(22 Aug 2022, 10:05 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Special events aside, I'm not convinced there is a vehicle shortage. Sunderland are still sat on a load of spares since the PVR reduction there. Things are always going to be tight when large numbers are off for a few days/weeks on events work but they aren't going to fund an increased spares % just for that. The issues with the MAN 14.240s is seemingly being addressed by acquiring Darts, which is likely to be the route they continue down as it will be far more economical running an 06 plate dart than an 06 plate decker. When we talk about vehicles getting pulled out of the paintshop half done, let's remember that was one vehicle, which had incompletely applied promotional livery - not a regular occurrence and arguably with better planning they shouldn't have been trying to do it when a load of the fleet were off to Brum...Would disagree Hartlepool has had a shortage for years now not helped by having an unreliable fleet with buses frequently having to be borrowed from Stockton or Sunderland with 3 Hartlepool having 3 buses permanently off the road since December and at least one has now been scrapped. While the Darts have helped slightly they is a shortage of buses at Hartlepool with not many spares. The fact Stockton themselves have now had to borrow buses from Newcastle would suggest that they is a shortage.
39666 has not been in use for over a week so don’t know if it been withdrawn but alongside 34605 that’s now another 2 buses off the road so something is going to need to happen especially with rumours that 2 - 3 others at Hartlepool could be getting withdrawn as well.