First Bus - Potteries

[barry619]

They must be rather hard up for buses in Scotland if they're taking Potteries' old junk, unless they are for spares recovery and then scrap? Certainly none of those mentioned are DDA compliant and they are all old and very, very 'well used'.

[Cedric]

They must be rather hard up for buses in Scotland if they're taking Potteries' old junk, unless they are for spares recovery and then scrap? Certainly none of those mentioned are DDA compliant and they are all old and very, very 'well used'.

I  think I agree with you   as I said in my pervious post they where going north  and  I was going south on the motorway, also it was just north of Glasgow  around 10 to 11 am 

[T840MAK]

They must be rather hard up for buses in Scotland if they're taking Potteries' old junk, unless they are for spares recovery and then scrap? Certainly none of those mentioned are DDA compliant and they are all old and very, very 'well used'.

Possibly just a temporary thing until the DDA deadline actually comes in, or until a PVR drop or when new vehicles arrive. I'm not too sure on the circumstances however I was told in the past that the Scanias were moving up there, wasn't aware of the Solos though.

[barry619]

That would be logical. Certainly the Solos have been worked almost to death at Potteries, and the Scanias have been used and abused too. One of those mentioned is an S-registered one and I can't see why they would spend money converting something like that to DDA. No doubt all will become apparent, eventually...

[DVXXII]

Streetlite 63097 was noted parked at AG depot this afternoon, not sure when this arrived from Kernow.

To try and help with Ashley's query, 60175 was noted I'm service today so not gone. I'm unsure of 40175 s whereabouts. This was observed twice by me in the disposal corner at AG during August but had gone by the time AG merged with NE. I'll keep an eye out for this and 60173 which I haven't seen for a while.

Ben

[Ashley 60171]

Streetlite 63097 was noted parked at AG depot this afternoon, not sure when this arrived from Kernow.

To try and help with Ashley's query, 60175 was noted I'm service today so not gone. I'm unsure of 40175 s whereabouts. This was observed twice by me in the disposal corner at AG during August but had gone by the time AG merged with NE. I'll keep an eye out for this and 60173 which I haven't seen for a while.

Ben

Glad 60175's still going, cheers!

[T840MAK]

65568/65572 are the latest transfers to Glasgow from The Potteries.

[Ashley 60171]

53041 reported as in service here.

[PM]

Went up to Potteries today, have to say I was surprisingly impressed with the operation. Only saw a couple of old Scanias, even one of them was smartly repainted. The Caetano darts were nice, OmniCitys which I usually dislike still very smart inside (even had one of the red and yellow examples). I thought it was interesting as well the number of 2004/5 Scanias with non First bus interiors, reminds us of the emergency purchases to get around maintenance and fleet issues back then wasn't it?

Overall impressed with the operation although D and G were probably overall smarter, love the Orange ONE and the NINES identities and they seemed very well used as well! Smarter than Wardles ever were, only messy looking MPD was one in Arriva style Wardle livery still but other than that, top marks.

First's ex Manchester StreetLites had been lettered up nicely for the Potteries as well

Haven't seen anyone pick up on this but Newcastle travel shop is now shutting in November plus more improvements to the Raspberry routes are being planned to improve reliability, everything I caught was smack on time though.

Would just like to see more newer buses being fed into the operation, start painting buses fronts to match the route colour etc eg like the Cherry or Raspberry lines.

[Bob]

Any deckers out and about?

[Ashley 60171]

Any deckers out and about?

Most of them probably out as normal.

Went up to Potteries today, have to say I was surprisingly impressed with the operation. Only saw a couple of old Scanias, even one of them was smartly repainted. The Caetano darts were nice, OmniCitys which I usually dislike still very smart inside (even had one of the red and yellow examples). I thought it was interesting as well the number of 2004/5 Scanias with non First bus interiors, reminds us of the emergency purchases to get around maintenance and fleet issues back then wasn't it?

Overall impressed with the operation although D and G were probably overall smarter, love the Orange ONE and the NINES identities and they seemed very well used as well! Smarter than Wardles ever were, only messy looking MPD was one in Arriva style Wardle livery still but other than that, top marks.

First's ex Manchester StreetLites had been lettered up nicely for the Potteries as well

Haven't seen anyone pick up on this but Newcastle travel shop is now shutting in November plus more improvements to the Raspberry routes are being planned to improve reliability, everything I caught was smack on time though.

Would just like to see more newer buses being fed into the operation, start painting buses fronts to match the route colour etc eg like the Cherry or Raspberry lines.

Nice to see somebody else agrees with me that Potteries isn't falling on it's arse but do some things well. I've never seen a member of the public go into the Newcastle office.

[PM]

Most of them probably out as normal.

Nice to see somebody else agrees with me that Potteries isn't falling on it's arse but do some things well. I've never seen a member of the public go into the Newcastle office.

Had a fair few going into the Potteries office at Newcastle this afternoon, more than at Hanley!

Didn't seem to be any deckers on the 10 sadly, 32 group seemed to have a few plus the 4(A). The 32 certainly looks well used.

What's left seems ok at Potteries and will obviously be fairly modern post 1/1/16 out of necessity to meet DDA. The marketing and maps is all good quality and customer service seemed generally very good with drivers at Hanley helping with customer service and queries as well, possibly why people weren't walking up to information office!!

The OmniCitys look very smart repainted, as do the deckers, still the odd few older buses still limping around (whyever did they repaint the non DDA W reg solos?!) that are going anyway?!

I still think D and G are the ones to watch, they're expanding, First have tended to contract. I did notice that between First and D and G they largely cover everything, just the 4/5? at Hanley run by little blue Primos and a longstanding independent I gather plus the odd Arriva appearance. Nice bus station I think as well...

[T840MAK]

Had a fair few going into the Potteries office at Newcastle this afternoon, more than at Hanley!

Didn't seem to be any deckers on the 10 sadly, 32 group seemed to have a few plus the 4(A). The 32 certainly looks well used.

What's left seems ok at Potteries and will obviously be fairly modern post 1/1/16 out of necessity to meet DDA. The marketing and maps is all good quality and customer service seemed generally very good with drivers at Hanley helping with customer service and queries as well, possibly why people weren't walking up to information office!!

The OmniCitys look very smart repainted, as do the deckers, still the odd few older buses still limping around (whyever did they repaint the non DDA W reg solos?!) that are going anyway?!

I still think D and G are the ones to watch, they're expanding, First have tended to contract. I did notice that between First and D and G they largely cover everything, just the 4/5? at Hanley run by little blue Primos and a longstanding independent I gather plus the odd Arriva appearance. Nice bus station I think as well...

I personally think D&G are slowly swallowing First Potteries up. First's operation seems to be shrinking with D&G getting bigger.

RE your comments about 32 having a few deckers, I should hope so what with how busy they get with Alton Towers being close to the route ;)

[PM]

I personally think D&G are slowly swallowing First Potteries up. First's operation seems to be shrinking with D&G getting bigger.

RE your comments about 32 having a few deckers, I should hope so what with how busy they get with Alton Towers being close to the route ;)

I was reading though about how Alton Towers has still been very quiet even on from the "Smiler" accident which could have impacted First's loadings. The Geminis just look stunning in the Olympia livery though, seems to be what the livery was made for! I think it will be interesting to see how things pan out, two routes are basically "on trial" and on record as such so they could go if loadings don't meet explanations.

I still think the network guide (great feature) with proper maps (great feature) is still quite complicated though, maybe scope for further simplifying the network...

[DVXXII]

Went up to Potteries today, have to say I was surprisingly impressed with the operation. Only saw a couple of old Scanias, even one of them was smartly repainted. The Caetano darts were nice, OmniCitys which I usually dislike still very smart inside (even had one of the red and yellow examples). I thought it was interesting as well the number of 2004/5 Scanias with non First bus interiors, reminds us of the emergency purchases to get around maintenance and fleet issues back then wasn't it?

Overall impressed with the operation although D and G were probably overall smarter, love the Orange ONE and the NINES identities and they seemed very well used as well! Smarter than Wardles ever were, only messy looking MPD was one in Arriva style Wardle livery still but other than that, top marks.

First's ex Manchester StreetLites had been lettered up nicely for the Potteries as well

Haven't seen anyone pick up on this but Newcastle travel shop is now shutting in November plus more improvements to the Raspberry routes are being planned to improve reliability, everything I caught was smack on time though.

Would just like to see more newer buses being fed into the operation, start painting buses fronts to match the route colour etc eg like the Cherry or Raspberry lines.

Think the Raspberry routes will benefit from timing changes to improve reliability. Today the 6/6a's were running in tandem on a number of occasions in the direction of Hanley despite being scheduled 10 minutes apart.

From different reports it seems 53041 to 43 are here with sightings of all in service (I've personally seen 53041/2) I also have seen 53059 at the depot but not yet in service.

The expected arrival of some Worcester E300s later in the financial year will further improve the fleet profile to an acceptable standard. Hopefully First don't rest on their laurels in the coming years though as a large proportion of the fleet will have 5-8 years service life remaining, which will soon become an issue unless addressed in the intervening years.

Ben