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Is the shortage of Streetdecks the reason why some of the former First Manchester B7s have come back from Preston and are now seeing regular service at Bolton?

It certainly seems that was as singles are being used more and more on routes like 36/37s whereas these routes until recently had Streetdecks on most if not all of their duties.

(07/03/2023 22:53)Winston Wrote: [ -> ]I believe Arriva only lease Bolton Depot, I understand it is still owned by Roger Jarvis (the former Blue Bus owner)

That is correct.
And ironically, Roger is currently working as a driver at Vision Bus who are losing all their service work to Diamond.

(08/03/2023 06:29)M60lad Wrote: [ -> ]Is the shortage of Streetdecks the reason why some of the former First Manchester B7s have come back from Preston and are now seeing regular service at Bolton?

It certainly seems that was as singles are being used more and more on routes like 36/37s whereas these routes until recently had Streetdecks on most if not all of their duties.

I presume the B7s (only two ex FM) were brought back due to the PVR increase which led a similar number of Citaros move to Eccles to cover these routes.

(08/03/2023 07:17)60301 Wrote: [ -> ]That is correct.
And ironically, Roger is currently working as a driver at Vision Bus who are losing all their service work to Diamond.

Funnily enough I saw him yesterday in Bury.

Spotted Diamond Bus Training bus 66906 heading out of Oldham town centre this morning on King Street. Looked like it continued down towards Ashton Road. Had a few staff on board. Not sure whether there is any significance of a Diamond bus travelling in an area where they current don't operate.

Are Diamond still suffering driver shortages ? I have been encountering long gaps - sometimes over 30 minutes - in services such as 471, 582 that are supposed to be every 12 minutes.

I would have thought if someone is training to become a bus driver, they need to cover a wide variety of roads, even if they aren't current bus routes operated by Diamond. If someone doesn't pass their test, then they aren't much use to Diamond.

(11/03/2023 15:39)SF07 Wrote: [ -> ]Spotted Diamond Bus Training bus 66906 heading out of Oldham town centre this morning on King Street. Looked like it continued down towards Ashton Road. Had a few staff on board. Not sure whether there is any significance of a Diamond bus travelling in an area where they current don't operate.

Training buses tend to go wherever when training learner drivers. They will not learn routes until they have passed PCV tests. I actually seen one of the First training vehicles travelling through Reddish last week and thats out of area for them.

Oldham could also be on a test route that is covered on the test. Its just like a car test, bus driving examiners have set routes that they take in.

Not to sure if they still do but Warringtons Own used to use a training centre in Oldham area and so quite regularly their training bus at the time used to be seen in/around Manchester area rather than its native Warrington.

(12/03/2023 22:27)Manc93 Wrote: [ -> ]Training buses tend to go wherever when training learner drivers. They will not learn routes until they have passed PCV tests. I actually seen one of the First training vehicles travelling through Reddish last week and thats out of area for them.

Oldham could also be on a test route that is covered on the test. Its just like a car test, bus driving examiners have set routes that they take in.

First, GNW and Warringtons own buses are often seen in Bredbury and Reddish as they use an examiner based at Bredbury test centre. So will often practice around Stockport on the known test routes.