Cannock Garage

[arrivaaston]

LOL well arriva don't have a coach aid trucks on stand by at the depot unlike Natex, majority of people think Natex are so perfect? Yet 1 particular driver always refuses to let me or my girlfriend on the bus with the push chair because and I quote " I don't like push chairs on my bus" now she's either not a fully qualifies driver and can't cope with push chairs on her bus or 2 she's just bone idle and doesn't have the patience to wait for people with push chairs!! My girlfriend along with several other people have complained about her...... Never had these issues with Arriva

[Bob]

I bet the nx bus wasnt cancelled due to mechanical issues tho ahahaha

[mranon]

ive seen many a time nx drivers reporting a fault they have found developing as they progress. for example, one chap was driving along, when suddenly his ticket machine failed. he called it in straight away, given instructions on what to do next, and within the 20min journey onwards to wolves, an engineer was there with a change bus. they swapped vehicles, and driver carries on. have also seen nx have an engineer based in town with most spares for minor defects eg coolant bulbs wipers mirrors etc,

[Trident 4609]

ive seen many a time nx drivers reporting a fault they have found developing as they progress. for example, one chap was driving along, when suddenly his ticket machine failed. he called it in straight away, given instructions on what to do next, and within the 20min journey onwards to wolves, an engineer was there with a change bus. they swapped vehicles, and driver carries on. have also seen nx have an engineer based in town with most spares for minor defects eg coolant bulbs wipers mirrors etc,

There is usually a change bus very quickly after most defective buses I have seen taken back to garage. I usually regually see the engineer and his van parked at the bus station

[arrivaaston]

Was a pic on fb of a Trident that had crashed and yes it was NatEx, how many have caught fire.....???

[Trident 4609]

Was a pic on fb of a Trident that had crashed and yes it was NatEx, how many have caught fire.....???

How many tridents have caught fire? Apart from 4336,not many! I did notice 4566 was taken off the 59 today (Defective probably) And replaced with 1669

[arrivaaston]

Not just tridents I was refering to lol

[BN]

We have an engineer permanently at the bus station. He keeps a hell of a lot of lost mileage at bay.

[andy]

We have an engineer permanently at the bus station. He keeps a hell of a lot of lost mileage at bay.

I really don't want to keep this silly argument going but I think the fact a fitter has to be permanently stationed at the bus station tells all you need to know about the reliability of many vehicles to get through a day's work without failing in some way.

[winston]

We have an engineer permanently at the bus station. He keeps a hell of a lot of lost mileage at bay.

I really don't want to keep this silly argument going but I think the fact a fitter has to be permanently stationed at the bus station tells all you need to know about the reliability of many vehicles to get through a day's work without failing in some way.

But no operator can predict when a light bulb / wiper blade / ticket machine will fail, but they are all things that would result in the bus being taken out of service. If minor defects can be dealt with quickly in the bus station it keeps delays / missing journeys to a minimum.

[arrivaaston]

If a mechanic is based at the bus station all day then the buses can't be all that well maintained can they? But the point here is every1 slates Arriva for having mechanical issues yet every bus operator suffers them, it can not be helped at all and have Nat Ex got a chosen liverey as they have 3 different ones?

[Tony]

We have an engineer permanently at the bus station. He keeps a hell of a lot of lost mileage at bay.

I really don't want to keep this silly argument going but I think the fact a fitter has to be permanently stationed at the bus station tells all you need to know about the reliability of many vehicles to get through a day's work without failing in some way.

It does, but it is also a sensible contigency,

I am not so sure modern vehicles are any less reliable than older vehicles, but there are two things that make a big difference, specially if you go back to pre-deregulation. When I was first driving you were expected to carry on driving with the exception of
a) You were physically unable to make it move
b) Steering was so bad you couldn't control it. (I am sure if Autosteer on fleetlines was brought back nearly every bus would be parked for bad steering!)
c) Brakes were so bad you couldn't stop it
If you reported 'heavy steering', 'no heaters' or various other defects you were expected to carry on until engineers found time to give you a change bus. Even things like defective doors was carry on, just ask people not to come onto the platform until you've stopped!

Nowadays any red warning lights is park up immediately, any yellow warning light, poor cab heaters, or any other non-safety critical fault is change bus or engineers attendance at the next time you get to the usual changeover point.

The second is there are much fewer peak only boards than there used to be so buses amount many more miles much quicker. In Birmingham off-peak was only about 25% of the peak in the 1950s and 60s so it took buses a lot longer to run the same number of miles, so if a bus was going to break down every 60,000 miles, that will be much more frequently timescale wise now.

[Bob]

Even three failed tridents a day though given the size of the fleet is nothing. The amount of breakdowns at cannock almost every day and resulting in cancelled services would surely , pro rata, be equivalent of at least 25 breakdowns a day at wolverhampton? ?

[winston]

Agreed, every operator has mechanical issues on a daily basis.

I think Arriva's issues are:

1 - They don't carry enough spare buses to cover the volume of breakdowns that are occurring
2 - They don't have enough engineering staff to be able to respond quickly enough when a breakdown occurs resulting in them loosing the journey / mileage
3 - Arriva also don't have cab radio's where they can easily communicate with drivers

[arrivaaston]

Why would Arriva drivers need to communicate with each other? Can imagine that "Hi, I'm on 825 I'm brokedown in Hansacre" other driver "oh right cool I'm on 76 just leaving stafford"..... Waste of time IMO