As for someone who used to drive said Green Arrows, the chair lift was in the middle where the set of doors are. They are incorporated into one of the steps, with the controller to control them kept in the luggage compartment. As for where the chair went in the saloon, was pretty much directly opposite where the stairs are. With the seat against the seat rest, metal bars through the wheels(where possible), ratchet straps and seatbelt.
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Lothian Group discussion (Lothian City, Lothian Country Bus and East Coast Buses)
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I find it curious that 926/7 are on <500K and withdrawn while some of 351-400 are on ~700k. Same with 936 the ex-airlink B9s at ECB on interstellar mileage.
Maybe they're just in better condition? Not sure what the criteria is other than fleet number order.
It's odd given some of 351-400 are shocking, there's a few that feel like they've had some serious work done and drive far better to others, even at the upper end of mileage scale. Don't know a driver that doesn't agree that the older B9 batches drive far better than the 11 plates
computerSaysNo
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Care to elaborate?
As far as I know, the ex-Londons have a different type of gearbox which will presumably need different maintenance techniques and tools to the other vehicles.
I don't know of any other differences off the top of my head but I don't doubt there are more.
That's obviously not to say they couldn't be used at ECB. But if it were up to me I wouldn't be rushing to transfer a small batch of them over.
stevenedin
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I would assume that if they required maintenance they would go to a Lothian Buses depot anyway and they have those buses also so it wouldn’t be a problem. 591-594 was a small batch also.
computerSaysNo
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True, didn't someone say earlier in this thread that Musselburgh vehicles sometimes go to Marine for maintenance?
FlybeDash8Q400
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Buses are swapped between Marine and Musselburgh for this reason all the time. Sometimes it’s for minutes, sometimes it’s for days.
ScotRail158725
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After 13 nearly 14 years 926/7 are still under 500k miles? quite surprising to be honest, especially with most of the 11 plates being on a much higher number.
And in a particularly awkward position on the road as well:
It doesn't fill you with confidence in a supplier of electric buses when they don't appear to know the difference between kW and kWh:
It was there well into the evening, believe it got towed back. It's got a ticket machine fitted now and they seemed to be trialling it on the 8 route today.
EnchantGaming
Member
Quite a few of our B5s, especially the 15, 66, and 17 plates, are showing signs of high mileage. Quite a few are quite rough and have odd squeaks and rattles now. Apparently the 15 plates (ex Airlink) are sitting close to 1 million miles on the clock.
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stevenedin
Established Member
Out of curiosity how many miles should a bus have roughly when it is time for withdrawal?
FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
1 million miles on the 15 plates? That seems a lot for their age. Especially given the fact they’ve been on Skylink duties, City runs and were also off the road for about 6 months in total with refurbs/first lockdown.
The ECB ex Airlink Gemini2’s are even at 1 million miles yet, they’re close mind you.
EnchantGaming
Member
Yea, they haven’t got there quite yet, but some of them are getting close.
Interestingly enough, 926/927 the 2 09 plate B9’s, which were withdrawn back in October, have less than 500K on the clock. Which is quite surprising for a nearly 14 year old bus, and also considering they were used on various routes, and the 29 which they were once branded for.
926 in 2016:
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EnchantGaming
Member
Brand new 926 in 2009:
It varies between buses and usage patterns. But generally, in the UK operators withdraw their buses after about 14 or 15 years of service.
Yea the ex-Londons have ZF Ecolife’s. And are slightly more powerful than the other ones. They’ve had their gearboxes reprogrammed, because apparently when they were in London they were awfully sluggish.
351 to 400 have only recently been refurbished and had Euro 6 modifications done. So they probably won’t be going anywhere for at least a couple of years.
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Definitely not, all are on between 300-400k, not sure where you get your information from. They'd have to have done 120k miles a year minimum to come close to 1 million, even the highest mileage XLBs haven't reached 200k yet.
Like any Wright product of that era they rattled and squeaked from new although the roads in Edinburgh aren't kind to buses to say the least.
90019
Established Member
They are nowhere near that - currently they're all roughly in the 330-350k range.
It went out in the 23 today, and is currently sitting broken down in Morningside.
I suspect that, like Saddam Hussein in South Park the movie, Wrightbus came along singing to Lothian "I can change, I can change" but their opportunity to demonstrate so isn't going quite as well as they might have hoped
If I was Lothian, and they didn't put something significant in my pocket after the StreetAir debacle, I wouldn't buy as much as a AA battery from them ever again.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Something tells me that they are not likely to be buying any of these any time soon. Either that or it isn't sufficiently charging up or something like that
It's been on charge all night long each night as far as I'm aware. It's been there the last three nights (inclusive of tonight) on charge at 2030 along with the BYDs.
More 200s have been brought back to Central, 207 was being cleaned when I finished tonight and is showing taxed until November 2023 (so taxed this month) on the DVLA site. I haven't checked the others but all have ticket machines fitted.
215 was out on a test run earlier. 207 has also been shuffling a lot as well and is currently tracking (may not be accurate) in the area where all buses ready for service are parked. Both are due MOT tests in due course.
172 has also been moving around and on test runs recently.
That's taxed along with 203, some of the others I checked were SORN but the ones at Central are taxed.
Also yes, it was parked on bay 1.
201, 204 and 205 have also been taxed. 201 & 205 both having had test runs done but remain at Marine.
Hoping they'll be out soon, could certainly do with extra buses at Central now 670/671 and 1001 have also gone to Longstone.
Time will tell I guess, but seems like a lot of fuss for nothing if they're not going into service.
FlybeDash8Q400
Established Member
It’s all very strange because 670-671 and 1001 don’t look like they’ve replaced anything at Longstone and appear to be extra.
Central has also gained 631 for some reason as well. Very odd.
computerSaysNo
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Maybe a few more 6xx are going to Longstone to make sure the rush buses aren't going out as single-decks, and 201-215 directly replacing them at Central plus giving Central a few more deckers for the same reason?
Longstone only have one express route, which is always operated by double deckers so I doubt that. I had assumed they were just moved because central needed less vehicles as a result of the cuts to the timetable on the 31 although I'm not certain. Also, 207 has moved back to Marine.
Some of the X33s are covered by Central anyway. I believe there's around 22 or more PM rush buses that run out of Central on various routes.
Central has a share of most of the X routes, except the X26. Marine does a couple of X37 and X44s, plus exclusively the X26 and then Longstone has one (maybe two?) X33s. On top of that the rush buses for some of the busier routes.