(06 Mar 2014, 8:51 am)tango wrote I've just read in route one magazine this morning that with regards to the 38 gold standard vehicles in this year's order it is still yet to be confirmed which routes they are to be awarded to, now if as kuyoyo says 13 are to be for the south, that leaves 25 vehicles still in need of a home, I read recently in the stagecoach north east thread some criptic looking posts between members as to the number of vehicles expected at Stockton this year somewhere between 20-25, so could it be that Stockton operated routes 36/37 and possibly 38 are in line for an upgrade to gold standard, and that this is why nothing can be confirmed by those in know yet as it has still yet to be announced by stagecoach themselves.
Of course I could be barking up the wrong tree completely lol

(06 Mar 2014, 9:25 am)tyresmoke wrote Definitely barking up the wrong tree there, in fact in the wrong wood full stop... lol
Certainly being spread around the drivers now that Stockton are getting 25 ADL Enviro 300 for the 36/37/38 group of services. This should enable 25 ALX300s to be withdrawn, with the MAN E300s expected to be cascaded onto Middlesbrough based services 11/12/14/34

Which, to help people see something here and now, means while some Middlesbrough services will see an improvement in terms of capacity thanks to the MAN E300s (sadly there's not enough to cover all of the Middlesbrough work), the 36 will actually see a decrease in capacity as the ECWTA-spec E300s can only hold 70 passengers compared to the capacity of the MAN E300s which I can't recall off hand (certain a drop of 5 seats per trip compared to the MAN E300s).