(22 Aug 2022, 8:24 pm)toward6931 wrote no I'm not saying it has to be an ALX, what I mean is there is a growing shortage of vehicles. the fact that the MMCs get pulled away regularly for events like Cheltenham and the commonwealth games. there is an increasingly older fleet of single decker's to rely on and there is also a problematic fleet of E200s.

you've got vehicles getting pulled out of paintshops incomplete because there isn't any spares. high volume routes like the 62/63 getting allocated an 39xxx E200 because there isn't a spare vehicle. after walkergates 19439 I believe it was caught fire nothing replaced it as far as I know, all I'm saying is until either new deliveries or a decent cascade of vehicles happens what is the harm in acquiring a stopgap,

in this hypothetical case if they are in reasonable working order 3 tridents. on paper you could send one of them to Sunderland so that one E400 could go back to walkergate to cover 19439 and 2 to Stockton to allow 2 ALX300s to go to hartlepool to alleviate vehicle problems there.

I would personally love to see 30 plus single and double deck MMCs turn up in the north east but its not looking hopeful so realistically this could be a situation that does occur (maybe newer vehicles)