Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

[V671 DVU]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot
Hahahaha alright mate, will do (y) And deckers and bendys are two completely different things...deckers are the same length if not smaller then the conventional 12M long bus thus is similar if not easier to drive, I should imagine.

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:16)V671 DVU Wrote:  Hahahaha alright mate, will do (y) And deckers and bendys are two completely different things...deckers are the same length if not smaller then the conventional 12M long bus thus is similar if not easier to drive, I should imagine.

Wasn`t it capacity they argued about,these drivers have had nothing bigger than a pulsar,44 seats and then get a 70 seat decker,they see it as more work,that`s a union argument that will probably brew at Green Lane

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:20)FC Pictures Wrote:  Wasn`t it capacity they argued about,these drivers have had nothing bigger than a pulsar,44 seats and then get a 70 seat decker,they see it as more work,that`s a union argument that will probably brew at Green Lane

No, it won't. The simple comparison is with the 79 when that was converted to deckers. No issues. When the two DLAs and later VLWs were introduced at St Helens, the first double deckers at St Helens for years (which have been regularly used on the 10). No issues. You can argue the same thing about other routes elsewhere that were altered in recent years, like the 61 and 464.

[PO59 MXJ]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot
Capacity of a decker isnt much more than the pulsars as they can hold roughly 78 people (including standing) and as its been mentioned, deckers are shorter so wont be able to hold as many standing passengers. This was the reason why Merseybus invested in the Volvo B10B endurances because they could hold as many people as a decker and safer for the driver as there was a few incidents with drivers being attacked by people hiding upstairs.

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:23)507009 Wrote:  No, it won't. The simple comparison is with the 79 when that was converted to deckers. No issues. When the two DLAs and later VLWs were introduced at St Helens, the first double deckers at St Helens for years (which have been regularly used on the 10). No issues. You can argue the same thing about other routes elsewhere that were altered in recent years, like the 61 and 464.

But Speke always had some deckers including many 79 journeys,St Helens has always had a minority for schools etc,such as the DLAs before those VLWs, Green Lane hasn`t had a decker near it in over a decade, and depends how bolshy the union reps are there if the see a chance to cause an issue over it.

[V671 DVU]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:30)FC Pictures Wrote:  [quote='507009' pid='62213' dateline='1409336634']

No, it won't. The simple comparison is with the 79 when that was converted to deckers. No issues. When the two VLWs were introduced at St Helens, the first double deckers at St Helens for years (which have been regularly used on the 10). No issues. You can argue the same thing about other routes elsewhere that were altered in recent years, like the 61 and 464.
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But Speke always had some deckers including many 79 journeys,St Helens has always had a minority for schools etc,such as the DLAs before those VLWs, Green Lane hasn`t had a decker near it in over a decade, and depends how bolshy the union reps are there if the see a chance to cause an issue over it.

Do you work in the bus industry, out of interest? If you don't then you clearly know how unions in a bus depot work! As 507 said, St Helens didn't have deckers for over a decade and they see normal service regularly. The unions haven't seemed to say anything?

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:30)FC Pictures Wrote:  But Speke always had some deckers including many 79 journeys,St Helens has always had a minority for schools etc,such as the DLAs before those VLWs, Green Lane hasn`t had a decker near it in over a decade, and depends how bolshy the union reps are there if the see a chance to cause an issue over it.

St Helens hadn't had any deckers for a long time before the DLAs arrived, and both they and the VLWs saw regular service on commercial routes as well as schools without issue. Do you seriously think an order for up to 30 deckers would have been placed without consideration for issues like unions?

And just for the record, before the Gemini 2s arrived at Speke, the 79 rarely saw any deckers at all - not even one or two were allocated most days. The 78 was regularly double decked in the past, but never the 79.

[FC Pictures]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:34)507009 Wrote:  St Helens hadn't had any deckers for a long time before the DLAs arrived, and both they and the VLWs saw regular service on commercial routes as well as schools without issue. Do you seriously think an order for up to 30 deckers would have been placed without consideration for issues like unions?

Those 30 could easily end up at another depot,not such a difficult thing to swap a few buses around, the bendys ended up at Speke after being rejected at Green Lane and Runcorn,so 30 deckers could end up elsewhere easily if Green Lane drivers refused them

[V671 DVU]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot
And the only economically viable place to put them would be St Helens, every other depot has modern enough deckers which don't need replacing! But that'd offend you too much wouldn't it? Running out of, to be quite frank, crap excuses for no deckers here mate.

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Green Lane Depot

(29/08/2014 18:37)FC Pictures Wrote:  Those 30 could easily end up at another depot,not such a difficult thing to swap a few buses around, the bendys ended up at Speke after being rejected at Green Lane and Runcorn,so 30 deckers could end up elsewhere easily if Green Lane drivers refused them

Do you have any proof they were actually rejected at either depot? Rather than just discussed as possibilities and ultimately ruled out which seems an awful lot more likely. Despite their poor availability and reliability, they were very well suited to the 699 and the very large loads the route often gets.

As for swapping them to other depots, nope. Arriva don't order new buses based on whim - the cost of deckers is hardly chicken feed. Green Lane depot will have submitted a solid business case for double deckers on potentially two of its routes (if the number is 30) and this has been accepted and the order has gone through. Things have been thought through before the order is made. Regardless, why exactly would a driver object anyway? You get paid, you drive the bus you are given. Simples!