(23 Feb 2015, 11:57 am)Racer_Experience wrote The the fleet news as follows
All Saltmeadows vehicles transferred to Riverside 4907 Chester le Street to Riverside
4845 Riverside to Chester le Street
4964 Washington to Riverside
3828 3829 sold
I'll delete 3828/29 from our fleet lists now and we'll be fully up-to-date.
(23 Feb 2015, 12:02 pm)Racer_Experience wrote When is 8306-09 and 8319 getting repainted then branded to join its sisters in Simplicity branding when I was down in Washington a few weeks ago with Michael.K we saw a Gold Citaro on 2 wonder what they are gonna be called would be nice to call it something like Golden Arrows or Laser again in a revised brand I used to love the 1st incarnation of the Laser when I once ridden on one from Hetton-le-Hole to South Shields I was impressed this was back in 2008 only a few weeks old
8306 - 8309 were all repainted in October 2013, and 8319 followed in January 2014 at the end of Go North East's centenary year. These vehicles will not be repainted again as they (irritatingly) didn't ever receive branding whilst allocated to service 39.
8325 should be repainted w/c 2nd March, and 8327 should follow on w/c 9th March. Similar to the recent Scania L94UB/Wright Solar repaints for "Prince Bishops" services 20/20a, After all vehicles have been repainted, 8306 - 8309 and 8319 - 8327 will receive branding for services 2/2A, which is thought to be "SimpliCity".
I am not sure when 5298 - 5309 and 5325 - 5327 will be branded for services 35/36, but I would suggest that it would make sense to repaint these vehicles prior to branding them again, as 5298 - 5309 were last repainted in December 2011. This could well mean that there will be plain gold buses running around for a good few weeks yet. There's no excuse for not branding 5320 - 5324, though, so I'd anticipate that screen services will be in to brand these as soon as the livery design has been finalised and the vinyls ordered.