(03 Feb 2024, 4:48 pm)Storx wrote Edited the post again to make that clearer. 

Assume you only know the Arriva side and put 1 plus 2 together and obviously just linked the rest there. Mind surprised it's only 6 buses at Darlington mind, seems a rather expensive infrastructure job for so little routes but suppose there's not much else there within Tees Valley. The 1, 5 and 7 being the obvious choices but they're cross boundary.

6+1 spare for the 2 and 13+1 spare for the 63 = 21 for Arriva. The rest for Stagecoach.

The infrastructure cost is broadly relative to the number of vehicles, except maybe the DNO charges which will be fixed irrespective of the number of connections. If they are successful though, it makes future electric much more attractive and value for money, as the core infrastructure is already in place, you just need additional charge points.

Some services cannot take electric in any form at the moment, as the technology doesn't exist, not without opportunity charging (which is additional cost) or additional spare vehicles to swap over during the day, due to range issues (also, additional cost compared to operating vs conventional diesel). Each operator therefore still needs to be happy that this is a business case they can commit to internally and makes sense, as they are still spending the same amount of money as it would be to buy new diesel, plus 25% towards the infrastructure and difference of the vehicle.