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Thanks both - I must confess, I hadn't appreciated that the two services interworked. Seems to be putting operational convenience above matching vehicle resources to where they're required. Double-deckers on the 6/6A is a waste, a particularly expensive one when the cost of these electric vehicles is factored in.
Let's hope that happens, with vehicles workings tailored to meet the range capacity of the electrics and also to provide double-deck capacity where it is actually needed.

How would you suggest splitting the (currently) operationally efficient 5/5A and 6/6A interworking? Re-write the vehicle workings and driver duties at the rate of about five buses per week, based on how many Wrightbus may or may-not deliver two months ahead of schedule? How many additional PVR are you adding in separating out the two routes? What analysis have you undertaken to determine that the vehicle capacities are not matched to demand?

Or are you saying that the new fleet should have remained parked up until their planned introduction alongside Easter service changes? Would that have been less of a "particularly expensive waste" than allocating to current diagrams as they roll off the ferry, and releasing vehicles to Yorkshire?

If 17 minutes is enough of a delay to put a driver at risk of exceeding their hours that's extremely poor planning and doesn't allow sufficient contingency for anything but the most minor of unexpected occurrences. Whilst everyone would prefer a consistently on time service the reality is that delays of at least 30 minutes should be accommodated for when planning driver rotas as it is far from uncommon for things to happen that cause this level of delay.

There is more than 17 minutes contingency built into our duties, but thank you for your informed feedback.

And in completely expected news 8000 (and 2 other electrics have done peak time boards on the 84) has spent the day on the 31 whilst 2 diesel e400MMCs were on the 50. If the diagrammer cannot tell the difference between blue and green buses something is going drastically wrong,

Who or what is this "diagrammer" of which you speak?

You may find vehicles allocated to peak only workings where they are required by the engineers during the day. Not uncommon with new vehicles where there may be warranty work undertaken.

Shouldn't really be actioned after people on a forum discuss it, it should be actioned by the depot if they really care about presentation, and if a job becomes available don't bother contacting me.

Be under no illusion, my request for the obsolete branding to be removed is nothing to do with you and predates your comments in this forum.

I have no intention of contacting you either 😂

They are capable , not sure why arriva don't use them for the whole day. First use theirs until the end of the day.

The range of the EVs is less than that of an equivalent diesel vehicle, and is influenced by both terrain and average speed. There will be some work later in the year to benchmark this on different routes, particularly 5/5A and 127, to help refine future planning assumptions.

Generally we run later into the evening than First, with our late duties booked to use SDs rather than DDs for various reasons. This is unrelated to the EV rollout, those boards returning to the depot at the same time regardless of whether they're diesel or electric.

Absolutely no excuse whatsoever as they triumphed them to be for the 47/48 50/51 anyone bothered to tell the scheduler, same as the 3 Sapphire's (pointless brand)branded for the 158 are never on the 158, why do bus companies brand buses then not use them on the dedicated routes

I have asked for the 158 branding to be removed from the three Pulsars which have transferred to Thurmaston. As others have noted, Hinckley depot operate the 158 and the allocated fleet have recently been through the repaint programme.

I would be interested to know how "bothering to tell the scheduler" would influence on the day allocation during run out, but should a vacancy arise in my team perhaps you could tell me at interview.