pricel
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Post by pricel on Oct 15, 2023 16:59:11 GMT 1
I've been wondering what the criteria is for a route to become Sapphire Branded. At first I thought it were based off how popular a certain route is but that is obviously not the case as routes like 167 and 231/2 have been thrown into the mix. Don't get me wrong these two sets of services are well used but services such as: 126, 189, 202/3, 268 and 425 would be far more deserving.
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Post by MetrolineGA1511 on Oct 15, 2023 19:10:33 GMT 1
A possible factor is that those vehicles previously had Sapphire type seating when used on Flying Tiger services.
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Post by adam on Oct 15, 2023 19:48:25 GMT 1
I think what Metroline has said about sums it up the original sapphire routes were high frequency City to City/Town connections. The 167/8 and 231/2 gained the ex LBA Flyer buses what were higher spec so Arriva decided to give them routes Sapphire status despite not fitting with the previous criteria
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2023 20:10:38 GMT 1
I think what Metroline has said about sums it up the original sapphire routes were high frequency City to City/Town connections. The 167/8 and 231/2 gained the ex LBA Flyer buses what were higher spec so Arriva decided to give them routes Sapphire status despite not fitting with the previous criteria Was high frequency part of the criteria? As some of the early conversions to Sapphire included the Half Hourly 130 & Hourly 38 In Cheshire. |
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Post by adam on Oct 15, 2023 20:24:16 GMT 1
I dont think the nationwide Sapphire brand specified high frequency but Yorkshire seemed to see it as one of the stipulations with the early conversions 110/126/203
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2023 20:36:17 GMT 1
I dont think the nationwide Sapphire brand specified high frequency but Yorkshire seemed to see it as one of the stipulations with the early conversions 110/126/203 126/7 & 202/3 got upgraded to MAX not Sapphire around the time alot of routes across the UK was getting MAX Upgrades. |
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Post by westyorkshirebus on Oct 15, 2023 22:01:24 GMT 1
I dont think the nationwide Sapphire brand specified high frequency but Yorkshire seemed to see it as one of the stipulations with the early conversions 110/126/203 126/7 & 202/3 got upgraded to MAX not Sapphire around the time alot of routes across the UK was getting MAX Upgrades. MAX was mostly a Yorkshire & North East local initiative. It was used much less frequently elsewhere. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2023 22:09:53 GMT 1
126/7 & 202/3 got upgraded to MAX not Sapphire around the time alot of routes across the UK was getting MAX Upgrades. MAX was mostly a Yorkshire & North East local initiative. It was used much less frequently elsewhere. Beds & Bucks had a decent amount with the 60/X60,150,300/X30,800/50 plus the spare deckers for Sapphire 280 was also in MAX livery. |
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Post by burtonsa02 on Oct 15, 2023 23:28:56 GMT 1
I do think there are less and less buses becoming sapphire branded now and max has completely disappeared in Yorkshire especially as I've just seen 1967 without branding for the first time
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Post by dwarfer1979 on Oct 16, 2023 8:38:02 GMT 1
I've been wondering what the criteria is for a route to become Sapphire Branded. At first I thought it were based off how popular a certain route is but that is obviously not the case as routes like 167 and 231/2 have been thrown into the mix. Don't get me wrong these two sets of services are well used but services such as: 126, 189, 202/3, 268 and 425 would be far more deserving. The basic starting point when the concept was launched was a strong route where it was felt that an improvement in quality of service delivery would drive growth where it was currently insufficient to support other enhancements. It would appear that this growth thinking was watered down over the years so that having a certain spec of vehicles available may have been enough and they were certainly not good a keeping Sapphire vehicles on the correct routes within very little time of concept launch. |
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Post by steviewevie on Oct 16, 2023 8:38:12 GMT 1
Max is no longer used, neither is frequenta but according to Arriva's website the Sapphire brand is still used. I believe that when it was originally conceived it was for high quality, high frequency (better than every 20 minutes) services. Wasn't the first use between Chester and Wrexham?
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Post by dennisthemenace504 on Oct 16, 2023 10:41:59 GMT 1
Sapphire was also meant to have dedicated drivers, hence why the Sapphire Drivers basically went back to Original Arriva White shirt with eppilettes.
268 was going to go Sapphire, unfortunately, not many staff wanted to do Bradford - Dewsbury (as it was when it was mooted) all day every day, so MAX was born.
110 became the first Sapphire route with dedicated drivers, then, problems arose when normal staff were allocated 110 duties as spare duties or overtime when short of staff, so dedicated staff were dropped in favour of just having normal staff on Sapphire route.
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jst
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Post by jst on Oct 16, 2023 20:26:34 GMT 1
I do think there are less and less buses becoming sapphire branded now and max has completely disappeared in Yorkshire especially as I've just seen 1967 without branding for the first time I imagine all the 163/6 ones will be debranded as the 166 doesn't exist anymore! |
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Oct 16, 2023 20:53:12 GMT 1
Sapphire doesn't feel very sapphire.
I'd say the LC and CoB vehicles are substantially more colour coordinated, same features (if not better since they actually function), and targeted towards individual cities
Sapphire vehicles have some major major catching up. Standards have rapidly evolved since the pandemic
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Post by guyarab on Oct 17, 2023 18:46:12 GMT 1
Sapphire might not be with us much longer if I Squared Capital, an American private equity firm,
reportedly in discussion with Deutsche Bahn, buys the whole of Arriva.
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Post by driver6540 on Oct 17, 2023 21:45:29 GMT 1
Max is no longer used, neither is frequenta but according to Arriva's website the Sapphire brand is still used. I believe that when it was originally conceived it was for high quality, high frequency (better than every 20 minutes) services. Wasn't the first use between Chester and Wrexham? You are correct. When the Sapphire brand was conceived it was originally unveiled on the Chester-Wrexham service no 11?. several E400's transferred down from Liverpool and were refurbed/repainted into the new Sapphire livery and given private reg no's J---ABW. I believe these have now been transferred to other depot's and the current Chester-Wrexham service is operated by Wright Streetdeck's in the latest Sapphire livery. |
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Post by burtonsa02 on Oct 17, 2023 23:10:29 GMT 1
Looks like sapphire branded buses in Castleford will no longer exist as another E400mmc lost its brand and so has a versa too
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Post by nate58 on Mar 23, 2024 9:54:40 GMT 1
Noticed more and more double deckers on the sapphire brand routes 231/2...are they finally been upgraded to double deck buses anyone know?  |
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 23, 2024 14:09:19 GMT 1
Noticed more and more double deckers on the sapphire brand routes 231/2...are they finally been upgraded to double deck buses anyone know? I don't think that is the case. It's quite common to see deckers on the 232/231. I remember a discussion popping up a year ago with the deckers and most of us agreed it should be running with deckers. It's also worth noting that YX17 NKA has seemingly been off road since January? |
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Post by nate58 on Mar 23, 2024 15:07:11 GMT 1
Thankyou for the response.i totally agree its become a very popular busy route cant see why deckers arent used on a daily basis was curious as lately been on a fair few double deckers with good loadings.
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Post by shelf81 on Mar 23, 2024 15:47:24 GMT 1
Thankyou for the response.i totally agree its become a very popular busy route cant see why deckers arent used on a daily basis was curious as lately been on a fair few double deckers with good loadings. I Believe M-Fri some journies mainly in the afternoon interwork with the Wakefield City network explaining the appearances of single deckers to the route. I'm not sure the routes have ever been fully DD, although admittedly in the days of Centrebus/Stagecoach/Tracky most of the single deckers used was to a higher capacity compared to the Enviro 200s & Pulsars Arriva use. |
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Post by stephen01 on Mar 24, 2024 0:33:41 GMT 1
Thankyou for the response.i totally agree its become a very popular busy route cant see why deckers arent used on a daily basis was curious as lately been on a fair few double deckers with good loadings. I Believe M-Fri some journies mainly in the afternoon interwork with the Wakefield City network explaining the appearances of single deckers to the route. I'm not sure the routes have ever been fully DD, although admittedly in the days of Centrebus/Stagecoach/Tracky most of the single deckers used was to a higher capacity compared to the Enviro 200s & Pulsars Arriva use. the pulsars have a higher capacity then any of the e200 ranges AY have. |
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mattb7tl
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Post by mattb7tl on Mar 24, 2024 0:35:01 GMT 1
Thankyou for the response.i totally agree its become a very popular busy route cant see why deckers arent used on a daily basis was curious as lately been on a fair few double deckers with good loadings. I Believe M-Fri some journies mainly in the afternoon interwork with the Wakefield City network explaining the appearances of single deckers to the route. I'm not sure the routes have ever been fully DD, although admittedly in the days of Centrebus/Stagecoach/Tracky most of the single deckers used was to a higher capacity compared to the Enviro 200s & Pulsars Arriva use. They had branded deckers under Tiger, but they weren't the best at allocations. They usually ended up on the 233. |
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Post by stephen01 on Mar 24, 2024 0:40:40 GMT 1
I Believe M-Fri some journies mainly in the afternoon interwork with the Wakefield City network explaining the appearances of single deckers to the route. I'm not sure the routes have ever been fully DD, although admittedly in the days of Centrebus/Stagecoach/Tracky most of the single deckers used was to a higher capacity compared to the Enviro 200s & Pulsars Arriva use. They had branded deckers under Tiger, but they weren't the best at allocations. They usually ended up on the 233. under the closing days of HBC and during Tiger it was rare to see deckers on 231/232 even when all 4 ex london Geminis and joined Waterloo with 905 & 906 returning as they'd usually be on 233 (80/81/82 as was), 262 shorts and Schools. |
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Post by shelf81 on Mar 24, 2024 0:48:36 GMT 1
I Believe M-Fri some journies mainly in the afternoon interwork with the Wakefield City network explaining the appearances of single deckers to the route. I'm not sure the routes have ever been fully DD, although admittedly in the days of Centrebus/Stagecoach/Tracky most of the single deckers used was to a higher capacity compared to the Enviro 200s & Pulsars Arriva use. They had branded deckers under Tiger, but they weren't the best at allocations. They usually ended up on the 233. Wasn't it only 2-3 deckers they had branded rather than the full allocation? |
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