Arriva North East

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East

(30/08/2014 17:15)Metroline1511 Wrote:  It is interesting that the Streetlite is in the same liveries as other Hybrid buses in the area, most notably the Volvo B5LHs and the EcoCities. Talking of which, I did stop off in Darlington on the August Bank Holiday on the way to my Richmond - Hawes - Lancaster bus ride. I saw Solos on route 8 but EcoCities on routes 2, 8, 11 and 21, where I rode 4805. My route 26a ride was still a Solo, and a few months ago you did prepare me Kuyoyo that it would not have been upgraded yet, having to wait until the Autumn. A change (which you may have mentioned earlier) was that the X66s I saw were both OmniCities, including appropriately 1511!

This was indeed the day I sampled my first Arriva Sapphire bus ride, namely Pulsar 2 1514 on route 7 as planned. It was really comfortable, and the 2-tone blue leather reminded me of Elite coaches on Stagecoach Fife Express routes!

Originally, it was known that 1582-9 were being delivered in Hybrid Livery to match 7801-10 as they are for the 306. However, it now seems all the standard Streetlites are in hybrid livery - which in my opinion the Hybrid/Sapphire/MAX-style liveries suit them a lot better than the application of the Standard livery on the Southern Countries ones.

As for MAX, we are presently 2 months behind in terms of the planned MAX launches - the launch for the brand on the X10/X11 takes place on Monday evening, when the original plan was for a June launch. The X15 vehicles have yet to be started on but should be done quicker than the X10/X11 Geminis as there's only 5 to do and all 5 will be at Blackburn at the same time. X26/X27/X66 won't be started on until the X15 vehicles are finished plus once Stockton's and Redcar's Streetlites enter service (Stockton's enter service in a fornight's time, Redcar's a week later) as I believe the plan is to have the freed-up Prestiges on X66s while the OmniCitys are away.