New Citaro

[woody38]

According to buses July Arriva Midlands and Arriva the Shires have 24 Mercedes-Benz Citaro 0530 on order, how many are coming to the midlands is not known.

[winston]

According to buses July Arriva Midlands and Arriva the Shires have 24 Mercedes-Benz Citaro 0530 on order, how many are coming to the midlands is not known.

I believe 30 Citaros are on order, 20 for the Midlands (Tamworth), 5 each for Shires & Essex & Southern Counties

[2200 Bus]

20 are due for Tamworth...To replace B6's

[Tomjusttom]

20 are due for Tamworth...To replace B6's

...after the Olympics!

[Bob]

Any idea where the B6s will be going yet and what vehicles these will displace and where they will go?

[2200 Bus]

I've been told Stafford and Burton.

[Discodave]

I've been told Stafford and Burton.

stafford is only an outstation unless it is becoming a full garage again so it is actually cannock as thats where they will be maintained so will appear on cannock routes as the buses are used in various places ex stafford darts in walsall etc

[madmaxx]

Stafford is full depot beacuse do they own maintenace on the buses. The only cannock do for stafford is repaining work

[Discodave]

well if thats the case why a mate of mine was given the choice of working for cannock or being made redundant due too nearly all of the routes being run out of cannock and interworked with cannock routes

[Bob]

All Stafford has is a handful of REALLY shitty clapped out Darts that operate on local estates routes and the Eccleshall route. All the interurban routes to Cannock Wolverhampton Telford & Uttoxeter are worked by other garages

[Discodave]

Thanks for that bob thought all that stafford had was a few buses for locals I once worked at both of the depots and was told stafford was only an outstation as he is now at Cannock along with most of the drivers and he lives the other side of stafford rumors were it was going to have a few more services again but nothing at the moment as you said cannock, Telford and Burton have had all of the interurban routes you cant really call stafford a garage any more pity as for some routes such as the 76,825 now have to finish part way through a route 76 in Brewood and 825 in Springfields rugeley would be more sensible to have them finish at Stafford garage is only a couple of mins away not now running dead for miles

[andy]

I'm amazed at what they've done with Stafford, Stafford used to be one of the better operations and made a profit, it had some good routes with strong revenue. I haven't been there in quite a while but when I did go it seemed the town centre wasn't quite what it used to be so maybe there isn't as much passenger traffic as there used to be, although there is still a strong student population. At one point Stafford was such a busy operation it outgrew itself and had it's own outstations.

Sad that it is being treated this way now, there must be a lot of dead mileage in servicing the area from Cannock and Burton, and when this happens services always get fitted around the requirements of the depots and never the passengers or town concerned, you lose the local focus and very few of the drivers will be local as I doubt they would be prepared to drive all that way unless they will be compensated. I can only assume that there were substantial savings available by taking this course. Arriva seem to like amalgamating facilities into 'super depots' as they have now done in Leicester and Telford, it has me wondering what they will do at Tamworth, Shrewsbury and Cannock, none of which have the option of expansion on the current sites. The council in Tamworth have wanted rid of the depot for years as it is a prime spot, and to be fair it probably doesn't suit Arriva's needs anymore either. I hope the building survives though whenever the inevitable moved does occur.

[John]

Some pictures here of the Citaro's in London on Olympic work

3008
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jongraham890/7669695730

3002
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jongraham890/7669696670

3016
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jongraham890/7669703786

3005
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jongraham890/7669684948

[Discodave]

I'm amazed at what they've done with Stafford, Stafford used to be one of the better operations and made a profit, it had some good routes with strong revenue. I haven't been there in quite a while but when I did go it seemed the town centre wasn't quite what it used to be so maybe there isn't as much passenger traffic as there used to be, although there is still a strong student population. At one point Stafford was such a busy operation it outgrew itself and had it's own outstations.

Sad that it is being treated this way now, there must be a lot of dead mileage in servicing the area from Cannock and Burton, and when this happens services always get fitted around the requirements of the depots and never the passengers or town concerned, you lose the local focus and very few of the drivers will be local as I doubt they would be prepared to drive all that way unless they will be compensated. I can only assume that there were substantial savings available by taking this course. Arriva seem to like amalgamating facilities into 'super depots' as they have now done in Leicester and Telford, it has me wondering what they will do at Tamworth, Shrewsbury and Cannock, none of which have the option of expansion on the current sites. The council in Tamworth have wanted rid of the depot for years as it is a prime spot, and to be fair it probably doesn't suit Arriva's needs anymore either. I hope the building survives though whenever the inevitable moved does occur.

I used to work at petes and the yard at hill top is quite big only problem is maintence for deckers (but scania and volvo are nearby) it could be a long shot but could some of the brum routes come from there with a few tweaks of the timetable to start in sutton or erdington or even Birmingham its not that far plus dead milage seems not to be an issue for most companies look at Cannock dead milage from stafford and even Lichfield plus stuff like the nuneatons worked from leicester via interworking is it the 158 service they do to nuneaton or has it changed a bit, an outstation for the locals could be put on the industrial estates on the outskirts of tamworth I deliver a lot around there and have seen possible sites if arriva wanted to close Tamworth butat the moment it serves its purpose well despite the council wanting them out like all councils only intrested in money not the public

[Bob]

Cannocks a pretty big operation though routes to wolves walsall stafford lichfield, locals around walsall, and the Birmingham service ( although prob not for much longer), they also run a once a day saturday bus to Telford ive always wondered the point of that does anyone ever use it??