Streetlites are none standard to the operator anyway, so it maybe that they could seek to swap them at some stage for ADL Enviro200's or Optare Versa's/MetroCitys.
I think the reason for having them in the first place is that is what they could get at the time they expanded the Company by taking over BakerBus routes quickly.
The Streetlites are unpopular with both drivers and passengers. The ride quality is shocking, the brakes are fierce, they are rattly and they are cold. 155 is the best for braking probably as the retarder doesn't work. 154 is the only one now at Wincham and was on the 82 yesterday despite there being a spare Enviro200.
The baby Enviro mentioned above is on the 82 today. It was on the John Deanes duplicate first thing and has just gone through Hartford towards Chester.
Agree about Streetlite ride quality. 88 punctuality decreased significantly when D&G replaced the SRs with Streetlites with drivers generally driving them slower. I imagine now there wouldn't be so much padding on the 88 times if Streetlites had been kept off the 88.
I think though its like everything else, they aren't the best product on the market, and if someone had a lot of them and later models at that, they perhaps could get them to work for them.
Early ones are known to be bad, and wheel forwards are not as good as door forwards, thought really the product needs a rework by Wright. One of the issues I think is the shape isn't ideal, it has the opinion of something that is too tall and with very straight corners rather than more attractive curved ones. I think the best option for D & G given that they aren't a major part of the fleet is to offload them to the leasing company then replace with either Optare or ADL alternatives.
I don't think D&G lease anything, except perhaps off Julian Peddle- the streetlites were of course inherited from Bakers.
(06/03/2019 16:36)mikestone Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think D&G lease anything, except perhaps off Julian Peddle- the streetlites were of course inherited from Bakers.
That makes sense then, I know Julian isn't too keen on Streetlites and hasn't bought any for any of his other fleets that he has interests in.
(06/03/2019 16:38)gilesbus1 Wrote: [ -> ]That makes sense then, I know Julian isn't too keen on Streetlites and hasn't bought any for any of his other fleets that he has interests in.
I always did think that Julian is perceptive. The Streetlite is the Lada of the bus industry. I'm still wondering what persuaded Stagecoach to buy 18 of them for Sheffield.
(06/03/2019 16:56)EDB325 Wrote: [ -> ]I always did think that Julian is perceptive. The Streetlite is the Lada of the bus industry. I'm still wondering what persuaded Stagecoach to buy 18 of them for Sheffield.
Stagecoach were 'persuaded' by funding from South Yorkshire, in other words, they weren't Stagecoaches choice, same thing on Arran in West Scotland, Strathclyde paid for them.
Not defending them, I think the Streetlite is the worst bus currently in production, long may they rust/crash/catch fire!
101, 102 & 103 have been moved to Adderley Green. Do they still have the Cheshire East WiFi active? I think it broke on 106 and D&G didn't bother fixing it but that bus is still at Crewe/Wincham. A shame they've moved, I thought they were the best buses to travel on - more comfortable than older Solos and fairly quiet running.
53, 54 and 100 have moved in the opposite direction.
Also what's happened at Wincham? Some 88/188/288 workings have been transferred to Crewe and the new Sunday service contracts in Northwich and Chester will be operated from Crewe now not Wincham.