(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.

Assuming the 2/2A PVR is going to remain at 5 as it is now, then that leaves 5 free to be allocated to the X66/X67 and 3 to be allocated to the X21. There's enough Streetlites to cover the 1/5/5a/X1 as well as the 8/8a, so that leaves enough Pulsars for the X26/X27 if that's going to remain at 4. And then I reckon the Omnilinks will end up on the X75/X76.

The PVR decreases on the likes of the 46 and 55 seems to have pushed Solo's onto other services allowing Pulsars to replace the Cross Pennine Omnicites and then perhaps the two X16 Pulsars will migrate over to Ashington to replace 4653/4664. So a full Omnicity withdrawal is definitely on the cards I reckon.