Ask most drivers at Sunderland what the worst vehicle in the fleet is and you'll likely get one of two answers - the training bus, or the open toppers.

Yes we have gas buses but we have a large fleet of MAN E200s which are absolute heaps, and we've had no new-build buses since the gas buses - thats what they mean by a lack of investment. Everything's still rolls royces compared to Arriva or GNE's fleet but it's not exactly a high bar.

IIRC there's about 220-230 drivers at Sunderland. They're apparently traininv up managers from other depots to run the routes so I think they'll try to cobble together a Sunday service. Will see if they can do it for 5 days though...