(05 Oct 2021, 10:41 pm)Jimmi wrote Think the Omnis based at Darlington could be gone by end of this year/start of next once the 3 ex Tiger OmniLinks land (one snapped with it's new paint job today so shouldn't be long) and think most of the remainder will go once the refurbishment of the gas buses at Darlington is complete.

Solos is an interesting one because of CAZ, can't seem them paying to convert what will be 14 year old life expired Solos for it, not convinced even transferring Darlington's 11 year old Solos would be worth it either and likely will depend whatever else happens to services, think frequency cuts with larger buses like what's happened with the 1 & 2 already is possible again.

A decker order, ideally for X15/X18 would probs be enough to sort out the worst of our problems, just really the 20 year year B7TLs that are an issue and even then depends how you look at it as to whether it's a major issue or not, maybe another Northumberland route if they're willing to splash the cash but I doubt it. I can't much major investment really occurring until about 2024 when the oldest Pulsars and VDL Geminis hit 15 years of age.

Yeah your probably right. Was just reading the Arriva London forums there and supposedly they're expecting some buses to be coming up here (rumours atm) with T288 - T300 without a route soon which are all 61 plate Euro 6 Enviro 400's plus some Gemini's on the 349 which have been recently replaced by Borisbuses.

They could certainly be the answer which would see of the rest of the current ex London stock with a potential upgrade to the 306 so the Pulsars from there and the X16 can do the 52, 53, 55 etc. Would just leave the 51 and 46 to be Solo operated within the LEZ. 

There's also some electric buses heading soon down there which is going to leave more buses up for release aswell. No doubt it's where they're going to come from eventually.