Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(11/04/2013 10:34)tinytears87 Wrote:  Green Lane used to run the 10A until Arriva took MTL over, and quickly transferred the route to St Helens. If you think reliablity is poor now, try using the 10A when GL had it.

Exactly.

I'm still adamant that the reliability of the services contributes more than its fair share to high loads on the Pulsars/Enviro300s. It was certainly better before the changes introduced by the QBP. Until they give drivers enough time to actually run the services in areas where they need it, busses will continue to run in threes leaving a crippling load for the service behind.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
i go with a driver on his duty and we always do a 10 or 10A to start with and 7 out of 10 times coming out of Queen Square you got a standing load, theres houses being built all over the route so when people live in them am really going to look forward to getting a seat.. not

[Gillmoss 0324]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(11/04/2013 10:40)CX54 DKD Wrote:  

(11/04/2013 10:34)tinytears87 Wrote:  Green Lane used to run the 10A until Arriva took MTL over, and quickly transferred the route to St Helens. If you think reliablity is poor now, try using the 10A when GL had it.

Exactly.

I'm still adamant that the reliability of the services contributes more than its fair share to high loads on the Pulsars/Enviro300s. It was certainly better before the changes introduced by the QBP. Until they give drivers enough time to actually run the services in areas where they need it, busses will continue to run in threes leaving a crippling load for the service behind.

Good point CX perhaps if reliability of the Prescot Road corridor was improved the overcrowding may not be as much of a problem. I still think deckers should to some degree have a role on one of the region's busiest route corridors and maybe if Merseytravel had've okay-d them the ex-London Citaro bendies would've been a good idea on the 10/10A etc. Having said that it is a bit of a joke that Dart and worse Solo sized vehicles are appearing on these routes and the yes maybe there's a shortage at SH but they should only be a last option for these routes. or have the appropriate PVR of full sized vehicles to cover them adequeately.

[CX54 DKD (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
There's no shortage of Pulsars. If you went into St Helens now, I'd be willing to bet that there's at least 1 somewhere on 32s, 32As or 33s whilst that SR works the 10A.

That 08.10 service seems to be one of the last services from the garage, if not the last, to work a 10A so if it suffers from a non-start etc with its allocated vehicle and there's nothing left in the garage, I'd rather see an SR go out and work a round trip to at least get some passengers to their destination than non at all. However, I do then think they should be pulling a Pulsar temporarily from one of the local services when that SR is due back in to replace it. It's when that doesn't happen that I despair at the allocating.

[sth77]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(11/04/2013 11:04)CX54 DKD Wrote:  There's no shortage of Pulsars. If you went into St Helens now, I'd be willing to bet that there's at least 1 somewhere on 32s, 32As or 33s whilst that SR works the 10A.

That 08.10 service seems to be one of the last services from the garage, if not the last, to work a 10A so if it suffers from a non-start etc with its allocated vehicle and there's nothing left in the garage, I'd rather see an SR go out and work a round trip to at least get some passengers to their destination than non at all. However, I do then think they should be pulling a Pulsar temporarily from one of the local services when that SR is due back in to replace it. It's when that doesn't happen that I despair at the allocating.

Indeed there was 2 pulsars on the 32 this morning, noted at Moss Bank on the 32 to Four Acre Lane at 10:15 was 2987, followed by 2969 running Not in Service back to the depot.

There is no excuse for putting Solo's or SR Solo's on the 10/A or 89 in my opinion at that time in a morning when there are clearly full size buses available. I would be interested to hear the excuse from the depot as to why for 2 days running a Solo SR has been on the 10/A.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
I did notice a Pulsar 1 on the 08.20 33 from St Helens Bus Stations towards Widnes. I'm not sure though if this duty is All Day or Peak Hours Only.

[T42 PVM (Moderator)]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
no matter what solo SR buses and the 58 plated solos should not go onto the 10/10A or 89 you got so many full sized buses from pulsars to renowns and marshall darts, 2 full sized buses should be kept in the depot spare until all the 10/10A and 89 buses have gone out then just slot them if/when needed

[tinytears87]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
2 full size buses purposely laying around spare cost money.
Spare buses happen naturally within the allocation of the depot.
No need to talk about any routes needing deckers, as 80% of all routes in Merseyside should be deckers. This has been mentioned since the year 2000 when Arriva took over and culled them.
Pulsars, B10's etc, are often allocated out on split turns (32's,33's etc) to return them to garage early morning, so non-emergency due maintenance can then be carried out, which is why you often get SR's spare in the morning and thrown out on the last allocations of the day, because they themselves have just come off the pit and made available for service.

[Jack]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot
Another Pulsar service with odd allocations today... what's going on with 320?! Seen 7627, 2251 and 714 on there today.

[mr t]

RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(11/04/2013 10:49)Gillmoss 0324 Wrote:  

(11/04/2013 10:40)CX54 DKD Wrote:  

(11/04/2013 10:34)tinytears87 Wrote:  Green Lane used to run the 10A until Arriva took MTL over, and quickly transferred the route to St Helens. If you think reliablity is poor now, try using the 10A when GL had it.

Exactly.

I'm still adamant that the reliability of the services contributes more than its fair share to high loads on the Pulsars/Enviro300s. It was certainly better before the changes introduced by the QBP. Until they give drivers enough time to actually run the services in areas where they need it, busses will continue to run in threes leaving a crippling load for the service behind.

Good point CX perhaps if reliability of the Prescot Road corridor was improved the overcrowding may not be as much of a problem. I still think deckers should to some degree have a role on one of the region's busiest route corridors and maybe if Merseytravel had've okay-d them the ex-London Citaro bendies would've been a good idea on the 10/10A etc. Having said that it is a bit of a joke that Dart and worse Solo sized vehicles are appearing on these routes and the yes maybe there's a shortage at SH but they should only be a last option for these routes. or have the appropriate PVR of full sized vehicles to cover them adequeately.

The situation is made worse with Stagecoaches persistence on using Solos on the 10C as well!