(29 Oct 2022, 8:44 pm)Storx wrote I have a feeling Covid messed things up. Their fleet is starting to become a problem in some areas to the state of First's fleet before they flogged everything off especially since they haven't bought a bus in England since bar one small batch down South.although let's not forget that stagecoach GREATER MANCHESTER as a division is probably around 4-5 times larger than SNE, the stagecoach Manchester subdivision (if memory serves me correct is alone 2-3 times bigger than SNE) has the electrics and a lot of MMCs, i believe the 250 plus 2008 E400s are in the wigan, Salford and Oldham subdivisions which aren't as profitable and aren't as busy.
Stagecoach Midlands, Stagecoach South and Stagecoach South West are particularly bad and riddled with Darts, 15+ year old Solo's and ALX 400's, one being an 04 plate and in the new livery. Even the flagship Manchester fleet has 250+ 08/58 Enviro 400's in frontline service and on paper should be withdrawn next year and usually be sent elsewhere to withdraw the ALX's above.
They're in a big of a mess imo, the North East is generally doing 'alright'.
Manchester as a whole is going the way of london where gradually everything is controlled by a local authority PTE so some routes may be retendered