No other area is prepared to give up another Double Decker probably with some good recompense .
we should of have 4401-4410 i agree with that 2 and 2799 should be in Sapphire colors as well... yet again we have about 6/7 working V Marshalls in the yard why cant they see use on 3/4/32/33 and 1 when required but NO. Arriva Buses Wales for ya.
Nice to see that Dart on it for A change not A fan of those Enviro400's tbh
4400-10 should have gone for Wrexham so there would be two spare buses and 2799 and two other Eclipses should be refurbed for the X94 with one Eclipse spare
(10/08/2013 00:23)M393VWX Wrote: [ -> ]4400-10 should have gone for Wrexham so there would be two spare buses and 2799 and two other Eclipses should be refurbed for the X94 with one Eclipse spare
They're better utilised at Bootle. Rather than sit in the depot all day or on one of the local town services that wouldn't fill an MPD, They're used on the cross-city routes and rail replacements for Merseyrail
And let's not forget the expense for full Saphire refurbishment either...
Thing is though they are breaking down a lot and they can't be having an MPD Dart on a route like that i have seen how busy the route gets especially when the schools go back in
exacly and the Duty that the MPD was covering would of took all the School's if it wasnt the summer holiday's doesnt matter how much it costs they spent enough on tarting the S**T up so why not atleast spend some on making them reliable. what about buses all over the Arriva Divisions that sit in depots doing nothing at all like the V-DVU Marshall's in Caego, why cant they be used somewhere else for capacity or in Wrexham for Service's 3/4/32/33 i remember the days when even the 10/11/12/13's had marshall's on them. just a s**ty liitle branding called Sapphire to try make arriva look good and it just doesnt work. dont see first tarting up everything into liverys and everything dya but they still do well. and stagecoach Gold is 99.9% better than Sapphire just arriva's way of trying to look good and failing big time Even see G.H.A and D Jones Laughing at arriva thats how bad they are. same with GHA's X9 that does better least that has spare vehicles and spare vehicles in the right colours...Finished my rant now
It doesn't matter how much it costs? Well, at £20K a pop, we'll have to agree to disagree there. If more than one Sapphire branded vehicle breaking down at once is a regular occurrence at the moment (which I believe is actually due to unreliable electrical systems since the refurbishment) then commandeering a vehicle from the X94 and placing one of the tachographed MPDs on there would be a better alternative for the interim. Having another Enviro400 refurbished at significant expense is neither practical or cost effective - Raawwwrrr! gives perfect reasons for that above. Buses sitting around doing nothing all day having had £20K spent on them loose money.
With regards the Sapphire brand, the fact that they're offering no quibble refunds if a branded vehicle is unavailable actually seems more than reasonable and it's certainly a policy in the passenger's favour as opposed to the companies. Branding to the extent of what's happened with Sapphire is more intricate than 'tarting things up' and comes down to, put very simply as anything more would likely be a waste of time, passenger perception. That's passenger perception and not the enthusiast's perception, big difference. It's regrettable that the reliability of the branded vehicles has taken a turn for the worse but if, as reported, the company have ADL themselves out investigating, I'd hardly say that's a bad show and it's most definitely showing willing to improve the situation.
As for bringing V-DVU Marshalls (many of which aren't mechanically sound by the way) which have been sent for storage prior to going for scrap into service, well, I'll refer you to passenger perception again. I'll admit to not being a regular user of Wrexham's local network but I'm sure the extra capacity wouldn't be required when the decrepit state of those Marshalls is taken into account. At any rate, if Arriva were just 'trying to make themselves look good', employing those Marshalls into service wouldn't quite cut it.
If you have such a significant issue with Sapphire, perhaps you should also be taking up issue with the local council who planned and part-funded the scheme for Wrexham alongside Arriva.
Marshalls are being sent to Wrexham depot for storage while the book value of them drops before getting scrapped. cant scrap them if the book value is say 6 grand and they will only get 3 scrap