Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot

[LJ51 DDA]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
The actual problem is 4402/3/5/9 are always in safe mode, they overheat all the time because they even started over heating in the snow at - temperatures which isn't really normal is it, our engineering staff are on really limited funds and we spend so much on them and then have nothing left for the Local fleet (Darts and Solo's) which then affects us a lot by dropping local trips to run Sapphire and then the complaints roll in like theres no tomorrow...even the depot manager has said there a embarrassment to the fleet and the company but never asks for anything new as we actually get nothing i will say 4421 is looking good at the moment drivers are liking it and im quite fond of that one i liked that one at LS....but do you see what im trying to get at here? if your promoting a new premium bus Service it should have brand new buses and have good reliability i am not saying brand new buses would never breakdown etc...but they'd be a dam lot better than the current vehicles operating the Service...Sapphire is fantastic in my opinion its just the fleet that really lets it down.

[Garsty]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
It also seems disproportional to me to use 'Sapphire' vehicles on the flagship route, yet the rest of the local fleet is generally made up of 12+ year old Darts. To encourage people to use the Sapphire they need to get to them, which, with the large majority of people in Wrexham, means using the local routes to get to the Bus Station to start with. Its like building a motorway, but at either end only building single carriageway roads!

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
Think that shows that most of the routes in and around Wrexham must be quite marginal if they are using buses which are effectively cast offs from other areas .

When you look at Arriva North Wales you can see where the money is apart from the 1 its not at Wrexham that's for sure .

[LJ51 DDA]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
Marginal? 1 is Every 12, 3/4 every 15, 7/8 Every 15, 10/11 every 30, 12/13 Every 15, 14 every 60, 21A every 30, 26/27/29 every 60, 32/33 every 15.

i wudnt say thats very marginal for a Welsh town to be quite honest our local Service's are better than some of Bangors and Rhyl's.
thats funny how the 1 is doing 10x better than expected since Sapphire launched...since passenger numbers rose tremendously.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
Can I please ask that we tone it down a little? Several recent posts have been reported for being a bit extreme and I can't disagree with them. Just as a polite forewarning, we might have to edit or remove posts here if we find they break the forum guidelines.

One thing I will say though is I believe Wrexham was the best performing depot within Arriva Wales a year or two back. Can't be sure if this is still the case but it suggests Wrexham's local routes do indeed do at least reasonably well. It's fairly obvious that the Cymru Coastliner routes and the 1 are going to outperform local town services financially in most cases.

The Sapphire re-brand has been a major success on all routes it has so far benefited according to Arriva, hence why so many are following this year.

[LJ51 DDA]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot

(15/05/2014 22:52)507009 Wrote:  Can I please ask that we tone it down a little? Several recent posts have been reported for being a bit extreme and I can't disagree with them. Just as a polite forewarning, we might have to edit or remove posts here if we find they break the forum guidelines.

One thing I will say though is I believe Wrexham was the best performing depot within Arriva Wales a year or two back. Can't be sure if this is still the case but it suggests Wrexham's local routes do indeed do at least reasonably well. It's fairly obvious that the Cymru Coastliner routes and the 1 are going to outperform local town services financially in most cases.

The Sapphire re-brand has been a major success on all routes it has so far benefited according to Arriva, hence why so many are following this year.

Yes, not a problem.

Exactly and at least someone can actually see the point im trying to make in this debate, Wrexham performs far better than both Rhyl and Bangor in some cases...even Wrexham has turned to now commercially running routes (except sundays) due to council cuts which proves Arriva do actually care about there performance and passengers in Wrexham

Yes Wrexhams has been a very good major success as even i have seen a huge rise in Sapphire customers compared to when it used to be VDL's...just simply all im saying is for a premium Bus Service the vehicles really do let it down.

[126th street]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
The crux of the matter with using Enviro400s on fast work is that they aren't designed for it. They are a city bus which is why there are so many of them in London.

Underneath they're not much more than a Trident, which is a semi-decent motor at best for stopping and starting every hundred yards and little more. A small engine screaming away all day coupled to a rear-mounted radiator is not a recipe for success, particularly as rear radiators have the 'benefit' of picking up all the muck thrown up by the back wheels. First have some Enviro400s on their X1s in Anglia that they work a lot harder than Arriva's Sapphire Enviro400s and that in time will come back to haunt them.

Stagecoach have the right idea with Enviro400s. Integrals for plodding around town all day, but built on Scanias for longer-distance duties. The Scania-based ones will attract a fair old price premium but are much better suited to the work they do.

[Busser]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
I've been viewing the ticket zone diagram on Arriva's website and it seems to say that Wrexham falls under the North west area ticket, Is this true does this mean that i can use a £5 north west Daysaver from Chester to Wrexham or is this just a mistake on there website since Wrexham is in Wales?

[N531 DWM]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot
It's been reported by Noel on the Yahoo group that 2799 has left Wrexham depot and gone to Chester. Optare Solo 673 CX58 EUA has moved to Wrexham in exchange.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva Buses Wales - Wrexham Depot

(16/05/2014 20:04)Busser Wrote:  I've been viewing the ticket zone diagram on Arriva's website and it seems to say that Wrexham falls under the North west area ticket, Is this true does this mean that i can use a £5 north west Daysaver from Chester to Wrexham or is this just a mistake on there website since Wrexham is in Wales?

Yes, you can use the £5 day ticket on the 1 to Wrexham. I've done it a few times before with no issue.