Messages

The last few Saturdays have seen 2 electrics working the 31/A, whilst maintaining a full electric output on 47/48/50/51, because there are 2 additional spares - might as well use them on other routes! 

The day started with a full output of electrics, with some replaced with diesels later in the day (we have no idea why), and it seems completely unnecessary to move one from the 31. It's not like a DB250 was shoved back on the routes - they were subbed with 72 plates, so as an anomaly I don't see the issue.

With regards to the pulsars, Arriva seem to not like painting buses much older than 10 years unless it's necessary. I don't understand why they don't just pull the 158 vinyls off though, leaving them as unbranded sapphires. That's exactly what Aylesbury did with the 280 branded E400s

They ordered the kites with the original zebra funding, before they got the extension funding for the deckers. Presumably they thought that the kites would run alongside the diesel deckers for a long while, so maybe it was decided by some higher up that more electric kites and fewer diesel streetdecks would be better for publicity - saying that a higher percentage of buses at the depot are electric.

Arriva have confirmed they will be pulling out of Aylesbury and Wycombe in July. I understand that Carousel is to take over the bulk of the Wycombe network and Oxford Bus is to run the direct Oxford to Aylesbury service once again and renumber it to 280, which it used to be of course. Carousel has put a statement on their website which I've just read. Hemel Hempstead will run the X5, former 500,but that'll be the only Arriva route in the Buckinghamshire county town except for the Milton Keynes service.

Arriva have proposed to close those depots: it probably will happen, but not 100% confirmed yet. Also the new 280 is seemingly only going as far as Thame, not all the way to Aylesbury.

I can't say the news about Aylesbury is a huge surprise - they have lost a lot of market share to Red over the previous years, and only operate 3 longer interurban routes currently with a PVR of less than 20. However, it will still be sad to net see any famous blue buses in Oxford anymore!

What is a bit of a surprise is the timing, with timetable changes planned for June. This suggests to me that it is a sudden upper management decision for cost-cutting purposes. I understand that Arriva was recently purchased, so I wonder if the new owners want to axe the areas that lose money?

902, 909, 910, 925 & 931 (+924 if not deputising a 912/913 on 22), would certainly help the uni shuttles. Although wouldn't expect it all day as like you say some go on different contracts. But it would certainly be a strong output for that uni contract.
From what I gather Saturdays are less busy than the weekdays. Although Wednesdays are busiest as operate a slight route variation?

That definitely would be a good output!

Wednesday afternoons are reserved for sports with not many lectures, so it's actually the quietest point of the week! Buses go past the uni sports ground which adds 5 mins to the journey, so the frequency is decreased slightly to account for this. I must say I have never actually seen anyone use the extra stop, but it's a nice change of scenery being on roads that don't see any other buses!

Saturdays sees just 2 buses which were usually full-size singles deckers. The demand is significantly lower on Saturdays so I don't think deckers would be required, but they might choose to use them anyway now that they have them.

But equally I believe they are looking at an all double deck uni shuttle for next year.

It would be almost all double deckers - the uni shuttle uses 7 vehicles! 5 of them are on uni all day. One does morning, then goes off to do Melton Foods contract and S1005 before returning late afternoon - this is usually a decker. The last one starts at about 1pm and does early afternoon, goes off to do Beauchamps college run and returns to do uni in the evening.

I'm hoping that the increase in deckers will improve the student's perception of the service. The uni shuttle has a pretty bad reputation amongst students, to the point that many prefer to pay for Ubers to get to uni than catch the free bus. While most just like to complain for the sake of it, the one valid complaint I hear is that the buses are always full. In fact me and my friends would try and schedule to catch a double decker to increase our chances of actually getting on!

It was stated in a facebook group by a trusted employee back in March that it is off for repairs before MOT, and there was no rush because of the uni's easter break - this doesnt seem like gossip to me. Plans can and do change, but since it was seen in the workshop yesterday I'd say that's unlikely. Probably didn't move for a while whilst waiting for parts. It had a very noisy air leak from the front door for a couple of weeks prior to being taken off road which I expect is one of the things they are repairing.

It appears they've migrated to Luton,to replace older double deckers including I think the last Dennis Tridents.

6 have gone to Luton to replace various ALX400s and Darts. 6 have gone to Milton Keynes - 4 to replace older Wright Eclipses and 2 swapped with E400s. I think the last has gone to telford to join the others that are already there.

I see 931 is was tracking on the hop which isn't possible as it was in the workshop when I passed ay 10.30 this morning, wonder what's got 931 ticket machine

It was 842. It was one of those mini machines that Hop uses so wasn't the actual machine from 931 - it must have been messed up to track as the wrong vehicle id somehow. I remember one of them sometimes tracked as 912 last year so isn't the first time

Are you sure 925 hasn't tracked since 25th April

Yep I've seen it out repeatedly on Uni Shuttle and even caught it a few times! Tracking and destination displays are is seemingly broken.

https://flic.kr/p/2pPQ24D

All of the deckers from Grantham are now in service in Leicester - 925 entered service last Friday and 902 today!!

I saw 4 streetdeck electroliners at the depot today. 36616 was one of them, and has the plate BN24 ZWC. The others were too far away to identify. They are pre-facelift like the kites, but have green headlights - I wonder if this is to differentiate from Arriva's batch? Hopefully won't be too long until they are in service! The infrastructure is already there and drivers are trained for electrics so I can't imagine much delay.

Here is a picture of it: https://flic.kr/p/2pPmsoL

Aren't they lucky, better get a recovery contact in place, they dumped a number of the 40** to Aylesbury a few year ago if remember correctly

I believe Aylesbury now only operate a few long distance X services, so they will probably break down even more than they did in Leicester 😂

Have just spotted on the X6 service there is now two vehicles provided for the weekday journeys at 7:20 from Coventry to Leicester and 17:15 from Leicester to Coventry, I will assume these journeys are incredibly busy and it puts that fourth coach into regular use.

The fourth coach actually appeared for the duplicate journeys! They are bound to be busy because they are peak commuting time. Apparently the 17:15 journey was pretty much full today, and I'm not sure the use of a solo as the second journey helped too much 

I've noticed that some of the X6 brands are loosing their branding, will new vehicles be branded up or is this the end of the X6 branding.

afaik the only one to lose its branding is 7104. 7101 never had branding because it is a recent addition, and I think 7102 and 7103 both still have branding. 7104's blue on the front has been half peeled off for a few weeks, so it is possible that its branding was damaged and will be reapplied soon. However, they may have decided that branding is not necessary anymore

Some of the DB250s seem to be transferring to Aylesbury rather than being withdrawn. Apparently 4771 and 4772 have moved already

902 has probably moved now 531 has entered service

I think the vehicle movements are to prepare for Monday when the uni shuttle returns to the term time timetable, increasing the PVR by 5