Arriva Leicester

[47609FireFly]

To be fair, the bus entered service in Leics just a few hours after leaving Beds.

Really does make no odds. There must've been a plan to use those four, mini E200MMCs in Leicester so presenting them in a suitable standard ought to have been part of that planning process. They're operating routes in Leicestershire which are financially supported by the county council, so having the name of a totally different local authority on the side is rather poor. We've seen time and time and time again where Arriva has transferred motors from one part of its (diminishing) empire to another and they just get end up being kicked out in service, at their new home, with little attention to detail. It says to me that the operator is bothered about just having a 'tick in the box' of a bus on the road and little else. 

[markcf83]

I clocked bus 3153 operating the 1525 departure, on service LC16, from Loughborough. On its exterior, offside it still wore vinyls for 'Leighton's Buses' and 'Have a great journey! This bus service is made possible by Central Bedfordshire Council'. Is it really? Arriva's usual attention to detail on delivery reigning supreme then...

Believe they lost the contract to run them.

[Mayfield]

Just seen on of the 3145-52 batch on the 58 it looks disgusting, back end filthy black and diesel spillage stains all down the O/S

[SSmith09]

Just seen on of the 3145-52 batch on the 58 it looks disgusting, back end filthy black and diesel spillage stains all down the O/S

Noticed this too across some of the fleet, possibly an issue with the bus wash at Thurmaston.. 

[Mayfield]

I mentioned this weeks ago and Tony said probably the speed at which the bus is driven through the wash, if it's the same team that also fuel them some training is needed.
Surprised no one in management has thought to sort it, who knows they may work from home or arrive when all the buses have left the depot and go home before they come back,
Either way it's a poor show IMO.

[Tony]

Driving through a wash too quickly normally leaves a vertical strip of dirt down the back if the whole back is black it is quite often oil coming through the breather and the vacuum created by a moving bus behind sucking small particals of oil on the the back of the bus.

Oil from the breather is normally a sign of a very worn engine.

[Budgie]

Would an engine on a bus that's less than 3 years old be very worn? Is there things that could make it accelerate the wear and tear like that?

[xmj-signal]

Really does make no odds. There must've been a plan to use those four, mini E200MMCs in Leicester so presenting them in a suitable standard ought to have been part of that planning process. They're operating routes in Leicestershire which are financially supported by the county council, so having the name of a totally different local authority on the side is rather poor. We've seen time and time and time again where Arriva has transferred motors from one part of its (diminishing) empire to another and they just get end up being kicked out in service, at their new home, with little attention to detail. It says to me that the operator is bothered about just having a 'tick in the box' of a bus on the road and little else.

To be fair, they were being used on the Leighton Buses contract up to and including last Saturday, 31st May. They were then transferred to Leicestershire (presumably on Sunday) and started service for Midlands on Monday. So, not much time to do any (really just cosmetic) branding changes in the single day when they weren't working.

It's probably a reasonable trade-off for the branding to remain for a short while - Arriva seem to struggle at times to find enough vehicles for service. I'm not surprised they were put into service so quickly as there was an increase in the number of vehicles required. I imagine that the previous branding will be removed over the next few weeks (3155 doesn't seem to have worked here yet so maybe that is being dealt with first?). The alternative might well have been missing journeys on other routes if they needed to source vehicles for the new Leicestershire County Council LC14 and LC16 routes.

[RobertJ21a]

To be fair, they were being used on the Leighton Buses contract up to and including last Saturday, 31st May. They were then transferred to Leicestershire (presumably on Sunday) and started service for Midlands on Monday. So, not much time to do any (really just cosmetic) branding changes in the single day when they weren't working.

It's probably a reasonable trade-off for the branding to remain for a short while - Arriva seem to struggle at times to find enough vehicles for service. I'm not surprised they were put into service so quickly as there was an increase in the number of vehicles required. I imagine that the previous branding will be removed over the next few weeks (3155 doesn't seem to have worked here yet so maybe that is being dealt with first?). The alternative might well have been missing journeys on other routes if they needed to source vehicles for the new Leicestershire County Council LC14 and LC16 routes.

Arriva are rarely perfect and can often do silly things that others manage to avoid. However, to transfer 4 buses to Leics in just hours after they finished service elsewhere is something to  be applauded rather than criticised.

[Glenfieldmathk1]

What's wrong with the 3 (or at 1 point 4) coaches for the X6?
I see today, only 1 out! Rest are standard (rather old) single deckers..

[SSmith09]

What's wrong with the 3 (or at 1 point 4) coaches for the X6?
I see today, only 1 out! Rest are standard (rather old) single deckers..

7104 has a engine issue and has been off for a while.
7103 last tracked on 13th June so could be having an MOT or prep for MOT.

Wonder if it's time to swap the coaches for double deckers or even new coaches?

[Glenfieldmathk1]

7104 has a engine issue and has been off for a while.
7103 last tracked on 13th June so could be having an MOT or prep for MOT.

Wonder if it's time to swap the coaches for double deckers or even new coaches?

Hmm.. that's what I thought. Especially when the old operator ran the route it usually had double deckers. Whilst it was nice Arriva used AirCon coaches - I feel it's a shame only 1 actually in the road. I'm sure there were 4 too? 

[SSmith09]

Hmm.. that's what I thought. Especially when the old operator ran the route it usually had double deckers. Whilst it was nice Arriva used AirCon coaches - I feel it's a shame only 1 actually in the road. I'm sure there were 4 too?

Yes there was 4 at one stage but one was only really used for the duplicate journeys so was sent down south (Luton?).

Travel De Courcey used the olympus deckers (until 1 got a bit hot on the M69) with an optare tempo then some MCV Evolutions 

[TheMidlandsTransportGuy]

E200MMC 3110 has a very dark LED screen on the 153

[SSmith09]

E200MMC 3110 has a very dark LED screen on the 153

If you mean the next stop announcement screen inside then some of them have a black background which makes them appear dark.