St helens is the bodyshop so deals with bodywork.
St Helens also still has a considerable engineering department which completes a lot of engine/mechanical work on behalf of other depots - that didn't go when the body shop arrived. Just look at the amount of DLAs currently present!
Speke could be completing/continuing the work for a variety of reasons such as budget, spaces available for work at St Helens etc.
St Helens are currently 'bombed out', well and truly with their own fleet. Baring in mind, before the closure of Liverline, St Helens was its own unit as an operational depot with the facilities to cater for the maintenance of its own services buses and plus from others from across the region. The closure of the facility on Hawthorne Road was indeed unfortunate and has ultimately caused a somewhat cramped scenario at St Helens, in comparison to what it was before that closure of Liverline. A healthy number of vehicles from St Helens serviceable fleet visit both Green Lane and Birkenhead depots respectively for MOT. I do not know personally if St Helens do have the capabilities to perform their own MOT's, but perhaps it would be likely in such a vastly scaled depot with many an expert operating under the same roof with thousands of pounds worth of equipment and machinery ready when required. The fact is, St Helens is being pushed as far as it can be in terms of available space as a result of the closure of the Hawthorne Road facility. There really is only so much one garage and an assembled work force of highly skilled folk can achieve in an allotted time with available resources (ultimately time and space), and in my honest opinion they far perform beyond this.
2502, in all probability, is a case of which ever depot can perform the tasks required then so be it, at St Helens or a depot which can perform the same tasks. Clearly, Speke have the capabilities and time to do such the required task. With St Helens own fleet now minus (temporarily at least) 3 vehicles due to the recent unfortunate incidents referred to earlier plus with the prospect of repairing those damaged vehicles (discounting 2316 from what has been discussed) and simultaneously storing the vehicles with limited space compounded further by an influx of vehicles from other depots for storage, repair or otherwise. And to suggest it would be a waste of money to tow 2502 to Speke for required maintenance, may I illustrate 2400 made the journey from Bolton to Wrexham via the same method purely for storage until book value ticks to nil, combined with the lack of available space to store vehicles at the depot inherited from Blue Bus. The company will invest its capital where it is deemed fit, and necessary. Whether such actions are agreed with, or disagreed with by members of the following band wagon really are irrelevant!
St helens fitted what looked like a new gearbox and possibly another engine like they have done in the past to the other commanders from the welsh operations and it driven under its own power onto the back of the low loader which points to it doesnt have MOT in which speke may have time to do any other work needed for it to pass its MOT and then take it to green lane for its test as st helens dont really have time to do it to the work load they have there self.
Speke can also do their own MOT's too (like with bendybuses)
4118 is a second B7TL to have received the partly illuminated 'ghd' advert. Also had a ride on 4114 which looks considerably tidier than the last ride. Seems odd to see the fresh older Arriva moquette on the aforementioned replaced headrest downstairs - one of the last ever fittings of this moquette on a Speke bus, one would imagine.
I had T917? KKM DAF Prestige on the 82 yesterday and I have to say for a Prestige it's pretty good I think!
4125 is back as i seen it on the 699 looking amazing!!!
(09/12/2012 19:41)Neoplan N4009 Wrote: [ -> ]I had T917? KKM DAF Prestige on the 82 yesterday and I have to say for a Prestige it's pretty good I think!
Was it in the new Livery? if it was it was T917 KKM mate
