First York poor fleet organisation

[tommyinyork]

1) An ALX400 gets destroyed by fire, no replacements.

2) Number 1's normaly now operated by B7L's which should be double decker's.

3) Always having to get loans like Olympians from Leeds and B7RKE's.

First need to sort out this fleet. At least draft in 4 extra double decker's and re-brand the routes.

[jackh]

Doesn't the 1 seem to get an anything goes allocation nowadays.

Yes, it does puzzle me why the 1 gets the Wright Eclipses whilst the ALX400s can usually be seen on the 10. Yesterday, the Park & Ride 7 had a handful of B7TLs on it.

And to be fair, does the 1 even need double deckers on it nowadays, the single deckers never look to be packed out when you see them.

[kendall17]

I have never seen a decker in York that is 100% full or 60% for that matter and i'm saying this from been in York @ peak times.

The fact that a B7TL wasn't replaced could mean that First think they have enough in reserve to cover the loss.

You're problems seem so small when you compare to Leeds & the bigger cities.

[clive11]

I live on the number 1 route and would say that 75% of the timetable is still ALX with eclipse doing the rest, at peak times the ALX'S DO GET FULL .As of the use of ALX'S on the 7 park &ride this is first using their heads and putting on extra capacity due to xmas shopping. giving a impartial view i would say that First do a fairly decent job of the bus services in York,the problems they have are on the whole caused by congestion in York centre.

[tosher]

Officially/on paper, there are (just) enough double deckers to cover the double deck designated car running boards.

Service 1 is allocated single deckers to some boards, including the one that runs off during the day as a peak extra (0110). Similarly 0101 and 0108 boards are marked for single deckers as the Union agreement is for saloons to be used at night here, and these vehicles are out til midnight. Equally, service 10 is allocated a number of double deck boards to make up for capacity lost due to the frequency reduction implemented a few months ago from 20 to 30 minutes, plus the Archbishop Holgate School journeys were being continually reported as being overloaded with B7L operation. In light of this, some tree trimming at last got done on the Poppleton Station Road/Millfield Lane loop! Somewhat contradictory given that double deckers always used to be used on the service 25 here, usually Leyland Olympians infact, but 'were not allowed' on service 10!

I think maybe the point Tommy was making here is that First York do not have much in the way of a float of double deckers, probably about one at best. But the reason that 30958 hasn't been urgently replaced in any way is that single deckers can easily cover most boards where required.

B7TLs are used on the Red Line 7 to Designer Outlet, with many duplicate journeys run, on the lead up to Christmas with the increased pressure on the service given the suposed materialisation of this festival!

I have heard a rumour internally that B9TL Geminis are on the way to York to replace the B7TL Alexander double decks in August 2009. Am awaiting some kind of confirmation or otherwise, will post here if I hear anything.

Cheers,
Alistair Timmis

[tommyinyork]

So the ALX400's will pass to Leeds or maybe South Yorkshire.

[topman]

Okay that's rather infuriating for the people of York, but if you think you have problems, look at First South Yorkshire. You can have some W-DWX's if you want 'em, we can't have 'em for much longer.