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Perhaps the 825 could be kept & run from Tamworth depot may be seeing as a few of the newer pulsars have recently transferred to Tamworth, Could run it off the back of the X65 may be.

Cannock had recently refurbished quite a number of there fleet, then off they go to other depots & inherit hoards of rough end of life relics in exchange, No wonder they cannot refurb any more. Would seem pretty pointless refurbishing all them old knackers like them darts & solos, the paint & labour costs would be worth more than the things it would be sitting on. I guess us travelling  folk of Staffordshire / Lichfield/Stafford/Rugeley  side don't count for any quality or reliability with Arriva. What a sad & unreliable state of affairs its become, can it possibly get any worse ? :-(

what delightful vehicles shall we see dumped in Cannock once the streetlites go?, and guessing  the last few remaining pulsars will be next on the hit list no doubt.
Notice the 60 route seems to be a end of life vehicle route these days too,  clapped out old darts and solos a lot of the time, its no incentive to use the services at all >:(

60a seems to carry fresh air though. 60 & 825 seems to carry good loads but usually get the worst pick of sheds on offer, don't seem to make commercial sense, the 2 busiest routes with a lot of the most unreliable antiques, they must be the heritage vehicle routes lol

With competition planned on the sapphire 'premium' brand route, you would think they would have had the sapphire vehicle capacity in place to meet allocation demand to keep up the brand on that corridor.
There must be some spare sapphire vehicles around the group, they seem to find plenty of end of life wrecks to fill Cannock depot with from far and wide.
I often see 14/15 year old end of life darts and solos on the sapphire workings whilst sapphire vehicle are being kept clean with the refurbished pulsars driving empty round pye green.
60 & 825 the same, hoards of old scrap small seating capacity wrecks on a daily basis breaking down all over the shop. I detest using the 60/ 825 routes nowadays as its so unreliable, solos are not big enough, and them old wreck darts are horrendous machines to travel distance on.
Shame the fares don't match the low quality operation.
Must be costing a fortune in maintenance  & recovery charges to keep that lot on the road.

60 & 825 the same,  clapped out old end of life darts and solos on it a lot again of late,  folk get fed up of unreliable services, constantly missing buses due to constant breakdowns with sky high fares and make alternative plans, these old time expired sheds are no good for interurban services at all, bit of new knacker lacquer wont solve there reliability./ageing issues,  Still wasting them re furbished pulsars on pye greens too , surely if pye greens was that lucrative then the new 63 reg ones that they had from new and all logo'd up especially for it would surely still be on there!

whats cracking off with 60/825 routes vehicle allocation, lots of end of life small capacity old scruffy heaps allocated regularly again,,,,,,,,,, yes solos!!!!!!!!!!  on busy interurban workings!!!  must be commercial suicide, whilst big expensive refurbished vehicles are driving around Stafford locals empty most of the time!! , Surely you can find a better class of vehicle for this route?? its becoming a joke. Why are the newer bigger refurbished vehicles not allowed on this route allocation? losing the will to live with using the services tbh, not a good advert to encourage public transport at all im afraid for us distance travellers.

no more solos pleaseeeeeeeeee  there horrendous unreliable piles of junk - thats solos in general lol and yes i have had to drive solos in a past career.....   yak, but did not use much fuel though as spent lots of time expired, or hooked up to recovery trucks. Mind most optare products are pretty dire.
coach aid will be pleased though i guess  ;D

Thanks for the reply Simon,

i'm quite surprised you are dragging them big pulsars around them local tight estates in Stafford tbh. would of thought more solo / dart territory

Some more up to date vehicle investment is really needed on the 825 im afraid, and another old bone shaker dart out at peak time again today too, but luckily it did manage to last the journey this time. I really do feel sorry for the drivers tbh

I get that nothing in 100% reliable, things old and new break, traffic etc etc,  but as a regular traveller on this route i do feel arriva don't really care that much about its reliability or what vehicles are allocated, a sort of a end of life bus route in the past few years, such a shame really as it did vastly improve from early 2012 for a couple of years.

loads of breakdowns / missing journeys on 825/826 again in this last week, and yes still operating them unreliable old clapped out solos on it as well, no point complaining to Luton as they are simply not interested or even know or care where staffordshire is!!  Where are all the re furbished pulsars hiding that was 'supposed' to be re deployed back on there from the timetable network revision?  At least 2 break downs again yesterday too, and yet again one was a vintage solo......  Them solos things must be costing the company a fortune in lost mileage and lost revenue on these longer interurban services, they are simply not up to the job, one just cannot rely on these services at all any more im afraid.... Im baffled how Cannock depot have been let run this 825 service in to the ground with such shoddy unreliable old end of life vehicles in the last number of years tbh. Its not a good image for public transport at all im afraid in this area.  :(

i personally find that cannock's fleet utilisation is pretty poor, interurban routes again today [825] clapped out 13 year old bone shaker dart on whilst the newer bigger expensive asset  pulsars are driving around pye green with very light loads, the 60 & 74 again seems to get any old thing going,again whilst pye green gets big capacity and the most expensive assets at that depot.  Who ever allocates the vehicles at cannock aint doing the company many favours, or are they kept in cannock to save face from the withdrawal of the new buses that was brought for pye green a couple of years ago , guess they was removed off there as not viable so seems silly to put on ones from the interurban routes that actually carry good loads. Also them solos are not suitable for route's like the 74 / 825/ 60 but seem to be on there quite often all day if they actually last that long before expiring . Are the vehicles for the 825/826 set to improve from these old clapped out darts cadets and solos and lots of breakdowns and missing mileage ? The pulsars was a pleasure to travel on being larger capacity and a tool for the job so to speak, now its a journey to be dreaded or even avoided if possible, shame really its got to this stage now, with  unreliable or packed out for space on such passenger unfriendly small capacity old end of life vehicles.  ill get me coat lol

NO more solos pleaseeeeeee........ they are horrendous machines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I would gladly take every one of them solos from cannock on a 1 way journey to barnsley for free for you  ;)

just wondering why vehicles on the 825 route are usually the worst that cannock depot can find?
Those old darts, cadets and horrendous solo things are not suitable at all for these interurban routes.
Those pulsars are just wasted on pye green circulars, at many times just riding round with the odd 2 or 3 passengers per trip, if it was viable for this type of expensive vehicle, surely those brand new ones that had big promotion a couple of years back would still be on there??
I remember the press coverage about the new buses for the route 60 & 825 in 2011/12 to improve reliability, comfort and seating capacity's etc , but as ever those buses were rarely used from day one and was always on pye greens or cannock/stafford local circulars, and then some were re located else were in swap for old end of life tat.
Vehicle allocation at cannock seems very poor, every time i use the 825 its  clapped out old 12 to 16 year old bone shakers with barely enough seating to meet demand, and stinking of hot oil/diesel fumes from being thrashed for up to14 hours a day [if they last that long before breaking down]. shame really as it seems a well used route too. Not a good image for any company im sure? Hopefully January changes might see a up turn on vehicle allocation ?? or perhaps inter link it with pye greens haha :)