Arriva North East

[N391OTY]

RE: Arriva North East
Noted Jesmond saloon 1496 departing Haymarket today (Wednesday) on 1638 X15 service to Berwick. Do JD have any turns on this service or was this a hastily-arranged replacement vehicle ?

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
For reasons regarding fuelling, the EcoCity duties over the week have now be slightly revised as followed:

All 3 workings on the 12 are now to be allocated EcoCitys over the 2/11, as such this means until service changes at the end of the month (which may see this inter working end) the last X66 from Darlington to Middlesbrough and return will be guaranteed an EcoCity
Sunday 21s and at least 3 of the 4 boards on the 5a/X66 will be booked EcoCitys now, the fourth 5a/X66 board being a Pulsar owing to the 26a on the end of the duty

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
The new Ashington depot was officially opened today, with the first of the refurbished 'Sapphire' Enviro400s on show - 7507 (NK57 GWZ)

Photo @ Matt Williamson

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
Fleet moves from this weekend ahead of the start of the summer period timetable on the X93:

1739 - From Reserve to Redcar (PVR Increase)
4045 - From Reserve to Blyth (Covering for 7608 - see below)
4068 - From Reserve to Blyth (Covering for 7611 - see below)
7491 - From Under Repair to Ashington
7493 - From Ashington to Redcar/Whitby (PVR Increase)
7494 - From Ashington to Redcar/Whitby (PVR Increase)
7509 - From Ashington to Thornton Brothers (Sapphire Refurbishment)
7608 - From Blyth to Bus & Coach World (MAX Refurbishment/Livery)
7611 - From Blyth to Bus & Coach World (MAX Refurbishment/Livery)

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
An addition to the refurbishment programme now is Stockton-based Pulsar 1512 (NL63 VRF), which is set to become the 'Sapphire' spare at the depot.

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
Further Enviro400s refurbished to 'Sapphire' specification are 7503/4/6/8.

A revised plan is now underway, which sees the X15 'MAX' allocation to be 2 OmniCitys (2 of 4652-4/8/9) and 3 Enviro400s (likely to be 3 of 7514-21) as the plan for the Coaches has now fallen through.

1711/2 have now moved from Darlington/Durham to Ashington depot, where one is covering for accident-damaged 1764.

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
Meet 'MAX' - Gemini 7611 is the first North East vehicle refurbished

Photo @ Matt Williamson

[Metroline1511]

RE: Arriva North East

(10/06/2014 17:40)kuyoyo Wrote:  Meet 'MAX' - Gemini 7611 is the first North East vehicle refurbished

Photo @ Matt Williamson

It is remarkable how such a modern vehicle has already been refurbished to MAX spec albeit without any branding yet. It does seem that Arriva are introducing Max and Sapphire branding to quite a few refurbished buses across the country as well as new buses.

After some fence-sitting, I have committed to an itinerary that will give me time to ride 2 Sapphire Pulsars on route 7 before catching the bus from Darlington to Richmond for the Dalesbus service. (At least these are new unlike the forthcoming ones for Bolton). I toyed with an early train to Newcastle for GNE route 21 but shall postpone Newcastle. I may be flying Jet 2 from Cork to Newcastle next year so can do Tyne & Wear buses again then!

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East

(21/06/2014 21:38)Metroline1511 Wrote:  It is remarkable how such a modern vehicle has already been refurbished to MAX spec albeit without any branding yet. It does seem that Arriva are introducing Max and Sapphire branding to quite a few refurbished buses across the country as well as new buses.

After some fence-sitting, I have committed to an itinerary that will give me time to ride 2 Sapphire Pulsars on route 7 before catching the bus from Darlington to Richmond for the Dalesbus service. (At least these are new unlike the forthcoming ones for Bolton). I toyed with an early train to Newcastle for GNE route 21 but shall postpone Newcastle. I may be flying Jet 2 from Cork to Newcastle next year so can do Tyne & Wear buses again then!

The next one due back from 'MAX' refurbishment is 7624 (NK61 EBP).

New details have emerged regarding this year's order for the North East:

The 16 Standard specification StreetLites for Durham (service 23, 5), Jesmond (service 306, 8) and Ashington (service 35/35a, 3) are 10.8 metre examples. In additional, 9 8.8m Wheel Forwards examples have now been ordered for Darlington depot for service 13a/b (Firth Moor Flyer) to release 5 MPDs to Blyth to replace the remaining allocated non-DDA MPDs north of the Tyne withdrawn. On current plans, only one non-DDA MPD of the presently allocated examples is currently not allocated a replacement (2 of the 3 allocated to Stockton will be replaced along with the 14 Prestiges once the 'Sapphire' Enviro400s enter service at Ashington and the 'Sapphire' StreetLites likewise at Stockton, leaving the 3rd MPD awaiting replacement).

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
New details announced recently is the lost of the Durham Park & Ride contract back to Scarlet Band (off whom Arriva won the contract back in 2009). As such, 2852-61 will be withdrawn upon the end of the contract (Saturday 25th October 2014) for repaint ready to return to the leaser.

The following fleet moves will take place over the next few months (the first of which will happen when 'Sapphire' X21/X22 is launched):

Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown: 4501/2/5/6/8/9 Ashington to Stockton, 4504/7/10/1/2 Jesmond to Redcar, 4513/5 Ashington to Redcar (leaves 4514 as the only Wright-bodied B10BLE north of the Tyne)
Optare Solo: 2803/4/5/7/8 Durham to Darlington (replaced by the Streetlites)
Scania OmniCity: 4643/6 Durham to Darlington (via Blackburn for 'MAX' refurbishment), 4648/9/50/1/5 Redcar to Darlington (via Blackburn for 'MAX' refurbishment), 4663 Durham to Jesmond (via Blackburn for standard refurbishment), 4659 Stockton to Ashington (for trials on the X15 ahead of being joined by a sister in 'MAX' refurbishment)
MPD: 1760/2/7/91/8 Darlington to Blyth
Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer: 1305-8 Redcar to Darlington (yes, they are going back)

61 vehicles are due to be replaced this year.