(17 Apr 2014, 11:30 am)Marcus wrote Just out of interest, does anyone have any suggestions for the Lime's fate? I mean, the way it's looking the upgrade is going to be Citaros, but will they be bought new or cascaded from something else? My theory is, when I was speaking to a driver about it, he suggested that perhaps the Diamond Citaros could be taken off the Diamond and put on the Lime, then new double deckers could be bought for that, because one point he stressed that I couldn't help agreeing with, was that the Lime isn't a mainstream route like the 21, and as a result, isn't a top priority for brand new vehicles.
I could see something like that happening, but not this year. I think GNE will be taking a break from orders for a while. But, if we all know the Renowns will be extinct within the fleet by the end of the year, what will replace them on the Lime? Perhaps, if new Gemini's are ordered for the Red Arrows, then a new batch for the Diamond may be ordered with them? (like with the Fab Fifty Six and the Cobalts). I doubt GNE will purchase new Citaros, but once again it's a 50/50 option, they could just as easily buy direct new Citaros for the Lime and eliminate the Diamond getting new buses and a cascade occuring. Any ideas?
I think the Diamond suits the Citaros and when the odd decker does get allocated for whatever reason they never carry loads that justifies deckers as a permanent fixture on the route apart from the obvious peak journeys of which pretty much every bus does at these times and I think it would be a waste of money on brand new or even cascaded deckers as the route doesn't gain enough passengers to even fill three-quarters of a decker.
I do hope the Lime gets brand new Citaros. It will be a real boost for the routes and will improve the service once the old B10s come off as they have been on front line service for a good few years now so as we all know have became quite unreliable and there seems to be more and more spares appearing on the routes which can cause a lot of confusing towards routes that don't have a brand and the sun is causing the destination not to show (I am trying to create a situation here) can result in people getting on the wrong bus even though the side destination can probably show the destination of the bus quite clearly.