Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

[ashworth600]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
cadet on x1 at teatime seen it as was going the shop at murdishaw sorry to dark to id it

[ashworth600]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

(27/10/2016 18:58)telf23 Wrote:  I seen the cadet with the sapphire dests couple of days ago. Working a late 82A. Looks quite good IMO

that is 2520 it was at murdishaw centre on 79c at teatime today

[iMarkeh]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
The whole point of Sapphire is that the buses are only for the Sapphire routes. Not all the others. I regularly see a Saph on the 21/X30 in Chester. People keep spotting them around on the 79C. Why brand a route Sapphire but not keep Saph buses on it?

[E400]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
The whole point of a bus is for it to be used. If they have a spare sapphire then they should stick it on other routes rather than have it sitting in the yard wasting money.

[RedPanda]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

(29/10/2016 05:21)iMarkeh Wrote:  The whole point of Sapphire is that the buses are only for the Sapphire routes. Not all the others. I regularly see a Saph on the 21/X30 in Chester. People keep spotting them around on the 79C. Why brand a route Sapphire but not keep Saph buses on it?

(29/10/2016 05:33)Enviro400 Wrote:  The whole point of a bus is for it to be used. If they have a spare sapphire then they should stick it on other routes rather than have it sitting in the yard wasting money.

Plus if the spare sapphire just started a route and word comes in of a normal bus breaking down, what do you do? Finish the route and see where they're at would be what I'd do. If it still needs replacing or if it could be replaced by something more appropriate, then swap it. But consider how much money would be wasted failing to operate other routes while waiting for the inappropriate bus to come back to the depot or bus station.

As everybody always says it's better to get a bus than no bus at all.

[E400]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot

(29/10/2016 06:19)RedPanda Wrote:  Plus if the spare sapphire just started a route and word comes in of a normal bus breaking down, what do you do? Finish the route and see where they're at would be what I'd do. If it still needs replacing or if it could be replaced by something more appropriate, then swap it. But consider how much money would be wasted failing to operate other routes while waiting for the inappropriate bus to come back to the depot or bus station.

As everybody always says it's better to get a bus than no bus at all.

If the spare is on the likes of the 79C or the X30 then it is going to call back into the depot at some point anyway, so it could be swapped out then with complete ease. The X1 may have to put up with a normal bus for an hour or two but that's life. You can't have 100% uptime all the time

[iMarkeh]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Yes, I do get that a bus should be used but the whole point of a spare Saph is so that if a Saph bus breaks then another bus is there. I see it quite often on the X30.

(29/10/2016 16:00)Enviro400 Wrote:  The X1 may have to put up with a normal bus for an hour or two but that's life. You can't have 100% uptime all the time

The spare Saph might as well not be around then. Saph bus for Saph routes. Spare Saph for incase Saph breaks. If more than one break then yeah, I understand a normal bus would be needed but at least the spare was there.

[St Helens Rider]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
Runcorn's allocations were all over the place yesterday. There were 2 Gas Buses on the 82A and a Cadet on the X30. My take on the allocation issue is that they may as well just have a standard fleet with no Gas buses or Sapphire. All or nothing really if you ask me.

[Valandil]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
When I've been on the 21/X30 recently, there've been a number of times we've driven into the depot and all had to get off and onto a different bus.
Sometimes it's been from a non-gas bus onto a gas bus, but more often it's been from a gas bus onto a non-gas bus.
With there being no pavement there, I am not sure about the legality of this with regard to the elderly/disabled etc. passengers. Maybe the drivers should just have put the ramp down, if it can reach down to the road level, I don't know.

[Lynx]

RE: Arriva North West - Runcorn Depot
To be honest, Eco Citys on the 82a/79c has been a daily occurrence for the last 12 months now, with Eco Citys being allocated on the 82a of an evening for even longer. Due to all this it's also a daily occurrence to have a cadet on 1/2 or 21/X30, perhaps not daily on the 21/X30 but its still very frequent. In regards to swapping 3137 onto the X1, it's too much of a headache, first of all it would need to be on either the 82A, X30 or 21 as these are the only routes that work back into the depot. A spare cadet or eco city would then have to be found in the depot, which can sometimes be quite a hard task due to there being very little availability wise. Then it would need to be drove up to Halton Lea where the drivers swap and require passengers to transfer over on the busway. Understandable if it was getting swapped on for a fault or breakdown.