The overall pvr of the city sightseeing is 4 which allows the buses to do an hour tour every 15 minutes. When Chester city transport / chesterbus had the fleetlines they had 6 along with a roe bodied Olympian which gave them enough play around if a bus broke down which was rare. When the Olympians came there was 3 halfs and 3 full open toppers. So to me 4 buses is not enough as they need a spare in case one breaks down.
I would imagine that eventually another spare will be converted, however for now there are no vehicles coming out of London to convert. Even when more vehicles do start moving, there is a pressing requirement for them in Scotland.
Four reasonably modern buses to cover a PVR of either two or three is enough. Adding another vehicle to stand spare might wreck the service's economics, and in any case it's not as though they are worked hard. From what I've seen they're rarely driven more than 15-20mph and all scheduled maintenance can be done either at times when only two buses are needed, or after service has finished for the day.
I note that Stagecoach are reducing some single fares as from this weekend on services 1, 2 and X2;
http://www.stagecoachbus.com/serviceupda...px?Id=7471
from Sunday 18th May 2013
Last Updated : 15 May 2013 11:56
We have reviewed all of our single and return fares across the Chester and Wirral area services. As customers will be aware, we reduced day and weekly ticket prices back in January 2013, across the network.
We are pleased to announce that from Sunday 18th May 2013, a number of our key single (and return where available) fares will be lowered!
Some of the key examples are as follows:
Chester to Blacon was £1.60 single - now £1.30
Chester to Ellesmere Port was £3.60 single - now £2.70
Chester to Liverpool was £3.60 single - now £3.20
These are not short-term special offers, but long term reductions to benefit our customers, especially where the fares that we have inherited from the former First Bus businesses were significantly out of step with the wider market.
Nice to see a positive story in the current age of autsterity.
Not seen any ultralows on the 1/2s recently, however been told one is on 1As today.
I presume the 2 remaining ultralows are covering buses that are being repainted.
Also noted a solar in Rock Ferry last night sanded down and ready to be painted, if memory serves me rightly it was YN05 WKF.
(17/05/2013 14:52)R874 ERE Wrote: [ -> ]Not seen any ultralows on the 1/2s recently, however been told one is on 1As today.
I presume the 2 remaining ultralows are covering buses that are being repainted.
Also noted a solar in Rock Ferry last night sanded down and ready to be painted, if memory serves me rightly it was YN05 WKF.
Today I've seen ultralows S358MFP running 1A service today and seem S355MFP nothing at all also ex-CCT Dart SLF No33411 V372KLG I think gone now.
Currently, on paper, Chester has the right % spares to cover its PVR. However, when you look a little closer it becomes clear that this is only because the Sightseeing PVR has been added without vehicles.
When the OT Tridents appear on the card, that should be sufficient to see off the pair of L113s still in service, 33411 (which is still allocated on paper) and 2 B7RLEs.
The B7RLEs would move to Rock Ferry to allow the withdrawal of their last L113 and provide an extra spare SD.
S355 MFP was strangely on Sealand Road Park & Ride's today. V372 KLG has been gone for sometime now.
CX02 EGC (29887) has received a number of yellow patches over anywhere there was anything to do with First, presumably to remove the 'Ghost' branding which was left, what it has meant is the Stagecoach name on the front has been removed, leaving only the 'beachball' and a bit of an odd look!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wrexhamtran...753777406/