(12 Nov 2023, 8:06 am)Storx wrote Aye can't disagree with that too much, mind you've forgot the electrics at Blyth which I assume will see off some of that already though. Assuming it's going to display the 57/58 plates out of Northumbria and no doubt Pulsars beyond but that's a bit more unknown. 

Guess it'll depend whether they want to keep the newer Enviros at Blyth and use them on the X7/X8/X9 and displace the Pulsars instead of send them to Durham or wherever. 

Honestly I'm not expecting those electrics to arrive at any point soon, it seems like since the announcement in January there's been nothing else on them bar the charging points being installed at Blyth - but logically if they're redoing the depot anyway, it would make sense to install those? 

Thinking behind the newer E400s leaving Blyth was purely to displace the 58 plates at Ashington, it doesn't make sense to send them DB300s which would be oddballs and also needing replacing soon-ish. 

(12 Nov 2023, 8:06 am)Storx wrote Mind I don't really expect it tbh. Mind I'd be looking at displacing the 67 plate Streetlites out of Darlington. They're too short for the 1/5/7 so are a bit of a problem bus there currently.

(12 Nov 2023, 1:04 pm)Jimmi wrote I would like to see some investment into the the 1/5 & 7 at Darlington, those short Lites and Pulsars 1514-16 having 4 seats less than their counterparts can show at times, can't say I was thrilled at having to sit in the buggy bay of 1603 for 40 minutes on the 5 home the other evening. Could do with some more deckers at Darlington to cover the required decker boards and also allow more to be allocated to the 7 again as some runs at peak times really do struggle, not unheard of nowadays for people to be left behind in Durham around 16:00 as single deckers can't take the loads.

With the idea I'd posted, I think I'd intended the 67 plate Streetlites to end up on the 2 & 8 at Darlington. It would leave 5 spare, which would pretty much be the single deck/minibus spare allocation at the depot. I don't really know where else you send them, they're a pretty bad batch of buses reliability wise too, and so keeping them where they have always been might be the best solution?

You'd then have 1473/4/6/7/8 and 1507/8/9/11 to use on the 1, and then 1590-4 and 1514-6 and 1522 for the 7. Thinking was that the movement down of 7523/39/56 would be an improvement on reliability compared to 7518-20 so they'd actually be available. 

I suppose you could do a batch of E400 MMCs (say the 16x I'd put down for Durham) for Darlington to fully cover the 7, and the other boards which need deckers, then send 7534-8/40 to Durham (plus 7556) which would allow the B7TLs and 7510 to be withdrawn. 7609/10 would replace 7511/2. 

(12 Nov 2023, 1:04 pm)Jimmi wrote 6 only really required double deckers because of interworking patterns with scholars, which is no longer required, 865 is now tagged onto the 8/8A at Darlington depot which requires a double decker to be allocated to one board.

Think the only run at Durham that requires double deckers (minus the 7) is the X46 and even this is mainly at peak times, naturally to ensure this is met, there needs to be some spares which end up on all sorts of other routes, sometimes dependent on delays or just whatever's avaliable.

I think there's the X46, then also a few boards on the 6 & 22, and the ED2? Obviously at the moment the deckers there are very much end of life so I'd hazard a guess at them being allocated to the likes of the 43/64 is more a reflection of their inability to do a 6/22 rather than the need of them on the 43/64.