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Arriva Scotland West

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route101

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One thing that has changed, is services have been split. 38 still runs beyond Paisley yet the 17/7 was split in Paisley. I think the 26 still runs to Nethercraigs. I think there was 24 service during Arriva days.

Fewer smaller operators now. None for example on the PRW corridor.
 
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Strathclyder

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Wasn't Riverside put under scrutiny as they more or less vanished off the face of the earth without notice?
It may have been the operators @sannox refers to above, don't think Riverside ever served Foxbar now that I think about it. Dependent on the dates, it could very well be Dart Buses you're thinking of.
 
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PaulMc7

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One thing that has changed, is services have been split. 38 still runs beyond Paisley yet the 17/7 was split in Paisley. I think the 26 still runs to Nethercraigs. I think there was 24 service during Arriva days.

Fewer smaller operators now. None for example on the PRW corridor.
The 26 is certainly a service I have a love-hate relationship with. It was handy for shopping after college and I used to get it into Glasgow City Centre for a while too but it just took way too long if it got stuck in traffic which to be fair always happened at Renfrew Cross. It's also a bus I'd never recommend getting from Braehead near Christmas time. I've done it 3/4 times and they've all been full and slowly dragged into Paisley.

Back in the Arriva days I do remember using the 26 and 101 between Paisley and Braehead an awful lot though. It's a shame that demand fell enough for there only to be 1 bus of the 2 left especially given that the 21 isn't great.
 
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Scotrail314209

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One thing that has changed, is services have been split. 38 still runs beyond Paisley yet the 17/7 was split in Paisley. I think the 26 still runs to Nethercraigs. I think there was 24 service during Arriva days.

Fewer smaller operators now. None for example on the PRW corridor.

I recall the 24. I believe that ran into the City centre via the Squinty Bridge, while the 26 went via Springfield Quay and Ibrox.
 

L401CJF

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In regards to Arriva's interior spec of this period looking like a throwback to a 80s bathroom, it's a matter of personal taste by and large. Speaking for myself (I know, hardly an authoritive source!), I don't mind it all that much. Hardly the worst by any means, but not the best either.

You all can go back and forth about the nature of the service cuts McGill's have made over the years 'til the cows come home, but let me pose this question: if Arriva were the ones making these changes/cuts in McGills' place, how much outrage would it generate? Rose-tinted specs are all well and good - I should know: I wear them often enough! - but they don't often, if at all, gel with the realities of keeping a company solvent, viable and profitable in the face of a ever-evolving market and industry, I'm afraid. While I personally don't have any time for the two guys at the head of McGill's, I can begrudgingly acknowledge that they are shrewd businessmen. Sound like anyone else in this industry we know?

While some of McGill's purchases in their post-ASW takeover expansion faultered and thus withered away (the near clean sweep of the Monklands indys and the McColl's of Balloch takeover, am looking at you two in particular), I think they were in the best possible position for a pandemic and all that entails suddenly rearing it's ugly head, which is why the Xplore Dundee takeover (well, more it's timing than anything else) will never not be odd to me, regardless of it's prospective success or failure. It's early days yet at any rate, so am gonna refrain from calling it a busted flush for the time being.

As for the age of vehicles ASW - the main topic of this thread let's not forget! - were operating in the late 2000s: Olympians - heck, double deckers in general - were always in the minority when compared to saloons in the ASW fleet and, given it's size (especially when compared to the likes of First Glasgow), their precense would've had a fairly noticable effect on it's age profile in any given year. That said (and I'm open for correction here), I don't think the intention ever was to give them a complete refurb top to bottom; an internal spruce-up/retrim with new blinds to eek out a few more years' use from looking at the pics was the order of the day, at least as far as I can tell.

Moving on to the saloons, while some brand new stock had made it's way into the fleet in the 2008-09 period (all from the Volvo, Scania & DAF/VDL catalogues), a good portion of it was made up of ex-Clydeside & London vehicles mixed in with stock both from ASW's first few years & others parachuted in from other Arriva divisions. While the end result was a varied and rather mish-mash selection of chassis and bodies, most were kept fairly tidy and to a presentable standard. Of course, some vehicles let the side down - same with any other division of the big companies; Arriva were/are hardly unique here - but on the whole it was on par with or better than it's fellow Arriva subsidiaries in this regard.

Whether or not that last part is a good thing is bound to be debated ad infinitum. I'd expect nothing less from this forum. ;)
If I remember rightly they shipped in a number of ex Merseyside Scania L113CRL/Ultralows which were N plates, and absolutely knackered even before they left here!

Edit: N122 N123 N129 DWM and N104 YVU , new to North Western.
 

sannox

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I recall the 24. I believe that ran into the City centre via the Squinty Bridge, while the 26 went via Springfield Quay and Ibrox.

Arriva originally ran the 24 and the 25. The 24 ran the same way as the 23 from Braehead (although some 23's originally skipped Braehead running past on the A8), the 25 ran straight via Shieldhall Road and Paisley Road West.

Arriva introduced the 26 is sorta a hybrid of the two, with the 26 turning down Craigton Road and withdrew the 24/25. The 26 has sort of replaced the 189 and 89/90 on that part of the route.

The 26 did initially go over the Squinty Bridge, but reverted to via Springfield Quay at some point, can't remember when and they ditched the run into QUEH in 2017.
 

Strathclyder

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If I remember rightly they shipped in a number of ex Merseyside Scania L113CRL/Ultralows which were N plates, and absolutely knackered even before they left here!

Edit: N122 N123 N129 DWM and N104 YVU , new to North Western.
Aye. A mate of mine (now a First Glasgow driver) rated N123 DWM very highly from a performance standpoint, oddly enough. Must've had some work done before transferring north.

A photo of each during their time with ASW (linked images copyright of Flickr's MSE062).




 

L401CJF

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Aye. A mate of mine (now a First Glasgow driver) rated N123 DWM very highly from a performance standpoint, oddly enough. Must've had some work done before transferring north.

A photo of each during their time with ASW (linked images copyright of Flickr's MSE062).




Performance wise they were brilliant generally, but the bodies were literally falling to bits and had the very dated black interior , not to mention the shoddy exteriors on them.
 

Strathclyder

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Performance wise they were brilliant generally, but the bodies were literally falling to bits and had the very dated black interior , not to mention the shoddy exteriors on them.
Aye, I figured that's what you were meaning - the Wright bodywork on those L113 Scanias tended to go banana-shaped fairly quickly. A shame, as they could be utter rockets (with the fuel consumption to match!) when fettled properly. As for the shoddy exteriors (patchwork livery etc), that could be chalked up to the limited future of both the company and the buses (at least after being transferred north).

Lastly, in regards to the interior, and speaking for myself here, it's a matter of personal taste. I suspect I may be in the minority here (re: I know I'm in the minority lol), but I don't mind interiors such as those on the above Scanias too much, so long as they're maintained and kept up to a presentable standard (not likely to be applicable to these Scanias at this late stage in their life, fair enough).
 
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Scotrail314209

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One thing that has changed, is services have been split. 38 still runs beyond Paisley yet the 17/7 was split in Paisley. I think the 26 still runs to Nethercraigs. I think there was 24 service during Arriva days.

Fewer smaller operators now. None for example on the PRW corridor.

Dicksons comes to mind here. When I was going to Glasgow with my Gran, we both noticed their 38 was generally quicker than Arriva's 36/38/39 or First's 9 (oh the day when it ran all the way out to Linwood, well out of their zone)
 

route101

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Dicksons comes to mind here. When I was going to Glasgow with my Gran, we both noticed their 38 was generally quicker than Arriva's 36/38/39 or First's 9 (oh the day when it ran all the way out to Linwood, well out of their zone)
I remember Dicksons, did their 38 become the McGills 38?
 

awsnews

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Riverside Transport, based off of the livery description. Born out of Clydeside's former training school and founded by ex-Clydeside employees, they were based out of Barrhead and were a sister firm of DJ International, who handled school work and private hires. They lasted into the McGill's era, but just barely, ceasing trading in 2013. DJ, through various permutations (change of ownership, change of trading name) has survived to the present day (these days as Swift Coaches). @awsnews may be able to correct or affirm the above.
Afraid not. Only made very occassion visits to that part of the world and the operators seemed to be different every time! Probably of more revelance to this thread but the area which Arriva Scotland West operated in was one of the worst in the West for competion from other operators which no doubt had a major impact on business viability. For what was a relatively small subsiduary some distance away from the rest of the business I suspect it took a disproportionate amount of management effort which would have meant that if someone (McGill's as it turned out) made them an attractive offer it would be an easy decision to accept.
One thing I can confirm is that Swift Coaches went into liquidation back in April 2020, so not surviving after all.
 

Scotrail314209

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Arriva's fleet really was a mixed bag, something that seemed to have lasted well into the McGill's era.

I remember those weird small buses on the 60 that were very fat at one end, with the darts on the 61.
 

Tom Gallacher

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I don't think that Riverside and DJ were linked in any formal way. It probably just suited them to share premises as their core businesses didn't overlap.
 

awsnews

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I don't think that Riverside and DJ were linked in any formal way. It probably just suited them to share premises as their core businesses didn't overlap.
Two directors of Riverside were also directors and shareholders of DJ International. There were other individuals in each business but there was a linkage through the common directorships.
 

Tom Gallacher

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Two directors of Riverside were also directors and shareholders of DJ International. There were other individuals in each business but there was a linkage through the common directorships.
Every day's a school day :D:D Would that have been Anne and Henry?
 

CBlue

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Perhaps another point to make regarding the question of Arriva handling things differently from how McGill's have:

McGill's current CEO is Ralph Roberts, formerly of....Arriva Scotland West. If he had stayed at Arriva (and indeed if Arriva had retained their business to the present day) it would be likely that similar decisions would have been made by him re service cuts.
 
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PaulMc7

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Perhaps another point to make re the question of Arriva handling things differently from how McGill's have.

McGill's current CEO is Ralph Roberts, formerly of....Arriva Scotland West. If he had stayed at Arriva (and indeed if Arriva had retained their business to the present day) it would be likely that similar decisions would have been made by him re service cuts.
This is spot on IMO. There's no chance cuts wouldn't have occured at some point. I think the fact the operating territory of Renfrewshire/Inverclyde is so car centric doesn't help too.

The A737 and M8 especially are close to key areas of the network then train services need to be factored in too. The bus network is actually still pretty deep compared to what it could have been given the territory.
 

Strathclyder

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Afraid not. Only made very occassion visits to that part of the world and the operators seemed to be different every time! Probably of more revelance to this thread but the area which Arriva Scotland West operated in was one of the worst in the West for competion from other operators which no doubt had a major impact on business viability. For what was a relatively small subsiduary some distance away from the rest of the business I suspect it took a disproportionate amount of management effort which would have meant that if someone (McGill's as it turned out) made them an attractive offer it would be an easy decision to accept.
One thing I can confirm is that Swift Coaches went into liquidation back in April 2020, so not surviving after all.
I see, cheers either way. :) It's not a part of the world I'm all too familiar with either; as with you, there were different operators every time I cast my eye that way! The only places in West Scotland equal to or worse for competition than Renfrewshire back in the ASW era would've been Greenock/Gourock (Inverclyde) and Coatbridge/Airdrie (Monklands). Competition in all 3 areas isn't nearly as intense nowadays of course, at least pre-pandemic.

And yeah, that no doubt played a major role in Arriva (and more recently National Express with Xplore Dundee) handing the keys over to McGill's when a good enough offer was made. The closest Arriva ops south of the border to Scotland West was North East.

Ah, that's a shame. Thanks for letting me know. It was more wishful thinking on my part that they had somehow defied the odds and managed to make it into 2021.
 
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route101

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Arriva's fleet really was a mixed bag, something that seemed to have lasted well into the McGill's era.

I remember those weird small buses on the 60 that were very fat at one end, with the darts on the 61.
What buses were they on 60?

McGills fleet is still quite varied, still older Citaros running.
 

overthewater

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Didn't DJ International have a Paisley to Largs service? Because of that, Arriva finally changed the 17 so that it no longer operated to Largs and instead an 800 was introduced, also starting in Paisley.
 
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AlexanderPS

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I reemember DJ International running the 17 From Glasgow to Largs:


and Riverside running a summer only 517 from Paisley to Largs

 
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Scotrail314209

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Remember DJ International running a the 17 From Glasgow to Largs:


and Riverside running a summer only 517 from Paisley to Largs



Photos are not my own and credit to the photographers.

Another anonimaly I remember is the coach service from Largs - Braehead, which was in direct competition with Arriva and possibly McGills(?).

Think it was operated by Hart or something?
 

route101

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Another anonimaly I remember is the coach service from Largs - Braehead, which was in direct competition with Arriva and possibly McGills(?).

Think it was operated by Hart or something?
Harte, in orange and beige or cream colours.

Anyone know the routes McGills had in Paisley and to Glasgow City Centre before they tookover Arriva?
 

awsnews

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Every day's a school day :D:D Would that have been Anne and Henry?
According to Companies House it was Anne and John
Harte, in orange and beige or cream colours.

Anyone know the routes McGills had in Paisley and to Glasgow City Centre before they tookover Arriva?
I don't think there is a simple answer to that question as the routes changes/evolved over time. If you are really interested the wayback machine has some of their website archived which will provide snapshots of what was being operated. This link will (hopefully) take you to a summary page, look for the dates highlighted with a blue dot within each year.
 
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