Wellglade Group

[zkyx02]

It was only used for three days when Arriva (attempted to) use it in Leicester. Fancy TM buying what was apparently the worst of the lot!

Was brought from PVS, believed to have been very last minute as a replacement for an omnidekka.

Tm seem to be doing quite well with the ex Lothian E400s, I’m shocked they actually manage a run on the 218!

 

[Jackoram06]

Think it might have already been mentioned but with the versas moving up to Sheffield are 488/489/490 going to be released as they’re not euro 6 compliant. If so any ideas to where they’ll end up if not ND?

 

[Trainman40083]

Was brought from PVS, believed to have been very last minute as a replacement for an omnidekka.

Tm seem to be doing quite well with the ex Lothian E400s, I’m shocked they actually manage a run on the 218!

I often see them parked in Sheffield bus station..Every so often, one ventures out. Not the same as a ride on a Scania.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2025 ==

Any signs of 269 or 733 being painted yet?

 

[Aethonatic]

There's a Tiktok account that posts updates at Bus and Coach World daily. Looks like one of the Skylink buses, presumably YX20 OHE, has been completely debranded.

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7538070235572636950

 

[Trainman40083]

Sorry am I missing something, I thought 4421 was at Arriva Derby not TM??

So, it is

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2025 ==

Notts and Derby recent acquisition 57 has now lost the South Wales Transport names, but retains the Welsh dragon. But it now carries its fleetnumber.

 

[m79900]

There's a Tiktok account that posts updates at Bus and Coach World daily. Looks like one of the Skylink buses, presumably YX20 OHE, has been completely debranded.

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7538070235572636950

Can it be confirmed where its going yet? The two?

 

[Trainman40083]

Can it be confirmed where its going yet? The two?

We may have to wait for it to be repainted.

 

[Aethonatic]

Can it be confirmed where its going yet? The two?

A lot of people seem to be attached to the idea that these may be going on The Two, but keep in mind nothing concrete has been confirmed yet.

 

[callum3490]

A lot of people seem to be attached to the idea that these may be going on The Two, but keep in mind nothing concrete has been confirmed yet.

Or perhaps they’re just destined for the sixes which has also been suggested

 

[Trainman40083]

A lot of people seem to be attached to the idea that these may be going on The Two, but keep in mind nothing concrete has been confirmed yet.

But surely if they have been sent to Bus and Coach World, the colour has been specified.

 

[callum3490]

But surely if they have been sent to Bus and Coach World, the colour has been specified.

Of course TB and B&C will know the colour etc specified; i think he meant more that there was nothing concrete in public domain, just rumours at this point

TB may well surprise and allocate them to something with older vehicles that could do with a spruce up, both comet and calverton have been mentioned

 

[Aethonatic]

But surely if they have been sent to Bus and Coach World, the colour has been specified.

Yes, but that's confidential information.

 

[43055]

I often see them parked in Sheffield bus station..Every so often, one ventures out. Not the same as a ride on a Scania.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2025 ==

Any signs of 269 or 733 being painted yet?

733 has emerged this morning in red.

 

[Trainman40083]

733 has emerged this morning in red.

You must be very near to the paint shop.

 

[liamf656]

You must be very near to the paint shop.

It's at Langley Mill. I've just seen it locally on a test drive

 

[Qwerty133]

After looking as bustimes

174 is back at Langley Mill.

Despite being quite clearly needed at Kinchbus.
If they insist on keeping the DRT based out of Loughborough it either needs its own dedicated spares (ideally 2 of them as both of the planned vehicles are often out of use) or a greater number of general spares at Kinch. On paper Kinch has a decent number of spares but in practice they are struggling for buses even with the Sprint operating a 3 rather than 7 bus service as it is the uni holidays meaning they aren't even close to having sufficient resource for when the uni goes back.

 

[callum3490]

Despite being quite clearly needed at Kinchbus.
If they insist on keeping the DRT based out of Loughborough it either needs its own dedicated spares (ideally 2 of them as both of the planned vehicles are often out of use) or a greater number of general spares at Kinch. On paper Kinch has a decent number of spares but in practice they are struggling for buses even with the Sprint operating a 3 rather than 7 bus service as it is the uni holidays meaning they aren't even close to having sufficient resource for when the uni goes back.

One could argue they are needed by trent as well - given 174/175 and 109 were all loaned to meet the PVR of skylink after the frequency increase it only seems right that they are all returned now, the b7rles and solo srs were loaned to fill the other gaps in service

This is why I still think it’s odd to get rid of the versas now when kinch will clearly struggle once the unis are back in September, until the yutongs arrive anyway

 

[Qwerty133]

One could argue they are needed by trent as well - given 174/175 and 109 were all loaned to meet the PVR of skylink after the frequency increase it only seems right that they are all returned now, the b7rles and solo srs were loaned to fill the other gaps in service

This is why I still think it’s odd to get rid of the versas now when kinch will clearly struggle once the unis are back in September, until the yutongs arrive anyway

Basically all of that is untrue.
109, 174 and 175 were permanent transfers to Kinch as were the B7rles (to replace the withdrawn Citaros not to fill gaps) and 502. The Versa's have also been transferred within the group to a budget depot which requires buses that meet certain efficiency standards rather than gotten rid of.
All of the above would mean that without retaining ADL200s for use on the town services the non skylink operations at Kinch would be effectively 4 vehicles down on what was already a tight fleet that saw regular cancellations so keeping 174 and 175 as well as 107 and 108 (which have been replaced as Skylink spares) for the town fleet would simply have kept the fleet stable whilst allowing the Versa's to transfer over to TM who were in desperate need.
The other option given the ongoing shortage in the wider group would have been to have kept two of the branded 20 plate E200MMCs at Kinch until the Yutongs arrived with 346 and 347 operating as town spares in the interim.
It's certainly not as simple as saying that because bus X operated at depot Y before moving to depot Z that it should return to depot Y at the first opportunity following fleet movements at depot Z as in this instance keeping 174 at Kinch whilst allowing the Versas to transfer would have been optimal for the group as a whole. If Langley Mill (which seems to have about the healthiest allocation of spares amongst the group) could not cope with its current allocation the solution at that depot would have been diverting larger projects elsewhere to allow the team at the depot to focus on the day to day work.

 

[Mr TrainGuy]

Despite being quite clearly needed at Kinchbus.
If they insist on keeping the DRT based out of Loughborough it either needs its own dedicated spares (ideally 2 of them as both of the planned vehicles are often out of use) or a greater number of general spares at Kinch. On paper Kinch has a decent number of spares but in practice they are struggling for buses even with the Sprint operating a 3 rather than 7 bus service as it is the uni holidays meaning they aren't even close to having sufficient resource for when the uni goes back.

With how awful the vans are I personally can't see them keeping up the DRT service for that much longer.. to be fair to them 5 out of the 6 sprint solos are operating services today (obviously 2 of them are covering for the dreadful Merc vans though so that isn't helping them!)

All of the above would mean that without retaining ADL200s for use on the town services the non skylink operations at Kinch would be effectively 4 vehicles down on what was already a tight fleet that saw regular cancellations so keeping 174 and 175 as well as 107 and 108 (which have been replaced as Skylink spares) for the town fleet would simply have kept the fleet stable whilst allowing the Versa's to transfer over to TM who were in desperate need.
The other option given the ongoing shortage in the wider group would have been to have kept two of the branded 20 plate E200MMCs at Kinch until the Yutongs arrived with 346 and 347 operating as town spares in the interim.

Thing is there's a couple of problems with that. The depot at Loughborough can't handle loads and loads of vehicles (I'd imagine it can get quite cosy overnight with 40-odd vehicles) so it would certainly be tight and not very ideal if they were to keep another 2/3 vehicles there. You mention them keeping 175, 107 and 108, which they have, as from what I've heard depots are only allowed a certain number of vehicles before they are no longer allowed to operate any more (presumably enforced by management at LM). 175, 107 and 108 should be on the town runners a lot more now skylink has received new vehicles, hopefully with 346 and 347 also appearing frequently! However now it seems a few of the spare Optares are in a spot of bother at the moment, in particular 478, 502 and 822, which have all been off for a few days now, along with 715 which appears to have been having issues over the past few days. Basically all I'm saying is, 107 and 108 have indirectly replaced 831 and 832 (which let's be honest, weren't the most reliable anyway!) which can be used as a little stop gap before the Yutongs arrive later this year (and hopefully will make the towns a bit more reliable)!

 

[Trainman40083]

I think we can all agree, that all the depots probably are desperate for buses, but the financials might suggest they can only have so many spares...After that services get cancelled. When that gets bad and passengers seek alternatives, the position worsens

 

[Qwerty133]

With how awful the vans are I personally can't see them keeping up the DRT service for that much longer.. to be fair to them 5 out of the 6 sprint solos are operating services today (obviously 2 of them are covering for the dreadful Merc vans though so that isn't helping them!)

Thing is there's a couple of problems with that. The depot at Loughborough can't handle loads and loads of vehicles (I'd imagine it can get quite cosy overnight with 40-odd vehicles) so it would certainly be tight and not very ideal if they were to keep another 2/3 vehicles there. You mention them keeping 175, 107 and 108, which they have, as from what I've heard depots are only allowed a certain number of vehicles before they are no longer allowed to operate any more (presumably enforced by management at LM). 175, 107 and 108 should be on the town runners a lot more now skylink has received new vehicles, hopefully with 346 and 347 also appearing frequently! However now it seems a few of the spare Optares are in a spot of bother at the moment, in particular 478, 502 and 822, which have all been off for a few days now, along with 715 which appears to have been having issues over the past few days. Basically all I'm saying is, 107 and 108 have indirectly replaced 831 and 832 (which let's be honest, weren't the most reliable anyway!) which can be used as a little stop gap before the Yutongs arrive later this year (and hopefully will make the towns a bit more reliable)!

As you say 107 and 108 have replaced 831 and 832, 175 covers the additional board on the 2/3 which still leaves nothing to replace 7 (which has been covered by a long list of loans and demonstrators over the past year). If they are short of vehicle space the solution would be the move the DRT over to Nottingham given it doesn't actually go anywhere near Loughborough in any case (although ironically this would probably eliminate the need for extra vehicles so the easier solution may simply be to use vehicles from Nottingham to cover the DRT when they are not working).
I assume the planned allocations are now;
1-6, 498 Sprint and CS
107,108,801,830 11/12
175,822 2/3
478/479 5
714-716 9
330-347 Skylink
leaving 501-503 and 740 as the spares for the town services and DRT.

 

[joieman]

As you say 107 and 108 have replaced 831 and 832, 175 covers the additional board on the 2/3 which still leaves nothing to replace 7 (which has been covered by a long list of loans and demonstrators over the past year). If they are short of vehicle space the solution would be the move the DRT over to Nottingham given it doesn't actually go anywhere near Loughborough in any case (although ironically this would probably eliminate the need for extra vehicles so the easier solution may simply be to use vehicles from Nottingham to cover the DRT when they are not working).
I assume the planned allocations are now;
1-6, 498 Sprint and CS
107,108,801,830 11/12
175,822 2/3
478/479 5
714-716 9
330-347 Skylink
leaving 501-503 and 740 as the spares for the town services and DRT.

I thought 502 was supposed to replace 7

 

[Jackoram06]

So, it is

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2025 ==

Notts and Derby recent acquisition 57 has now lost the South Wales Transport names, but retains the Welsh dragon. But it now carries its fleetnumber.

Are we likely to see these coaches get painted? Any updates on the interdeck that went for paint?

 

[Trainman40083]

Are we likely to see these coaches get painted? Any updates on the interdeck that went for paint?

Do they need painting for what they work. Nope, no update on when 66 or 825 are due back. Unless someone knows different. At least with 57 and 58, you know they are Welsh.

 

[Jackoram06]

Do they need painting for what they work. Nope, no update on when 66 or 825 are due back. Unless someone knows different. At least with 57 and 58, you know they are Welsh.

You’re right they don’t neeeed it. But it was just a thought that if 66 had gone away for paint ND could perhaps want to be more consistent with their branding rather than just plain white that was all.

 

[Trainman40083]

You’re right they don’t neeeed it. But it was just a thought that if 66 had gone away for paint ND could perhaps want to be more consistent with their branding rather than just plain white that was all.

I think 66 needed to have some repanelling done. 64, that went white with a black roof, had accident damage I think, so both would have had a degree of rebuilding that would have necessitated painting. Consistent with their branding, but they have all those red Solos they lend to Trentbarton. TBH. I never really noticed what colour they are. They turn up.

 

[ceo of 741]

Does anybody know what the deal is with 277 at Trent it’s currently at the Langley mill depot but Is it staying there

 

[zkyx02]

Does anybody know what the deal is with 277 at Trent it’s currently at the Langley mill depot but Is it staying there

Could be many reasons it’s at Langley mill, warranty work etc, or could be waiting to return to ADL, must say it isn’t the worst ADL I’ve been on considering it’s fully stock, was quite rattleless

 

[ceo of 741]

Could be many reasons it’s at Langley mill, warranty work etc, or could be waiting to return to ADL, must say it isn’t the worst ADL I’ve been on considering it’s fully stock, was quite rattleless

Normally it was on the threes and the nines I don’t think I have been on it yet t must be the longest loan Trent’s ever had there’s two stock Adl 200 mmcs at CT4N on my route there very rattly

 

[Trainman40083]

Could be many reasons it’s at Langley mill, warranty work etc, or could be waiting to return to ADL, must say it isn’t the worst ADL I’ve been on considering it’s fully stock, was quite rattleless

An Enviro 200MMC that doesn't rattle? Does it have a sun roof? If it was a warranty spare, then there must be a lot of warranty work. Must have there 10 months