(20 Jan 2021, 9:54 pm)L469 YVK wrote No mention of Consett :)
Just trying to think more realistically rather than focus on Consett where the level of demand probably isn't established enough yet to make decisions given the current climate.
6045-47 being replaced by 6084-86 (if 6071-83 get refurbished) with 6001,49,50 as backups for TVT & Crusader would make more sense.
6043-48 would then go on the 25. The 25 is a "secondary route" to speak so if it was split from the 13, the PVR of 6 would be covered. At most, they'd just need a thorough deep clean & the ex TVT examples repainted.
Then whatever is remaining from 6149-61 (depending how many is needed on 93/94) could displace older B7TL's & OmniDekkas.
So the allocation's would be
Riverside:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 9x B9TL
- 27 = 11X B9TL
- Spare = 2x (as well as 6377 if not needed on X9/X10)
Hexham:
- 10/10A/10B/10X = 7x B9TL
- Spare = 1x (as well as either 6336/37 if not needed on X84/X85)
Chester Le Street:
- 25 = 6x B9TL
- Spare = ??? Anything would be fine for the 25
Be very surprised if the ex London deckers go onto school duties, they've had Euro 6 mods and I'll doubt that'll be allowed in their contract. Not think some of them might go on the 6 or have extra spares at Percy Main that do the 327 aswell btw. Easy way to clear some Citaro's off and wasn't it rumoured for the 09 Versa's to be going aswell which are at CLS atm and replaced the Omnicity's to Percy Main.
(20 Jan 2021, 10:28 pm)Dan wrote Yes, agreed. A photo will always be different to how it actually looks in reality too.
I think the only tricky thing with moving away from it being orange is that the 56 has always been orange. That's not to say it always has to remain orange going forward, but I think there has to be a pretty compelling case to move away from it. In this instance I'm not sure what that case would be. Reliability on service 56 is very good, so there's no need to move away from the colour to try and change the perception that it's a different/newer bus.
In a normal world, I think the orange double-decker will be perceived on Old Durham Road as being the bus that stops. Despite being some 10 months into the pandemic where express services have began to serve all stops on their route, I still don't think many people hail down an X1, as the perception was always that the red buses, now gold, don't stop.
Not a dig or anything but you might want to announce that more, that's the first I've heard of that and the timetables online still has it as an express service.