(25 Aug 2022, 9:40 am)tcts24 wrote Newer doesn't neccessarily mean better. Obviously it may vary depending on who you ask, but if i was to name the crappest few buses at Hartlepool starting with the worst- 36467, 36464, 36462. Of course I'm coming from a drivers view rather than engineering, but in my opinion some of the newest buses are the most problematic in service.

In terms of cuts... I can't see any coming for the 1. Especially the long 1's as it would leave the Clarences without a bus, barring 1 journey a day on Stockton's 58A. The short 1's are actually set to improve with the reintroduction of an evening bus! Route 3 could theorectally be chopped north of ASDA where they aren't especially busy. 6 and 7 would be the most obvious target for a frequency reduction. Hartlepool is of course to gain an extra bus for it's forthcoming County Durham school contract meaning an extra spare on weekends at least!

(25 Aug 2022, 9:40 am)tcts24 wrote Newer doesn't neccessarily mean better. Obviously it may vary depending on who you ask, but if i was to name the crappest few buses at Hartlepool starting with the worst- 36467, 36464, 36462. Of course I'm coming from a drivers view rather than engineering, but in my opinion some of the newest buses are the most problematic in service.

In terms of cuts... I can't see any coming for the 1. Especially the long 1's as it would leave the Clarences without a bus, barring 1 journey a day on Stockton's 58A. The short 1's are actually set to improve with the reintroduction of an evening bus! Route 3 could theorectally be chopped north of ASDA where they aren't especially busy. 6 and 7 would be the most obvious target for a frequency reduction. Hartlepool is of course to gain an extra bus for it's forthcoming County Durham school contract meaning an extra spare on weekends at least!

(30 Sep 2022, 11:32 am)54APhotography wrote Nothing new is coming in the short term, predictions aren't going to do a lot with Perth. However, a substantial number of good condition Darts are suddenly available from Stagecoach South.

(30 Sep 2022, 12:21 pm)col87 wrote As long as they are better than the ones from Yorkshire then in the short term could be split between Hartlepool and Stockton.  Hartlepool for 3/3A and some 6/7 journeys and Stockton for 34 35  57 58 59/61 services.

(03 Oct 2022, 10:03 am)tcts24 wrote The MAN's may be a headache for engineering but there's an increasing amount of drivers prefering to drive them over the ADL's because of all the issues they develop in service on top of half of them often running in limp mode. My personal favoutite to drive is 39667 which looks like I'll be getting as my first bus, followed by 36093, which isn't too bad for one of those now they've sorted the problem with the brakes jamming.

(09 Oct 2022, 12:49 am)col87 wrote Although technically Hartlepool should have at least one large bus ( if not a decker ) for the UTC contract instead of 36093 been used for it. I actually think taking 39666 off was a mistake when they plenty of worse buses in the fleet it’s a shame 34605 is unlikely to ever return to service as well as I actually like the early dart SLF.

(11 Oct 2022, 11:06 am)tcts24 wrote From what I'm told, a decker was planned but nobody had one to spare for Hartlepool. 39664 wasn't too bad either. 39662 should have been the one to go. As for 34605, last I was there (I've been off since the middle of last week with Coronavirus) it'd had an engine put back in it.  But I'm not a particular fan of 605 as it feels like there's no retarder, plus it's rather prone to jamming in first gear.

(11 Oct 2022, 6:11 pm)toward6931 wrote as for the shortage of double decks a while ago i know cumbria had some ALX400s going. could have been just the thing for contract and special Events like the tall ships. everyone seemed to go mental at the suggestion. i do think say for example if SNE acquired 20 2014 registered E400s either standard or MMCs which i think only manchester has all 20 could easily be used for expansion of capacity before replacing any of the older double deckers.

i think 10 each at slatyford and Sunderland you could easily get rid of 15 E200s across the division and maybe 2 ALX300s. with some of the ALX300s kept as spares to backfill for when you have events like the metro blockade, sporting events and tall ships etc.

(12 Oct 2022, 9:43 am)Coastliner700 wrote The problem is certain routes still specific E200s from Slatyford so you can reduce them but not get rid of them.

(13 Oct 2022, 5:55 pm)toward6931 wrote things were looking tight in Newcastle today. when passing slatyford depot I noticed no less than 6 double Deckers not in service, 2 in the front yard, 2 in engineering and 2 in the back yard. i spotted 24112 and 24113 both rammed covering 62 duties and a 200 MMC covering a 63 duty also rammed. now COVID is on rise again i think it's getting likely that some people would stop using public transport if there is another serious wave.

if i was incharge of the old fleet management at SNE i would order the following for 2023:

15 short wheelbase MMCs to replace MANviros ,3 allocated to walkergate for the 317, 7 to slatyford and 5 to Sunderland, all ousted vehicles to go to hartlepool to replace the bulk of dodgy vehicles.

15 standard wheelbase MMCs, all 15 to go to slatyford, 1st batch of 5 replacing E200s again cascading to hartlepool and the next 10 to cascade the eldest non-CAZ vehicles to Stockton. once there i would remove 1 ALX300 and1 GEN1 E300 for parts retrieval and the 8 eldest ALX300s go to hartlepool. once at hartlepool given their age i would use 2 as spares and remove a further 6 MANviros from service.

finally, I would get a batch of 25 400MMCs again as a one off put all 25 in service at slatyford. the first 5 vehicles in service cascade the oldest Deckers to Stockton, keeping one vehicle as a spare this allows potentially 4 ALX300s to removed from service. the next 10 to cascade the next oldest DD vehicles to Sunderland allowing a further 5 E200s and 4E300s to cascade around the division replacing worn out vehicles. and finally the last 10 to cascade 9 single decks around.

all in all for an investment of 55 new vehicles that would theoretically allow for around 25-30 of the worst midibuses to removed from service and used for spares. around 20-25 ALX300s or some of the GEN1 E300s to be used for spares and the oldest DD400 vehicles used for less demanding routes with some spare capacity for Special events

(13 Oct 2022, 10:11 pm)ifm001 wrote What about Shields.  Plenty old Dart SLF and MANviros there also still.

(14 Oct 2022, 12:44 am)glen wrote When are  stagecoach north east order go to happen  then?

(22 Oct 2022, 1:17 pm)Malarkey wrote Seen a post earlier on Twitter stating that Stagecoach North East are getting some Yutong E10's, i'm doubtful of this given there no confirmed plans for the charging infrastructure to be built plus they trialled the E12 in 2018 and not looked at them since although Stagecoach Midlands do have a few E10's for the National Grid Contract that they operate.

Stagecoach do seem to be moving away from Alexander Dennis as they have been purchasing Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora's for Stagecoach Highland ops and also have some Volvo 7900E's at Stagecoach Western.

(22 Oct 2022, 1:47 pm)toward6931 wrote i think the yutongs are for perth

(22 Oct 2022, 7:12 pm)Malarkey wrote They are apparently at Southampton Docks awaiting collection from Pelican before delivery to Stagecoach, looking at the Stagecoach East Scotland/Highland Fleetlist they could be replacing Enviro 200's that are a mix of 60/63/14 & 64 Plate as there nothing else I could see them displacing.

(22 Oct 2022, 10:20 pm)Storx wrote There's 25 of them coming for the 1 - 9. Assuming it'll displace the 7 Solo's and 18 Enviro 200's. They won them in the ScotZEB, which is the same as the ZEBRA here in Scotland.

https://www.electrive.com/2022/08/25/stagecoach-goes-for-all-electric-bus-fleets-in-perth-inverness/

(22 Oct 2022, 11:10 pm)Malarkey wrote There was 1 EV Double Decker also mentioned within that article for Perth with further EV's on order for Aberdeen, Ayr, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Kilmarnock via ScotZEB. Depending on what Kilmarnock get pretty much all of there services will be EV operated with the exception of there Coach Services, either way it'll be EV's for the 4, 10, 11 & 50.

Wouldn't mind some of the Scania E300's down here in North East.

(23 Oct 2022, 6:46 am)Storx wrote Aye it seems that they're trying to pretty much make the whole Scottish fleet electric well the routes in the cities anyway. 

No doubt a headline grabbing thing since they don't really have many city routes and most their Scottish network is rural. 

Believe Perth is 2023 though, not sure on the others.