[Archive] Arriva North West - Speke Depot

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva North West - Speke Depot
Had a few rides on the brand new Enviro400s out on the 86/86A today, although in true Arriva style, one of the old order was still in action in the form of 4119. As Penny Return mentioned, 4566, 4573 and 4574 were the unused examples with the rest out and about on the 86. I dare say the latter two aren't quite ready for service yet as the last of the batch.

I rode on 4562, 4557, 4564 and 4556 during the course of the day. Initial impressions are reasonably positive, tempered with the fact that these are Enviro400s and tend to develop rattles and crashes easily, in contrast with the 4100-4129 and 4435-4478 batches which are generally still good riders after busy lives thus far. There were already some noticeable creaks upstairs on both 4562 and 4556, with the other two providing the near flawless rides you'd expect from brand new buses.

Although not a fan of the e-leather, the seating was still nice and comfortable and the Wi-Fi working well on all but 4562, where it was painfully slow. My only gripe here is that you simply wouldn't know the buses were fitted with Wi-Fi - nowhere externally or internally is it mentioned at present. I hope they rectify this in the near future as they did with the EcoCity and B5L fleets.

By contrast, I also had rides on both 4119 and 4426, the 86 predecessor and an older Enviro400. While 4119's ride was excellent and the bus still very clean a couple of years since its Polish & Promote, 4426 was absolutely dire in the ride department. For me, it performed worse than any of the DLAs and even R-WVRs I can remember riding. Let's just hope Speke's Enviro400s age more like the B7s than 4426 has!

I'll really miss the B7s on the 86, as they've provided superb service on one of Merseyside's busiest bus corridors for the last eight years. They are excellent buses but were starting to age in terms of their Euro III engines and lack of features such as Wi-Fi.