Stagecoach North Scotland (Bluebird and Highland)

[Bowie]

All of these are loans not transfers. 11785 was on 201/202 last night. Despite coming down to Aberdeen yesterday 21406 is currently at Elgin depot and looks to be getting used there.

Ohhh ok cheers for the correction. It wasn’t clear when i saw the edit on Bustimes lol

 

[Ricky Kane]

YX67UPM 54824 has been painted into the newer Scottish Citylink Livery.

 

[Bowie]

Bluebird 36956 YX63 LHC was at Inverness depot on Friday evening, as was 28645 SV12 AZG. Either it didn’t go on loan at all or went on loan for a day or two coz it looks like it hasn’t moved lol

 

[Ricky Kane]

Bluebird 36956 YX63 LHC was at Inverness depot on Friday evening, as was 28645 SV12 AZG. Either it didn’t go on loan at all or went on loan for a day or two coz it looks like it hasn’t moved lol

All the Buses on loan have returned apart from 21379.

 

[computerSaysNo]

From Stagecoach:

Service Disruption Friday 15th March 2024 - Elgin
13 Mar 2024 to 18 Mar 2024
On Friday 15th March 2024, a small number of bus services will not operate in Elgin at the following times:

Service 32
1215 & 1315 Elgin BS-Burghead-Forres.
1229, 1329 & 1429 Forres-Burghead-Elgin BS.

Service 33A/C
1243 & 1313 Elgin BS-Lossiemouth.
1257 Elgin BS-Pinefield.
1435 Pinefield-Elgin BS.
1305, 1335 & 1405 Pinefield-Lossiemouth.
1300 & 1330 Lossiemouth-Pinefield.
1405 Lossiemouth-Manitoba.
1430 & 1500 Lossiemouth-Elgin BS.

Service 34
1353 Elgin BS-Bishopmill-Elgin BS

Service 36
1420 Elgin BS - Dufftown
1514 Dufftown - Elgin BS

Anyone know the reason for this?

 

[Caleb2010]

From Stagecoach:

Anyone know the reason for this?

Many staff wished to go to the funeral service of the poor driver who lost his life last month.
A decision was obviously made to withdraw services for a short period to facilitate this.

 

[computerSaysNo]

Many staff wished to go to the funeral service of the poor driver who lost his life last month.
A decision was obviously made to withdraw services for a short period to facilitate this.

Ah that makes sense.

 

[Megafuss]

Go North East has announced Daniel Laird has joined as Head of Commercial from Stagecoach Bluebird

Go North East has announced the appointment of Daniel Laird as the new Head of Commercial, effective April 22, 2024. With over 15 years of experience in the passenger transport industry, Daniel brings a wealth of expertise and leadership to the company.

https://newsroom.gonortheast.co.uk/

 

[Highland050261]

3 of 6 Mercedes-Benz Tourismo Access have arrived for Caithness.
Stagecoach Highlands 59101-6 BF24AUA/H/J.

Photo Taken by me Shows the new Mercs.

 

[PG]

3 of 6 Mercedes-Benz Tourismo Access have arrived for Caithness.
Stagecoach Highlands 59101-6 BF24AUA/H/J.

Photo Taken by me Shows the new Mercs.

Thanks for your photo. Seems like a successor to the Plaxton Profile bodied Volvo B7R. I wonder if they'll be permitted to remove the crew seat in the entrance or if it has to remain to satisfy PSVAR as I believe it incorporates handrails?

 

[Highland050261]

Thanks for your photo. Seems like a successor to the Plaxton Profile bodied Volvo B7R. I wonder if they'll be permitted to remove the crew seat in the entrance or if it has to remain to satisfy PSVAR as I believe it incorporates handrails?

I believe it's attached to the handrails buts these should see there removal of the Plaxton Elites from the Caithness fleet and will just leave the X99 Plaxton Panther 2.

 

[Highland050261]

Stagecoach Highlands 59104 BF24AUH has arrived at the Thurso Depot with 59101 BF24AUA on Route and what's left of 53715 has been dragged from Volvo Inverness to the Inverness Depot.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Will some of these new Mercedes c off the x99 allocated panthers? Probably about time that route had something new again

 

[Highland050261]

Will some of these new Mercedes c off the x99 allocated panthers? Probably about time that route had something new again

no these are to Replace to local Elites 54303/4/9/10 and 53708 Mainly to be used on Doonray Routes and locals during the day.

 

[Bowie]

Whats the word on the street about the YX64 plate Elites? Would they maybe go to East Scotland considering they have some ? Or Bluebird? Will be a shame to see them go

 

[Highland050261]

Whats the word on the street about the YX64 plate Elites? Would they maybe go to East Scotland considering they have some ? Or Bluebird? Will be a shame to see them go

I Belive Bluebird to replace 53645/702/3 and recently withdrawn 53715.

 

[Jordan Adam]

I Belive Bluebird to replace 53645/702/3 and recently withdrawn 53715.

Triaxles are not suitable for the 10. Those older B9Rs are coming off once the M96 transfers to Inverness.

 

[Bowie]

Triaxles are not suitable for the 10. Those older B9Rs are coming off once the M96 transfers to Inverness.

Why aren’t they suitable? They’re buses that run, perfectly suitable in my eyes

I Belive Bluebird to replace 53645/702/3 and recently withdrawn 53715.

Would make perfect sense tbh to send the 64 plate buses to Bluebird and the Panthers somewhere else like East Scotland. Thats just my views tho. Will be interesting to see what buses go where

 

[GusB]

Why aren’t they suitable? They’re buses that run, perfectly suitable in my eyes

They're too long for Elgin bus station, I believe. They'd fit in stance 1, but reverse out too far and you run the risk of backing out into the road. Use any other stance and nothing else would be able to get past. It's a fairly tight space and was built before anything longer than 12m was permitted.

 

[Bowie]

They're too long for Elgin bus station, I believe. They'd fit in stance 1, but reverse out too far and you run the risk of backing out into the road. Use any other stance and nothing else would be able to get past. It's a fairly tight space and was built before anything longer than 12m was permitted.

Ohhh okay now i see, i withdraw my original comment then

 

[Highland050261]

They're too long for Elgin bus station, I believe. They'd fit in stance 1, but reverse out too far and you run the risk of backing out into the road. Use any other stance and nothing else would be able to get past. It's a fairly tight space and was built before anything longer than 12m was permitted.

I wonder if they thought about that but anyway seems like 54303 is the first one to come down.

Photo Shows 54303 stored at Inverness Depot.

Stagecoach 54303 YX64WCF

Stagecoach Highland 54303 YX64WCF Volvo B11RT/Plaxton Elite

flic.kr

 

[Caleb2010]

Bluebird has too many ‘Coach’ profile vehicles anyway, often these unsuitable monstrosities appear on local services where access for pushchairs, walking aids and people with reduced mobility is poor and nonexistent.

In my view, any spare vehicles should be low floor wheelchair accessible service buses as, these can be used on any route without loss of access, where coaches just add to problem. Stagecoach seem to rely on buying unsuitable coaches to use on bus work though.

The trend seems to be to use low floor vehicles on some 10 & M96 workings anyway, so the coaches could easily be transferred away, replacing them with low floor vehicles would then solve any allocation issues.

 

[Jordan Adam]

The issue isn't down to the number of coaches its the quality of the coaches, 53731 for example has spent much of the last year restricted to working the 33A/33C only due to coolant retention issues... Similarly 53734 often gets refused due to the fact practically nothing on it works how it should. The Plaxton bodied B9Rs are much the same, ultimately if you're running clapped out 11-14 year old coaches on high mileage routes what more can you expect.

The M96 is due to move to Highland as part of the network wide service review next month, when this happens most if not all the B9Rs are due to be coming off with just 54825-34 remaining for the 10 (the M96 being worked on paper by Inverness based 54821-24), so that should solve the issues.

They're too long for Elgin bus station, I believe. They'd fit in stance 1, but reverse out too far and you run the risk of backing out into the road. Use any other stance and nothing else would be able to get past. It's a fairly tight space and was built before anything longer than 12m was permitted.

There's also issues around Huntly Square, while the route of the 35 west of Banff is also unsuited which would limit where the vehicles could be used.

 

[Simon75]

Bluebird has too many ‘Coach’ profile vehicles anyway, often these unsuitable monstrosities appear on local services where access for pushchairs, walking aids and people with reduced mobility is poor and nonexistent.

In my view, any spare vehicles should be low floor wheelchair accessible service buses as, these can be used on any route without loss of access, where coaches just add to problem. Stagecoach seem to rely on buying unsuitable coaches to use on bus work though.

The trend seems to be to use low floor vehicles on some 10 & M96 workings anyway, so the coaches could easily be transferred away, replacing them with low floor vehicles would then solve any allocation issues.

Bus companies have been doing that for decades, probably depends on availability at the time

 

[Blindtraveler]

Regardless of using them on suitable routes, stagecoach nationally are going to need some heavy investment in coach fleet across multiple locations, I should imagine that virtually everyone other than Oxford tube that operates routes with coaches are crying out for some new vehicles and making the group finance directors head ache something rotten and this certainly seems to be the case in both bluebird and Highland divisions.

 

[Highland050261]

Regardless of using them on suitable routes, stagecoach nationally are going to need some heavy investment in coach fleet across multiple locations, I should imagine that virtually everyone other than Oxford tube that operates routes with coaches are crying out for some new vehicles and making the group finance directors head ache something rotten and this certainly seems to be the case in both bluebird and Highland divisions.

Highland's coaches will mostly be new with the pending arrival of the new 9700DD. It will just leave the 7 2013 Plaxton Panther 2s that normally do the X99 to be replaced.

 

[computerSaysNo]

network wide service review next month

Do you have any more information on this?

 

[Blindtraveler]

Highland's coaches will mostly be new with the pending arrival of the new 9700DD. It will just leave the 7 2013 Plaxton Panther 2s that normally do the X99 to be replaced.

Which hopefully will happen soon enough as they must be knackered
Wonder if they're going to evaluate which vehicle type performs better out of the three that they've taken recently including the 9700 and order accordingly

 

[Highland050261]

Which hopefully will happen soon enough as they must be knackered
Wonder if they're going to evaluate which vehicle type performs better out of the three that they've taken recently including the 9700 and order accordingly

I think they were Knackered after they came of the 900 in 2020.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I think they were Knackered after they came of the 900 in 2017/18.

I had forgotten these were the former 900 vehicles, in which case yes I can confirm they were a long way from being factory fresh at the end of their 900 duties goodness knows what reliability must be like both mechanically and in terms of onboard systems etc