(02 Nov 2017, 7:01 pm)peter wrote If I'm not mistaken one of 1517 or 1595 will now be allocated permanently to the 22/24. When 1479 and 7538 departed they were replaced by 7518 and 7523. I believe the original plan was 7518 as a spare for the 6 replacing 1479 and 7523 for the 24 replacing 7538 however of course 7523 was instead branded for the 6 (presumably displacing one of the Pulsars to act as a spare) meaning 7518 has been allocated to the 24. Now that the PVR across the 22 and 24 has increased by 1, one of 1517 or 1595 must be allocated to the 22 and 24 which leaves just one of these as a spare for the 22/24 and alongside a branded spare for the 6. For a Sapphire requirement of 26 vehicles there are now just two spares so incorrect allocations are definitely more likely.
It the same with Darlington they don’t actually have a sapphire Spare, because 1513 has left to go to Jesmond and 7538 has been allocated to a 5 running board that means we don’t actually have a spare, Monday to Friday if a sapphire vehicle is off then they have to replace it with a MAX Pulsar or any other bus that they have spare, where as Saturday because the 5 doesn’t require a decker it’s usually allocated to a 7 if a sapphire is off the road