(15 Jun 2020, 5:18 pm)peter wrote Are GNE really going to go to the trouble of repainting 6326-6333 out of Angel/X21 livery but repainting 6301-3 into Angel 21 livery and repainting 6096-6098 out of Fab 56 livery but 6085 and 6086 into Fab 56 livery especially given how recently some of these have been repainted?? Surely you must know it's not realistic for all of these buses to be repainted only to be replaced by like-for-like vehicles? I like your plan to try and keep fleet numbers together but given how much Dan has said about the current economic pressures GNE are facing are they really going to go to the expense of repainting all these vehicles?Nothing to do with fleet numbers as such but making sure that the most suited vehicles are allocated accordingly.
Personally I think the fact that there are 22 Streetdecks arriving and there's a PVR of 22 for the X31/45/46/47/70/71 is no coincidence. As for everyone's obsession with the X21, the PVR can now be met with the existing vehicles at Chester-le-Street (including 1 fleet-liveried Streetdeck permanently allocated which is no great crime). Given the fact Dan mentioned that the vehicles going elsewhere are going to have to be repainted I reckon the 2 Blue X-Lines vehicles will be part of those 9 that go elsewhere and will get repainted given that they are no longer required for the X21...but that's just my guess! As for the X5/15 I'm sure 4 of the existing double deckers in the fleet could quite easily be refurbed for that, perhaps 6118-6121 might not go to EYMS after all given how much plans have changed!
With the X21 now extended to West Auckland plus a 30 minute frequency, it would make more sense to allocate the newest vehicles to reduce the chance of breakdowns and lost mileage.
And even though repaints & small number of refurbs would cost money, it would still be cheaper than 9x extra vehicles surely?