(13 Mar 2017, 8:18 pm)S813 FVK wrote Unlikely that the 15 will be joining. The deckers do seem to get quite full, even during the day.

I've heard it's some reworking on Stanley's side.
[Rumours incoming]
The morning V7s are packed, whilst the morning 6s are relatively quiet with the high amount of alternative express services covering most of the route. 6/X70/X71 remain dead during the day whilst X31s receive less than X30s on off peak. I'd imagine we'd see a shift towards single decker work on stanley's service work (15 is the only one that deserves deckers imo) and that new work to shuffle around with old minibus work in order to better connect the majority. I'd expect some like vehicles from other depots to cascade (back in some cases) to stanley in order to fulfil this, whilst the B7 plaxtons get turned into cans. Other deckers may come instead of deckers, but I'm thinking the former.

I also think Stanley will shaft the 47s back to riverside and take over the 78s again in order to reduce the service decker count at stanley. Although they're great vehicles, the B9s are neither common at Stanley, nor ever particularly full. Stanley is running the 47s really well, much better than riverside imo, but I don't see that lasting. The amount of lost milage on the 78 between both consett stanley and chester is high, so I don't see those staying at chester for long, either.

All in all, I see Stanley becoming much closer to a traditional low-cost unit, excluding the scholars work. Consett was a low-cost unit prior to it's closure and merging with Stanley and I see Stanley following on. Don't blame the ideology to be honest, the only concern I have is for peak runs which fill X31s and X70/1s to standing space every single working day.