(30 Jan 2023, 5:48 pm)col87 wrote One other point as well the Hartlepool 6/7 must be one of the most frequent services in the region been every 10 minutes on a Monday - Saturday daytime and the 7 can frequently get full coming off the Headland same coming from Owton Manor can be full by bottom of Rossmere Way same with the 6 by the time it gets to Oxford Road so some investment is needed for better buses in Hartlepool. I not saying Deckers although would be nice but some full size singles are needed again at least. Same with the services the peak time 3/3A have been quite full on occasions and the Middlesbrough ones can get full at times as well.
There was talk a while back of Hartlepool getting some 220XX's. The problem being the 39XXX MAN's, at 11.5 metres long barely fit over the pits so they can't have anything full size there as they simply don't fit in engineering. Now they've ran out of the 360XX batch, Hartlepool looks set to receive more Darts to replace the remaining MAN's when the MOT runs out on them. The MAN's are generally better buses but being German, the parts cost more than double what they do for Dart's. Hence the current programme of withdrawl on MOT expiry and that the last 5 to go are still on site as parts donors.