(28 Sep 2022, 7:54 am)Storx wrote I honestly don't think it's being unrealistic.I know they are one of the top operating areas, and yes, they should be getting newer vehicles regularly and then cascading the older stuff, but they don't treat it like such. for example, the 2018 MMC 400s that Cumbria received (18 or 19 i think it was in the end) ten of those I think should have come to northeast first as passenger numbers are higher releasing the older E400s to Cumbria.
Stagecoach North East is one of their top operating areas. If they don't start investing asap then they'll turn out like First with hundreds and hundreds of buses which are past their sell by date. On paper everything 58 plate and below should be withdrawn next year or put into secondary roles and it's not happening.
Why should we be getting cascades up here when it's a better operating area than a lot of other areas, it should be the other way round.
Every year they fail to invest is another year that they fall into that trap. Then they start flogging everything off as they on the edge of going bust. It's already starting to become a problem in some areas ie. here: https://bustimes.org/operators/stagecoac...t/vehicles or here https://bustimes.org/operators/stagecoac...h/vehicles (an ideal place to dump the 58 Enviro's they already have some).
look at what came down to us for the commonwealth games, 2018 single deck MMCs from ST Andrews I think it was while we are still using 2004 ALX300s. Portsmouth has 2017 MMCs even though the route they are on (23 to leigh park if I'm correct) had newer buses in 2012 and again in 2014.
Guildford got a massive investment in electric buses in the last few years 2020? I think it was, you've got areas in the highlands (inverness) which at times are virtually empty apart from when cruise ships come in, but regularly get decent vehicles like electrics and the MMCs like the one that got written off come back from the commonwealth.
unfortunately, because we have got very good engineering staff throughout the division, we get allocated the crap that no one wants because we make it work like the kinetics that should have been scrapped on day one, the 08 E300s, the handful of MOT failures and rebuilds we managed to get sorted for other (Scottish) divisions