Chaserider

[Bob]

And who says they are not pending reviewing the acquired assets or making plans for them? Far too much speculation from Arriva haters with second hand comments then made out to be from authoritative sources, lots of 2 + 2 = 7 style guess work. Perhaps more sensible thought would be that Chaserider probably want more of their fleet livery stock on the road to stamp the change of brand as much as possible, who knows.

But on Monday taking these buses off the road ( through no fault of D and G) left them short of vehicles and journeys missed out i wouldnt of thought that was what theyd have wanted. And as these buses were out in service on Saturday but took off the road on Sun or Mon doesnt that look pretty bad on Arriva? I mean did they all develop faults overnight then? Hopefully theyll get some more buses in, the stuff thats been drafted in looks very smart and mustve reduced average fleet age a bit

[Bob]

Things look promising i hope they can build the network and brand up

[Depotosw]

But on Monday taking these buses off the road ( through no fault of D and G) left them short of vehicles and journeys missed out i wouldnt of thought that was what theyd have wanted. And as these buses were out in service on Saturday but took off the road on Sun or Mon doesnt that look pretty bad on Arriva? I mean did they all develop faults overnight then? Hopefully theyll get some more buses in, the stuff thats been drafted in looks very smart and mustve reduced average fleet age a bit

Missed journeys does not necessary mean they were short of vehicles does it? In the current climate it could have been due to a shortage of drivers for varying reasons, many operators are losing drivers at times due to covid for instance, people having to isolate, impact on losing service mileage? Cannock could have perhaps loaned in drivers from Tamworth, Telford etc before handover to maintain service, something Arriva does between depots regularly, typically by those who would have helped in the past and know the routes under Arriva, I doubt D&G would be able to do so from day one and that would be fair enough. How do you know it wasn't other teething issues first day? Whatever the reason, you cannot put all the blame on vehicles acquired from Arriva, unless there has been some kind of official management statement disclosed in the public domain?

I'm not disagreeing with you that some stock was on the older scale, but then perhaps you should draw a comparison to such stock Arriva acquired from Adderley Green with D&G and the Midland (Wednesfield) operations some years ago.

The Chaserider operation has all the makings of an excellent network for Stafford and Cannock and look forward to the seeing how this develops, in a positive tone of course.

[Westy]

Out of curiosity, were there any 'new' drivers brought into Cannock for Monday, or were all the drivers ex Arriva?

Don't know whether this was just a cock up, but the first 2 journey on Monday south to Walsall actually went straight down Green Lane, instead of going via Leamore & Bloxwich Road.

I'm pretty sure I recognised the driver as ex Arriva, so he shouldn't have made that mistake(but helped me, as he went non stop & I managed to get an earlier 529 as a result!).

Bearing in mind, the Arriva Facebook page used to be full of comments about drivers actions, driving past stops of waiting passengers etc, missing journeys etc, I do hope the new regime will crack down on drivers attitudes, which I suppose, people might say, that detoirated under Arriva?

Oh & no taping up of certain seats due to Covid either.

It seems to be only NX that are strict on this!

[bovaman]

today there was only one vehicle [ex arriva dart] on the rugeley / 63 network rather then the usual 4 workings so i guess there must be some sort of  issues,  Was 2 nice 65 plate e200 mmc on  60/825/826 circuit on Monday though which seemed a vast improvement to what has been on offer of late! Not seen them 2 mmcs since mind haha. Im sure Chaserider will settle in and sort it all out soon, lets face it they cannot be worse than what we have been used to for the last few years! Not a great time at the moment to take over a new area in the middle of a pandemic  so i wish them well in there new venture. I'm sure the network will improve given a  little time to get things in place & road legal.
There seems to be a lot of the ex arriva fleet  solos and darts missing from action this week!!

[Westy]

Any reason why they've only slapped the Chaserider logo on the front of the ex Arriva's, & not the sides?

[l.murphy123]

Lovely chaserider bus on the number 2, really clean and smooth. I agree with the comments hope its a big success. Shame about covid else they could have done a launch event in the towns or something similar.

[Bob]

Lovely chaserider bus on the number 2, really clean and smooth. I agree with the comments hope its a big success. Shame about covid else they could have done a launch event in the towns or something similar.

Maybe after covid theyll recast the network and tailor it and do one then

[BusMan Greg]

Lovely chaserider bus on the number 2, really clean and smooth. I agree with the comments hope its a big success. Shame about covid else they could have done a launch event in the towns or something similar.

In all honesty I'm pleased with how the 70 has been this week! I can see good things coming to Cannock if the way midland classic & the arriva Burton takeover is anything to go by.

[Pat]

In all honesty I'm pleased with how the 70 has been this week! I can see good things coming to Cannock if the way midland classic & the arriva Burton takeover is anything to go by.

In all honesty, I find it quite strange how things, at least quality wise, differ from depot to depot even though they are operated by the same company.  Telford and Shrewsbury depots are run well, with reliable services and a clean, quality fleet.

[BusMan Greg]

In all honesty, I find it quite strange how things, at least quality wise, differ from depot to depot even though they are operated by the same company.  Telford and Shrewsbury depots are run well, with reliable services and a clean, quality fleet.

It's been like that for years! Arriva always had their favourite garages: Tamworth; Telford; Shrewsbury, just to name a few. And then you had the dumping grounds for all their shit: Stafford; Burton; Adderely green; Wednesfield being the main one.

[Vulcan]

The garages noted I would say were not favourite garages, they were the most profitable.
Before the purchased businesses Burton had the lowest  profit & therefore the oldest handed down fleet.
The Stafford operation were once good just dwindled away under Arriva ownership in latter years of no investment.
This is common in the industry with some big groups launching low cost operations in the past

[ntw456]

Any reason why they've only slapped the Chaserider logo on the front of the ex Arriva's, & not the sides?

They are slowly being sorted

[j789]

This may have already been mentioned but the chaserider livery is very similar to NXWM crimson. Looking at the recent photo of NXWM Volvo 1756 going past a chaserider e200, the liveries look near identical at the front. You can definitely see the midland red influence on both!

[Westy]

This may have already been mentioned but the chaserider livery is very similar to NXWM crimson. Looking at the recent photo of NXWM Volvo 1756 going past a chaserider e200, the liveries look near identical at the front. You can definitely see the midland red influence on both!

I would've put some yellow relief in there personally.

Didn't a previous Midland Red North livery mix red & yellow?