Mr TrainGuy
Member
One could think that they'd time it to coincide with these changes.. but then again, it hasn't been announced anywhere and from what I've been told they're trying to be as cautious as possible with ADLs since the recent incidents.
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Wellglade Group
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Trainman40083
Established Member
Cautious??? Incidents???? Yes indeed. I'm just amazed they are still buying them.. But soon we shall see the Yutongs arrive for bus service work in Loughborough....they may even have air conditioning as standard.
Mr TrainGuy
Member
Don't think they'll keep going for them - as far as I'm aware the new skylink batch were ordered prior to these events. And yes, the Yutongs do come with air-con as standard.
Trainman40083
Established Member
I've only been on two Yutongs so far (Nottingham and Stagecoach ) I avoid travelling on Enviro 200MMCs using any other alternative.. .
Jackoram06
Member
I’m intrigued to see how the electric range will hold up compared to the ICB range the ADL offer. I was living in Oxford when Stagecoach started receiving e400evs and noticed that the build quality seemed far superior compared to some of the icb engined e200s/400s mmc. They barely rattled they accelerated great and were a comfortable journey as a passenger bar the new light grey slim seats stagecoach used on them which would get a bit uncomfortable on a longer trip. I haven’t heard of any major problems so far and they’re coming up to a year in service. It’s always a possibility that wellglade could return to adl for the electric range unless they want to stick with yutongs or potentially return to wrightbus having been on the street deck electroliner I have no complaints about them either never managed to find a gb kite electric to try out but when I saw them running back to the depot they looked great and could work on some of the Trent network.
Trainman40083
Established Member
I suspect that once Wellglade have their Yutong single deckers, ADL will be no more. I have only been on two Yutongs, and they were great. I have been on one electric ADL decker and the ADL 100EV.
bus-enthusiast
Member
Yep, just saw both of them in the past half hour on their way to Derby
Qwerty133
Established Member
Elsewhere at Kinch none of the town services (with the exception of the new service 3) are tracking today. Presumably a data issue of some kind especially given the 3 is tracking but the same vehicles are not tracking on the 2.
49er
Member
Indeed! 3 may be tracking on BusTimes, but Kinchlive between 1620 and 1645 was denying any buses would be running on the 3 within the next hour - despite Solo 503 tracking very clearly on BusTimes!
Aethonatic
Member
Looks like the new spares sport a refreshed Kinchbus logo, with the "Kinch" sporting a slightly more boldish font.
busspotter1
On Moderation
it looks the same?
joieman
Member
And there we were thinking they'd reinvent the wheel!
Aethonatic
Member
It is mostly the same, but the difference is there. It's more obvious if you pay attention to the letter "C".
SubToBloxOrDai
Member
Trainman40083
Established Member
Looks like the first Red Arrow coach to be taxed is YB25 ULV
joieman
Member
Must be further changing of the corporate typefaces from Abadi to Museo Sans (same as Trentbarton)
Travelmonkey
Member
Also a launch in Derby next week. I need to check how these new coaches deal with wheelchair users.
Trainman40083
Established Member
I think they are like 73 /74 with the wheelchair loaded in the centre. That suggests issues at Derby and Nottingham Victoria bus stations, as the platform won't be long enough.
Trentbarton definitely don't use Museo Sans, I always thought it was Fibel Nord?
The coach bays are long enough though and are commonly used to load and off load wheelchairs, never need the current red arrows off load at victoria bus station, its usually upper parliament street or the NTU city campus stop (as not to block traffic)
Surely that goes against PSVAR?
Travelmonkey
Member
Ooh that sounds like it may be a good test. I'll give them the benifit of the doubt but I know one of my friends wants to see how the magic carpets work in revenue service.
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Possibly. Wonder if can use the "money back guarantee" if I can't alight at the stop I want.
Trent use Museo Sans for quite a lot of stuff, they have done for a number of years now. (Notably, not their logo though!)
joieman
Member
A look at the font files used for their homepage confirms it is Museo Sans
YX73OUB
Member
It is.
Museo sans 300/500/700/900
Museo sans 300/500/700/900
markymark2000
On Moderation
PSVAR only applies to the vehicles, not the infrastructure. It's following the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law.
The exact same can be said about Wellglades Yutong Flixbuses which serve Stand SB in Leicester, Stop 1 in Nottingham Broadmarsh, Stand B in Sheffield Meadowhall as any stand at Heathrow Central Bus Station. None of those are accessible for wheelchair lifts which are in the middle of the bus. But everyone gets away with it thanks to silly law makers who leave loopholes like this open, and poor regulators who make no attempt to ensure operators aren't actively choosing inaccessible stops/stops which would cause unacceptable delays or adjustments if a wheelchair user wished to board (Ie, Red Arrow).
While not specifically Red Arrow and Victoria Bus Station, I know an issue was raised with the traffic commissioners and local authorities about a very similar situation in another part of the country (operator using coaches but purposely serving inaccessible stops to avoid having to pick up wheelchair and less able passengers), the LA couldn't care less and said it's a free market, operators can do what they want. Traffic Commissioner gave nothing but their bog standard 'thank you we will pass it on'. There's no appetite to solve the situations.
SSmith2009
Member
Same with arriva and their X6 coaches at St Margaret's (when they're not VOR)
Trainman40083
Established Member
Looks like they were training on the wheelchair lift at Meadow Road with spare 910.
Attachments
Dwarfer1979
Member
The X6 coaches can deploy their lift at St Margarets if required, they have a stand designed for a forward lift to deploy (& the Temsa lifts are just behind the front door) as long as the drivers pull far enough forward (I have actually looked at one on stand and it is possible though the driver in question couldn't where he had stopped as he was several foot short of as far forward as he could be so the lift would just have snagged on the barrier of the next stand). When St Margarets was rebuilt there were stands designed for coaches to use properly one of which is explicitly allocated to the X6 (some have extended platforms such as the X6 stand whilst some of the Nat Ex stands are fully side on). The X6 does appear to have an issue at Coventry where there doesn't appear to be enough room to deploy the lifts without hitting the building but I guess they could sit further out in the roadway to make space to deploy the lift.
Flixbus don't use those designed coach stands, they started serving Leicester after the bus station was rebuilt so not enough stands were designed for coaches for current demand, not sure if it is Flixbus choice to be as far from NatEx as possible to seperate their passengers or due to the coach stands around the NatEx office being full and not being able to accommodate the extra departures though there were ways of avoiding it and they can of course position to load via the lift if required by a passenger at St Margarets as they are next to a side on stand normally used for tour coach pick up.
This is one of those areas that would be difficult to legislate for without creating much bigger issues than you are solving. There are lots of bus stops that are not accessible simply because they can't be (verges & lack of pavement or regular parking issues) so if you said that companies could only serve stops that are guaranteed to be accessible a significant number of stops could no longer be served reducing accessibility for all. It would appear to be acceptable to have a seperate loading point for wheelchairs (TfL do that at a number of their bus stations due to their central door ramps) but I would expect issues to arise in the end if you cannot show you have a solution though it is not entirely clear how enforcement works generally around PSVAR and no one has yet ended up being prosecuted officially. I would say that it isn't a legal responsibility on local authorities to enforce so they have no power or involvement and the Traffic Commisioners are judges not investigators (that is the DVSA) so all they will do is pass such issues to the DVSA to investigate and as legal bodies they are unlikely to provide much information to the general public about what is done and lots of the DVSA activity in enforcement is done before hitting public courts so is unseen (Having even a routine DVSA check up visit is a serious matter for any remotely compliant business and any issues will be dealt with quickly or such questions answered there, let alone if it becomes something more formal that is still well short of a PI where the general public may find out).