Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

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RE: Arriva North West - St Helens Depot

(10/07/2014 08:09)tinytears87 Wrote:  Great debate going on people, keep it up, always good to read constructive comments.

Those of you who know me, know that i'm a driver based in SH, and have been since Merseybus days.

Deckers ? Why did Arriva ever let them go ? They prefered the single deck, high frequency corridor. But this 'mindset' is changing again now. Deckers have slowly re-appeared on routes over the last few years as you all know, why the 10/10A's have not been considered defies belief. I don't deal with rumours, deckers were never ordered for SH, it was just a rumour 'we might' get them. Got us all excited, then sadly let down. Deckers in the future ? It's still being talked about, but nothing concrete as yet. I do late shifts every week on the 10/10A's, some journeys are quiet, some you get standing loads. For eg, 2325 10A from Mann Island last night, standing load by the time i got to London Road. It had been said by a previous manager of our depot a few years back, that no-one in this day and age should need to stand up for a journey, there are enough buses and seats available. I'd like to know his thoughts now. If deckers come back, expect frequencies to drop to ensure ' fuller buses' per journey. As a driver this worries me, as this would result in us losing work. I'd rather have 6 buses an hour for eg, than 4. More jobs. What would i prefer to drive ? Deckers, but not at the expense of jobs. Remember the 10'10A route is not Liverpool to an 'outer point', its a city to a town route, and it gets busy any time of the day, no two journeys are the same. Eg, Monday night, a late shift, i did one 10A, then two 10's, last night, one 10, then 2 10A's, result, £200 difference in takings, thats how changeable Prescot Rd can be. You cannot predict it. I'd love to see deckers back in our depot, but not at the expense of losing work. As for vandalism, it rarely happens, and i would say we suffer as a city, a lot less than other cities do. I'll leave it here for now :-)

TT

Very sensible reasoning, It was MTL who converted the 10/10A to single deck years before the takeover,i think if they came back on here that would mean a cut in frequency and indeed a loss of jobs and even more frustration for passengers having to wait longer for bigger and fuller buses at times,given the present age of the Pulsars used it`s likely to be a few years before any kind of bus is bought for this service, Arriva probably consider Pulsars over sized for many St Helens local routes so anything new for there is likely to be smaller Solo/Enviro200 size.