Dual Purpose Buses/Coaches

[Bob]

Has anyone noticed that years ago express/longer distance services were operated with coaches or at least coach seated buses eg the X5 shrewsbury was a coach, 112 burton to brum DP seated Olympians, X38 derby coaches, and particularly the horrendously long distance x64 ( now 64/164 for some daft reason) hanley-shrewsbury and the burton-leicester service ( again split into 2 routes operated by the same bus!, now they have standard vehicles on them. I mean 2hrs Leicester to Burton on a Dart or SB120 would equate to hell on earth! Slipping standards of comfort definately

[Discodave]

I think now the routes are split in 2 people are not going to stay on that bus that what the companies seem to think

[Bob]

But theyre exactly the same routes Dave? Theyve just branded a few plaxton centro for the 64/164, thatd be fun travelling all that way in a gutless screaming heap lol

[Discodave]

I am going on the compaines view there data must show people must not travel the full route even though its 2 numbers so feel they need not provide a good comfortable bus agree about the VDL buses even though they use similar engines to Daf trucks which are good

[Tony]

I am going on the compaines view there data must show people must not travel the full route even though its 2 numbers so feel they need not provide a good comfortable bus agree about the VDL buses even though they use similar engines to Daf trucks which are good

No it is just a way of getting around the law that any route over 50km needs to have a vehicle fitted with a tachograph and the driver on EEC rules not UK ones

[D10]

Agree with you Bob, but sadly this is not unique to Arriva Midlands, the use of higher quality seats on longer routes seems to be dying out.

I can remember the DP Metrobuses on WMT 900, Coach seated Olympians on the Stratford to Coventry corridor by Midland Red (S), and Leopards on the the B'ham - Kidder - Ludlow route from MRW. And that is just 3 examples off the top of my head.

[Discodave]

I am going on the compaines view there data must show people must not travel the full route even though its 2 numbers so feel they need not provide a good comfortable bus agree about the VDL buses even though they use similar engines to Daf trucks which are good

No it is just a way of getting around the law that any route over 50km needs to have a vehicle fitted with a tachograph and the driver on EEC rules not UK ones

I know about the law bit

[Bob]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

[andy]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

Their one genuine attempt at a limited stop service you mean? Not really difficult! And as I have said in previous posts, those high backed seats on the Geminis are not especially comfortable anyway.

All operators are guilty in this area of giving comfort too little consideration. It is all about capacity and cost of the vehicle these days.

[2200 Bus]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

Their one genuine attempt at a limited stop service you mean? Not really difficult! And as I have said in previous posts, those high backed seats on the Geminis are not especially comfortable anyway.

All operators are guilty in this area of giving comfort too little consideration. It is all about capacity and cost of the vehicle these days.

I just about managed to cope with ex 2320 (P320 HOJ) Dart SLF for 2 hours on the old 112!

[Bob]

Awful standards

[Tony]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

Their one genuine attempt at a limited stop service you mean? Not really difficult! And as I have said in previous posts, those high backed seats on the Geminis are not especially comfortable anyway.

That's a matter of opinion, with the exception of the Timesaver Metrobuses I find the 4680-6 the most comfortable seats in any bus

[andy]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

Their one genuine attempt at a limited stop service you mean? Not really difficult! And as I have said in previous posts, those high backed seats on the Geminis are not especially comfortable anyway.

That's a matter of opinion, with the exception of the Timesaver Metrobuses I find the 4680-6 the most comfortable seats in any bus

You said it yourself Tony, those Metrobus seats were probably the most comfortable of any bus I've travelled on, they were genuine dual purpose seats. But as we know, you can't cram as many of those into the bus as you can the plastic rubbish we get now so we will never get them again.

The Gemini seats are not padded enough to be genuine DP in my opinion and as ever they offer no extra legroom to the bus version, which defeats the object.

[Tony]

Yea but at least nxwm try to put high backed seated vehicles on some limited stop services though

Their one genuine attempt at a limited stop service you mean? Not really difficult! And as I have said in previous posts, those high backed seats on the Geminis are not especially comfortable anyway.

The metrobus seats still had 43 upstairs, the same as a bus seated version, I do find the design of the seat in 4680-6 means my knees are not in the back of the seat in front, even though they only have one less seat upstairs less than a standard gemini. At least people with wide backsides have a seat to sit on in them as the back row is only 4, not 5 seats!

That's a matter of opinion, with the exception of the Timesaver Metrobuses I find the 4680-6 the most comfortable seats in any bus

You said it yourself Tony, those Metrobus seats were probably the most comfortable of any bus I've travelled on, they were genuine dual purpose seats. But as we know, you can't cram as many of those into the bus as you can the plastic rubbish we get now so we will never get them again.

The Gemini seats are not padded enough to be genuine DP in my opinion and as ever they offer no extra legroom to the bus version, which defeats the object.

[Bob]

Stagecoach Gold solos and enviro 300/400s have genuine DP seats i think