Wellglade Group

[Trainman40083]

Give me a Scania or a Volvo any day. Or an excel, or a citaro.

Yep, I like that thought.

 

[ceo of 741]

Personally I quite like the Enviro's to drive but it is nice to have a bit of variety.

It is

 

[YX73OUB]

If you have drove all of the older buses did you drive the optare excels and the scania solars or the citaros they had on the Calverton

Further to this I've also driven coach 57 on there too as well as the beautiful 62 on the red arrow back in the day, too.

 

[derbybusdepot]

Seems there is a reduced service offering on at least the mickleover, allestree and swift today. All three routes have received funding to enhance the frequency from one place or another, funding which could arguably have been allocated in a better way. What is the point in funding a service that cannot be consistently delivered?

Unreliable services certainly won't increase patronage, they will just speed up the decline in usage, which then takes a long time to recover if at all.

 

[mainframe444]

Seems there is a reduced service offering on at least the mickleover, allestree and swift today. All three routes have received funding to enhance the frequency from one place or another, funding which could arguably have been allocated in a better way. What is the point in funding a service that cannot be consistently delivered?

Unreliable services certainly won't increase patronage, they will just speed up the decline in usage, which then takes a long time to recover if at all.

I think it’s fair to say there’s a less than full service on the majority of days, I’m surprised the TC hasn’t taken a look at this.

How they can claim to be “The Really Good Bus Service”….

And surely they are in breach of contract if they have been allocated money to run services then often fail to do so?

M

 

[YX73OUB]

Delete

 

[Trainman40083]

Seems there is a reduced service offering on at least the mickleover, allestree and swift today. All three routes have received funding to enhance the frequency from one place or another, funding which could arguably have been allocated in a better way. What is the point in funding a service that cannot be consistently delivered?

Unreliable services certainly won't increase patronage, they will just speed up the decline in usage, which then takes a long time to recover if at all.

Yes, but at least there appears to actually be one bus on the 6.2.

 

[43055]

Seems there is a reduced service offering on at least the mickleover, allestree and swift today. All three routes have received funding to enhance the frequency from one place or another, funding which could arguably have been allocated in a better way. What is the point in funding a service that cannot be consistently delivered?

Unreliable services certainly won't increase patronage, they will just speed up the decline in usage, which then takes a long time to recover if at all.

At least with ith being the allestree and mickleover the gaps in the service won't be as noticeable being higher frequency.

 

[Qwerty133]

Kinch 9 is in an absolute mess this morning. One bus down (been nicked for Skylink or the 2) and the other two running in convoy, essentially turning a 30 minute service into a 90 minute one.

 

[callum3490]

Kinch 9 is in an absolute mess this morning. One bus down (been nicked for Skylink or the 2) and the other two running in convoy, essentially turning a 30 minute service into a 90 minute one.

All was going well until the branded skylinks start hitting issues - bound to happen sooner rather than later given their annual mileage

Hopefully the yutongs arrive sooner rather than later

 

[Qwerty133]

All was going well until the branded skylinks start hitting issues - bound to happen sooner rather than later given their annual mileage

Hopefully the yutongs arrive sooner rather than later

Not just that though is it.
It's an absolute failure to regulate the service when two buses are in convoy for several hours. In an ideal world they'd have borrowed a Solo SR off the Sprint to restart one of the boards on the 9 and then used the late running vehicle to get that board back up and running after a missed journey.

 

[Trainman40083]

Not just that though is it.
It's an absolute failure to regulate the service when two buses are in convoy for several hours. In an ideal world they'd have borrowed a Solo SR off the Sprint to restart one of the boards on the 9 and then used the late running vehicle to get that board back up and running after a missed journey.

In a perfect world, operators would have spare buses so that no other service was dropped. But, I suspect increased costs and reduced revenue makes that impossible.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

All was going well until the branded skylinks start hitting issues - bound to happen sooner rather than later given their annual mileage

Hopefully the yutongs arrive sooner rather than later

Is that the 20 plated former Skylinks or the 25 plated ones? Are they the right bus type for that service?

 

[callum3490]

In a perfect world, operators would have spare buses so that no other service was dropped. But, I suspect increased costs and reduced revenue makes that impossible.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==


Is that the 20 plated former Skylinks or the 25 plated ones? Are they the right bus type for that service?

The new 25 plated ones - three not out today.

There’s been some debate and discussion about that before and some would argue probably not although given the type of route they don’t seem to hold up too badly

 

[Mr TrainGuy]

Not just that though is it.
It's an absolute failure to regulate the service when two buses are in convoy for several hours. In an ideal world they'd have borrowed a Solo SR off the Sprint to restart one of the boards on the 9 and then used the late running vehicle to get that board back up and running after a missed journey.

Problem is, sprint is a contract service, and losing a service on that means the Uni pay them less, so unfortunately that gets priority. They've spaced each other out a bit now it seems, and there's only one bus missing on sprint, 9 and skylink (oddly, the ADLs aren't usually this bad, must just be poorly timed with a few of them being off), looking towards the more positive side.

 

[Hyebone]

Are they the right bus type for that service?

No.

This subject has been done to death. The route could do with heavyweight single deckers such as the Volvo B8 Evora.

Perhaps off topic, but I'm curious to know which heavyweight saloons are actually available for the UK market. The only things that sprint to mind are Scania Higer Fencers, Wrightbus GB Hawks and the aforementioned Volvo B8

 

[Trainman40083]

No.

This subject has been done to death. The route could do with heavyweight single deckers such as the Volvo B8 Evora.

Perhaps off topic, but I'm curious to know which heavyweight saloons are actually available for the UK market. The only things that sprint to mind are Scania Higer Fencers, Wrightbus GB Hawks and the aforementioned Volvo B8

But you say that, yet the Citaros also suffered. I don't think the Scania Higer ever took off. If I recall the back had high steps. Never heard much about the Wrightbus Hawk. Ah yes, then we have the popular Volvo B8/EvoRa.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

The new 25 plated ones - three not out today.

There’s been some debate and discussion about that before and some would argue probably not although given the type of route they don’t seem to hold up too badly

A lot of the Enviro 200MMCs seem to be having a lot of warranty work done. Probably at ADL.

 

[Qwerty133]

The new 25 plated ones - three not out today.

There’s been some debate and discussion about that before and some would argue probably not although given the type of route they don’t seem to hold up too badly

If they could be taken off for routine maintenance as planned it would probably help. 346 and 347 were bought as dedicated spares for the route which could help out elsewhere in an emergency but are instead being used on town services and helping out on skylink in the event of a breakdown.
Operating a fleet on a fleet of 23 (including one long term off the road) vehicles intended for non skylink services for a PVR of 20 is never going to be sufficient when 12 of those 23 vehicles are at least borderline life expired.

 

[callum3490]

But you say that, yet the Citaros also suffered. I don't think the Scania Higer ever took off. If I recall the back had high steps. Never heard much about the Wrightbus Hawk. Ah yes, then we have the popular Volvo B8/EvoRa.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==


A lot of the Enviro 200MMCs seem to be having a lot of warranty work done. Probably at ADL.

Citaros were dropped because of their higher maintenance and running costs but definitely better suited to the route than the enviros. There will always be a question over the benefits and drawbacks of using particular vehicles on the route but ultimately would wellglade really purchase more e200s for the route if they weren’t satisfied with their suitability to the route

If ask chatgpt about this subject and ask it to weigh up the pros and cons of the suitability of different vehicles on the kinchbus skylink route the stats are quite an interesting read

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

If they could be taken off for routine maintenance as planned it would probably help. 346 and 347 were bought as dedicated spares for the route which could help out elsewhere in an emergency but are instead being used on town services and helping out on skylink in the event of a breakdown.
Operating a fleet on a fleet of 23 (including one long term off the road) vehicles intended for non skylink services for a PVR of 20 is never going to be sufficient when 12 of those 23 vehicles are at least borderline life expired.

Precisely, the spares aee being relied upon for other routes so when they are required for the route they were intended it creates a problem for those reliant routes

Too many buses have been pushed out of kinch too soon before the yutongs are due

 

[Trainman40083]

Citaros were dropped because of their higher maintenance and running costs but definitely better suited to the route than the enviros. There will always be a question over the benefits and drawbacks of using particular vehicles on the route but ultimately would wellglade really purchase more e200s for the route if they weren’t satisfied with their suitability to the route

If ask chatgpt about this subject and ask it to weigh up the pros and cons of the suitability of different vehicles on the kinchbus skylink route the stats are quite an interesting read

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==


Precisely, the spares aee being relied upon for other routes so when they are required for the route they were intended it creates a problem for those reliant routes

Too many buses have been pushed out of kinch too soon before the yutongs are due

Maybe the need for those buses was greater elsewhere. TM Travel seemed to have three. Those three met Sheffield emission standards.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==

If they could be taken off for routine maintenance as planned it would probably help. 346 and 347 were bought as dedicated spares for the route which could help out elsewhere in an emergency but are instead being used on town services and helping out on skylink in the event of a breakdown.
Operating a fleet on a fleet of 23 (including one long term off the road) vehicles intended for non skylink services for a PVR of 20 is never going to be sufficient when 12 of those 23 vehicles are at least borderline life expired.

Which one is long term off the road? Can't say I had noticed

 

[callum3490]

Maybe the need for those buses was greater elsewhere. TM Travel seemed to have three. Those three met Sheffield emission standards.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 11 Nov 2025 ==


Which one is long term off the road? Can't say I had noticed

Most likely but it all seems odd and a cascading problem - Kinch get rid to TM travel, kinch then need more loans off of trent to meet their pvr which is ultimately leading to shortages at trent

 

[Trainman40083]

Most likely but it all seems odd and a cascading problem - Kinch get rid to TM travel, kinch then need more loans off of trent to meet their pvr which is ultimately leading to shortages at trent

Yes, but Trentbarton have a row of former Skylink Enviro 200MMCs awaiting entry (eventually) onto the Twos that will replace Volvos, maybe to the Sixes, in time, so by 2027 spare buses should be available.

 

[Mr TrainGuy]

Too many buses have been pushed out of kinch too soon before the yutongs are due

Only so much depot space is available! Better to have buses that work most of the time than ones that never work (ie. 502 being swapped with 735).

 

[ceo of 741]

I wonder when the two buses will enter they are all branded up has anyone noticed Trent Barton always have the same font when it comes to branding buses if you go back 10 years prior they used to go all big with the branding like the bod characters on the back of the current two buses

 

[Mr TrainGuy]

I wonder when the two buses will enter they are all branded up has anyone noticed Trent Barton always have the same font when it comes to branding buses if you go back 10 years prior they used to go all big with the branding like the bod characters on the back of the current two buses

Uniformity is better really, especially when the modern liveries are still fairly solid in my eyes, I'd even go as far to say that they have heavily improved since Ray Stenning left!

 

[Trainman40083]

I wonder when the two buses will enter they are all branded up has anyone noticed Trent Barton always have the same font when it comes to branding buses if you go back 10 years prior they used to go all big with the branding like the bod characters on the back of the current two buses

December probably. Not like there is any urgency.

 

[Qwerty133]

Only so much depot space is available! Better to have buses that work most of the time than ones that never work (ie. 502 being swapped with 735).

If depot space is so tight the DRT minibuses should be relocated elsewhere in the group to allow an additional full size vehicle. Not only does the service go nowhere near Loughborough but the unreliability of the minibuses adds further pressure onto an already overstretched fleet at Kinch.

 

[Trainman40083]

If depot space is so tight the DRT minibuses should be relocated elsewhere in the group to allow an additional full size vehicle. Not only does the service go nowhere near Loughborough but the unreliability of the minibusedes adds further pressure onto an already overstretched fleet at Kinch.

But they might make more profit.. You could equally base Skylink buses at Derby soon.

 

[YX73OUB]

But they might make more profit.. You could equally base Skylink buses at Derby soon.

Or the 9 buses at Nottingham, DRT being stabled there keeps the costs lower as the kinch wage is lower than Barton and Trent wages.

 

[Mr TrainGuy]

If depot space is so tight the DRT minibuses should be relocated elsewhere in the group to allow an additional full size vehicle. Not only does the service go nowhere near Loughborough but the unreliability of the minibuses adds further pressure onto an already overstretched fleet at Kinch.

To where, all of the other depots are quite a tight squeeze too, maybe apart from notts+derby or meadow road, but they're nowhere near the DRT zones either.

 

[43055]

To where, all of the other depots are quite a tight squeeze too, maybe apart from notts+derby or meadow road, but they're nowhere near the DRT zones either.

With the works going on meadow road is still very much a squeeze to get out of in the morning.

Kinch 9 is in an absolute mess this morning. One bus down (been nicked for Skylink or the 2) and the other two running in convoy, essentially turning a 30 minute service into a 90 minute one.

715 was on the skylink. Looking at the tracking as the day went on the two vehicles did start to separate and were 30 mins apart again by the evening peak.