(05 May 2023, 6:06 pm)toward6931 wrote I hope there is truth in this as SNE is struggling and does deserve more,
don't know about transferring the hybrids to Sunderland to release gas buses, some of them don't seem in good condition and its a completely new vehicle type for engineering staff to get to learn,
if it was me I would have done the following,
the first ten new buses into service replace ten of walkergate/Newcastle single decks (09 plates only, anything newer should go to slatyford and stay in Newcastle) to Sunderland, im sure most of these are "spare" vehicles owing to the reliability of the hybrids. keeping a twenty percent safety margin at Sunderland and only getting rid of the 8 worst of the 2013 E300s so that they can be stripped down to support the other gas buses.in addition I would use the opportunity to remove 5 of the hybrids from service ideally vehicles that are either long term VOR or deemed too unecomical to repair
the next ten vehicles i would move the eldest of the older E400s to slatyford. Again using a 20 percent safety margin the first 5 i would put in service and use them displace 4 more single decks to Sunderland, the second batch of 5 i would use to displace the 5 eldest E400s to Sunderland again displacing 4 more gasbuses,
the last 5 vehicles i would use as "spares" so that every next time a hybrid goes really t*ts up one of these spare vehicles can take its place and that vehicle can be stripped for spares
all in all with this model 16 of the worst of gas buses are cannibalised for parts and scrapped to keep the hopefully better examples on the road that little bit longer i think that would 24 gas buses remaining , 10 of the worst hybrids have the same treatment leaving 16 remaining, slatyford will have gained 1 net vehicle and Sunderland will have gained 3
i know sadly this does not sort out anything for hartlepool or Stockton however once the electric deliveries start next year for oxford and stockport i can imagine more vehicles will be released that could sort out some more issues
I could be wrong but I believe the issues with the gas buses are relating to the tanks, so they can't really cannibalised to keep them going. I believe they were designed for a half life replacement, quite a few electric buses are the same - be interesting to see if all of them get done though or whether tech has moved on by that time it's uneconomical.