(09 Feb 2020, 6:47 am)Dan wrote Spotted 35189 on the 4 on Friday afternoon and it was full and standing - these little Darts aren’t the best for the work in Sunderland any more.

Anyone heard any rumours about service changes in Sunderland to come in May? Heard some suggestion that the core city routes in Sunderland will be reduced in frequency from every 10 to every 12. The resultant surplus buses have been mooted for a number of options, including a new route to be introduced, and also the gas buses displacing the Omnilinks on the X24.

The latter would certainly be sensible and you’d expect it to be three of the later Euro 6 batch, in readiness for the Newcastle CAZ coming into effect. This could also see Stagecoach introduce the new orange livery for the first time in the region.


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I wonder if that would mean more gas buses being allocated to the E's as well? As if any E300s become surplus to requirements it will obviously be the diesel ones used on the E's. There is never enough ADL E300s to cover the entire PVR on the E's anyway as there is always some odd workings every day. The gas buses are already making more of an "odd" appearance on the E's instead of the usual ADL/MAN E200s.

All of the MAN ALX300s, MAN E200s, ex-Scottish MAN E300s and 193## / 194## ADL E400s in Newcastle will need replacing this year as well if they will not be receiving Euro 6 modifications / upgrades. So could more new vehicles be on order as well?

If the PVR of some routes in Sunderland are being reduced, and the buses are quite often getting full/standing loads, then maybe there could be plans to introduce double decker's on Sunderland city services?