(13 Oct 2022, 5:55 pm)toward6931 wrote things were looking tight in Newcastle today. when passing slatyford depot I noticed no less than 6 double Deckers not in service, 2 in the front yard, 2 in engineering and 2 in the back yard. i spotted 24112 and 24113 both rammed covering 62 duties and a 200 MMC covering a 63 duty also rammed. now COVID is on rise again i think it's getting likely that some people would stop using public transport if there is another serious wave.

if i was incharge of the old fleet management at SNE i would order the following for 2023:

15 short wheelbase MMCs to replace MANviros ,3 allocated to walkergate for the 317, 7 to slatyford and 5 to Sunderland, all ousted vehicles to go to hartlepool to replace the bulk of dodgy vehicles.

15 standard wheelbase MMCs, all 15 to go to slatyford, 1st batch of 5 replacing E200s again cascading to hartlepool and the next 10 to cascade the eldest non-CAZ vehicles to Stockton. once there i would remove 1 ALX300 and1 GEN1 E300 for parts retrieval and the 8 eldest ALX300s go to hartlepool. once at hartlepool given their age i would use 2 as spares and remove a further 6 MANviros from service.

finally, I would get a batch of 25 400MMCs again as a one off put all 25 in service at slatyford. the first 5 vehicles in service cascade the oldest Deckers to Stockton, keeping one vehicle as a spare this allows potentially 4 ALX300s to removed from service. the next 10 to cascade the next oldest DD vehicles to Sunderland allowing a further 5 E200s and 4E300s to cascade around the division replacing worn out vehicles. and finally the last 10 to cascade 9 single decks around.

all in all for an investment of 55 new vehicles that would theoretically allow for around 25-30 of the worst midibuses to removed from service and used for spares. around 20-25 ALX300s or some of the GEN1 E300s to be used for spares and the oldest DD400 vehicles used for less demanding routes with some spare capacity for Special events