(07 Oct 2019, 4:40 am)Dan wrote I mean, the alternative is to not invest at all, like other operators in the region!
Putting any bias to one side; in the current economic climate, the level of investment Go North East is putting into new Euro 6 vehicles, newer pre-owned bus acquisitions and Euro 6 exhaust modifications is commendable.
These are the only suitable double-decks available within the group at the moment. It isn't too long ago when much newer Volvo B9s were acquired from Go-Ahead London (and repainted/refurbished/converted to single door before entering service).
Other factors, such as cost, also have to come into consideration when newer buses are available (how has the company priced its scholars contract tenders this year, will a profit still be delivered if newer buses are acquired for the operation of said contracts, etc).
The five buses acquired yesterday really aren't on their last legs and I'm not sure where this misconception has come from. To run at 60mph all the way from Brighton to Consett is a pretty hard job for a bus, but all five managed it without difficulty (just like every single one of those OmniDekkas has over the last few years, bar one or two!)
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It would be interesting to see the fixed costs of operating a scholars service vs the variable costs i.e fuel economy savings in using different vehicle types and their Euro rating.
I appreciate the scholars services have that element of inelasticity in them, in that a bigger proportion of passengers will not have an alternative transport offer, compared to punters on the X30 say.
By virtue of this, the operator will want to put the shiny, appealing option in to service work at a similar time of day, in the hope of retaining and growing the market share.
To balance that, you then have those scholars moving on and their opinion of public transport will be based on previous experiences - such as their scholars bus, which was potentially older than they are and wasn't at all shiny or appealing internally.