(28 Sep 2022, 11:34 am)toward6931 wrote 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.
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
Aye no arguments there mind to be fair but they badly need to invest otherwise things are going to go out of control. I've just worked it out there and if they don't make any investment before the end of the 2024 there's going to be 140 buses life expired (on paper) using 15 years (so anything older than 59 Plate). That's some serious catching up.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's not a serious investment up here soon enough. Similar to back in 2007, 2008 and 2009 when we got all sorts of Enviro's. Stagecoach are quite similar to Arriva where they seem to get everything at once with tit bits in between and the times coming back round for the big investments. I know we got some stuff but there wasn't too much around 2005/6 either really.