(07 Oct 2019, 8:06 am)Andreos1 wrote

It would be interesting to see the fixed costs of operating a scholars service vs the variable costs i.e fuel economy savings in using different vehicle types and their Euro rating.

I appreciate the scholars services have that element of inelasticity in them, in that a bigger proportion of passengers will not have an alternative transport offer, compared to punters on the X30 say.

By virtue of this, the operator will want to put the shiny, appealing option in to service work at a similar time of day, in the hope of retaining and growing the market share.

To balance that, you then have those scholars moving on and their opinion of public transport will be based on previous experiences - such as their scholars bus, which was potentially older than they are and wasn't at all shiny or appealing internally.

The vehicle type will have little effect on their use in the future. It depends on previous exposure to public transport.

Any children who have always been driven round by mammy and daddy will probably never step on a bus unless they have no other option.

Anyway I think a big point that everyone is missing. Prior to 2011 there was almost a decade long gap in the order of new DD (excluding the original Geminis 05/06 reg). Since 2011 new or ex-dealer DD have been acquired every financial year. However a handful have gone to upgrading single deck services to DD (10, 56, 309/310), which has lead to the generally younger single deck age as opposed to DD. No doubt with continued DD investment, it wont be too far in the future where the B9s go into scholars work.

Lets not forget also, a few years ago when GNE had very little school contracts, great swaithes of older DD were withdrawn. Obviously they have had to build up their DD for the new scholars work. But even if GNE were as rich as a Russian Oligarch and could afford to buy new DD for scholars every year, do you think that the short timescale from tenders being awarded to start of new school year is a bit short notice? From order to delivery, do you think they would manage to have them for service at start of new term?

I think if the contracts weren't awarded on a yearly basis then, there may be definite scope for improving scholars, however we have seen how things can change year to year. However surely anything to reduce fleet age should be welcome? Or would we much rather the Vykings to still be kicking round in another 5 years?