And where are the Renowns?
2343 (V573 DJC) DartSLF 10.7m/Pointer2 making an unusual appearance on 300-LIVERPOOL today. With its Interurban livery and LED displays, it actually looked like one of Bootle's Darts as it raced through Kirkdale.
They really need 'proper buses' (ie, ten-litre Volvos) on this route...
Two Renowns & The Commander on 42/44's, one Renown on 43/46 today.
I do not understand why Southport would consider the DLAs to have too little capacity to run school services, considering the R-WVRs have merely a single seat extra. The DLAs are low-floor, internally tidy and thus there is no issue when they inevitably appear on town services. The R-WVRs look out of place with their faded paint jobs and seedy interiors whenever they get onto the 42, 43, 44, 46 and 49, routes which should expect much more upmarket type of bus.
I'd doubt they'd move the B7s onto schools regularly simply because the 375/85 needs all the capacity it can get. I did hear that Southport were expecting a new order of deckers for the route in early 2014 but can't be sure it's still the case.
To be fair, the R-WVR's were reasonably nice buses once upon a time, but these days if I catch one I feel like I have gone into a time warp. I'm not sure the capacity issue is the real reason that they don't want any and it is probably more that they simply don't like them.
I honestly dont know why 375/385 hasnt got new buses we needed them before Birkenhead you can easy take £600 to £700 on a round trip,The B7s are trouble i think there never a full fleet out on 375,4106 is hardly ever on there due to a persistent water leak its had since before christmas which they wont fix for some reason
Perhaps if they sorted issues like that straight away instead of allowing them to persist and develop further, reliability would be better. It was a mistake only sending enough B7s to cover the PVR to be honest. An additional vehicle would allow one to have a 'rest day' or operate a less demanding route for the day. The DLAs seemed to operate the route with reasonable ease upon this kind of logic whilst Skelmersdale had the route.
Birkenhead were given funding for their deckers as part of a project for 'cleaner air' in Liverpool (basically via the Green Bus Fund). Although the cash taken from the 375/385s is high, they've not been subject to that kind of funding thus, they'll have to wait until its deemed financially viable for new vehicles to be allocated to the route. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later and I'd have said an order for early 2014 would sound reasonable as that's no doubt when a further decker order would be placed for DLA replacement in the region anyway. Very difficult to predict how things may play out in reality though so I suppose it comes down to that old adage of 'wait and see'.
I can see more London cascades to replace DLA's as opposed to brand new.
I was more meaning new deckers to replace the likes of the B7s at Southport and Speke which then in turn could be used as DLA replacements within other depots. I wasn't clear about that at all though, apologies.
London Cascades are, of course, another possibility but if we're talking about the 375/385 warranting new deckers over 55 reg examples, I would have thought there'd be a case to make for brand new vehicles for the likes of the 86/A too.
Agreed, because 2014 shouldnt really see any singles deckers to need replacing as all Marshalls should be gone and the there arent that many other buses of that age to replace (V-ENCS & V-DJC's) as the next round of single deck replacements should be towards the end of 2015-2016. Therefore, in theotry this should mean that new deckers sould come in. Time will tell.
The question that should be asked however is when new/replacement vehicles arrive, will the damage be done to the route and its passengers? This has happened before with other routes in the North West and no doubt the country were they have been run by unreliable vehicles, and passengers have found other means of transport as they can no longer rely on the service as journies are often dropped as a result of troublesome vehicles. Lets hope this doesnt happen with the 375/385, Arriva want to attract passengers, not push them away!