DartSLF Bus Awards 2014

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: DartSLF Bus Awards 2014
Here are my nominations.

1 - Who was the best company of the year?
Arriva North West as they are finally investing in buses of the correct size for their busiest corridors.

2 - Who was the worst company of the year?
Stagecoach Merseyside for the opposite reasons. Their Enviro300s are not up to standard at all, and the less said about the Darts the better.

3 - What bus(es) were the best delivery to a company of the year?
Well, it's undoubtedly the 11 Enviro400s arriving at Green Lane. The ones at Speke and Southport were good to see too, but for GL to finally get some larger buses is superb.

4 - What withdrawn bus(es) were the hardest goodbye from a company of the year?
Generally it's the DLAs that have withered away. The likes of 4057, 4074, 4093 and 4099 were great and from a comfort perspective, a real cut above the dodgy VLWs. Also some of the better Marshalls (i.e. 7654 and 7655 at Southport). I won't miss the others!

5 - Which bus(es) looked the smartest during the year?
The Enviro400s at Speke and Southport internally are very smart with upgraded seating, and the refurbished Halton Transport OmniCitys are impressive too.

6 - What was the rarest sighting of the year?
The Zoe's Place liveried Enviro400 4426 of Bootle working the 58. It's not often you see a double decker on there, especially a pretty one!

7 - What was the biggest surprise in the industry of the year?
I didn't see the Halton OmniCity acquisition coming, so seeing those on their first day in traffic on the same day that Speke's Enviro400s entered service was a real pleasant surprise.

8 - What was the biggest disappointment in the industry of the year?
Two contrasting nominations here - the Wright StreetDeck for being the aesthetic disaster that it is, and Stagecoach Merseyside for continually failing to invest in sensibly sized buses for routes like the 14, 20, 21, 82 and 86.

9 - What bus was the best during the year?
Moving away from Merseyside here, it has to be Stagecoach Manchester's MX10MVS which was outstanding in all departments and showed the hybrid Enviro400s in the best possible light.

10 - What bus was the worst during the year?
More or less any of the 2451-2474 batch of Myllenniums and to a slightly lesser extent the 2201-2262 Darts. With very few exceptions, appalling buses which deserve immediate withdrawal. It's hard to pick a specific one, but particularly dire examples of both are 2459 and 2219.