Arriva North East

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East
Latest Fleet News

Stockton depot has now started to received the Solos from Darlington as a result of Darlington gaining former Durham Park & Ride 2852-61 - 2803/4/8/26 so far arrived with 2803/4 both having seen service. As such, 1771 has transferred from Stockton to Blyth, as have 1760/7/91 from Darlington.

As such, Byth-based Dennis Mini Dart/Alexander ALX200 1795/6 have been withdrawn as have 1742 and Darlington-based 1747, the later after engine failure. This as such means 1724 is reinstated to replace 1747 and marks the end of the V-ECU MPDs.

Prestige 4039 remains in service for now, pending the transfer of 4512 from Redcar to replace it - 4512 was replaced at Redcar/Whitby by one of the new B9TLs. After months of discussion, it has been decide to retain 2 of the ex-London B7TLs at Redcar for the summer X93 - this year's summer season has been extended to the pre-2012 length of late March to late October/early Novemeber - and as such 7485/6 have been selected as the best of the batch and are to be WiFi fitted and repaint into MAX livery (no interior refurbishment). In addition, sister 7489 has been retained at Whitby for use on the Whitby Park & Ride service as this summer will see two services = the P1 which will effectively be the same as last year's 171 running via the West Cliffe Hotel area, and the P2 which will be an express from the Park & Ride site to the Bus Station.

Recent refurbishments into MAX livery are Stockton-based Pulsars 1441-3, Durham-based 1415 and Blyth-based (ex-Durham) 1416. 1416 has been swapped for Blyth's newly refurbished Gemini 7610 to enable the entire Durham output on the X12/X2 to be double decker operation. The entire route will revert to a single number (X12) from 19th April 2015, likewise the X93 will be split up from March 27th but will retain the same number throughout. Also recently refurbished is Ashington-based Enviro400 7518 into Sapphire as a spare for the X21/X22.

MAX upgrades this year includes the 75/76 (Darlington to Barnard Castle, renumbered X75/X76 on 19th April) using Pulsars 1404-7, 20/X20 (Amble-Ashington-Newcastle) using Enviro400s 7519-21 (and as such means all NE Enviro400s will either be MAX or Sapphire) and the 85/685 (Newcastle-Haydon Bridge-Carlisle). Service 6 (Durham-West Auckland or Cockfield), 22 (Durham-Peterlee-Sunderland) and 24 (Durham-Peterlee-Hartlepool) are to be upgraded to Sapphire in the next few months.