Operation Overdrive is the name of a series of improvement programs carried out by Arriva in their UK bus operations. The original Operation Overdrive occurred in the Medway Towns (Kent) in 2004, with further operations occurring in Maidstone (Kent), Merseyside, Leicestershire and County Durham.
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Medway Towns
The original operation Overdrive, this entailed delivery of 61 new buses, upgrading of 40 existing buses, upgrades to the route network, introduction of GPS tracking, improved lighting at Pentagon bus station (Chatham), depot upgrades including a vehicle wash, and introduction of a yellow liveried school fleet.
New buses
The new vehicles were 12 single deckers (fleet numbers 1606 - 1617), Dennis Dart (8.8m) with Plaxton Pointer MPD bodies, and 49 double deckers (6401 - 6449), Volvo B7TL with Alexander ALX400 bodies. The new buses feature interior audio visual next stop information displays, linked to GPS tracking systems provided by Medway Council used for real time display at bus stops.
Existing fleet upgrade
Other existing vehicles in the Medway fleet were modernised to bring them into line with the brand new vehicles. This entailed refurbishment and repainting, fitting of CCTV and changing of destination display from the traditional roller blind design to LED displays.
School buses
Eleven buses 7624-36 (G6xxBPH) were painted in an allover yellow scheme for use on school services. These are double deck Northern Counties bodied Volvo Citybuses.
Network upgrade
Arriva significantly upgraded services in the Medway area with the rebranding and timetabling of routes, and the introduction of new buses. The network was upgraded with 5 routes being increased to 10 minute frequencies and branded as the Red, Green, Purple, Blue and Orange Lines[1], with appropriately branded buses allocated to these routes[2]. All but the purple line use double deck buses. The specific colour branding of buses to a particular coloured line was later dropped in favour of a single Medway Mainline branding showing all of the coloured route numbers[3].
Launch day
On the day of the new network launch, a convoy of 20 of the new buses was organised for the press, crossing the Strood tunnel twice, then running into the depot[4]. The class leader of the new buses, 6401 (GN04 UDM), was specially decorated in a promotional livery for the network launch[5] and headed the convoy. This bus was later repainted into a special network ticket promotional livery. Complications arose as delays had occurred in removing old vehicles needed to make space in the depot for the arriving new vehicles. Several older vehicles were transferred to other Arriva Southern Counties depots, or to Arriva companies further afield. A number of MCW Metrorider minibuses were transferred to Arriva Northumbria, with a crew of drivers to take these buses to Peterlee having arrived in an Arriva single decker[6]. Some of the new vehicles were also displayed alongside preserved Maidstone and District vehicles, the predeccessor company of Arriva in Medway, at the Chatham Dockyard for the press and local dignitaries.
Maidstone
Overdrive 2 involved the refurbishment of several buses at Maidstone depot.
Merseyside
Leicestershire
In May 2006 Arriva launched Operation Overdrive on services in Leicestershire which saw 54 new buses delivered to Arriva Midlands (Fox County) and numerous buses refurbished. All but eight of the buses were double deckers on VDL DB250 and Volvo B7TL chassis. The eight single deckers delivered were VDL SB200's. All buses delivered were bodied by Wrightbus.
County Durham
In 2005 some new Alexander ALX400s[7] and 14 Scania CN94UB Omnicitys[8] were introduced in Durham and Darlington. Most vehicles have since been moved elsewhere.
References
- ^ Fotopic image of a scanned Medway route map
- ^ Fotopic Image of a Red Line branded bus
- ^ [http://arrivasoutherncounties.fotopic.net/p43977079.html Fotopic image of Medway Mainline branding
- ^ Fotopic image of the launch convoy
- ^ Fotopic image of the network launch branded bus 6401
- ^ Fotopic image of the crew bus used in the medway minibus transfer
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
External links
- Medway Council Draft Bus Strategy (pdf)
- Medway Local Transport Plan 2006-2011 - details of Operation Overdrive on page 122
- Full details of the new bus orders
- Arriva Medway Towns 'Operation Overdrive' launch Fotopic collection
- Arriva Medway Old and young in The Historic Dockyard Chatham Fotopic collection
- Arriva Medway The launch - June 13 2004 Fotopic collection
- Arriva Medway Towns New Bus Launch 13th June Fotopic collection
- Arriva Press Release on the Medway upgrade
