Whiteway215
Established Member
Only a minor observation but looking at the (klaxon on) Bustimes (klaxon off) today I see that 30875 and 66731 have been taken off vey recently. However the old Bath Solos that went to Cymru are still there!
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First West of England (Bristol, Bath & The West)
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Wessexbuses
Member
33754 now in mendip explorer livery
Outside wells depot today
Outside wells depot today
-Colly405-
Member
EuroV engine?
Tommy Walters
Member
Bath once again mixing up allocations - 66881 ended up on the afternoon U3s, whilst 67633 was on the 5. Abus provided YG02FWB for their evening peak U1 runs instead of the usual Scania as well!!
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Well if you wondered why e300s have appeared.... from the staff rag (via public transport experience blog) following Wrightbus’s collapse:
This collapse is having a direct effect on us here at First West of England, in two ways:
On a day-to-day level all warranty work and parts supply has ceased immediately. This will make it difficult for our engineering colleagues to deal with any repairs that may be needed until alternative arrangements can be put in place and parts sourced from elsewhere.
More immediately, it gives us a severe bus shortage here as First UK Bus Division was in the process of taking delivery of a batch of 50 Streetdeck double-deckers for operation in Leeds.
Their arrival would allow 23 middle-aged Volvo double-deckers to be transferred to us. Unfortunately not one of these buses has been delivered to Leeds, so no cascade can even start until they do. My information is that 30 buses have been completed and are ready to ship while some 20 vehicles are in various states of construction on the (now stopped) production line.
We are hoping that negotiations with the administrator will lead to the release of these buses within the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are going to be very tight for buses!
This collapse is having a direct effect on us here at First West of England, in two ways:
On a day-to-day level all warranty work and parts supply has ceased immediately. This will make it difficult for our engineering colleagues to deal with any repairs that may be needed until alternative arrangements can be put in place and parts sourced from elsewhere.
More immediately, it gives us a severe bus shortage here as First UK Bus Division was in the process of taking delivery of a batch of 50 Streetdeck double-deckers for operation in Leeds.
Their arrival would allow 23 middle-aged Volvo double-deckers to be transferred to us. Unfortunately not one of these buses has been delivered to Leeds, so no cascade can even start until they do. My information is that 30 buses have been completed and are ready to ship while some 20 vehicles are in various states of construction on the (now stopped) production line.
We are hoping that negotiations with the administrator will lead to the release of these buses within the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are going to be very tight for buses!
Whiteway215
Established Member
I'm sure Ensign would flog them some old ex London Tridents!
freetoview33
Established Member
Most likely will end up being something like that in the short term at least!
DaveHarries
Established Member
The situation with Wrightbus, if it does collapse completely, will give headaches to First all over, not just in the west of England, should any vehicles need repairs that they would normally go back to Ireland for. The mechanics at the Bristol depots will have difficulty with the StreetDecks for the 70, 71 and 90 while Wells will have trouble getting work done on the StreetDecks still in use for the 376 (as if they don't have enough problems with those ones already!) if they are on integral chassis.
IMO Wrights should not have given up the Volvo partnership and I don't think the design of the StreetDeck will have done them many favours either.
Dave
IMO Wrights should not have given up the Volvo partnership and I don't think the design of the StreetDeck will have done them many favours either.
Dave
Private Baxter
Established Member
- Joined
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- 1,789
Thanks for sharing GW! That makes sense, and could cause problems further down the line. Meanwhile Steve has hinted that the e300s were in fact intended for Wells! I can only assume for 126.
ValleyLines142
Established Member
Car wash?
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
I saw that from Steve. Not certain what the benefit to Wells would be?
Marcus Fryer
Member
- Joined
- 27 Dec 2014
- Messages
- 735
See post #22107 et seq.
ValleyLines142
Established Member
That was 37347, not 37625.
Marcus Fryer
Member
- Joined
- 27 Dec 2014
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- 735
Was it confirmed as 37347? That was my suggestion, but I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere. I assumed that's the incident Steve is referring to.
According to our news letter LH is eating on 20 ish deckers from Leeds.
I’m pretty sure it was. The allocator mention the number and it was definitely a 373**
ValleyLines142
Established Member
Yes, it was.
Annoyingly, I never got round to finding out which B9 was involved in the previous crash at Emersons Green back in June 2014.
Tommy Walters
Member
Think it was 37341.
winston270twm
Established Member
- Joined
- 26 Oct 2012
- Messages
- 1,899
Nothing can leave Leeds until Leeds gets it's Streedecks or something else instead.
Whiteway215
Established Member
(Sound Klaxon) I see the Bus Tracker says 30936 was on Bath Uni U3 last Friday.
Nothing can come down until Leeds gets its streetdecks, but as wrightbus has gone bust who knows when that will be.
If they can hang on that long, there will be buses spare in Glasgow from the end of October, potentially in 2 weeks time with the reduced school holidays services that week, if buses freed by the Midland Bluebird cuts go over for the final week of "full" services. Aberdeen is also on school holidays for those 2 weeks, so may also have a few spare then if Glasgow needed them ahead of the Aberdeen cuts the same day as Glasgow's.
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Whiteway215
Established Member
As all the students are now back at Bath Uni I thought I would have a brief womble around to see what was going on.
I started with the U2 - all seven PVR working although running a bit late because of traffic. A large articulated wagon parked right outside Ralph Allen School at going in time causing chaos! 53806 on one of the U2s.
Then went down Bathwick Hill. About five bendis and two deckers passed me coming up the hill-standing loads and that was about 11 o'clock. I was following two deckers down the hill. Some clown of a TNT truck driver then decided to park at the very point that bendis have to carefully negotiate an awkward narrow bit-with cars parked on the opposite side of the road.
More deckers and bendis passed along Pulteney Road and North Parade. It was a continuous shuttle service.
I'm afraid I only saw about three U3s and they were bendis and a 400MMC.
I saw no evidence of outside bus companies giving any support- I only saw First Bath vehicles, apart from the two First Wessex loan deckers.
One thing I will say I saw no evidence of queueing students as per last year. It may have been a different situation earlier this morning but I can only report what I saw.
I started with the U2 - all seven PVR working although running a bit late because of traffic. A large articulated wagon parked right outside Ralph Allen School at going in time causing chaos! 53806 on one of the U2s.
Then went down Bathwick Hill. About five bendis and two deckers passed me coming up the hill-standing loads and that was about 11 o'clock. I was following two deckers down the hill. Some clown of a TNT truck driver then decided to park at the very point that bendis have to carefully negotiate an awkward narrow bit-with cars parked on the opposite side of the road.
More deckers and bendis passed along Pulteney Road and North Parade. It was a continuous shuttle service.
I'm afraid I only saw about three U3s and they were bendis and a 400MMC.
I saw no evidence of outside bus companies giving any support- I only saw First Bath vehicles, apart from the two First Wessex loan deckers.
One thing I will say I saw no evidence of queueing students as per last year. It may have been a different situation earlier this morning but I can only report what I saw.