(23 Oct 2024, 9:37 pm)Malarkey wrote I think a better idea in the short term would be for the Electric Buses/Services to be swapped between Slatyford and Walkergate with Electric Chargers installed at the latter giving it an early upgrade ahead of future Electric Bus Orders which it will no doubt get in the next few years, this then allows time for Slatyford to be rebuilt and once both sets of works are complete then services swapped over and can be reverted to how they are now.
Looking at things we are not the only area that is experiencing issues in getting EV Chargers installed, a few of the Yutong E12's intended for Rugby have gone to Stagecoach Western temporarily until early 2025 and have been allocated to Service 4 (Ayr - Kilmarnock - Glasgow) whilst works are carried out at the intended Depot they were due to be allocated to.
With that in mind as mentioned by others in earlier posts having them go to Sunderland/Stockton is not a bad idea if it results in older buses in the fleet being withdrawn earlier than scheduled.
While swapping the electrics from Slatyford to Walkergate does sound like a really good idea (and would make the most sense, since we literally had similar chargers for the QuayLinks when Stagecoach operated them), Walkergate are overcrowded with single deckers and constantly run singles on routes that should realistically be deckers (12s/22s ect)
I'd personally love for Walkergate to have Yutong's, but only if we had enough double deckers to begin with.
With them being allocated for the 30s, another option would be to operate the 30/31/36s from Walkergate temoparily.