Arriva North East

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East

(21/06/2014 21:38)Metroline1511 Wrote:  It is remarkable how such a modern vehicle has already been refurbished to MAX spec albeit without any branding yet. It does seem that Arriva are introducing Max and Sapphire branding to quite a few refurbished buses across the country as well as new buses.

After some fence-sitting, I have committed to an itinerary that will give me time to ride 2 Sapphire Pulsars on route 7 before catching the bus from Darlington to Richmond for the Dalesbus service. (At least these are new unlike the forthcoming ones for Bolton). I toyed with an early train to Newcastle for GNE route 21 but shall postpone Newcastle. I may be flying Jet 2 from Cork to Newcastle next year so can do Tyne & Wear buses again then!

The next one due back from 'MAX' refurbishment is 7624 (NK61 EBP).

New details have emerged regarding this year's order for the North East:

The 16 Standard specification StreetLites for Durham (service 23, 5), Jesmond (service 306, 8) and Ashington (service 35/35a, 3) are 10.8 metre examples. In additional, 9 8.8m Wheel Forwards examples have now been ordered for Darlington depot for service 13a/b (Firth Moor Flyer) to release 5 MPDs to Blyth to replace the remaining allocated non-DDA MPDs north of the Tyne withdrawn. On current plans, only one non-DDA MPD of the presently allocated examples is currently not allocated a replacement (2 of the 3 allocated to Stockton will be replaced along with the 14 Prestiges once the 'Sapphire' Enviro400s enter service at Ashington and the 'Sapphire' StreetLites likewise at Stockton, leaving the 3rd MPD awaiting replacement).