(03 Sep 2021, 12:41 pm)Andreos1 wrote I've always wondered about older vehicles being allocated to less popular routes.
It's almost like operators are giving up on it and are going through the motions.

What if (and its a big what if)? An operator was able to justify a business case to grow a route and to do so by allocating new vehicles to it.
Almost like a pump prime of frequency and a new allocation of vehicles. 

Isn't that basically what the Kick Start scheme was back in mid 2000s?  Pretty sure that led to the Stagecoach Newcastle X47 revisions and brand new MANs at the time - think it also underpinned some of the first real branding in 2006 on the GNE Sunderland routes (26/36, 29/39, 33/42, X2/X8, 56 and the Washington locals I think) though IIRC the allocations were repaints rather than new vehicles.  I think a number of those outlasted the initial funding in some form but all (?) have gradually been eroded with the X47 seeing a frequency cut and random allocation and most of those initial 2006 branded services in Sunderland no longer in existence except the 56 maybe?