Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

[L401CJF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(17/02/2019 11:20)Brickmill Wrote:  I don't want to get into the details of these particular services, but these comments do give an interesting insight into attitudes that prevail. In a nutshell, what CJF seems to be saying is that potential inconvience of loyal service bus customers is acceptable because the company/depot/shareholders benefit. Unless of course the mega money goes back to the 437 etc one way or another?

Not exactly, yes in economical terms the rail contract is a huge money maker for Arriva, and in theory yes some of the revenue from this would in the long run be reinvested into fleet. But the point I'm making is that for 95% of journeys on the crossriver routes throughout the day a single decker isnt an inconvenience as they handle the capacity fine. I understand the point about singles on crossrivers not being ideal and I agree, but they're not really a problem. It's only a handful of singles out the majority still deckers.

I'm told there's 6 hybrids on rails, plus the usual maintenance. The hybrids are proving quite unreliable as of late, most clocking up over 300,000miles so far and all due for overhaul mechanically. They're also having trouble with the heaters blowing cold on them so a cause for even more to be off the road as the unions won't let them out if cold. Usually 4211 and 4176 the backup buses would also be out, but they were both Mot last week. It was mentioned a while ago numerous B7TLs and DB250s were to be dug out of storage and allocated as designated rail buses across a few depots. 4211 was one of these however it just ended up on normal service. The rest never materialised, although they did start putting a couple back together, moved them around a bit (4203 was one) and then just left them again.

There's a few rumours about the hybrids going around the depot at the moment, but as nothing is confirmed it's pointless discussing it yet. I've also heard from a fitter 4204 has been marked as no parts to be removed as it could well be needed to cover, unfortunately!