Wednesday 24 October 2007

Major Shortages at Torpoint


Over the past two days there have been major bus shortages at Torpoint because of so many buses braking down. There has been three Tridents out of action but today returned to 2 out of operation. Just one Leyland was working this afternoon after 34813 had a breakdown at Tregantelle Fort yesterday meaning she was out of action today and today 34809 broke down in Antony. The dart has not been sighed by me the whole time no I don't know weather she is in service or not. This meant that there was only the Volvo Olympian usually the least reliable, three Tridents, two Leyland Olympians and what turned out to be the workhorse of the day five Mercedes Varios. As I have called it the Vario revival. The three Tamar Link Varios were operating along with two Marchall Varios from Plymouth here to cover from the breakdowns. This could continue throughout the week until it gets fixed. But the Varios have been running to full capacity and many people have had to be refused to get on by the drivers as they just didn't have any more room. The picture above shows the crowding on 50306 on 81C in Torpoint going towards Plymouth. I've said it before and I'll say it again. They should have kept the VRs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ohh..
that seems pretty bad..
still thats what comes of buses not being mantained properly....major breakdowns. The VR's could only have helped if they were mantained too, which seems unlikely, and since they are much older it would not be likely that having them would have helped.

Anonymous said...

yeah, the VR's were maintained better, doesnt mean that First would look after them.
Our Leylands were in excellent condition until Stagecoach arrived, and then tried to remove them for some Volvo Oly's that were so bad Volvo took them back after a lawsuit fom Stagecoach.
They were unloved and ran until they broke down, and were then sadly moved, and their unique blinds ripped out.