First's - Cherry Row Bus Depot

[lodekka]

As from last week all stored buses have been removed from the depot anyone know where they have gone?. There is now a for sale board erected.


Cheers


Malcolm

[michael1971]

Aug 13, 2013 12:51:03 GMT 1 lodekka said:

As from last week all stored buses have been removed from the depot anyone know where they have gone?. There is now a for sale board erected.


Cheers


Malcolm

all to PVS for scarp

[ricardoat4]

Aren't there two purple ftrs at Bradford?

[westyorkshirebus]

There is already a thread half a dozen below this one which answers these and other questions relating to Cherry Row.

[Matty]

CT Plus wanted Cherry Row before first got it to store buses, they might put in for it again.

[andy1]

First,never "got it" it was theirs anyway,however there is now a For Sale board erected so we shall
see what happens. As a footnote the Solos (Ex LEEDS FREE CITY BUS)are currently being stored at Skircoat depot,no sign of them been brought into service at the moment,i am led to believe considerable remedial work is required.

[Burnside]

I wondered about them. What i find surprising is, given they are (IIRC) owned by Metro, that they have had no issue with their porperty being stored at Cherry Row for so long rather than out earning money, if not with First then with someone else.

[Matty]

Aug 14, 2013 18:54:43 GMT 1 andy1 said:

First,never "got it" it was theirs anyway,however there is now a For Sale board erected so we shall
see what happens. As a footnote the Solos (Ex LEEDS FREE CITY BUS)are currently being stored at Skircoat depot,no sign of them been brought into service at the moment,i am led to believe considerable remedial work is required.

I believe the lease finished or something like that and the building was not owned by them for about 2 weeks, in that time CT Plus tried to get it. The Solos are not Leeds free city bus, they are ex 747 airport buses (Cummins engined) they are going straight to the scrap yard from what I have heard

[www.buseireann.ie]

Now fair enough after years of storage with no use these buses will have deteriorated however if they are to go for scrap then that really needs looking into. Someone's head must roll because those buses cost money, my money and as a really anoyed tax payer I'm asking myself my tax paid for them buses and how much use did they get??? Their less than 10 years old as well, 9 to be precise and have only been used for about 6 of them, 7 at a push. Hebden Bridge were suffering shortages for some time under First control, surely some of the Bradford free buses could have been transferred to Todmorden to act as back up vehicles and those stored buses at Cherry Row could have been pressed into service in Bradford. They were operated by First in Leeds on normal routes with luggage racks for a year or so after they finished on the Airport routes, so taking out the luggage racks wouldn't have been an issue. If no suitable route could have been found (highly unlikely though), why wern't they sold???

[Matty]

They are the same length as a dart and are having major problems with both chassis & the engine.

[www.buseireann.ie]

Major tut tut, massive problems after only a handful of years service, why do people think tax payers money can be wasted like this! Metro should have ripped apart in court who ever made them or if it was down to bad driving or storage then who ever was responsible for this should pay!

[Burnside]

Being dumped outdoors for god knows how long won't have helped!

[kendall17]

Sept 12, 2013 20:00:21 GMT 1 www.buseireann.ie said:

Major tut tut, massive problems after only a handful of years service, why do people think tax payers money can be wasted like this! Metro should have ripped apart in court who ever made them or if it was down to bad driving or storage then who ever was responsible for this should pay!

Are they owned by Metro? For them to be left around for so long, I imagine they aren't. They'd have been sold on ala ex Accessbus vehicles.

[www.buseireann.ie]

I've done a bit of digging on these and it seems unofficially First kept them when they lost the Airport contracts to Centrebus. I wonder if First did a deal with Metro? If they did they've been diddled because additionally, they appear to have had faults from early days! They must have been owned by Metro in the first place because I'm very sure they were used by the previous contract operator, Aztecbird.

[Burnside]

Aztecbird then Pegasus then First.

[kendall17]

Sept 13, 2013 0:45:22 GMT 1 www.buseireann.ie said:

I've done a bit of digging on these and it seems unofficially First kept them when they lost the Airport contracts to Centrebus. I wonder if First did a deal with Metro? If they did they've been diddled because additionally, they appear to have had faults from early days! They must have been owned by Metro in the first place because I'm very sure they were used by the previous contract operator, Aztecbird.

The previous operator of said contract may have sold them on to the new operator on the cheap. Saves them acquiring the new vehicles when there are 3? perfectly suitable ones on the market.

There are a number of plausible reasons as to why they're no longer (or never were) under Metro ownership.

[www.buseireann.ie]

Sept 13, 2013 6:27:07 GMT 1 Burnside said:

Aztecbird then Pegasus then First.

I know technically Aztecbird and Pegasus were separate companies however I'm calling them the same because I'm sure they were connected somehow. Bearing in mind Pegases went bust and if they did own these 3 vehicles, I'm wondering now if First aquired these on the cheap from them either directly or via an administrator?

[westyorkshirebus]

The fact that they are the usual very long variant would mean they can't be used on any old MetroConnect contract.

As Pegasus went bust, I expect they may have been in a poor mechanical condition.

[www.buseireann.ie]

Sept 13, 2013 17:34:57 GMT 1 westyorkshirebus said:

The fact that they are the usual very long variant would mean they can't be used on any old MetroConnect contract.

As Pegasus went bust, I expect they may have been in a poor mechanical condition.

Ah but they were used on the Leeds city bus

[Matty]

Only one of them was used on LCB for a very short time.

[Burnside]

Sept 13, 2013 17:34:57 GMT 1 westyorkshirebus said:

The fact that they are the usual very long variant would mean they can't be used on any old MetroConnect contract.

As Pegasus went bust, I expect they may have been in a poor mechanical condition.

They operated with First Bradford for long enough.

[T101VWU]

These also ran on the Horsforth Circulars (Holt Park-Horsforth) 31/32 back when First ran it.

[kevg]

Vehicles in Cherry row currently are Olympians 30845 31771 31773 31806 & Scania L113s 60113 60133 61056 61059 61060 61061 61062 61065 61066 61068 61069 61071 61072 61073 61076 61077 61078. Only 2 L113s in service now 60131 & 61074. No sign of B6BLE 40565 which was in here.

[pub146g]

Resurrected this thread to note recent happenings now the festival is over.

31761/764 were collected by Bradford this afternoon, and at that time the following vehicles were present!

30796/815/817/818/834/840. 31762/775/807/808 plus a couple more RH types at the top end of the yard.

No sign of 31677, Bradford's oldest Royale so it looks like that has also gone back.

B7TL's 30869/892 were also present.

[pub146g]

Bradford have now taken all their RH type Olympians back except 31762 which is 'off the road'. Just 10 buses in Cherry Row yard:

30796/815/817/818/834/840. 31762/775/807/808.