Cannock Garage

[winston]

To Bob first the simple answer is transferring the routes to Stafford would cost more in the dead mileage for all the duties/routes starting in Cannock. Secondly I didn't say it was unprofitable just not very profitable & I can see Arriva is operating within their means & keeping costs down.
Diamond dart I would say Redditch is better bus territory than Cannock. I would put it more on a kin to Kidderminster.
Given that I think Diamond should be running Redditch a lot better than they are & unless they up their game it's only a matter of time before they get competition.
They were lucky with Cityline not starting or they could have been in for some serious competition by now IMO. But still that whole episode worked out well for Sunny as well as Diamond as they got a fleet of darts without having to spend any cash .

Steve, totally agree, never seen/heard anyone have anything good to say about Diamond's Redditch services only negative. Kidderminster is the opposite though, people are far more positive about their services and this is backed up by increased ridership.

[Bob]

Wouldnt the amount of time spent dealing with breakdown/using coach aid etc cost a lot though?  Id hate to have to rely on arriva in cannock for getting to work and things, as you cant really take reliability for granted.

[Steveminor]

Yes I agree it's not nice for the public when the service is unreliable but I think their reliability has improved lately.  But posts regarding older buses and route branded buses on the wrong route are unfair criticisms IMO

[Bob]

At least two of the four vehicles on the 74/5 today are single deck. So the point of transferring deckers in for the route was what exactly? .....

[mikestone]

Does anyone *know* that was the intention?

[Bob]

Maybe they were brought in to sit in the yard

[Bob]

They were transferred in for the staffords due to single deckers not coping with the loadings esp at certain times of the day

[Steveminor]

The decker may be in for inspection or mot or may simply be required for other duties I.e school runs. But all the 74/75 are running so can't complain especially since the routes have been single deck for years.

[Bob]

Badly oovercrowded single deckers which was the point of transferring deckers in. But being cannock within less than a month of them being here its degenerated into only one or two being on there each day for at least the last week and single deckers ending up on the peak time trips.  Surely if the route was intended to be converted ( which as theyve now started de branding the pulsars so presumably it was) and said deckers are required on other routes or whatever, they should have at least one extra decker as spare?

[arrivadays]

The decker may be in for inspection or mot or may simply be required for other duties I.e school runs. But all the 74/75 are running so can't complain especially since the routes have been single deck for years.

Bob, have you missed this? It's possible that, as Steve has said, there could be decker(s) in for inspection.  Would you rather have a route always operated by double deckers, but are unreliable and potentially unsafe?

[Bob]

Wouldnt have thought reliability would be a factor considered here....but obviously safety is paramount

[Tony]

A manager from Arriva who reads the forum, but is not on there has emailed me to tell me the reason the Volvos have been removed from Cannock is not only are they old, the running costs on them are about 25% higher than the same size DAFs.

In addition he has told me to look out for an Arriva Midlands vehicle exhibited at the Coach & Bus show at the NEC tomorrow of a type new to Arriva Midlands.

As I have posted in the Telford thread 25 more StreetLites are due for delivery in January

[Westy]

A manager from Arriva who reads the forum, but is not on there has emailed me to tell me the reason the Volvos have been removed from Cannock is not only are they old, the running costs on them are about 25% higher than the same size DAFs. Also Stafford garage cannot have 'deckers as they do not fit in the garage.

In addition he has told me to look out for an Arriva Midlands vehicle exhibited at the Coach & Bus show at the NEC tomorrow of a type new to Arriva Midlands.

As I have posted in the Telford thread 25 more StreetLites are due for delivery in January

Is there any other Stafford services that require DDs?

Got the impression the times Ive been there, there isnt.

[the trainbasher]

I'm surprised Arriva didn't have the 1 as Sapphire and 2/a as Max.

The 2 being the "secondary" route with the 1 a being the premier route

[Bob]

No the 825 could do with them at times but cant have them due to a low bridge en route.  Other than the 481 operatedby telford which ddoesn't need them and a couple of college trips oh and the 76 the rest of the routesare just pretty lightly loaded local services.  Stafford used to be a major garage but isnt anymore.

With regard to the Volvos presumably Wardles have no problems affording to run them then? Yes they were old but so are the darts and the commanders are only a couple of years newer, the volvos were far superior and had had money spent respraying and refurbing them whereas the 52 plate commanders were and are disgusting inside as are many of the darts. Cannock must really be struggling if they cant afford to run a single heavyweight bus! I didnt think Darts etc were ever designed with interurban work in mind werent they intended as minibus replacements?