(09 Feb 2013, 12:04 am)dans_bus_photos wrote

(08 Feb 2013, 4:46 pm)Daniel wrote An unidentified "SimpliCity" Versa was on the X20 today: 16:05 departure.

Sad to see that the X7 will indeed fall under the "East Durham" brand. It was obvious, but hope still remained.
They really can't be expecting a high demand for the service if it's only going to use MPDs (or the dual door Renowns in fact, if they're to be transferred over).
Could this be why Peterlee are having a lot of "East Durham" MPDs out on Deptford services, do you think? Rather than them actually being there for maintenance/repair-work? Testing out how well they cope on a variety of routes - both short and long distance - for the entirety of the day?

I think all of Deptfords/Peterlee's allocations that are all over the place have nothing to do with trialling busses out in Peterlee. The MPDs are currently in the process of having their seats recovered- so could well be at Deptford for that or just repair work off the bad weather

I was meaning quite the opposite - if you wish to read the full 'idea' I had (rather than the condensed version as placed here), scroll down to the bottom of the comments on this photo.
It seems to be just me who had this theory and who does agree with this theory. I understand, from what Lee said on that photo, that Go North East do in fact know what the MPDs are like on routes, but road conditions have changed in the past 5 years. A solid example of this is the new road developments in the Gateshead area, of course. Things are being done to make sure that cars no longer use bus lanes, less likely for delays etc.
I'm sure there are countless more examples. A lot of roads have been resurfaced and all the rest too. It may not make much of a difference, but I believe it will make some sort of a difference. I can't agree with the second thing he came up with, as these vehicles have been allocated from very early stages in the day (I've seen one or two of them before 8am, which could potentially be their first duty of the day). Even if this was not so, Deptford's depot have 25 "Northern" branded vehicles by my count - but it must be noted I'm working with an outdated fleetlist produced by myself which could contain inaccuracies and it is to my understanding that Deptford have inherited a few more vehicles since I last updated that part of it. I do understand that these "Northern" branded vehicles often make their way out onto services they literally are allocated to (that have no brand), but this adds up to around 15 vehicles at the most. 10 vehicles could then be allocated to services which need the vehicles owing to a Deptford-based vehicle failure.

Nevertheless, it was an idea and could be wrong. Conversely, it could also be correct. Like all of our ideas regarding a particular reason why something is happening at the moment with Go North East, the chances of it being correct are slim. Go North East are just that unpredictable, huh?
To my knowledge, none of us work for Go North East, so we're not to know - are we?

R.E Seat covers: The numbers of Peterlee-based MPDs making their way onto Deptford services is quite high at the moment, whereas the number of vehicles that have gained the new-style moquette are quite low. As can be seen clearly in all of the photos I've taken of them recently, they still retain the old-style moquette. Surely Deptford would get the vehicles repaired first and then send them out on their services to cover for vehicles, if Lee was to be correct?