(27 Sep 2017, 5:06 am)Dan wrote The trouble with the Mercedes Sprinters is that, because they have such a small capacity, they are unsuitable for 95% of the services which Go North East operates. The 5% of the services they could be allocated to are fine, but as all of these are contracted services, what happens with the bus at the end of that contract? It can't always be guaranteed that Go North East would retain the contract, or that the council would continue funding this contract.

The operations around the Go-Ahead Group are much the same, meaning that if Go North East lost the contract, they couldn't easily dispose of the Mercedes Sprinter to another opco.


The way that Go North East procures its buses and then disposes of them means that there has to be solid ground to stand on to buy something, then the asset depreciates over x number of years (if I recall correctly; 10 for a minibus, 12 for a midibus, 15 for a full size single/double deck). A 5-year contract isn't enough - it would have to be a 10-year contract, of which there aren't many! Even if there was, you'd have the issue that you'd be ordering something completely non-standard in the fleet and unproven over that amount of years. More likely Go North East will stick to Solos as their preferred minibus.


9095 left the fleet some time ago - around the time when Tynedale Links Solo 670 returned to service at Hexham following temporary loan to Riverside. Our news/fleet list out of date! Will correct it today.