Arriva Darlington's Frequenta 3/3A/3B branded Optare Solo M950s 2830/2/3/5/6/41 have all been fitted with Next Stop Announcement Systems.

2843 is on the 1/5/5A/12 cycle.

This one is creeping up on us, and I noticed that we don't have a thread!

The Durham Vintage Bus Gathering will be held on Sunday 18th June 2017, at the Howlands Park and Ride site in Durham. 

Howlands is located a short walk from the New Inn pub, and can be reached by the Arriva North East 6 or Go North East's X21 service. There will also be a shuttle bus service between North Road in Durham and the rally site. The first shuttle leaves at 1000, and will run every 15 minutes thereafter, according to the timetable on the NEBPT website.

Driver only operation / one man operation on the railway is a bit of a hot topic at the moment, so it surprises me that we haven't got a thread. It has of course been the reason for several strikes on the TSGN franchise, Northern and others. ASLEF have tried to sell a deal to their members twice, and the other union, the RMT, appear to be fundamentally against it. 

A bit of background - 
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-man_op...ed_Kingdom
BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-...ted-trains
ORR statement - http://www.orr.gov.uk/news-and-media/pre...-operation


Thoughts? And vote above too.

Just found the below article on the delayed entry into service: 

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/fleet/d...il-aventra

Will rest of the "Black Cats" gain WIFI, since 681, 689 and 690 have already got it?, hopefully rest of the "Black Cats" gains the stop announcements which were removed from the Venture as the services will consist of the 33, 39 and 238.... and maybe the 2/2A/61.


If you go by the above,  the only services with WIFI and stop announcements would be 33 - and maybe the 2/2A/61.


With 14 buses needed for the 2/2A/61, i think 2 spares will be allocated to Deptford so they'll have 4 spares (5438/5439 + 2 from the new batch) for 6 services: 2/2A/20/20A/60/61 - total of 16 at Deptford from the 18 arriving. 

The last 2 of the batch, i think will head to Riverside for the X66 (as its getting merged with the S1) and a spare.


The Streetlites aren't confirmed for the 2/2A/61, that's just speculation......

(30 May 2017, 9:23 pm)Tees lee wrote There's also been one on the 34 I think earlier today too

---

It was a branded one I seen the front of this evening

27725 still has branding on the front when I saw it on Tuesday

36083 (?) on 20 today.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

4651/2 both on the 2.

(30 May 2017, 9:01 am)Dan wrote Thanks - do you know which Pulsar went for repaint, once 1448 returned?

As Ian said 1450, 1451 going next week, to be followed by 1453. Then apparently it's 1445/6/7
So it will be 1445/6/7/8/9/50/1/2/3/4/5/6 although I'd expect 1444 to be done aswell!