First Bus - Leicester

[Fin W]

I have noticed several kites don't have tap on tap off readers installed yet, i'm guessing they are taking them off of the old buses when they leave and putting them onto the kites

[SSmith09]

I have noticed several kites don't have tap on tap off readers installed yet, i'm guessing they are taking them off of the old buses when they leave and putting them onto the kites

Quite a few of the readers are out of use so they could be waiting for replacements? Arriva have some out of use too.

You can still tap off at the front though

[Glenfieldmathk1]

69303 has left for First West of England.

Can anyone confirm whether 69380 has also gone?

It's back.. was just a temporary loan to help with Glastonbury 

[Fin W]

63107/8 have transferred from Abbey Lane to Olive Grove

[Glenfieldmathk1]

It would seem that every route except for 13W (and the contract services) have now had an electric bus in use at one point. 
22B had one last Saturday, and there has been a few trips made recently on 14/14A too.
Whilst this week seems to have been a bit slow in launching of new buses (compared to previous weeks).. it will be interesting to see which Streetlites go next and eventually what double deckers go first. (Heard 3 E400's are likely to stay as backup/Amazon contracts).. also heard from another source order of 18 has increased to 24 double deckers.. although nothing officially confirmed.

[Fin W]

Let's hope that the order has been increased, only 18 deckers would be ridiculous 

[Glenfieldmathk1]

Is there an event shuttle taking place on the A47?
Can see 3 Streetdecks running (as Dead) on bustimes?
Seems strange time to plan for a new route.. hence why thought I'd ask?

[xmj-signal]

I notice that, according to bustimes.org, there are no electric vehicles out today (Sun 16th July) on First Leicester routes. I think this also happened a few weeks ago and, on other Sundays, there have been only a small number of electrics working.

Does anyone know any reason why the electric buses aren't being used so much on Sundays - following all the fanfare about their introduction, I would have expected it to be the other way round, with a full electric output on the single-deck routes once there were enough vehicles in service (which there are now).

[Fin W]

The only reason i can think of is that because of where the chargers are located, they were blocked in by diesels in front 

[47609FireFly]

The evening of 19/07/2023 saw electrics operating late night services for the first time, with routes 25/26, 38/38A & 88E all having electric vehicles allocated. Looked quite impressive seeing all three in the Haymarket Bus Station together, ready for their 2300 hours departure.

[Glenfieldmathk1]

No Streetlites in service today.. (Friday 21st July)
Just leaves the saffron diesel single deckers left! Rest electric!
No movement of any DD's yet. But I guess that will happen next?

[SSmith09]

No Streetlites in service today.. (Friday 21st July)
Just leaves the saffron diesel single deckers left! Rest electric!
No movement of any DD's yet. But I guess that will happen next?

Doubt any of the double decker fleet will go anywhere just yet as not all of the single deck electrics are here or in service.

Although if bustimes.org is to be believed a number of streetdecks haven't been used for a few days but that could be down to the lower summer frequencies

[Mayfield]

UID Saffron liveried B7 heading south on M5 nr Worcester on suspended tow this afternoon about 13.00 also another one on the 38 Thurnby Lodge this afternoon 

[Fin W]

UID Saffron liveried B7 heading south on M5 nr Worcester on suspended tow this afternoon about 13.00 also another one on the 38 Thurnby Lodge this afternoon

Presumably either 69305 or 69380 as they haven't seen service in over a month

[Glenfieldmathk1]

UID Saffron liveried B7 heading south on M5 nr Worcester on suspended tow this afternoon about 13.00 also another one on the 38 Thurnby Lodge this afternoon

Equally one was on the 18 too. (14/13 interworking also regularly sees an orange E400 on 13 too!)
Since Nigel went the allocations seem very random! Always been the case. It's a downside to route branding vehicles. However with good management it does work. (As we saw pre-Covid).