most of Stagecoach's stock apart from the brand new buses on the 192 seem to be really old, seen a few MX08's and other old oddities. Are Stagecoach suffering from fleet issues, do you have any more on order? It just seems they have had nearly a year to get things ready and their fleet looks like a random mess. Also looking at comments from the general public people seem to moaning about the Trafford Centre - Stockport services and blaming Metroline, when this is a Stagecoach service.