New Buses Orders

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: New Buses Orders

(13/03/2013 20:44)Phil Wrote:  So yet more sodding pulsars for routes that should see deckers.

Barring cross river services, Liverpool has only FIVE route corridors out of the city centre that see regular double deckers. These are:

56/A
79/D
82/D
86/A/C/D
X2

Liverpool = Sardine city

Well put Phil. The pros/cons of having deckers in Liverpool can be debated before and yes they may get vandalism problems. But so do single deckers and so do places where it's not considered a problem like the Wirral and beyond Merseyside. In February I used Laird Street's 4404 (I think) which had the front upstairs nearside seat bent backwards and have noticed other problems with burn marks, and minor bits of vandalism of LS's Enviro 400's so they're not exactly little angels who use the buses other there. More frustratingly with perhaps thr exception of the 437 and maybe M-F peaks most Wirral routes can easily cope with 12m single decks as IMHO you're lucky to see 25-35 people on them at the most.

From what I see the weight of numbers using east and north Liverpool routes like 10/10A, 12/13 and 20/21 suggest deckers should at least be used to some degree on these routes. There's also a strong case for them to appear on routes like the 10B, 15, 18, 52/52A, 53/53 etc. Excluding what already has double decks everything else can cope with 12m single decks. However taking Green Lane as an example nothing should really be smaller than a Pulsar operating out of there and even the 6/7/8/9's struggle the loads with Dart's and SB120's sometimes let alone when they appear on the 10B, 12/13, 14, 15, 18 etc.

The vandalism/ASBO thing is a cop out as I don't see deckers being any worse than what happens to them in other places like Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle and in particular Birmingham. Even at it's worst in Liverpool you wouldn't get anything like the £1m yearly grafitti bill that Nat Ex West Midlands has got at the moment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlcxpxUBjdU

The only way this situation will change is if we and non enthusiast bus users complain to Arriva, Stagecoach and more importantly Merseytravel. I know they don't seem bothered and in the case of Arriva and Stagecoach they're putting in cheap buses in Liverpool becasue they can but if enough people start pressurising these organisations perhaps something - maybe not everything will be done to at least see 1-2 of these routes have larger capacity vehicles than what they have now.

Just changing the subject does anyone else agree for the last 18 months Green Lane seems to have become a dumping ground for cast of clapped out rubbish from elsewhere within Arriva. With the exception of the Renown's and the Dart slf's in particular GL does compare quite badly with say Speke and most definately Laird Street at the moment.

Sorry for if I go on but if feel these points have to be made.