(10 Apr 2023, 9:21 pm)Storx wrote Aye can't disagree to be fair with you.I've heard the majority of hybrids and gas buses are nearly at the end of their economical useful lives.
Guessing it depends whether they see a long time future there though. There's loads of MMC's coming spare soon including about 20 MMC's at Oxford in the same batch as the 16 plates at Walkergate / Slatyford. They could easily come up here and displace the Hybrids which there's talk of them going to Sunderland (rumours ofc) which in turn will see of the Gas Buses and E300's out of Sunderland to displace the ALX300's and Darts.
Maybe they might see a chance of getting electrics here in the future instead and don't want to invest in Diesel buses for Newcastle possibly? I know some of their Teesside routes are on the list for the Hydrogen routes but it's all gone a bit quiet that.
26 hybrids at walkergate which are CAZ exempt, there are similar examples at oxford, Sheffield and Manchester
40 gas buses at Sunderland which are unique within the stagecoach empire, the 2013 examples aren't CAZ compliant whereas the 2014 examples are.
there's 15 new MMC double decks meant to be delivered to Hyde road in Manchester this year. potentially this could displace either hybrids or early MMC examples which could both find use in Newcastle.
Sheffield is receiving new vehicles this year which could potentially displace more hybrids
oxford is receiving new vehicles in 2024 and again this could displace hybrids or earlier MMC examples which could be used in Newcastle.
then there is the 170 new electrics going to Stockport in 2024?? which i think will release a lot of the 2008 E400s from the Manchester area, plus there's rumors that SC wigan could lose a handful of routes in the new franchising efforts which will also allow a cascade of older E400s