can anyone help is the Arriva depot in Stafford an outstation of Cannock or full depot
You could call all the depots Garages but like West Bromwich thats only an outstation of Tamworth was going to be Cannock
Apparently they STILL dont know whats happening with the Brum route from Cannock & it was due to end 2nd Sept yet its still not on the NWM listing for service changes on that date! Talk about a poor show
Stafford is an outstation of Cannock depot.
This discussion re garage or outstation raises some interesting points..............what actually defines a garage from an outstation?
With modern buses needing much less (in theory ) maintenance,all that is really wanted is open yards with minimal cover for very routine maintenance and simple office tasks.
The real expense today is the cost and maintenance of buildings beside which the cost of dead mileage pales into insignificance.
Far cheaper to centralise all main maintenance at one large centre and operate all the surrounds as outstations......eventually one garage will cover all Shropshire,another all Staffordshire,Etc,etc.
Arriva have already advanced down this road with the Arriva Cymru business in Wales..........from September,Llandudno Junction garage is closing and the whole of the Company will be run from only 5 garages with several outstations.
I would think that with much more fleet replacement Arriva Midlands could cope with only Thurmaston,Derby,Cannock and either Telford OR Shrewsbury (not both) with the rest being outstations.
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 29, 2012, 04:24:09 PM
This discussion re garage or outstation raises some interesting points..............what actually defines a garage from an outstation?
With modern buses needing much less (in theory ) maintenance,all that is really wanted is open yards with minimal cover for very routine maintenance and simple office tasks.
The real expense today is the cost and maintenance of buildings beside which the cost of dead mileage pales into insignificance.
Far cheaper to centralise all main maintenance at one large centre and operate all the surrounds as outstations......eventually one garage will cover all Shropshire,another all Staffordshire,Etc,etc.
Arriva have already advanced down this road with the Arriva Cymru business in Wales..........from September,Llandudno Junction garage is closing and the whole of the Company will be run from only 5 garages with several outstations.
I would think that with much more fleet replacement Arriva Midlands could cope with only Thurmaston,Derby,Cannock and either Telford OR Shrewsbury (not both) with the rest being outstations.
I am sure they are thinking along these lines as I said in another thread, however I can't ever see a situation where the Shrewsbury and Oswestry operations could be made from Telford and Tamworth doesn't fit anywhere either, it is too intensive to be an outstation and isn't close enough to anywhere.
I always thought when I was working at Lichfield garage and it was closed that a trick was being missed. You could comfortably operate much of the Cannock, Tamworth, Stafford and Burton networks without too much dead mileage and interwork an awful lot of stuff. If they were thinking about a Staffs superdepot at any point I would think Lichfield was a perfect place to look.
I would agree with much of what you say,but I cannot see,for example,Oswestry surviving for long.A through route from Shrewsbury to Wrexham (combining the 70 and the 2/2a)would render it superfluous.If,as would be likely,such a route continued the existing 30 minute frequency thre would be plenty of opportunity to run Shrewsbury from Wrexham (or vice versa).Also,how far is Tamworth to Derby,or Cannock.
buses sent for maintenance do not have to run in service either,Midland Red ran to Central Works from Hereford,Banbury,Rugby etc,etc.
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 29, 2012, 08:03:13 PM
I would agree with much of what you say,but I cannot see,for example,Oswestry surviving for long.A through route from Shrewsbury to Wrexham (combining the 70 and the 2/2a)would render it superfluous.If,as would be likely,such a route continued the existing 30 minute frequency thre would be plenty of opportunity to run Shrewsbury from Wrexham (or vice versa).Also,how far is Tamworth to Derby,or Cannock.
buses sent for maintenance do not have to run in service either,Midland Red ran to Central Works from Hereford,Banbury,Rugby etc,etc.
Yes but cost wasn't much of an issue to the Midland Red of those times!
You may have a point on some of the Shropshire running although I still can't see Shrewsbury being lost, Oswestry yes....I think if that's what they intended the new Telford depot would have been bigger than what it has turned out.
As for Tamworth, it's much too far from Derby or Cannock and there would be no opportunities atall to cover any of that mileage in service as the Lichfield - Cannock service is already used to get buses on to the 825 so Stafford don't have to. I do think Tamworth will close at some stage but I think it will be replaced by something much more local than Derby or Cannock.
Andy, Stafford garage run buses to Wolverhampton because Stafford run the 88/A/B
Quote from: madmaxx on July 29, 2012, 10:15:03 PM
Andy, Stafford garage run buses to Wolverhampton because Stafford run the 88/A/B
I know, why what did I say?
Do you not remember the early days of deregulation?Tamworth garage set up an outstation in Derby to compete with the then Derby transport.
In retaliation,Derby ran competing services in Tamworth,running several buses daily dead from Derby to Tamworth and return.
Also,it would not be difficult (it has been done before ) to extend the 825 from Lichfield to Tamworth,ditto the 60.
With any 30 minute route,you have upwards of 20 journeys per day,meaning it is quite easy to change 20 buses per day between garages,and this degree of change would never practically be required.
Again,using Arriva Cymru as an example, is not Aberystwyth to Dolgellau further than Shrewsbury to Telford but Dolgellau operates as an Aberystwyth outstation.
I am not suggesting that Shrewsbury ,Tamworth,Burton,Wigston etc may close..........merely that they will cease to be full garages with a consequent saving in engineering requirements.
I must admit that I find the operational aspect of bus Companies to be by far the most interesting study and it is comforting to know that others seem to share this interest.
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 30, 2012, 02:37:22 PM
Do you not remember the early days of deregulation?Tamworth garage set up an outstation in Derby to compete with the then Derby transport.
In retaliation,Derby ran competing services in Tamworth,running several buses daily dead from Derby to Tamworth and return.
Also,it would not be difficult (it has been done before ) to extend the 825 from Lichfield to Tamworth,ditto the 60.
With any 30 minute route,you have upwards of 20 journeys per day,meaning it is quite easy to change 20 buses per day between garages,and this degree of change would never practically be required.
Again,using Arriva Cymru as an example, is not Aberystwyth to Dolgellau further than Shrewsbury to Telford but Dolgellau operates as an Aberystwyth outstation.
I am not suggesting that Shrewsbury ,Tamworth,Burton,Wigston etc may close..........merely that they will cease to be full garages with a consequent saving in engineering requirements.
I must admit that I find the operational aspect of bus Companies to be by far the most interesting study and it is comforting to know that others seem to share this interest.
if too many garages become outstations what happens when it comes to breakdowns eg if cannock became an outstation and the bus broke down in cannock or in the cannock area and the fitters are based for example in Telford its going to take them a while for them to get to use the lost mileage would be horrendous as an outststion generally only has enough to cover the daily service
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 30, 2012, 02:37:22 PM
Do you not remember the early days of deregulation?Tamworth garage set up an outstation in Derby to compete with the then Derby transport.
In retaliation,Derby ran competing services in Tamworth,running several buses daily dead from Derby to Tamworth and return.
Also,it would not be difficult (it has been done before ) to extend the 825 from Lichfield to Tamworth,ditto the 60.
With any 30 minute route,you have upwards of 20 journeys per day,meaning it is quite easy to change 20 buses per day between garages,and this degree of change would never practically be required.
Again,using Arriva Cymru as an example, is not Aberystwyth to Dolgellau further than Shrewsbury to Telford but Dolgellau operates as an Aberystwyth outstation.
I am not suggesting that Shrewsbury ,Tamworth,Burton,Wigston etc may close..........merely that they will cease to be full garages with a consequent saving in engineering requirements.
I must admit that I find the operational aspect of bus Companies to be by far the most interesting study and it is comforting to know that others seem to share this interest.
I do indeed remember the Derby fiasco, it was set up as a loss making operation with one sole aim.....to reduce interest from other parties that might be sniffing around the potential sale of Derby City Transport, as Drawlane/BB were desperate to get their hands on it. They figured that if they started real competition in the area it would A) put other buyers off who had previously viewed it as a monopoly and an easy win and B) take a bit of the value off it.
The benefit to MRN was that they were only using Freight Rovers and Transits, neither of which required much in the way of maintenance and there was in fact a small facility at the Derby premises via BRS. They very rarely had to run any vehicles to Tamworth depot. At the same time, DCT introduced services in Tamworth that required dead running of 8 vehicles there and back every day, plus sufficient drivers to cover breaks. Although the services did well they were running at a collosal loss wheras MRN were in the Derby operation for the long haul to secure the prize, which they did. DCT didn't keep up with the Tamworth services for long although randomly they secured some Centro work aswell for a short while. It was a knee jerk reaction from DCT and all a bit pointless as the business was always going to be acquired by somebody, they simply didn't have the resource to keep the fightback up.
So yes you're right this did happen, but that would be dead running of over 30 miles, and while you are correct that you could interwork with Tamworth to Lichfield services, what would provide the vehicles for the Birmingham corridor? The local operations in Tamworth have a PVR of about 15 or 16 which would have to be based there, plus the Birmingham vehicles, rendering the exercise a little pointless really. Interworking the 158 with Tamworth to Nuneaton would be tricky due to driving hours.
You see you can only interwork routes on the assumption that everything goes right and it doesn't! If you send a driver out on a long loop like Cannock do at the moment, ie Cannock to Lichfield, Lichfield to Stafford, Stafford to Cannock, it sounds great, but the slightest problem and you can have 4 drivers going over their hours all at the same time in the middle of nowhere, and then the onward consequences on their next parts. Eventually you have too many drivers going too far away for too long and you end up with no slack and no opportunity to get the bus into garage and alleviate a problem. I hope this makes sense! I find it fascinating too, probably why I ended up going into logistics which I have since left behind!
I must admit that the one garage that poses a real problem is Tamworth.I also wonder why it is that Tamworth is to receive (I think)the entire allocation of a batch of Mercedes Citaros.There is obviously an engineering advantage in standardisation,but Tamworth seems to be very out of step even with the current fleet there........no Darts,for example,and no DAF either.
Is there a reason for the seeming out on a limb feel to the place.
Mind you,the present operation ,from Tamworth, of Hill Top lends support to the theory that an outstation of at least 11 buses is very possible.......tamworth to Dudley is a long way especially in Black Country traffic conditions.
The secret is possibly using new buses which SHOULD (in theory) be more reliable.
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 30, 2012, 09:04:44 PM
I must admit that the one garage that poses a real problem is Tamworth.I also wonder why it is that Tamworth is to receive (I think)the entire allocation of a batch of Mercedes Citaros.There is obviously an engineering advantage in standardisation,but Tamworth seems to be very out of step even with the current fleet there........no Darts,for example,and no DAF either.
Is there a reason for the seeming out on a limb feel to the place.
Mind you,the present operation ,from Tamworth, of Hill Top lends support to the theory that an outstation of at least 11 buses is very possible.......tamworth to Dudley is a long way especially in Black Country traffic conditions.
The secret is possibly using new buses which SHOULD (in theory) be more reliable.
It's a very fair point and it's always been the way, as an operation it has never really fitted! It's always been very convenient (and profitable) to run it as a unit. Which is why I have so many theories about what they would do if they leave the current premises.
Firstly, the only reason Hill Top was placed in the care of Tamworth is that Cannock had taken on the extra work for Stafford and were struggling for fitters and facilities, I would anticipate it going back eventually.
In terms of vehicle types, again it has never had the same mix as others. At one stage Tamworth was all deckers and DP's/coaches while everyone else was single deck buses. They even tried to convert it to single deck at one stage with disastrous consequences resulting in me and my colleagues driving past endless bus stops full of passengers that we couldn't get on, a genius move at the same time as cancelling all the limited stop services! Now they are, quite rightly, back on deckers. They don't have Darts because they are too small and not robust enough. Tamworth is one of those places where you can be floating along with hardly anyone on one minute, and loaded to the gunnels the next. One thing they did get right was eventually realising that small buses don't work there (although it took years for the penny to drop) and they redesigned all the services so full size buses can be used everywhere, meaning they can now have a full allocation of full size.
The B6's they have there are even too small at times. The Citaros offer flexibility in that for the first time the depot will now have a fleet of fully interchangeable vehicles between Citaros, the Omnilinks and Geminis (bar a couple of B6's left over) everything can go everywhere (barring low bridges) and all of them will be Euro compliant for running into Birmingham. And as you point out, it will keep all the Mercs in one place. The B6's are 14 years old and needed replacing anyway. Buses get worked very, very hard at Tamworth. Darts need not apply!!
Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures
Cannock while having modern buses for the Stafford & Lichfield services, generally has a lot of shit buses like awful knackered MPD Darts, SB120's & SB200's ( the 1 Walsall branded ones)with seats threadbare and the B10BLE's look pretty knackered now too, also whatever P and R reg SPD Darts are left look tired. So maybe it doesnt make much money
Quote from: Peter123 on July 30, 2012, 09:50:38 PM
Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures
I haven't worked there for some time, but the information I have (and I certainly haven't seen any figures), and based on while I did, is that as a whole Shropshire is very profitable, Tamworth is, Stafford was, Cannock wasn't (although that was before the Chase acquisition), Stevensons wasn't, until they amalgamated Swad and Burton and rationalised a lot of the network, now it is. Derby was a bit hit and miss to begin with but that was mainly due to the aged fleet and poor collection of cocessionary revenue, and Leicester used to break even but is now profitable following Wigston and Coalville's closures. The only mystery to me now is Stafford. I can only assume they have done what they have to try and get rid of some cost overall and if you're going to have one depot where there were two, Cannock is more flexibly located.
You mentioned C-Line in another post Peter, I don't know where to start on that!
Cannock probably gets a bit of trade from the Walsall services now as it never used to run there before. The Wolves service has changed over the years, the 70 ( previously 870) has stayed pretty much consistent, apart from minor changes such as running through Rumer Hill etc, but im sure there used to be an 872, that said 'wolverhampton via wedges mills', which was much quicker than the 870. Any idea when it finished?
Quote from: andy on July 30, 2012, 10:15:51 PM
Quote from: Peter123 on July 30, 2012, 09:50:38 PM
Ive just wondered-you mention Tamworth is profitable-is arriva midlands as a whole-including everything-cannock, hill top, midland red north, stevensons,etcc-is the company as a whole?? Anyone got the figures
I haven't worked there for some time, but the information I have (and I certainly haven't seen any figures), and based on while I did, is that as a whole Shropshire is very profitable, Tamworth is, Stafford was, Cannock wasn't (although that was before the Chase acquisition), Stevensons wasn't, until they amalgamated Swad and Burton and rationalised a lot of the network, now it is. Derby was a bit hit and miss to begin with but that was mainly due to the aged fleet and poor collection of cocessionary revenue, and Leicester used to break even but is now profitable following Wigston and Coalville's closures. The only mystery to me now is Stafford. I can only assume they have done what they have to try and get rid of some cost overall and if you're going to have one depot where there were two, Cannock is more flexibly located.
You mentioned C-Line in another post Peter, I don't know where to start on that!
Thankyou very much for the info and C-Line!! Haha ;D ;D
Quote from: andy on July 30, 2012, 09:41:56 PM
Quote from: arrifirststage on July 30, 2012, 09:04:44 PM
I must admit that the one garage that poses a real problem is Tamworth.I also wonder why it is that Tamworth is to receive (I think)the entire allocation of a batch of Mercedes Citaros.There is obviously an engineering advantage in standardisation,but Tamworth seems to be very out of step even with the current fleet there........no Darts,for example,and no DAF either.
Is there a reason for the seeming out on a limb feel to the place.
Mind you,the present operation ,from Tamworth, of Hill Top lends support to the theory that an outstation of at least 11 buses is very possible.......tamworth to Dudley is a long way especially in Black Country traffic conditions.
The secret is possibly using new buses which SHOULD (in theory) be more reliable.
It's a very fair point and it's always been the way, as an operation it has never really fitted! It's always been very convenient (and profitable) to run it as a unit. Which is why I have so many theories about what they would do if they leave the current premises.
Firstly, the only reason Hill Top was placed in the care of Tamworth is that Cannock had taken on the extra work for Stafford and were struggling for fitters and facilities, I would anticipate it going back eventually.
In terms of vehicle types, again it has never had the same mix as others. At one stage Tamworth was all deckers and DP's/coaches while everyone else was single deck buses. They even tried to convert it to single deck at one stage with disastrous consequences resulting in me and my colleagues driving past endless bus stops full of passengers that we couldn't get on, a genius move at the same time as cancelling all the limited stop services! Now they are, quite rightly, back on deckers. They don't have Darts because they are too small and not robust enough. Tamworth is one of those places where you can be floating along with hardly anyone on one minute, and loaded to the gunnels the next. One thing they did get right was eventually realising that small buses don't work there (although it took years for the penny to drop) and they redesigned all the services so full size buses can be used everywhere, meaning they can now have a full allocation of full size.
The B6's they have there are even too small at times. The Citaros offer flexibility in that for the first time the depot will now have a fleet of fully interchangeable vehicles between Citaros, the Omnilinks and Geminis (bar a couple of B6's left over) everything can go everywhere (barring low bridges) and all of them will be Euro compliant for running into Birmingham. And as you point out, it will keep all the Mercs in one place. The B6's are 14 years old and needed replacing anyway. Buses get worked very, very hard at Tamworth. Darts need not apply!!
Tamworth has always made money so gets good buses hope hill top does not get put under the wing of Cannock as shitty buses will go there and the enviros will just be F***ed up and hill top will just die like most of the ex chase routes. The B6s are welcome at Cannock as they are old knackered and more than likely overheat or break down as soon as a Cannock fitter touches them aprt from the odd new buses Bob hits the nail on the head with Cannocks fleet. Stafford made money until it was downgraded really a propper garage which can house the 2 fleets like telford is needed and a decent fleet but it will never happen Cannock and Stafford will be the shit buses home just like PL use to be at NXWM until the network review it had and the new buses now look I see a lot more people on the buses and I bet they make a profit
i dont think the B6s are going to Cannock garage are they?
it was mentioned stafford but being only an outstation of cannock if so would be more sense of sending them to delta way but most of there stuff is daf and dennis telford would be a better option they have b6's or burton they would be killed at cannock espically going up bradbury lane on the pye greens overheat alarms would be going off by the top
Quote from: Discodave on August 01, 2012, 05:47:24 PM
it was mentioned stafford but being only an outstation of cannock if so would be more sense of sending them to delta way but most of there stuff is daf and dennis telford would be a better option they have b6's or burton they would be killed at cannock espically going up bradbury lane on the pye greens overheat alarms would be going off by the top
Correct, as I said in the B6 thread these buses are underpowered and frequently produce an overheat buzzer even when you've only been going an hour, they're notorious for it because the engine has to work so hard. My guess is they will go to Telford with the others and that will release DAF's for other depots.
And just to settle this 'outstation' argument, there is a job advert on the Arriva site which refers to 'Stafford outstation' so there endeth the debate!
It's quite sad really, Tamworth is now the only original Midland Red building left with Arriva. Stafford burned down, Wellington is now replaced, Shrewsbury has just been replaced, Swadlincote was closed, Coalville was closed, Wigston was amalgamated with Thurmaston on new premises. How much longer will it survive and do they have plans drawn up?
When was Wigston closed/moved to new premises?
I must admit that I thought it was still being used as normal from the same place.
B6's are truly shite buses, Darts arent much better horrendously noisy pieces of crap
Quote from: arrifirststage on August 01, 2012, 07:50:05 PM
When was Wigston closed/moved to new premises?
I must admit that I thought it was still being used as normal from the same place.
Yeah sorry I was talking about Southgates, not Wigston!
On the vosa website the following arriva gartages are to get more buses
ARRIVA MIDLANDS NORTH LTD T/A ARRIVA MIDLANDS
Director(s): Mark David James Yexley, Alfred Lloyd, ELIZABETH THORPE, ROBERT HIND, MICHAEL COOPER, JOHN BARLOW, M J EVANS, R A BOWLER.
THURMASTON GARAGE, 852 MELTON ROAD, THURMASTON LEICESTER LE4 8BT, GB
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: CANNOCK GARAGE, DELTA WAY, LONGFORD ROAD CANNOCK WS11 0XB ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 95 vehicle(s),
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: TAMWORTH GARAGE, ALDERGATE , TAMWORTH B79 7DD ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 50 vehicle(s),
Increased authorisation at existing operating centre: ARRIVA MIDLANDS NORTH LTD, UNIT 6, DORRINGTON DRIVE, DORRINGTON INDUSTRIAL PARK, STAFFORD ST16 3BF ()
New authorisation at this operating centre will be: 34 vehicle(s),
i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is
Quote from: bob on August 03, 2012, 09:29:32 PM
i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is
Cannock's current allocation is 61 vehicles; Tamworth's is 44; Stafford's is 26. So that allows for 48 extra vehicles between the three depots. That is far too many just to allow for normal service improvements etc. It does look like they are preparing have another operator's routes moved in
Quote from: Tony on August 03, 2012, 09:38:59 PM
Quote from: bob on August 03, 2012, 09:29:32 PM
i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is
Cannock's current allocation is 61 vehicles; Tamworth's is 44; Stafford's is 26. So that allows for 48 extra vehicles between the three depots. That is far too many just to allow for normal service improvements etc. It does look like they are preparing have another operator's routes moved in
I wonder whose though? That's a lot of extra vehicles for just one operator acquisition and I can't think of anyone in the area?
They will certainly be cramming them in at Cannock, they must be moving the training fleet and reserve fleet elsewhere to get them in. Even squeezing another 6 in at Tamworth would be fun unless they're only Enviro 200's or something similar.
Quote from: andy on August 03, 2012, 09:56:32 PM
Quote from: Tony on August 03, 2012, 09:38:59 PM
Quote from: bob on August 03, 2012, 09:29:32 PM
i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is
Cannock's current allocation is 61 vehicles; Tamworth's is 44; Stafford's is 26. So that allows for 48 extra vehicles between the three depots. That is far too many just to allow for normal service improvements etc. It does look like they are preparing have another operator's routes moved in
I wonder whose though? That's a lot of extra vehicles for just one operator acquisition and I can't think of anyone in the area?
They will certainly be cramming them in at Cannock, they must be moving the training fleet and reserve fleet elsewhere to get them in. Even squeezing another 6 in at Tamworth would be fun unless they're only Enviro 200's or something similar.
Added to that is Tamworth is just about to get some 12m long Citaros to replace shorter B6s taking up more room in the depot
Quote from: Tony on August 03, 2012, 10:12:48 PM
Quote from: andy on August 03, 2012, 09:56:32 PM
Quote from: Tony on August 03, 2012, 09:38:59 PM
Quote from: bob on August 03, 2012, 09:29:32 PM
i wonder what extra work cannock will be doing, they wont be likely to extend their cannock network lol crap as it is
Cannock's current allocation is 61 vehicles; Tamworth's is 44; Stafford's is 26. So that allows for 48 extra vehicles between the three depots. That is far too many just to allow for normal service improvements etc. It does look like they are preparing have another operator's routes moved in
I wonder whose though? That's a lot of extra vehicles for just one operator acquisition and I can't think of anyone in the area?
They will certainly be cramming them in at Cannock, they must be moving the training fleet and reserve fleet elsewhere to get them in. Even squeezing another 6 in at Tamworth would be fun unless they're only Enviro 200's or something similar.
Added to that is Tamworth is just about to get some 12m long Citaros to replace shorter B6s taking up more room in the depot
Precisley. In days gone by they used to pack them in across the back of the rows aswell as down the lanes, but this was stopped by the H&S executive when they decided that fire exits in other parts of the building weren't sufficient without leaving a clear gap infront of the pits. They are already using the outside space available. If they use anymore of it there are problems getting vehicles turned when everything is in. Interesting!
And surely any operator that large that they are looking to acquire would come with a decent sized premises anyway? Of course it is possible that they're just upping their licence to cover themselves for any future activity, they don't necessarily need to utilise all of this capacity immediately. For instance, if you're going to enter a round of tenders, you have to plan as if you will win all of them, you don't want to win them all only to discover you didn't licence yourself the capacity to house the vehicles and then face penalties for not being able to operate. Realistically they are probably just covering themselves.
Quote from: SI 2012 on August 29, 2012, 08:11:06 PM
I have heard ( STAFFORD ) are getting extra buses soon they have 25 vehicles based at STAFFORD at the present moment which i have heard is set to increase to 34 vehicles any idea what extra buses are moving there please could it be some of the YJ57 / YJ61 plates at CANNOCK as i have heard that STAFFORD are taking on the 825 route again and maybe the 74 / 75 route going there can you confirm if these 3 routes moving to STAFFORD from CANNOCK are just rumour / speculation or is this above information correct, if so whens its likely to happen any info will be appreciated
Would make sense but moving the 825 would mean rejigging of cannock network as its interworked and the 74 and 5 and what would cannock do thats about 3/4 of there work
Theyll be taking over the 62 as well, i cant see em keeping the longford route, or the 62, they couldnt run that before. I live on the longford and the route has just died. yrs ago green bus used to have packed full leopards & the odd decker on it, but it has died an absolute death.
Quote from: SI 2012 on September 01, 2012, 05:55:08 PM
I have also heard that CANNOCK depot is to get an increase in vehicles as well as STAFFORD depot, apparently CANNOCK are to get a ludicrous amount of extra buses an increase to 95 vehicles according to VOSA, even though CANNOCK is my hometown depot i have got to say i dont see why CANNOCK need that amount of vehicles as i cant see ARRIVA laying on many more NEW routes in CANNOCK except for maybe the 23 route that MIDLAND are currently running and the LONGFORD route that MIDLAND are currently running, so i am not sure why CANNOCK are having so many extra buses i am now querying will their yard be big enough for 95 vehicles,maybe they will replace the aging K reg / M reg driver trainers at CANNOCK K107 OHF / M430 UNW with some of them
Tony mentioned this but it might just be to cover themselves only other reason maybe is all Midlands training is going to be run from Cannock agree no extra routes and Bobs comments on the 62,23 and other routes hope Longford does keep a good service
the 810 is a joke 3 journeys a day mon to fri? it doesnt matter if they do scrap it really cos they got the 2 to walsall running through hourly
Was at STAFFORD DEPOT / 23 / 9 / 2012 still no signs of any transfers to the STAFFORD fleet, newest vehicles at STAFFORD are still the 4 Y reg Dennis
Stafford only need MPDs really they should swap the longer Darts with MPDs from Cannock
W-SNR batch?
they should swap those ALX Darts with the BU51s at Cannock, theyre not required at Stafford
unless stafford gets back to full depot status with more longer distance services going there.
What difference would that make theyd just stick crap Darts on them regardless
No as cannock is the offfical shit bus garage Stafford when at full depot status had better fitters so the darts did not rattle and actually were nice to drive, plus they would have all the good buses what are in Cannocks fleet (it happened when Cannock had new buses before) for the long distance services and the crap left for cannock or more than likely Stafford would have a new fleet plus cannocks better buses.
I do find it sad what's happened to Stafford. I remember them getting a whole new fleet of DP Darts for the 825 all branded specially, and when the service grew beyond their capacity they got full size replacements from Leicester that were still operating to a 30 minute frequency and were well loaded throughout the day. Now it's an afterthought.
I offically transferred there and was one of the first to drive them and they were great plus had a cummins engine so were smooth and not noisy like the other ones
Quote from: Discodave on October 09, 2012, 12:29:16 PM
I offically transferred there and was one of the first to drive them and they were great plus had a cummins engine so were smooth and not noisy like the other ones
The shoe was on the other foot for once, we were turning up in Lichfield in old Scanias and Volvos looking on enviously! How times have changed..
I loved driving the full 825's, a shift on those was actually a pleasure. I always volunteered to go on loan to Stafford whenever the chance came along.
The V-DBC Volvo was heading back to Cannock down the M6 at 745 this morning, maybe it was working the 837
Quote from: andy on October 09, 2012, 12:33:13 PM
Quote from: Discodave on October 09, 2012, 12:29:16 PM
I offically transferred there and was one of the first to drive them and they were great plus had a cummins engine so were smooth and not noisy like the other ones
The shoe was on the other foot for once, we were turning up in Lichfield in old Scanias and Volvos looking on enviously! How times have changed..
I loved driving the full 825's, a shift on those was actually a pleasure. I always volunteered to go on loan to Stafford whenever the chance came along.
I was on the out of town rota and did the 825 regular it was great, the 876 (76) was the downside at times used to like the uttoxeter when at Stafford when going out there was not back for ages then by the time you got back to stafford it was shift over. Was wierd when on loan then Cannock (even though it was nearer to my house). Why did I transfer back I must have been mad but looking at now glad I do not drive buses the job is thankless. Did have some good times though even if I moan a bit.