(12 Jan 2014, 12:39 pm)Dan wrote Newcastle I agree will bring in the money, which is why a great deal of Enviro 400s have been purchased. Even still, you're looking at the latest batch (Hybrids) being from 2011. It's 2014 now.
South Shields... I agree less. Don't get me wrong, it will bring in a lot of money (there wouldn't be much point having its operations otherwise)... But I can't help but feel that if they were to play around with services and perhaps introduce a few more, they may be better off. They'd stand a higher chance of bigger profits and they would therefore be able to re-invest it into the fleets to provide customers with better vehicles.
In regards to plans putting profits before customer demand... I definitely disagree. Customers are who GNE get their profits from - if the demand is there and great enough, a service will be operated. If the demand for a service is small and it's not generating profit (run by run), that specific run will be axed. While it's great some operators justify operating underused services by looking at overall profit levels or looking at services they connect to, it's just not a particularly effective way of actually making a great deal of profit if you ask me.
Stagecoach seem to be taking turns in investing for their depot's, for massive orders, it's Sunderland this time, with 61 buses ordered (23 more later this year).