Diamond Bus - Discussion

[Ash]

There were a few issues with the mcv's they were not much liked by the passengers or drivers. The driver mentioned about how tight the cab is for room and the seats were not spaced out well for the passengers bit of a tight squeeze. I remember being on one of them on the 404E service and the engine kept cutting out for no reason and for new buses they didnt sound that well probably due to the quality of the vehicle. Has anyone got any pictures of the mcv's since they have entered service in New Zealand, thanks ash

[snz]

Thank you for the information guys.

I thought it was rather odd that two year old vehicles were sold so quickly and shipped such a great distance, but selling them due to raising capital and suffering reliability issues makes sense. I suspect that they were sold for an excellent price.

One of the first things that had to be changed in these vehicles in order to obtain their compliance certificate was that the spacing between passenger seats needed to be increased. There still isn't much room for disabled/elderly seating however.

Here's former fleet number 30618 (AE60GPZ) in her new livery, but still sporting a single door.



Enjoy  ;D

[Ash]

Thank you for the information guys.

I thought it was rather odd that two year old vehicles were sold so quickly and shipped such a great distance, but selling them due to raising capital and suffering reliability issues makes sense. I suspect that they were sold for an excellent price.

One of the first things that had to be changed in these vehicles in order to obtain their compliance certificate was that the spacing between passenger seats needed to be increased. There still isn't much room for disabled/elderly seating however.

Here's former fleet number 30618 (AE60GPZ) in her new livery, but still sporting a single door.



Enjoy  ;D

Thank you for the photo snz, i caught these buses regulary and must say they seemed very powerful buses i guess some of the interior will be discoloured on the inside panels where the advertising and branding for the service used to be as i remember when some were moved the area where the posters were was white and the rest an off white colour looked odd at the time.

[Tony]

I have put the latest Diamond fleet changes on the main site now. 30801 is still shown as allocated to Tividale, not withdrawn, but I notice on the DVLA website it has now been declared SORN so it is not expected to be in service very soon

[PM]

I have put the latest Diamond fleet changes on the main site now. 30801 is still shown as allocated to Tividale, not withdrawn, but I notice on the DVLA website it has now been declared SORN so it is not expected to be in service very soon

Seems odd that they arent rushing to repair such a new bus-surely they need it back out on the road?? And also seems odd theyve bought another cadet when theyre supposedly for sale

[Ash]

I have put the latest Diamond fleet changes on the main site now. 30801 is still shown as allocated to Tividale, not withdrawn, but I notice on the DVLA website it has now been declared SORN so it is not expected to be in service very soon

Seems odd that they arent rushing to repair such a new bus-surely they need it back out on the road?? And also seems odd theyve bought another cadet when theyre supposedly for sale

The one they have brought is a commander i believe not a cadet i guess this would have been purchased out of the sale of w448dop and x639akw. 30801 accident must have been worse than first relised then if taking so long. I wonder how many more commanders will be purchased and brought into the fleet or just be a one off.

[PM]

Its definitely a cadet.....

[Ash]

Heres a link to a pic of the bus and looked at the 3 pics of the bus of 3 different flickr sites all saying its a commander only taking their word for it, i still stand corrected Peter123

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidsbusphotos/6338275633/

Its definitely a cadet.....

[PM]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mse062/4675839775/

Deffo cadet

[Ash]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mse062/4675839775/

Deffo cadet

Ok thanks for clearing that up Peter123, wonder if diamond will get any more to replace any of the ones currently for sale or to replace the dennis darts that have just been sold. At least its better than getting more solo's had a ride on 20539 today on the 404E i have noticed before the bus struggles to get into 2nd gear and virtually stops until it finds it which is not good when trying to pull away.

[PM]

They should just sell all the solos and replace them with a smaller number of new buses such as enviro200s or eclipse2's or something-definitely not optares

[Liberator9]

I agree. Optare buses may look very stylish but the amount of noises and squeaks you can get from them is unbelievable. Rode a Blue diamond plaxton centro today on the S2 and it was excellent. Very very quiet engine, only rattles coming from the ticket machine and the destination (side), with this only happening when a large pot hole hit. The Versa however has a metallic ring to it most of the time, it seems to rattle on small road joints and as I've heard from one of the drivers', they aren't reliable. On one of the Solo SRs the whole engine had to be taken out to try and solve the problem, when only a few months old. The Citaros are excellent though; smooth quiet with no rattles. Really Optare seems to be the only maker which manage to make rattles out of nothing. Wright and ADL don't, and Plaxton Centros don't either. Really I'd go for the Streetlites as a standard fleet, or enviros.

[PM]

I agree about the centros really nice buses that are unduly criticised. Rotala should actually buy something standard like b7rles with wrightbus bodywork-cant go wrong or mercs or adl buses. Perhaps even some omnilinks if theyve got a good experience of running them with wessex red. Even the first streetlites werent renowned as being particularly reliable so as I say something standard. And having said that-the best buses in their fleet are not that standard-wright bodied darts-only 125 built and the centros with MAN chassis-they are really fast and quiet and they make a great noise when theyre thrashed on the 50-a great route if you enjoyed the ride on the S2 one

[Liberator9]

They do make for a great ride! Thanks. Yeah, Scanias would be a good idea actually. I believe Scanias are painted in a bad light too much; they don't actually rattle and apart from that creak of plastics (which if high quality material was used like Mercs) then they would perfect. Apart from the Wrights the Scania Omnilinks are favs and wouldn't mind seeing on the S2.

[Ash]

Does anyone know whats happened to 30214 havent seen the bus for a while it used to be used on the 007 until its withdrawal then started to be used on the 404E but havent seen it anywhere in a while.