Arriva North East

[kuyoyo]

RE: Arriva North East

(02/11/2014 18:55)Metroline1511 Wrote:  I rode an X-GGO Dart in 2012 and it seemed a bit cramped sitting on the seat with my feet above the right wheel arch. The single-door conversion did not look altogether elegant really.

Will the Enviro400s for route 7 be Sapphire? When I rode the Sapphire Pulsar there in August it seemed really busy, so the Sapphire buses must have generated additional traffic.

I may have an exaggerated vision here, but it seems that more new or refurbished Arriva North East buses than not are to Max or Sapphire standard.

Yes, the 7 remains Sapphire just it requires extra capacity (much like a certain AM trip on the 5 presently does as a result of school loadings which has resulted in the last board out of the depot working a duplicate journey as far as Swans Corner before going light to Brotton to start properly).
A little birdy has mentioned that all Sapphire routes are performing above and beyond the expectation of DB.

As next year means the end of the road for the Cadets (1901-17/20/2 - although some of them won't actually see 2015), the Wright-bodied B10BLEs (4501/2/4-15) and the Y-registered Lowlanders (7436-44) plus presumably some or all of 1301-15 (the X-GGOs) there is major investment required. It's already speculated that Stockton will gain some Pulsars from Durham with the Sapphire upgrade to the 6. As for the specification of new vehicles - it all depends on the route. North East's definition of MAX is 'Quick Links' hence so far the only routes upgraded as those of express nature (the only real exceptions are the 14 between Morpeth and Thornton but that's due to the interworking with the X14 - and the evening/Sunday 26A but that is just a variation of the X26 and now interworks with the X66s on Sundays).