The Enviro400s do have two different engine modes: economy and performance. It's quite possible they've been set to economy if they're noticeably slower than examples elsewhere.
The word perfect shudnt even be inlcuded in the same sentence as them, there nasty horrible pieces of crap..4406 wasnt that full to be honest the to deck was practically empty and doesnt excuse getting back 5 minutes before it either...and i see you mentioned age may i just remind you the Enviro400's are 5 and the PDL's are 12! and ive never been on a bus stopping at kings thats spent 5 minutes loading haven't even done that at Darland High School!...well they should of thought about all this before slamming the make up on them and running them...
DKD 4406 was Definetly in Performance as i sampled it before that..
I've rode the 1 a few times recently and I think that it is being extremely over the top calling them "nasty pieces of crap". I've never had any problems with any of the enviros speed wise. They struggle to keep to time but I think that is because the timing points are too tight.
Either way the timetable badly needs looking at. Far too many journeys lose 10+ minutes in peak hours having a knock on effect on the next journeys.
On another note, two MPD's on Route 3/4 went past me this afternoon with 'bus full - not stopping' on the Hanover. When passengers are waiting 30 mins for the next service depending on where you're going that really isn't good enough. Caego desperately need some full size buses.
(11/12/2013 18:34)J200ABW Wrote: [ -> ]On another note, two MPD's on Route 3/4 went past me this afternoon with 'bus full - not stopping' on the Hanover. When passengers are waiting 30 mins for the next service depending on where you're going that really isn't good enough. Caego desperately need some full size buses.
A lot of the local Wrexham routes are restrictive (as in tight to get buses around) though, are they not? In that case, the only way to decrease loadings is to increase the PVR. No good having full sized vehicles which can't manage their way around the routes!
(11/12/2013 23:49)CX54 DKD Wrote: [ -> ] (11/12/2013 18:34)J200ABW Wrote: [ -> ]On another note, two MPD's on Route 3/4 went past me this afternoon with 'bus full - not stopping' on the Hanover. When passengers are waiting 30 mins for the next service depending on where you're going that really isn't good enough. Caego desperately need some full size buses.
A lot of the local Wrexham routes are restrictive (as in tight to get buses around) though, are they not? In that case, the only way to decrease loadings is to increase the PVR. No good having full sized vehicles which can't manage their way around the routes!
Agree with you there if a route is getting that busy , then maybe a service frequency increase to every 20 minutes may be the order of the day.
The times aint even that tight to be honest, you get 13 minutes to get from Wrexham to Marford when you can do it in just 7! you say theres no problem with the vehicles, but there is drivers a purposely starting to refuse driving certain ones eg. 4403/7/9/10 and it says a lot when drivers are starting to say they'd rather drive 51 plate darts to Chester everyday quite simply because they perform better. Arriva should have thought about all this before actually tarting them up in my opinion!
as for bigger buses. i agree 3/4/32/33 used to Have Capital's, 10.7M, Pointer 2's, Olympians even once a DLA ran these routes so that can be changed but the frequency is every 15 minutes as it is and has a PVR of 8 if your saying Caego need to increase time and PVR they'd have to drop other routes in my opinion that isnt fair we dont have enough fleet vehicles for this. also any Wrexham route can take a full size vehicle even the 10/11/12/13 my local which ive had 7531/2 and a few ABA's on and back in the day ive had Capitals on here to just dont think it fit a Pulsar or something like that...
I wasn't aware that drivers were allowed to simply refuse a bus, ultimately if the Enviro400's have issues it is up to the depot's engineers to sort them out unless of course it is something a bit more out the ordinary where they have to send them to St Helens.
it happens very often now were drivers will refuse to drive the Enviro's hence why 4028 or a random MPD appears there, sometimes the MPD's are there for a reason like DCU due to a few being gone but sometimes the drivers just take them...this is becoming a frequent problem now, i think Wrexham will say bye to Sapphire in a years time when its the end of 18 Months unless something new and reliable arrives here...
The times aren't tight on the 1 assuming everything goes to plan but when delays occur in the peaks it has the inevitable knock on effect on following journeys because there is too little dwell time at either end of the route. This needs looking at, best solution would be to add an extra Enviro400 to the diagram but whether they'll take the additional cost is another matter. It needs to be remembered that it has never been a particularly reliable route, even when run by Darts and Pulsars, although admittedly slightly more reliable than now. It runs to the same journey times throughout the day when in reality the peak journeys should be given up to 10 minutes extra opposed to off peak journeys.