(11 Mar 2022, 10:10 pm)DaveFromUpNorth wrote Interesting discussion about depot mergers and closures
A vital piece of information you all missed
CLS houses National Express division of GNE
Reflecting on the thoughts
Merging Washington and CLS would be the better theory but with modern depots these days it is outdoor depots rather than indoors
Sites like Follingsby Park for road connections onto A195 to Washington A194 to A1 to CLS junction seems quite a plausible suggestion
National Holidays had a depot in washington before they went bust but rebranded
If not Follingsby as a location Drum Industrial Estate A693 straight onto A1
Personally that a little more difficult to navigate to get to Washington really
Modern technology these days and timetable planning when mentioned about Seaham and Peterlee services can be quite clever if you change the method so it doesn't run empty or light run a service back so it's closer to a depot
Having indoor depots these days are major risk hazards in terms of if there is a fire the whole fleet could be lost if it is outside you can manouve and move vehicles easily
You also have too take into account special deals and business rates that local authorities are providing deals meaning landowners if you sign a 20yr deal etc so location is very important when planning for a new building
But remember the STAGECOACH and National Express merger is not going ahead so National Express more than likely will stay with GNE
Given the current finances of the bus industry, I can't see any operator investing in new build depots unless there is a very big financial saving from closing existing sites.
GNE, in particular, have significantly reduced services, and lost contracts, since the end of 2019 reducing the number of vehicles required so must have spare depot capacity.
The 16th February 2020 fleet allocation showed the fleet stood at 705 vehicles, less 37 out of service/driver training/disposal, leaving 668 as the buses available to cover the services.
The latest fleet allocation on the website (19th December 2021) has the fleet standing at 648 vehicles, less 76 out of service/training/disposal leaving 572 as the buses available to cover service. That's 96 fewer vehicles (14.4% reduction) and the North Tyneside reductions have still to come!
If you are building a new depot to accommodate electric vehicles, I suspect that it needs to be close to the routes that will use electric buses so as to avoid excessive dead mileage.
