(25 Feb 2018, 10:00 pm)JP6004 wrote 52 plate solars due to be withdrawn once ex south tyne versas undergo repaint. But there are quite a few 51 plates being pushed beyond their limit. To be fair if it wasnt for the council i think replacements would of been sourced; for some of them anyway

I just tried to tally up how many Solar's are left, but I got bored checking on each status.
If you or anyone else fancies it...

I suppose it was easier and cheaper to take the upgrades at the time, than have to worry about replacing a chunk of them.
Win/win for GNE in a number of aspects. Certainly in the short-term.
However, I do think it has hindered them long-term.

Whether they can finance new vehicles or not, passengers on the 35 have certainly lost out and I wonder what perception those passengers hold now.
What may have been good PR initially, has resulted in vehicles well past their best (not sure anyone could argue with that), plying their trade on a major corridor and prone to competition from it's own services, never mind SNE.

Going back to what I said earlier about the pool of withdrawn vehicles and spares, it could mean that these Solar's are quite cheap to repair.