Arriva North West - Bolton Depot

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
Arriva Sapphire comes to Wigan!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA3hQlitrPw

Credit: Arrive Bus (UK) YouTube Channel

[Penny Return]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
Saw a few pulsars in sapphire livery in Wigan recently and thought they looked awful
lets hope we do not get any of this nonsence on Merseyside routes. Also the finish on
the paintwork looked very "shabby"as if a novice had painted them,then that awful
destination box not impressed with that either

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot

(09/08/2014 12:13)Penny Return Wrote:  Saw a few pulsars in sapphire livery in Wigan recently and thought they looked awful
lets hope we do not get any of this nonsence on Merseyside routes. Also the finish on
the paintwork looked very "shabby"as if a novice had painted them,then that awful
destination box not impressed with that either

I don`t know why Arriva are bothering branding some routes as Sapphire,it is just confusing people really,i would agree that livery is a dog`s dinner on a Pulsar

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
Is this new colour of the destinations on the Sapphire routes against DDA standards? Thought they had to be the orangey yellow colour...

[M60lad]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
If it is against DDA standards then I think someone should go and tell Transdev Burnley and Pendle as they use different colours for their Mainline destination routes

[Raawwwrrr!]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot

(09/08/2014 21:47)Shaun821 Wrote:  Is this new colour of the destinations on the Sapphire routes against DDA standards? Thought they had to be the orangey yellow colour...

No they just have to illuminate (whether that is roller blind or electric), and be of a colour that does not clash with the background, such as with the colour LED's, you could have a yellow background with green text .
People seem to think the same with bus bars, but the regulation with that is that they must be bright and be noticeably different colour to the bell pushes

(1) A regulated public service vehicle shall be fitted with a route number display and a destination display in the following positions—

(a) on the front of the vehicle, as close as practicable to that part of the windscreen which is within the driver’s field of vision; and
(b) on the nearside of the vehicle adjacent to the entrance which is closest to the front of the vehicle at a height of not less than 1.2m to the lower edge of the display characters and not more than 2.5m to the upper edge of the display characters measured from the ground and, if fitted with a kneeling system, with the vehicle in the normal condition for vehicle travel.

(2) A regulated public service vehicle shall be fitted with a route number display on the rear of the vehicle.

(3) Any route number display shall be capable of displaying—

(a) characters of not less than 200mm in height on the front and rear of the vehicle and not less than 70mm in height on the side of the vehicle;
(b) characters that contrast with the display background;
© characters that are provided with a means of illumination; and
(d) not less than three characters.

(4) Any destination display shall be capable of displaying—

(a) characters of not less than 125mm in height when fitted to the front of a vehicle and not less than 70mm in height when fitted to the side of a vehicle;
(b) characters that contrast with the display background;
(c )characters that are provided with a means of illumination; and
(d) not less than fifteen characters.

(5) Destination information shall not be written in capital letters only.

(6) In this paragraph—“character” means capital letters or numbers of a specified height and lower case letters of a size relative to the text of a capital letter for a given typeface;“destination” means a word or words to describe the route or final destination; and“route number” means any combination of numbers or letters which designate a bus route.

[126th street]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot

(09/08/2014 13:03)FC Pictures Wrote:  I don`t know why Arriva are bothering branding some routes as Sapphire,it is just confusing people really,i would agree that livery is a dog`s dinner on a Pulsar

Michael Morton (Arriva Wales MD) did an interview on Sapphire on the 1s in one of the trade mags a few months ago. Passenger growth well into double figures percentage wise and still climbing was mentioned. Presumably that's among the reasons why they are "bothering". Then again, what do the likes of him and Arriva's marketing department know?!

[wirralbus]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
I think its the perception of the vehicles as something different to the run of the mill buses , some of the buses that some of the major operators do use on normal services leaves a bit to be desired especially if your use to all the mod cons that car has these days .

[thomasl1231]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
Are any of the SB220s still in service at Bolton now? I've not seen any of them for a bit now!

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Arriva North West - Bolton Depot
Had my first taste of Sapphire today. Did the following:

2678 362 Wigan - Chorley. Everything working apart from the audio announcements and WIFI.

Stagecoach 155xx 125 Chorley - Bolton

2687 575 Bolton - Wigan. No audio announcements and screens were just saying Welcome every few minutes. I presume some problem with the GPS?

As a partially sighted person, i was really interested in the Audio announcements as the system works fine in London, so I was disappointed to find the system not working on either vehicle. So my overall verdict is that the refurb is very nice, comfortable seating but the other features need to be working properly.