(02 Jan 2023, 10:20 am)DeltaMan wrote A certain Sir Brian Souter was a big player with Alexander Dennis until 2019. I am sure it's a coincidence that the vast majority of bus orders made by Stagecoach were Alexander bodied.

(02 Jan 2023, 10:25 am)Storx wrote Similar to Arriva who were (are?) the supplier for DAF/VDL vehicles in the UK hence why they used to pretty much exclusively order them until Wright ditched them and created their own chassis instead with the Streetdeck.

It's a reason why you rarely see them with other operators with them bar a few Volvo Merit's to hide what they were really were - they're actually Cadets.

Shame as they're superior vehicles aswell.

Also all 3 operators have:
Enviro 400 MMC's: Arriva at Ashington; GNE at Riverside and Consett; and Stagecoach at Statyford and Walkergate
Enviro 200 MMC's: Arriva at Darlington; GNE at Riverside; and Stagecoach at Slatyford and Stockton
Enviro 400: Arriva at Ashington, Durham, Blyth, Walkergate, Durham and Darlington; GNE at Riverside, Consett and Deptford and Stagecoach at South Shields, Walkergate, Slatyford, Stockton and Sunderland

(02 Jan 2023, 11:27 am)Rob44 wrote  Cheers for that.... dont get past chester le street mcuh or much north of hazlrerigg so its interesting to see all 3 have gone foe the enviro's.  are they all exactly the same spec~

(02 Jan 2023, 8:03 am)Rob44 wrote I was sitting on the 29 on the way to the match and was on a single decker street lite ? i think..... as you guess I'm not really into what all the buses are called.... but what i was thinking was this is the same make of bus that i got on the 44 to hazlertigg..... and i though i cant reallt think of any other buses out there at the minute within Northumberland and tyne and wear where 2 of the main companies have bought the same vehicle....

I haven't seen any street decks?? at arriva or SCNE

I dont think SCNE and although I could be wrong have any single decker pulsars??

Also going back in time  busways never bought any DAF optares the Northumbria ( 251,2,3,4,5,6,78) and Go ahaead did but they didnt buy the single deckers scanias that busway bought for the 100 to metro Centre?

And going back further united and northern both bough Leyland vr's but the TWPTE ( busways) didn't??

(03 Jan 2023, 12:06 am)Andreos1 wrote The United and Northern VR, National, Olympian thing will have been down to the restrictions National had at the time and the deals they had with the nationalised Bristol and Leyland manufacturers. 
It was the same pretty much across the country. 
Not sure why TWPTE bought Alexander bodied Olympians over the ECW that the other two had mind. 

However, I agree with the differences more recently.
It's noticeable that elsewhere Arriva have had Versas and Stagecoach have had Loylnes and Excels for example.

Is the E200MMC and the E400 variants the first common vehicle that all 3 local ops have had at the same time?

(03 Jan 2023, 12:06 am)Andreos1 wrote The United and Northern VR, National, Olympian thing will have been down to the restrictions National had at the time and the deals they had with the nationalised Bristol and Leyland manufacturers. 
It was the same pretty much across the country. 
Not sure why TWPTE bought Alexander bodied Olympians over the ECW that the other two had mind. 

However, I agree with the differences more recently.
It's noticeable that elsewhere Arriva have had Versas and Stagecoach have had Loylnes and Excels for example.

Is the E200MMC and the E400 variants the first common vehicle that all 3 local ops have had at the same time?

(03 Jan 2023, 8:04 am)Storx wrote High Floor Darts, SPD Darts, Tridents, Volvo Olympians. I believe all 3 had them at the same time.

There were Darts everywhere at one point.

(03 Jan 2023, 12:42 pm)Chris 1 wrote Waiting times, maybe?  Some operators actively dual sourced vehicles as policy. 

I believe The Northern were unusual in being an NBC company buying both Metrobuses and VRs/Olympians due to the reasons you mention above.

(03 Jan 2023, 2:47 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm trying to reckon back on those examples and although they had them, I'm sure that there were similar vehicles, I'm sure they were bodied by different coachbuilders.

As an example, I remember Arriva getting a load of Northern Counties Olympians after the first Hartlepool Tall Ships. But hadn't the SNE ones gone by then? 


I can't remember SNE or ANE having ELC Tridents like GNE had. Nor the ANE having Alexander bodied high floor Darts that the other two did. 

Ditto, I can't remember the ANE SPD's.

---

Quite possibly! Tory Government + poor industrial relations = potential strikes (and subsequent delays).

It's almost as if we've gone back to the future!

Dunno if Leyland or ECW were on strike in 83/84 when the TWPTE got their Olys, but if I was to take a guess...

Edit: https://archive.commercialmotor.com/article/4th-december-1982/13/nbc-sells-bus-share just found this from 1982. Could have had an impact on those C-reg Olys.

(03 Jan 2023, 4:10 pm)Storx wrote Had a little look there and it seems they've had the following:

Leyland Olympian Northern Counties
Arriva - https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdjt42/4277604294
Go North East - https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdjt42/3774409751
Stagecoach - https://www.flickr.com/photos/27204054@N07/3182722012

Dennis Dart SLF Pointer 2
Arriva - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalarkey/15616194284 (S***KHN / X***GGO)
GoNorthEast - https://www.flickr.com/photos/emdjt42/5064713021
Stagecoach - Still In Service

ALX300 - B10BLE
Arriva - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arriva_bus_4519_Volvo_B10BLE_Alexander_ALX300_W295_PPT_in_Newcastle_9_May_2009_pic_1.jpg
GoNorthEast - https://www.flickr.com/photos/27204054@N07/3266874278
Stagecoach - https://www.flickr.com/photos/williamsonm/6258924570

You're right on the Olympians though, similar with the original Darts - Arriva inherited some with Darlington seems like GoNorthEast had already disposed of theirs by then though.

(03 Jan 2023, 10:07 pm)Andreos1 wrote I forgot about some of them! Especially the random Alx200 that GNE had and the Darts at Belmont. 

Genuinely thought SNE had got rid of their Northern Counties Olys by then too.

(03 Jan 2023, 10:34 pm)Storx wrote Honestly I thought Arriva had aswell, was looking to see when the Bargain Bus ones turned up and that popped up.

Mind some of the younger member's on here who think Arriva are bad now would have a field day back then imo around 2007 when Arriva was really bad.

For those of you who weren't around this was a typical interior:


and there was buses similar at every depot pretty much. They also stunk like they'd just come out of a museum aswell.

How standards have changed now that it's USB's that are the problem.