Drivers - Bus Reviews & Opinions

[Liberator9]

Dudley Road is sounding out of control - glad you were ok and managed to get the bus safely stopped - not a nice situation.   :(

[2900]

4027 plaxton president B7TL Volvo

Finally got me hands on it, up on getting into cab you,re greeted with steering wheel that would be more at home on a pirate ship, it's bloody huge in a tiny cab. Plenty of vibrations when idling, on the move plenty of rattles from around cab. On the move suspension still does a decent job of soaking up bumps, brakes and retarder are decent as well nice smooth stops, gearbox is well messed up yo yo,ing up and down the box very annoying issue , you can wind up the engine to 2000 rpm no problem.
Interior in average condition, bodywork average

Engine - vibrates, enough grunt though 5/10
Gearbox- gears yo yo,ing up and down the box 2/10
Retarder - brakes all good  7/10
Suspension- good ride quality 7/10

[2900]

While hanging about in the dump that is West Bromwich I met a rookie driver struggling to come to terms with soho road , he couldn't believe how rough the people are towards drivers, he was saying the job doesn't live up to how Walsall training centre depiction of the job, I told him forget Walsall they live in cloud cuckoo land nothing to do with the real world, they are only there to show you how to drive to national express standards, so when you mess up they,ll beat you over head with it.
I asked him what his previous job was, he told me traffic warden in London, far less grief and stress than soho road ,his words. I was speechless for a bit, IMO drivers who stick it out on these much less desirable routes to put it politely should given credit. Soho/ Dudley rd is no place for rookies IMO
Bring back starter rotas, may be people might stick around.

[bubble2899]

To work on a bad run you need to be able to switch off. It should not be allowed really to have scum like that. I can remember the old Wolverhampton starter rota, 598, 698, 511 all good for broken windows and idiots. 641, 574 and a treat on 504/5 and 126. 79 on sundays or overtime.

[MW]

Bloody hell, at AG you get thrown straight into the 11A/C, or the 1/71/72. Not sure how the 71/72 routes are. Would expect them to be a pain in Chelmsley Wood but nobody has really mentioned it in conparison to the incidents that happen on the 11A/C.

All the other stuff (5/31/37/966) is very hard to get onto. 37 rota being the "easiest" out of these four to get on to but that route is incredibly boring. Doing around 8 journeys on the 37 a day, every day is terribly boring.

[BU07 LGO]

4027 plaxton president B7TL Volvo

Finally got me hands on it, up on getting into cab you,re greeted with steering wheel that would be more at home on a pirate ship, it's bloody huge in a tiny cab. Plenty of vibrations when idling, on the move plenty of rattles from around cab. On the move suspension still does a decent job of soaking up bumps, brakes and retarder are decent as well nice smooth stops, gearbox is well messed up yo yo,ing up and down the box very annoying issue , you can wind up the engine to 2000 rpm no problem.
Interior in average condition, bodywork average

Engine - vibrates, enough grunt though 5/10
Gearbox- gears yo yo,ing up and down the box 2/10
Retarder - brakes all good  7/10
Suspension- good ride quality 7/10

I miss 4027 at Walsall was the highest Revving president we had.

[Busman Jamie]

We got a few dead ones though lol, some of them are in good nick

[Tony]

We got a few dead ones though lol, some of them are in good nick

The dead ones are dead because they are not in good nick, have a look at them sometime, you will see holes in the floors and various other problems, every one of those has come off at the request of the engineers for various reasons, the good ones escape to live elsewhere! (4027 & 4076)

[Busman Jamie]

Ah didn't realise interior wise was so bad, I was reffering to to the exterior

[MW]

Yeah quite a few of them have got holes by the windscreen apparently. They were made because the front window sill would get a build up of water. Never seen it myself but that's what I was told.

I have driven some where you get feel a breeze in the cab coming from underneath (the pedals area).

[2900]

Yeah quite a few of them have got holes by the windscreen apparently. They were made because the front window sill would get a build up of water. Never seen it myself but that's what I was told.

I have driven some where you get feel a breeze in the cab coming from underneath (the pedals area).

i remember the breeze from the pedals from when they were brand new , badly fitted panels Is my theory.
Holes in the floor, corrosion issues or fat barstewards falling through.

[2900]

Which presidents are dead now awaiting a lift from sir Trevor himself

[BU07 LGO]

Yeah quite a few of them have got holes by the windscreen apparently. They were made because the front window sill would get a build up of water. Never seen it myself but that's what I was told.

I have driven some where you get feel a breeze in the cab coming from underneath (the pedals area).

One of the WA platinums have a breeze blowing from under the drivers seat!

[B.C Driver]

One of the WA platinums have a breeze blowing from under the drivers seat!

I've drove quite a few BC Tridents and had a breeze under the drivers seat........ but this is usually after a chicken vindaloo.

[Driver03]

One of the WA platinums have a breeze blowing from under the drivers seat!

From the dawn of driving there has always been a problem with "wind" in the cab :D :D