(2 hours ago)Mike_98 wrote I mean, if Stockton would allocate them correctly, The Lites are perfect for the Town services but looking at Arriva's operations down south, it looks so bad. Hearts & Essex are still operating a Nimbus. Kent & Surrey still have old Solos and a old E200. Also they got some Gemini 1's. Beds & Bucks still have a fair few Olympus's. Unsure what Arriva's plans are down there for the future but yeh. There are more depots with a tonne of older vehicles which need replacing then Stockton. They should just cash in on the Streetlites as soon as they can possibly do so for them as I can't really see in the future any smaller company wanting to buy a battered up Arriva Streetlite compared to a Pulsar. 

Wouldn't mind the E200MMC's coming to Stockton though as they would be useful for ALL of the services. Evoras would be alright too. Unsure how the allocating procedure actually works but I would have Streetlites on the services:

X2
7
8
9
15
16
17A
17B
28
29
29A
62

If it were necessary, I would have them on the X66/X67/63/64/65. Maybe also on Short X12's. I'm not familiar on the X12 or the X22 services on how hilly they are.

Aye you're right on the Streetlite's to be fair, I know it's all speculation but truthfully I wouldn't be surprised more if the Streetlite's end up in Northumbria.

I can't say I particularly like the things but they're ideal for the 1/2/35/57/57A/553 really and there's already 8 of the batch here anyway, might aswell replace the rest rather than having a mixed fleet. There isn't really any need for any powerful single deckers up here as they're not really needed as the expresses shouldn't have them on. Should release a few of better Pulsar's for the 28/28A/29/X22 and the likes which let's be honest have always been a dumping ground tbh. 

It's the Evora's, especially the backend of the Redcar batch (6 of them) that I wouldn't be surprised you's get. Be ideal for the X2/X3/X4 and have the whole lot Evora operated, beyond who knows I'm sure we could come up with all sorts of ideas.

(Yesterday, 4:46 pm)Storx wrote Not surprised, all this investment has done nothing at all to sort out the issues at Ashington. After going round the circles, basically the end result is 6x B9TL's which are not reliable seemingly replacing 6x Pulsar's which are reliable and absolutely nothing else.

Arguably the depot is in a worse position.

Mind it seems like they've dragged 7403 out now to sort that board but 7554 has decided it's had enough (again) on the 57 instead and now the X22 is missing a board ironically which is the 6pm out of Newcastle 

The 14/64/15-plate E400s are in a shocking state, and if we're honest have been neglected since about 2021. Obviously the common theme here is that they (mostly) have been based out of Ashington depot, whereas the DB300s (replying to later posts in this too) have all been Blyth based. 

The only 2 E400s which seem dependable are 7524/5, which were decent at Ashington and have been at Blyth since Jesmond closed. The entire 64-plate batch have been ruined, 7553 is barely able to do anything beyond a 1 (got used as a replacement on an X18 today which went as expected), and 7554 is barely able to leave the depot. 

I'd counter that the Pulsars are reliable now, they have gone through horrific spells at Ashington too. Again though, the question there is whether that is due to engineering or age of the buses. 

The B9s are fine at Ashington if used on the 35 as they should be. The issue, as you point out, is that the bean counters have taken away the rest of the decent stock so you've only got 19 buses for 23 X18/20 duties. They've then got, as far as I can tell, 23 saloons for 12 booked saloon duties. So some of those will always end up on decker work, but actually in reality even more will because of how bad those E400s are and so they're instead being used on the 1/57. Truly awful fleet planning, and whoever allowed the 17/72-plates to leave the region without suitable replacement needs put on a PIP.

(3 hours ago)Storx wrote tbf, the DB300's are still a rock up here aswell if you ask me, absolute workhorses considering they're all out 7 days a week from 5am - 12am which ironically can't be said about the new electrics which are in bed by 7pm every night - does anyone actually know the reason for this?

It's wild speculation this, but I have a feeling you's might benefit from some of the Merseyside cascades. Unless something changes and Merseytravel start buying the old fleets then everything is leaving.

There's 50x E200MMC's and 24x Evora's to go somewhere (plus 19 DF Streetlite's, including the ex X4 ones, but you probably don't want them). Obviously there's all the other divisions fighting for stuff aswell as there's a lot of ancient single deckers around.

Worth noting that the existing E200MMC's allocated on Merseyside are earmarked for Runcorn and the newer Evora's are all due to go to Wales.