(24 Aug 2022, 12:21 am)col87 wrote 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.

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39666 has not been in use for over a week so don’t know if it been withdrawn but alongside 34605 that’s now another  2 buses off the road so something is going to need to happen especially with rumours that 2 - 3 others at Hartlepool could be getting withdrawn as well.

Across SNE there is no vehicle shortage.  The Newcastle buses at Stockton are largely covering for the E200MMCs which were at the Games.  This isn't a chronic shortage, the Commonwealth Games is a once in however many years special event.  They are not going to hold an inflated fleet in all divisions that send buses to the likes of this, just in case another special event comes along...particularly when they seem to have managed perfectly well with temp national cascades to cover.

39666 has been withdrawn but 36092/93 have been transferred in...
The other MANs which have been withdrawn have been replaced by Darts.
The issue with Hartlepool is it's a tiny fleet/PVR therefore even with a standard spares percentage in terms of number of buses it is very low.  What probably needs to happen is for Hartlepool depot to close and whatever local services remain beyond the 36 to run from Stockton, to get economies of scale on fleet spares etc.